“Thank you.”
Angel nodded.
“Was she awful the entire way up?” Mina asked, wishing there was something she could do to help ease Angel’s suffering. But without really understanding what was happening to Angel’s body, Mina didn’t know what she had to offer. Although Sin Eaters were human, their genetic makeup laced with magic in a way that researchers had yet to understand completely.
Angel offered a smile. “More than awful. Mumbling threats the whole way.”
“What kind of threats?”
But Angel wouldn’t say—she just waved her hand in dismissal and moved to the dog. “You ready to get started?” Her hair had taken on more silver since she’d treated Bas for his cat bite and the webbing on her skin had increased. The scars on her throat had thickened and darkened to a deeper purple. There were purple circles under her eyes and when she looked up at Mina, her pupils were dilated, almost completely obscuring the color of her eyes.
She needed to rest but Mina knew that wouldn’t happen until Star had been treated.
“I am.” Mina gave another swirl to the mixture then filled the syringe. It would take the combined efforts of their powers to get this bond broken but with the witch’s blood, the power expenditure was not as huge or as devastating to the dog as it could have been. Mina lit a white candle and set up the three gems she’d be harnessing power from for the spell. While not ashamed of using human magic, she didn’t exactly want Bas seeing her doing this kind of spell work either. He’d know right away that there was something fishy going on with her.
With her thoughts back on Bas, Mina asked what had been bothering her since their conversation. “Can a Sin Eater take a witch’s magic without her consent?”
A heartbeat passed. Mina turned to face Angel. The woman was still looking down at the dog but as Mina turned, she lifted her gaze.
“Yes,” Angel said.
“Bas told me that a Sin Eater stripped his mother of her innate powers.” And suddenly she saw him as a victim rather than as an instigator. Like a switch flipped and understanding sank in. He had a history with a Sin Eater who had hurt his mother. He might have a few chips on his shoulder but maybe he was entitled to them.
Angel winced, then lowered her gaze to the animal once again. She briefly stroked its fur before resuming her work on its wounds. “Edward Grayson.” Angel nodded. “My cousin.”
Cousin? Wait…what? Mina came to the table, standing across from Angel, who still stroked the dog tenderly. She laid the syringe next to the animal and waited for Angel to continue, knowing that silence would encourage the story more than pestering with questions would.
Angel sighed. “He was a troubled man. Resentful of the pure witches from childhood. Even when it became apparent that he would be a powerful Sin Eater, he still carried a great hatred that no one could understand. He wasn’t fit to be unleashed on society and we thought to rehabilitate him somehow. He wasn’t allowed to leave the family home and was tasked with caring for our ailing grandmother instead. This, unfortunately, just fuelled his resentment. And he was never one to follow along with the expectations put on him. We should have known that he would leave and cause havoc in the world. My family does feel tremendous responsibility for what he did.”
“Did you know about Bas’s mother?”
“Not until we met her years later, after the damage he’d done had taken its toll. Bas’s mother wouldn’t say his name, but Maria confirmed it was a Sin Eater who had caused her injury and injustice. I knew right away that it was Edward.” Angel shook her head. “It’s atrocious what he did. And Bas’s anger comes from an honest place.”
“He’s just so full of resentment,” Mina said, perhaps a little less harshly this time. She understood resentment. With all the money her father’s family had, all their connections, she often wondered if their intervention could have saved her mother when she was first diagnosed. And it’s not like they hadn’t known. Her father had reached out and begged for help. Their response had been silence.
“Yes, he’s had a hard life in many ways. A lonely life. Much of the energy he puts out is to cover up all the scars he has.” She waved to her throat and the scars that were there. “He and I are the same in that way, where my scars are visible, his are not. So he puts this mask on that keeps people at arm’s length.”
Mina thought on that for a minute, turning back to her worktable so that she could mix up a soothing potion to help the dog sleep longer.
“Is that why you let him talk to you like that? Why you take his abuse?” He couldn’t even look at Angel without disdain. His lips would curl and Mina could just imagine the thoughts going through his head. How do you fix hatred like that?
“His anger is not misplaced. I asked Maria if I could be his mentor so I could try to repair the damage my cousin did,” Angel’s voice broke. She cleared her throat. “But now that I’ve come to know him better, I really don’t think I’m the one to do it.”
She let that hang there, the implications clear.
“You don’t mean me do you? I’m the one to help him?” Mina turned to face Angel, her eyes wide. Oh no…she had tons of her own baggage to deal with.
Angel looked up from the animal and speared Mina with her intense gaze. “You have a tender heart and huge capacity for empathy. He’s like a wounded familiar needing the care of someone who won’t turn her back even if he bites. And, you know what it feels like to carry the burden of anger.”
Mina couldn’t respond to that, her mind whirling once again.
A heavy silence hung for a few moments.
“I’m not angry,” Mina’s voice cracked.
“You often wonder why you were born. You worry that you’re responsible for your mother’s death. You may not feel the anger of that the way Bas does for his mother, but you do carry a burden of emotions.”
Mina gulped. How could she know such a thing?
“You understand loneliness, of not belonging anywhere. Straddled between two worlds,” Angel said softly, unlocking her eyes from Mina’s to look down at the animal, a blush rising to her cheeks, making her scars darken more. “I think you could be the one to help Bas see another way, to channel his anger into more worthy constructive energies.”
“He hates me!” Mina blurted with an awkward laugh, trying to cover up the lash of pain she felt. Every bit the outcast—she’d grown up feeling that she would never fit in and it’s not like she’d done a great job battling her own emotional issues. “He won’t listen to me.”
“He craves kindness, Mina, and your level of kindness surpasses any I’ve ever seen.”
Now it was Mina’s turn to blush, heat rising to her cheeks. She did feel compassion to a level that, at times, made her think there was something wrong with her. Her heart did bleed for the animals in her care. It was just another thing that set her apart.
Mina turned back to her potion and quickly finished mixing it.
Angel wasn’t wrong about something else, too. Mina understood loneliness. As much as she buried herself in her work and pretended that she was totally fine with no family connection and no real friendships, she wasn’t. She was so damn lonely that it actually felt like a gaping wound in her heart.
“You’re unfathomably strong, Mina Knox. What you’ve gone through…the choices that were made… Well, only the strongest would survive that. And no one would ever fault you for the barriers you’ve built to keep the judgment from crushing you.”
Tears slipped from her eyes and she hastily wiped them with the back of her hand. She had no friends. She didn’t let people get too close. Her secret was too great to risk a slip. Just as her father warned, she knew from experience, that when people found out what she was, who she was, they always turned their back on her. Everyone except Mother Stone and now Angel.
She couldn’t speak. Her heart was heavy. This was her life. Doomed to being alone, to keep her identity a secret and all because her mother and father had fallen in love and bucked the system. Bu
t the system was just too strong and the only thing they accomplished was dooming their only daughter to a life of uncertainty and an eternal fear of discovery.
“I plan to tell him,” Angel said, breaking the silence. “About my family connection to Edward.”
Mina gulped down the lump in her throat, clearing away her thundering feelings. Enough self-pity, enough wallowing. She coughed and wiped the last of her tears. “Is that a good idea? It’ll likely increase his hatred toward you.” Mina filled a second syringe then turned.
“I’m prepared for that.” Angel put her hand on the dog’s head and closed her eyes. A wave of power wafted toward Mina as she approached with the syringe.
Angel was beautiful in an ethereal way. Her skin was so pale, the dark circles under her eyes grew more pronounced as she infused her power into the animal. She was dying, Mina realized. Right there, right in front of her, Angel was dying and that broke her heart, too. What could she do about that? Nothing. And every time Angel used her powers to help someone else, she was giving up a piece of herself bit by bit.
“You’re running out of time,” Mina’s voice caught and tears burned the back of her eyes once again.
Angel nodded, slowly opening her eyes to meet Mina’s. “I am.”
Mina nodded. Angel was so serene about it all. Acceptance was written all over her face.
“Can he get some solace from speaking to Edward? Confronting him might give Bas some peace.” Could Bas get revenge by facing the man who harmed his mother? “Could that be arranged?”
“It will do good for him to know that Edward was punished for his crimes, not only against Bas’s mother but many others. He will get some closure from that, I’m sure. But I’m afraid it’s too late for a face-to-face meeting.”
Mina’s stomach dropped, her heart thudded with disappointment on Bas’s behalf. “Is Edward dead then?”
“He is, and his ashes are housed in our family grimoire, trapped for eternity so he can serve the family with the spirit of his magic.”
Mina gulped. No rest for him then. A witch’s ashes needed to be scattered to the wind for his or her spirit to be free and at peace. Dooming a witch to confinement in death was a horrid punishment and agonizing eternal existence.
“Yes, you’re right, Bas needs to know that. It may give him some peace.”
“And I will tell him, when the time is right.” Angel positioned her hands over the dog, indicating that she was ready to get started on the spell.
Mina lifted the blood infused syringe. “I should cut Bas some slack then, I guess. I’ve been treating him like a hostile witch when really, he’s got some right to his beliefs.”
Angel nodded. She reached across the dog and patted Mina’s hand. “He and you have a lot in common. You could heal one another if you’d just let it happen.”
Just let it happen.
She sighed, shoving that thought to the back of her mind. The dog needed treatment and time was wasting. She positioned the syringe and called up her power, second nature to her now, which was a miracle in and of itself. It still took more concentration than it would if she were pure blood she was sure. Everyone had baggage, herself included. Maybe she and Bas did have more in common than she’d thought at first.
She closed her eyes and pulled the threads of her magic closer. There was an animal in need.
Time to get to work.
13
The Dark Forest had been an uneventful experience, much to Bas’s disappointment. He’d thought, after all the warnings and horror-filled stories he’d heard from childhood, that he would have encountered something even remotely deadly or fascinating. All he’d found was plentiful vegetation, beautiful flowers, and a few birds that could hardly care less that he and Zeus were there. The noises would be enough to give nightmares though…strange screeching and mournful cries. He wouldn’t want to spend a night out there without some kind of weapon, aside from his ceremonial blade.
He considered the possibility that it was Zeus’s presence that had kept him out of harm’s way. The cat stuck close to him…within eyeshot always. There were a few times that Zeus’s growls added to the cacophony of dreadful noises, making Bas’s hackles rise but he hadn’t seen a visible threat.
Now that he was back, he was occupying himself in the sanctuary, moving the newly acquired plants and flowers into the space. Angel and Mina were busy working on Ms. Walker’s dog, treating it for what seemed like the hundredth time since Angel had brought the poor thing down a week before. It was clear to Bas, from his brief observations that the dog seemed to be responding more today than it had been so far. The constant whimpering had stopped and Mina had lost the ever-present grimace from her face when she tended to him. Maybe there was a chance the creature would survive.
It didn’t help Bas’s seething feelings toward humans any to see the dog in such a state but at least now he didn’t have to work on them in the ER. So he was resigned to making the best of his punishment by focusing on getting the sanctuary ready for the animals. He liked all this hands-on stuff. Working quietly, getting his muscles going so that he broke into a sweat and felt sore at the end of the day—there was a sort of peace and sense of accomplishment in doing work like this.
“You got them all?” Mina sounded mildly surprised, or maybe impressed, as she surveyed the collection he’d brought in.
He grunted in response. Of course he’d found them all. He definitely wasn’t a novice at herbology and knew his way around most plants and flowers.
“Angel has gone back upstairs to rest,” Mina continued. “She’s still not one hundred percent.”
Like he cared. He hadn’t asked the Sin Eater to help him when he’d been afflicted by the cat’s bite. He didn’t require her sacrifice. And he wouldn’t feel any guilt that she was suffering because of that. He would’ve gotten over the infection himself.
He kept his mouth shut though, deciding to play nice. Mina might have been a total bleeding heart but she wasn’t all bad. He had to admire how much care she took with the animals. And she was considerate, making sure he had coffee every morning and keeping him fed when he was working away, losing track of time. She hummed, too—whether she realized it or not—while she worked and mumbled to herself when mixing up some of her potions. He found it endearing and felt himself softening toward her—not that he’d let her know. She could be a little prickly sometimes but he’d worked for worse. They might never be friends, or lovers, but he didn’t hate working with her, he just planned to keep her at arms’ length. Something he was sure Mina wanted as well.
“So it’s just me and you for the rest of the day. Do you want a coffee? I’m brewing one for myself.”
He glanced up at her, an eyebrow cocked. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.”
“I made some cookies last night, too. I’ll bring a plate of them for you.” She smiled briefly before moving out of the sanctuary.
He stared after her for a minute, wondering what was up. She made sure he was fed, sure, but she’d never suggested a midafternoon break. So maybe she didn’t want arm’s length. With a shake of his head, he shifted his attention back to the cart. He picked up two of the spider plants, a particular favourite of Zeus’s, and moved them to the area closest to the trees where they would thrive. His skill with binding magical elements together would be strengthened if he played with the natural bonds that existed and he made sure to note where he gathered the plants and flowers from in the Dark Forest so that he could situate them in the best possible way back here. Keeping the plants close to their common habitats would ensure that they thrived.
“That’s exactly where I would have suggested they go,” Mina said as she came back into the space, carrying a tray.
Bas looked over his shoulder at her and rolled his eyes.
“You don’t have to be nice to me you know. I’m fine with working in silence.” Bas hated that need people had for inane chitchat. Better not to force conversation if there wasn’t one blooming naturally and Mina was actin
g differently than she had before.
She frowned as she handed him his cup. “I just thought maybe we got off on the wrong foot.”
He’d expected her to snap back at him. To say something sarcastic. Instead, she offered him a sugar cookie.
He looked at the cookie, then looked up at her. “Okay, what gives? Do I have a boil growing on my neck? Some kind of deadly virus that’s going to kill me while I sleep?”
Mina snorted.
“You’ve been standoffish from the get-go so what changed?”
Still no snappy reaction. She just shrugged. “We’re going to spend a lot of time together. Maybe we should set aside our earlier differences.”
He held her gaze for a full minute, trying unsuccessfully to suss her out.
She didn’t flinch.
He took the coffee with a nod, then snagged one of the cookies. “I don’t set aside differences and I don’t expect friendship from you. I’m here to work. I’m good at what I do. I don’t have a need for more than that.”
“Oooookay.” Mina rolled her eyes then moved to the other side of the small clearing. She took a seat on a log bench and set the tray down at her feet.
A heavy silence fell with her looking everywhere but at him and him doing his best to ignore the awkwardness as he sipped his coffee. He needed it more than he realized. The jolt of caffeine did him good. While his trip into the forest had been uneventful, it had still been onerous and exhausting. Lugging around the plants with a heavy HAZMAT-like suit on wasn’t exactly light labor. And the coffee was good…better than anything he’d tasted in a long time, and likely not poisoned. No matter how much he might deserve it.
He sighed, giving into the temptation, because he had to be honest, the woman was hot as fuck and willing to actually talk to him without biting his head off. Play nice, Bas. “Coffee is good. Thanks.” He took a bite of the cookie. It melted in his mouth.
Mina shifted her eyes to his and offered a small smile and a nod. “You’re welcome.”
Feral Heart: A Witch Hospital Romance (The Witches of White Willow Book 2) Page 11
