Page 25 of Ruthless Alpha
“You know,” I ventured, “I bet if I asked her to come back and talk with you, she would. I don’t know why I never asked her about the sword before, actually. She might be able to help you get more…in tune with it, or whatever. I don’t really understand how any of that magic stuff works, but she truly helped Julia when she was here.”
“I met Julia,” Rosie said quietly.
“Yeah.” Neither of us wanted to acknowledge what she’d accused Julia of the last time we’d mentioned her. Knowing what I knew now, it was easy to forgive.
“Did she—did she have her baby?” Rosie asked, tentatively. It was an olive branch, and I sure as hell was going to take it. I smiled, wide and warm.
“She sure did. His name is Adam. He’s three now, and he’s gonna be a big brother.”
Rosie tried to smile back. It didn’t quite work, but I appreciated the effort.
“That’s nice,” she said. “I’m glad for her.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
This time, the silence that filled the kitchen was comfortable and easy. I didn’t move from my position on the floor, nor did I remove my hands from her knees. She didn’t seem to mind, absently stroking the backs of my knuckles with her thumb.
“So, do you want me to radio around, see if I can find Eve?” I asked eventually. It was a risky question, and I was ready for herno.Just because she’d admitted the truth of her magic to me didn’t mean she was ready to truly acknowledge it, and I wasn’t going to push her.
“Can I think about it?” she asked. It was more than I’d expected, and I gave her a reassuring smile.
“Of course you can, sweetheart.”
It was hard to tell beneath the tear tracks, but I thought she blushed a little at the endearment. Reaching forward, she placed a little hand on one of mine. Her smile was watery and weak, but it lit up the whole room.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 12 - Rosie
I couldn’t believe I’d told him. I’d never said those words out loud before. I’d never even reallythoughtaboutthem, never fully acknowledged what I’d known to be true since I was a child: I was a witch.
I was a witch, and if I was going to survive on Ensign, then I would have to learn to live with it. I would have to learn to harness the power that lurked inside me. It was a power I didn’t trust, a power I’d been taught to hate, and that instinct warred with what Xander had told me about the witches he loved. As much as I tried to deny it during my first days and weeks in his company, Xander was a good man. He was patient, kind, and generous, and if he loved those witches, they must share at least some of those qualities.
I already knew that the shadow witch—Julia, her name was Julia—had been kinder to me during our brief encounter than my own family ever were, and though I’d always kept my distance from Alyssa, she’d lived on Arbor for three years before anything happened, and the man she “attacked” had been telling his story that same night in the mess hall. Was she really so dangerous? Had Alpha Slade dragged us into war over nothing? The thoughts had chased each other round my head for days after that conversation, until I was so tired and confused and sick of the noise that I relented: I asked Xander to call Eve.
He’d been so surprised, so pleased, that I was happy with my decision for a solid few hours before I began to doubt it, and by then, Xander had already found her. It took her two days to travel over from Argent, and those two days felt like an eternity and a matter of seconds. What did she look like? Would she have some kind of physical marker, like Julia, or would she seemcompletely average, like the Lapine witch? Would she be kind or stern? Young or old?
I didn’t know what I expected, and yet somehow, Eve wasn’t it. She was a little older than my mother would have been, with grey salting her mahogany curls, and despite the way Xander towered over her, she gave the impression that she was the tallest person in the room.
“You’re telling me I lived on this island for half a decade and you hid this from me the entire time?” she demanded, and Xander winced like a schoolboy who’d been caught in a lie.
“I wasn’thidingit,” he protested. “I just didn’t think.”
“You shifters never do,” Eve scolded him. It was strange to watch how she interacted with him—as if his authority had no effect on her—but thrilling at the same time. “Do you know how old this thing is?”
“Uh—it’s pretty old,” Xander offered, and Eve rolled her eyes.
“Pretty old,”she echoed.“The family who made this died out almost a century ago, and their power had been declining for another century before that. A real shame—their magic was incredibly unique, as far as I’ve read. Golden threads that they could manipulate in any way they chose.” My stomach flipped. That sounded like my magic—or at least, what little I’d seen of it before I buried it deep inside myself.
“This thing is three hundred years old, at least,” Eve continued, “and the magical signature is still as clear as if it were left yesterday.”
Three hundred years old?I could hardly believe it. The sword was so shiny and sharp—was that a testament to the careXander took of it, or the power of its magic? I leaned toward the latter, since Xander seemed almost as shocked as I was.
“Oh,” was all he managed to say, earning himself another exasperated look from Eve.
“That’s right,oh,”she said.“And you’re also telling me that a girl youboughtfrom Arbor can feel its effects?” It was the first time Eve had acknowledged me since Xander introduced us when she arrived. I couldn’t tell whether she was keeping her distance because I was Arbor, or because I was so clearly afraid of her, or because she was simply more interested in the sword, but couldn’t deny I’d been glad to watch from the sidelines for a while, catching my breath and letting myself grow used to her presence.
