Page 28 of Resting Witch Face
“You need to be more specific.” Blondie finally lost interest in staring me down, turning his peepers on Danika. “What deals? And why does she keep glowing? Can you glamour her skin before she announces it to the world she is brimming with ancient powers?”
“Wecan see it, Mr. Blackman, but no one else can. I made sure of that. For the last time, I will ask you to stop telling me how to do my job or how to protect my granddaughter.”
“What does he mean by brimming with ancient power?” They were free to do a dick measuring contest—I bet Danika had bigger balls by far—some other time. “This whole glowy thing” —I shook my arm like that would rid me of the blinking sigils under my skin— “is because the cursed book blasted me in the face. You know, like when you fall asleep with your face on top of the newspaper and the letters transfer to your cheek? It’ll wash off with time, right?”
Silence was my answer.
“I have no magic,” I blurted out angrily.
“When you were born, Hazel, your mother …” Danika started leaning back and straightening her spine. I panicked.
“Fuck no, you don’t.” Seething, I wiggled out of the death grip Sissily had on me. “Don’t you dare start some bullshit fairytale now, Grandmother. I couldn’t care less about the time I was born. What I do care about, however, is removing this creepy stuff from my skin, mm-kay?”
“Sit down, Hazel Byrne, and keep your mouth shut,” Danika snapped, and my knees gave out.
I plopped next to my best friend like I was a puppet and my grandmother had cut my strings. “I don’t want to hear it.” Sounding like a petulant child, I begged her with my eyes. She never fell for the whole puppy dog look, but it was worth a try as a last-ditch effort.
“Your mother died to save your life.” As was Danika’s way, she was brutal in her honestly, not caring one bit that my heart was grinding into dust with her every word. “Your body was too weak for the amount of magic Hecate bestowed on you, and your heart kept giving up. My daughter used the last drops of her life and soul to help me contain it, block it, if you will, until you were much older and could learn to expel the access in non-harmful ways, but it was not enough.” My grandmother’s eyes were distant, unfocused, taking her to times long past where I had no right to be. Not if what she was saying was true.
“Desperate to at least keep one of you with me, I went to look for Michael.” Danika gulped, and Sissily gasped. “I couldn’t find the Archangel, not in time anyway.” I knew what she would say next before it was spoken out loud. “I turned to Leviathan next. He didn’t want to help at first, but after I said he couldn’t name a price I was not willing to pay, he made me a deal. I accepted, and that day he sealed your magic. No one but the fallen himself could unlock the binding, not even me.”
“You made a deal with the devil.” The ground shook under us, and when I breathed to calm down, it took a second to hear Sissily shushing me like I was a babe while she was rubbing my arm. “Great. Next thing you know, I’ll need to be burped so I don’t blow up the town.”
“I’ll take that responsibility.” River smirked at my frustration, and without conscious thought, I flicked my wrist at him.
Sissily and I both jumped to our feet and rushed to him when his body was flung through the air and slammed on the dirty floor. It would’ve been comical to see him flopped around like a sock monkey by an invisible toddler having a tantrum if I was not the one hurting him unintentionally. He groaned and scowled at me when I helped him up. I was grateful to Sissily for giving me her t-shirt and prancing around in her bra when River’s head came level with my free-styling boobs.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” I mumbled, yanking him to his feet and releasing him just as fast.
Luckily, Blondie had other things on his mind. “That’s why you wanted me to hide her. You can’t find Leviathan.”
“No one can find the fallen,” Danika huffed, a muscle spasming in her jaw. “Which brings me to now. Nothing, no book, no demon, witch, angel, or Fae could unseal Hazel’s magic. No one but Leviathan and me should know she even had it. So, how did this happen?” She was looking at me, so I racked my brain for any details I could’ve missed.
“It was a book we confiscated from the Kisha demon, along with the body parts,” I supplied helpfully. “Or I think it was since it was jammed in the shelf along with them.” Danika kept those unnerving peepers on my face. “What? I didn’t want to touch it. Hell, Sissily and I catalogued them, and it didn’t say shit to me then. This morning it became chatty Cathy.”
“Say something,” I begged when I couldn’t handle her silence anymore. “Hang on a second. What did Leviathan ask for when you made a deal?”
“Now you start asking the right kind of questions.” I nearly fainted when pride shone in her emerald gaze. Danika never looked at me like that. Never.
It scared the shit out of me.
“Are you dying?” Blurting out the first thing on one’s mind was never a good idea.
River groaned as if pained.
“I am not dying.” My grandmother rolled her eyes in her classy way so you couldn’t even be angry when she did it. “I did, however, promise him my soul in exchange for his help.”
“You cannot possibly be that hungry for power. Are you crazy? Your soul?” My voice rose with each question. “No magic is worth your soul.”
“Not magic, your life,” she told me, her voice so quiet I barely heard her.
“It was my magic you wanted sealed.” My accusation hung between us until she smiled at me indulgently.
“The magic was killing you, Hazel. It was stopping your heart. You mother syphoned as much as she could before I arrived, but the moment she breathed her last breath, it rushed back to you, along with hers. I traded my soul so you could live.”
Sobs rocked me where I stood when I thought it was a great idea to yell at her. Sharp pieces of broken obsidian cut into the skin of my knees, and I doubled over until my forehead was pressed down, too. Sissily tried to lift me but couldn’t because the tremors raking me shook her off me. Rock and soil groaned at the guilt and pain blasting inside me. Strong arms wrapped around my body, and I was air born before I stalled over muscled thighs.
River’s magic and his cologne washed over me, soothing me like nothing else at that moment. He was muttering nothings in my ear, his hand rasping gently up and down my back. My soot-covered face left patches of dried blood and dirt on his shirt, and he didn’t seem to care.
