Chapter 36
The door to Tempest’s quarters opened, and Sven entered with a pastel-haired Magus.
“I managed to get her away from the greenhouse,” Sven muttered, but he beamed down at the woman beside him.
Whoa, the guy was smitten.
The woman bumped his shoulder. “I should probably talk to people instead of plants for a bit.”
“Just because Syera is here doesn’t mean you need to pretend that you like all plants and not just poisonous ones,” Huxley said, his nose in a book.
This had to be Rooke, my cousin.
She met my gaze. “Has Huxley been talking to you in a slow, loud voice? He gets nervous around other supernaturals.”
Huxley glared at her, and I smirked, answering, “Yes, he has. I wondered why he was doing that.”
“He has performance issues,” she added, then crossed the room.
I stood, and Rooke drew me into a hug. She was shorter than Tempest. The top of her head only came to my chest.
“So happy to meet you,” she said, drawing back. “I almost left my poisons of my own accord when I heard you’d arrived.”
“I’m honored,” I replied, then sat beside Tempest again.
The boys were asleep, and Tempest and I had existed in a happy bubble of reunion for most of the day as others, like Wild and the quad, flitted in and out of our conversations.
The sense of complete oneness with my twin had returned, and I felt more like myself for it.
Rooke blinked, still looking at me. “Oo, that’s an interesting one. But makes sense.”
Tempest murmured, “What does she have?”
“My apothecary affinity isn’t that great, but what I do have is focused on poisons. I can guess a person’s perfect drink. Want to know yours?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Sure.”
“A mezcal chili paloma.”
“Never had one.”
Rooke smiled. “And if you had, it wouldn’t be as good as the one I can make you.”
She set to work after summoning an entire drinks cart. She muddled and measured, then filled a highball glass with smoke before pouring her concoction on top.
Should I drink something from a Magus who’d confessed to an obsession with poison?
She held out the drink to me, and I sniffed it.
“Don’t worry,” Rooke said. “My drug dealer days are behind me. I only did it because the poisons wanted me to.”
With that reassurance to warm me, I sipped the spicy paloma. Or whatever she’d called it.
My eyes widened. “Shit. That’s incredible.”
The guys watched on.
“I just watched her put habanero and jalapenos in that. And a chili liqueur,” Corentin said. “You had no reaction.”
“I’m just a smoky kind of gal.” I took another sip, then asked Rooke, “What’s your drink?”
She grimaced. “Rectified spirit. Or grain alcohol. A really purified form of ethanol.”
My brows rose. “So straight alcohol.”
“Obviously I don’t drink that. Even though poison tastes pretty great. I settle for absinthe.”
I chuckled into my drink. Shit. “We’re going to get on fine.”
Tempest flashed me a grin. “She has the family darkness, right?”
Sure did.
“I’m glad there are only three of you,” Huxley said, not looking away from his enormous book. “That’s already more than I want to deal with. At least Corentin and I can date normal people to balance things out.”
“That’s an idea,” I said. “I should date someone normal too.”
Sven laughed. “Some people aren’t meant for normal, Syera, and you’re one of them. Tempest is another.”
Wild narrowed his gaze. “What are you saying?”
“Your childhood trauma could fill a fucking archives, man.”
Wild blew out a breath. “Not wrong there.”
Rooke sat on my other side. “Sooo, tell me about yourself—” She straightened and stared at me. “What is that?”
I stared back. “What?”
“What is that?”
My cousin started to grope me, and I extended my arm to stop my drink spilling all over me.
“Rooke?” Tempest asked.
But everyone in the room knew an affinity trance when they saw one. Rooke continued to grope me until she extracted the blue gem from my boot.
“This,” she breathed, then sniffed the gem.
After that, she peered into its depth before darting her tongue out to lick the gem.
“This is glorious.”
Sven cleared his throat. “Babe, now that you’ve licked the rock, can you fill us in?”
Rooke blinked, then jerked upon seeing us again. “Whoa, I was just out of it.”
“No kidding,” Huxley replied.
Rooke peered at the gem again and swallowed. “This mineral is poisonous.”
It was? “What does the poison do?”
She closed her eyes, and we all felt her magic release to surround the gem. “Kills… magic. Dark magic. But some good too.”
“Glad you cleared that up.” Huxley snapped his book closed.
Corentin glanced at me. “Huxley doesn’t like not understanding.”
“Why say something that doesn’t convey the meaning!” Huxley exploded.
Rooke opened her eyes. “It’s like human chemo in a way.
That kills fast-growing cells—mostly the bad ones—but takes some healthy ones with it.
The healthy ones ideally recover, and the bad ones stay gone.
This gem is the same, but it’s made for magical cancer.
But the properties are locked somehow. I can usually feel how to extract the properties—pulverizing or soaking or heating.
I have no idea how to access them in this gem. ”
Neti did. But I had other questions. “If a person was to use these gems a few times, would they have permanent damage to their magic?”
Rooke shook her head. “Nah, I can’t imagine so.
Everything should recover, but just like chemo, you wouldn’t want a lethal dosage.
You can only do so much damage to your magic before it dies.
There’s no recovery from that.” She handed the gem back to me.
“But what you have there isn’t a lethal dosage. Do you know how to unlock it?”
Huxley was sulking on the couch, and I had a feeling Rooke would join him if I deprived her of the answer. “A white-scaled creature in the demon realm.”
“Do tell,” she said, sitting again.
I tucked the gem back in my boot. “It has to do with two white-scaled demon cults that existed thousands of years ago.”
I wouldn’t tell them everything, but I could keep things vague.
Tempest sucked in a sharp breath. Wild was with her in an instant.
“What is it?” he said in a low voice.
Her gaze was drawn inward, but it darted around, seeing something that we couldn’t. She sagged as her magic released her. Her focus lifted to Wild’s, and they must’ve been able to speak telepathically because their changing expressions made their conversation clear.
Wild rose. “I’ll get the supplies.”
“Is Carmine coming?” I asked, my mind immediately going to Adeuto and Owu.
Any vulnerable supernaturals were due to vacate the coven, valley, or city for the safehold tomorrow. If Carmine was here, then we’d be rushing to get everyone safe.
Tempest shook her head. “My quipu had something to tell me. Rooke’s revelation with the gem must have forged a connection in the web. There’s something we need to do now. It’s crucial.”
“Crucial to what?” Corentin asked, getting to his feet.
She exhaled, then looked at me. “Beating the demon king. We have to do the divination journey to the night he killed Mother and Grandmother. We need to do it now.”
Not what I’d expected. I was surprised by the strength of the resistance in me. I mean, no one would want to relive that, but I’d already been coming around to the idea. With the idea it may occur in weeks or months. “Why?”
My twin frowned. “I can’t be sure. There’s a strange murkiness after the divination journey. Like the braids and knots are oily. I can’t latch on. I think your magic is running interference.”
I replied, “I’m not putting any magic out.”
“Not consciously,” she said. “But I feel the murkiness belongs to you. Like you’re shrouding something.”
What I learned about the tiara? I’d decided not to do anything about that, so I wouldn’t consider that shrouding, really. “I don’t have any plans that I’m keeping from you, so if I’m shrouding something subconsciously, then I’m also not consciously aware of it.”
Tempest hummed. “There’s no malicious intent to it. Just… shrouding. We’ll find out in time, but there’s only one way forward to the future we want, and that’s through a divination journey. Rooke, can you guide us?”
“Can do. I’ll go do an express preparation.” She left the room with Sven.
I lowered my voice. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this. What happens if we delay?”
Tempest met my gaze and she paled. “You don’t want to know.”
My heart hammered. “Adeuto?”
My twin’s throat worked, and my ears buzzed at the horror of my son’s potential death.
“What do I need to do?” I whispered.
Corentin answered, “Usually we’d do purification rituals beforehand. I’m guessing there isn’t time?”
Tempest shook her head. “The quipu is pounding at me. I’m trying not to panic. It needs to happen now.”
“Here?”
“Training hall,” she forced out. “We’ll need space. And everyone on hand.”
Huxley and Corentin nodded.
“Let’s go,” I said, drawing her up. My palm was as sweaty as hers.
The tunnels were empty on the way there, as was the training hall. Tempest led me to the center where Wild had arranged three cushions in the middle of a candle circle.
Rooke was chanting to herself while lighting the candles. She placed minerals between each candle, and I recognized the obsidian and lapis lazuli. I could sense her divination affinity stored within them.
Tempest asked the question floating through my mind. “You’ll need all of those?”
“So I sense,” Rooke asked, and her voice had a tranquil quality that told me she was already halfway in her power.
Wild and the rest of the quad arranged themselves around the perimeter of the training hall.
I tried to steady my breaths, but this was feeling a whole fucking lot like if we failed in this journey, then my son would die.
Rooke sat on the cushion opposite us.
I asked, “What do I need to do?”
She extended her hands, palms up. Tempest took one, and I took the other. Tempest grabbed my free hand to complete our triangle.
Rooke said, “There’s nothing to worry about, cuz.
I’ve been to this particular memory more than once.
I’ll tie us together like logs on a raft, and we’ll get to the past through Tempest. You will go along for the ride and may even forget that the memory isn’t current time.
At some point, I’ll merge your memory of the past with Tempest’s so we get a fuller picture than we’ve had before. ”
“Not sure my half will be great,” I said. “I can’t recall much from the time.” Whether that was sheer trauma or coming into my powers the same night or meeting my mate. I’d never been sure which was responsible. I only had snippets.
Then again, I’d never tried to relive the worst day of my life.
“The memory will continue rolling through Tempest. We’re going to take some time to center together and let our magic meet, and then I’ll start to guide your minds back. There’s nothing to it.”
I looked into her eyes, so like my mother’s. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Yes, let’s,” Tempest said. She closed her eyes, and Rooke did the same.
I closed mine and started to draw my two magics to my core.
The great thing about centering was that it couldn’t be done any faster than possible.
If it could, then I would have ripped my magics under my ribs in a blink.
But though I could hasten the process to its limit, if I tried to pull too hard, then the act of drawing the magic inward became harder and harder until it was simply impossible.
My hammering heart faded to a thud, then its usual thump. My breaths quietened with it. My shoulders and jaw muscles eased. My exhales lengthened.
Magic reached out to touch mine. Friendly. Familial. Trustworthy. I’d only met the Magus magic of my mother, grandmother, and my twin before. Now I was meeting Rooke’s.
“Tell me,” she said, whether aloud or in my mind. “What thoughts fill your mind?”
My lips moved. “I’ve never met the magic of a Magus who wasn’t my mother, grandmother, or twin. I like your magic.”
Her magic warmed in response.
“What did Hazeluna’s magic feel like?” she asked.
Hazeluna. My mother. “Your eyes are like hers. I’m glad to see them.
Her magic was steel. You wouldn’t think it to look at her.
Or hear her either. There was the Hazeluna she showed the world, and then the mother she showed us.
Her steel was for Tempest and me. In it, I felt secure and safe, and I knew that anyone who came up against her to threaten us would learn how cold and hard she could be.
I miss her. I wish that I could speak to her about so many things now that I’m a mother too.
I wish she could have met Adeuto. I wish that we could laugh about all the things children do. ”
“She would’ve loved Adeuto with everything she had.”
I nodded in response to the voice in my mind. “Grandmother too.”
“Tell me of Rowaness.”
My body was far away, but I smiled in my heart and thoughts.
“Her magic was lightning. Thunder. A storm. Mother’s was the type of storm that’s on you before you know it.
Grandmother’s storm was one you could hear coming for days.
Her magic was menacing and loud and unapologetic.
And grounded in radical loyalty and an unerring determination to do what was necessary, no matter how difficult that was. ”
I felt Tempest’s agreement as her magic trickled up my arm.
“You have beautiful memories of your mother and grandmother.”
Tempest and I replied in unison, “We cling to them so we can cling to who we are.”
And that was the truth.
I could see Mother in the kitchen.
It was morning, and we were in our human townhouse. The length of Mother’s red hair had reset overnight, just like Tempest’s did. She liked to hack at it all the time for fun, so I doubted the full length would last long.
I stood in the doorway as Tempest entered, and she and Mother hugged.
Mother asked, “Where’s my other little love?”
Little love. There was a reason I called Adeuto that.
I walked to join their hug and wrapped my arms around both of them.
“That’s my top,” Tempest muttered at me.
It was. “Our top,” I replied, hugging them tighter.
The air crackled, and Grandmother stomped down the stairs from her attic of doom. “Enough! Get in the car.”
I saluted her, earning a zap of her magic on the butt. Tempest laughed under her breath, and we filed out the front door after Grandmother.
Today was going to be a good day.