Page 150 of The Blood Witch

“Does that matter?” Jasper asked skeptically.

“For this? Oh yes. It matters.” Joy smiled.

“Shifters and Witches have produced children before,” Sana explained, fiddling with the sleeve of her robes. “Many times, over the history of the realm. But… we’ve never heard of their offspring possessing both sets of gifts, one from each parent. And if Alastair really does have the gift of Blood Magic?—”

“He what?” asked Jasper, frowning.

“—and if that gift did come from breeding with Witches,” Sana continued, unabated. “Perhaps our Factions have more in common than we once thought.”

“That got me thinking,” Joy started to say. Sana shot her a look, and Joy quickly rephrased. “Got us thinking. Maybe… maybe these gifts only appear after several generations of interbreeding between the Factions. Maybe Vivian’s power doesn’t just come from her father being a Witch, but frommultiple sources, coalescing in her family line. Inyourfamily line. And if that’s the case… Fey, if that’s the case, there’s a chance—a small chance—Jasper may be the same. And there could be many more like him, Shifters with Witch blood. Maybe Demons, too.”

Jasper blinked, slowly. Then he chuckled, shaking his head.

“Hang on… you’re not suggesting I’m a Witch? Like… like all of you?” he asked with a wry smile.

Sana shook her head. “Not a full Witch, no. But you—and others like you—might share enough genetic similarity with us that, well… certain things may be possible. Things we never considered, before. Like…”

“Like healing sigils,” Joy finished, beaming.

Clearly, the conversation was lost on Jasper, who looked at each of them blankly.

But Fey’s mind roiled with the possibilities. If that were true… if there was enough Witch blood in the Shifter factions…

“Do you really think he—?” Fey began.

“Only one way to find out!” Joy grinned. She held her hand out, palm open, to Sana, and after a moment of hesitation, Sana pulled a thin, silver knife from the pockets of her robes and handed it to her.

“This is probably going to hurt,” Joy told Jasper, with a sympathetic glance, as she set a bowl of black ink on the nightstand. A lick of flame shot down the knife as she held it, hovering over the tip.

“But if this works?” Joy’s eyes flashed. “If this works, this could save countless lives.”

The effect was instantaneous.

The moment Joy finished the last line of the healing sigil on his shoulder, stepping back to admire her work, Jasper drew a deep breath. He stared around at them in shock.

And the bruises marring his body started to fade.

Chapter 73

AMALIA

Amalia stared into the mirror. A poor proximity of her mother’s face stared back. Incomplete. Still lacking something she couldn’t quite figure out.

Vee’s words played in a loop through her head.

You’re nothing but a little doll.

A little doll.

A little doll.

Vivian was right. That was all she was, wasn’t she? Nothing but a plaything. Something molded by others, manipulated by others.

Used by others.

The piece of brick she’d taken from the rooftop that night was sharp and jagged in her hand as she squeezed it tight.

That’s what she’d been to her mother, after all. A doll. And not even a doll her mother had wanted. No—that had been the problem, hadn’t it? Her mother had wanted a miniature version of herself. An ice queen, powerful and untouchable. Cold and aloof.

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