21. Chapter 21

My bedroom in the Lovell mansion was much larger than the one I"d had in my little rental house in the human world. It might more accurately be called a suite rather than a room, since it had its own large, attached bathroom and a small seating area. But still, having eight people and one rodent hybrid crammed in here was a bit much.

Bis had been a bit overcome after I completed the spell and he could verify that his new voice actually worked. But once he got past his initial freakout, he had a lot to say. Eventually, though, I had forced myself to focus on more important matters. Not that Bis finding his voice and all the things he wanted to say to me weren"t important… but I needed to know how to fix the issue with the pocket world spell before we all died.

This seemed like a family discussion, so I wanted to include everyone in my weird found family, but Bis was still a bit stressed, and his little bed and his enclosure were in my bedroom, so we all gathered where he felt most comfortable.

Currently, he was standing on top of my dresser, looking out at the room at large like a speaker on a stage. I was sitting on the end of my bed. Aahil sat cross-legged on the floor in front of me, casually leaning back against my legs as if the contact was accidental, rather than a deliberate show of support. Hasumi was perched on the small window seat. Zhong sat on the side of the bed, but close enough to the end that I could lean back against his shoulder when his weight made the mattress dip. Niamh sat on the overstuffed footstool with her long legs tucked under her. Dyre had claimed the matching wingback chair. He let out a huff and a grumble when Ambrose materialized out of nowhere and landed solidly on the Necromancer"s lap. Elijah hovered to the side of Bis"s podium, where his slightly opaque form wouldn"t block anyone"s view, but he could still make a show of being physically present.

Bis looked around the room with wide eyes and wrung his little front paws together in a very human show of nervousness. "I"m so glad you"re all here," he said in his sweet new voice. "Um. I don"t know what to say." His eyes found mine, and he shrugged. "Mom had questions."

I cleared my throat when Bis once again insisted on calling me his mother. It was weird. Uncomfortable. Cute. Somewhat accurate, I guess? I had no idea. But I was just glad he was talking, so he could call me any damned thing he wanted to right now. "Right," I said on an exhale. "Well, as you can see, Bis can talk now. And there are some things he"s told me that I think everyone has a right to know."

I realized I had started fidgeting, twirling a lock of Aahil"s sleek dark hair around my finger so I could see the strands of a red highlight laid out like a candy cane stripe among the darker strands. I was surprised he hadn"t told me to fuck off yet. I forced myself to untangle my hand from the jinn"s hair and ovary up. I had never been a coward, and I wasn"t about to start now.

"So, apparently Bis is my familiar," I said, deciding on a whim that this information was probably the easiest thing to start with. Even though it was illegal and somewhat dark magic.

Familiars had been banned decades ago because rights activists had rightly raised some significant concerns about the safety and wellbeing of animals who were forced to act as channels to witches who wanted to increase their magical reserves and control.

I felt eight sets of eyes staring at me now. But there really wasn"t as much concern in those gazes as I had expected. There wasn"t a flood of sudden shock or hostility. Mostly just mild confusion.

Niamh had been upset when she first figured it out, but she was closer to the animal world. She could communicate and connect with animals in a way that was unique to certain fae, and she had been protective of Bis ever since she first met the poor lab experiment. But she had never jumped on me about the apparent familiar bond. She just spoke softly about it, honoring the fact that it was taboo, and that I might not want to shout it from the rooftops.

The others had spent much of the past century trapped inside the bestiary, visiting the outside world only briefly when they were being used by my family. They had accumulated knowledge of the outside world in bits and pieces over the years of their captivity, and had done a lot of catching up to the times since they escaped. But there were some little nuances that they sometimes didn"t get. I was pretty sure this was one of them. When they had been free, back before their time in the bestiary, it wasn"t illegal for witches to use familiars. So, this probably seemed less shocking to them than it did to me.

"I didn"t form the bond with him on purpose, I promise," I said with a weak shrug. "I guess it just kind of… happened?"

Dyre snorted. "Of course you have no clue how you did it. You"re a walking disaster, Lovell." He was trying to get back to his old distance and haughty disdain, but there wasn"t any real bite to his words. His deep voice was too soft. Resigned, almost.

I rolled my eyes at him, but didn"t answer.

Bis spoke up, moving to sit on his butt at the edge of the dresser and swing his back legs over the side, drumming his heels against a drawer front like a little kid. "No, Andy"s right. She didn"t do anything to me. It"s more my fault than hers." His rodent shrug was so cute that I wanted to pat his head. But I was trying really hard to think of Bis as more of a person-person than an animal-person. "I would have died if she hadn"t found me and brought me out of stasis when she did," he said softly. "I was scared, and confused, and in pain. I didn"t really know where I was or who I was. But Andy was so kind and gentle. She bundled me up and nursed me back to health, and… well, I could feel her warmth. Her magic? It was like her aura called to me, and it was so comforting that I just reached out for it and grabbed on." He sniffed and blinked his little eyes a few times before continuing. "I was made in a Lovell lab. I didn"t have much in the way of memories before Andy. Just cold, and darkness, and terror. But then she took that all away and gave me comfort and love and… she was like a mother to me, the only mother I ever knew. Of course I wouldn"t think to hold anything back from her. I chose her. I chose this bond."

I shook my head, sadness warring with the memory of the furious rage I had felt when I discovered my family"s experiments. "Oh, Bis. Honey. I"m so sorry for my family and what they did to you."

He shrugged again and swiped the back of a paw under his eyes. "If it wasn"t for them, I wouldn"t be alive right now. Or, at least, I wouldn"t be me like I am now. I wouldn"t have got to know you." He looked around the room. "All of you."

I smiled at him, but it didn"t last long. Something was bothering me, gnawing away at the back of my brain, trying to get through the door that was marked "realizations I"d rather not have today."

I glanced at Niamh, who was chewing on her bottom lip, her brows drawn together in a frown and the fingers of one hand drumming against her thigh. She had something to say, but she was keeping it in.

Aahil didn"t have that sort of consideration and control.

"Fucking Lovells," the Jinn muttered. "They were all pure scum of the earth, but you have to admit, Andy, your family certainly possessed an admirable level of evil genius."

Which just confirmed what I was already thinking. That niggling thought finally burst through the realization door with stunning clarity, and I felt sick to my stomach. "Goddess damn it," I muttered.

"Momma?" Bis got up and started pacing the edge of the dresser until I went and got him. I sat back down on the bed with him in my lap and stroked a finger over the top of his black-and-white striped head.

"They made you to be a familiar," I told him gently. "That"s what all those others were, too. All the experiments. I didn"t realize it when I found you. I was too angry to really even care what the hell their goal was. To me, it was perfectly possible that my family had just been entertaining themselves by mashing together various living creatures. It"s the kind of sick thing that would seem normal to them. But I should have dug further, read their notes or something. I should have known that they"d have a reason, some deeply devious purpose." I sighed, feeling about a hundred years old.

"Familiars were outlawed, so your family decided that they were above the law," Dyre said, his deep voice soft and even, and completely unsurprised. "They decided that not only would they continue the practice, but they"d make their own familiars. Ones with enhancements." He shook his head. "How did I not realize the connections between us before? It"s obvious the Lovells have Blaisdell blood. The level of depravity is identical."

My heart hurt for him, because he was clearly going to blame himself for every horrible thing his descendants had ever done–including this. But I focused on Bis instead. He was the real victim here. "Is there anything I can do to reverse it?" I asked, looking around the room at the powerful magical beings who surrounded us.

But Bis immediately piped up, going up on his back feet and patting my hands. "No! I don"t want you to reverse it. I want to be your familiar!"

I looked down at him, at a loss for what to say. The truth of the matter was, I didn"t want to mess up whatever connection I had with him either. But I also didn"t want to risk hurting him. "Bis, buddy," I said gently. "I could hurt you. The whole reason familiars were outlawed was because witches regularly fried their companions" brains by channeling too much magic through them. I won"t do that to you!"

He just gave me a stubborn look. "Those familiars weren"t willing. They weren"t bonded to their witches the right way." He glanced around as if looking for support. "I read about it. In the books you have upstairs. There are good references mixed in with the nasty stuff, and I"ve had lots of free time over the years." His voice took on a lecturing tone, and I was reminded of the many times I"d called him professor Bis when he put his little paws on his hips and looked down his long nose at me while imparting his worldly knowledge. "Familiars who bond with their witches voluntarily and are treated well—like partners, rather than slaves—don"t end up being overburdened by the magic. They work in synergy with their witches. It"s like a very strong sort of sympathetic magic. It"s a matter of combined intent." Then he lifted his chin and huffed at me. "I could teach you a lot about your magic, you know."

I chuckled. "I"m sure you could. But… are you sure, Bis? I really do care for you. You"re not just a pet or an animal. You"re my friend. And I"m afraid you"re only agreeing to this because my stupid family built in some sort of spell that makes you way too trusting of witches or something."

Bis just shrugged. "So what if they did? I don"t care. The fact is, I am your familiar. I want to be here. I want to help you. That"s all there is to it."

I sighed. I should probably argue more, but… honestly, I had other things to worry about. Things that Bis might actually be able to help with, since we were admitting that he was really my familiar. "Fine. But the second you change your mind, I"ll find a way to release you. I promise. All you have to do is ask."

Bis shook his head at me. "I won"t ask. Now tell them all why they"re really here before Aahil gets bored and sets something on fire or Dyre runs away."

The men in question both glared at the rodent.

"Why are we really here?" Ambrose asked in a curious drawl as he got up from Dyre"s lap and stretched, then paced around the room touching my stuff. "The fear and frustration coming off you is delicious, Andy," he told me with a lusty red-eyed glance my way. "But there must be something epic going on, for you to be even more stressed than you already have been of late."

I lifted a hand and rubbed my temple, as Bis scurried up my other arm to perch on my shoulder in a show of support. Now that I was aware of what was going on, I could sense Bis if I tried, feel the little hum of his aura connected to mine. I suspected we had been connected this way for so long that it had become background noise to me, which was why I never noticed it until now.

Sucking in a deep breath, I looked down at my hands to avoid the gazes of the surrounding people. The people who depended on me for their continued safety. The people I had apparently doomed in my last-ditch attempt to escape the SA.

"There"s a hole in the spell that I used to create and tether the pocket world," I said flatly. Best to rip the Band-Aid off all at once, right? "Bis told Niamh about it. That"s how we realized he was my familiar. He says it"s growing. And if I can"t figure out a way to fix the hole, this whole place is probably going to implode or something. Maybe we"ll get hurdled into the space between realms. I don"t know. But whatever happens, if this spell falls apart, it"s not gonna be good."

Silence met my revelation.

Then everyone started talking at once. Questions. Theories. Ideas. Demands. My ears buzzed, my head felt fuzzy and sort of… detached. It was like the conversation flowed around me, but I didn"t understand a word of the worried chatter around me.

Maybe I really had reached my limit on scary shit to deal with.

It was Zhong"s rumbling voice that cut through it all. I"d never heard the gentle giant raise his voice, but now it cracked through the room with enough force to split solid granite. "Quiet!"

Everyone shut up. They all stared at Zhong, probably as shocked at his outburst as I was. "Zhong," I murmured. But he didn"t look at me. He just put a big hand on my back and glared around the room.

"Out," he commanded. "Everybody out. We"ll talk later, but Andy is done for now. My master needs a fucking break!"

And now he was swearing? I must really be a mess if I had scared my hulking marshmallow of a guy into cursing and barking out commands. Everyone else must have agreed with him, though, because one by one, they all left the room.

Ambrose slipped away into the shadows. Niamh held out a hand to Bis, who gave me a comforting pat on the ear before he joined her. Then she followed Dyre out the door. Hasumi came to kiss the top of my head, sending a wave of comfort over me before they dematerialized. Even Elijah silently flowed back into his anchor charm.

Only one person dared to defy this new, suddenly commanding Zhong. Aahil rose from his seated position on the floor, turning to face me as he knelt, sitting back on his heels.

"Jinn," Zhong said in a warning tone of voice.

Aahil just raised one dark brow at the gargoyle, his golden-brown eyes flaring with a momentary burst of fire. "Gargoyle." He glanced at me, then went back to glaring at my guardian. "I have as much right to want to comfort her as you do."

Aahil wanted to comfort me? Maybe I was in a diabetic coma, and this was all just a weird dream.

"Guys," I said tiredly. "Can you please just not fight?" I flopped backward on the bed, wishing I could just catch one fucking moment of peace.

But Aahil"s sultry voice followed me. "I wasn"t planning on fighting, witch. I was hoping we could work together."

The sultry tone of voice was accompanied by a hint of jinn magic. But it wasn"t the wildfire that I had come to expect of his power. No, this was something else entirely.