Page 134 of The Witch is Back

A strong current of electricity ran through Emma’s body at the word.

Clarissa stilled. “Excuse me?”

“No.” The tremor was the first good feeling she’d had for days and she relished it. “No.”

“You don’t get a say.”

Emma’s laugh would have cracked the mirror if it hadn’t already been shattered. “I’m not a kid anymore. You can’t control me. And I’m done letting you.” The words were out before she’d even thought them through.

They fell between mother and daughter like a challenge.

Clarissa’s eyebrows lifted, dangerous. “You’re my daughter. You are a Bluewater.”

“I’m Emma.” She spread her hands on the bar, needing to ground herself. “I’m just Emma.”

“Listen to me. You will go to the Truenotes and you will make them recall their nomadic son—”

“No.” Each time was its own giddy thrill. “I’m done trying to please you. Because I never will. And I shouldn’t have to try.”

“Nothing in this world is free.”

“Dad didn’t think so.”

“Your father was a fool.”

A flash of anger lit up inside her. “He was better than you. He gave me a choice.”

“Which just shows how weak he really was.” Clarissa sneered. “He was always weak. A slave to his feelings.”

“He fooled you,” Emma shot back. “He added the clause under your nose.”

“He got lucky. And it’s no matter now.” Clarissa fisted a hand at Emma in threat. “I will have the power I was promised.”

“No, you won’t,” Emma shot back. “And you know, while we’re sharing, you never would have. I figured out how to stop your leech power from taking magic from any Joining.”

Clarissa stilled, a moment of silence before a scream. Everything went to hyperawareness.

“I will never let you take from me or mine again,” Emma said. Shakily, but she said it. Behind the counter, her hands curled into combat position, just in case.

“If you mean that bastard half daughter of your father’s, you can keep her.”

The words hit with an impact she hadn’t seen coming. Emma swayed as if struck. “Wh-what?”

“Please. As if I didn’t know what your father was doing.” Clarissa eyed her with disdain. “As if I didn’t know why you were so desperate to leave New Orleans.”

“Then why help me?”

“I didn’t help you.” As if the very idea gave her a churning stomach, Clarissa recoiled. “I needed the situation managed. I couldn’t have people asking questions, questions that might bring shame to the family name. Not when we’re so close to getting everything I have worked for.”

Still reeling from the idea that Clarissa had known all this time, Emma fisted a hand on her stomach and forced herself to keep on track. “You need to look elsewhere, because Bastian is gone.”

“As if we could get anyone better than Bastian Truenote.”

Well, that was true.

Seeing that agreement on her face, Clarissa stepped forward. “This is the only way you can have him, Emmaline. No warlock of his caliber would choose to be with you.”

Words she’d heard all her life. From outside the manor and from in. She had to do this to please Bastian, do that to fit in, to look powerful, to hold up the family name.

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