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“Isn’t this what you always wanted?” Hekate asks, tilting her head to the side. “Haven’t you ached for a sister with whom you could talk about boy and girl stuff?”
“No. Yes. I mean, I just wanted a sister,” I say quickly, stumbling over my own words. “Whenever I told people that I have a twin, everyone immediately assumed that we’re best friends.”
“Oh, Helia,” Hekate breathes, putting a hand over her chest. “You don’t think we’re friends? That’s just awful.”
“Drop the fucking act, Hekate!” I snap, annoyed to be talked to as if I’m a fool. “How about you get straight to the point and tell me the real reason you’ve come here.”
A flicker of anger flashes in Hekate’s eyes, but it disappears along with her fake smile. She sets the coffee on the small table in front of us, then turns to me. I’m aware of being studied closer than ever before, my every move and twitch carefully analyzed under her watchful stare.
“I want to talk about the attack,” she tells me, her cold voice carrying an authority of the Venerable Superior that she is.
I nod in acknowledgment, knowing that sooner or later we’d have to have this talk. “What do you want to know?”
Hekate tilts her head to the side, narrowing her eyes as if she can see right through me. “You warned us that they were coming. How did you know?”
“I met a wolf,” I reply, testing to see her reaction. When she doesn’t immediately lose her mind, I allow myself to believe that this might actually go well. “He’s very well-connected and told me about the attack to make sure that I’d be safe.”
“This wolf,” Hekate starts, her face contorting with disgust when she mentions the enemy species. “Who is he to you?”
“I’m not sure,” I admit, then take a deep breath to find words how to describe the relationship between Grayden and me. “I didn’t know he was a wolf when I started hanging out with him. I wasn’t even aware of his true nature when we hooked up. But when we realized who we were, we tried to stay away from one another. We couldn’t. We can’t.”
“So, what?” Hekate inquires. “Is he your boyfriend? Lover? Fuck buddy?”
My cheeks flush, and I struggle to keep up the eye contact with Hekate. We’ve never talked about boys and to do it all of a sudden, it’s a bit unnerving. Maybe she really wants to be my sister. It seems like she’s trying. I should try back and give her a chance.
“All that and much more,” I confess, a small smile appearing on my face that always finds its way whenever I talk about Grayden.
“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Hekate says and stands up. I raise my brows in surprise, momentarily fooling myself into believing that we’re making a real progress. “Get up. You’re coming with me.”
“What?” I ask, reflexively following her order and standing up. “Where?”
“You fucked a wolf,” Hekate says with barely suppressed anger, but her face is now an open picture of disgust. “You need to be cleansed.”
“I need no such thing!” I reply, feeling outraged. “You seem to be forgetting yourself, Sister.”
“No,” she hisses, then blatantly looks me up and down. “You’re the one that forgets herself. You’re a disgrace. You either get cleansed or that’s the end of the road for you.”
“The end of the road?” I ask, raising my brows in disbelief. I shake my head and scoff. “What? You actually mean to kill me. Isn’t that a bit melodramatic, even for you?”
The next things happen too fast for me to process much less react.
A flame of green fire lights up in Hekate’s emotionless eyes. Despair and emptiness flood my chest, paralyzing my body on the spot. She’s way more skilled at using magic than I am. For some of the spells, she doesn’t even need to constantly repeat the chanting. Her concentration is rock solid and her will is one of steel. Hekate puts the palm of her hand on my forehead, her eyes focused on mine, the green flame in hers putting me into a trance. She moves her lips, muttering some words under her breath until she completes the spell to keep me paralyzed.
I feel, hear, and see everything, except that I can’t move a finger.
Hekate grabs me under my shoulder, holding up my weight. She murmurs another spell and when her grip on me eases ever so slightly, I realize that it has something to do with weightlessness.
I mentally curse myself for not paying better attention when our parents tried to teach us the spells. I’ve always preferred potions and medicinal herbs myself, and even then, it was only the healing ones that I truly perfected.
Hekate gets us out of the apartment and to her car which is parked right in the front. She carelessly drops me on the backseat, then goes to the driver’s side, starts the car, and drives off to who knows where.
I might not be able to speak, but that doesn’t keep her from talking to me. Her eyes are fixed on the road as she delivers her angry monologue.
“I’ve given you so many chances, you know,” she starts. “I tried to give you your space and as much time as you would need to come to us on your own volition. The most fucked-up part is that you didn’t even realize how much I’ve been fighting for you.”
She pauses and turns on the turn signal, then takes a right turn. She keeps her focus on the road a while longer before continuing her speech.
“The coven wanted to teach you a lesson,” Hekate goes on. “They wanted to punish you for spending all your time and energy on humans, which would be fine if you hadn’t been neglecting your own kind.”
