Aaron
My mother is pacing the lower floor of the Conjuring Hall when Mara and I walk in, muttering something in frustration under her breath.
Amir stands near the center of the room with his hands clasped behind his back, tracking my mother’s movement.
Jacob is beside him, his arms folded. Tiana is standing near the far wall with Kiara and Samara, and Damon is leaned against the pillar closest to the stairs.
Seth is next to Jacob, quiet, holding himself stiff.
“How the hell didn’t I see this coming?” My mother stops mid-stride and throws her hands up. “Goddamn Eric using my son to get out of the Glen.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Angie...” Amir starts.
She whips around and glares at him. “Oh please. You of all people with your stupid judgment.”
“I was not judging, Angie.”
She cuts him off before he finishes. “I have a bone to pick with you.”
I look over at Amir and try to read the annoyance in his eyes. He’s probably rolling them, but I can’t tell. They’re straight gold—no pupils, just that unbroken amber that never tells you a damn thing.
When Tiana meets my eyes, she looks away fast. I’m going to have to talk to her. The apology I gave at the clinic wasn’t enough. Not even close.
Mara is behind me, her tail swaying while she grips the back of my shirt. It’s silly, but it gives me pride that my mate reaches for me when she’s uncomfortable.
Damon holds up a small device in his palm. It hums once and expands. Blue light spills outward until a projection fills the space between the pillars. The image sharpens and my stomach drops.
Eric. Walking through a street I don’t recognize, approaching a building with boarded-up windows and chains on the front doors. The sign above it is faded but I can still read it.
Brookstone and Blackburn.
“Looks like Brookstone and Blackburn is gone.” I tilt my head at the projection. “He’s gonna need more time to—“
A portal opens on the projection.
My mother groans. “Goddamn Henry.” She presses her fingers to her temple. “He just keeps popping up when we least expect it.”
Damon looks at her. “We knew he’d surface eventually.”
I lean in at the figure in the projection. The hologram isn’t sharp enough to catch every detail, but I can make out deep mahogany skin, sculpted features, and what looks like a fitted jacket. “Who the hell is Henry?”
Amir grins, his hands still clasped behind his back. “You have not told your children of Henry?”
Tiana studies the hologram with a frown, but my mother doesn’t give her time to ask.
“What I tell and don’t tell my children is none of your business,” she snaps at Amir.
Tiana steps forward, glaring at the projection. Nobody can hear what Eric and Henry are saying to each other, but he shakes this man’s hand and walks through the portal with him. Just like that, the projection goes dark and Damon lowers the device.
“Brookstone and Blackburn Enterprises has been out of the public eye for years,” Damon explains. “But they aren’t completely dismantled.”
Amir picks up where Damon leaves off. “They’ve broken into many divisions spread across the seas, different names and different fronts, but the same agenda.”
Mara hooks her head around me and looks up. I turn and pull her into my arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She settles against me and I look over her head at Tiana, who’s glaring at our mother.
“What’s going on, Mom?” Tiana asks.
My mother flickers her fingers and her magic spills out of her, blue-gold light spreading across the floor. Everyone steps back, giving the spell room. The light rises and a new hologram opens, this one larger.
A man appears in the light. Dark mahogany skin, sculpted features. The hologram shifts and the same face appears again, older, standing beside figures in crowns and armor.
“His name is Ibrahim al-Qurtubi,” my mother explains.
“Born in Córdoba. Moorish. He was captured during a Norman raid on Sicily and converted to Christianity. Became Abraham of Winchester.” The hologram shifts again, showing the man at the side of a king, parchment and gold coins spread across a table.
“He served King Henry the First as a financial advisor. Built the structure that became England’s treasury. ”
“How long ago was this?” Kiara asks, stepping closer to the hologram.
“Almost a thousand years.” Her chin lifts. “Our ancestors approached him because he had a natural affinity for numbers and magic. The original Blackwood coven offered him immortality and a portion of our family magic in exchange for protecting our assets through time.”
She flickers her fingers again and the hologram shifts. Ibrahim standing before a group of witches, their hands raised, blue-gold light pouring into him.
“He was supposed to stay hidden until Aya Bailey was defeated, or until a Blackwood witch relieved him of duty.” My mother pauses. “He was never supposed to keep our power. Just hold it.”
“So what happened?”
“He and his brother Nathaniel happened.” My mother’s face goes hard.
The hologram flickers and a second man appears beside Ibrahim.
Similar features, sharper. “The Blackwoods came to Nathaniel first, before his brother. Both of them betrayed our family once the Blackwoods fell. Nathaniel first.” Her face tightens.
“Giving them our magic corrupted their minds. They wanted more power, so they started siding with Aya Bailey, helping hunt down and kill the remaining Blackwoods in exchange for more.”
Tiana’s eyes narrow. “Nathaniel.” She steps forward. “You mean the ghost that tried to take over the Academy when we were kids. The one who possessed Torin and other students.” Her voice rises. “The same Nathaniel who tried to kill Solomon and steal his magic.”
My mother rolls her eyes. “I get it, Tiana. I should’ve told you.”
She flickers her fingers again and the hologram changes. A book appears, floating and turning slowly in the light.
“This is the first Blackwood spell book in existence. Created by the first coven. It has some very old and powerful spells.”
Samara steps forward and Kiara follows, both of them staring at the book spinning in the light.
“They gave it to Henry.” My mother pauses. “And we’re bound by the same laws as the Bailey coven. Magic given freely can only be returned freely. We can’t take the book back. He has to give it.”
She kills the hologram. The light pulls back into her fingers and the room goes dim again.
Tiana frowns at our mother. “How long have you known about this?”
She shrugs. “A while.”
Amir steps in. “We discovered this while Damon was retrieving the Book of the First to take down my sister Aya.” He tilts his head toward Damon. “Selene, Damon’s mate, was part of Henry’s assassin ring before it fell.”
Tiana gasps and then her face twists into something sharp. “You’ve known all this time and you didn’t tell us?”
“Oh please.” My mother puts her hands on her hips. “I have been doing my best around here, but I’m spread thin.”
Kiara looks at her. “Is that why you formed a coven with Carla, Anora, and Josiah?”
“Sort of.” My mother shrugs again.
Damon pushes off the pillar. “Selene and I have been tasked with retrieving the book from Henry, but it hasn’t been easy.” He shakes his head. “Henry has mastered the art of eluding us. Every time we get close, he’s already aware—we locate him and he’s already moved on.”
“No locator spells?” Tiana asks. “Nothing?”
She sighs. “Carla is literally a goddess and she can’t even track him.”
Tiana lifts her chin. “That’s because she’s bound by the laws of Mother Fate. A goddess cannot interfere in the human realm. Even we know that.”
My mother’s eyes brighten and she grins. Samara giggles behind Tiana’s shoulder and murmurs, “Tiana covets ascension.”
Tiana hisses at her sisters. “Shut up.”
She turns back to the room. “So nobody’s going to address what we just watched? Eric walked through a portal with a man who has our family’s magic and was never supposed to keep it, and you’re telling me we can’t even find him.”
Damon turns to her. “Henry isn’t interested in returning anything.”
“Then what is he interested in?”
“Power,” Amir answers. “Henry has spent centuries building networks, accumulating influence. The assassin agency Selene belonged to was only one of his operations.”
“So Eric just walked up to the one person who can give him access to dark magic without earning it,” I say.
He nods.
“Henry knows what Eric wants,” Damon says. “And he knows what Eric is willing to do to get it. That makes Eric useful to him.”
Nobody says a damn thing. I guarantee Eric thinks he’s the one running that deal.
I step forward and Mara pulls away from my back. I reach for her hand and grip it because from now on, we’re doing this together.
“So what now?” I ask.
“We should destroy the Glen,” Amir says. “There is nothing that can be done to help them.”
My mother holds her hand up at him. “You are only saying that because you don’t want to do your job.”
Amir frowns. “My job is to ensure the safety of Wintermoon.”
“And killing a bunch of junkie witches and warlocks will do the trick?”
“That is the cost of being a royal leader, Angie. Sometimes you must do the one thing you wish you didn’t have to.”
“That’s your excuse for everything.” My mother steps toward him. “Because you don’t want the position you were born for.”
Amir’s mouth curves and I take a half-step back. “I did not birth witches and warlocks. That was Mother Fate, and you know this, Angie.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” My mother snaps at him.
“And I’d like to argue that you were born strictly as my family’s replacement.”
My mother opens her mouth but Amir holds his hands up. “Am I wrong? Please correct me if so.” His gold eyes sweep the room. “There is nothing left of my bloodline. Just Hazel, and my son Solomon.” His voice drops. “I am alone.”
“No, you are not, Father.” Damon’s voice cuts in fast.
Amir clasps his hands behind his back and the entire room goes silent.
“You want me to be a king. Very well. Then I will make the decisions no one else is willing to make.” He looks at my mother. “I did not ask for this, Angie. No one else stepped forward.”
Damon holds his head down when Amir’s attention passes over him, and my mother’s hands ball into fists at her sides. “So that’s it? The Witching Glen is gone and there’s nothing we can do about it?”
“I am a just king. The Witching Glen needs a warden.” He looks at my mother. “You find one, and I will spare the Glen. You have three days.”
He turns and starts to walk away, then stops and looks back over his shoulder. “Oh, and Angie. If you aren’t happy with my authority, you’re more than welcome to do something about it. Because we all know that you can.”
“Fuck you,” my mother yells.
Amir raises an eyebrow. “Absolutely not. That is my Anora’s job.”
Jacob grabs my mother’s arm before she can say something worse. She turns on him, hissing, but she goes quiet when he gives her a look and shakes his head.
“Either he is your king or he is not,” Jacob tells her. “But if he is your king, do not disrespect him.”
She snatches her arm away. “Fine.”
She dismisses herself and storms up the stairs. Amir watches her go and I decide to keep my mouth shut.
He turns to me. His eyes drop to my hand wrapped around Mara’s.
“My offer still stands, Aaron.” He holds my gaze. “You can also stop this. Be the king you were born to be.”
He teleports away in a blink of magic.
Mara moves closer to me and her tail brushes against my hip. Tiana is already looking at me, arms crossed.
“Excuse me,” Tiana says. “What is Amir talking about?”
I groan. That is the last thing I want to discuss right now.
She walks straight to Damon with our mother’s stride, that same set in her shoulders, and Kiara and Samara follow.
“I want all the information you have on Henry,” Tiana tells him. Her chin lifts. “You aren’t doing this alone.”
She deserves the truth about what I saw and why I lost control, not the half apology I gave her at the clinic. I’m done shutting my sisters out and pretending it keeps them safe.
Seth is pressed into Jacob’s chest and Jacob’s arm is tight around him. My stepfather holds my brother like he’d tear the world apart before he let anything touch him. Eric never held me or my sisters like that.
Jacob’s a good father to me, but it’s not the same. Seth is his son, and what they share is something I’m never going to reach.
Mara’s hand finds mine and she lifts it. She presses my palm flat against her belly and holds it there.
She caught the longing in my scent.
“Soon, Aaron,” she says.
I lean down and kiss her, soft and slow, my hand still against her belly and her fingers through mine.
When I pull back, Tiana is already firing questions at Damon across the room with Kiara and Samara closing in behind her.
I can’t do this alone, and I’m not pulling my sisters or Mara any closer to my father than they already are. I need someone crazy enough to go where this is headed and not flinch, and there’s only one person—well, vampire—who can help me.
Crazy Jo.