No, maybe it wouldn’t have turned out exactly like that. I’m sure there would’ve been arguments and disasters along the way. But we never even got achance.
And Brian lost his best friend. A woman he loved—that, I believe. I can hear it in his every word about her, see it in his eyes. His entire life was rerouted because of the vow he made to her.
Eloise robbed us both.
“She… she murdered Mom?” I whisper.
Back when Rook and Auggie were looking through the old hospital records and helping me put the pieces together about Hunter’s medical treatments, I’d wondered if and how Eloise could have been involved in my mom’s death.
But this?Goddess.
“I don’t know, Westlyn. I don’t know if it was Eloise herself, or one of the others with her, or some dark-fae trick of Verrick’s, cursing her to death at the moment of your birth. There was no proof of anything, of course. Her doctor eventually returned and the cause of death was determined to be complications from childbirth, but there were no inquiries beyond that. I wanted to fight it, to demand they open an investigation, but how could I? I had no choice but to let it all go, because I made a promise to Maddie, and suddenly I had this tiny, precious newborn to… to protect.”
My heart cracks in half. All of this—it’s too much to bear. Yet Ineedto know. I need to know every detail. I need to feel the echo of her actions right down to my core, let it all stoke this fire inside.
Because when I kill Eloise—and Iwillkill her, make no mistake about that—she’s going to know that it’s no longer about what she did to me.
She’s going to feel every ounce of this rage. This loss. This heartache.
She’s going tosuffer. Suffer in ways I never even allowed myself to fantasize about before—not even earlier when Verrick threatened her. Before, I didn’t want to admit I had that kind of darkness and depravity festering in my heart.
Now?
Iwelcomeit.
Chapter Six
WESTLYN
When Brian finally looks up at me again, his eyes are clear. Determined.
“I continued to search for a way to break your bond to Wintermoon and protect you from all of this,” he says, “but… Goddess, it was all so complicated. So many dark entities involved. Ancient curses. Demonic bargains we could only guess at. I thought Eloise, at least, was out of the picture. But a few years after you were born, she began showing up in my circles—a ritual feast here, a coven meeting there. She always made a point to seek me out, her flirtations obvious from the start. Of course her interest in me was feigned, but her interest inyouwas genuine—she’d ask about you as though you were family, always wanting to know how you were getting on without your mother, how your magic was progressing. It was all I could do not to slit her throat, but that would’ve made things even more dangerous for you.”
“But Ihadno magic,” I say. “She had to know that.”
“Well, yes and no. Your magic was there, it just hadn’t visibly manifested yet because of your bond to Verrick—the dark fae part of your bloodline was dominant, overpowering the witch side, and fae magic doesn’t come in fully until adulthood. Verrick would’ve known this when he conceived you—would’ve known he could keep his claim on you secret until the time was right.”
The fae rune burns again on my neck like a warning, and I’ve got just enough strength in my arms to wrap my hand around it. The skin feels hot against my fingertips, but I still can’t access my magic.
You will, girl. Just need to wait it out…
“Eloise likely knew all of this,” Brian says, “but she didn’t know thatIknew, so I had to play the part of a confused and overwhelmed mage father concerned about his witch daughter’s lack of magic. I began speculating to fellow coven members that you’d been cursed by a dark witch or a demon. I needed those rumors to spread, needed anyone who was in on Verrick’s plans to believe that your mother never told me about their dalliances. So, like any good mage father who believed his daughter was magicless, I had to take you to healers. Had to act baffled and frustrated by your so-called lack of progress.”
He tells me the rest of the story—how Eloise ensured their paths crossed more and more often. How she began whispering to him about the shadow magic society, what a fine addition he’d make. How he could no longer ignore her blatant attempts at flirtation and finally began dating her, despite how deeply he resented her.
“It was exactly what she wanted,” he says, “and though it made my skin crawl and my stomach turn, I reasoned that if I could get close to her, gain her trust, I could gain some insight about the Archmage’s bigger plans, which was what I’d wanted all along. I kept her away from you as long as I could.”
A chill creeps down my spine, making me shiver. I can’t even imagine having to pretend like that, to feign affection for a demonic witch who very likely killed the woman he truly loved and wanted nothing more than to steal away their daughter.
Eloise must’ve reveled in it all.
Despite my anger at Brian, I can’t help but hate her for what she did to him. Can’t help but use it to add a bit more fuel to that fire smoldering inside me, waiting to be unleashed.
“Of course, she never really trusted me,” he says. “The more time we spent together, the more obvious it became that she didn’t think very highly of me. She pretended to be interested in my magic, in my reputation among the city’s light mages, but she was laser-focused on you. So, I had to change tacks. Instead of trying to win her trust and approval with my magic and reputation, I decided to amplify her perceptions of me as weak and ineffective. I stopped attending meetings and practicing my magic, and started visiting the casinos instead, draining money from my accounts to make it look like I was going bankrupt. Didn’t take much on my part to convince her I was obsessed and useless. She started underestimating me, stopped paying attention to my day-to-day activities. Her dismissal gave me time away from her, time I could use to keep searching for ways to break your bond to the fae.”
“I don’t understand that part.” I shake my head, the logical part of my brain still grasping for some other explanation. “Your so-called gambling debt is what allowed you to make the alliance with the Archmage and sell me off into a demonic marriage in the first place. If not for that debt, none of this would’ve even happened. Now you’re saying the debt didn’t even exist?”
“Some of that money went into my research expenses. But the rest…” A faint smile touches his lips. “It’s all in a series of offshore accounts. Set up to transfer to you upon my death. You’ll be financially secure for many, many years.”
