Chapter 11

Chapter 11

ALICE

“ Y our hands are still too low, babe. You need to raise them up higher, like this.” Alice raised her own fists in demonstration.

“I know my stances, sister,” Fey said, rolling her eyes. But Alice noticed her hands dropped a fraction lower, unintentionally, as she spoke. “And I’m holding my hands exactly where?—”

Fey’s nose crunched as Alice jolted forward, delivering a quick hit to her face.

A shame. If her hands had been just an inch higher, Fey probably could have stopped it.

But that was how the Witch had always been, wasn’t it? She only ever learned a lesson when it was written in blood.

“See?” Alice said smugly, as Fey reared back, swearing. Blood leaked from her broken nose, dripping down her chin. “If your hands were where they were supposed to be, you would have blocked that.”

“Fuck,” Fey groaned, the words muffled and strained. “You are such a fucking asshole.”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Alice said. It was bleeding an awful lot, though, wasn’t it? Fey hinged forward at her waist, letting the blood fall through her fingers and onto the mats that covered their workout room floor. Glancing over for Joy, Alice gestured the other Witch over. “A little help here, love?”

Joy grinned, stepping forward and placing her hands gently on either side of Fey’s face.

“Hold still,” she said to Fey. “This won’t hurt at all, sister.”

Alice felt a small pang of jealousy, watching Joy work. She was proud of her, of course. So damned proud that Joy had picked up Med Magic so quickly after discovering her connection to Water. But she felt no stirring of magic at all as she watched Joy call her power, using it to heal the wound. No hint of that pulse of magic she felt whenever another Witch called to Fire.

There was another horrible crunch as the cartilage in Fey’s nose reset, and Alice winced involuntarily at the sound.

“All better,” Joy declared, taking a step back. Fey reached up to wipe the blood from her face with a scowl.

“Thanks, love,” Alice said, stepping forward to give Joy a kiss on the cheek. “I think that’s enough for today.”

Flicking the blood off her fingers, Fey shot her an angry look.

“Doesn’t seem fair that you get to sucker punch me and then say we’re done,” she grumbled. She reached up once more, touching the sides of her nose as though feeling for signs of the break, and Alice’s gaze drifted to Fey’s arm. The smile on her face faltered.

The tattooed sigils that covered Fey’s arms were unhidden. The spell each of them used to keep their marks undetected, including the scarred and broken Blade’s mark on the inside of Fey’s forearm, wasn’t active.

When had Fey stopped hiding her marks?

Alice wasn’t sure why, but it unsettled her.

A little voice inside her head whispered, menacingly, that maybe she’d been a little too quick when reassuring Kallista, after all.

Tearing her eyes away from the sigils, Alice searched Fey’s face for… something. Some sign that Kallista was wrong, or maybe even some sign that she was right. She missed the days when she knew exactly what her sisters were feeling. When they were connected.

The scar on her own arm ached.

“How are you, anyway?” Alice asked Fey, gently .

Joy approached with a damp towel, holding it out for Fey, who snorted loudly.

“Well, my nose fucking hurts,” she replied.

“I mean it, babe,” Alice pressed. “How… have you been doing?”

Fey dabbed at the blood drying on her chin, eyes narrowed at Alice. “Why?” she asked, suspiciously.

Joy let out a bright laugh at the answer, and it echoed around the room. So very Fey.

“Gee, I don’t know, babe,” Alice said, rolling her eyes. “Maybe because you’re our sister, and we care about you? Maybe because we see you so rarely now?”

Fey’s green eyes remained narrowed and wary.

Fine .

“There are… rumors,” Alice said. She reached up, rubbing a hand over her scalp. She needed a trim, needed to take a razor to it before the hair got much longer and started to curl.

“What rumors?” Fey asked, shoulders pulling back as she stood a little straighter.

“Rumors that you might be seeking the crown after all.”

“Alice!” Joy gasped, sounding shocked. Alice couldn’t bring herself to look at her, to see the outrage in her lover’s face. She held Fey’s stare, preferring the cold anger rising in Fey’s green eyes to the hurt she knew she would find in Joy’s.

“Fuck your crown,” Fey hissed. She took a step toward Alice, and this time Alice could feel that pulse of power, that delicious burn of Fire.

“Stop!” Joy stepped between them, putting her hand up to Fey’s chest. “Alice, apologize.”

“I said nothing that warrants a?—”

“Apologize,” Joy insisted, face whipping around to scowl at her.

“I…” Alice took a steading breath. “I’m sorry, sister. A little Demon has been putting thoughts in my head. I know… I know how you feel about being queen.”

Fey’s eyebrow rose.

“Kallista?” she asked, sounding surprised. “The shadow Demon made you think that? ”

Alice nodded.

“Ignore her,” Fey said. She stepped back, turning away from Joy and Alice, and wiped the wet cloth over her face. That pulse of power dissipated, and Alice let out a shaky breath in relief. “She’s just trying to rile you up.”

“I think she’s scared,” Alice confessed.

Fey paused.

“Kallista is scared?” she repeated. “That’s a terrifying thought.”

“Tell me about it,” Alice muttered.

“Mind if I hop in your shower?” Fey asked, gesturing to the dried blood on her chin and chest. Sweat coated her body, most from her training session with Alice, but some from her lessons this morning. “I’d rather not walk home while looking like I got in a fight and lost.”

“Knock yourself out,” Alice said. “Your old room is empty. The shower is all yours.”

Fey gave her an appreciative grin and a wave on her way out, tossing the blood-soaked towel at the clothes bin near the door and missing. The blatant disrespect of it made Alice smile.

She missed this—missed living with Fey. She’d moved in with Alastair so gradually, Alice hadn’t really noticed it was happening until it was over. One day, her sister was just gone. She missed the days when they’d been parts of the same whole.

She missed Fey.

And sometimes… sometimes she worried Fey was growing into someone she didn’t recognize anymore.