Chapter 22 Gracie
Suggested Listening: Gabba Gabba by Little Sis Nora
What a freaking day. With how weird my schedule has been the last week, I spent a good deal of the day touching base with all my employees.
It was a good cover story to feel out which one's might be working with this Logan character.
The direct testimony of my customer is a solid foundation against the coven, but we need more.
With the Treznor drama over, it means it is time to figure out what we are going to do about the coven. On the outside, I’ve been holding it together. Cool. Calm. Collected. But that’s mostly because I haven’t had time to let it all sink in.
Arranged witch marriages are common. But usually it’s facilitated through the families.
Parents often start working on matches from the time their kids are born.
The first consideration is always genetics.
Everyone is related to everyone else to some degree.
Heck, Briella and Poppy are third cousins.
And there for a while, Dad was married to Briella’s aunt.
That was originally why Briella and I became friends.
After genetics comes politics. Leaving the compatibility of magic as the third consideration. A distant third.
Both of my friends have messy, broken engagements now.
Though to be fair, I’m not certain the plan for Poppy to marry a demon was ever going to happen.
Briella, on the other hand, had a whole ass group of men picked out for her, but things fell apart. In part, because her family is more dramatic than a soap opera. Which ultimately led to the event where Briella was married against her will to the one witch we don’t talk about.
Fuck. I’m a shitty friend. I haven’t checked in with her emotionally about the new knowledge she likely has a second husband out there.
And if he’s blood bound to her, there’s no getting away from that once the binding snaps into place.
She’s got a few more months to go, but he’ll be here, eventually.
“There are our girls,” Vyslan says with that false cheer of his. He’s really good at putting on a face, but he’s up to something.
That’s a later problem.
I sigh and turn, taking in Briella and Poppy coming in from the gardens behind us.
“I was just thinking about you two,” I say.
The girls look at each other, concern written plainly on their faces. Then they glance in different directions.
My men are moving around the house, dispersing to their own business as if this were choreographed. Is this what Vyslan was up to? Ensuring I got a moment of privacy to talk to my coven sisters?
Darius has an arm slung around Luciu’s shoulders as they talk, shuffling toward the stairs. Puck follows along behind them, practically glaring at Luciu.
Vyslan is already staring at the fridge.
I honestly have no idea where Ezra vanished to. He’s been rubbing his face a lot, so I assume he’s gone to the bedroom to rest for a bit.
“Hey, Vys?” I cross to run my hand over his shoulders. He turns, closing the fridge immediately, and loops his arms around my hips. “Would you be a dear and go check on Ezra for me?”
He grins, and his eyes light up with real joy. “Happy to.”
Vyslan plants a chaste kiss on my cheek, wiggles his fingers at the girls, then heads off down the hall while Darius, Luciu, and Puck enter the room we’ve used for divination. It’s a windowless, comfortable space that I expect will become Darius’ retreat.
“Ten bucks they’re fucking in five minutes,” Briella says dryly.
“Vys and Ezra?” I snort and chuckle. “I’m not taking that bet.”
Poppy pulls out a chair at the dining table and sits, setting a bundle of rosemary in the middle. “Is Darius okay?”
“Oh.” I roll my eyes and cross to join her. “He tried the Hearse vape again and pretty much went into a seer’s coma on the office sofa for the day.”
Poppy’s eyes go wide. “Will he be okay?”
I shrug. “He said something about untangling energies, and then Luciu started talking to him. I honestly couldn’t follow half of it, but Puck seemed pretty tuned in. I decided that I can only handle so many things, and that is not my specialty. If they need me, they can say so.”
“Does Luc have seer abilities?” Briella asks.
“No, but from what I gathered, they use a similar theory in their respective practices. I’m not sure if they’re talking shop or bonding, but either way, they’re getting along without me.”
Briella props her chin on her hand and sighs. “That’s so important. How’d it go today with all of them in the mix together? Ezra and Puck get along okay?”
“I don’t want to jinx things, but…” I knock on the table. “So far, so good. I saw them talking a few times on the security camera, and things seemed fine. No punches or anything, so I’m calling it a win. Why do you two look like someone ripped pages out of your grimoires?”
Briella gasps. “Rude!”
Poppy snickers and begins stripping a stem of rosemary into a mason jar that was likely waiting just for this. Her humor dies quickly though, leaving us with a somber mood.
“Spit it out,” I say.
Briella and Poppy look at each other, some unspoken communication passing between them.
“I spent today looking into the binding,” Briella says and folds her hands together on the tabletop.
Ah. Luciu. I nod once and brace myself for the truth I’m already aware of.
“There isn’t a way to break it,” she says. “I spoke to a few specialists. Made a few calls.”
I gape at her. “What?”
Briella merely rolls her eyes.
It’s not done.
At least not here in America.
The witch communities are isolated from one another due to the ongoing conflicts between the covens.
Sure, the public line is that was all put to rest ages ago.
But the truth is quite the opposite. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who was punished, or worse, for talking or working with a witch from another coven.
There are a few exceptions. It’s expected that witches who attend human universities and the young are allowed some rebellion.
But that forgiveness expires around the age of twenty-one, or when a witch gets their familiar.
The three of us are all well past that age barrier.
Consulting with witches outside our coven could, in theory, be a death sentence.
“What?” Briella says with all the pent-up sass from her teenage, obedient days.
“Isolation breeds stupidity. I’m over being told information is forbidden to me because the source isn’t in our coven.
Online, there are a lot of witches pushing back against these stupid, archaic battle lines.
Now, back to the binding. Breaking a blood binding has never been done.
There aren’t even rumors of it being possible. Gracie…”
“It’s fine.” I shrug then grin at her. “I’m way more interested in what you’ve been getting up to online. I like Luc. I’m not trying to get rid of him. Not after what he’s done for us.”
Briella huffs and sits back. Serious teenager energy, but she deserves to work through these feelings.
I’m actually pretty fucking proud of her for taking this step on her own.
While I’m responsible for either of them having access to the internet, phones, and even TV, I can’t make them change their minds.
But they have. In little ways here and there, my friends are becoming their own people.
She stares at the table, face creased. “I’m sorry, Gracie…”
“Hey?” I lean forward, my focus entirely on her. “Don’t worry about it. Honestly. I’m not bothered about Luc. I like him. He makes me feel…”
“He’s so obviously into you,” Poppy blurts out.
“He is, isn’t he?” I press my hand to my stomach where it feels like there are hundreds of butterflies.
With the others, there’s always some measure of anxiety.
Do they like me back? Is this working? Will he stay?
But there’s none of that with Luciu. He’s all-in,, and he isn’t afraid to let it show.
“I don’t really know him, but… I guess I’m a possessive, jealous bitch because I really didn’t want to hear you’d found some way to maybe break the bond. I’m worried about the two of you.”
“Don’t worry about us.” Poppy holds herself up straighter. “We’re the ones to blame. This isn’t on you to fix. It’s our fault. We’ve talked it over, right?”
Briella nods. “You’ve stepped in and taken responsibility for us that you shouldn’t have had to. This? You were clear. You were careful. And we… Were stupid. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, right?”
I cringe a little hearing my words coming out of her mouth. She isn’t wrong, but there are moments I wish I’d been nicer about things. How I said them.
She fingers the long, black beaded necklace she’s wearing and keeps speaking.
“When our blood-bound husbands show up, we’ll be ready for them.
And if they suck, well… They shouldn’t have been stupid enough to get bound in the first place.
The coven was counting on you being a kind soul, Gracie.
That’s where Poppy and I have a bit of a leg up.
While we might be na?ve, we aren’t nearly as kind as you are. ”
I’m very aware that I have an aversion to killing from growing up human that witches don’t share.
It’s completely legal for a witch wife to kill a husband for any number of infractions.
Even with the best magi-care money or resources can buy, a witch with a uterus can only produce so many babies.
It makes us more valuable and is the reason the power dynamic in the majority of covens is squarely with the women.
We control the future, and the sperm-producers realize that.
“Let’s not invite problems we don’t currently have, yeah?” I lean forward, elbows on the table. “Luc’s moved his office into the space above the gnome’s shop. Which is nice. I… I like the idea that they’ll all be close. I’m feeling… Jealous? Possessive?”
Poppy and Briella both nod.
“That’s perfectly normal for a witch in bonding,” Briella says.
Oh…
She means me.