Page 22 of Resting Witch Face
I wasn’t sure what surprised me more. The fact that, for the first time, her words didn’t open the unhealed wound in my heart and make it bleed all over my insides and pride, or the animalistic growl coming from deep in River’s chest that raised the short hairs on the back of my neck. Even Danika took a step back from him, eyeing him like he was a snake ready to bite.
“I need to speak to my granddaughter alone.”
“I don’t think so.” River jumped to his feet from the metal chair to face her, folding his arms across his chest. “We were all there, so we all need to hear whatever it is you want to say, with all due respect. Also, Hazel made a very valid point. It will take me a month to find a record of one, little less two Rakshasa demons attacking in the middle of the day.”
“Spill,” I added my two cents when he was done.
After a very long, very uncomfortable moment of Danika looking each of us up and down, she did something so uncharacteristic of her that I fully expected Earth to be smacked with a meteor and for all of us to die. With a heavy sigh, she cracked her neck, first left and then right, before she turned her eyes up to stare at the ceiling like she was asking Hecate to help her. My heart galloped in my chest, and my fingers tingled while I watched her debate how much to tell us.
Danika was a mountain. There was nothing shy of a natural disaster that could shake the woman, and seeing her tiredly move to my bed to perch on it like her legs could barely hold her left me holding my breath. As much as I was dying to know what was going on, I also wished I’d never breached the subject. Humans loved saying ignorance is bliss, but in our world, that took it to a whole new level. If it didn’t involve me, and the little boy’s frightened eyes didn’t haunt me by being burned into my memory, I would’ve asked her to keep whatever it was to herself. The images of the man curled around his children while he cried kept my mouth glued shut and my spine straight.
“There have been some changes in the hierarchy of a couple of the factions in the last six months or so.” My grandmother tucked a loose strand of silky hair behind her ear, folding one leg under her to get more comfy. Absently, her hand smoothed nonexistent wrinkles on her black floor-length dress, and she watched the movement with rapt attention. “It disturbed the order we’ve fought hard to maintain, as well as caused discord among the ranks for the rest of us.”
My gaze found Sissily’s to check if my friend was thinking the same thing. That meeting that caused all my problems where I could be cast out in about twenty-four hours, not just from my coven but my world, must’ve been called because of what Danika was telling us. We both had an “oh shit” moment, unlike River, who was standing frozen like a guard next to my bed. It was obvious he knew some of it.
“So, some demons are acting up like unsupervised children while they select a new leader?” I meant to play down the gravity of the situation, but my voice came off weak and turned my statement into a question.
Danika hummed noncommittally. “You could say that …”
“Did they choose to start a war with witches while they were running loose?” Sissily spoke the words I was already thinking, reading them from my expression most probably.
“It sure sounds like it if they decided to concentrate their attacks in Cleveland of all places.” My grandmother’s sharp look in my direction almost made me laugh. Did she think I was stupid just because I had no magic? “Out of all the places in the world, they picked the city where the Gatekeeper’s coven is stationed full of magic using enforcers. Almost as if they have a personal grudge against us.”
My heart stuttered for a moment before it kicked into overdrive when Danika’s face blanched of all color. Frantically, I replayed what I said in my head but couldn’t find one thing that would scare Danika Byrne. The air in the small room felt too thin, making my lungs burn from lack of oxygen. Then River added one more nail in the proverbial coffin when he opened his mouth.
“The demon discord is the reason for the presentations on Saturday night, isn’t it?”
“In a way.” It seemed like that was all Danika could say because I knew she didn’t want to tell us the truth. It was written all over her pale face.
Then she surprised me more than any other time in my life.
“Mr. Blackman, be a dear and activate a silence circle if you don’t mind.” With a sigh, she pressed the bridge of her nose.
I was hyperventilating at that point. What in the monkey’s hairy balls was going on to make Danika scared she might get overheard? Not once had I seen her think twice to bark out the first thing that came to her mind, not giving two shits if she hurt someone’s feelings in the process. That was the reason I stayed silent with my eyes glued to her face, while River muttered under his breath, flicking his fingers occasionally as he stopped at all four corners of the room. Goosebumps popped up on my arms when he was done, the bubble of magic forming around us. I would’ve envied the ease with which he did that if I wasn’t freaking out internally. My tattoo tingled in reaction to his power, impotent as it might be. My tattoo, not River’s magic.
“As you all know, for the demons to have a new leader, the old one must die. “Well, no, not all of us knew that, fuck you very much, but I wanted to hear the rest so I clenched my jaw. “The problem they face is, the old leader is not dead. Just missing.”
“Did we snatch him?” It took me a second to realize I had blurted that out. Not that I would put it past Danika to take matters into her own hands and manhandle a demon just so she could get things her way. I just hoped she was not that dumb.
“Leviathan took charge for the demons a century ago.” Danika was looking at me like I was an idiot.
I blinked dumbly. Why were all three of them watching me like they’d never seen me in their life? “What?”
“Leviathan is one of the fallen in charge of Hell,” Sissily supplied helpfully, and my mouth formed an “O.”
“They can’t be touched,” I announced stupidly, although everyone in the room knew that. Hell, the humans knew that tidbit, as well.
Even being “other” didn’t give us the immunity to be able to touch an angel, fallen or not. We were all happy when the Archangels decided to hide in a hole no one could find and wash their hands of the rest of us. The fallen were a different matter, but not less deadly for all, including their demons. Barely-there contact could turn even Danika to ash.
“So, he just ditched the demons? What the actual fuck, Danika? You didn’t think that was important for us to know?” It was a day for me to blurt out asinine questions, it seemed. River and Sissily wore matching affronted expressions.
“Watch your language,” my grandmother hissed at me.
Like I’d never heard her curse up a storm when she thought no one was around. I was sore, high on whatever herbs they used to dull my pain, and freaked the hell out. Excuse the fuck out of me for using profanities.
“No one knows where Leviathan is, and they’ve been searching for him for almost a year,” she continued after giving me a stern stare down. “And that’s not the half of what is happening. The vampire elders are coming out of their stupor, demanding their Council be reassembled so they can have a vote in who does what. Like the rest of us are just the fools who cleaned up the mess they made and will be ready to welcome them with open arms.” That last part was muttered more to herself than the rest of us.
Silence fell over us like an anvil around our necks. I felt the weight of it trying to choke me, while everything she said continued to spin through my mind until I felt dizzy from it. A thought occurred to me, and I sucked in a much-needed breath to ask why she was telling us all of this now. I didn’t fool myself into thinking all of it was news for Sissily and River, mostly judging by the expressions they sported. Both of them knew parts of it, but not all. I never get to ask because Danika was on the roll and dropping even more bombs without mercy.
