Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY

Finally, the last demon was gone, and Faith knew that was the end of the summoning spells that had been cast that day. No more demons would come through into this realm. At least not here, and not anytime soon. There might be other mages doing dirty deeds elsewhere, but this first battle in the Demon War had been well and truly won by the side of Light.

“That’s the last of them,” Faith murmured, allowing the lightning bolts in her hands to dissipate.

She sagged, and suddenly, Colt was there, his arm around her waist, lending her strength, as he had somehow lent her magic during the battle. She’d have to find out how he’d done that. Later. When she could think straight again and wasn’t quite so bone tired.

A small cheer went up from the shifters all around, and Faith looked at them all. Some were hurt and being tended to by the good mages that had come with that powerful lady who had taken out the Rollins patriarch. Faith had never seen so much power concentrated in one person, except perhaps her mentor. That little old lady was a Power with a capital P.

“You did so good, sweetheart. So damn good. You were amazing,” Colt crooned to her as he held her upright. She was so tired right now, she could sleep for a week.

“Boys?” the old woman raised her voice a little to be heard by some of the shifters across the way. “Can we have some of those chairs over here?”

Three shifters jumped into action and took three of the flimsy lawn chairs the mages had been using and jogged them over to the older woman. She directed two of them to Faith and Florence and kept the other for herself. She thanked the shifters with a happy grin and set up her folding chair near where Colt had put the chair for Faith. Florence joined them and the three women sat in a loose circle, facing each other.

“Now, dearies, I’m Granny Tucker, and those youngsters who were wielding magic against our mutual enemies were some of my elder students. Florence, is it?” Granny Tucker waited for Colt’s aunt to nod. She looked tired. Almost as tired as Faith felt. “Well, now, Florence, I’d like for you to come back to my mage school with me for the time being. A goodly number of your family members escaped, and it may not be all that safe for you around here until we figure out what they’re going to do.”

Florence started weeping softly. “I—” She sniffled, cleared her throat, and tried again. “I don’t deserve your help or understanding. I’m a Rollins. I did what my father wanted me to do. I was ready to do…” She looked at the circle of grass that was now blackened from the battle and Faith’s lightning. “I would have had to summon…” She hiccupped and fell silent as tears streamed down her face.

“If it’s any consolation,” Faith offered, “I could tell by your expression that you really didn’t want to do it. I have no doubt you would have because they were your family, after all, and you had to do what they asked, but you didn’t want to, did you?”

Florence shook her head, still overwrought. It had been a long battle, and emotions were running high now that energies were low.

“And what counts is that when push came to shove, you picked the right side and helped protect people. That’s what the Light is all about, you know. Not smiting the guilty—though I’ve done a fair bit of that in my time—but protecting the innocent. Keeping this realm free of the taint of other-realm evil, and putting right what others have put wrong. When you were faced with a choice to either fight Faith, do nothing, or help, you chose to help. That means a lot in my books,” Granny Tucker said, tucking her hands together in her lap with finality. “And so, I offer you sanctuary on my farm, among my students. I’ll be honest, many of them will be wary of you because of your mark and how we’ve all just met, but they will not harm you. More importantly, if you need protection from your family while you figure out what to do next, we will give it to you.”

“And you won’t need protection from all of your family, Aunt Florence,” Colt said softly, reaching out one hand to the older woman.

Florence reached tentatively out and took Colt’s hand, looking up at him with red, teary eyes. She smiled at him, and her tears lessened.

“You remind me of her,” Florence said softly. “She was tough and strong-willed, but she was also forgiving and kind. She never fit in with our father’s view of how the family should be. I didn’t blame her for leaving with your father. I always imagined them off somewhere, happy, living their lives.”

“They did. For a while,” Colt replied, squeezing her hand. “Long enough to have children, at least, before they died.”

“I’m so sorry,” Florence said, the tears threatening again. “Your mother was the best part of my family, and I hate to think of her and her strong, handsome lion gone from this realm forever.” They were silent a moment before Florence squeezed Colt’s hand once more, then let go. She faced Granny Tucker with new resolve. “I believe I would like to take you up on your invitation, ma’am. Thank you for your generosity and willingness to take me in when I’m sure you have every reason to be suspicious of me. I will submit to any test you wish to affirm where I stand on the matter of Light and dark. I don’t wish to bring danger to your door, but if you’re willing to help me disappear so the ones who got away can’t find me, I will be forever in your debt.”

“Oh, I think we can do a little better than just that,” Granny Tucker replied, smiling, then turned to Faith. “Now you, young lady. I never thought to see a true Demon Slayer again in my lifetime, but I am truly glad you are here, now, with evil rising all over the place. I fear you’re going to be busy until we can get Elspeth where we want her.”

“Six feet under and well tamped down,” Colt murmured, making Granny Tucker cackle in amusement while Faith just looked at him, shocked by the vehemence in his words. Not that it wasn’t warranted. She was just a little too drained to conjure any sort of strong emotion at the moment.

“Well said, my new lion friend. You did a good job protecting the Slayer. I suspect there will be a lot more of that in your future.” The old lady winked at Colt, and Faith found herself grinning. “If you two get time—though I can’t imagine you’ll have a lot of free time until after Elspeth is dealt with once and for all—you should stop by my place for a spell so I can fill in any gaps you might find in your education. No disparagement on whoever’s been teaching you, young lady, but there might be a few things you haven’t yet seen.”

“My mentor is Bettina, the High Priestess,” Faith finally felt free to reveal. Bettina had cautioned Faith against letting anybody know until after Faith had needed to call on her full power. She’d just outed herself in a big way, so it didn’t matter now if the enemy knew the High Priestess had been training her.

“You don’t say?” Sam Kinkaid sidled up behind Granny Tucker. “That explains a lot.”

“I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody before I had to call the lightning,” Faith explained. “Sorry.”

Granny Tucker laughed again. “Sounds like my old friend, Bette, has a few tricks up her sleeve still. Never mind, dearie. You did just the right thing in letting your power be a surprise to our enemy. Just remember, that won’t happen again now that they know you exist.”

Faith nodded, too weary to say much more.

“I expect you all need time to recover,” Sam said, taking charge. “Colt, Gavin is going to get your truck from the road where you left it and drive you and Faith back to the apartment, if you like.”

“Much obliged, Alpha,” Colt replied. It wasn’t lost on Faith that Colt’s demeanor toward the Kinkaid leader had mellowed. Or maybe Colt was just too tired to be difficult right now.

“Florence is going to come back to my place,” Granny Tucker announced before Sam could say anything. He seemed to think about that for a moment, then nodded.

“That’s probably for the best. Thank you, Miss Rollins, for helping Colt and Faith. None of us could get around the circle,” the Alpha explained. “Your family had us blocked.”

So that was why the Kinkaids stayed on the other side, Faith realized. She hadn’t really thought about it until now, but though they’d done a good job dealing with the mages and things on that side of the circle, she and Colt could’ve used a little backup when things got really hairy. She wasn’t sure how they would have managed if not for Florence.

“Yes, thank you again, Florence,” Faith echoed. “You really helped.”

“You’re welcome,” Florence replied shyly. “But I think Colt did the most. He has a great deal of untapped power that he finally managed to find today. I’m glad he had a way to feed it to you.”

“You helped him?” Faith asked Florence, blinking at her in astonishment.

“I just made a few suggestions. The rest was all him,” Florence replied. “But he’s definitely going to need some training if he’s going to get a handle on all that power just simmering below the surface. He could be a pretty high-level mage, given a few years of study.”

“With respect, I don’t really have a few years to study. The conflicts are happening now,” Colt began to protest, but Faith stopped him.

“We’ll figure it out,” she said, not really wanting to say too much in front of Florence, even though she had helped them. She was still a Rollins with a Venifucus tattoo who had been about to summon demons if not for Faith and Colt’s arrival. It would take more than just this one act to make Faith trust Florence completely.

Then, Faith realized she’d just implied that she and Colt would be working together into the future. Would they? She wasn’t sure. He hadn’t contradicted her, which she took as a good sign, but they had a few things to work out between them before she knew what the path would look like going forward. She didn’t know if she would be walking it at his side, or alone.

But without a single doubt in her mind, after what they’d been through both in the battle and all that had come before, she wanted him at her side. In her bed. In her heart.

Where he’d already taken up residence.

Colt was confused. He’d just used magic, and his newfound aunt was saying he had a lot more of it. That he could be some kind of mage with a little training boggled his mind. And then, Faith had seemed to imply that she’d help him figure it out. Well, that was more than he’d hoped for.

She was his mate. He’d have to find a way to make sure she knew how much she meant to him and how badly he wanted to be by her side, no matter the risk or danger, forevermore. But they needed time to talk about their personal status alone. Away from all these other people.

“I would love to hear more about this later, but right now, I think it’s time you all vacated the premises and got to safety so you can rest,” Sam said, recalling Colt to the here and now with a crash. “I don’t suppose any of you can predict if and when this sort of thing might happen again?”

“I’m not feeling anything imminent,” Faith said immediately, making Colt breathe a sigh of relief.

“As for the Rollinses…” Florence volunteered. “We were building up to this event for months. Even the ones who didn’t get to do their summoning won’t be up to it for some time after expending so much energy on the battle. Plus, my father impressed upon us all that just calling one or two demons here or there wasn’t worth the effort. If he was going to do his part to really get the Demon Wars going, it was going to have to be a big statement, like today’s endeavor. The others all agreed with him. They’ve been angling to move up in the ranks of the Venifucus and prove themselves useful to the Mater Priori .”

Colt didn’t like the sound of that. His mother’s family really were truly evil if they were sucking up to the Destroyer. Especially his grandfather. The so-called patriarch. Colt realized in that moment that he could mourn the grandfather he’d never known, but still despise his choices in life. How much worse could it be for Florence? She’d just lost her father and several other close members of her family. To Colt, they were all strangers who just happened to share a little of his DNA. He reached out to Florence a final time.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way. For what it’s worth, you have my sympathies on the loss of your father and other family members,” Colt told her as she stood from the lawn chair.

“They were your family too,” she said softly.