40. Not Today, Witch
40
NOT TODAY, WITCH
JADE
M axum grimaces as he stares at me. He’s itching to demand I stay behind, but knows I’ll refuse.
“We have back up now. And I can help,” I argue before he can say anything.
My demon glances up and looks at my father. Then his gaze lands on Amira, Darius, and Raithe. They didn’t want to help at first, but when they heard about our odds, they agreed to take down the leader causing the most damage in the Anti-Supernatural Organization.
Amira admits she has her own beef with Galiana from back when she was an active member of the ASO. But the powerful witch on our side no longer uses destructive magic. So she’ll be assisting us by laying down a suppressant spell to prevent our enemies from creating an escape portal or leaving the area. No one can come in or out unless Amira dies or releases her heavy-duty ward.
Fortunately, Raithe and Darius have no hangups about using their magic to attack and kill these asshole witches and warlocks.
We go over our plan one more time, then Maxum gives Erwald a nod to set things into motion.
My father draws his electric magic, wrapping it around his body in what appears to be a shield. It crackles like one of those science globes you find in novelty gift stores.
We all race into position, surrounding the house. Since Maxum insists on staying by my side, we approach together from the opposite direction from my father. Raithe and Darius advance from the other two sides.
I send out a plea to the universe to protect my friends and loved ones.
“ Galiana! ” My father’s voice booms, and I suspect he can be heard for miles. “You killed my mate, Patricia Rosethorne. Now, come and meet your end,” he challenges.
I’m shaking with nerves. My father is risking himself for me and my mates. If our plan fails, my chance to get to know him might have come and gone in a blink of an eye.
Maxum tugs me closer to his side, sensing my anxiety.
There’s a stirring in my bonds, and I reach out with my mind. “ Flint? ”
“ Jade? ” he asks, sounding confused.
“Hang in there,” I say. “We’re getting you out.”
“No. Leave, Heartstone. It’s a trap.”
“We know. And it’s okay. That’s my father outside, calling to Galiana. Raithe and Darius are here too.”
“Jade, it isn’t worth risking you and the others. Arran and Osen are egregiously injured. They may not make it.”
The horrific news that my mates are dying takes me to my knees. I clutch my chest and already feel the pain of their loss.
Maxum falls to my side and pulls me into a crushing embrace. “What is it?” he whispers.
“Flint doesn’t think they’ll live.”
“Fuck him. He’s being a martyr to make sure you turn around. To keep you safe.” Maxum kisses my forehead. “We’re going in.”
I nod violently, my tears flying from my cheeks. “Yeah, fuck him. I’m saving his rock-hard ass.”
Maxum smiles sadly, then gives me a kiss that feels too much like a goodbye.
“Witch!” Erwald commands with the force of someone who is accustomed to getting their way.
“Lord Erwald Krathion, so good of you to join us,” Galiana says with an airy tone, as if he’s a delightfully unexpected arrival at a cocktail party. “I’m about to kill off one abomination. Might as well kill off two. I’ll finally have the father and daughter in the set.”
Lord? That’s something I’ll have to inquire about when this is all over.
Maxum snatches up my hand, and we snake through the brush toward the house.
Arran’s mate bond stirs in my heart. He’s awake, hurting, and frantic with worry. I desperately wish I had telepathy with him. Instead, I send an emotion—hope—letting him know I’m alive and nearby.
I hear a blast go off at the front of the house, and the air vibrates with magic.
We make it to the outer wall of the house without incident.
Maxum stands up and peeks into the building’s back bedroom window. He hovers his hand over the glass. His eyes close to concentrate on disabling the ward. After a moment, he smirks and gives me a wink.
I don’t care if his saucy behavior is all false bravado. It helps me keep my wits as he swings open the window and jumps through the opening like a fucking acrobat. He somersaults in and bounces lightly to his feet. Dang. I wish I were half as graceful as I clamor up to the high sill. Maxum gives in to his need to help and pulls me through like I weigh nothing and sets me behind him as he faces the door.
Foot falls coming from the hall reveal our enemies moving about as they chant spells under their breath.
Maxum holds up two fingers to give me a head count. Closing his eyes again, he checks for Darius’s and Raithe’s brainwaves. Then he gives me the signal that they’re in position. Raithe at the kitchen entrance. The hellhound should be waiting by the smaller bedroom.
I frown as I stare at the bed where I first kissed Osen. Will my incubus die again? Will any of us live? I’m under no illusion that the whole harem survives like they do in my romance books. In real life, we lose people we love.
Maxum captures the back of my neck and sweeps me in for a bruising, claiming kiss, and presses his forehead to mine. I can almost feel his words press into my soul. “We got this. Believe.”
I want to believe.
I have to believe.
I pull back and glare at the door like it’s stopping me from my happily ever after.
Maxum waits a beat as our enemies in the hallway move closer. He throws open the door and captures the first witch in his mind melting gaze, gripping her head.
She collapses and the warlock behind her is ready with a spell, but my protective electric magic flares inside me and shoots out of my palms before the asshole can hurt my demon, and the warlock crumples to the floor.
Shouts erupt as the rest of the ASO creeps are alerted to our presence inside the house. Mayhem ensues with magic zipping through the house.
I hear Darius’s snarl coming from the other room.
Maxum blocks the way and is blasted with magic. As he moves into the hallway, I try my best to remember he’s mostly resistant to witch magic. A powerful spell hits him square in the chest, and he’s thrown backward, landing on the floor. He’s stunned but appears to be alright.
Arran’s howl fills the house with an eerie energy and worry fills me that either he or one of my mates are being injured.
Without a care for myself, I launch into the hallway on my way to save my guys.
Maxum scrambles to his feet behind me, and curses. “Jade, no.”
That only spurs me more. What’s happened to them that he doesn’t want me to see?
Racing into the living room, I discover my guys all bound by toxic iron. Osen doesn’t even have his eyes open. Calder’s flames are sputtering, unable to light. Flint seems to be half stuck in a freezing spell, struggling to break free of its hold. Arran is in his berserker form and snarling at someone walking in from the kitchen.
With four other witches, Galiana comes into view and grins wickedly at me. “There you are.”
The house rumbles with what feels like an earthquake. Flint’s affinity is breaking through, even in his weakened state.
The witches stumble but remain standing.
Maxum darts around me, but Galiana is ready for him and, with a spell, he disappears, likely by a demon summoning circle.
“Fuck!” I shout. Hopefully, he’s only been transported to a demon trap, and my father can get him out. “Erwald! She sent Maxum away.”
I hear his curse and the firefight in front of the house dies off.
Raithe appears in his phoenix bird form, screeching as he snatches one of the witches and drags her away.
With a thunderous roar, Darius charges into the living area from the hall. He’s an epic creature that looks more like a feral horse than a hound. His skin crackles with fire as he chases another witch from the house.
It’s me against three witches. One of them being Galiana.
She’s not to be underestimated. Not only is she powerful in her own right, she has stolen magic on her side. My magic, and who knows what else.
But will she show off her incubus shadows she uses to kill supes in front of the other witches? Or does she wish to keep that a secret?
The spell she uses to steal magic and souls with my power comes to the front of my mind. I hadn’t planned on wielding it against her.
Then I remember the innate power I have. Time to see if I can use it on all three witches at once.
I call upon my soul sucking power and visualize yanking the souls from all three. The two witches by Galiana’s side scream. Their eyes widen as they sense their essence being ripped from their bodies.
They fall to the floor. I’m a bit dazed. Did I just kill two people so easily? Without a second thought. Without remorse.
I cannot linger on that. I release their darkened souls to the ether for the universe to do with them as it will.
“Wretched abomination!” Galiana unleashes her power on me in retribution. She unravels my hold on her soul and attempts to do the same to me.
She wanted to take my power from me with my willingness. Likely so she could keep it for a longer duration. But she’s given up on my compliance and is going for brute force instead.
We’re locked in a standstill, both matched in magical strength. Unless someone comes along to take her out, it will be a battle won by endurance alone. She has practice and experience. I don’t.
“Your mother was a traitor and a whore,” she taunts.
“You sent her on the mission to seduce my father. What the fuck did you think was going to happen?” I demand, while fighting off her hold on my magic.
Galiana’s attention snaps to my mates. I see the glimmer in her eye that shines with the desire for their deaths.
A bolt of electricity shoots out from my body and knocks her backward. Her focus falls back onto me, and she sneers. I’ve gained a bit of an advantage and I feel her faltering.
Raithe’s and Darius’s shouts carry from the outside, fighting our enemies.
A warlock slips inside and charges for me.
Fuck. I’ll need to divert my magic and I can’t afford to do that.
Somehow, bound in iron chains, my berserker gathers enough strength to get to his feet. He tackles the man and clamps his vice-like jaws onto the warlock’s throat, ripping it out.
I’m distracted though. Galiana takes advantage, wresting me with her soul stealing power until I fall to my knees.
“You’re stronger than her, Heartstone,” Flint encourages me through our bond. My heart cracks seeing him still cursed and locked in his stone form.
My eyes slide over to Osen and Calder, barely conscious, but they seem to have been stirred by my presence. In their eyes, I see the echo of what Flint said, as if they’ve heard him.
I have to beat her, if only to save them.
A wave of power flows into me as if the idea of protection empowers me. Like I’m a momma bear.
Focusing back on Galiana, I tug hard on her soul, and she jerks forward. Her eyes go wide in surprise.
I only wish Erwald was here so he could help me kill her and avenge his mate.
As if being summoned by my thoughts, my father appears behind Galiana, stepping out from a portal. “Patricia and I had something you will never know, Galiana. Love .”
She flinches when she hears his voice at her back, and I yank at her soul.
He grasps her by the throat and wrenches her head clean off her shoulders as I simultaneously rip her from her mortal coil.
“That is for my mate and my daughter,” he snarls, looking like the demon he is.
I gasp in shock at the pure graphic nature of witnessing something so bloody and violent.
Maxum jumps through my father’s portal and gives me a look of relief when he sees I’m okay.
Amira rushes into the house with Raithe and Darius by her sides. Since she, Darius, and Maxum are the only ones who can handle iron, they work my mates out of their bindings.
Osen is first as he’s the most affected. When he doesn’t stir at all, I fall to his side, place my hands on his chest, and pour healing energy into him.
Calder yells to let him out next. He needs to be next to me, helping me. Yet, I don’t know how he can assist.
But when his hands land on my waist and he holds me close, pouring his love into me, I know. My power magnifies, and Osen is coughing and opening his eyes within moments.
“What?” Osen sputters and sees the carnage that surrounds us.
Flint crashes into me next, like a freight train, knocking Calder and me over in his need to be near me.
I wrap my arms around him and kiss his beautifully monstrous face with horns and heavy brow. His tusks scrape against my cheeks roughly as he claims my mouth.
Serky-Arran leaps on top of us and officially makes it a dog pile. The berserker werewolf licks his huge, sloppy tongue over my face, and I shriek.
“ That’s what makes you yell out?” Maxum says with a smirk and a shake of his head. But I see the love and relief in his eyes, knowing his pack is okay.
I wave him over.
He drops to his knees beside me and crushes me to his broad chest. “I’m so happy you’re alright, my mate.”
“Mate?” Calder then glances at Maxum’s chest and sees the new marking over his heart. “Thank goddess. It’s about time, brother.”
“Perfect timing,” I say with a wink at my demon.
“Uh, Jade?” Amira calls out, breaking the moment of our reunion. “We should all leave, just in case Galiana’s people send reinforcements.”
We untangle ourselves from the ground, and it’s clear that my mates are not okay.
Before I can race to check on my battered mates, I freeze as a presence presses up against my mind. At first, I panic, thinking it might be Galiana’s soul trying to possess me.
But then I recognize the energy. My real mother.
“May I speak to him before I move on?” she asks me, sounding far away and so destroyed.
“You’re leaving?” I ask, blinking back the tears because I thought she’d be a ghost forever, and I could get to know her once my anger at her betrayal dissipated.
“Yes. I was only tied to the world because I needed to see you safe from Galiana. And now I know you will be happy with your mates.”
“I didn’t know you’d leave so soon. I wouldn’t have pushed you away.”
“I understand. And you were right. I should have been there for both you and your sister, but I didn’t know how to be a good mother.”
I don’t have a response to that. From what Amira told me before about lust witches is that they didn’t have a strong maternal instinct. It wasn’t in her nature to be there for me.
“I know you did what you thought was best. I hope you find peace.” Then I suck in a breath.
“Erwald, my love. Thank you for avenging my death and protecting our precious daughter,” she says through me.
My father’s eyes widen. He races forward and grasps my shoulders, studying my eyes. “Goddess. With your spirit behind Jade’s eyes, it’s like seeing you again. She looks so much like you, my love.”
“And she has your loving, compassionate heart. She would attempt to heal the realms by sacrificing her life, just as you tried to do,” my mother says.
Is that what my father tried to do? There’s so much I don’t know.
“But I see a passion for experiencing life that you had,” my father says.
“I have to go now. My soul is being called.”
“No, please stay,” he begs, pressing his forehead to mine.
“If I stay any longer, I will become a wisp, an echo.”
My father kisses my forehead. Thankfully . I don’t need that memory of kissing my dad.
“I’ve never stopped loving you, Patricia.”
“Even in death, I’ve loved you.”
A breeze moves through the room, and I whisper to my mother. “I love you.”
I feel her embrace around me and the longing of being there for me for forty fucking years slams into me and cuts me down to my knees as I sob with the loss and pain of it.
My father catches me, and after a hug of his own, he hands me over to Maxum.
As my demon lifts me into his arms to carry me, I give my guys a worried glance, taking in their rough condition.
Erwald, Darius, and Raithe help to get my recovering mates through the portal.
By the time we go through protocols of various realm hopping and reach the boundary of Amira’s property, we’re all exhausted.
Darius has already done his ‘hellhound sniff test’ of my father, and Erwald’s formally allowed inside the sanctuary under the old customs.
We place Osen, Calder, Flint, and Arran in the huge bed and, with their encouragement, I lay over them, giving them my healing energy. I only hope it will hold out and supply them with what they need.
Thankfully, my father is invited to stay on Amira’s couch for the night.
With a lingering look, he reluctantly leaves me with my mates. It’s so strange to meet this male who is at the very source of who and what I am, yet I know nothing about him.
When I wake in the mid-afternoon, I grunt with the stiffness and utter fatigue that wracks my body.
Fortunately, my mates seem to be recovering.
Maxum left early this morning with Arran to get intel on Galiana’s coven and find out if we have to worry about any more of her followers in the ASO.
They return moments after I wake, and I wonder if it’s the mate bond that has me so tuned in that I sense when they are nearby.
“So? What’s the verdict?” Calder asks, yawning and combing his hand through his messy auburn hair.
“My hackers and informants tell me that Galiana’s faction is decimated,” Maxum reports with a satisfied grin. “None of the witches know who did it, either.”
“That’s good,” Osen grunts out and labors to sit up. “We won’t have to expect fallout later.”
“And that means Jade’s secret is safe,” Flint adds and squeezes my hand happily.
A knock at the door has all of us tensing, expecting the worst. Maxum is closest and opens the door, revealing my father’s grim face. He’s returned from his own reconnaissance mission.
“Jade’s been summoned to hell,” Erwald says in a tone that chills me to my bones.