Chapter 10
ARIANNA
The kitchen is shrouded in darkness, the nightmare paving the way to nightfall.
My limbs are stiff, since I haven’t moved from where I was in when my aunt turned to dust. Witches don’t turn to dust, I think over and over again, disbelief plaguing me.
My tears have long since dried up, but the pain in my heart still threatens to break me from the inside out, but it can’t. I won’t let it.
I glance around the kitchen at the four piles of daemon dust when there should only be three.
I lower my head to my hands. This is all wrong—my aunt should be here making us dinner, asking too many questions about the man I just met and his intentions, scolding me for eating yet another cookie before dinner.
My phone rings, the upbeat tune taunting me. I don’t want to talk to anyone. Not yet. I need time to process all of this.
I pull in a breath as I stand, muscles protesting against the cramp as I make my way down the hall.
I’m still holding my aunt's necklace. The house has locked itself tight, the air feels tight around us in response.
I can feel it like a pulse running through my body—no one is getting in or out.
Which is good because, right now, I can barely process what just happened, let alone anything else.
I don’t make it to the living room. I drop to my knees, a wail of frustration and anger taking over.
I punch the floor, then the wall. “She didn’t do anything wrong…
She was…” My words trail off. The family I thought I knew seems to have been keeping secrets, and there was no one left to clue me in.
I curl into a ball on the floor, the grief slowly suffocating me as I close my eyes., There’s only one thing left for me, one tiny shred of reality that I can cling to—the man in my dreams. I fall into unconsciousness, hoping to lose myself in that delusion.
The constant ringing of my phone wakes me.
I roll over, and my whole body is stiff with pain from sleeping on the hard floor.
I blink my tired eyes against the sunlight streaming in—.
Hours of sleep and not one dream to distract me from…
I look around the hallway, and everything comes flooding back.
“No,” I sob. I’d hoped it was all a dream, but the blood and daemon dust tell me otherwise.
My phone chirps in the eerie stillness, making me jump. I’d left it beside the pile of dust that should’ve been May’s body. I’ve got twenty missed calls from Mekhi and fifteen from Lucy. I press the call button on the most recent one, and she answers on the second ring.
“Thank god, Ari! Where have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you for ages!
Is everything alright?” Lucy shouts, and I hear the telltale signs of her walking to work.
I open my mouth to speak, but she carries on.
“Mekhi was freaking out because of a stupid dream he had, so now I’m late for a meeting with the new girl, Eden,” Lucy huffs.
More tears spill down my cheeks. “Luce?” My voice shakes.
“Ari? What is it? Are you okay?” The clicking of her steps skitter to a halt, as though she’s forgotten what she’s supposed to be doing.
I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “They killed her… Aunt May —.”
There’s a pause, emotion making her voice thick as she says, “What? I’m coming… Hold on—”
I don’t hear the rest of what she says. I drop my phone as I fall to my knees, letting out an agonizing sob.
I’m not sure how long it takes. But I don’t move again till my phone rings. “Lucy?”
“Ari? We can’t get through the gate.” I blink my eyes a few times and then stand, trying to process her words. I pull the front door open. I can just barely see Lucy and Mekhi standing at the gate—Mekhi glaring at it and Lucy watching me with pain-filled eyes
“Let them in,” I whisper. “Grant them entry in perpetuity.” The house almost seems to take a breath as my words imprint on its walls. The gate swings open, and within seconds, I’m in Lucy’s arms, and she’s hugging me tightly to her. But my tears have gone now. I’m too angry to cry.
“Hitch?” Mekhi reaches out his hand. He’s not good with this sort of thing—but I feel the love he is sending me.
The three of us stay like this for a while, until Lucy pulls back, with tears in her own eyes—other than Mekhi or myself, my aunt was one of the first people Lucy met after her accident, and she’d become a pseudo parent for her too.
“What happened?” Her words come out choked.
“Daemons,” I answer, my voice flat.
Mekhi gasps. He fears daemons more than any other supernatural being. “They’re dead. I killed them.” I pull away, heading for the kitchen. It only takes Lucy a moment to follow. Her eyes take in the mess—the blood and the four piles of dust.
“You killed four demons?” she asks as she walks into the room, looking at everything in shock.
I point to the three piles of dust by the fridge. “Those are the demons.”
She bites her lower lip, worrying it between her teeth, as though she can sense what’s coming. “Ari? Where’s Aunt May’s body?”
Mekhi, who came into the room much more quietly, stands next to me, and I know what I’m about to say is going to freak him the fuck out. I lift a shaky hand and point. “That pile of dust there… that is Aunt May.”
Confusion draws Lucy’s eyebrows together. “No, that can’t be right. That would mean—” She breaks off as Mekhi answers for her.
“Daemon?” He looks at me. “Your aunt was a daemon?”
I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know. It seems that way. I don’t know many witches who burst into dust when they die, do you?” The thought that I no longer know anything about my entire family makes my heart squeeze painfully. “I need to clean this up. She would hate this mess.”
I walk into the kitchen on autopilot. I turn the tap on and start to wash the sides clean of blood. I can’t think about anything else right now. I can hear Lucy and Mekhi talking, but I keep working.
“It can’t be true, Lucy. Can it?” Mekhi asks.
“I don’t know Mekhi, but let’s think about that later.
” Lucy makes her way over to me, placing her hand on mine to stop me from cleaning.
I glance at her, her eyes full of the pain she’s trying not to show.
“Let us clean up, okay? You go and relax in the living room, and I’ll bring you some tea.
” She doesn’t give me a chance to say anything else before she’s pushing me out of the room.
I pause when Mekhi speaks. “I’ll get the hoover, this dust is giving me the creeps.” Mehki gives a whole-body shudder.
Wincing, I shake my head. “Just don’t hoover up my aunt, okay?” I say. He looks at me and nods, and I mentally applaud him for not laughing. But I can see him gauging if I was joking or not. Honestly, I’m not even sure myself.
I enter the living room, logging the mess I see—there was so much going on in the kitchen that I didn’t even think to check the rest of the house.
They’ve turned the whole room upside down, all the drawers are open, the contents strewn all over the floor.
Furniture has been pushed over, and the cushions are on the floor—torn to shreds.
The TV is smashed. I lift my hand and whisper, “ite et corrige eam festucam.”
Vanish and set it right, mote it be.
The room shifts, tables righting themselves, broken glass floating from the floor back into the frame and solidifying once more. Flowers that have been strewn across the room fly back into the vase. Everything moves back into place within seconds..
I move over to the mirror. The person staring back at me isn’t the same happy woman I was a few days ago.
This woman is barely holding it together.
I walk over to the sofa and sit down, resting my head in my hands.
I pull the necklace my aunt gave me from where I’d shoved it in my pocket and dangle it between my fingers.
I study the carving. I’ve seen these gold eyes somewhere.
And the dragon looks like he is staring at me.
“Hitch?” Mekhi’s voice breaks my thoughts.
I look up and he offers me a hesitant grin.
“I made the tea and added a little extra touch for you.” He winks.
“You need it, hun.” He added brandy—I can smell it from here.
Typically, I would’ve told him no, but he’s right—I do need it.
I reach for the cup and take a sip, wincing at the burn.
He cringes. “Too much, baby girl?”
I shake my head and give a small smile, which I know doesn’t reach my eyes. “It’s fine. Thanks.”
He sighs and sits down next to me. “Hitch, I’m really shit at stuff like this, but you need Mekhi, so baby doll, I’m here and trying not to freak out,” he chuckles. I know he’s trying to make me laugh.
I lean against his side and close my eyes. “It’s okay, I just need a hug.” I feel his warm, big arms wrap around me.
“Hitch, you know Mekhi gives the best hugs.” He kisses the top of my head, and for a while we just sit there in silence. I want to speak, but I don’t really know what to say. Mekhi keeps squeezing me tight until I finally find my voice.
“Uh, Mekhi? What’s Luce doing?”
He chuckles lightly. “Angel in there is cooking up a storm. She’s making you food cause you need to eat.”
Lucy has slipped into mom mode, the way she always does when Mekhi or I are hurting. “I’m not hungry,” I tell him.
“I know, baby doll.”
I pull back from him. “I can’t believe this happened.”
“Hitch? What exactly did happen?” he asks.
I rise, moving over to the window and looking out onto the street. People are walking around like it’s a typical day. Blissfully ignorant of all the bad that’s just happened. “I came back from the memorial, and the cottage was already trashed. There were daemons in the house, three of them.”
Lucy enters the living room holding a plate of sandwiches and cake. She sets it on the coffee table and sits next to Mekhi, both of them silent, hoping for the rest.
“They had already attacked her, but they were looking for something.” Tears fill my eyes start to roll down my cheeks, flashes on my aunts face, and the blood that was coating her skin flashes in my head, making me wince.
“This room was a mess, so I can’t imagine what the rest of the house looks like. ”
Lucy sighs. “Ari, they’ve been through the whole house. Do you know what they were looking for?”
“No, I don’t, but whatever it was, they were ready to take me to the Underworld for it.” I sigh, moving to sit in the armchair by the fire. I lower my head into my hands again, so many questions and no one to answer them.
“Whatever it was they were looking for, they were going to take me with or without it.” I shrug, “My aunt was killed because of it.” My eyes find Lucy, but she appears to be deep in thought. “Luce?”
She looks up, sighing deeply, before she speaks. “They must have killed May because she knew what they were looking for. Did they give any clue as to what it was?”
I shake my head as my breathing speeds up. There’s too much to think about and with thinking comes feelings, with feelings come with panic attacks these days.
Lucy stands up and wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me close. “We’ll work it out, Ari.”
I look over at Mekhi, who has gone ramrod still, staring out the window. “Mekhi?”
He blinks. “Er… It just got dark?” I realize he’s right and join him at the window. It’s only just past lunch time, but deep black clouds crowd the horizon.
“Is it supposed to rain?” Lucy asks, wringing her hands.
“That’s going to be one hell of a storm if it is,” Mekhi answers
I scan the street, then duck my head to the side as I notice someone trying to look in. “Shit, there’s someone out there.”
Both of them scurry to my side, watching from our vantage point as a man moves closer to the house.
“Ari?” Lucy’s voice wobbles with worry. “It’s safe, right? He can’t get in?”
“The house won’t let him enter,” I answer mechanically, not bothering to remind anyone that while Aunt May’s spell is holding right now, it hadn’t exactly stopped three daemons from getting to her.
The stranger keeps trying to push the gate, but it’s holding firm. I sigh in relief. He glances up as if sensing that we’re watching.
“Red eyes,” I gasp, my hand flying to my mouth. A grin splits his face.
“It looks as if I won’t be coming in,” he calls, his voice edged with an evil that has fear pooling in my stomach. “But never mind, I will be back. Trust me.” Somehow his words echo around us.
If his eyes didn’t have a murderous glint to them, he would be beautiful. His long blonde hair is pulled up into a knot, his sharp jaw and strong build give him the air of a Viking. For just a moment, his gaze shifts to Lucy's eyes, which flash yellow for a second.
Yellow eyes? Where have I seen those before?
When he turns back to me they are red again. He licks his lips, making me shudder. “You smell so sweet, Arianna Jay. I’ll make you a deal. Bring me that book, once you find it, and I’ll let you all live.” He gives Lucy one last look, something like longing in his eyes.
Lucy looks more shocked than I feel. Something about the way he looked at her… Mekhi starts to hyperventilate, and I shake the thought free. I slump down onto the widow seat, my voice shaky. “What book?” I ask, almost to myself.
“Who the hell was that?” Lucy gasps.
“His fine, scary ass had better stay away,” Mekhi adds through his deep breathing.
The light slowly returns to the sky. I close my eyes.
I wish I could rewind the clock, though that bit of magic is lost to the world.
If I could, there would be so many questions I would ask.
I would stop my aunt from coming home alone.
I would grab Gaelan by the collar and kiss him, dream man or no. And none of this would have happened.