WILLOW
I grabbed Della and Nova from the courtyard the next day after Gray left me to tend to the archdemons and inform them of what had
happened in full. I couldn’t help the insidious, relieved sigh when I discovered that Margot wasn’t with them. I didn’t want to consider where she would have been instead, the sinking feeling in my gut was all but confirmation of those suspicions.
It was all the more reason to keep this from her, even as it pained me to have any secrets. The need for them had become apparent when I watched her turn into Beelzebub’s embrace as if she was well familiar with it.
For a witch who didn’t like to be touched at all, but by men in particular, she’d found solace in him.
Iban stood before them, turning to find me approaching. I slowed my steps, unsure what would wait for me. I’d killed his uncle in cold blood the night before, and even if the man had deserved it, I more than anyone would understand that it wasn’t always simple to untangle the emotions from logic.
Sometimes, you could love someone and still admit that they were an absolutely terrible person.
Jonathan poked his head out of the messenger bag I’d slung over my shoulder before leaving the privacy of the room I’d shared with Gray. I didn’t have the heart to ask to return to my dorm, knowing doing so would only drive a wedge between us.
A week ago, I’d have insisted and said damn the consequences. Getting close to him should have been my goal even then, but I hadn’t had any
personal stake in the end goal.
Now…
Now, I wanted nothing more than to deceive Gray the way he’d deceived me. I wanted him to believe that I’d settled into our lives.
Because I needed to send him back to the pit from whence he came from, sooner rather than later. Even if the very idea of removing him from my life, of hurting him, made a shock of agony streak through me, the night before had proven why it was necessary.
I wasn’t strong enough to resist him. I wasn’t strong enough not to fall prey to his sweet, whispered words. I’d thought sex would be my undoing, but it was the way he seemed determined to sink inside my heart and make his new home there.
Margot wasn’t the only one the enemy had compromised, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I was completely lost.
Iban shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, not reaching out to hug me in the way he might have prior. The distance was necessary, and it was to be expected, but that didn’t stop the jolt of sadness that I felt anyway.
“When did you get a cat?” he asked, glancing down at Jonathan. “It’s a long story,” I said, turning to the girls. “I need your help.”
“What are we doing?” Nova asked, shoving the last bite of her lunch into her mouth and standing. She tossed the trash into the garbage can, brushing her hands together to rid herself of any crumbs.
“I want to find a way to send them all back. The Vessels, the archdemons, Lucifer,” I whispered, looking between the three of them. I hoped I could trust Iban with this, but he nodded in approval and alleviated my fears for the moment.
“I think I know where to look,” Iban said as Della got to her feet. “There’s a section in the library. It’s been forbidden by the Covenant, but I can take you there.”
“How?” I asked, studying him.
“While all of you spend your time playing with magic, I read. That library is my courtyard, Willow,” he said, gesturing at the plant life around him. “I may not have magic in the real world anymore…”
“But you do in books,” I said, nodding my head in agreement. There’d been a time when I was younger, when all I wanted to do was bury myself
in books that told of quests and magic, being that I couldn’t spend every waking moment watching my mother practice.
He smiled, the mannerism a ghost of what it had once been when he looked at me. Turning to lead the way to the library, he guided us through the halls. I kept my head down, trying not to draw attention to myself or where we were going. If any of the archdemons caught on to my plan, I’d never be able to stop them from leveling this school and everyone in it.
I still felt the memory of Beelzebub’s hands on my head when he snapped my neck, and the possibility of him doing that to Margot was exactly what motivated me to keep going in spite of the risks. She deserved so much better than a male who was capable of hurting an innocent woman he didn’t know like that.
I scoffed, imagining Beelzebub’s reaction to my imagining myself to be innocent. He would claim something very different if and when he found out about my plan to rid this world of the demons that had been banished long ago.
It was the only way to put things right after I’d torn them apart. Gray may claim that he wanted to build a home in Crystal Hollow, but how many years would it take for him to want to expand his territory?
Now that he was not bound by his need for witch blood to survive, he would soon realize there were other points of power within this realm. Other witches, other clans, and others connected with the earth despite him not opening the doorway.
If he could get them on his side, if we could make them a part of the Coven, then there was no telling what boundaries he would cross in his quest for power. Lucifer had been cast down from heaven because of his disregard for human life and the free will his father valued.
What would it take for him to remember that?
“Tell me about this forbidden section of the library,” I said, distracting myself from my train of thought. If I could only send them back, I would never again have to wonder.
I’d just be alone again.
I shut out the insidious thought, focusing on the life I could have without any of the complications Gray brought. I hadn’t chosen him for myself. I could have the chance to choose for myself rather than having my fate determined centuries before I’d been born.
“The Covenant used to forbid anyone from entering. She said it was full of magic that only they could use,” Iban said, shaking his head. “But I’ve never seen either go into that room.”
“Then how did you gain access?” Della asked, her brow furrowing in that way that said she thought he was full of shit.
“Susannah asked me to catalog everything for her over the summer. She gave me the key and swore me to secrecy. I wasn’t physically able to speak of the room with anyone except the Covenant until…”
“Until I became the Covenant last night,” I said, huffing a breath of disbelief.
Nova stepped closer to him, blocking our way through the empty halls of the school. Most of the students had made their way to their next class, being that as much as our entire world had been disrupted, Hollow’s Grove wanted to pretend that it was business as usual.
I couldn’t very well attend classes as a student when I was meant to be leading the Coven. I’d just have to learn another way, but I still felt guilty that my friends were missing an essential part of their education.
“What was in it for you?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Her face was stern, solemn, as she studied him as if she already knew.
“I was able to read about the strongest magics in the world,” he said, but the uncomfortable smile on his face made my body freeze. He’d made a deal with the Covenant and agreed to do this for her in exchange for something he wanted.
“Iban, what did you do?” I asked as he stepped around Nova. I grasped his arm, pulling him to a stop. “What did she give you?” The possibilities were endless, and none of the gifts the Covenant could have offered could be trusted. Any of them could have ulterior motives.
“You,” he said finally, staring at the floor in shame. I blanched, a gasp leaving me. I’d known the Covenant had preferred Iban as my mate, but I hadn’t realized that Iban was actively participating in that plan. “She told me there was another Madizza witch, and that she would be attending Hollow’s Grove in the fall. She promised to make it clear to the other Bray males that I had earned the right to first courting.”
Della groaned, rubbing her temples in frustration as she turned and strode up the stairs. Gripping Nova’s arm, she dragged her friend with her to give us privacy, muttering a soft, “fucking idiot” as she went.
I considered his words, going over the timeline. In the days after my mother’s death, before the Covenant had sent Gray to come for me, Iban had been negotiating to marry a woman he hadn’t even met. I expected that behavior from Gray, the literal Devil in the flesh. Whereas I’d somehow expected better of the man who claimed to be my friend. “You didn’t even know me,” I said, attempting to ignore the hurt.
I wasn’t naive enough to believe my last name hadn’t played a role in the way Iban had approached me. I knew I was the only Green witch he could pair with. I’d just thought he’d been above such politics, and I’d bought all his lies about finding someone he loved. “Didn’t you ever wonder why none of the other Brays approached you? You’re our only hope if we want our children to have the same magic as our families,” he asked.
“I didn’t think anything of it at all. Your uncle hated me, so I just thought you were different from your family,” I said, turning away from him. I continued on my path to the library, determined to make something of the news that someone I’d considered a friend had acted so selfishly. If what he said was true, the other Brays still hadn’t approached me for a reason.
He’d laid his claim over me when he had no right.
“Willow, listen to me,” he said, reaching out to grab my hand. I shook him off, spinning on him with a glare. He raised his hands placatingly, a silent apology for touching me. Nova and Della continued on toward the library, leaving us to our spat. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I figured you’d come and I would have a chance to get to know you before the others. If there wasn’t any connection, then I would have told your grandmother that I wasn’t interested in being chosen as your mate.”
“Then why didn’t you tell her that? Why did the other Brays never approach me?” I asked, my anger fueling my words. I was too hurt to realize I shouldn’t have asked the question when I wasn’t ready for the answer.
I was too angry to realize I’d opened Pandora’s Box, and I’d never be able to put the truth back in.
“Because then I met you. You came here, and you were…” he trailed off, looking toward the window that looked down on the gardens. Life had returned to them since I came to Crystal Hollow, my blood the sole reason for the return of vibrancy to everything that surrounded us. “Full of life,” he said, letting me know that his thoughts had gone to the same place mine
had. He looked toward me, taking a step closer though he didn’t dare to touch me.
“Iban,” I murmured, closing my eyes as I tried to think of a way to undo this.
“You’re beautiful and intelligent. You care about the people here more than most who have spent their lives in petty fights for power. Most witches would have looked at me only to evaluate me as a mate. I have no power, which means I have nothing to offer to anyone besides being a husband and a father. I chose that life, but I didn’t stop to consider what I was giving up outside of my magic. People stopped seeing me,” he said, slowly taking my hand in his. “My own family stopped treating me like I mattered to them, but you were different.”
“Stop.”
“You looked at me, and you saw a person. You looked at me, and you saw me. You made me realize everything I’d given up, seeing as the magic I abandoned was nothing like yours! But it could have been if I’d had someone like you to teach me. You gave me hope, Willow. You made me hope that one day I would have a little girl who felt the plants around her the way you do. I’m not saying I’m in love with you. I’m not saying that you’ll be the woman I marry one day, but I’m saying that I wasn’t ready to let go of the hope for that future just because you were distracted by a Vessel that I thought wouldn’t last,” he admitted.
“You should have told me about your deal with the Covenant,” I said forlornly. The unfortunate reality that Iban hadn’t faced yet, was that neither of us knew what my magic would do to my children when it passed on.
I might have been the last Madizza, but I was also the last Hecate. I was the first witch with more than one magic in her veins, and I didn’t know what that meant for my children. Would they inherit both? Would they inherit one?
Iban could have just as easily ended up with a child who summoned the dead being the life he so desperately wanted.
“I should have told you,” he agreed with a subtle nod of his head. “However, I thought, if nothing else, I could keep the rest of the Brays at bay for a while.”
I smiled with a little laugh. “There is that. I was never interested in marriage, to begin with.”
He brushed his finger over the ring on my hand. “All the more reason to get rid of your husband then,” he said, releasing me to make his way up the stairs that led to the library. I followed behind him, not daring to say another word.
If getting rid of my husband was exactly what I wanted, then why did the thought of it make my stomach hurt?
