1. Chapter 1

Ishuffled over the grass on my knees to reach the next stalk of basil, snipping it off and tossing it into the basket at my side. Somehow, I had brought the big back courtyard with us when I moved the entire damned Lovell mansion into the pocket world between Magea and the angelic realm, where we currently existed. I had no idea how things were growing here. There wasn"t really a sun, or rain, or clouds…just a sort of ambient semi-bright, grayish-bluish-purplish sky that seemed to lighten and darken on a similar cycle to the angelic plane. We were the most closely tethered to the angels" home, but there were currents of other energies sustaining us as well, a bit from Magea, a bit from the Planus realm…. Honestly, I had no clue what I had done, as usual. But it seemed to be holding. For now.

The issue was that while there was soil underneath the garden and the house, it wasn"t exactly Earth soil. Or maybe it was… just with nothing to sustain it. Most people think of dirt as an inanimate object devoid of life. But witches know better. Soil is usually teaming with life. Microorganisms, tiny root systems, bugs, fungus, you name it. And while I could sense some of that life in the soil beneath me, it also felt different. More limited. Less able to grow and expand.

Niamh and I had managed to get a big herb bed going, and we had been working at packing as many medicinal, magical, and food plants into the limited courtyard space as possible, but we had to use a hefty dose of our own magic to give the plants a boost and sustain them all in this strange new environment. And the magics that sustained our auras weren"t flowing the same as before either, deprived of their usual ambient sources.

A siege, Niamh had called it. And that"s exactly what this was, even if it kind of felt like boredom most of the time. The fact was, we were all labeled as criminals back on Magea. And according to the newspaper Ambrose had snatched a while back, the SA was also spreading their lies in the Planus realm where the humans ruled. They labeled me a dangerous terrorist, and I had a massive bounty out on me. And the others they labeled as either my victims or my accomplices, depending on what news source you got your information from. Regardless, they were wanted as well, either for punishment or for "questioning." We were stuck here in this pocket world indefinitely.

Bis trundled over to me, waddling adorably with his burden. He wanted to help in the garden, and it was hard to carry things around when your hands were rodent-sized and you were most comfortable on four legs. So, I had crafted him a pouch that was sort of like a mini backpack. He could get it on and off himself, and it was adorable to watch him stuff the thing with herbs and seeds, load up, and carry it back to the basket for delivery. I helped him shimmy out of the straps, but he chattered at me when I went to empty the bag. Apparently, he was determined to do it all himself.

Niamh laughed as she came to crouch beside us, her own basket overflowing. "Don"t worry, Bis," she told my skunk-rat-hedgehog best friend. "We know you can do it. Andy just can"t help sticking her nose in and trying to help. She does it to everyone."

I scowled at her. "Fuck you."

She grinned at me, showing off her sharp little canines, as if I might forget for one second she was a dangerous fae huntress. "Right out here in the open?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure. Why not?" I said, waving an arm to encompass the entire pocket world. "It"s not like we have nosy neighbors to worry about."

I laughed as she sprung, pushing me down, her long, lean body pressed to my short, curvy one. Her hand cushioned my head before I hit the ground and her lips met mine, playful and confident. My hands came to her slender hips as the fae devoured my lips, her silky light-brown hair tumbling forward around her small, pronged antlers.

I kissed her back just as fervently, my body responding to her like magic. Goddess, I needed the distraction. We all did. This game of wait-and-see was driving me insane, and we"d only been here a little over a week.

A polite throat-clearing interrupted our passion, and I tilted my head back to study the upside-down view of the towering gargoyle, my hands still resting on Niamh"s perfect ass as she nipped at my neck.

"Sorry to interrupt," Zhong said, running an enormous hand over the back of his neck in a sweet, nervous gesture. No matter how often he saw me making out with my other lovers, the big guy never seemed to lose his shyness—until he got pulled in and the passion took over. Then he was a beast.

Niamh bit me on the shoulder with her sharp little teeth. "Ow! You ass." I shoved her off me and sat up so I could look at Zhong right-side-up. "What"s up? Did you come to save me from this violent monster?"

Zhong"s marble-like gray skin flushed pink around his high cheekbones and the tips of his pointed ears. "Uh… no, master. I was thinking I"d give you two some privacy while I went in and made lunch. Is there anything specific you want me to get out for you?"

I sighed, my shoulders slumping at the reminder of all the ways my evil family had fucked me over, even from beyond the grave. Someone had been so pissed off at my parents that they hit the Lovell line with a curse that worked on our DNA. I hadn"t even been involved in whatever feud led to the curse. But here I was, a type 1 diabetic, when witches were supposed to be immune to human diseases and disorders. And I had gone and stuck us in a pocket world where I didn"t have ready access to the insulin I needed to survive.

I had been doing everything I could to stretch out the limited supply that came with us when I transported us to the pocket world. Which meant eating as little sugar and carbohydrates as possible. But that alone wouldn"t stop me from needing insulin. My blood sugars would continue to climb. Eventually, I was going to have to risk leaving our sanctuary to go to another plane and find medicine and supplies. In the meantime, Zhong did a lot of the cooking, and he had been trying to help me with meals that didn"t spike my blood sugar as badly.

"I"ll just have a salad," I said unhappily. Zhong was a skilled cook. And I fucking loved food. I could use some carbs for stress-eating purposes right about now. But what are you gonna do? "If there"s any of the chicken from yesterday leftover, I"ll toss that on it. Thanks for asking."

He nodded, his spade-tipped tail lashing behind his hulking body. I knew he was worried about my medical condition. I was too. But there was only so much you could do. "I"ll make one of your teas?" he said, tugging at one of his horns as he tried to think of ways to care for his master. The adorable idiot.

I nodded. I had a few magic-infused teas that helped with balancing my blood sugars and helped keep me from developing diabetic ketoacidosis from being high for too long. It wouldn"t let me live without insulin, but it would slow the process down. If I was human, I would have run out of insulin and had to be hospitalized by now.

Zhong opened his mouth to say something else, but I couldn"t hear what it was over the sudden pained shout that came from the doorway that led out of the courtyard and into the house. I leapt to my feet, jumped over Bis, and rushed inside. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I knew that sound. I hated that I knew that sound so damned well.

I found Aahil on his knees in the hallway, the petite jinn curled into a ball as smoke and steam rolled off him. He was muttering something between labored breaths. Probably berating himself for his lack of control.

He had come back to us from the O"Leary coven weak and stripped of his power, his magic depleted. But the jinn was an ancient, powerful fire elemental, and it hadn"t taken long for his power to regenerate. The problem was, he was also heavily traumatized, and we had found out just recently that getting his magic back… wasn"t necessarily a good thing right now.

He had no control. Something would trigger him, and he would go up in flames. It was bad enough when he did that normally—whenever his temper got the better of him and he went up in a snit. But usually his little drama queen outbursts were limited, and he could pull back and limit the destruction if he really wanted to. It might look like we were all in danger of going up in flames, but he was always in control when it came right down to it. But now… since the O"Learys broke him, Aahil"s fire wasn"t just a danger to everyone around him; it burned him too. And while he could stop it from spreading to the rest of his surroundings, he couldn"t seem to keep from injuring himself.

I crouched down in front of him as he hissed and panted. I had created fire suppression wards when the little terror first came out of the bestiary and decided to stay with us. But they were only good at stopping the unstoppable jinn fire if it was in danger of spreading and burning the house down. They didn"t stop him from going off in the first place. And now that his magic was attacking its source, the wards couldn"t protect Aahil from getting hurt.

He finally lifted his head, and his gold eyes met mine from beneath the curtain of his sleek, dark hair. A shimmer of unshed tears pooled in his eyes as he tried not to react to the pain he must be feeling. His clothes were singed. What little skin I could see on his face and hands was bubbled and red. It was already healing before my eyes, but fuck, that had to hurt. And I knew he was probably burned all over. Not just where I could see.

"What can I do?" I asked, reaching for him, but not touching. I didn"t want to cause him even more pain by putting pressure on his poor skin.

He swallowed, and a shudder went through him. We stared at each other in silence for a few minutes, both of us knowing what he wanted to say. But he knew I wasn"t going to help him die. And I knew he didn"t really mean it anymore when he asked for me to kill him. Usually.

Yeah, life was just sunshine and rainbows these days.

"Find your necromancer and the water weaver?" he finally said, his silky, seductive voice rough around the edges. I went to stand up and go do as he asked, but another alluring voice spoke from right beside us as Hasumi materialized from out of nowhere.

"I"m here, flame." I watched as Hasumi knelt beside Aahil, sending a wave of calming magic and cool mist out to soothe the jinn. They were quite the pair, Hasumi"s ethereal, androgynous beauty and air of calm, effortless control next to Aahil"s fiery, sensual, and out-of-control rage.

Hasumi had been using their power over emotions to help Aahil find some semblance of balance while he healed and found his feet again. But the water weaver couldn"t stop the jinn from feeling everything. That wouldn"t solve anything. So, things slipped out sometimes. Trauma overcame him now and then, and Aahil lost his shit. It was part of the healing process. But I just wished it wasn"t such a physical danger to him.

"Everyone seems alive." Dyre"s deep voice was dry and unimpressed. "Why am I here?"

Ambrose stepped out of the shadows, the boogeyman giving the necromancer an unimpressed look. "Because Aahil asked for you, darling." He sketched a jaunty bow toward me and Aahil, then disappeared in a swirl of black shadows.

Between the boogeyman and the ghost, there was no such thing as privacy around here. There was always someone lurking in the shadows or floating in the aether, eavesdropping like their life depended on it. But in this instance it was helpful, so I didn"t bother to complain.

Dyre arched a blood red brow at Aahil, then came to crouch beside us, all long limbs and eerie dark magic as he rested his elbows on his knees. "What?" he demanded. Ever the warm and talkative one, my necromancer. Not that Aahil helped matters. The jinn had some sort of beef with Dyre that I didn"t understand. But knowing Aahil, it was probably something stupid and petty.

Aahil dropped back to sit on his ass, his red-brown skin now free from blisters, but still looking a tad inflamed. "I need you and your parasite, and Hasumi, to do something to strip my magic. I can"t fucking live like this."

I arched my brows at Aahil in surprise. "No."

Aahil turned to glare at me. "I don"t recall asking your opinion, Lovell." It was more attitude than I"d seen from him since he came back to us, even if it was still a bit flat. And I was far too happy about the return of this bit of his spark to be mad about his snapping at me.

"I don"t care," I said, moving to sit cross-legged beside him. "No one is stripping your magic. You could die. Not to mention, you were so upset about not having your power to throw around when you were drained before." I shook my head adamantly. "No. We"ll figure something else out."

His mutinous expression didn"t change, but his shoulders rounded as he unconsciously hunched in on himself. "Do you know what it feels like to suffer full body burns every time you get a little upset? To have your own fucking magic try to immolate you from the inside out whenever you"re waylaid by in inconvenient memory?" He scoffed. "I"m useless either way. But at least without my magic I was useless and not on fire."

Hasumi touched Aahil"s shoulder and I think we all felt the calming magic the water weaver was gently pushing out. Aahil"s shoulders rounded even more, and he hugged his knees to his chest. "It hurts," he whispered. "Everything fucking hurts."

I knew he wasn"t just talking about the physical pain. And my heart broke for him all over again.

Dark power swelled around us, and I watched in surprise as Dyre—no, Sunny—reached out and gripped Aahil"s chin, tilting his head up so he had to meet the gaze of the wraith that lived inside the necromancer. "We will help you," Sunshine"s deep, creepy-as-fuck multi-layered voice informed Aahil. "Do not worry our witch this way."

I shook my head. My life was so weird. Sunshine was a wraith. Technically, he should be incapable of feeling. Incapable of caring about people. But apparently, he cared about just two people. He would do anything to protect his host. And for some weird reason, the wraith was also attached to me. He didn"t fully understand things like love or family. But he understood enough to know that seeing Aahil suffer made me sad. So he would help.

I patted Sunny"s skinny shoulder. "Thanks. But you should probably stop touching Aahil. He doesn"t like it."

The jinn in question was frozen, his gold eyes flaring with dangerous bursts of fire magic as he stared up at the taller man like a cobra about to strike. Aahil hadn"t been a fan of unsolicited touching before his time with the O"Learys. And these days, it was an especially touchy subject. Pun intended. But I was pretty sure Sunny"s grip on his chin was so strong that he couldn"t pull away. He could dematerialize, but he clearly wasn"t done with this conversation yet. "Get your fucking hands off me, corpse," he growled.

I sighed. "Aahil. Sunshine. Stand down, guys. Please? I"m so fucking tired of the posturing."

Sunshine tilted his head to study Aahil, then glanced at me before finally removing his hand from the jinn. "The bright one is wounded. This causes you pain. I simply wished to help."

I nodded, feeling a headache coming on. "I know. He"s thankful too. He just has a hard time saying that." Aahil scoffed at me, but I ignored him. "Can I talk to Dyre now? Please?"

The wraith blinked, and his black eyes bled to violet once more as Dyre took control. "Sorry," the necromancer said as he scrubbed a hand over his gaunt face. "He"s restless. It would be a relief for us to have a magical puzzle to work out." He glanced at Aahil. "I"ll help Andy come up with something to help the flares," he said without emotion. Then Dyre stood and strode off before Aahil could reply. Probably for the best. I watched the necromancer"s long red ponytail swish across his dreary gray shirt as he turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

I had things to work out with Dyre too. He still thought I should be horrified whenever I was in the same room as him. And I knew he wanted to dissolve the temporary lifebond we had formed in order to save the others. But I was determined to make sure he didn"t plan on running away the moment he was free.

Damn it, why was I so horrible at loving people? Oh, right. Lovell blood and all that. I had spent my whole life trying to prove that I wasn"t like my evil ancestors. But lately I wondered… maybe I was poisoned down to my damned core.

Aahil huffed and disappeared in a shower of sparks, probably off to his room, where he could brood in peace. I met Hasumi"s turquoise eyes and let out a long sigh. The water weaver was probably suffering too, with their sensitivity to emotions and the current state of this entire messed-up household. They leaned in to press a soft kiss to my forehead before they also disappeared, probably off to check on Aahil. My insulin pump chose that moment to sound an alarm, letting me know that my blood sugar was dangerously high.

I curled forward and put my face in my hands, my brain scrambling to find answers to all our problems all at once.

But I suppose at least I wasn"t bored, right?