Page 62 of Dawn Unearthed

“It has,” my aunt said. “You were always meant to be here. I still think something was pushing you away.”

She frowned as she said it, and I leaned forward. “You’re thinking of Faith.”

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Why didn’t I ask you to come up earlier? When Rupert first passed. Why didn’t I ask you to come when Rupert was still alive? He would have loved it here. He may not have understood it right away, but he would have felt at home.”

I frowned. “What about Rome?”

“Nothing would have happened with Rome because you were already married. Mating isn’t as harsh and cruel as that. It doesn’t make sense that I wouldn’t want my niece, my blood, a future member of the coven to be here, though. And not because it’s fate and it wouldn’t make sense for you to be here until the time was right. Why wouldn’t I want my family here?”

“You think Faith kept me away. Kept me from thinking about my ink or how magic seemed to be all around me, even when I didn’t realize it.”

“Her or this Oriel, whoever he is.”

I swallowed hard. “I think you’re right. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Yes, I was meant to be here now, but I think fate is also a choice, and something kept me away.”

“And that scares me, Sage. Because why didn’t it want you here until just this moment? And not so that you could meet Rome. Because mating can take years to develop. You can know someone for your entire life until, finally, the magic within you clicks, and you understand who you should be with. So, even if you had been here for years, you and Rome might not have realized who you were to each other until this moment. It was as if something was holding you back, and now it’s pushing you like a rubber band snapping. You pull too hard or for too long, and when it comes together, it snaps or breaks in half.”

“All mating isn’t this intense, is it?” I asked, rubbing my heart.

“It doesn’t have to be. But I don’t know. It feels like something kept you away on purpose. And I don’t like it.”

I opened my mouth to say something more, but I stopped, looking up as water began dripping from the ceiling.

“Is that a leak?” Aunt Penelope asked, and I swallowed hard.

“I think you should get your dagger,” I said, the hairs on my arms rising.

She met my gaze and pulled the blade out of the sheath on her hip. I spread my fingers, allowing my magic to come to me. We had wards on the town, the bakery, and each of our homes. We had done our best to protect ourselves. And yet, it seemed we were missing something.

Water poured from the ceiling in earnest, but none of it reached the floor. Instead, it hovered above it, over the wood and every piece of furniture. My aunt gave me a worried look.

“Is that you, Sage?”

“No, it’s not me.”

“She only wishes she was this strong,” Faith said as she walked into the building.

My aunt whirled, looking at the necromancer. “How did you get in here?”

“You think your wards can stop me? All it takes is a bit more magic, a few more drops of blood. That’s why you and your precious little coven will never win. You’re not strong enough. You never will be. You are wasting much of your power so you can save your moral code, and you’ll end up losing much because of it. You aren’t as strong as I am. You never will be. And it’s your fault that this is even happening.”

I rolled my shoulders back, prepared to fight and protect my aunt. “You should go now. The others will know you’re here.”

“The others are already taken care of. Why do you think you’re all alone here with only this little human to help you out?”

Fear coated my stomach, my tongue, and I tensed. “What did you do?”

“Do you think I’m alone? The others will be along shortly, I suppose, but we needed to keep them busy first. Now, about you.” Faith sneered. “You think you know everything? You don’t know anything. All you know is that you came here thinking you would find a new life. You didn’t realize that the life you had, wasn’t yours to begin with.”

“What do you mean?” My pulse raced, and I tried to keep up, my mouth going dry.

“What I mean is that I took everything you thought you wanted. Your perfect little husband. That perfect little family. I took that, too. Did you ever wonder why Rupert’s family never loved you?”

Pain sliced through me. This wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. What she said didn’t make any sense.

The witch sneered. “I didn’t let them love you. A spell here. A whisper there, and they neverwouldlove you. They would never trust you. As for Rupert… Do you think he died of a brain tumor, just out of the blue, with no symptoms until he suddenly had a slight headache and had to go to the doctor? No, that’s not how things work.”

I felt as if I couldn’t breathe, as if someone were screaming in my ear, yet I couldn’t keep up. This couldn’t be right. What Faith was saying couldn’t be true. It had to be a mistake.

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