Chapter 7

7

CELESTE

W ith the strength of my magic, I never thought I would need to learn how to fight physically. But as each day of training with Ren passed, I discovered additional benefits. As my body grew stronger, so did my confidence. And my magic.

Being more in tune with my body from the drills Ren put me through had caused me to reflect upon how spells could be tweaked depending on the opponent I faced. My connection to the elements could be used for both offensive and defensive purposes, but my mother had never focused on how I could use the spells she'd taught me to defeat another witch. And I couldn't help but wonder if her reason for avoiding it was because she knew that we'd face off against each other one day.

As though sensing my disturbing thoughts, Midnight twined around my feet, rubbing against my ankles with a soft purr. Bending at the waist, I reached down to scoop her into my arms. "Such a good kitty."

"And such a beautiful consort," Ren murmured from behind me.

Straightening, I whirled around to smile at him. "You're not so bad yourself."

"Not so bad," he echoed, smirking as he stalked toward me. "Is that all I am?"

Rolling my eyes, I set Midnight back on the floor. "If you don't know how incredibly handsome I find you, then I haven't been a very good consort."

"You're amazing," he disagreed, gripping my hips to pull me against his chest. "I just like hearing that you find me attractive."

I leaned into his embrace, tilting my head back to smile up at him. "I figured that with how wet I get just from looking at you, you already knew that I think you're the hottest man I've ever seen."

"You make an excellent point, love." He brushed his lips against mine. "Although, just mentioning your sweet pussy makes me want to sink deep inside you."

My inner walls clenched at the raspy need in his voice. "You're not going to get any arguments from me, gorgeous."

"Fuck," he groaned, dropping his forehead against mine. "I wish we had more than five minutes before Cian, Abel, and Aura show up to train with you. That's not nearly enough time for all the dirty things I want to do to your delectable body."

"I've done so much training already. Maybe we could skip this session?" I suggested, stroking my hands down his spine.

"As much as I'd love to say yes, you need ample time to become familiar with how my cousins fight. We don't know how long we have until your coven comes for you," he reminded me.

As if to emphasize his point, my cell phone rang. Tugging it from my pocket, I sighed when I saw that it was my mom calling. Again.

After speaking with my parents a few times—and their refusal to listen to anything I had to say that didn't go along with their plans for me—I had been doing my best to ignore them. But they hadn't made it easy since they called several times a day. And left multiple text messages.

They weren't the only ones from my coven trying to get a hold of me, either. Over the past few weeks, Arthur had left me at least a hundred voicemails. The High Priestess had even called a few times.

Avoiding her calls went against everything I had been taught growing up, so I had accepted the first one. But after that conversation went downhill quickly, I had let her go to voicemail the other two times. Which had angered my parents.

Heaving a deep sigh, I was considering answering my mom's call when Ren tugged the phone from my hands. "Do you want me to answer?"

As much as I appreciated the offer, I didn't think it was the right call. "No, that will only make the situation worse."

"They're going to have to accept me eventually." Stabbing his finger against the screen to reject the call, he tucked the device back into my pocket, his fingers lingering on my butt cheek to give it a squeeze. "I'm not going anywhere. If they want you in their life, they'll learn that we come as a pair."

"I wish I could be as optimistic as you are when it comes to them, but stubborn doesn't begin to describe my parents. Especially my mother. Once she's got her mind made up about something, there's no changing it. And since her magic is more powerful than my dad's, he tends to go along with whatever she says."

"Which means that she is most likely the one who I have to blame for whatever spell was used to cover the birthmark that would've let every daywalker know that you were meant to be mine," Ren growled.

There was a feminine gasp behind us before a woman said, "Your consort mark was hidden by magic?"

I turned to find three dark-haired, blue-eyed people had joined us—two men and a woman. My assumption that they were the Bancroft cousins who had arrived in town last night turned out to be correct when Ren introduced me to Cian, Abel, and Aura.

All thoughts of my parents were set aside while we trained. I funneled my anger at how they had kept such a huge secret from me for my entire life into my magic, and it amped up my power.

"Holy fuck," Cian breathed, his eyes going wide when I used an air spell to lift all four daywalkers off their feet.

I shared his surprise since I'd only ever been able to target one person at a time with this particular spell in the past.

Abel's gaze swung toward Ren. "Can we bring her on missions? Imagine how quickly we could dispatch nightwalkers with your witchy consort on our side."

"I'm not going to risk my consort for your amusement," Ren growled, glaring at his cousin.

Aura flung her arm around my shoulders. "So much for thinking that Ren might've escaped the overprotectiveness that the rest of the Bancroft men have when it comes to their women. With how hard he was having you train, I figured he might actually admit how valuable you'd be during a battle."

Ren's ire turned on Aura as he stomped toward us to pull me from her hold. After tucking me against his side, he muttered, "I know better than anyone how talented Celeste is. I'm the one who's been training with her day in and day out for weeks. But I'm also the one who would be ruined if anything happened to her. She's the light of my life, and I refuse to put her at risk except for when it's necessary."

Before his cousins could push his buttons any more, I added, "For now, we need to focus on making sure we're ready to face off against my coven. My masking spell will only work for a little while longer. Once it falls, they will know where I am, and they'll come for me. The coven is depending on me to give Arthur's magic a boost. The leaders consider he and I to be the pairing that will move us to the next level in the hierarchy of covens. And their time is running out as we get closer to the winter solstice."

"Them," Ren grumbled.

My brows drew together as I turned to him. "Them what?"

"Move them to the next level, not us. The leaders of your former coven are worried about climbing the rungs of power, but it's no longer your problem. You're a Bancroft now, and soon you won't just be a witch…you'll be a daywalker too," he explained.

"And nobody is going to take you away from our cousin," Cian vowed, his siblings moving to stand on either side of him and nodding in agreement.

They were a formidable trio, and I was happy to have them, and the rest of the family, at our backs. But Ren had been right about us needing to learn each other's strengths, weaknesses, and abilities before we went into battle together.

"Now let me show you what I can do with water."

That was all the warning I gave before I drew the water particles from the air and created a wall between Ren's cousins and us. He chuckled as Cian, Abel, and Aura got drenched while trying to break through the watery barrier. Lucky for them, I was also able to pull the water from their clothes and hair when I turned it into steam, sending it back into the air.

"That is seriously cool." Aura shook her head with a whistle, lifting a lock of her now-dry hair. "You're better than a trip to the salon to have a blowout."

"You should see what I can do with fire." I wagged my brows. "And earth, except that would just leave you dirty."

"Let's just hope we have enough time for them to become better acquainted with all the magic you possess," Ren muttered.

"If not, we've learned enough for me to have no doubt we'll be victorious," Cian assured us.

"Damn straight," Abel agreed.

From their mouths to the goddess's ears…because I couldn't imagine ever going back to my old life again.