Page 39 of Bewitching the Dragon
“The witch and her mate offered up their only daughter as a sacrifice to end the war. The gods accepted the daughter and mated her to one of their own. The god and the witch had many offspring, all with extraordinary magic beyond anything the witches or warlocks had ever experienced before.
“These children were trained in combat, their powers harnessed, and they were sent to this world, forming a nearly indestructible army the warlocks could not think to beat. Eventually, the remaining warlocks retreated to the woods and mountains of Europe and Asia, leaving the witches to live out their days in peace.
“And so it went for many generations. These demigod-witch offspring, who were dubbed Daughters of Light because all were female, mated with other witches or sometimes humans or other species, and as the decades and centuries passed without conflict, they stopped teaching their children how to battle the warlocks. In many cases, they did not even tell their children they were descended from gods. And even extraordinary power can be defeated if the user is not aware she possesses it.”
Rahu stared at Becca. She was descended from gods? The woman his dragon believed was their mate was a demigod?
Holy hell. Er, holy gods.
“Eventually, as time wore on, the blood of the gods became diluted, and these offspring did not produce as many Daughters of Light. For the last few generations, very few have been born.
“Approximately four decades ago, the warlocks became aware of the situation. They began to quietly destroy the Daughters of Light and their offspring. By the time the witch population came to me seeking help, there were precious few Daughters of Light left to protect. Many had gone into hiding, making the task of protecting them even more challenging.
“It is possible, I suppose, there are others like Becca here, living under a concealment spell and neither gargoyles nor warlocks are aware of their existence. But, as far as I am aware, she is the last remaining one.”
“Wait,” Rahu said to Argyle. “He just said ‘even extraordinary power can be defeated if the user is not aware she possesses it.’ So why did you let Becca believe she was human?”
Oliver arched one smooth brow. “This dragon states that you were aware of this Daughter of Light long before tonight. Is this true, Argyle?”
Argyle hesitated for a fraction of a second and then, with his gaze averted, nodded once. Yeah, Rahu was curious as to why Argyle hadn’t told his boss about Becca when she was born, but he had a more pressing question.
“Weren’t you basically setting her up to die?”
Chapter Twelve
Becca had a lot of anger to spread around, and two people who deserved her wrath. Argyle had apparently known about her true identity for much longer, but Rahu had slept with her without telling her first. That was a breach of trust if she’d ever experienced one.
Yeah, that blame felt right. Felt appropriate.
She was holding onto it for dear life, because otherwise, she might rush into his arms and beg him to never let her go. To take her someplace far, far away, where warlocks and gargoyles and even other dragons couldn’t get to them. Oh, and don’t forget witches. And whatever the hell else existed in this world.
Humans were a tiny piece of this giant landscape, and they had no idea that they lived among, went to school with, worked with dragons and gargoyles looking like humans but…not.
Aunt Pacey, as she’d suspected, knew too. In fact, she was a witch. She, along with Argyle’s help, had protected Becca from those warlocks up to this point. They’d even saved her the day the warlocks killed her parents.
But they hadn’t saved her mom. Or her dad.
“You cannot imagine how hard that choice was,” Pacey said with tears streaming down her face once Argyle and crew had delivered Becca safely to her arms.
“My sister or her daughter. That’s the choice I had to make. And your mother told me to take you. Begged me. What else was I supposed to do?”
Save them too. That’s what Becca wanted to say, but that was because she’d lost her parents, of course. It was no doubt a natural reaction to such loss.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked instead.
Argyle had been standing near the glass door that led to the courtyard. “That was my decision,” he said. “In retrospect, it was a poor one.”
Yeah, he could say that again. Since she’d witnessed Rahu turn into a dragon, her hands tingled almost constantly, like the blood flow had been cut off and had yet to be fully restored. It was uncomfortable, to be honest.
Not to mention the fact that warlocks were trying to kill her and she had no earthly idea how to fight them off.
“Have you always known you were a witch?” she asked her aunt.
Pacey nodded. “My parents were both witches. It’s always been part of my life.”
“So you’re a Daughter of Light too?”
Pacey gave Argyle a swift look, and Becca didn’t miss the slight shake of his head.
