16

Because I didn't have enough drama in my life, I decided to throw down and create more. I sent notices to every council that I would cease doing business with their species in the next month and invalidate all contracts unless they ended their practice of prisoner guards. There was no other way to put it.

Being able to sign up while still a child and not able to ever get back out was a form of being a prisoner. And we all knew that people forced them or pressured them, so it wasn't up to them really. Anyone could be pushed into anything if enough leverage was applied.

For once, the vampires came out smelling like roses which actually appeased their remaining elders… For the moment at least.

What surprised me was how many elders took the opportunity to agree with me and make their objections to the practice known. One of which was Juliet, the snow leopard elder who didn't like me until I uncovered her lover wasn't loyal to her and a plant by another elder to get her kicked out.

Or worse.

Plus, he was the guy who had made the deal with an enchanter elder heir and a demon to try to take me over.

But I was grateful she was stepping up in a good way to use her power for something good.

What didn't shock me was when Michael, one of the wolf elders who acted like he was the holiest of holy and I had recently outed as being evil, demanded that I stay out of wolf affairs… And more. Mostly to turn over everything "owed" to wolves meaning any farms I still had mortgages on.

Oh, and some of my stores since they more than deserved that since wolves helped me build it all. Otherwise, I would have war with the wolves.

I appeared in their emergency meeting and sat eating while I watched them argue how to handle it all. I let them go on and on and then revealed myself and kept eating, waiting until they finally figured it out that I was there.

"I've been here for an hour, darlings," I chuckled darkly. "The fate of the fucking world is on my shoulders and wolves won't help. Humans are pushing for the dark ages again where you're animals and they're warmed with your pelts. And this is the time you decide to try and make a play? With this evil fucker as your leader? Can you really be this stupid?"

"I would be careful throwing around such a word when—" Michael started.

"Angels are the ones who called you that and some of them here heard it," I snapped. "You're a sociopath, and that's why no one can bust your lies, but enchanters see auras , Michael, and that's why you could never lie to me."

I decided to handle this better and gave everyone in the room the ability to see auras before taking off the charm that blocked mine.

"Holy fuck, you drugged us," someone accused.

"No, I gave you the power I have for the day," I explained. "You'll see a lot of mix. Red is love. A flash of blue when someone speaks is truth. You should all have just seen one." I waited until several nodded. "Technically, there's no color for a lie because some part of what is said has feeling or something to it.

"Normally, it all blends into muck really and is a bit of shit brown." I gave them a moment with that. "I love Michael and think he's swell." I chucked when they all studied around me. "You can also see a bit of gross green or maybe a raunchy yellow because I'm amused. The point is the darkness that something is off and that's the lie."

"This is much harder than I would have thought," someone else muttered. "I much prefer sniffing the truth or lie."

"Yes, but your noses can fool you," I told him, gesturing to Michael. "And it warns us of more than truths or lies. The problem is a psychopath or sociopath—I don't actually know which he is—doesn't register to your noses. But it does in his aura. Mostly because he's too amused and looking down on everyone for believing him."

Except Michael wasn't going to play, crossing his arms over his chest and smirking at me.

"Oh, cat got your tongue? How predictable," I drawled. "I could just get some of my truth-telling potion if you like?" I chuckled when his aura flashed worry. "But a lot can be told without you ever saying a word while watching an aura, you git. Like how it will tell them that you plan to take the stores for yourself. They need managing, and only you can handle that, right?"

The greed was all over his aura, the jealousy of what I had that he wanted.

"Why don't you tell them of our history? That you never really courted me, and I was insulted with your advances like you lied. That you said I could suck your tiny cock every night and you'd take over everything that was mine so I didn't fuck it all up as a stupid enchanter." I explained what was in his aura to everyone and several finally saw the truth.

Saw the monster before him.

I went on and on, poking Michael relentlessly in every way. I learned more from his aura and pushed further, uncovered his stealing from packs for protection. Who he killed. So much that he finally cracked.

And came at me head-on.

Lovely.

His hands had changed to claws, and I let him touch me with them before I froze him and stopped his heart with my magic.

"Enjoy Hell, Michael," I purred. "Maybe I'll see you when you become a demon." I grabbed his chin with my hand. "Oh, and good luck making friends with the Devil. We were lovers and I'm dating his brother, so I promise he'll pick my side."

He dropped like a rock as he died.

I let out a slow breath and smiled out at the shocked wolf elders. "Oh please, he was dead the moment he came for me and we all know it. Now, do what you need to and fix this situation with your council guards. Let them fucking quit and retire. You're insane to treat your own people this way. So stop it or you will join Michael, savvy?"

"Every time Raphael sends us to check on you and make sure you're safe, I feel like we need to worry more about everyone else," the angel said as he appeared with two others.

"True, but that was the evil one we all wanted to smite and who made us anxious," a different one pointed out as he gestured to Michael before doing a double take. "And you're hurt. May I heal you before our brother loses what's left of his mind?"

"Thank you," I accepted. "Healing isn't my best unless big things. I let him touch me first to give me reason." I shrugged.

The rules were the rules. I tried to keep some of them.

"Oh, and don't be stupid because you cannot win a war against me," I told the wolves. "And I do mean against me . I don't even need to involve other enchanters. If I wanted to, I could jump all around and take your wolves before you even knew I was there. I've always been able to, but I'm not the bad guy here. I've always been the fair one. Time for you to be as well."

Just to drive my point home, I tapped Michael's dead body a few times with my foot.

Damn, it was nice to have one less threat against me alive.

Really it was.

I went to several other meetings—because elders and assholes were always predictable—and repeated the same warning.

And only one other person died, so I took that as a win.

I showed up in Peru to get updates and was pleasantly surprised to find out that everyone was behaving like model inmates.

Hitting rock bottom would do that to a person especially when there were still threats things could get even worse.

"What are you doing to the circles now?" a man demanded as I started messing with one. He quickly tacked on an "Elder" when I gave him a look not to test me.

"We've been mostly focused on sending souls back through the veil to where they belong, and that's sort of like throwing them out after they were pulled here," I explained, realizing I had a lot of ears. "Either by demons engineering it, psychics doing what we won't as enchanters, or simply people's grief and the way of things.

"But there are millions and billions of souls here that never moved on like they should. The human who has been a great help in all of this uncovered the circle to give some of them a false peace so they will move on. That circle actually takes less magic as it's more of a slight push once the magic makes them think their last wish is fulfilled."

I finished up what I was doing and then stood to face the group.

"As I've said repeatedly, the job of elders isn't only to punish. You're finally getting on board with the program, and none of you have been a problem for days now. So I'm going to give you a couple of days with the easier circles."

The circle flared behind me and a woman whimpered.

"By the gods, I barely felt it that time," she whispered as she sank to her knees. "Thank you, Elder. Thank you. I will behave, I swear it. Thank you for the reprieve."

"Too bad you didn't listen when you should have and you could have cleaned vehicles and had a shorter sentence," I told her, reminding everyone they'd done this to themselves. I glanced at the group. "Eat up and recharge. Stay on the path of behaving and repenting for your crimes and I will keep giving you easier days now and again that still pay your debt."

Next, I went to check on the mal fundido situation and found that all the sites were double checked by angels and any other eggs had been recovered… And destroyed. There was no need for them and the demon was erased. On Michelle's orders, Hell was checked that none of the souls killed by those monsters ended up there.

And they didn't. They went where they should even if the monsters were created by breaking rules and pure evil.

It was over, and there would never be another mal fundido again. I sent Helen a message to announce it through the enchanter community and further if she thought it best.

Next, I appeared in front of the senator who had sent the FBI after me. I snickered when I found him being completely cliché and drinking a scotch in his office looking disheveled.

"People with serious heart conditions shouldn't drink, ducky," I mocked as I leaned over the chair across from his desk.

"I don't have one, witch."

"You do now, git." I chuckled darkly when he frowned, but then horror filled his eyes as he realized I wasn't kidding. "Oh, child, it's almost sad how little you understand. You thought you were Goliath in this fight and coming after a female David who you were going to leash. You?" I sighed and tapped the chair in amusement. "The FBI was a nice touch."

"So you came here to gloat and murder me?" he seethed, slamming his glass on the desk as he stood. "You won't get away with this. I will tell everyone and—"

"Will you?" I taunted. "You think I don't know how to give heart conditions that are untraceable and I can't fucking gag you?" I snorted when it was in his eyes that he did. "I made two city blocks disappear on the FBI. This is child's play. This is because you're dragging your heels on resigning and clearly won't go away quietly."

"I'll never back down when you should belong—"

"Or would you prefer to be in a plane crash like the others?" I laughed when his face went pale. "Yes, that was me, ducky. They came after supes and wanted to experiment on us, so they died." I made a list appear in front of him. "That's all of the US government officials I've killed or made retire. It goes back from long before you were born."

He slowly sat back in his chair as he unrolled the list and it comically dropped to the floor while he was holding it. He swallowed loudly and threw it aside. "Why bother telling me this? You're so twisted to gloat?"

I snickered. "I'm too busy to gloat. I'm telling you that you have limited time left, so enough and tuck your tail and enjoy your last days with your cardiologist who will probably put you on the transplant list. There will be no donor for you. Also, you might want to do some good deeds because your aura is so dark that you won't like where you're going."

"No, no, this cannot—you're a ditz who can't manage anything and is a slut that people get everything from!" he bellowed.

"Fool. You have no idea how powerful I really am. It protects my people that you all don't understand the depths of what I have," I snapped. "You all came after me the moment you knew how much I paid in taxes. I'm not the idiot here!"

But clearly, it was time to really change my image and tell the truth. People went too far with everything and… I didn't see another way.

So be it.

The first parts of Shae's special had aired and drawn in the highest viewership of any prime-time special in the history of the network. People wanted real answers.

So be it.

I met with Shae and her crew the next morning along with Helen, Jerome, and Keegan. "You've taken the anti-nausea medicine and had an easy breakfast? We're going to be bouncing around a lot, and it can make humans sick." I waited for them to nod. "Tell me if you feel even the least bit queasy. I can pop away and handle things while you get a break."

"We all promise, and I don't let my people push too hard," Shae agreed. "What are we—no one knew what this was about."

I swallowed loudly as Remy, Isaac, and even Brax appeared. "The full story and the ugly truth. There are so many different beliefs about me, and that used to keep my people safe. Now it hurts them, so it's time to put it all out there and we can fight what we fight." I glanced at Helen, Jerome, and Keegan. "I'm sorry it took me so long and what I've hidden."

Helen nodded. "You did it to protect us. We've always known that, Soraya. I know we don't know it all."

"I'm more annoyed that everyone will get to know the juicy secrets I was special to know," Keegan said with his normal sass, winking at me that it was fine.

I felt better when Remy winked at me too.

I brought them to my father's house that I still hadn't been inside. I showed them the closet that was my room and told the truth about my birth. That my father had forced my mother to mate and raped her after she was too weak for her magic to protect her.

That he abused her during her pregnancy, and she used the last of her magic to save the child she was in labor with. My twin didn't survive and was stillborn after me. Given he died in the womb while my mother transferred her magic to me so I would live, I have the magic of three normal enchanters.

I let out a slow, shaky breath as I finally admitted it to people like that. "I used to think I was evil like he'd said." I glanced at Brax. "Now I wonder if it wasn't the wheels of fate and needed. I don't know that just any child of Warloc or Mother Nature could have healed the veil and smacked demons back into place."

He swallowed loudly. "You might be right, sunshine. Or after it happened, they left you help so you could be the champion this world needed. Victor. Walter. Ikuyo. Others who made sure you survived so you could save this world."

I smiled at him. "Yeah, I like that better than the gods rigged it so my mother and twin didn't survive." I let out a slow breath and finished the story about how I escaped and then brought them to the nest of ancients. I wasn't going to disturb them, but of course they were paying attention.

Victor took over when I got a bit choked up, explaining how I'd arrived and was on death's door. He talked about the struggle of getting me help under my father's nose and how I used to steal his books to copy so I could learn everything I could to help enchanters one day.

"All she ever wanted to do was help people from the moment she told us fresh fruit would help our need for blood consumption and her monster father and the elders of the time spread lies to intentionally hurt supes and humans because they were beneath the elders and their families," Victor told Shae. He gestured behind him. "Soraya is the reason for these groves.

"We had some on the property as they provided protection and grew naturally. At her prodding, we planted many more and donated the fruit many years to the needy in town. She used to bake extra after she learned to teleport and snuck it to the children at the orphanage."

"You knew?" I gasped.

He blinked at me before bursting out laughing.

"Aye, we knew, love," Rayaz said as he joined us. "I used to race over there and make sure it was safe for ya when I saw ya sneaking around the kitchen before dawn. We knew and it tickled us all."

I opened my mouth but then closed it, trying a few more times before I simply huffed when they laughed again. "There were several there that—I knew the pain of abusive fathers. The orphanage could barely feed them. I was lucky because I had such value with my magic. I felt bad for them."

"Aye, you were always the kindest lass," he praised. "Even if you were such a bloody handful."

They told a few funny stories about me messing up with my magic or doing something crazy without meaning to.

Then Victor told about how I came to see spirits and almost died again. I rubbed my arm, not sure that was something that should be shared, but it was time to stop keeping it all secret.

"I don't want to impose, but I would like to see and learn more if you're jumping around on memory lane," Victor said when he was done.

I let out a heavy, slow breath. "I supposed you need to know." I met his curious gaze. "I changed my will. You're one of the trustees of my estate." I shrugged when his mouth fell open. "You will always be the scariest fucker around, Victor, but you also are a protector. If I fall, my coven will need both." I gave Helen a look of love.

"I'm not a fighter, and we will have a fight on our hands for everything," she accepted. "I am the other side of the coin for the team we are. You needed another warrior and protector to replace you if you ever die."

"Yes." I was glad she accepted that and wasn't offended.

But that was how we ended up getting a lot more of the nest to join us. Nosy gits.

We jumped around a lot as I filled in parts of my life, but then it came time to fill in more. I went over to Remy and gave him a soft kiss.

"I already know you're rich, Soraya," he chuckled, understanding what was coming next.

Yeah, but there really weren't words for how rich I was.