Page 43 of Twilight Echoes
“She’s gone.” Darrell tapped her shoulder. “Look at this.” He shoved his phone in her face.
“Oh God. You too?” She stared at an image of a couple of cribs.
“No. My mom.” He laughed.
Avery pointed toward the hallway. “I will not be like that with my children.”
“Yes, you will. And personally, I love it. We both have great parents.” He raked his fingers through his thick shoulder-length hair. “I miss my dad.”
She palmed his cheek. “Can I ask you a weird question?”
“Of course.”
“How much time will our kids spend as wolves?”
“As babies, more than half their time. It’s easier to teach them the ways of being a wolf. Not to mention they will enjoy their wolf form more. They can run and play, versus being helpless in their human form.” He leaned forward. “Andit will save us—you—money in diapers because they will be housebroken.”
She cupped his face, squeezing his cheek. “Don’t you ever speak to me like that again. I will not do this alone. It is not me. It will always be us.”
“Yes, dear,” he said.
“Keep saying that.” She released his face. “Because I will always wear the tights in this family.”
“Perhaps, but remember, I look damn good in them too.”
She cracked a smile. “Yeah, you do.”
Her father stuck his head in the kitchen. “All right, you two. Time to roll.”
“We just need to do these dishes,” she said.
“Your mother will deal with those.” He wiggled his index finger. “Time’s wasting. Let’s go.”
She followed her father to the front of the house, her fingers locked with Darrell’s, her fairy dust coating his skin like an old sweater. It looked good on him, but he needed his aura to be restored so she could have hers back and her fairy dust didn’t have to constantly be put in use.
Her father opened the back door of the family limo. “Gabe, this is Darrell.”
Darrell settled into the seat, and she made sure she sat next to him, forcing her father to sit next to his cousin, Gabe.
“Nice to meet you.” Darrell extended his hand. “Thanks for helping me and my pack.”
“It’s unorthodox for you to come with us, but after seeing the double moon last night, I understand why.” Gabe was a few years younger than her father, but his position in the coven and on the council put him on equal footing. No one outranked either of them, and they worked together like a well-oiled machine. They almost always agreed on how to deal with anything coven-related, and there hadn’t been a time when Gabehadn’t been by her father’s side. They were more like brothers in every way.
Not to mention, Gabe was her Wizard Guardian, which was like a godfather. His wife, Jasmine, had been named her Witch Guardian.
“I’d like for that just once not to be the topic of today’s discussion,” Avery said.
“I’m with her on that,” Darrell said as he tried to pull his hand away from her grip, which she’d be damned if she’d allow to happen.
“Well, the good news is that Merlin, the head wizard of the Witches of the Willows, seems to be willing to cooperate.” Gabe handed everyone a piece of paper. “But the bad news is that the Wilcox family has disappeared as well as their family’s Book of Shadows, which was never registered. According to Merlin, the Wilcoxes come from a line that never practiced.”
“That’s impossible,” her father said. “All bloodlines have black magic. Mine and Trask’s are the strongest, but there isn’t a family that doesn’t have one. Now, I suppose it’s possible that it was never passed down to the head of the family.”
“But then it should have been reported missing at some point, right?” Avery asked. There was a lot she didn’t know about the inner dealings of witch covens and the laws regarding any magic. However, she did know that all black magic was required by law to be registered with the council and if a book, especially a locked book, went missing, and the coven didn’t report it, everyone in their clan could be stripped of all their powers. Most wizards wouldn’t risk that.
“Merlin is only thirty and took over a few months ago,” Gabe said, tapping the paper. “The coven has been in disarray for years without proper leadership.”
“Holy shit,” Darrell said. “This says that Regan’s father, Viner, was the head wizard when we think the spell was cast.”
