Chapter 35
OLLIE
Alice and April opened the gates wide enough for me to slip through. Along with some witchcops on the mansion side, they stood guard against the tide of people gathered in the road.
Man, there were so many of them.
Photographers snapped pictures, while idiots pressed against the witchcop barriers hurling all sorts of abuse and demands to see the Aurora witches. I headed for the dark, swirling line of shadow magic further down the sloped road.
Isaac…
Don’t let him hurt Isaac.
The swirling magic formed a floating barrier of inky clouds between the witchcops and the shadow witches. Marcus stood at the front, a tall, muscular man with a silver buzzcut, a light golden complexion, and unnerving green eyes that didn’t ever seem to blink.
Rhianna, his daughter, stood beside him with a sneer on her face.
They both wore black, as did the army of witches gathered behind them.
“Ah, a familiar face,” Marcus said upon seeing me. “Please tell these buffoons the attack on The Coral had nothing to do with me.”
My attention snared on Tony standing behind a different barrier before I could speak, dressed in white, the people around him wearing matching clothes.
His coven?
Who was this washed-up celebrity who’d somehow become a wereleopard and a witch at once?
“Oi!” Rhianna bellowed. “You listening, wank stain?”
My head snapped around. “I’m busy!”
“Tell them,” Marcus spoke calmly. “Tell them we made a deal not to attack you.”
“Unless The Moon and The Sun join you by next Thursday,” I countered. “You mean that deal?”
If it wasn’t for the barrier, my fellow witchcops would be flinging spells in their faces. Arresting the Kingwoods had been at the top of the High Coven’s agenda for years. The family were public enemy number one, having hidden their identities up until now.
Another mystery out in the public sphere, just like the return of the Auroras.
Marcus’s fury swam in his eyes. “Where is my love?”
I froze as I went to stride off. “What?”
“Preston. Where is he?”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish on dry land. Where was The Star?
“With you, as far as I know,” I replied.
Rhianna looked up at her father. “Daddy?”
Marcus barely moved, only his lips twitching.
I didn’t have time for this. The Sun needed me, and I’d already failed him once. I started to walk away.
“The rebels are led by Peter Hall and Emily Croft.”
Frozen mid-stride by his words again. I kept my eyes ahead, Tony smiling at me with too much glee.
I’ll wipe it off your face!
“Did you hear him?” Rhianna barked. “The Moon’s pissing parents are behind this!”
I’d heard, but the smirking soap star took up too much of my attention. Plus, this was a bombshell to break poor Riley’s heart.
“I’ll kill them,” Marcus threatened. “I’ll kill all who rebel against me.”
Including The Sun and The Moon?
I wasn’t about to stick up for the Kingwoods. Fingers crossed they messed up and ended up executed this weekend by making their faces public.
“Come out here, Auroras!” a woman bellowed. “Show us your faces!”
Somehow, we had to get a grip on the situation without instigating a riot. Take control of the narrative, spin a turd into gold.
But these people hated the brothers. They hated everything about this house, based on the constant stream of vitriol coming from many, many mouths. I tuned it out, focusing on Tony, putting the other issues to one side for now.
I stomped over to Tony, Jake and Dean there to greet me.
“What are you doing to him?” I demanded before my friends got a word in.
Tony smirked harder, flecks of a strange white light glinting in his eyes. “Becoming.”
Someone handed him a megaphone.
It whistled as he clicked the button, bringing it to his lips. “Down with House Aurora! Down with the sacred ones!”
The witches in white chanted with him, repeating the two sentences in a loop.
My guts curdled as a choir of angry voices agreed with them.
“Get out of him!” I bellowed, my cool fracturing.
Tony paused his chant, lowering the megaphone. “I can smell him on you.”
I wanted to put a bullet between his eyes, holding back from drawing my gun with frayed threads.
“Did you fuck him?” he asked.
“Shut your mouth and stop whatever you’re doing,” I snapped back.
Would my colleagues let me vault over the barrier and wrestle him to the ground? For what? A protest? They weren’t illegal, as long as they didn’t get violent.
“Or did he fuck you?” Tony questioned. “Either way, he’s a great lay. And I’ll be sipping on him again real soon.” His expression contorted into something dark, something deeply cruel. “He’s mine. He’s always been mine.”
Crap. The man was obsessed and a stalker.
My hand found my gun, but I didn’t draw it. The moment I showed aggression would be the moment things went sour.
Only, I didn’t need to do anything to make the situation worse.
Isaac took care of that.