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I nod a few times. “Declan, I’m curious, how did you know my parents?”
He smiles and the sides of his eyes crinkle. Declan lets me go and shoves his hands into his pockets, then lowers his gaze to the ground. “I met them when I was just a little older than you are now,” he answers. “They brought me into many meetings, taught so much about magic, and informed me about Blackthorn Academy. They were, in a way, my second set of parents.”
“I wonder why they never mentioned you,” I whisper to myself.
“To answer that,” he says, leaning in and in a softer voice. “I could say it would have happened upon joining the academy your first year.”
“Oh, do you teach,” Evie asks.
He shakes his head and opens his mouth to answer when Shayde does it for him.
“He’s a warrior, like a warlock, who can cast and conjure. Your reputation precedes you.” Shayde holds his hand out and Declan shakes it with a chuckle.
“I wouldn’t go on any stories you heard unless they’re tales of something a lunatic would do.” He grins, releases the handshake, and turns back to me. “I need to leave you now, but here’s my contact information if you ever need me.”
Declan hands over a business card with his name and cell number printed on it. I tuck it into my purse.
“Thank you,” I manage to say, before he disappears before our eyes. I shake my head and raise my arms just enough to let them fall to my sides in a shrug. “Well? That was… interesting.”
“Okay, fill in the blanks.” Evie crosses her arms over her chest.
“Yeah,” Shayde adds. “Why do you need allies? What’s going on?”
I explain everything Declan told me; from my bloodline being eternal, to me being next to reign and my ascension to power.
I begin to pace and the wind tousles my hair across my back, tickling my skin enough to give me a shiver. “How could I have missed all this? I remember what we saw in the library, but honestly, I didn’t think any of it stood to be real.”
“How do you mean,” Shayde asks.
I face him and wrap my arms around my waist. “Just that this is how our lineage started. Then, maybe over time, it all faded out. You know, like how people would worship Gods and Goddesses who now are just legend. Kind of like that. Though I’m no Goddess.”
“To me, you’re a fucking Goddess,” he growls through a whisper next to my ear.
“Ugh, get a room,” Evie groans.
I find myself giggling at her expense. “Thank you. I just assumed people didn’t use the titles anymore. Like Lord and Lady. I don’t know how to rule or be in charge. I’m still trying to be responsible for this army I raised. And that’s like chasing a bunch of cats at times.”
A crackle of electricity erupts in the air and heels strike the pavement as someone makes their way closer to where we stand.
Is it the leaders?
Maybe it’s someone else from inside.
When I turn to examine who it is, my mood immediately turns sour.
I stifle a groan. “Hello, Dafni. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Whatever,” she bites back, then approaches Shayde. She slips her arm around his and holds onto him for a moment and it’s intimate.
Should I be jealous?
Fuck no, what’s to be jealous of?
But when she leans against him and smiles, it takes everything in me to not plow a spell toward her that would rip her face right off.
“So, are you going to tell her, or am I,” she asks.
Shayde stiffens in an unusual way. Almost as if he’s about to attack Dafni. “Don’t.”
