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I’d only just reconnected with my mom’s family. They were the only family I’d been able to trust after what Dad had put me through. Was I going to lose them too now, as soon as I told them the truth?
Out in the suite’s living room, Kyler was peering intently at his laptop screen—surprise, surprise. Jin was sketching something on a pad of paper, and Damon had passed out for a nap on the couch across from him. Gabriel turned where he was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the kitchenette area. Seth had gone out about an hour ago to check about supplies for a plan he’d been working out—one he hadn’t wanted to even tell me much about until he was sure he could get the materials he needed.
One the Assembly might not even bother to try, the way things were going.
“How are things back home?” Gabriel asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Naomi’s on her wayhere, with my aunts and Lesley. I have to go down and meet them in the lobby.”
He set down his mug, his expression showing he’d already guessed my fears. “I’ll come with you.”
“It’s okay, really. I—”
“Rose. I’ll come with you.”
Jin got up. “I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs too.”
Ky looked around at us, his eyes a little dazed from all that time staring at screens. “You don’t need me, right? I think I might have found something that’ll help with Seth’s idea…” He made a grabbing motion toward Gabriel with a smile. “Pass me that coffee if you’re not going to drink it?”
Gabriel chuckled and set the mug on the desk beside Ky as he made his way to meet me at the door. I looked down at myself, at the dress that was a little wrinkled from my hasty packing when the Assembly had summoned us. Oh, it wasn’t as if my family was going to decide how they felt about my situation based on the neatness of my clothing.
The three of us headed down on the elevator. Jin rubbed my back soothingly, and Gabriel squeezed my hand. “Nothing has really changed, Sprout,” he said. “They’ll see that.”
I swallowed hard. “I hope so.”
We reached the lobby just as Naomi and the others were coming through the front doors. “Rose!” Naomi cried, and hustled over to give me a hug. Lesley trailed behind her shyly, and my aunts headed for the lobby desk. Ginny shot me a warm smile. Irene gave me an unreadable look.
I hugged my cousin back, choking up just to have her here. “We managed to book a couple rooms over the phone on the way over,” Naomi said as she pulled back. “Fastest travel arrangements ever!” She grinned. “When they let us in, we’ll lug our suitcases up there, and then I need to hear the full story about why the Assembly people are being such asses. Hey, Gabriel, Jin!” She offered my consorts a little wave.
I wasn’t sure if it’d have felt better to spill this secret right there in the lobby, versus having to hold it in the whole way back up to the floor they were staying on, but I couldn’t start talking about magic and demons in front of all the hotel’s unsparked clientele. After dropping off their suitcases, my aunts came with the rest of us into the room Naomi and Lesley were sharing. Naomi dropped down onto the edge of one of the beds and motioned for me to sit in the armchair near the TV.
“All right,” she said with a swish of her chestnut ponytail. “Let’s hear it. I want to know who to direct my righteous fury at.”
I tried to smile, but my control over my mouth wavered. Gabriel and Jin came up to flank me, Gabriel resting a hand on my shoulder. I could have asked them to do the explaining, but that didn’t feel right.
“I guess if you’re going to direct fury at anyone,” I said, “it should probably be my dad. There was more than we knew going on after he and my mom got married. He—” I paused to collect myself, glancing at my aunts. “Naomi told you about the Frankfords, and the demons, and how they were using the witches?”
Aunt Ginny’s expression darkened. “We got the gist of it. Bastards.”
Her anger bolstered my courage, but only a little. “Well, in case you didn’t know about this part, the whole arrangement with the demons, it was so the men in that faction could take some of the power from that plane of existence into themselves. So that they could use it, like we use our spark, to change things. It doesn’t last the same way, so they had to keep going back. But that’s not the point. The point is— When my parents were trying to get pregnant— I don’t really know why he did it—”
My voice caught in my throat, trying to get to the heart of the matter. The choked-up feeling I’d had before overwhelmed me. My eyes went hot. Before I could catch them, tears started leaking out.
“Rose!” Aunt Ginny said, sounding so concerned her voice only made me sob.
I pressed my hand to my mouth, fighting for composure. Jin knelt next to me, threading his arm around mine. Gabriel squeezed my shoulder. They were here with me. No matter what happened with my mother’s family, I wasn’t alone.
Aunt Ginny was here with me too. She crouched down in front of me, taking my free hand in hers. “You don’t have to talk about it,” she said gently. “Not now. Not ever if you don’t want to. It’s all right.”
A laugh sputtered out of me. “No, it’s not. And you’ll find out anyway if I don’t. So…” I dragged in a breath and forced myself to start telling the revised account of my conception.
Ginny stayed where she was as my explanation came out, the others frozen where they were poised on the two beds, Naomi’s eyes growing wider by the minute. By the time I finished, my body was trembling. I gritted my teeth and willed myself steady.
“So, that’s why I’m here and not with the Assembly,” I said. “That power must have affected me. I’ve got some kind of connection to the demons, including the one they’re trying to push back. They don’t want it using me or me helping it somehow. I guess that makes sense.”
I looked up cautiously. Naomi pushed herself to her feet, her jaw set and her eyes narrowed.
“It doesn’t,” she snapped. “It doesn’t make any sense at all. If youdohave that connection, which obviously doesn’t endear those monsters to you anyway, you might be the key to figuring this whole mess out.”
