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I couldn’t think about that. They were with me, and I was with them, and I had to defendthemwith everything I had. Which meant convincing Dad that I was better off with them than any witching man he could have offered me. Convincing Dad to help me hide the choice I’d made from the people in the Assembly who’d kill us over it.
Yeah. No pressure. Ha.
“You could always wait a little longer,” Phil offered.
“No,” I said, sitting up. “I’ve put it off long enough already. Dad’s shown no indication he wants anything but what’s best for me. I just have to change his mind and convince him thatthisis what’s best. I want Derek out of this house. I want to be able to see the guys without so much sneaking. I just have to… do the best I can to explain all of it.”
Time to just get it over with. Derek had gone to his room after breakfast, saying his ribs were hurting him. The witch Dad had managed to summon had sealed the cracks, but he was still bruised up. Dad would be back in his office. I could catch him there, lay it all out like I’d meant to yesterday, and see where we went from there.
As I was heading for my door, my phone rang in my purse. I hesitated. Who’d be calling me? It was my regular phone, and I didn’t normally hear from anyone on it outside of the family.
With a grimace, I backtracked and fished the phone out of my purse. I didn’t recognize the number.
I raised it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Rosalind,” a clear, haughty voice carried through the speaker. My heart lurched with the thought that it was Celestine, defying my magic and my orders. Then I realized it sounded far too young. The next words confirmed my suspicion. “I hope you’ve got some explanation for what’s happened to my mother.”
“Hi, Evianna,” I said, dropping into my armchair. It was my older stepsister, who I enjoyed talking to only slightly more than I’d enjoyed spending time with her mother. Which was not at all. I felt a lot less guilty playing ignorant with her than I did with my Dad. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, please. Something clearly sent her running away from your estate without letting any of us know what was wrong. Don’t tell me you have no idea why. It’s probably your fault.”
If she thought that attitude was a good way to get me talking, she had another thing coming. “I honestly don’t know,” I said, almost enjoying the lie. “I got up the other morning and she was just gone. Maybe it was something between her and my father? Or maybe she was involved in things we didn’t know about at all. She didn’t bother to tell us. If anyone should know, wouldn’t it beyou?”
“Yes,” Evianna said snippily. “That’s exactly how I know she must have been forced out, suddenly. Otherwise she would have talked to me first. And it must have been something horrible for her not to talk to me about itafter. You Hallowells think you’re so above most of the rest of us. But believe me, if you’re not going to talk, I will find out some other way.”
I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. “I don’t know what you think I could have done. Your mother was a fully-fledged witch. I haven’t even come into my magic yet.”
“We both know there are ways of getting around that. Tools you could have acquired. Friends you might have turned to for help.”
Except I hadn’t. “Why don’t you just talk to your mother?” I said. Let Celestine make up some excuse. She’d gotten herself into this mess, really. She’d created it.
Evianna drew in a sharp breath. “I would havelikedto,” she said, sounding suddenly ragged. “If I’d know where she was before…”
My body tensed at her use of the past tense. Wait a second. “What are you talking about?” I said. “Before what?”
“Oh, so you aren’t gloating over that already?” She sniffed, a hitch of what sounded like genuine grief creeping into her voice. “She’s gone. There wasn’t time for a witching medic to get to her. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. The way the car… I had to go identify her, you know.”
My heart thumped hard. “What car? Evianna, I don’t know what you mean.”
Except I did. She’d said enough. I just needed her to confirm it.
“She died last night,” Evianna snapped. “A car hit her. Some stupid unsparked asshole. All right? But it’s not just on him. It’s on you and your father and whoever else there that chased her away… She couldn’t have been thinking right. She mustn’t have been paying enough attention. Too distracted worrying about whatever sent her running in the first place. So I’m asking you again—what happened there last week?”
I couldn’t find my words. Celestine was dead? Dad had just gone to see her two days ago. And now…
A chill crept over me as I remembered what Ky had said about the Assembly’s report, the witch and her unsparked lover. Both of them killed in supposed accidents. Maybe Dad had found out more from Celestine than he’d told me. Or maybe someone else had.
A car might have hit her, but what were the chances it had really been an accident?
Chapter Twenty
Damon
Normally I felt pretty good when I finished a job for Silvio. Like I’d pulled one over on the assholes in this town, all those pricks I knew looked down on me when they bothered to look at me at all. But this afternoon, as I ambled through our pathetic excuse for a downtown, my mood felt a lot like the sky overhead: hazy with shifting clouds.
My footsteps sounded too loud on the sidewalk. The muggy heat congealed against my skin, but at the same time I felt too exposed without the familiar weight of my jacket.
Silvio’s guy had teased me about the lack of leather jacket when I’d shown up at the meeting spot, even though I’d have been sweating buckets if I had worn it. And he’d mentioned their “successful” rendezvous with Derek yesterday, with a meaningful look I hadn’t liked at all.
