30. Chapter 30

"They"re targeting the Planus realm too," Bella said softly. "And the magical creatures there are weaker, more spread out. They are easy targets. Once they"re gone, there will be no one to protect the humans when witches move in and take over." She pinned me with her steely gray gaze. "We need to do something."

Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity fuck. I wasn"t an activist or a damned superhero. What the hell was I supposed to do? "You"re talking about fighting. About waging war against them. But they"ll only team up. You won"t just be fighting the crazy supremacist assholes. If the SA is benefitting from all this, then… you"d be fighting them too. One small uprising against both powerful evil entities."

Bella nodded. "Yes, which is why we—"

She was interrupted when a portal opened up in the middle of the square. I leapt to my feet, calling my magic up around me, as the rest of my people did the same, forming a circle around me. Because those were fucking SA agents. Agents that had been there the night I was betrayed and the SA tried to kill us all.

"Wait!" Bella darted between my group and the SA group, her hands up and magic shimmering in front of her. A shield to keep us from murdering the traitorous agents on the other side. "Wait. Don"t kill them!"

I snarled and pointed a finger at the leader of the little SA group. "You! You conniving little cunt. I will rip your fucking head off and have Dyre reanimate your corpse so I can kill you again."

Jacki—field mage #3765—went tense, her hand on her weapons belt, as her partners squared up beside her. One fae-cross, one centaur, and human with some magical gifts. "Lovell," she said tersely. I wasn"t sure if she was talking to me or my sister. But I didn"t care, because I was going to kill her in a second anyway, so it didn"t really matter.

"Andy, they"re on our side," Bella insisted.

Junaid joined her, the big, bald blue jinn hovering near his lover, doing as much as he could to intimidate. "No harm will come to your mate here," he said nonsensically, looking right at Aahil.

My jinn scoffed. "Oh, you"re right. No harm will come to her. Because I will burn every person in this place to ash before that can happen." He dropped his charmed necklace to the ground and his entire body went up in flames. "Move out of the way, Junaid, or you"ll join the ash pile."

The sight of Aahil possibly about to kill himself in the process of protecting me jarred me out of my own anger long enough to stoop and retrieve his fire suppression charm.

A sudden wash of calm stole over me, making me feel like I was high. "I sense no ill intent from them," Hasumi murmured. "Perhaps we should hear what they have to say before we create bonfires or animated corpses."

I huffed, reaching out to drape the necklace over Aahil"s neck again. I expected to burn the fuck out of my hands and arms in the process, but his flames only danced over my skin like curious creatures with a mind of their own, tickling and caressing. When the charm touched his skin, the flames went out. Aahil"s gold eyes met mine, and he huffed. "Spoilsport."

I couldn"t help the abrupt laugh that escaped me, even as I worried over his possibly scorched skin.

Turning back to face my sister and the SA assholes, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Explain. Why are you protecting the people who betrayed us and almost got us killed?"

Jacki shoved Bella aside and paced closer, her people in tow. "We didn"t betray you," she snapped. "I saw everything was going wrong, and I had to choose between you and them." She nodded her head at her partners—her lovers. "I knew you"d find a way out. And if you didn"t, we"d find a way to help you. But I wasn"t sure they weren"t about to execute us next, just to tie up all the loose ends." Her eyes darkened. "I know what it"s like to lose a partner. I wasn"t about to let that happen again."

I sneered at her. I didn"t like her answer. But if I had been in her place… if it had been a choice between people I barely knew and my found family. I wasn"t sure I would have chosen any differently. "I still want to punch you in the throat," I bit out.

She nodded once, curt and understanding. "Justified."

Bella sighed. "Right. Well, now that"s settled. Goddess, Andy. We need her. Don"t go murdering our allies." She rolled her shoulders. Then she gestured grandly at the asshole beside her. "Jacki is in the process of taking over the SA from the inside. It"s a dangerous, annoying damned job and I wouldn"t wish it on my worst enemy. So maybe that will mollify you a bit, sister."

I threw my hands up. "Great. Cool. Well, since you"ve got the SA taken care of, you"ll be able to get rid of the supremacists. I guess we"ll be going." Because I had a bad feeling about what Bella was up to by inviting us here now.

Jacki shook her head. "Don"t be stupid, Lovell. What I"m doing is going to take too long. And even once I get things under control there and weed out the rot from the SA, the organization is still not going to side with the rebels. They"ll want to get rid of the witch crazies, but they"ll also be likely to come down hard on the rebels for starting a movement that will undermine the government." She snorted. "I can"t work miracles."

Bella nodded, a gleam in her eyes that I didn"t like one bit. "Even if the SA was on our side, they would still work in laws and rules and… well, polite society bullshit. It"s not going to work. Because that kind of democratic rule allows too much room for the witch cult to slink away and keep popping up over and over again. In fact, that"s what the supremacist assholes are counting on. What the world needs—what both worlds need—is a bigger, scarier force to contend with. They need a savior who they will fear, but also respect. Everything needs to be dismantled and re-built, Andy. And to do that, we need a monster." She smirked. "Or a band of superheroes, if you prefer."

I just stared at her, and she shrugged. "We need someone to defeat everyone. Then put new rules in place. Rules and governance that will prevent any of this from happening again. And once that is done, we need someone to linger in the background. A threat. A bedtime story people tell to their children at night to remind people what happens when they misbehave."

She glanced around the circle of powerful people who surrounded me. Then her eyes landed on mine. "Your magic well is much deeper than mine," she said, her words insane, but her voice firm and level. "You"re likely the most powerful witch in the two realms. In fact, our family was sure of it. They were counting on how useful you"d be once you grew up. All you need is some training. And," again that glance around me, at my lovers and friends, "I"m pretty sure they"re all holding back. This little band of yours, you could rule the world. If you wanted to. Make the SA and the sniveling witch cult whimper and beg for mercy by using brute force the likes of which they can"t even comprehend."

I shook my head in denial. No. There was no way. "Do you hear yourself right now?" I asked her, my tone incredulous. "Do you know who you sound like?"

She nodded gravely. "Yep. I sound just like our parents before they started an interspecies war. The only difference is, I"m doing it for far different reasons." She stepped closer, pushing past Zhong and Aahil to grasp my forearms and look me dead in the eye. "I only said you could rule the world, Andy. If you wanted to. I never said that you would. That"s the difference. You"ll use your power for good. And when it"s time to let go of that power, I know can do it. You won"t try to grasp onto it and hoard more, the way our parents and grandparents and the rest of our coven would have done. You"re the only one who can do this. I"ll help. But I have my work cut out for me in other areas. And you"re the stronger of us." She paused. "And the softer of us. Which I think is even more important for what"s to come."

I shook my head again. "No. Fuck you. No." I started shaking. Tears trembled in my eyes. She was asking me to do something I always knew, somewhere deep inside in the dark, padlocked recesses of my mind, that I could do with ease. She was asking me to slip into the role of Lovell and embrace the seductive power that lived inside me. The power that I had never fully accessed even to this day, even when I was training with Dyre. "I won"t," I said, my voice wobbling. "You"ll have to find some other way. I"m not doing this."

But deep down inside, I was afraid I would.