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“I do, though. I’m not jealous, I’m glad that you guys have each other. And to be honest, anything I felt—or thought I felt—for Elijah, pales in comparison to Tarnley.”
“Look, I get it. I honestly do. Probably better than anyone here. Having something inside of you, telling you what to believe, what to feel, it’s impossible to determine where you end and the darkness begins. I don’t harbor any ill feelings toward you, Bronywyn. Grudges are not exactly in my wheelhouse.” She nudges me with her shoulder. “Besides, I already got to shoot you. I’m sure there are a lot of girls out there who would love to do the same to their significant others crazy ex.”
I laugh, the joy so much more than I deserve. “You’re probably right.”
“What are we down here discussing?” Delaney yawns as she steps into the room wearing grey sweats and a baggy t-shirt. She takes a seat on the couch beside Rainey.
“Rainey’s badassery.”
Delaney laughs. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Hey, you only live once. Might as well be a badass.”
“Unofficial motto?” I ask her.
“Official motto. When I’m lying there, likely bleeding to death, I don’t want to have any regrets.”
“Other than the moment that led to you bleeding to death?” Delaney questions. “Because I feel like, personally, that would be a pretty big-ass regret.”
“Obviously.”
“I wish I’d lived by that same philosophy,” I reply, honestly. “If I had, I would have killed the council the moment I came into my power at nineteen. Hell, I would have killed my father the moment they left me alone in that house with him.”
“You were a kid,” Delaney insists. “You can’t hold yourself accountable for being afraid.”
“At first, I won’t deny it, I was afraid. But as the days went by? I was just pissed. I was pissed at my mother for having the affair, for not telling me that the man who’d raised me wasn’t my father. And mostly, I was pissed at Joaquin for abandoning me.”
“Must have been one hell of a surprise when Elijah brought me into your clinic.”
“It was.”
“You told him you only saved me because I was Agatha’s granddaughter.”
I glance over at her.
“I get it,” she says, honestly. “Not only was your ex bringing in a strange woman, but to top it all off, I’m a direct descendent of the man who abandoned you.”
“I shouldn’t have been so awful to you. That’s another regret of mine.”
“No sweat,” Rainey replies, and just like earlier, I know she’s not just saying it for show. The youngest Astor says or does nothing she doesn’t mean or want to.
“I couldn’t let you die because despite how pissed I was—still am—at the Astor patriarch, letting you die wouldn’t bring him back so I could kick his ass. And, above all, we were family.”
“We are family,” Delaney says softly as she places her hand on mine. “We’re Astors.”
“This is all sweet and great, but Astors are going to be part of a dying line if we can’t figure out how to take the council out. I almost wish they would run, might be easier to take them out if they scatter. I should have killed Odette when that bitch showed up at my apartment.” Rainey crosses her arms. “I let her get in my head, instead.”
“I wasn’t making it easy for you tonotwant to kill me, so I get it.”
“Well, all of us have made the others want to kill them at one point or another. Shit, I had the original witch riding shotgun.”
“I let Cole’s death send me on a warpath,” Delaney says softly.
“And I absorbed shadow magic, then kept it and let it nearly convince me to let Tarnley die.”
“You didn’t, though.” Delaney turns to Rainey. “And you weren’t responsible for what Heather did while she was using your body.”
“No matter how many times you say that, I still see it as a lie.”
