Page 101 of Hellish Witch

A pained expression wrinkled the old mage’s features. Everyone gaped back and forth between us.

Except Killian, who growled, shaking with rage beside me. He took a single step forward, and I grabbed his forearm, digging my claws in to hold him back. The contact helped me find strength.

I forced the next words out. “You’re my father, aren’t you?”

“I…” He seemed to visibly gather himself, drawing up straight. “I think so—”

Killian’s vicious snarl cut him off. “I should cut you down where you stand. How could you abandon her? Your child?!” His tail lashed behind him, punctuating with words like the crack of a whip.

I’d wondered that my whole life, and I’d never been more grateful to have Killian at my side. He knew exactly what I’d gone through.

If I’d had a father to raise me after my mother died, maybe things would have been different. Maybe I’d have been protected and loved. Not abused and threatened. Not staring down the barrel of a life in the pleasure houses of a succubus kingdom.

“I had no idea.” He stepped forward, hand outstretched. “Eve,daughter.” He whispered the word almost reverently, a look of wonder replacing the shell-shocked expression. “Pleasebelieve me. Lilabell never mentioned she was pregnant. One day, she just disappeared and never answered my summons again.”

“Save your excuses,” Killian hissed.

A burly male beside the coven elder cleared his throat, catching the coven elder’s attention and throwing a pointed look towards Killian.

The older mage seemed to shake himself, taking in the blood smears and bullet wounds across the incubus. “Goddesses, where are my manners? Are either of you in need of healing?”

His eyes glowed, shining like rubies, raking over me desperately as if searching for injuries. Their bright hue put Alvie’s sunny glow to shame, making his power seem dim in comparison.

I shook my horns, unable to voice that I had such magic to heal myself still. “Killian does.”

“I’m fine.” The demon stared the coven elder down until his glow withered away.

Of course the stubborn enforcer would refuse. Apparently, he rejected all healers, not just me.

“If you’re certain.” The coven elder inclined his head. Some of the steel that must have earned him his position seeped in, and he met Killian’s intense stare for a long moment before returning his attention to me. “Please, come with us. It’s a bit hectic with tonight’s initiation, but let’s find somewhere to sit down and talk. Unless demonic fashion has become a lot more macabre lately, you must be tired from whatever trials you’ve faced getting here.”

He wasn’t wrong. It felt like a lifetime had passed in a single day.

Kilian leaned down, whispering in my ear. “Even though this coven is mostly friendly towards demons, we can’t trust them. Especially not him.”

Curiosity nipped at my thoughts as I eyed the back of the coven elder’s head, stalking behind him. How many times had Killian been here if he knew things about the coven’s leader? Had they met before? Who cast his glamours when he came here?

He caught my hand in his, enclosing it in his warm strength. Storm-blue eyes, slashed through with slit pupils, bored into me as he brushed a loose curl back from my face, tucking it behind my ear. “If you want to leave, just say the word and we’re gone. We don’t need these people, sweetness. You never have. We’ll figure something else out. Together.”

His blood-smeared wings unfurled, readying to take off on my command.

My heart swelled. Killian meant every word. Even if it put him in danger, he’d take me away from here if I asked him to.

“I can’t be the reason you get hurt again, Kill. Not you, or Rex, or Zoella, or anyone. I have to keep our home safe. I have to fix my magic and be a healer. Be useful,” I murmured, rushing the words out through the tightness in my throat.

“Eve…” He trailed off, head bending towards mine in our own private bubble of intensity. “You’re fucking perfect. No matter what your magic does or doesn’t do for people. Your value isn’t tied to what you let others take from you.”

“Killian,” I pleaded, licking my suddenly dry lips. “You don’t understand. I’m doing this for you. For our family. Our home. I’m doing it out of necessity.”

“You’re doing it out of fear.” Silver sharpened his gaze. “Fear that you’re not good enough. That you’re not worthy. But you are, Eve. No matter what magic you have or how big your horns are. No matter how many poisons you make for us. No matter how wild your curls are first thing in the morning, or how grumpy you are without coffee sweet enough to rot your fangs.”

A muscle feathered along his jaw. The tattooed wing along his throat vibrated with the rapid beat of his pulse, but he held my gaze, unwavering. My own heart pattered with the same flighty cadence.

“You may not see your value, sweetness, but I’ve not been able to stop seeing it since you first tried to poison me with those damn flowers on that damn cake, and I’d eat every toxic crumb, just to be near you for a second longer.”

My lips parted at his words. “Killian…”

Why was everything just so fires-damned complicated?

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