Page 15 of Pitch a Witch
“Our bloodline was always one of the strongest when it came to magic.” Danika’s gaze took a faraway look, transporting her to a time and place the rest of us couldn’t visit. “I too believed that it was simply a strong bloodline, bred true by good magical pairings through generations, until my mother was on her death bed. That was when she shared our secret, which is to be protected at all costs.” Her piercing gaze flicked between River and Sissily. “If this spreads through our world, death is the best outcome for Hazel. I’d like to believe neither of you want to see that.”
Sissily bobbed her head, but my eyes were on River. His expression told me he already knew if not all, at least half of what my grandmother was saying.
“Our magic is different since we are the only family that uses ancestral magic. When we activate our powers, we draw not just from our own but from every Byrne witch from the past, as well as the present.” My jaw was unhinged and hung loosely. Ancestral magic was a myth, wasn’t it? “And because it’s not just witch magic that we have in our veins.” Her emerald peepers dared me to say something, but my throat was too tight, and my heartbeat was thrumming in my ears. “Each generation has a soul contract to keep it as powerful as it is. And each first-born girl generations back are conceived with a fallen to assure the continuation of power in our bloodline.”
That propelled my ass off the chair, and I shoved Sissily away from me, sending her sprawling on the floor.
“I’m half demon?” Danika winced from my shrill shout.
10
“I’m not a demon.” My mouth snapped shut when I heard my own ferocious snarl. Holy shit, I sounded like a demon. A feral one, at that. “No one but another fallen, or an angel, can make physical contact. It’s a lie.”
The horror rattling my bones settled the more I thought about it. Bending down, I tugged Sissily back up and apologized profusely, and she waved me off. So I could keep my sanity, I pointedly avoided glancing at Blondie, who was a living contradiction to the lies I was selling myself since he held me in his lap like a baby when I lost my shit in this very office only a week ago.
Lesson number ten: Always ask for a DNA test before you go anywhere near a supernatural being. I had to underline three times to convey the importance of it.
“If you would let me finish, Hazel,” Danika drawled dryly, dragging me out of my wayward thoughts.
“If it involves more crap about demons, I’d rather you not finish, Danika, thank you very much.” I plonked back on the chair and nervously rubbed my palms on my jeans.
The rasp of my skin over the denim was soothing, so I kept doing it, darting my gaze anywhere in the office so I didn’t lock eyes with my grandmother or wing man in the corner. Just the thought of River sent my heart into a frantic hammering. Could I touch him because I had half demon blood in me? I racked my brain to remember if I’d seen Sissily touch him, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember one way or another.
“Your mother broke the tradition.” My bones turned to goo, and I melted into the uncomfortable chair like an ice cube left outside in the middle of summer. I wanted to hug the damn torture device because I felt as light as a feather and almost floated away on a nonexistent wing.
Danika, as usual, kicked me in the kidneys the moment I experienced happiness.
“She not only chose to break the tradition, but she fell in love with your father, too.” My grandmother’s gaze flicked momentarily to River, and all the blood curdled in my veins. “I must admit I was not pleased with her actions and voiced my objections, some may say, harshly.”
“You can say it.” Hysterical laughter bubbled and spilled out through my numb lips. “You were a bitch. It’s okay, we all know you here.”
Her lips, which were painted a glossy red like she just applied the lipstick, twitched up at my blabbering.
Regally, Danika inclined her head like a Goddess-damn swan. “I was a bitch, yes.” No remorse could be seen in her cold, emerald eyes.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” My muttering earned me a pinch from Sissily.
If I ended up with yet another bruise, I planned on kicking her in the ass, if I was still sane by the time my grandmother was done spilling her black soulless guts.
“You cannot pour water into acid and expect it not to violently boil over and splatter everywhere, Hazel.” Her ramrod back relaxed in the leather chair. “I might’ve been harsh but only to protect her, and by circumstance, you as well. I firmly believed she wouldn’t be able to conceive, if I’m being brutally honest.”
Another calculating look crossed her peepers, but I was anaesthetized from being smacked with one shock after another by then. All I could do was blink.
“That is why, when you were born, your tiny body couldn’t contain the amount of magic in your blood. I did what I had to do to save one of you, since I couldn’t both.” Danika’s tongue darted out to wet her lips, a nervous gesture that didn’t sit well with me. “I never expected Leviathan to dig around and learn what I was trying to hide by binding your magic.”
“Who is my father?” Just saying the word I never thought I’d voice plonked my stomach to the floor so it could splash at my feet. “Is he alive? What is he?”
Acid churned inside me, bubbling in my gut worse than if I’d drank two bottles of tequila and eaten a bag of jalapeños at the same time. Not a good combo, and I was speaking from experience.
“I never met him. Your mother was too smart for her own good.” Head cocked to the side, her features softened for a split second. “You remind me of her very much.”
The hope that flickered, although unwanted, hurt when it died as suddenly as it appeared. “So, you don’t even know what he is. Or what he was, if he is no longer alive?”
“I never said that. I said I never met him.” Gaze darting between mine, she leaned forward, and I forgot how to breathe.
Sissily stepped behind me, and the weight of her hand when it wrapped around my shoulder gave me the strength to inflate my shriveling lungs. It’s okay, Hazel. No matter what Danika says, it changes nothing. You’ll be fine, you always are. But not even I believed the insistent voice inside my head. I was not fine. I’d never be fine again for the rest of my life judging by the hesitation I could see in Danika.
“Your father was one of the Fae.” Silence stretched after my grandmother delivered that nail in my metaphorical coffin. “You can see how that ancient magic mixed with what you had already genetically inherited through your mother could be a problem in a newborn child.”
