Page 68 of The Forty-Year-Old Virgin Witch

Twenty Seven

Aggie

There was an odd current to the air, similar to a burgeoning storm. The sky looked clear enough, but I tried to keep my wits about me as I flew low to the treetops, eventually landing to wander through the woods. Things were changing so quickly in my life that I just needed a moment to breathe.

It was easy to say I loved Luka and Karl. How could I not after they had so selflessly given themselves to me? Quinn was tougher, but I was willing to give him a chance. There was likely so much he could teach me about magick, and I couldn’t help but be more curious about him. How was a warlock born to a coven anyway? What had happened to his? I felt drawn to him as someone who was also without a coven, but that didn’t mean I’d let him just fall into my bed.

I was worth more than some drive-by tumble.

It was late, and I really should be sleeping. It was unlikely I could sleep given everything that had happened today, but I knew my boys would make me try. I grinned to myself.

My boys.

I took one last look around the small clearing, inhaling the scent of the pine trees. Then a branch snapped nearby, and I went still. The air around me charged, even as my magick prickled along my veins.

Then my mother stepped out into the clearing.

It was as if the past twenty years hadn’t passed. She looked exactly the same. Stunning red hair hung down to her shoulders in tousled waves, and her soft blue eyes doe-like as she held her arms out to me.

I stayed where I was, my hands balling into fists.“Mother.”

Her green skirt was a dream against her creamy flesh, showing no signs of age. I choked on the thick layer of magick that surrounded her, gawking at the sheer amount of energy she expanded to maintain her youthful glamours. If someone looked between the two of us, they’d think she was younger.

“How did you find me?” My voice was cold, my mind automatically retreating behind my ice-bitch facade.

She flashed a row of perfect, white teeth at me. “Oh, what’s that matter now? Come with me, darling. We’re going home.”

Home. Home? Home was my small cottage with its rows of neatly labeled herbs. Home was Karl scowling at something dumb Luka had said or knocking that stupid grin off of Quinn’s face. Home was scratching Damon behind his ears and meditating in the garden. Home was not with her; it never had been.

“No.”

She cocked her head to the side, a slow grin stretching across her face. A twist of her wrist and a figure landed heavily in between us.

“VICKY!”

My friend lay beaten and nearly unconscious, blood trickling from her lips and temple. She was tied tightly with rope, and I rushed to her.

“Come with me now, or I’ll slit her traitorous little throat.”My mother demanded.

Tears welled in my eyes. “You fucking bitch.”

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re the idiot who ruined our coven. Do you even know how many witches died when Seth found out you were gone? Or do you not care?”

My heart froze in my chest. What? I hadn’t known about that.

“You can’t blame me for running. You were going to sell me to that sex demon. He would have killed me, and NO ONE CARED!”

“You little idiot, it was a set up! The council had been trying to come up with a reason to execute him for years for his crimes against other supernaturals. Hurting a witch as high-ranking as you would have been the final nail in his coffin! But no, you had to RUN AWAY!”

My mind tried to make sense of what she was saying, but I refused to give into the guilt that lingered at the edges of my heart.

“And what if he killed me? What then?”

My mother’s lower lip trembled for a split second, then stiffened. “One life in exchange for the thousands he murders with his sick appetites would have been a sacrifice well spent.”

I wanted to fall to the ground, but I wouldn’t show any weakness. Not to her.

“A sacrifice.”

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