Chapter 18 #2
Xavier Colt sounded like a hard man, difficult to live with, let alone have as a parent. I counted my blessings that I had Tita.
“Yeah, we both did,” Wes said. “But you always got it worse.”
Atlas snorted, his gaze growing distant as if lost in a memory, a faint sense of shame and nostalgia twisting down the connection between us.
“You bet your sweet ass I never did that again,” Atlas added with a sense of finality, firmly closing the bridge on that trip down memory lane.
“After that, you were Dad’s good little soldier,” Wes teased, laughing as Atlas scoffed.
“I had to be,” he said. “One of us had to get shit done. We all couldn’t run off to college and ignore our responsibilities.”
“Hey!” Wes said, shoving his shoulder. “I wasn’t ignoring anything. I just…ya know…dreamed about it every so often. And then after Dad died—”
He cut himself off and cleared his throat, the once jovial atmosphere coalescing into reality.
I’d almost forgotten I was supposed to hate them.
I’d almost forgotten the reason why I never spoke to them, never thought of them, before being matched as witch and warriors.
They were there the night my parents died.
They could have saved them. They could have done something, anything, and yet…
“I’m sorry,” Wes murmured.
I glanced at the half-empty glass of whiskey in my tumbler. “Stop. There isn’t enough liquor in the liminal to have that conversation.”
“I mean it,” Wes continued. “I don’t know if we ever…I don’t think we’ve ever discussed what happened.”
“And we don’t need to now.” I finished my drink, set the glass down, and stood. “I’m going to bed. It’s been a long day.”
“Marta,” Wes tried again.
“I mean it,” I said. “I just started liking you two. Don’t make me regret it. Not now. We have too much left to do.”
“He’s trying to apologize,” Atlas snapped, pushing himself to his feet. “You know, we lost our dad that night, too. It isn’t just you who’s hurt. It isn’t just you who lost someone.”
“I know,” I growled, turning to face him, my hands clenching into fists. “And if you had just done something—”
“What were we supposed to do, huh?” Atlas snarled. “Dad told us to leave. Told us to save ourselves. We didn’t have a choice. I mean, Christ, what would you have done?”
The sting of his righteous fury burrowed in my chest, amplifying my own, making it hum and vibrate with potential. I could tear this place down if I let it go unchecked. In that moment, I thought maybe I would.
“You didn’t have to listen to him,” I said. “You could have… You could have…”
Tears blurred my vision, and my cheeks burned as the weight of their combined remorse pressed on my chest, suffocating me.
What would I have done?
I would have run. If my parents told me to go, I would have gone, especially then. Atlas was twenty, Wes was eighteen. It was their first mission, one they probably shouldn’t have been on in the first place. Xavier was a terrible parent, and it was his fault I’d been robbed of mine.
Perhaps Tita had a point about that, too. Maybe I had only been looking for someone to be angry at, and they were the easiest targets.
But what did any of that matter now? I was bonded to them, as much as I might have hated it.
And now, we were stuck in a fucking liminal and we might never get out.
A stupid lust demon was banging down every door I tried to open to my coven.
Hell, we were lucky the fucker hadn’t gotten into the estate yet.
We were lucky it hadn’t figured out a way to claw us to pieces like our parents.
“Sweet girl,” Wes said softly, coming to stand next to me. He pressed his index finger under my chin and lifted my face to meet his, his touch so kind and tender. “We’re going to get out of here. We’ll do the last two rituals, and we’ll claw our way out on Día de Muertos. It’s going to work.”
I swallowed and nodded, wiping the wetness from my cheeks. “I know.”
“We don’t have to talk about it again,” Atlas said, stepping to my other side. He ran a hand over my shoulder, reinforcing the affectionate sentiment coasting through my tether to him.
“Good,” I said before taking a deep breath to steady myself.
“Now, about the ritual. We begin at sundown.” I went over everything they’d need to do to prepare themselves.
Ritual bath and cleansing, of course, as well as added protective ointments and charms. “Since we’ll be inside, I’m not worried about anything walking in on us, but just in case. ”
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Atlas raised his eyebrows, glancing from me to his brother and back again.
“Are you?” I threw the question back at him.
It wouldn’t be just me who had to bind flesh.
It would be Wes and him, too. Constance’s warriors had been just as involved with each other as they were with her.
The Colts had kissed and whispered filthy words to each other at the last ritual, but that was relatively tame compared to what we’d have to do tomorrow.
“Sex magic is incredibly potent, more than blood magic. It’s ecstatic.
Remember to just…open yourself up to it. ”
Atlas nodded and glanced at Wes, who swallowed and shifted his gaze to the ground. The awkwardness of what we were about to do hung between us, but I didn’t let myself focus on it. I gave them both a kiss and headed upstairs, leaving my door open for them to follow.