Page 73 of Cocktails & Cauldrons

“Can’t she be redeemed?” she cried. “Surely reform is possible?”

“Tell me this, my dear. Would you let a serial killer of young children walk away to strike again?”

Brenna remained mute. He knew she wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

“And not one minute ago, she intended to enslave you to do her bidding as she’s managed to enslave Odessa.” He spared her aunt a glance. “Tell her.”

“I believed I was in control when she showed up at my home.” Odessa lifted her chin, but it wobbled tellingly. “She stabbed me in the back, and when I transitioned to take her magic, she turned the tables.” She cast a resentful glare at the group. “She’d anticipated my actions and had an enchantment already in place for when I licked the knife clean of my blood.When I kissed her, that blood was still on my tongue, and she was able to harness it. And here we are.”

“To amass more power, yeah?” Ronan’s was more a statement of fact than a question.

“She had me scry for you, Brenna. The moment you appeared in the park and your Siren took over it was too late. I wanted to protect you.” Odessa shook her head, pleading on her face. “Can you ever forgive me for leading her to you?”

“For that, possibly. For what you did to Gran and intended to do to Eoin and Ronan? Never.”

“Do you really think evil like that should be runnin’ about free?” Ronan asked her with a tilt of his head toward his cousin. “Moira’s fond of stabbing people in the back and attacking small children with the hopes of ending their lives to gain more and more magic. Sure, and she wants to be unstoppable in all ways. Should she be left unchecked, then?”

Meeting the woman’s desperate gaze, Brenna shook her head. “No. She shouldn’t be left unchecked, but is it really on us to murder a person? Do two wrongs make a right?”

Ronan cast a frustrated look in Damian’s direction but focused on Moira again, as if afraid to remove his attention from her for longer than a second or two.

Determined to keep the blight from Damian’s soul, Brenna tried another tactic. “Can’t you simply remove her magic? Take her memories, relocate her far away… anything.”

“It doesn’t matter.” The Aether shook his dark head. “She’ll return and try another underhanded trick to steal it back. She has to die, Brenna.”

Raised on the extreme tips of her toes with her back arched, Moira whimpered and her arms dropped limply at her sides.

“Damian,please!” Brenna was careful to keep the angst from her voice. She didn’t know why this was important, but it was, and she strove for reason. “Would Sabrina want this?”

The flames died low for an instant but flared higher, swallowing Moira whole.

“Sabrina would want to live free of terror, Miss Sullivan.” Damian’s tone was arctic, and the bitterly cold wind slapped Brenna’s face. “Neverquestion my judgment again.”

In a blink, he was gone, and she was left staring at the pile of ash that had once been Moira Doyle.

CHAPTER 28

Knees weak from the confrontation, Brenna plunked down where she was. She gripped handfuls of earth, both grass and dirt, attempting to hang on as the world spun madly around her. The grisly, but probably justified, execution of Moira had pulled the rug out from under her. She had no sense of up or down.

But the grit under Brenna’s nails worked to ground her and reminded her that life was a cycle. Birth, youth, maturity, and eventually death. For everyone. And in between those points were a few harsh lessons.

Moira was one.

There were also broken hearts.

For a brief time, there was love.

Very brief.

Eoin.

She really needed him to help her see the meaning of all this. Her Siren, curled up in a corner of her mind, sullenly trilled her agreement. He hadn’t been far from her thoughts since Reggie’s abduction.

“Brenna.”

“Leave me alone, Ronan. All of you. Just leave me the hell alone for a little while.”

“That’s not a good idea, love,” he said regretfully. “You can’t be out here in the open, unprotected as you are.”

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