18. Jade

It’s later in the day, and I’m at Meliah’s house.

Mostly so I could see my dad. No one argued against it.

Almeth knows where we are, so it was probably a good idea that we get out of the house for a little while in case he sends Atticus and his guards after us.

Patten is waiting outside, despite Meliah inviting him in. He refused to take one step into Meliah’s house. When I asked him why he wanted to come with me instead of Shep or even Isaiah, he said he wouldn’t hesitate to bury a bullet in the witch’s head if she so much as twitched wrong. Which is how I learned he took a gun from one of Atticus’s guards and has it stuffed at the waistband of his jeans.

Shep, Isaiah, and Dominik are in the car parked a little away from the house, watching, just in case. We took twenty minutes to get here, driving in loops, so if anyone was following us they’d wind up as dizzy as I was when Shep finally parked up outside Meliah’s house.

That doesn’t mean someone won’t soon follow. Shep, Isaiah, and Dominik will prevent anyone from getting inside to me or Dad. Patten is there to stop Meliah, who he kept muttering in the car was biding her time before she cursed us all.

I’ve been sitting in a dining chair in a red and orange bedroom, beside Dad’s bed for five minutes now, and Dad has yet to open his eyes. His skin is still pale, and I hope I’m not imagining the shrinking thin silver veins on his chest.

He’s getting better. Unless I’m seeing something that isn’t there—which, after what happened with the refrigerator, is entirely possible—he’s getting better.

Despite his lies, and him abandoning me in an attic for so long, I still love him. He’s the only family I have left, and I don’t want to lose him.

I take one of Dad’s icy hands in both of mine and squeeze. “I have so many questions for you, Dad. It’s not even funny.”

Right when I’m emerging, I don’t have Dad to talk to, and I can’t trust the only other person who has been through this and knows what I should expect to tell me the truth.

“Did you want some tea?” Meliah calls from the doorway.

I could stay with Dad, but I might have a few minutes to find out how exactly Meliah and Dad know each other, and how he came to save her life.

After giving Dad’s hand one last squeeze, I drop a kiss on his forehead and stand. “Yes, please.”

“We’ll be more comfortable in the kitchen,” Meliah says.

I follow her down the stairs and into her kitchen, and I try not to stare at all the herbs or the tiny brown bottles she has lined up beside a big white sink.

“How is he, really?” I ask as I slip on a wooden stool at her black granite kitchen island.

Meliah fills an iron kettle with water and places it on the stove before she turns the flame on under it. “Very slowly healing.”

I watch her open a cupboard beside the stove and pull out two handmade looking gray mugs and a square silver tin. “He didn’t open his eyes.”

“The body, when fighting, needs time to mend itself.” Meliah peers over her shoulder at me. “Sleeping like this, getting undisturbed rest, is the best thing for him.”

I search her expression for signs of deception, and when I don’t find it, I nod. “Okay.”

Meliah turns back to the mugs, pulling a spoon from a drawer beside her. “I’ll make us some tea. Loose leaf mint, chamomile, and lavender. A home recipe.”

I recall Patten warning me not to eat or drink anything the witch offered me.

He has reasons for not trusting witches. A ten-year curse would make anyone suspicious, but I don’t think Meliah would hurt me or my dad. She truly does seem to be doing everything she can to help him.

“That sounds nice.” I study her, curious. “I’m surprised you’re putting yourself in so much danger for my dad. Aren’t you afraid of Atticus?”

She spoons bright green leaves flecked with dull purple that must be lavender into the mugs. “As I said, your father saved my life. And I am… prepared for Atticus. As best I can be. He doesn’t frighten me.”

“How exactly did Dad save you?” I ask.

Meliah places the lid back on the metal tin and returns it to the cupboard as the kettle on the stove beside her starts to whistle softly.

“I belong to a coven,” she says when I’m getting ready to ask her again. “Several years ago, we had a pack of demons settle here. I don’t know if they were on their way somewhere else and decided to stay, but they turned up one day and they were showing no inclination to leave.”

The kettle is now well and truly whistling.

Meliah turns the stove off and pours a steady stream of hot water into the two mugs. Then, she turns and places a mug in front of me, and flips her wrist, dragging her shirt sleeve up her arm.

I take in the long, thick scar dangerously close to her vein. “Initially, I tried to get them to leave on my own.”

I wrap my hands around the mug, the warmth seeping into me as my eyes flick to those tiny brown bottles beside the sink. “Couldn’t you use a spell to stop them?”

Her laugh rings out, the sound husky but devoid of humor. “Spells are not the answer for everything. The demons were violent, and they were intent on feeding on the local human women and the weaker members of my coven. Someone had to stop them.”

“Incubus?”

Meliah, finished showing me her scar, pulls the sleeve down and picks up her steaming tea. “Yes, they were incubi. Since they were too many—and too strong—for me to manage on my own, I had heard of a hunter who I could hire to deal with the problem.”

Dad.

“You called my dad?” I take a tiny sip from my mug and I swear the heat and the soothing scent sinks right into my bones. I feel my shoulders relax when I hadn’t known they were so tense.

Meliah nods. “He came and started hunting. The others soon moved on, and the trouble was resolved.”

I frown as I nod at her arm. “I don’t understand why you didn’t get him before. Why did you try to deal with it on your own?”

“As leader of this coven, their safety is my responsibility,” she says with a quiet strength, her gaze steady and strong.

I don’t think I’m looking at the sort of witch who would curse three men for no reason. I’d assumed she was in her mid-thirties, but I get the sense she’s older than that, even if she doesn’t look it.

“Staying in Wilkerson isn’t a good idea,” she says.

“Can we move him?”

Meliah shakes her head. “He needs to be still. Moving him could undo all my healing.”

“Someone found us. Someone connected to Atticus.” It’s still crazy to think that man is Patten’s father.

Her lips tighten. “Almeth?”

My eyes widen in surprise. “You know him?”

“I know he is not someone you can trust. If there was somewhere else I could move you, I would. But…”

“This is a small town and our options are limited?”

I assume she doesn’t want to put the rest of her coven at risk by having us take over their home. Which is only fair. I don’t want to put anyone at risk if I can avoid it.

She nods.

So it looks like we’re staying then.

I’d ask Meliah if she could cast a spell to protect our house, but what could protect us against gunfire and bolts that can shoot a firedrake out of the sky?

I shake my head to clear away the memory of Dad falling. I never want to think about it ever again. Seeing it once was horrifying enough to last a lifetime.

“I can’t leave my dad here.”

“We all know and understand the threat Atticus is, but we are nothing to him. He stays in his compound and sends his workers to do his shopping for him. But you, you are exactly the type he wants. You should leave. As soon as possible.”

I put down my mug, no longer interested in being soothed by a fragrant tea.

“Look, I know staying is a bad idea, and I’m scared, truly terrified, of going anywhere near that man. But…” I struggle to explain why I need to stay. Why it’s so important that I do. “I’m used to staying where it’s safe. That isn’t a life I want to live anymore.”

Meliah’s expression doesn’t change. “This town isn’t safe for you.”

“Because it belongs to him? What happens when I leave?”

“Your father won’t have to wake up to find you dead or captured.” She doesn’t raise her voice, but she doesn’t have to. I hear her disapproval loud and clear.

I lean across the island. “Are you seriously telling me a man like Atticus Chira is going to be content to just let me go? That he won’t put all the money he spent building a compound he uses to house people he regards as things to track me down? Am I supposed to crawl back into an attic somewhere and wait for Atticus to find me, take my baby, call it a thing and cage them?”

I’m shaking with anger when Meliah’s gaze dips and her expression turns wary.

I have my hands flat on the kitchen island, and my blue ribbon friend is looping furiously around my right wrist.

I straighten, tucking both hands behind the island before I slam Meliah into her refrigerator when she doesn’t deserve it.

Embarrassed by my lack of control, I can barely bring myself to look her in the eye as I apologize. “Sorry, I’m?—”

“Emerging,” Meliah says, smiling softly. “I know.”

“But how do you know?” If there was one thing Dad was good at, it was keeping secrets. If anyone should know, it’s me. “Dad is like Pandora’s box after they shut it again. Determined never to reveal anything, ever. Even to his own daughter.”

I try to accept that being closed-mouthed is a facet of Dad’s personality, but my voice is still bitter. More than I intended it to be.

Her smile fades and she steps closer, resting her palms on the kitchen island. “I need to tell you something, and it goes expressly against something I swore to keep silent, but I think it’s important.”

My muscles tense. “What?”

She hesitates for so long I want to shake whatever it is out of her.

“Brennan had a reason for being gone so long,” she says so slowly it’s clear she’s forcing herself to speak.

“What do you mean?” I prompt.

“He didn’t mean to leave you with Nigel for as long as he did.”

“How do you know that?”

Alarm tingles down my spine, and I steal a peek at my right wrist as subtly as I can. Of course, there’s no sign of spirit or the blue ribbon friend to help if I just walked into a trap. Patten has a good reason to distrust witches, and I’m alone here with an uncontrollable power.

An easy victim.

“He came here,” Meliah admits softly.

I abandon my plan to bolt out of the front door. “He did what?”

She darts a rapid glance up the stairs, as if afraid Dad will overhear. “He came here. It was a couple of years ago. I’m surprised he was alive at all given?—”

“Jade!” The front door swings open, and Patten fills the doorway. “Oh good. You’re already down here. Time to get out of here.”

“I can’t. Meliah was telling me something important.”

He snorts as he crosses over to me and starts walking me toward the front door. “Doubt it. A good witch is a dead witch.” Then he glances at her. “No offense.”

“That was actually very offensive,” Meliah says tightly.

“So it was,” Patten concedes and looks at me. “You good to go? There was a weird guy at the end of the street, and I’d rather not wait around for him to start trying to kill us.”

I hesitate.

Meliah offers me a faint smile. “You should go.”

“And this person at the end of the street?”

Her expression hardens. “Should know better than to come looking for trouble. Brennan is safe here.”

I want to know what she was going to tell me, but I’m painfully aware that the longer I stay with my dad, the more danger I put him in.

Atticus wants me, and if he knew I was here?

“You’ll call us if there’s trouble?” I ask.

If trouble finds him here, we can get here fast and help. Atticus wants me, and I can’t be near Dad if Atticus attacks. Dad might not survive it.

Meliah nods. “I will.”

I stop resisting Patten and let him pull me out of the front door.

For now, the best thing I can do for Dad is to stay away. At least, until Atticus is dead or I come into the power I hope will be strong enough to protect him.