Page 82 of Demons of Eden

“I don’t see how you can be here to help Eden when you’re also clearly here with the intention to kill her unborn child. There’s no way to do one without the other,” Suvi points out, crossing her arms over her chest as she glares at the coven members. She’s pissed, and an angry Suvi is scary enough when no one’s threatening to kill me.

“You’re wrong,” Alina disagrees, her eyes rimmed red, shaking her head and grabbing her mother’s arm, tugging it like an unruly toddler. “Tell them what you told us.” She sounds desperate, and it’s getting on my fucking nerves. Why the hell issheupset? She’s here to kill my baby.

“Alina, sweetheart,” Zenith says slowly as if she’s trying to sound gentle, yet it comes off as discomfitingly patronising regardless. “I know what I said before, but I just couldn’t bear to see you so upset. At your age it can be difficult to understand the necessity of sacrifice?—”

“No!” Alina snaps, cutting her mother off, her desperation reaching new levels as she glances over to me again. “You said you could remove the child without hurting her. That you’d found a way. It’s what you toldallof us! If we can’t do it without killing her, you can’t seriously want to go through with this? Why not simply wait until it’s born?”

Oh, because killing the baby once it’s born is so much fucking better?

“Even if you could, I wouldn’t let you,” I interrupt before Zenith can answer. I have to bite back my words before I tell her that I would rather rip her eyes out of their sockets and feed them to her mother. Somehow, I don’t imagine that would help with defusing the current situation.

“But—”

“What if someone wanted to hurt your cousin’s baby?” I demand, racking my memory to remember the girl’s name. “Raya,” I whisper, my brain finally clicking. “What if someone wanted to hurt Raya’s baby? Would you help them if they told you the child would grow up to be unstable, with no actual evidence that it’s a guaranteed outcome? No real proof?”

“I-I don’t…Raya’s child is just a regular witch,” Alina objects, but she looks uncertain, like the doubts are beginning to get to her. Maybe those doubts are reaching the others, too? I see the way some of them shift, glancing between each other.

“And regular witches have never been unstable?” Torrin asks. “I could name a few from history, and I’m sure most of you can think of at least one. Should Raya’s baby not be killed for the same reasons? What gives her the right to live, but not Eden’s?”

“That’s a bullshit comparison,” Lorcan’s scornful voice chimes in. “Witches don’t have the same capacity for destruction. You shouldn’t argue with Zenith, Alina. She’s our coven’s leader as well as your mother.”

“Who the hell do you think you are to tell me that, Lor?” Alina hisses at him, leaning around her mother to glare his way. She’s beginning to fray around the edges. Is the thought of killing an innocent baby finally getting to her?

He narrows his eyes at her, opening his mouth to reply, when another member of the coven chimes in with their own concerns. As if their questioning of the situation had ungagged everyone else, the entire coven appears to dissolve into arguments. It’s almost nice to know that not every single member of the coven wants me dead or agrees with killing my baby for simply existing. If it wasn’t for the majority still at least being in favour of getting rid of the dangerous hybrid.

“How did they get past the barrier?” I turn to ask my brother quietly while they’re distracting themselves, a nagging thought spiking my anxiety, causing my heart to race.

“Our parents’ blood,” he answers grimly, and now it feels like my heart will pound out of my chest. “Apparently they’re alive and just being ‘kept safe’ by some of the other coven elders.”

“Absolute fuckers,” I mutter back, furious at them for hurting my family. They’re lucky my parents are still alive.

“We’ll get them back,” Forrest promises, his husband nodding beside him as he offers a supportive glance my way.

“ENOUGH!” Zenith shouts, putting her power into the command, forceful enough to cause several close to her to physically stumble under the weight of it. She looks over at us. “You will hand over Eden for judgement by her coven, as is our way.”

Rio scoffs, and I don’t know if I find the semi-feral smirk on his face scary or sexy. I’ll need to examine my reaction to the bloodlust in his eyes later.

“I quit, actually. Didn’t you get my letter?” I question sarcastically, hearing a muffled snort from one of the guys. Probably Torrin. The thought makes me smile, just a little. My playful pie-bearing protector. His timing isn’t the best, but he’s cute; I’ll give him that.

“You will either hand her over or we will take her by force,” she continues, ignoring my words and addressing the men around me instead. These fuckers brought a coven to a demon fight. I know most of those people and have for years. Lorcan is so weak that I wonder if he can even light a candle with his pitiful magic…

“No,” Alina objects before any of us can tell Zenith to go fuck a cactus, stepping back from her mother and closer to us. I can’t see her face, but I see the way her head tilts up in defiance. “I won’t do it.”

Huh. I didn’t think she had it in her.

“Me either,” one of the healers about our age agrees as he goes to stand near Suvi, giving her an apologetic smile, even as Rio snarls at him for getting close.

“Idiot,” she mutters as he reaches her, smacking his arm and then rolling her eyes. Interesting. I clock the interaction with some curiosity, but it’s hardly the time to question my friend on it now.

To Zenith’s obvious disbelief and fury, more members slowly trickle over to our side. Some also turn to leave, clearly deciding it’s better not to get involved at all in this mess. Still, they have the numbers when everyone seems to settle where they stand on the whole murdering me thing. I try not to let it upset me. It’s not as if I’ve managed to get close to these people in the few years I’ve been a part of their coven. It’s a miracle any of them decided to join us. Lifelong teachings don’t easily crumble under one conversation, so the fact that any of them realised they’re wrong is sort of a miracle.

Some people insist on clinging to their lack of knowledge and insist on holding faulty beliefs close to their chest, rather than face the reality that what they believe might be wrong. No one wants to admit they’ve been fooled so easily, so I’m grateful to the ones who grew a spine, even if it was just to walk away.

While we’re still outnumbered by at least three to one, it’s gone from eight or nine of us—depending on whether or not you count the field sprite—to nearly around twenty-five or so. All of the healers had notably either joined us or left, and I can’t help but think I have Suvi to thank for most of the support that’s come our way. Alina stays standing in the middle, back to us as she faces her mother and the group still standing with her, clearly not done with trying to convince her to stop this.

“Please don’t do this,” Alina pleads. Confronting not only everything she’s been taught but also the woman who raised her.

“Are you really willing to defend against them?” Daion’s voice comes quietly from my left at the same time, where he’s questioning those who crossed the invisible line. I catch murmurs of agreement and some more whispering, but I trust Daion to deal with it as I refocus on Zenith. She’s not backing down, and I don’t like the way she’s looking at me. Super fucking creepy.

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