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“No, my mother was old school. She believed in tradition andtraditionis loving and marrying your kind. She was a Moon Equinox witch, our coven was pure, but she also told me to trust my connection to the earth. The Moon Goddess chose you for me, why wouldn’t I trust that we should be together?”
“I know I’ve never asked you this and you’ve never shared with any of us that I know of… But where is your mother? And what do you know about your father?”
Toyin grimaced but didn’t speak. I sensed she was considering her words. She had been alone which was the reason my brothers had welcomed her to our pack. My reason was more selfish. She was mine even if I couldn’t have her. It devastated me to find out our fate but it would have devastated me more to not have some piece of her. Regardless of how much it pained me, I wanted her close.
“Now is not the time for secrets. I’ve never asked because it wasn’t relevant before now and I sensed there was pain behind the reason you were alone. You need to tell me what you know.”
“Very little,” she said quietly. “I never knew my father. She refused to discuss him with me, only sharing that he was very powerful and dangerous. Being with him was a mistake. That’s what she told me.”
“And you didn’t question her, not even when you were older?”
“I didn’t have to. He was a Circle of Ember Warlock. That much she did share but made me swear to never tell anyone. It took me a while to learn why.”
“Which is?” I knew very little about the magic or their kind. Enough to keep our pack safe and protected from witches which wasn’t much because we didn’t bother anyone or cross boundaries. We existed peacefully in our territory but defended when necessary. Rarely did we ever have to.
“Circle of Ember breeds the most powerful and god-like warlocks. When you think about magic, there’s a positive and negative, dark and light, which balances. Embers don’t have balance. They’re completely dark.”
“But you’re not…”
She shook her head. “I guess it bypassed me. My mother always said my lack of ability was a blessing. Maybe because she was afraid I would end up like him.” She seemed almost relieved.
“That doesn’t explain why you were alone.”
She grimaced again and mindlessly turned the ring on her finger. “After my mother made me promise to only be with our kind, she told me I needed to leave because I wasn’t safe. The divination she had put me in danger. I refused because she was all I had. Our coven…” Toyin swallowed back her emotions.
“But you left?” My brows pinched.
“Not on my own. I don’t know how or why but I suppose my mother was powerful enough to make it happen.”
“Make what happen?”
“I went to sleep one night and woke up alone. She was gone, my life was gone. There was no trace of my mother or the coven that had been my family. I searched for years, asked questions, and no one knew anything about them. It made me crazy for a while because I thought maybe I was. How could an entire coven not exist? How couldshenot exist? I eventually gave up and began living my life without their existence. I met you about a year later.” Her eyes slowly lifted to mine.
“And we offered you a home. A family…”
“Yes, so I never looked back. There was nothing to hold onto. I accepted my new life.”
Fuck! This was getting even more complicated.
“She didn’t tell you the entire story.”
“Then you tell me. I can sense you’re hiding something.”
I removed my phone and pulled up the articles I’d found online. Our truths were hidden in mythical retellings. When I lifted the device and handed it over, Toyin read, swiped, and continued reading. With each second that passed her brows pinched more and expression turned hopeless.
“This isn’t us, Xander. It’s not.”
“It is.”
“How do you know? A lot of these things are embellished and…”
“Read the rune on the pendant in the article. It’s the same one on your ring. On both rings.”
She glanced at the screen again and her lips parted briefly then slammed shut before she stared at me once more with hopelessness that crushed my soul.
“You’re rejecting me because you think this is true. You believe that if you choose me, some deeply rooted curse will ignite and I’ll try to…”
“Kill me, our son, my family, my pack.”
