Chapter 34
Raven
Awarm wind brushed my skin as we sat on the porch drinking iced tea. Adam had hugged me long and hard when we popped through the wards around the farm under the cover of darkness.
He brushed a stray tear away before checking me from head to toe to make sure I was uninjured.
“I saw the press conference,” Adam told us. “Tiberius must be furious about losing his assets.”
Did he mean me? I wasn’t sure I liked being called an asset.
“Did you know about the labs?” Rasmus asked.
Wait, were there more places like the one Alaric and I had been held in? My thoughts drifted back to my storm mage, and for the millionth time, I reached out to him down the silver tether between us. But although I sensed his presence, it was little more than a faint echo.
The optimist in me said that was because he was out of range, but the more likely explanation was he’d shut me out.
Alaric’s walls had never truly come down. Pushing away those he cared about to protect them had always been his default strategy.
It appeared not much had changed since we parted.
While I had no choice but to accept his decision, it didn’t mean I had to like it.
“Were you aware of the laboratories?” Maverick leaned back in his chair, shoulders relaxed, but I could feel the anger burning down the bond when Adam failed to reply immediately.
“I’d heard rumors, yes, but nothing substantiated.” Adam sighed regretfully. “Tiberius stopped trusting me the minute I expressed my disgust at how he treated Nula.”
Nula? I slanted a look at Maverick, but he was too busy eyeballing Adam to notice.
“Um, who’s Nula?”
An ethereal figure floated through the doorway from the kitchen. With her long, gray hair and translucent skin, the female seemed more dead than alive, but when the muted light from the porch lantern hit her face, I saw how breathtakingly beautiful she was.
“You must be Raven,” the female rasped. She massaged her throat with slender fingers, as if the effort of speaking pained her.
“Um, yeah? Are you Nula?”
I didn’t recognize her, but from the way Adam pulled her closer, she meant something to him. I scrutinized her aura, trying to get a read on what she was, and more importantly, her intentions toward my guardian.
Her aura was weak, a haze of pale green with hints of gold and amber. My magic sensed the weakness in her life force. Something bad had happened to her, bad enough she’d almost crossed the veil.
Was she a witch? Nothing about her screamed witch. Human? No, not human.
“She’s a shifter without her animal,” Maverick said in my mind. “Alaric’s mother.”
“You’re Alaric’s mom?” I blurted. Of course she was. If I looked closely, I could see they shared the same bone structure and green eyes, although hers were not as vibrant. More mossy green than emerald green.
Adam loosened his grip on the female. She drifted closer, a soft smile on her lips. I tried not to cringe when she took hold of my hand because, despite the warm, humid air here, her fingers were cold as ice.
“Yes, Alaric is my son.” She let me go after a few very uncomfortable seconds.
“We’re happy to see you’ve recovered, Nula,” Maverick said politely.
I shot a look at him. “How do you know her?” It felt like I was missing a huge chunk of information. I had a vague recollection of hearing Brianna mention her from the fun few hours I’d spent at Tiberius’s manor, but the details were sketchy.
“Rasmus found her when we searched Tiberius’s estate for you the night you disappeared from the club,” Zane explained. “She was almost dead,” he added, not caring that it might upset her.
I watched as she drifted back toward Adam and sat next to him on the bench. His arm snaked around her waist, which made me uncomfortable as hell. What exactly was their relationship?
Even though he wasn’t my real father, and it had been years since my mother died, seeing him with Alaric’s mom gave me the ick. Ugh, if they were an item, Alaric was now my stepbrother, which was all kinds of creepy.
“Stop spiraling,” Kenji scoffed. His three cousins nodded in agreement after the four of them pinged into view. The darkest one shoved a sausage into his mouth and chewed loudly.
I grimaced. While nobody would accuse Kenji of having impeccable table manners, his cousins were like feral trash pandas. The sort of familiar a horrible witch like Demented, aka Demelza, (RIP) would have deserved.
“I’m not spiraling,” I said. “I’m merely expressing some discomfort at the idea Alaric is now my stepbrother.”
“Really? Then explain why your Magizon reading library has books featuring the stepbrother trope?” I did not appreciate Zane’s input.
“Get out of my head.” I glared at him before making an excuse about needing the bathroom.
As I passed through the kitchen, taking in the bundles of drying herbs and the stacks of clean potion bottles ready for market day, I realized the farm no longer felt like home.
A figure I recognized stepped out from a side room, making me jump.
“Raven. You’re back.”
“Willow!” I opened my arms to hug her, but she moved out of the way, leaving me awkwardly grasping at thin air. This was the first time we’d seen each other since solstice, so her coolness hurt more than I expected. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she snapped. “Just surprised you remember who we are now that you’re the big cheese.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Willow rolled her eyes and shoved past me. “Nothing.”
I stood rooted to the floor, confused. Willow had been like an older sister to me growing up. We’d been close, despite the age gap. Sure, I’d not been in touch, but it was hardly my fault!
“Didn’t Adam tell you first-year students were not allowed to contact home?” I pointed out after following her into the kitchen. My mates were still talking on the porch, but Willow was my focus.
“Yeah.” She reached up for a clean glass and filled it with water.
“So why are you mad at me? I would have emailed or messaged, but when I left, none of us had phones.”
“We still don’t,” she muttered before spinning back out.
“How come?” I asked, determined to get to the bottom of this schism between us.
“Adam doesn’t think we can be trusted not to say stuff online that might bring attention to you.” She rolled her eyes again and headed into the living room. Tally and Nova sat watching a wildlife documentary on the small television Adam had bought many years ago.
They looked up and nodded before focusing on the screen, where a pack of lionesses stalked an antelope.
These witches had once been my family. Now they all acted as if I were a stranger. Unwilling to let this lie, I took a seat next to Tally and smiled brightly.
“It’s great to see you guys! Have you created any new potions since I left? Are the chickens still laying okay?”
Tally grunted something that may have been a yes.
“Wow, amazing,” I chirped. Willow threw me an incredulous look and then stomped back out.
I dashed after her, following her upstairs. She tried to shut her bedroom door in my face, but my patience had officially expired.
“Willow! This is stupid!” I hammered on the door. “Why are you being such a bitch?” I winced. The old me never cussed unless I was really mad or upset. “I’m sorry the mages took me away that day, but it was out of my control. And I’m sorry I didn’t call or whatever, but again, not my fault.”
Willow opened her door with a scowl. My annoyance faded as I stared around the small room.
It was a reminder of how insular my life had been before Starfall.
Like me, Willow had very little of her own.
Just a few tattered paperbacks, a framed photograph of her long-dead parents, and a collection of random stones I’d given her over the years.
She caught me staring at the stones and then shrugged. “You’ve moved on, so we have too.”
“Moved on?” Stars above, it wasn’t as if I’d jumped on a Greyhound bus to seek my fortune in Hollywood!
“Yeah. You have mates now. Shifter mates.” Her lip curled up, betraying her true feelings about my mates, and when I focused on her aura, it had turned a nasty shade of gray.
But I refused to give up on our friendship. I cared for Willow, and I knew deep down she cared for me too.
Pretending not to notice her blatant hostility toward my soul-bonded mates, I asked, “Have you met any cute males lately?”
A derisive laugh said no. “Do you think I have time to trawl bars in search of males? No, Raven. I’m too busy doing all your chores as well as my own these days.
And besides, we have to stay in at night because of the curfews, remember?
Although,” she sneered, “those don’t seem to apply to you and your mates. ”
I bristled. “Hey, it’s not my fault you got stuck with my chores! Like I said, it wasn’t my choice to leave. Why don’t you ask Adam to spread the chores out better? Surely Nula can help?”
“Nula is still recovering and weak, so she spends all her time with Adam.” Willow’s aura sparked green with jealousy. Did my friend have a crush on Adam? How had I not noticed when we lived together? Eww, he was way too old for her.
“Please leave. I’m going to bed. Some of us have chores first thing.”
“Hey, I can help with the chickens and stuff!”
“Don’t bother.” She shoved me out of her room and slammed the door, leaving me facing the faint pink heart with Willow + Raven written over it in glittery ink.
My eyes welled up with traitorous tears, but I brushed them away. Willow would come around eventually. I just needed to be patient.