Chapter Seven
Taliyah
The coven house was mostly empty by the time we descended the stairs to the ground floor.
It was a small mercy not to have to do a walk of shame out the door with half a dozen witches watching. None of them would heckle us. It would be infinitely worse. Best case scenario, they’d congratulate us, and at worst, they might offer tips to improve our performance.
Color flushed into my cheeks when I saw a trio of young faces huddled together on the couch. Astrid’s flame-bright hair was a striking contrast to her brother’s inky dark locks. She reminded me of a spider lily, full of bright colors and odd angles. Maverick, in comparison, was like a Rorschach test more often than not. Done up in black and white, and impossible to interpret unless you squinted to find the meaning. If not for the distinctive Depraysie eyes, I wouldn’t have believed they were related, let alone siblings.
The girl sitting beside Astrid was one of the few witches I’d met who didn’t have black hair. Meredith Boline was a brunette and a little on the lean side. She was curled up in the corner of a sofa as if afraid to take up too much space. It was a defense mechanism. According to Astrid, Meredith’s mother was a real piece of work. It would probably take the girl years to uncurl from the defensive posture.
Wedged in on Astrid’s other side was a pale young man with auburn hair. It was impossible to tell if he was attractive or not. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find someone under thirty compelling in a romantic sense. He only looked a decade or so older than my boys. Though Rook Thorne was old enough to be my grandfather several times removed, I could only see him as the twenty-something he appeared to be.
All three glanced up, taking us in as we passed. I felt the insistent urge to step through Winter and materialize in my own home, where I could die from embarrassment in peace. Instead, my besotted ass let Maverick wrap an arm around my waist and tuck me into his side protectively, forcing the others to stare him down first. Another day, his posturing might have pissed me off, but at the moment, I was too mortified to speak, let alone lecture him. There were vampires in this house, which meant at least two of the three had heard us.
Maverick jabbed a finger at Astrid. Her face was split into a wide, knowing grin, and she opened her mouth to issue the dreaded happy sentiment.
“Don’t,” he said, cutting across her before she could speak.
Astrid’s copper brows shot up, and she leaned into Rook’s side. She was sitting half on his lap, legs draped over his. Their joined hands rested on her knees, and she shivered when he stroked the outer curve of her calf with a fingernail. Her pout was a little too practiced to seem genuine.
“Don’t what?” she asked, faux innocence dripping from the words.
“Tease her. She was raised like a mundane, which means she’s practically a Puritan.”
“Hey,” I said, bumping his hip hard with mine. “I’m not a prude”
Maverick rolled his eyes. “Fine, you’re a Victorian. Hopelessly sexually repressed, overly critical of yourself, into the occult, and may or may not have piercings in intimate places.”
Astrid frowned and turned to Rook. “The Victorians had piercings?”
Rook nodded. “It was a fad for a while. Doctors discouraged it in young women, but it was fashionable to have your unmentionables pierced for a while.”
Meredith and Astrid devolved into laughter at almost the same instant, and Astrid managed a choked, ‘unmentionables’ before trailing off into further giggles. I wasn’t sure what had set them off. The fact that Victorian women had nipple piercings or that I might be sporting one.
“I don’t have anything pierced,” I said weakly.
“I know,” Maverick said. The tone was so matter of fact, it brought the blush roaring back, heat sweeping from the crown of my head down to my toes.
“Can we change the subject?” I muttered, eyeing the door longingly. Just one spell and I could get away from this humiliating conversation. I already wanted to squirm all the way out of existence, and Maverick had barely started. The familial comfort was obscenely high in this house.
“We actually have something important we need to talk to you about,” Maverick continued.
Astrid grinned at me, resting her head in the cradle of Rook’s throat. The vampire wasn’t wilting under Maverick’s stern disapproval, which was a point in his favor. I’d seen lesser men cowed by Maverick’s scowl alone.
“Fine. What did you want to talk about?” Astrid asked Maverick.
He cleared his throat. “A few things, actually.” Then he cleared it again, like what he was about to say wasn’t comfortable. “First, I need you to contact Fox Aspen for me.”
Astrid sat up a little straighter, shrugging off Rook’s arm. He adjusted his position, draping the arm over the back of the damask sofa instead. Meredith watched with interest, saying nothing. She had an oversized rat clutched gently in her hands. The rat looked like a tiny, adorable lapdog surrounded by the ruffles of Meredith’s skirt. I thought she was leaning a little hard into the Old West aesthetic, but it wasn’t my wardrobe.
“You actually want to talk to Uncle Fox?” Astrid asked. “I thought you said you’d rather choke on a cactus than have another conversation with him.”
“Astrid...” Maverick sighed.
“You said you’d rather dive into an empty swimming pool headfirst rather than listen to him lecture Tally or me again.”
“Astrid,” Maverick repeated more forcefully, pinching the bridge of his nose, rather than glare at her.
He did that a lot lately. Whenever she was pleased or amused, Maverick would find a safe point on the opposite wall and wouldn’t look directly at her for the rest of the evening. He wasn’t being obvious about it, and I didn’t think Astrid had caught onto the reason why. But I knew. He didn’t want to see her fangs. I knew he’d always wonder if he could have saved her if he’d set out sooner. The fangs were a reminder of one of his biggest failures.
“You said you’d rather lick an ogre’s sweaty back—”
“—I did not!” Maverick burst out. “Damn it, Astrid, this is serious. Are you going to give me the number or not?”
Astrid’s smile shrank, and the bewildered expression on her face made her look younger than her now eternal nineteen years. It was almost painful to watch the whiplash hit, and for all her good cheer to drain away. I wanted to push her lips back into that easy grin. No kid deserved to wear a look that anxious. She should have been worried about college finals and boyfriends, not magic and death threats.
“Mav, you’re scaring me. What’s this about?”
“It’s a faerie thing,” he answered noncommittally. “Tally needs the number. We need to fact check something.”
Astrid pursed her lips. “I’ll give you the number, but I doubt it will do you any good.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because Fox is staying in the newest hollow in Louisiana, and they don’t have any cell towers near the swamp. Hell, they don’t even have electricity all the time. It’s still early in the construction process.”
“What the hell is he doing there?” I burst out, unable to help myself. After all the times Fox had lectured me about duty, here he was pissing off and settling wherever he pleased. What a hypocrite.
Astrid shrugged. “I don’t understand it completely. Apparently, it’s a Sidhe protocol thing. Autumn is allied with Spring, and Fox wasn’t able to stop the attack on a spring royal. That means he has to tend to her duties to the Hollow until she’s well enough to resume them.”
“So, it’s like taking over someone else’s contract,” Maverick said.
“Yes,” Rook answered. “And he’s locked in for another year, at least.”
Maverick swore under his breath. “Of course he is. Any chance Dickhead Reynard introduced you to one of his counselors? I could use the advice of a faerie noble right about now.”
Lines appeared between Astrid’s brows. “I only know a handful of Autumn faeries, and none of them have great attention spans, so I doubt they can give you the answers you’re looking for.” She rubbed her chin thoughtfully before adding. “I guess you could ask me. I’ve been getting a lot of court politics shoved involuntarily into my brain right alongside the magic lessons. Which I’m still not good at, by the way. All this power and I have no clue how to use it...” Astrid trailed off, muttering darkly. I empathized with her. I’d been the one learning harsh truths against my will only a year ago. At least Astrid had chosen her title and royal duties of her own free will. I’d been put on the spot, menaced with the threat of becoming someone else overnight, and then punished for reacting poorly. I still wasn’t completely in control of my abilities, though I was getting better.
Maverick took in a steadying breath and let it out slowly before he could speak. “I heard a rumor recently and it’s been bothering me. I need you to confirm whether what I heard is even possible.”
Astrid pulled her knees under her, sitting lotus-style as she faced her brother. I recognized the meditative posture with some chagrin. Bea had started me on a yoga program when my powers resisted all other calming techniques. Maverick’s insistence on joining me had done a lot more for me than the stretches and breathing exercises had. Just being in his presence was like draping a blanket over my shoulders, warmth that held the cold at bay.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “What’s the rumor?”
“That winter faeries can perform a type of blood magic, even without being blooded by vampires. Is that true?”
Astrid grimaced. “Yeah, it’s true.”
“Really?” Maverick seemed surprised.
Astrid nodded. “It’s dark as hell, but it does happen. Without that spark of death in you, performing blood magic involves taking a life. Using blood magic is illegal for a reason.”
“But in theory Janara could use your blood or Tally’s in a spell and hurt either one of you?”
Astrid nodded gravely. “Uncle Fox told me about a weapon that can curse his family—it’s like this dagger made out of bone. Janara keeps it on her at all times, just in case. He told me to avoid getting stabbed with it if at all possible.”
I could practically hear Fox saying the words and fought not to roll my eyes. The man was still a pretentious bastard, always smirking and acting superior. But my irritation gave way quickly to fear. If one family-cursing bone dagger existed, it was likely that the one Aurea possessed was the real deal. I realized, with a pang of loss, that I’d been praying that Aurea’s threat had been empty, because now she really did have me over a barrel.
Maverick and I exchanged a solemn glance. His irises flickered briefly to that hellish color, but the rage dimmed quickly. He knew the score too, and didn’t want to make a bad situation worse. I could have kissed him for that.
“What’s going on?” Astrid pressed. “Are you two in some kind of trouble?”
“Always,” Maverick responded, plastering over the awkward moment with one of his trademark smirks. “You should know that about me by now, sister mine.”
“Is there something else I can help with or did that answer your question?” she frowned.
“One more thing,” Maverick said. “Have any of you ever heard of some kind of vampire god? Is that a thing?”
He directed the question at Rook this time, who stared back, unsmiling. The kid looked paler than usual, owing to the hex placed on him centuries ago. The binding that kept him inside the castle was wearing off slowly, but he still couldn’t stay away from the castle for more than a day or two. Fox estimated it would take around six months for the curse to go away completely. He’d be heading home tomorrow evening and he’d be trapped in Blood Rose for the next few days to balance the magical drain on his body.
Rook shook his head slowly. “Not that I know of. At least, we don’t have a deity like your goddess. My line was supposedly descended from the first vampires, which is why we’re considered the public face of vampire kind.”
“These first vampires, were they just like modern ones? Could they do anything extra?”
Rook’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you asking?”
“I had a nightmare,” Maverick lied. “Just trying to assure myself I’m watching too many horror flicks late at night. Was it ever possible for vampires to...” He paused floundering, unable to find the words. I finished for him.
“Does Dracula compare in any way to vampires that are thousands of years old?”
Rook chewed his lip, thinking. “I’m not sure. There are rumors that some vampire powers had a basis in fact, but it would have been so long ago that there aren’t any written records I could point to. It’s mostly rumor and conjecture.”
Astrid cleared her throat, shrinking under the suspicious stare that Maverick turned her way. She raised her hands in surrender.
“Don’t hex the messenger.”
“What more do you know, Astrid?” he asked.
“I think you should call Aunt Celestine. She’s mentioned the sort of thing you’re talking about.”
Maverick stared at her in unflattering shock for a moment before he burst out, “You’ve been talking with Celestine? When? How?”
Astrid winced at his tone and volume. “Ouch. Could you tone it down, Mav? That hurt.”
Maverick mouthed at her soundlessly for a moment before grimacing and amending his tone. When he spoke, his voice came out slowly and quietly, enunciating each word.
“Why and how are you talking with Celestine?”
“By phone. She’s entitled to a little contact with the outside world, or she’d go insane within a few weeks. I wrote to her not long after I turned, asking her for more details about her vision she’d seen that caused her to… well, do what she’d done to the others and tried to do to you. I just wanted to understand why she did it.”
“And?” Maverick continued, his eyes angry again. As far as I understood, Celestine Depraysie was like Public Enemy Number One.
“And what I got back sounded insane,” Astrid continued.
“What did she say?” Maverick asked.
Astrid shook her head. “I think you really need to hear it from her own lips. I can call someone and get you a meeting with her.”
“Not yet,” Maverick said. “At the moment, we have bigger fish to fry. We’re going out. Don’t wait up for us.”
Before I could protest, Maverick seized me by the hand and dragged me bodily from the coven house and out into the cool evening air.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Someplace safe. We need to talk.”