13. Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
SAGE
“What information have you gathered from the hunters you captured?” August asked the moment I stepped into the room.
He'd returned to Eastbend alone this time, both his brute of a sidekick and Mr. Mori were absent. And for someone who strutted around like royalty, he seemed a little out of sorts this time around.
Ollie rocked in a chair with her little one bundled against her chest. She aimed a finger at the baby. “Do you see this? I’ve been a little busy.”
August was not amused. “And the rest of you?”
“I haven’t had a chance to head over to Faerie and start asking questions yet,” I jumped in. “But I plan to do so in the next few days once things have calmed down with the hunters here.”
“They are not speaking yet,” Alwin answered from his place against the wall where he stood behind his brother and Bastian. “It will require more time.”
Lancaster looked more frustrated than usual. “Time is one thing you do not have!”
Alwin didn’t look the least bit intimidated by the man. What he’d stated was fact and August’s anger changed nothing. But Alwin had clearly stepped up where I’d failed. Granted, I hadn’t exactly expected to get stabbed immediately after Ollie had her baby, but excuses weren’t going to cut it here.
“I will head over there tomorrow,” I promised. “We had Elliot glamour the place where they’re being held so it looks like it’s somewhere in the human world with no way out and we used magic to knock them all out before transferring them so they have no idea where they are. They know we used magic, but hunters use magic all the time. If Elliot can give me a glamour to look like one of the known hunters, I might be able to make them think they’ve been taken by their own for questioning.”
“That might work,” Ollie agreed. “Alwin, what have you asked them so far?”
“Their names and ranks. Since they would not answer that much, I did not pursue anything more. Nothing was said that would discredit Sage’s plan.”
“Give me a few days,” I said to Lancaster, sounding far more confident than I actually was.
Lancaster looked especially put out, but he agreed. “I will remain in Eastbend. Report to me once you have answers.”
The council rep left and the rest of us let out a breath once he was gone.
“Did he seem especially on edge to the rest of you, or was it just me?” I asked.
“Something is definitely up with him,” Ollie agreed. “And it doesn’t seem like anything good.”
I sighed. “Just great. We really don’t need anything else going wrong right now.”
My phone rang as if on cue and I rubbed my temple as I answered the unknown number I’d been ignoring. Someone clearly couldn’t take a hint.
“Hello?”
“Sagey!”
Several sets of eyebrows went up and I kneaded my temple a little harder as I stepped out into the hall.
“Chase, where the hell are you? Turn around and go home now!”
“Ah, well, funny story! I was coming to find you and got a little lost.”
“Shocking. Go home.”
“No, no, it’s fine now. I met some cool people and they’re giving me a ride. We’re going to stop at a convention and then they’ll drop me off in Virginia on the way back.”
“Dammit, Chase! How many times have I told you to stop getting into cars with random people? Where are you now?”
“Nah, it’s totally cool, these guys are great. Did you catch the part about the convention? You should come!”
Chase was one of those people who was friends with every stranger he met. Add in a comic book or sci-fi convention and as far as he was concerned these were his best buds for life. It was really fucking frustrating at times like this.
“Chase! Get the fuck out of that car now and find the nearest bus stop. Go back to Arizona. If I have to come get you, I’m going to kick your ass!”
“So you don’t want to come? Fine, then I’ll just see you when I get there. Oh, you probably noticed, but I can't remember where I left my phone. It’s fine though, if I don't find it I’ll just get someone else to lend me one once I’m in Virginia. Okay, I gotta go. Love you!”
“Dammit Chase!”
“So who’s Chase?” Ollie teased from right behind me.
“We’ve never heard you talk like that, Sagey,” Aiden added.
I turned to find the whole crew watching from the doorway, aside from Ollie and Aiden, who needed to get closer to hear Chase’s side of the conversation.
“Sorry, just an old friend causing trouble.”
“We will get to meet this friend, right Sagey?” Ollie asked.
“Stop, that’s not going to be a thing. And no, he’s not coming here.”
“Sounded like he’s coming here,” Aiden argued.
“He is not coming here,” I said again. Chase was the last thing I had time for in the middle of everything else.
Luca had been kind enough to let me snoop my way through every corner of his house, and the sealed off storage closet in the hallway turned out to be a second set of stairs to the attic. A wall had been put up closing off the section where an old dusty altar still sat and spell circle remnants marked the floor.
An old grimoire had been tucked away in an apothecary cabinet alongside glass bottles, their contents dried up and unidentifiable. And chests filled with various magic books and texts lined one wall. It would take me some time to go through my grandmother's collection, but some of the items we found during our hunt now sat on the messy table in my living room.
It was the first I'd been back in my condo alone in days and though it had never bothered me before, the silence was a little unsettling. Aside from his work shifts, Luca had barely left my side since my injury. But while I’d been the one chasing him until now, this really wasn’t the way I wanted him to reciprocate. He looked at me like I was fragile now, and it annoyed the hell out of me. But I had another fight lined up that I couldn’t be distracted from.
As if on cue, the knock on the door came and I dropped the stack of papers in my hand to answer the door. Except it wasn’t my mother on the other side, it was Luca.
“What are you doing here?” I asked dragging him inside. He was really testing the limits of that jacket Elliot spelled for him.
“Making sure you don’t take off without me,” he answered.
“My mother hasn’t even arrived yet.”
“Then I’ll wait.”
Luca knew my mother was supposed to be here this morning. He’d only dropped me off last night to sleep and clean up before she got here and now he was back before I could possibly have the chance to get in trouble again. Or did he come to find out what my mother had to say?
“She’s here,” he said.
Apparently I wasn’t going to get the chance to question his motives. I opened the door before my mother could knock and she didn’t even wait for a greeting before stepping inside and letting her eyes wander over my condo.
“Hello mother, good to see you too.”
She turned to face me, giving me the same once over she’d given the house. “You seem fine, so I assume you haven’t done anything too reckless since we talked.”
Luca wisely kept his mouth shut and I ignored the implication, ushering her inside.
Luca held out his hand. “I’m Luca. Nice to meet you in person.”
“Yes, the husband,” she said dryly.
The joking stopped the second she took his hand. Her shoulders tensed and she shot me an incredulous look.
“A vampire? Really, Sage?”
Luca pulled his hand back and while I’d been determined to keep this conversation civil until I got some answers out of her, the second the implied insult left her lips, all bets were off.
“Choose your next words carefully,” I warned her. “If you’ve come here to insult my friends, this conversation is over. I’ll find answers on my own. You can leave.”
My mother sighed. “That’s not what I was implying. I put so much effort into keeping you out of this world, and you just dove right back in the first chance you got.”
“We’re not really married,” Luca offered.
“I apologize for my rudeness, Luca,” she said, taking me by surprise. “I’m Hazel.”
We settled in the living room with coffee and my mother eyed the box of things I’d found in Luca’s house.
“How much do you know?” she asked.
“That there’s something wrong with me and it’s been that way for a long time,” I finally answered. “Since long before I came to Eastbend.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“Please don’t insult my intelligence, I’m not a child anymore. Either tell me what you know or stop wasting our time.”
Luca took a seat next to me and my mother eyed our closeness, stalling as she sipped from her mug.
“You trust this man?” she finally asked.
There might be a lot of things up in the air between Luca and I, but that wasn't one of them.
“Completely,” I answered without hesitation.
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” she said again. “But… there was an incident when you were young and you were badly injured. At the time, the Blackwood coven was one of the strongest in the area, and your grandmother served as the High Priestess for over forty years.”
“Grandmother didn’t have a coven.”
“By the time you were growing up, they were already gone.”
“I have a question,” Luca cut in. “Sage’s grandmother died a little less than ten years ago, when he was a teenager, right? And the coven left when he was a child, so presumably around fifteen years before that? And if Rosemary served as High Priestess for forty years…” He pulled the picture of my mother and grandmother when I was a baby from the box and handed it to my mother. “How old was she when she came to lead the coven?”
My grandmother didn’t even look old enough to have a daughter my mother’s age in that picture, to think she’d been leading a coven for forty years when she didn’t even look forty in that picture was pretty hard to grasp.
“She was in her thirties when she took over the coven.”
“How could she still look like she was in her thirties all those years later?” I asked.
“I don’t know all the details, but your grandmother was always gifted when it came to magic. She was also reckless and too curious for her own good.”
I could practically feel Luca’s stare, but I avoided looking his way.
“Meaning?” I prompted.
“Meaning,” my mother continued. “She was one of the only witches in history who managed to successfully bind a demon.”
“What? A witch would never have the power to do something like that! Is our magic even compatible with demons?”
“Sorcerers and mages are born with magic, it’s really a different thing from witches who are essentially human but draw magic from nature and their bloodlines. Compatibility is less of an issue for us, but under the same token, our spells would never be strong enough to go up against the strength of those born with magic. Demons included. The exception is when the demon willingly enters into a contract.”
“You’re saying a demon willingly bound itself to Rosemary?” Luca asked. “That sounds like a huge risk. What kept it from killing her as soon as it got what it wanted from her?”
My mother shook her head. “That is usually exactly what happens when someone not strong enough to control a demon still tries to bind one. And unless they’ve offered something significant in exchange, there is no reason a witch should be able to do it. Even if they do, the contract is usually short-lived and the witch has maybe a few years before the demon calls their payment due and ends their life. For my mother to have lived as long as she did is unheard of. The only thing I know is that she trusted that demon, probably more than she should have. Not only with her own life, but with Sage’s as well.”
I couldn’t hold back the gasp that escaped. Luca went still beside me.
“What exactly does that mean?” he asked.
A single tear spilled down my mother’s face and I was pretty sure it was the first time I’d ever seen her cry.
“It means we did what we had to to save him.”