by Chloe Adler
“Mama, that’s Caspian, remember?”
“No,” she sneers, “and why should I?” She grasps Alistair’s hand, then lets go and turns to Dom. “Thank you for the lovely evening. I hope to see you again.”
“And you as well. Thank you for indulging me and saying yes.” The fucker reaches for her hand and kisses the back of it. She giggles like a teenage debutante at her first dance. Kiss ass. “Drive carefully, Cas. You’ve got precious cargo.”
Wow, could he lay it on any thicker? “Say goodnight to Alexis for us. Have fun and be sure to use protection.”
Dominic glares at me and slinks toward the sweet shop.
Iphi flinches.
Iphigenia
Caspian pulls up to the house and Aurelia gets out of the front seat, Alistair close behind.
“Can I talk to you for a minute before you go inside?” Caspian leans back and looks at me. I’m waiting in the back seat with my hand on the door handle, willing myself to open it.
“Sure.” I throw him a smile but we both know it’s fake.
I can’t expect him to understand. I don’t expect him to understand. Yet I hope that at some point he does. That they all do.
Living at the Grove with the pack is a fantasy I wish I were capable of embracing. But I just wasn’t brought up that way. And even if I could wrap my head around having multiple partners and somehow feel deserving of them, there’s no way I would ever be comfortable publicly. More important than public appearances, though, is my mother. She cut Sadie out of her life for a long time by labeling her a slut. Yet by outward appearances she’s in a monogamous relationship. They do invite others into their bed but they don’t advertise it and no one stays. Mother certainly doesn’t know about that.
No, multiple partners—it’s just not me, no matter how much I wish it was, but it was fun while I experimented with it. That’s all it was, an experiment, and a failed one at that.
Caspian gets out of the driver’s seat and slips in next to me in the back. Botting is asleep, purring on my lap, but he lifts his head as soon as Caspian moves his arm around my shoulders and tucks my head under his chin.
“Meow.”
“No cockblocking right now, dude,” Caspian grumbles and I laugh.
“Shhh, Botting, I love you too.” I run my hand down his soft pelt.
“You love me?” Caspian pulls away and holds my gaze, his pale blue eyes burning into mine.
Cripes. Well, that slipped out. I look away from his intense stare, out the window. “It’s not that simple.”
“It’s not?”
I breathe a loud sigh and then turn to face him. “I’m confused right now. I do love you and I love Rhys.” And I think I’m falling in love with Dominic. “But sometimes loving someone isn’t enough.”
His eyes well up and he blinks a few times. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I need some time to figure all of this out. If you ask me right this second to make a decision, you’re not going to like it.”
“Shit, Iphigenia.”
I take his hand and press it to my heart. “I can’t do it, Cas. I can’t be the girl who lives with two men.” Or three. “And I can’t choose between you.”
Botting meows, loudly, and I shush him, petting his sleek fur. Caspian’s gaze slips down to my lap, eyes narrowing. Is he jealous of the cat?
He wrenches his gaze back up to mine. “I love you so much, Iphigenia. I’ll wait. I’ll give you whatever time or space you need.”
“Thank you.” If I say more, if I stay a minute longer, I won’t be able to hold it together. I’ll end up in his arms and blow the momentary courage it’s taking for me to voice my decision. I’ll waffle, not wanting to give up any of my men for any reason.
Caspian is so sensitive to my needs, always bending over backward to try and make me happy. I imagine him onstage next to me, in a backbend. Then there’s Thorn, who wants to protect me. And Rhys, who wants to teach me how to protect myself. But Dominic—he just wants to listen. He’ll offer to help but only if I want to accept it. He’s solution-oriented like the others, like men are trained to be, but he’s interested in the solutions to the problems I voice, not ones he’s made up for me.
There’s a lump in my throat, one born of the choice I’ve just shared with Caspian.
“If anything happens, if you’re in danger, if you need our help, we’re here for you. So please don’t let our romantic relationship keep you from reaching out if you need me. Okay?”
“Okay.” I turn to get out of the car.
“One last thing.”
I hope he’s not going to ask for a kiss. It’s getting harder to stay resolute with him in such close proximity. Smelling so good, like a freshly sharpened pencil, all graphite and wood shavings.
“You’ll take Botting with you wherever you go.”
Not what I was expecting. “Sure, I’d love that. I’m mad about this little guy.” The cat rubs back and forth against my chest, mewling.
“Good. And please, Iphi, be careful.”
Botting leaps back to my shoulder, draping himself there, and I open the car door. As I’m getting out, the cat twitches his tail in Caspian’s face.
“Be nice, kitty.” Caspian’s voice holds an odd edge. “Sweet dreams, angel.”
I offer him a quick nod and jump out of the car without looking back. A second longer and I would have melted. The front door to Mom’s house is closed, presumably so Army won’t get out, but she did leave it unlocked. As soon as I open it, my other cat hurls himself at me. I fall over at the unexpected addition to my mass and he presses his enormous body against my face—until he spots Botting, who’s been knocked to the floor along with me. Armageddon hisses and leaps for the small chimera.
“Army, no!” I yell and he stops in his tracks, looking back at me with yellow eyes before turning back to chase Botting. The smaller cat leaps atop the antique dark wooden table in the foyer and Army leaps after him, knocking over a potted plant in his way. Botting jumps off and runs through the house and into the kitchen. Armageddon gives chase and so do I. When I arrive, the larger cat has the smaller one cornered between Aurelia’s legs.
“If you do not control your animals . . .” Her teeth are clenched, her jaw flexing, and she points her wand down at them.
“Mama, no. Let me handle this.”
Botting cries out, a sharp, elongated howl, as Armageddon claws his face.
Chapter Sixteen
Thorn
Dragons can’t go out in public on a regular basis. Dragons don’t get the girl. Dragons are what everyone wants to be unless they are one. I’m so over it.
I’m not good waiting at home and I’m even worse waiting at home for my brothers and the woman I can’t stop thinking about.
The door opens to the Palace and I fly off the couch and hover in the air, trying to put on a show for her. I want to make a good impression. She can’t forget about me, dropping me for the full-bodied males who are courting her.
But the person who enters is not the one I want to see. It’s not Iphigenia at all. It’s not Caspian and it’s not Rhys. It’s not even Nolan. It’s Dominic. Where have my other brothers gone? I land back on the sofa, huffing smoke out of my nostrils and tilting my head.
His phone pings and he takes it out of his pocket and frowns.
“Shit,” he says and swipes at it. “I wish you were in your human form right now. You’ve always been the best with women.” He shows me his phone screen and I have to turn my head to the side to read it.
Thank you for being honest with me instead of standing me up or lying to me. I hope that everything works out for you. If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.
It’s from someone named Alexis. I wish I were in my human form too. I’d smash the side of his head and call him an idiot for not pursuing this girl. It’s not like Iphigenia is going to suddenly pounce on him and declare her undying love.
“You’re a shrink, Dom, you can do this,”
he mumbles to himself. “One sec, Thorn.” He punches in a reply and hits send. A second later his phone pings again and color stains his cheeks.
I cock my head and he stuffs the phone back in his pocket without showing me what she said. Must be juicy.
“Okay, don’t get mad.” He holds up a finger. “Let me finish talking before you react.” He drops down on the couch next to me and I sidestep to give him more space. “Nod once for yes or I’m not going to say a word.”
I bow my head once. How bad can it be? Dom’s the rational one of the bunch.
“I made a decision for all of us and I acted on it without talking it over with Caspian or you.” He smirks. “Not that you and I could have really talked it over, but I didn’t inform you. I made an executive decision. I’m not sorry I did it and you wouldn’t have been able to change my mind but still, I went behind everyone’s back and that’s not the way our pack works. For that I am sorry.”
I take a step closer to him but remain standing, worried about what’s he’s about to say.
“Iphi wasn’t happy here. I mean, I think she was happy with us and I’m pretty sure she likes the Grove but she wants to make things right with her mom, and until she at least tries to do that, she couldn’t remain here.”
I know all of this, Iphi confided in me alone, bro. But I can’t say the words so I flutter my wings in an irritated staccato.
“But more than her own agenda, Iphi wanted to mend things with Aurelia so she can somehow convince her mother to change you back.”
Yup, I know that part too. I stretch my wings, unfurling them and wrapping them around the front of my body. I wonder if she told him about the amulet she gave to Nolan, the one she can never take back. Or that she wants to figure out a way to protect the entire Edge.
“So Iphi, for now, has moved back in with her mother.”
My scales shift and undulate in an attempt to cool the fire growing in my belly and under my wings. I know she’s not safe at Aurelia’s. Her mother is a powerful witch, sure, but what happens when she steps outside the house? And her mother will protect her inside the house only if Iphi acts the good little girl, no matter how much it hurts her to do so. I knew this was coming. I mean, I’m the only one who knows she needs that woman and that without her help, all is lost—in terms of her true safety. The ghouls are looking for her and the demon is looking for her. I can protect her from them but what I can’t protect her from, what an amulet can’t protect her from, is herself. The little idiot would cut off her own head to save someone else, and who will be there to stop her?
So even though I knew this was Iphi’s plan all along, I’m incensed that Dom, the trained therapist, knowingly dropped her into a lion’s den. He’s supposed to be protecting her, like us. He’s not stuck in his shift. He’s the one who should know better. I realize I was counting on him to talk her out of it. I have an actual lizard brain right now, I want to scream. Do not test me!
“She’ll be fine, Thorn. Rhys will protect her. He did his I’m-just-a-poor-stray-kitty routine and got her to take him in. He’s probably curled up in her lap as we speak.”
His words are dripping with bitterness, but I’ve got bigger things to worry about right now than Dom’s feelings. He left her with Rhys? The hothead who ran off without a word? The one who makes me look like the yogi of the pack? Dammit, Dominic. Blind rage washes over the guilt like a tsunami scouring the land flat and before my receding human brain catches up with it, I’ve taken flight.
“Thorn, no, stop, please.” Dominic’s hands fly up, palms out as if that’ll mollify me. It has the opposite effect. Screw him. He thinks he can control a dragon? He thinks he can just let our girl go without a fight? He thinks he’s the pack leader?
Spearing my talons out in front of me, screeching, I dive for his hands. I’m going to turn them into ribbons. Then I’ll go for his eyes. Last, his jugular.
He throws his hands over his face, covering it. Pussy. As if that’ll stop me. My talons can rip through his flesh and smash his bones. Where they fail, my fire breath won’t. My vision turns crimson. I brace for impact, clawing at the air, seeking purchase in flesh.
“Thorn,” he screams, “I’m your brother. I love you.”
I smash through the window next to his head, shattering the glass and splintering the wood frame around it.
Iphigenia
“Armageddon no,” I shriek and my mother’s wand smacks both cats with a hard thwack. At least she didn’t turn them into mice. Botting takes off running again and I follow. He’s found his way into my bedroom. He must have scented me there. I close the door before Army can enter. The chimera hides under my bed. I know enough about animals to give him his space.
I look around my room, surprised Mom left it exactly the same. Not one thing is different, or even out of place, which tells me what she can’t: she missed me and hoped I’d return. It’s different with my sisters. With them she’s given up hope.
As soon as Sadie left, Mom turned her room into a true witch’s chamber. Altars line three of the four walls, each devoted to different forms of witchcraft. The east wall features Ra, Isis and Thoth. The west wall is for Oshun and Papa Legba. The south wall is for the divine couple, Diana and Pan. On her altar, Diana is in her triple aspect, the mother, the maiden and the crone.
Chrysothemis’s room got turned into a man cave for Alistair. All traces of my sisters are gone, like they’ve never lived here. Never grown up, running through the hallway. Never spent afternoons playing in the garden. Never spent evenings sitting together at the dining room table or Sabbaths in the kitchen learning spells. Aurelia erased them the way Chrys erases a graphite line on one of her drawings. The only place my sisters are still visible are in the creases my mother wears on her face. The new ones so tiny that no one else would notice them.
Even if she didn’t wear it on her face, she wouldn’t be able to hide her pain from me. Being an empath, I see it and feel it every time I’m around her. She puts on a stone face and plays a good game but the only person my mother really fools is herself. Even Alistair sees through her false bravado.
There’s a knock on my door. Too shocked to fully register that she actually knocked first, I check to make sure the cat is still under the bed. “Come in.”
Aurelia opens it and stands in my doorway, her blue eye shifting but her brown one focused on me. “You must be exhausted. Are you retiring for the night?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Of course not, darling, that was a courageous performance.” She looks at her watch. “It’s late. Alistair and I are going to head to bed too. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Mother.”
She pulls the door partway closed and says, “I’m happy you’re home.” Then she leaves.
Chapter Seventeen
Iphigenia
The next couple of days are blissfully uneventful. I purposely refrain from contacting Caspian but when my mind isn’t occupied, he, Dom and Rhys fill it. Dom has checked in twice to let me know that Nolan is still fine, looking well and even beginning to exercise. To still my mind, I read and try to get back in with my mother’s good graces. I barely leave the house and when I do, Botting perches on my shoulder.
When I finally think she may be able to receive my requests, I approach Mother. She and Alistair are sitting together in the living room.
“Can I join you?” I ask, Botting on my shoulder.
“Please do.” What she really wants to say wraps around me like a noose dragging me toward her. Please come be with me. Losing all three of my daughters is killing me slowly. It’s already happened once in my lifetime and those children will never return. Please don’t you leave me too.
I wish, not for the first time, that Mom would talk about her past. Airing painful memories and pent-up emotions is cleansing. How can she expect to get past it and move on if she never addresses it? Quite simply, she can’t. How painful would it be for her to remove that armor? No more painful than
it is to keep it on. By wearing armor, we keep the pain inside, close to our hearts. We think we’re protecting ourselves with it, keeping more pain from attacking our vulnerable souls. But the opposite is true.
“But first go put that dirty cat back in your room,” she lobs.
Like a fighter throwing the final punch. But since I want something from her I comply and return to my room, closing the door behind me. I deposit the cat on the floor. He looks up at me and meows. I bend down and pet him, inspecting his face. There’s a shallow scratch across his cheek and I kiss it. He purrs and when I let him go he paces around my room, sniffing my things. Then he leaps up on my bed and curls up on a pillow. As if my childhood cat knows exactly what’s happening behind the closed door, Armageddon scratches outside of it.
“Army, you can’t come in here. You attacked Botting.”
Army yowls.
“I’ll be back in a little while. You be a good boy.” I kiss Botting on the head and he licks my face. How cute. I open the door a crack and Army stops his wailing, which is a good thing because standing behind him is my mother with a raised rolling pin.
I throw my hands out. “Mom, I’ve got this.”
She lowers the weapon. “I certainly hope so, Iphigenia. Otherwise I will turn Armageddon into something a lot quieter.”
I know it’s not an empty threat. When we were kids and the colicky baby down the block screamed night and day, she cast a mute spell. The poor kid’s mother had no idea what had happened. They were shifters, and she showed up on our doorstep with an infant whose mouth was open but no sound escaped, begging the most powerful witch in the Edge for help.
“It’s better this way, no?” Aurelia said. “Easier to deal with. Really, you should be thanking me.”
“You did this?” the woman shrieked.
