Page 38 of Prey

“How would you have known? He must have been a great actor. I know you caught him cheating, but you thought your father was dead this whole time. There isn't any way you could’ve known they had him. Wewillget him back and then wipe them off the earth. I promise you.” He wraps me in his arms and I look at Ethan over his shoulder. He just nods, then standing, he pulls out his phone and walks out to the yard to start making calls.

Grams looks at me in sympathy. She never could see anything when I was with Logan except for the cheating. That’s actually how I found out to begin with. Now that we know he and his family are with the Society, it makes more sense. Humans can’t use magic. But the Society uses them as puppets, so they can sort of perform a little bit of magic. It isn’t their own though. More like the Society doing it from behind the scenes and using the human as a conduit.

I have mates now. I don’t ever have to worry about that again, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less to know I never meant anything to Logan. I was just a means to an end. A treat to dangle in front of him to get a job done. A babysitting job.

My anger rises.

Breathing deeply, I try to reign it in a little. I need to keep a clear head when we go in there. I have to get my father out. I can’t do that if I go in there and just start blasting everyone. Ethan walks back over, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

“Laken, Joaquin, and a couple of the other enforcers are on their way here. We will need some back up I’m sure. Once they get here, we can come up with a plan, okay?”

I nod and then stand. Pacing a little, I try to figure out what all I might need to take with me for supplies. Definitely some firstaid stuff in case he’s too injured for on site healing. You have to be careful sometimes that you heal everything, not just what’s on the outside. I’ll need to take him to Jessa at Supe General. They can work on him there. If there’s something serious, they are more equipped to deal with it than we are on the spot.

Grams stands and motions us to follow her. She leads us down to the basement. “I took another look at the wand last night and I don’t feel anything bad coming off of it at all. I fashioned it into some gauges for your ears. I know you tend to lean toward the wooden ones anyway. Once you put them in, you are the only one who can take them out. If anyone else tries, it won’t work.”

She hands them to me, and I remove the ones I have now and place these in my lobes. They are the perfect size. As I do, I feel a rush of magic flood my body. My skin glows and I hear a buzzing in my ears and I go down on my hands and knees. The guys start to rush me but I hear Grams stop them, though it sounds muffled over the rushing sounds in my ears.

This is a lot of fucking magic. The tattoo on my wrist lights up. I hear a sort of music then, like the magics are harmonizing? When they reach the same pitch, everything suddenly stops. No more buzzing, no more glowing skin. All back to normal. Sitting back on my heels I try to catch my breath and take stock of my body.

I feel…powerful, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. My powers have never been something to sneeze at, but now? I feel like I could take on anyone and win. Like nothing can stop me. I put a lid on that shit real quick. Let’s not even go there.

At that thought, I feel my magic pulse inside of me, almost in approval? Was it testing me to see what I would do with it? Then I hear a voice.

“Shasta Arya, hear me now. I am Shiva. Your family has carried a piece of me for a long time. The Society has chased that piece of me for thousands of years. They are much, mucholder than even you knew they were. They’ve gone by many names over the years, the Society is just the newest one.

I’ve been keeping your father alive for the last five years. You must get to him soon or there will be nothing else I can do. Whatever you do, though, do not let the Society get their hands on your power. They want you to perform a spell of immortality on them.

Stupid humans. Always wanting to live forever. It’s not a good time, trust me.

You can ask your friend Joaquin, I’m sure he can tell you.”

Shiva, being sarcastic in my head? Can anyone else hear him, I wonder?

“Only you. If you look, you’ll see that I’ve stopped time to speak with you.”

I look around me to see Grams and the guys frozen in place. Holy shit. Do I have this power?

“You do. But you don’t need to use it unless it’s an absolute emergency. Playing with time is no joke and you don’t yet know enough about your new powers to mess with it. Along with being able to use time magic, you have all the powers of all your family members recorded in your Grimoire. Learn to utilize them. You won’t have time for that today though. You need to get to your father as soon as possible. You both are…special to me. I don’t have time to explain right now. Your father will tell you when he can. Just go to him. I wish you all the luck, my child. I will return to you.”

The hold over me releases and I see that time has started again.

None of them even know what happened.

All the powers of my family members.

There are over two-hundred family members recorded in that Grimoire. Great Goddess, that’s a lot to take in.

The guys rush to me and help me stand. I’m still a little shaky but it doesn't take me long to feel more stable.

I tell the three of them what just happened and I see my Grams smile a weird smile. “What is it?”

“Get your Grimoire, I want to check something.”

I nod and pull on my Grimoire with my magic. It pops into my hands. Grams grabs it and lays it on the table, opening it to the list of names on the family tree. Suddenly, I can read them all. What the hell?

Watching my face, Grams smiles. “That, child, is the language of the Gods. And now you can read it. You are a full demigod now.” Her voice sounds like she is in awe. Hell, I am in awe. Why me? Why not my father? A lot of this could have been avoided if it would have been him.

The guys look shocked. I can’t blame them. Hi, here’s your mate, a witch one of you hates, and to top it all off she's a demigod too. That’s a lot to take in for anyone.

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