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I push past her, not even bothering to reply. There is no point antagonizing her. She will have to get used to Max and me being together at some stage, but right now is not the time.
As soon as I arrive at my sister’s house, I open the door to find the mess cleaned up and Tatiana, Tanya, and John sitting around the table. They all glance at me when I enter, Tatiana with the baby in her arms. I step closer to look at her, but notice my sister hold her a little tighter.
“Do you know what you did?” Tatiana asks.
“What I did?”
Tears fall down her cheeks. “Not only will I lose you if you die, but I’ll also lose her.” Her gaze falls on the baby. John sits there silently while Tanya quietly plays with her nails.
“I was just trying to help.”
“And I thank you for what you did. I’m not sure where I would be if I lost her.” John reaches out and lays a hand on her arm, but she doesn’t acknowledge him. “Max is leaving, but you need to stay.”
I pull out a chair and sit at the table with them. “Why?”
“Because I can’t have you out there defending them. I need you here where I know what to expect.”
“You won’t be able to protect me from everything,” I tell her. “And I won’t be locked away here either.” I stand, shaking my head. “I’m not a prisoner, Tatiana, least of all yours.”
Her sharp eyes find mine. “What’s that meant to mean?”
“It means that you are my sister, not my warden.”
She rears her head back at my words. “I will do whatever is necessary to protect what’s mine.”
“And you can, but I amnotyours.”
I turn to leave, but I hear her chanting a spell. No one does anything to stop her, and when I turn back around, I see Tanya has her head down, and John is watching Tatiana.
Her eyes go vibrant green, and I see the spell forming—it’s one that would bind me to the house. I storm over to her, and as she gets to the last verse, I snatch the spell away from her and break it.
Everyone stops breathing.
“How?”
I don’t know how I did that, but I could see like it was a bubble that just needed to be popped. So that’s what I did.
“You willneverdo that to me again. Do you hear me?” I state.
John stands, and I spin toward him. “If you try anything, John, I will put you down.”
“Talia,” Tanya says. “This needs to stop. She just wants you safe, so in return, the baby is safe.”
“I’ll work out a way to break the spell, but I’m not staying here while I do that.”
“You can’t break it,” John says firmly.
“I couldn’t do a lot of things, yet here I am.” I throw my hands up and grab our mother’s diary from the table, which is open to the spell I used on the baby. It says that the spell can’t be broken, but there is a note that she had never tried the spell, so that means there could be a way around the issue. I put the diary under my arm and walk out the door. As soon as the door is shut behind me, I head straight to Max’s tent.
I hate that he was right.
That he saw what was about to happen before I did.
How he felt it.
I bump into someone, and my head rises to find Max staring down at me.
Except his face is unreadable.
