Page 34 of A Bloodline Redeemed

He huffed a laugh.“Essentially.”

I tried to realign my black and white thinking.You’d think after all I’d seen and done the past few months.After all the varied discussions I’d had with my lovers about right and wrong, good and evil, that I’d understand the real world was all drawn in shades of gray.But sometimes I slipped back into old thinking patterns.

“We can trust her to put the cause first,” I muttered.“Over everything, up to and including the people around her.We can trust she does want the cult gone and the SA to be either destroyed and replaced or fixed so people are safe.But we can’t trust her to play by the rules.”I sighed.“I can’t trust her to think like I do.I can’t trust her to keep me or any of my people safe while we help her save the day.”

He nodded.“That is my assessment, yes.”

I closed my eyes and let one more fucking challenge sink into my brain with all the others we were facing.“Can I trust her to do what’s right after this whole thing goes down?”I whispered.“Because what will she do when she no longer has this big cause to focus her obsession?”

“Three times,” he said softly.“It took me three tries.I reversed time and reset the world three times to save us all from her desperation and anger.It took a lot of magic.But I did it.I will be by your side.And I will keep a very close eye on Belladonna Lovell, especially once the fighting is over.”

That helped.Even if River’s powers were limited, theywereastounding.He had the ability to divert disaster if it came to that—as long as we were alert and ready for it when it came.As long as it was something he could fix in a limited window of time.

But first, we had to survive long enough to win a war.

Chapter 19

Bis

RiverknewIwasin his backpack.

I was supposed to stay home where it was safe.Momma would be really mad when she realized I was hitchhiking.But I was sick of always being left out of things.Just because I wassmalldidn’t mean I was a baby.I think Andy forgot, sometimes, that I was probably just as old as she was… maybe even older, since no one knew exactly when I was created.I could have been down in that lab for a decade before she was even born.

And also, just because I was little didn’t mean I was stupid.In fact, the Lovells who made me probably wanted their man-made familiars to be the smartest creatures on earth.So they probably made sure I had above average intelligence.They wouldn’t bother to createanythingunless they could brag about their invention being the best.I needed to be here, just in case.

I knew how to hide.I knew how to keep myself out of physical danger.But what if Andy needed me?I was her familiar, after all—even if she refused to learn about our bond and all the amazing things we could do together.It was my job to make sure she had the ability to access magic in a way no witch without a familiar ever could.If there was an emergency, I would be here for her.

Even though she was lifebonded to the necromancer, and she had all these partly-formed bonds with others, that didn’t make me useless.They couldn’t help her see the things their eyes and senses couldn’t see.Like the crack in the wards holding the pocket world together.If it wasn’t for me, Andy wouldn’t have noticed that until it was too late.I had saved everyone.And yet they told me to stay behind while they went off to battle.As if I was a useless kid, when maybe it would be me who saved them.Again.

Maybe if I’d been with them the last time they went out, Hasumi would still be alive.

“Stop squirming,” River breathed, so quiet no one else could hear him.We were at the back of our group, carefully creeping down alleys and into the center of Hearthfire—the heart of the magical community.A small group of rebels had portaled in with us, on the outskirts of town where the entry point was less likely to be noticed.But they were a bit behind us, and they wouldn’t care if River was talking to himself.

I huffed, but stopped moving around.My spines were poking into the fabric of the backpack, and I was probably prickling River.I needed to be good for him, because I knew he was the only one who would have been willing to smuggle me along.River understood that being animal-shaped didn’t make you any less of a person.It didn’t make your opinions matter less than everyone else’s.

I felt guilty even thinking that.Andy always tried to treat me like a person.But darn it, I was mad at her!She wanted to leave me behind where I would have to sit and wait and wonder if any of them would ever come back, or if I’d be left alone in a pocket world for the rest of my life.I’d rather be out here getting set on fire or whatever.Waiting was theworst.

“Still squirming,” River whispered.

“What?”Aahil said softly.I couldn’t see him through the little crack where the flap of the backpack covered my hiding spot on River’s back, but it sounded like he had turned back toward us.“Did you say something kitty cat?”

Crap.Not Aahil.If he found out I was here, he’d definitely tell Momma.He’d find it funny.Andhe’d want to get on her good side by ratting me out.Darn it all.It was too soon to get caught.We were still too close to the portal, where she could easily turn around and send me back home.

River huffed.“Just talking to myself,” he said pleasantly.“It feels like my guts are squirming.I really hate that feeling right before you put yourself in mortal danger, you know?Gives me gas.”Then he shrugged.“I read a really interesting book once about all of the physiological changes that happen when people of humanoid body types are placed in situations of extreme stress.Did you know, for example, that there was a sad—though amusing—anecdote about a spy who got caught because his nervous gas gave him away?He farted really loudly when he was supposed to be hiding and—"

Aahil snorted.“Were you dropped on your head as a cub?”he said, forgetting to keep his voice down.

“Um, guys,” Andy whisper-shouted from up ahead.“Can we maybe tell fart stories later?We’re almost there.People are going to try to kill us soon.”Her energy felt anxious, humming and fluctuating along the familiar bond.I knew how she felt, and not just because of our bond.I could hear what they all could now—the sounds of fighting.Shouts.Explosions.We were nearing the heart.

I stood on my back legs so I could look out of the backpack again.Witches called this part of the city the heart, but that wasn’t really an official name.It was just the old, rich part of the capitol city of Hearthfire—the city the Lovells had called home, where our mansion hideaway used to be located in the countryside just outside the city limits.For thousands of years, this had been the place all the hoity-toity old family magic users had come to shop and meet up, and conduct politics and social demonstrations.It wasn’t as modern looking as some of the human cities I’d seen when I lived with Andy in the Planus realm… bits of its ancient history peeked through as we crept down the side streets and dark alleys which were narrower than any modern town.

It should have been a bustling, crowded area.Usually cars, motorbikes, pedal bikes, and pedestrians all crammed in on streets that were originally built to accommodate a single hose-drawn conveyance.But now… everything was quiet.A soft breeze sent a bit of litter tumbling along the sidewalk nearby.Which was also strange, because the cleaning crews in Magean cities used magic to keep everything tidy.Just that bit of wrongness would have been enough to raise my hackles.But it was worse than that.

It was too silent.There were no people or cars moving around.There was no engine noise, or chatter, or car horns.Nothing but the sound of River’s soft breathing as I pressed closer against his back, and the distant sounds of a fight up ahead.

We reached a main street, and I was able to catch a glimpse of why it was so quiet.People lay on the sidewalks, their limbs at awkward angles, sometimes piled on top of one another, as if all the crowds had fallen where they stood.Cars had crashed, slowly, thanks to the congestion on the main street.But they had trundled into lampposts and storefronts.And into each other.

“Shit,” Andy breathed, and I felt a pang of sorrow through our bond.

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