Chapter 25

25

I flashed them a toothy grin. “What?” I asked innocently.

Livvy hunkered down beside me, settling her back against the oak’s trunk while Laina craned her head as though she could still see Elfwaite.

“You have a pixie friend. Do you know how incredibly rare that is, Tavi?”

Another rarity, when all I wanted was to be normal.

“She’s one of the best people I know,” I stated.

“It only goes to show the prophecy was right,” Livvy said decisively. “You are the one who will unite the races, Tavi. I’m more sure of it now than I was before. There is something about you that draws others to your side, without the use of manipulation.”

I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with this line of conversation. My skin prickled. “I’ve been meaning to ask you more about that, Livvy. About the sentient being that is Faerie.”

“The goddess.” Livvy was solemn. She inclined her head.

“I’ve always heard it was a legend, not real. I find it fascinating you were able to speak to it. To her. And to understand her words of wisdom.”

Something incomprehensible splintered through my chest. I was holding on to the fragmented pieces of me for all I was worth, but life kept beating me down.

Snuffing them out until I felt lost.

Livvy’s presence was a gift but it was also suffocating.

She fixed me with a grave expression. “I don’t know much. I’m sure there are scholars out there with better access to records, more complete knowledge than what I’ve learned from my experiences. I’ve only received one visit from Faerie. And I was lucky enough to be granted that one.”

“But you spoke to her.”

My mind twisted up in terrible knots.

Livvy shifted, uncomfortable, and drew her knees up to her chin. She wrapped her arms around her legs and darted a glance in my direction.

“She came to me in a dream after I approached the witches. I knew I was pregnant. Or at least I knew I would be, that things had worked this time.” She blew out a sharp breath. “A dream, but not a dream. It was real. I felt her all around me. She spoke to me through a humanoid face. The face of the goddess. And it filled me with such hope and grace…”

Livvy trailed off and I noticed Laina had been hanging on every word. Her eyes seemed filled with pain, although I wasn’t sure if it was the mention of the goddess or of the witches.

Her people.

“Tavi.” Livvy said my name with the purest love. “It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to wish for something else, but you need to know you’re strong enough to handle anything.”

She held my hand. I was hardly able to believe we were together, talking to each other, as though past and future collided and granted us this one slice of present. A gift.

“What’s the matter?” Livvy asked when I stayed quiet for too long.

Her concern dug into my spine, adding to the sense of unease. “Why would Faerie want me? How did I get witch blood?”

I don’t want this .

It moved beyond fear. I tried to voice those words out loud but they refused to come.

“The witches used their own blood with the ritual spell to keep you alive in my womb. I’ve always suspected they knew, as well, just how special you would be. Perhaps the goddess whispered in their ears.” Livvy risked a smile and it carved out my insides. “My beautiful baby.”

“And the journals?” I asked.

“When I woke from my dream, I wrote everything in those journals,” Livvy explained. Her expression darkened. “My thoughts, the words from the dream. The complete prophecy and the spell necessary to unlock your powers when we met again.”

“My powers.” My voice cracked and fear moved in quickly as she stared at me.

“Tavi, don’t you know how strong you are? There is such power in perseverance. It’s only one of your gifts. You have survived everything you've come up against.”

I nodded and my throat clogged as she scooted closer. Our legs pressed together but the love hurt. I’d spent so much time knowing I’d never experience it…

“You’re not alone anymore,” Laina added. She continued to stare into the distance, between worlds, back to her son. “You have us.”

“My magic is gone. The bite on my arm… I can’t fight.”

“You stop that,” Livvy scolded. “There's more to you than your magic, which is far from gone. You are not weak, my girl. You never have been.”

She seemed desperate for me to believe it.

Heart thundering furiously, I moved away, still within eyesight but far enough to be able to block out their words.

Actually, I didn’t want to know.

It made me a coward as surely as running away would have but it was too much. Being here, this reunion, hearing about my birth?—

I’m not special .

I just wanted to be me and to do the best I could to make it through school. Maybe find a way to work with Mike and see if things ever developed into something solid between us. My heart stuttered at the memory of the look on his face when we left, part confusion and part devastation.

The moms continued their conversation without me but I blocked them out. Lost in my head, the day passed quickly and we waited until night and Elfwaite’s return. No going back now. Not like we’d ever had a choice. We were here, and soon I’d be breaking into my childhood home.

A small zap of electricity popped at the edge of my vision and I turned in time to see her wings fluttering.

“He’s gone,” Elfwaite said breathlessly in her tiny voice. “Your uncle has left the house. It’s all black and empty.”

“Thank you for doing this for us,” I whispered back.

“Don’t leave me again. Okay?”

Her request was simple and it rocked me to my core. I wouldn’t. Not if I could help it.

I scrambled to my feet and almost plowed headfirst into a tree as blood flow returned to my legs and ankles.

Livvy and Laina rose as well, both of them swooping up on either side of me.

The quiet disturbed me on multiple levels. The streets should have been louder, people out enjoying the last of the day. But there was nothing and no one and most of the houses we passed were locked up tight. Only a few lights glowed from deep within their four walls.

The streets, familiar from how often I’d walked them, led the way back to my past, and I spared a sideways glance at Livvy, wondering what she thought about this.

What kind of feelings would she have seeing Uncle Will’s place? From everything she’d said, she wasn’t too fond of him. Would she remember my dad? Miss him?

Did she think about him when she looked at me?

The house looked exactly the same as when I’d left it. A few weeds had grown in place of flowers in the garden, and the cracks in the front brick walkway were more noticeable. My attention drew upward to the corner of the second floor like a magnet.

My old room.

Elfwaite took off from her perch on my shoulder without a word. Within the next heartbeat, or maybe two, the front door swung open and her glow filtered across the path. A flurry of movement, her arm waving, and the three of us joined her inside.

The foyers smelled the same.

I didn’t expect tears to burn my eyes again. Part of me really hoped the waterworks from my reunion would have been enough to empty me out, but there they were again.

We were breaking and entering the only home I’d ever known.

I halfway wondered if Uncle Will would have let me search for the journal if I’d just asked him. It was better this way, I assured myself. Better to be in and out before he came home. The only thing he’d come back to was my scent, unless I did a good enough job of blocking it from him.

Something told me I wasn’t in full control of my magic tonight.

Livvy’s nostrils flared and she moved unerringly toward the office. I was used to seeing the door closed so that was no surprise. But to see the way her pulse of power undid the locking mechanism, to watch it swing open on well-oiled hinges…

Something about the scene struck me as wrong. Of course that’s where she would start the search. If she’d sent the journal with me, and I didn’t have it, then Will would have kept it somewhere close and hidden.

Like the office I wasn’t allowed inside.

“We’ll split up,” I said harshly, afraid to speak too loudly. “I’ll check upstairs.”

The place was huge. Will made great money as a defense attorney so we had a lot of ground to cover. I highly doubted the book Livvy wanted was in my room—but it didn’t hurt to start there.

The familiar scents of my life assaulted my senses the second I opened the door.

Nothing had changed in here, either.

The empty picture frames graced the top of my desk and the bedside table. The bed was made and my pillows propped in place. Not an inch of dust in the place, so Will must have sent the housekeepers up here to make sure everything remained spotless. Why?

My stomach constricted tightly, my ribs poised to puncture my heart and organs.

The last time I’d been here, I’d packed my bags and told him I had a headache before he left for work. He’d asked me if it was a goodbye. He must have suspected but he’d never tried to stop me.

Please let him stay gone .

I’d break if he saw us now.

There were good memories in this house. Great memories, before Will decided I was old enough to be a pawn. He’d cared about me. As a single male he’d done his best to raise me and make sure I had whatever I needed that money could buy. He was affectionate by nature, as most wolves were, and had helped me through my first shift. He’d been there when no one else was.

I had friends here. I’d come out pretty well-adjusted considering the circumstances.

He’d cared about me and no one could change my mind about it or convince me otherwise. So why had he hidden my mother’s journal from me? Did he know the truth about my three magics?

My head spun and I reached out to lean against the wall to my closet to get my bearings.

Elfwaite peeked her head around the doorway in a flutter of movement. “Did you find anything?”

“I haven’t even started looking,” I admitted. “I’m falling down on the job”

“There's nothing downstairs. Not even a hint of spellwork to show where he might have hired a witch to mask a hiding spot. I did, however, find a lot of alcohol.”

“So where would he keep a journal?” I ground my back teeth together. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“Why is this journal so important?” she asked.

I worked my lower lip. “There's a spell in it that we need. For me. That’s why we’re here, risking everything.” On edge, I crept further into the room.

“It must be worth the risk.”

I shook my head. I wished I had the words to explain it to Elfwaite. Hopefully those would come. Hopefully everything was going to work out and we’d find the journal, but what kind of hope could I really cling to? Nothing beyond Livvy’s supposition that it had to be here.

Did I want to find the spell? Was that why I wouldn’t even look for it?

Elfwaite helped me search the room, and like I assumed, we turned up nothing.

I kept my footsteps as light as possible, so different from my thudding pulse, on the stairs and rounded the banister to find Laina coming out of the living room. Her lips twisted in a pout of disappointment.

None of us found what we needed to find. Livvy emerged from the kitchen this time with her hair disheveled and her normally pale face colored by exertion. With time ticking down, we checked the rest of the house and came up empty.

“It’s not here.” I stated the obvious. “Where do we go next?”

“I’m not sure. It has to be here. I know he has the journal.” Livvy crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. “There must be something we’re missing.”

Something tugged at me. “Look, we don’t want to stick around.”

“We shouldn’t leave until we’ve found it,” she insisted.

Leave? We weren’t getting out of here. Not when the door opened and a soft chuckle rang in my ears. I turned, already knowing what I would see, my stomach sinking through the floor.

Uncle Will stood in the doorway, silhouetted by moonlight, with three big pack members flanking him, their fangs and claws ready to strike.