Page 68 of Which Witch Is Wicked?
"I've told no one that you're with child," Justine said, clearly reading Tierra.
She shouldn’t have been surprised. “So, you know then?”
“Of course I know, but I won't tell if you—"
"Are you threatening me?"
"No, of course not, but I can't promise to stay quiet as Lucy canmakepeople tell her things."
"What have you already revealed about us?"
"Nothing, I swear."
"Except you've spilled secrets about the Grimoire."
"I told you, sheknowsthings. Things she shouldn't. Things no one should." Justine grabbed Tierra's arm, her nails sinking deep. "Youhaveto take me back in."
"It isn't just up to me. You must convince my sisters."
"Have I not been good to you? I've been running Ambrosia's while you and the others have been stuck here hiding out from those damned Horsemen. I've helped ward this house and tried to make amends. I can't help it if Moira is as stubborn as a rock. You need me."
It might be easier for Tierra and her sisters if Justine stayed at the coven, but if Justine truly felt threatened, the manor was the safest place to be.
No matter what she'd done, Justine was family, too, and Tierra couldn't turn her back on her. Justine had been born in Maison de Moray and had lived here all her adult life. If push came to shove, she might have more of a legal right to the place than Tierra did. Moira and Justine would just have to work out their differences once and for all.
"Let me talk to them," Tierra said, but first she'd have to throw up.
2
"Where the hell have you been?" Dru demanded, his sword clenched in one hand while yellowish-green ooze slowly dripped off the blade. In his other, he held a decapitated head by the hair.
"What are you, my mother?" Bane answered. If War wanted another fight, he'd gladly give him one. After Tierra had flung him from her view, beating the shit out of someone would go a long way toward improving his mood.
From the looks of the front yard, there had already been one hell of a battle, or rather a battle from Hell.
"You son of a bitch." Dru advanced, tossing the blinking head onto a pile of countless body parts. "Do you have anyfuckingidea what we've been dealing with while you were off spying like a pubescent teenage boy on yourwitch?"
"By the body parts littering the area, I would have to say zombies. If a horde of the undead pissed you off, your skills were in sore need of testing."
"Test this you brainless dogshit pain in my ass." Dru came at him with his sword raised, the blade glinting sharp and lethal in the sunlight wavering down through the treetops. War's sword had been shaped from indestructible steel—forged in the belly of volcanic mountains, honed on the skulls of demons, and blessed with aim the gods themselves would shy away from. It was a weapon to be wary of. Even for an immortal.
Death stood his ground while Dru held the sword at his throat. "I would have expected this behavior from Nick but not you, War."
"That's before I had to spend allfuckingnight battling the undead. One word. One goddamn word from you and they would've left us alone. If you had been where you should have been, and had commanded the army of undead back to Hell where they belonged, my night would have been free."
"To do what? Consult your maps? Drink? Or fantasize about a fire witch who is fucking her dead boy-toy."
"Shut your fucking mouth." Dru pressed the blade into the skin of Bane's neck, burning a line.
"Enough!" Julian said, flinging off a wayward bony hand scratching its way up his shoulder.
"Let the assholes have each other," Nick called over to them, swinging a zombie arm up and letting it rest on his shoulder like it was a bat. "Dru's right. Bane should have been here. I called him and the piss-for-brains hung up on me."
"And you know why," Bane defended himself. As much as he'd ever would.
"Well,Isure as fuck don't." Dru pushed him, yet Bane didn't budge. It was hard to get Death off his plot when he chose to put down roots.
"Drustan, lower your blade," Julian commanded. "This helps nothing. It's understandable that Bane would be watching over the...mother of his...offspring during the witches' fight with the zombie horde. Either one of us would have done the same."
