Page 8 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

Some witches were paid outrageous sums of money to attempt to alter a baby’s magic in the womb. If it worked, the kid would be a hybrid of both parents rather than the same kind of supernatural as one or the other. It always failed. And obviously, it was morally questionable.

There were a lot of witches who didn’t mind morally questionable uses for their magic. Considering how long I’d been hiding my power from my coven—dangerous power that was despised by all other witches—I supposed I kind of fit into that category.

But there wasn’t any amount of money I would’ve accepted to try to alter an unborn baby.

And I was likely the only living witch at the moment whocouldsuccessfully do so. Which was one of the reasons blood witches were so dangerous.

We reached an elevator, and Bailey hit the button for the top floor.

I was still feeling warm from whatever the phoenix had done to me in the lobby, but I wasn’t against it. The feeling was blissful, even though I was supposed to be on my toes and ready for anything.

“If Liam doesn’t know what the mating process is like, how does he know he’ll be able to start it with me?”

She shrugged. “I don’t understand phoenix magic any more than you do, but I’m sure he at least talked to a dragon and got an idea of what it entails.”

“He trusts you, so you obviously know more than me.”

“Trust doesn’t equal an explanation. I have no idea how he even holds the wards together with his magic. All I know is that they’ve been crumbling since our last blood witch died, and he’s sort of glued the pieces together with whatever magic he has.”

I considered what I’d felt.

An assload of warm power, over the top of witch magic.

Yeah… I could agree with the glue description.

“He’ll want me to repair the original wards,” I said. “I don’t even know if that’s possible with the current state of them. It might be easier to build my own from scratch, depending on what they are.”

Mainly, depending on if they were complex spells.

And honestly,easierwas relative. I’d been studying runes since I was a teenager, so I was pretty good with them, but it would still take a lot of effort to create wards that could protect the wholesanctuary with runes. I’d need at least one spell to anchor them to, as well.

“I don’t think he’s going to care what you do to the magic as long as you take it over. He spends all his time keeping them together.”

“Holding crumbling magic would take a lot more energy than maintaining healthy spells and runes,” I agreed.

She shrugged.

The elevator dinged, and I followed her out. The hallway was decorated similarly to the bottom floor, though there were rugs over the tile and extra plants and decorations throughout the space. We headed down the hall, and I turned with her a few times.

“I don’t need to be his mate to fix the wards. Maybe you can talk to him and try to reason with him?” I asked.

She snorted. “Nobody tries to persuade Liam of anything. He’s the only reason any of us are here—and most of us would be killed or imprisoned if we tried to leave. You’re not the only one whose family is after them. Your situation is bad, but most of us have shitty, dangerous backgrounds.”

We stopped in front of a door at the very end of the hall, and Bailey gestured to it. “Welcome home, I guess. The code is 8888. It’ll go up a number on the first of the month. After nine, it goes back to zero and starts again. Everyone knows it, so… watch your back. Until Liam actually seals the bond with you, I don’t know how safe you’re going to be. Cecil seemed to hate you, and he has a lot of friends.”

I grimaced. “If my options are letting my coven kill me quickly or letting a vampire drain me dry, I might as well go back to the coven.”

“Hopefully Liam will be back before that becomes a problem. I’ll send someone up with spare clothes that might fit you. Good luck.”

With that, Bailey padded down the hallway, leaving me to my own devices.

I reluctantly typed the code she had given me.

8888.

A light on the keypad flickered green, and I slipped into the room.

The space was…

---