Page 16 of A Bloodline Redeemed

But the goddess sent a strong, warm feeling their way.“No!”she said, her voice sounding angrier, and a bit more real than usual.“I won’t let that happen.I’m here.You are not alone.We just have to wait until help arrives.”

Sky looked over Moon’s shoulder and gasped.“Moon!Look!”

There, standing right by them, was a faint, see-through outline of a person.Like a ghost.He couldn’t make out features.Just misty light and flowy bits.But he knew it was their goddess.Mommy said the goddess was love.And that was what he felt from this person.She was angry, but not at him and Moon.She was angry like mommy got sometimes, when she went into what daddy called “mother bear mode.”

Then the person shape faded away, and the goddess’s voice was once again only in their head, faint and fading.I have to go.But I’ll be back little ones.Rest.I promise I won’t go far.

Sky and Moon cuddled up under their old blanket in the straw.For now, they were in an old chain-link dog pen.But he knew the witches would move them again soon.Maybe this time they’d get a shed with walls to keep the wind out.Or… maybe if they were really good and didn’t argue with the big people, they’d get to stay inside an actual house like they did that one time.Even if it was in the basement, still, that was so much better than sleeping outside in the dirt.

And with that hopeful thought, Sky drifted off into an exhausted sleep.

He woke up when one of the big witches rattled the chain on their pen.“Wakey, wakey, it’s lunch time.”The witch walked away, leaving a couple pieces of bread and some hard jerky just inside the pen.Barely enough for him and Sky to share.And it would probably be all they got today, unless their magic came back enough for them to do a spell for the other witches.

Moon groaned and stood up to go get the food.But when she did, something fell out of the folds of the blanket.

Two shiny red apples, a couple of unwrapped granola bars, and… a big piece ofchocolate.He looked up at his sister.“Where did this come from?”he whispered, looking around, hoping no one else had seen.

She shook her head, quickly crouching back down to cover up the things with the blanket.“The goddess.It has to be.”Her eyes were big and round as they met his.“She showed herself to us.Maybe she brought us these.But we can’t let the others see.We’ll wait ‘til it’s dark to eat them.”

Sky nodded in agreement.Then he looked around the empty yard where they were currently camped out by an old, run-down house that the witches probably kicked someone else out of.“Thank you,” he whispered to the air.And to the goddess he knew was watching over them.

Chapter 11

Andy

Everydaythenewsgot worse.And every day, I ignored it.

I knew, deep down inside, that I couldn’t hide forever.But we had all lost something infinitely precious, and I didn’t think I could survive that again.I wasn’t sure how we survived it now.

No, that’s not right.I knew exactly how we survived losing Hasumi.It was because we had each other.Because this strange family of ours had something more powerful between us than blood.But I knew I couldn’t—wouldn’t—survive another loss.So I hid.

River’s ceremony was a good idea.It hadn’t taken the pain away—nothing could ever do that.But it softened the edges, made it easier to breathe, to remember that I still had so much to live for.So many people in my life who loved me.And that reminder of family, of clan, and love, and support… that made it easier to ignore everything going on outside our little bubble.

I might try to be a better person, but I still had evil Lovell blood pumping through my veins.So, no one should be the least bit surprised if I decided to be ridiculously fucking selfish.

But try as I might to ignore it, the news reached us.Bella had a direct link to my magic and the house, via her own evil Lovell blood.She could send shit though the wards whenever she wanted to.

Rather than pulling away to nurse her own hurt and loss, she seemed to double down on what she saw as her goddess-given mission, or whatever.The annoying asshole.Every few hours there was a flaming missive arriving on my fucking kitchen table.My first instinct was to throw them all away.Or just let them sit there in a flaming heap forever, like some immortal flame on the altar of her insanity.

But my curiosity, and the nagging of several of the more moral people around me, meant that we’d eventually end up caving and seeing what new horrors awaited us.Newspaper articles, handwritten notes and lists, and even a few more of those stupid rebel pamphlets… several times a day, every day, for what was going on three weeks now.If I ever saw the annoying pest again, I was going to strangle her just for being a pain in my ass.

I didn’twantto know what the fucked up outside world was getting up to.I wanted to remain here, safe and somewhat secure, licking my wounds.Let other people handle this bullshit.They had chased me out of both realms.Hunted me and my people even now.And even the current victims in this situation, the non-witches, other paranormal races who were now hunted by the cult… they certainly hadn’t been too keen on welcoming a Lovell witch among them, back when I was just an orphaned child trying to find a place.

They hadn’t come begging for all the Lovell’s dark secrets or black magic grimoires the way some of the witches had, but they had made it clear, with hostile looks and snide “whispers” meant to be heard, that I was scum because of who my parents were.Even the humans, who didn’t know who or what I was when I lived among them… if they knew the truth of what I was, even without knowing my family’s sordid history, they’d likely try to burn me alive or start spewing religious curses at me just for existing.Their history was rife with examples of how well they accepted witches and other creatures when they’d run into them in the past.

So, fuck them.Fuck them all, and let them sort out shit on their own.I wasn’t their fucking savior.And the people who sheltered here with me had suffered enough for several lifetimes.Fuck that noise.

Still, the damned information filtered in and lodge in my brain with every one of Bellas stupid deliveries and every quiet side eye from River, and occasionally from the others as well.The cult was continuing to attack weaker magical beings, and their attacks were getting bolder as they went after bigger places, more obvious locations.

The SA was failing to stop them.The Supernatural Alliance was too busy fighting within their own organization, weeding out betrayers and cult sympathizers in their midst.The violence and evil was snowballing, and the all-powerful government organization that was meant to protect both MageaandPlanus, was slowly crumbling in on itself.Just as the cult had probably planned all along.

But it wasn’t my fucking problem.Nope.Absolutely not.

My insulin pump beeped an annoying tone, telling me my blood sugar was sky high.Probably thanks to the stress, since I’d been careful about my eating habits.Damn it, I wastryingto conserve fucking inulin, since I couldn’t just run out to the pharmacy and grab a couple years supply anytime I wanted.I glared at the device as I punched buttons and gave myself an extra dose of the life-saving medicine that I was being denied by the asshats currently destroying two worlds.

“Fuckers.Fuck every last one of you shit-eating slime suckers!”I muttered to myself and the universe at large.

A big hand landed on my shoulder, startling me out of my light-hearted revelry.I jumped, then rolled my eyes.I should have felt Zhong approaching.I shouldn’t even bethinkingabout the bullshit that wasn’t my problem.Goddess.

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