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“I appreciate you helping, but honestly, if you need to leave, you can. I’ll be fine. You need to see him. He’ll just show up here if you don’t.”
Sloane nods to herself as Sera dips bandages into the bowl of whatever they were mixing. “It’s a big deal, you know?”
She looks up at me, then away before doing a double-take, eyes flaring as they come back to me.
“Hey.” She taps her sister’s back, urging her to turn. Beautiful green eyes meet mine in the mirror.
“Hello, witch,” I croak.
“Nix?”
“Damn, I was aiming for suave there.” I chuckle, but it quickly turns into a cough, one that feels like it’s ripping through the skin at my chest.
“Don’t sit up.” Sera runs to me and picks up a glass of water from the nightstand, then holds a straw to my lips.
I take a few deep sips before slumping back into the pillows.
My hand reaches out to caress her cheek. Sera’s eyes close as she takes a deep breath.
“Not that I’m complaining, but what happened? How am I here? Or is this heaven? Actually, I’m not sure if your sister would be here if that were the case.”
“Yeah, watch it, demon.” Sloane pushes off the dresser to stand at the foot of my bed. “Don’t make me go back to hating you.”
“You broke the curse.” Sera smiles. “Catori’s gone.”
“Why didn’t I die then?”
“Celeste said you read Theodora’s journal?”
“Yeah. My mom was a witch, but I was still a demon when I killed Catori.”
Sera nods. “But the power of the Seven Sisters was stronger than Catori, besides he never really earned your soul. When Theodora and Cassandra joined their blood with the oath, it bound us together.”
“So, we really are soulmates?” I ask.
“Yep, you’re stuck with me.” I’m desperate to pull her into me, but just smiling is hurting right now. “There’s one other thing we learned from Chimere after we resurfaced back in Hemlock.”
“Chimere?”
“She was imprisoned by Catori too, because her mother was another Seven Sister. She knew almost as much as she kept from Catori, but one thing they both knew was… Catori was your father.”
“What?” I shake my head. “No. My father left when I was really young.”
“Yeah, we traced the dates and lineage. Based on when Catori was cursed to Hell, you would have been around five years old,” Sloane says.
Holy shit.
“We still don’t know how the talisman spell affected your demon side, though. You could have killed that side and then resurfaced back here as a mortal,” Sera says, squeezing my hand in hers.
“You’re not gonna stab me to test it, are you?”
Sloane chuckles. “Tempting, but no.”
“For now—” Sera retrieves the bowl and bandages she was working on before and sits on the side of my bed. “We’re going to make sure this wound heals nicely.”
She pulls my sheets down, exposing a dressing over my bare chest, then starts peeling it away from my skin.
It’s angry and red underneath, with a long line of stitches running up one of my pecs. Sera dips one of the bandages in the bowl, soaking it in what looks like murky, yellow sludge. It’s cool when she places it against my skin, laying small pieces over me until the whole wound is covered before securing dry pieces over it and taping it to my chest.
