Page 46 of Wickedly Yours

“My… cat?” I asked, surprise filtering through my tone. “Do you not have cats here?” Zain had reacted strangely to her as well.

She blinked as if processing the word. “Not like that one. What is its purpose?”

“Selene’s my familiar. Though she doesn’t have a specific purpose. I mean, she can understand my emotions, and I hers. We have a deep bond. But she’s also my companion. She doesn’tdoanything.” My cat meowed as if in objection, then curled back up in a ball, keeping one eye open and directed at us.

Novalie brushed her fingers through my hair. “Some demons can also shift forms. So to answer your earlier question—yes, there are cats in this world, but they aremore. Pets are a luxury that most demons could never afford.” I thought that sounded a little sad.

“And there are a lot of these…. shifter demons?” I asked instead, curious to know more.

She just nodded, beginning to style my hair. “Our princes, for example, were both born from different mothers. Damien is descended from a shifter queen to the east, and she was a cat shifter.”

“And… so is he,” I surmised.

Another nod. I guessed it finally made sense why my first meeting with Damien had occurred when he was just a cute, snuggly black cat.

Suddenly, I wanted to know the full story. How my sister had pickedhim.If she’d known he was a demon all along.

Maybe I’d been able to sense there was something more there, something between them, but my powers weren’t perfect. This was one of those instances where I’d wished I could have used my sight more, but being taught to suppress those abilities my whole life made them harder to tap into.

“And Zain?” I asked, slightly absentmindedly. Thinking about those beautiful feathered wings that he had let free in front of me. “What abilities did he inherit?”

The golden eyes.

How long had those haunted me?

“I better let him tell you.”

“Oh.” I tried to hide my disappointment at not learning more about the man I was going to marry soon.

But I desperately wanted to know more about him. Ever since I’d met him in the bar, I’d had the oddest sensation that Iknewhim somehow. Like my soul called to his.

I tried to think back on what Willow had asked me before ghoul’s night at the bar.

“Luna, I… Do you believe in fate? In destiny?”

I’d just blinked, staring up from my mixer. “Where is this coming from?”

Willow shook her head. “No reason. Just…” She let out a deep sigh, looking as if she was trying to find the right words.

So, I offered my own instead. “I believe the Goddess gives us the paths we can follow, but the rest is up to us.” It was what our parents had always taught us to believe. But even more than that, with my own abilities—I knew that the future could always change. What I saw wouldn’t always come to pass.

Willow turned to face me fully. “But like…twin flames, kindred spirits, soul mates. That stuff. Do you believe there’s someone out there who you’re fated to be with? To fall in love with?”

I tilted my head, wondering if her new companion was the reason for all her questions. If she wanted to know… “You’ve always told me not to look into your future. That you didn’t want to know. But now…” I raised an eyebrow.

“No!” Willow exclaimed a little too quickly as if she knew what I was implying. “I still don’t want to know.” She spoke the next words so softly I hardly heard her over the noise of the frosting in the mixer. “I was just wondering.”

Setting the bowl on the counter between the two of us, I leveled a stare at her. “Willow, what are you really asking me?”

“When Mom met Dad, she knew, right? Do you think that’s possible?”

I thought it over for only a moment before I nodded my head, thinking of what our parents had told us growing up. Sometimes I missed them so much. How much they loved us—and each other. It was hard not having them with us anymore. “I think anything’s possible, Willow.” Letting my magic take over, I moved the spoon in the frosting bowl as if to make my next point. “Especially in a world where magic exists.”

Had she known? The moment she’d met Damien? That he was her…

I couldn’t even think it. Because I wouldn’t dare utter those words. To begin to imagine them as the truth.

This wasn’t about love or fate. Even if meeting him at the Enchanted Cauldron had felt a lot like the latter. No, it was simply…Lust. Infatuation. And even if I still wanted him all the time, I couldn’t help but question everything he’d ever told me.

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