AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She bites her bottom lip and studies our group carefully. “I never meant to cause any trouble. I owe you my life,” she adds to Delaney.
“What happened?”
“Bronywyn called me to her house two days ago,” she says, softly. “Her new one.”
“And you didn’t tell us?” Rainey roars, cheeks flushing with anger. “Tarnley nearly died while Delaney searched for her.”
“She made me promise not to say anything…told me that she was trying to protect you guys.”
“Bronywyn preyed on Magnolia’s loyalty,” Walker says.
Rainey spins to face him. “Whose side are you on?”
“The side of facts, not emotions.”
She glares at him. “You’remypartner.”
“Which means I am bound to always tell you the truth. Even if you don’t want to hear it.” He turns to Magnolia. “Continue.”
The young witch swallows hard. “She asked me to report back to her with whatever it was you guys were doing. Said that by doing so, I was helping you because it gave her a heads up to go there and help.”
“So, the other night at the blood den, you’re the one who told her about it?”
She nods at Cole’s question. “I told her where you were going, and she promised to keep you all safe. I couldn’t risk any of you getting hurt. Please understand.” Tears fall from the corners of her eyes, and Drex places a hand on her back. “We’ve already lost so much, I—”
“You literally spied on us.” Rainey turns to Walker. “How the hell did you find out about this?”
The detective crosses both arms. “I had a feeling Magnolia was keeping something from us, so I asked her. She was honest.”
“A feeling? Seriously?”
He shrugs. “Sometimes I see things, and sometimes I feel them. This was a feeling. But the important part is that she was honest.”
“Honesty. Yeah, spying on us and reporting back to a dark witch is really honest.” Rainey turns to Magnolia. “Tell me, were you ever going to tell us the truth? If Walker hadn’t had a feeling about you?”
The young witch pales, obviously not thrilled at being on the receiving end of a glare from the youngest, and arguably least stable, Astor sister. “I—”
“Get her out of here, Drex.”
“Rainey—”
She turns to her sister. “No, Del. You want to give her another shot? Do it with your life, not ours. I trust once. One time. Once that trust is broken, I’m done.” Rainey turns back to Magnolia, whose bottom lip is now quivering. “I have no interest in giving anyone a second chance to deceive me. And now that we’ve officially pissed Bronywyn off? The last thing any of us needs is her being informed of our every move.”
“I won’t tell her anything else,” Magnolia argues.
“You shouldn’t have ever told her anything in the first place.” Rainey shoves past the young witch and into the hall.
“Give me a minute.” Walker jogs out after her, shutting the door softly behind him.
“What Mags did was wrong,” Drex tells us. “But she came clean.”
“The problem is that she came cleaneventually.” Delaney smiles empathetically at Magnolia. “Rainey is right. As of now, we can’t risk giving Bronywyn anything else to go off of.”
The door opens, and Rainey stalks in, Walker behind her. “Walker made a good point.” The hunter comes to stand in front of Magnolia. “You will continue to report back to Bronywyn.”
“You want her to go back there?” Drex demands. Kudos to the hunter for having the balls to stand up to Rainey.
She may be small, but there’s not one other person I’d bet on when it came to a face-off with the Astor. I’d put my money on her every single time.
“Yes.”
“Bronywyn is a dark witch. There’s no telling—”
“I will be fine, Drex,” Magnolia says, then turns to Rainey. “I’ll do it.”
“I know you will.” Rainey steps forward, going nearly toe-to-toe with Magnolia. “You need to remember one very crucial thing, Magnolia.” She holds out both arms. “These people are my family. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. And while I realize that you haven’t known me long, one thing you should know is that I will kill for my family. Should you inform Bronywyn of anything other than what we explicitly tell you to report, I will kill you. No hesitation, no more chances. Just you, me, and my favorite fucking blade.”
