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Tamsin’s eyes widen and her mouth pops open in surprise. Blake gets out of his chair in a hurry and walks over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“Luciana is not going to be alone in this,” he says soothingly. “You and me, Ven and Ryder, Xander and Rowan, and Erik and Astrid are all going to be on standby for the raid. But Luciana needs to get intel first, so we know exactly who we’re up against and their connections. If we don’t tear out the whole root system, the Guild will survive and keep hurting people.”
“I know,” Tamsin says. “I want the Guild taken down as much as you two do.” She pivots her gaze back to mine. Her voice takes on her professional doctor tone. “But we still don’t know the long-term effects of your condition.”
“There don’t seem to be any effects at all,” I say. “It’s been three weeks since the coma, and I feel completely normal. You’ve been running tests every day, Tams.”
She worries her lip between her teeth. “But there still could be traces of demonic blood cells, or demonic magic, in your body. We don’t know what might trigger that side of you.”
“That’s a lot of ifs.” I shake my head. “I’m doing this, with or without your blessing. I’d really just like to have one normal family dinner before I get on the long flight from Scotland to California tomorrow morning.”
Tamsin looks up at Blake, and he nods. “Luciana is ready,” he says. “No more talk about the mission, okay?”
With a sniffle and a nod, Tamsin walks over and pulls me into a hug. “I was a bad sister when we were younger,” she says. “I’m sorry my overprotective nature is coming out now.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, I’m in my thirties. A bit late for that.”
We embrace a few moments longer and then Blake says, “I’ll make dinner. Tamsin, why don’t you come help me while Luciana packs?”
Tamsin lets me go and takes Blake’s outstretched hand. He pulls her into a kiss, and she beams up at him and follows him toward the kitchen. They radiate so much love it puts the roaring fire to shame. They’ve always loved each other, since they were young, even though Tamsin left for twenty years after our parents died and they’d both pretended to move on. The passion between them is tangible. I’ve never known something like what they have together, and I’m only a few years younger than Tamsin. I feel a sharp pang of longing that takes my breath away for a moment.
To distract myself, I jog upstairs to my room on the second floor. The last thing I need to be thinking about right now is my carousel of love affairs, none of which lasted longer than a few months. I’d never really cared about it before, but then, that was before I’d been turned into a demon and placed in a coma. Going through something like that makes you look at life a bit differently.
I fling open my closet doors and start throwing things onto my big four-poster bed. Thistle follows me upstairs and flops down on the floor by my feet. I realize I’m not sure what the weather is like in California in December, I only know it’s a heck of a lot warmer than it is here in Scotland. I pull out my phone to do a quick Google search (nothing a light sweater can’t handle), then turn my focus to cramming everything into my suitcase.
A half hour later, I’m getting close to wrapping up. I turn to my dresser to grab my hairbrush and curling iron, and somehow manage to knock over a glass figurine of a horse that I’ve had since I was a child. A gift from my mother. It shatters into a million pieces, the shards strewn like stars across the dark wood.
Even after all these years, the loss of her still aches. A wave of grief moves over me, and I reach out instinctually for the pieces. One of the splinters of glass stabs me in the finger and I gasp at the sharp bite of pain, blood blossoming on my skin.
And just like that, my sadness is engulfed by a wall of black rage.
Heat rushes through my body like an inferno and my magic pulses. It feels like fire is consuming me, burning in my veins. And in the mirror hanging over my dresser, for just a moment, flames flash in my eyes.
I suck in a breath and the moment breaks. My reflection stares back at me, and I look completely normal. A tremble moves through me. Clearly I’d been imagining things. There hadn’t actually been… fire… in my eyes.
Right?
“Luciana?” Tamsin calls from downstairs. “Dinner’s ready!”
Another shaky breath, and I pull myself together. Summoning my magic, I perform a simple spell to scoop up all the glass shards and deposit them into a small box. Maybe later, when I have time to concentrate, I can fix it. Another wash of magic mends the cut on my finger.
“Everything okay up there?” my sister calls.
I take one last look in the mirror, ignoring the tickle of apprehension in my stomach. Nothing to worry about—just my overactive imagination. I’d taken too many years of drama in high school and college, and sometimes it got the better of me. That’s all.
“I’m coming!” I call to Tamsin. “Everything’s fine!”
Totally and completely fine.
