Page 57 of Mate Me

“Tell me about it,” she said in exasperated agreement. “Once you taught him how to read, he just absorbed everything and became a fountain of knowledge.”

“I wonder what he would say about my dream.”

She shrugged, and while the initial action irked me, I knew it was because she didn’t understand all of it yet. “Now that you’ve shifted, it goes to reason that you’d start remembering things?—”

“This wasn’tmymemory,” I said, cutting her off, but keeping my voice low. Caius and Pol were supposed to be in my room. They didn’t strike me as the type to press their ears to the door and eavesdrop, but this conversation was critical.

“How is that possible? What do you mean it wasn’t your memory?” She dropped her voice too, following my lead.

“It felt so incredibly real, like I was stuck in the body of another woman, unable to stop anything. I couldn’t even shut my eyes to what she was doing. I was the passenger. A witness, paralyzed to react.”

“A witness to what?” she prompted.

“I think I saw Caius lose his soul.”

When she didn’t respond, I turned to look at her. Wide eyes and fingers stilled, she watched me. “What do you meanthink?”

“I’m like ninety-nine-point nine percent certain.”

“And the other point-one percent?”

“Logic telling me it’s impossible for me to see the past, let alone experience it from Abraxia’s perspective.”

“Abraxia?” she repeated carefully, and I nodded. “Tell me everything.”

By the end of it, Clara was completely stunned. At some point she’d set the cup aside and sat cross-legged by the bath, listening intently.

“That’s insane,” she said in a low voice.

“But?” I nudged her on, hearing it in her voice.

“Not impossible. You guard half his soul, right? And you’re her descendant. Maybe something about being around him is triggering the memories of your blood. I’ve heard of it happening in incredibly powerful witch lines sometimes.”

I sighed. “I’m only a half witch.”

“So?” she replied. “Reagan you’re a motherfucking dark unicorn. It doesn’t get much more special than that. Your mom was a pretty powerful witch from what my dad said. You descend from a mortal that literally stripped a primordial of their primordial . . . ness.”

“Primordialness?”

“It’s a word now. The point stands. You have no idea what your witch powers are because you were forced to forget. For all you know your specialty lies in something that lets you see the past.”

“What do you mean specialty?”

“Well, you know, I’m a spirit witch. It means that my magic is largely centered around spirits and death. Least it was before I crossed over to Tartarus. Not that I see that changing much since this place is all death magic.”

“Maybe I’ve got spirit magic too?” I said thoughtfully.

“Maybe,” Clara shrugged. “You could be a time witch, or a seer for all I know. Specialties may be specific, but they’re also broad. There are a lot of ways that one can present. Hell, you could even be a blood witch. The sky is the limit there.”

While this knowledge was useful information, it didn’t answer anything about if what I really saw was a memory or not.

“Why don’t you ask Caius what happened?” Clara said, seeming to read my mind despite me knowing for a fact that wasn’t one of her powers.

I groaned, sinking into the water. “It’s my only option, but I feel so guilty for treating him like I did. I keep holding on to the fact he was going to kill me when he walked through that door.”

“Well, he was. We all know that. But we would have done the same if the situation were reversed.”

I scowled. “That’s pretty much what he said.”

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