9. Mic Drop
9
MIC DROP
JADE
I feel much better after our snuggle session, like I can conquer anything.
I highly recommend monster snuggles. At least my monsters. I can’t speak for other monster scenarios. But embracing my demon has been a very therapeutic exercise.
“I need to find Calder,” I say after we get dressed.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Arran hums. “He likes his alone time to cool down and center.”
Osen’s energy comes forward, and he asks, “May I speak to them for a moment?”
I give him the okay.
His spirit takes over my body. This time it’s different from before. I sense I could claim it back with little effort. Is it because I’m stronger magically? Or is Osen not trying to be as controlling?
“Both, sweet witch,” Osen says in my mind.
Then he addresses the room. The guys all freeze when they see the shift in my presence. Arran told me before that my eyes change from my green eyes to dark shadows of an incubus.
“Osen?” Arran moves to block the exit. He must think Osen is ready to force me to run off again.
“Yes, it’s me. And don’t worry. I asked for permission. Jade is aware of everything that’s happening right now.”
Arran, Flint, and Maxum lose some of their tension.
“I know I’ve fucked up. Partly because I’m a reactionary asshat. Partly because my spirit was damaged, and I couldn’t think straight. I’m stronger now. Clearer.”
“You aren’t going to take off again?” Maxum crosses his arms.
“Not unless Jade wants it. She is also stronger. I don’t think I could just take over anymore, even if I wanted to try. But I don’t.”
“Did you have a message for us?” Flint tilts his head, studying us. He doesn’t like Osen possessing and talking through me—not at all. I don’t blame him.
Osen turns and smiles at Flint. “Always to the point. I never admired that enough about you when I was alive.” He sighs and looks at all of them. “Yeah, there are a few things. I’d like to talk with Calder. But I also was feeling cooped up and isolated. Jade’s been a gracious host, but it isn’t the same as having a body of my own. Speaking of which, I’d like to understand why my corpse hasn’t appeared to decay. We need to investigate what Galiana did to me when she killed me.”
“So it was her?” Maxum asks.
“Yeah. Jade and I had a memory of it. They seem to have cast a spell to pull out my magic and absorb it. Then they yanked out my soul and sent it to Jade.”
“That isn’t a normal death. Perhaps that’s why your body is hanging in a sort of stasis?” Maxum guesses.
Osen paces the room, something I sense he used to do when he was alive. “We know magic can be stolen, but this is a new method… it’s a different magic. It was as if they had used a supernatural being’s magic, but as a witch. That isn’t possible, is it?”
“Just because we haven’t seen someone successfully use it before doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” Arran motions to me. “Jade shouldn’t have both sorts of magic, but she does.”
Osen stalls our pacing, and our mouth falls open with the revelation. “It felt a lot like her magic. I didn’t realize before because her power was suppressed.”
“Perhaps they used the pendant to siphon my magic and wield it?” I suggest.
“Oh, shit.” Osen falls heavily into a chair. “Jade’s necklace was a two-way conduit. Sending souls to her and channeling her magic for Galiana and Rob to use.”
“Thank goddess we got rid of the cursed thing.” Arran looks about ready to shift and go seek vengeance for me.
My protective gargoyle frowns. “ That’s why they are after our mate. They’ve lost their power source.”
“Which means they won’t give up easily,” Maxum adds.
“Osen, did you remember anything else important?” Flint asks. “Like why you were in the alleyway that night?”
“I was on to them. I dug up some secret. Sounds like they killed my source,” Osen recounts. “Or they just lured me in to steal my shadows. Now that Jade and I are stronger, we might be able to see more from my last days.”
Flint grunts and then nods toward the door. “Go. Talk with Calder if you must, so I can have my mate back.”
Osen hangs our head in shame. “Sorry. It must be upsetting to see her like this.”
“Mostly because you have hurt her,” Flint interrupts, glaring at Osen.
Dang. I don’t enjoy being on the other end of that anger. Thank goodness it isn’t directed at me.
“I promise that’s over.” Osen raises my hands in surrender. “But if you need to, you can keep an eye on me while I talk with Calder. Just give me some space. Okay?”
“Fine.” Flint ushers us to the door. With a gentle hand, he stops us as we get to the threshold. “Jade?”
My consciousness moves forward so I can take the reins. “It’s okay, sweetie. I’m right here.”
His eyes soften as he gazes at me. “I’ll be watching.”
I sense Osen wilt with Flint’s distrust of him, unhappy he damaged his relationship with his pack.
“Prove to us you can be better,” I mentally say to my ghost.
Flint lets us go, and I don’t have to look to sense him flying over our heads, watching as we walk across the yard. Through our own special telepathic link, which sounds weaker than it has before, he tells me, “Calder is by the creek.”
Osen leads us in that direction, but he sits down to watch the water instead of chasing down his phoenix.
“Letting him come to us in his own time?” I ask.
“Yeah. I don’t know if it will work being in your body, but that’s how we used to connect. I would have to wait for him to come to me. Especially since his last death.”
“Are you okay?”
“As much as a dead guy can be,” he chuckles, but I can sense his joke is forced.
He’s not alright.
“It’s okay not to be okay,” I let him know.
“Same goes for you. This can’t be easy, dealing with all of us. Your life turned upside down.”
“No. But it’s weirdly easier than I thought it might be. The biggest hurt has been that my life was a lie. My abuela squashed my magic. She was an ASO spy, and who knows what other awful things she did. I need answers from her. I want to know what I am.”
Just as I say this, I fall back against the boulder we are sitting on. I feel Osen being forcibly shoved deeper in my body and another presence appears in my mind.
Abuela .
“What are you doing?” we both demand at the same time.
“No.” I throw my hand up for her to hear me. “You don’t get to demand things from me until you give me some damned, long overdue answers.”
Her mouth purses with irritation, but then she slowly nods. “I suppose you deserve some… after everything.”
“Let’s start with why you mentioned the mistake you made when I bonded with Arran. Am I part supe?”
“Yes.” She glances down at her hands, avoiding my eyes. “I’ve kept far too much from you. But know this: I never meant to harm you. I thought…” Her voice cracks. “I thought I was protecting you.”
“From Galiana?”
“Yes, and others.” My grandmother straightens her shoulders. “I’ll start at the beginning. I was a powerful lust witch. Galiana told me that supernatural beings had killed my parents. Right away, she recruited me into the ASO, using my hatred so she could manipulate my magic. I worked various jobs for Galiana and the anti-supe cause. During that time, I conceived Jadeana Ruth with a mortal male who I met for a one-night stand.”
“Wait, if my mother was half mortal and half witch… where does my supe blood come from?”
“Ruth isn’t your mother… I am.”
I stagger back, and my world spins.
“Ruth is your older sister by almost twenty years. We put a spell on her mind to make her believe she was your mother. Although the spell faded quickly once I died.”
Thinking back on the time of my grandmother… my mother’s death. Ruth had suddenly shifted in her personality. Not for the better. She was angrier than she had ever been and was harder on me. I had chalked it up to the loss of her mother. It was, but not in the way I had thought.
“So, you’re my biological mother?” I shake my head and frown. “Why did you do that to us? To Ruth?”
“For your protection, I could hide you with a normal human like Ruth, since she didn’t inherit my witch magic. I put a spell in place to mask your presence to those searching for you. If I didn’t, Galiana would have killed you as a baby.”
“Why didn’t you just tell Ruth or me the truth?” I ask.
“I was going to do that when you came of age. But I was murdered before I could—tortured to death by Galiana in her attempt to get information on you and your whereabouts. Unfortunately, a couple of decades later, she found you anyway.”
My heart sinks. She died to protect me. “I… I didn’t know.”
“How could you know, mija?” Her voice softens. “I wanted to teach you about your powers when they developed when you came of age. When you were born, I had hoped I could kill Galiana right away and we could be a true family. But it wasn’t meant to be.”
“And my father?”
“He was my target on an ASO job. I had to seduce a special individual, learn his secrets, and then eventually kill him. He was highly unusual, as he was a product of a demon and Elven mating. Both lines were from powerful, high-born blood. He was a double spy for the two realms. Brilliant and talented.”
“And I was an accidental pregnancy from that job? A fucking mistake?”
“No.” She smiles wistfully, her gaze far off, remembering. “As I got to know him, I soon discovered he was immune to my lust witch magic. We fell in love anyway— true love. Lust witches never get to experience actual love. So you can imagine how overjoyed I was to find him. But our circumstances made it so we had to hide our relationship. I fed Galiana lies. And he told me the truth of my family’s murders—that Galiana was behind them all and used it to turn me against supernaturals.”
“What the hell is wrong with her?” I blurt out.
“Broken. Angry. And power hungry. Power is all that’s ever mattered to her.”
“What happened between you and my father?” I ask.
“When I found out I was pregnant with you, we knew Galiana would want to kill you just for the fact you were of mixed blood. He helped me create the binding and concealment spell that was embedded in your body. We brainwashed your magicless adult sister since she would be the perfect hiding place for you. Then I had to disappear and only visit when I believed it to be safe and to reenforce the spell work.”
“No wonder Ruth hated me—hated you.”
“I don’t blame her.” My mother frowns, and I sense she isn’t as callous as I’ve imagined. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you growing up… or now. I wish I could train you, but it’s taking all I have to communicate for this long.”
“What about my father? Is he still alive?”
“I never saw him again. He had to go into hiding too, so Galiana couldn’t kill him. And to protect your existence.”
“He might still be alive?” I ask, wondering if I want to find him or let it be.
“It’s possible.”
I refocus on what’s happening now. “It doesn’t appear Galiana’s goal is to kill me anymore.”
“No. She’s found another use for you—your unique powers. But if she gets you back in her clutches and you don’t prove useful or under her control, she will end you.”
I’d rather die than allow Galiana to harm other people, and especially not my mates, with my power. “You don’t want me with my mates, but they are protecting me. So what are you suggesting I do?”
“Go back into hiding… but not with them. They will attract attention. They are easier to track. They will compromise you.”
How dare she screw with my life and then expect me to give up the only people I trust and who actually care for me?
“No. I’m not making the same mistake you made. I’m keeping my loved ones near me. Look at what you sacrificed. It was all for fucking nothing.” Tears threaten to pour from me. “You ruined my life. You lied to me. How can I trust a fucking thing you say? I can’t talk to you anymore. Unless you can give me information that can really help me right now, then I don’t want your?—”
“Jadeana!” my mother snaps. “You need to…”
Her voice fades, reality pressing in on me. Someone shakes me to bring me out of my trance.
“Jade?” Calder calls me, panicked.
I blink against the bright light of the sky and raise my hand to shield my eyes. But no, when I look, it isn’t the sky, but Calder’s wings alight with a blazing fire. He’s kneeling over me and appears frantic.
Osen pushes forward when he sees his lover. “Calder,” he says with my voice sounding rough and concerned.
Calder sees it’s Osen in charge of my body and not me. He leaps back to his feet in surprise and snarls at us. “What have you done?”
“Me?” Osen says in shock. “You woke us.”
“Us?” Calder shakes his head in confusion, then glowers. “If you took Jade’s body against her will, I won’t forgive you this time.”
“I didn’t!” Osen shouts.
I take control and ask, “What’s wrong?”
“You were passed out and non-responsive,” Calder says, indignant but less upset. His flaming wings die down.
I grimace. “I was talking to my grandmother… uh, mother.”
“Huh? Your mother’s dead now, too?”
“No, well, yes. But my grandmother is really my mother. Turns out the woman who raised me was my older sister.”
Calder sits down next to me and studies my eyes. I can sense they are my normal green and not Osen’s gray. “You’re okay? Osen didn’t take advantage of you?”
“It’s very sweet of you to worry, but I’m okay. And Osen has my permission to talk to you.” I reach out to pat Calder’s arm to comfort and thank him. Just before I make contact, I remember his touch aversion and pull back.
He catches my hand and holds it, giving it a little squeeze.
My eyes widen as I stare at our clasped hands. “Actually, Osen wanted to talk to you. We came out here for that. My mother showed up to drop some crazy secrets on my ass.” I look up into his pale blue eyes. “You have my permission to do whatever you need to do together. Just no leaving Amira’s property.”
His thumb traces over mine. “I won’t put you in danger.” Then he grins. “I appreciate the offer, but I won’t take advantage of your generosity.”
I shrug. “It’s not like it’s a hardship kissing you.” I didn’t mean to say that. My mouth clamps shut, and I blush. “I, uh… I didn’t mean I’d be…”
“Jade, stop.” He chuckles. “I get it. You don’t have to be so cautious around me. I know you aren’t like the witch who hurt me.”
“I wish I could undo what she did.” I feel my eyes sting with emotion, hating that he was so damaged by my kind… or half of what I am.
Hell, I’m going to have to adjust to the idea of being more than a witch, and so soon after I wrapped my head around being a witch.
Osen presses forward, and I give Calder a little finger wave goodbye. He seems to understand and returns the silly gesture.