Page 30 of Torn Ivy
“Are screwed?” I ask with a smirk.
She giggles. “Yeah, but I was going to say, then we go in all guns blazing and figure shit out later.”
“A woman after my own heart,” I murmur, pulling her closer.
She brushes her lips over mine with a slow smile before she turns and stalks off, leaving us to follow.
13
TATE
After Ivy wantedto be alone to think, me and the other guys returned to our house across campus. Torin and Bram have disappeared, leaving me to mope in the kitchen with a glass of whiskey, strong enough to knock your head off. But it’s needed. Something isn’t adding up here. We are missing something vital about who Ivy is. I just can’t figure it out because I can’t clear my head enough to do it. Not that the booze will help. If anything, it will make it worse.
A sharp rap on the back door has me looking up from the swirl of amber liquid sloshing around the glass as I rotate it.
Crossing over to it, I glare at the arsehole on the other side. “You.”
Vex smirks and holds up a book that has seen better centuries and crackles with dark magick.
“You’re going to bring that into my house?” I ask, gesturing to it with the glass.
“Only if you want to know what I know.”
That makes me step aside with a grimace. No way am I letting him have information about Ivy that I don’t. “I’ll get everyone.”
“No. Just you.”
Frowning, I sit at one end of the kitchen table, and he takes the other side.
The grimoire he retrieved from MistHallow sits between us, its ancient pages humming with dark energy. It sets my teeth on edge.
Storm clouds gather outside, matching my mood. The soft patter of rain against windows fills the heavy silence between us.
“You need to read it,” Vex says eventually, his usual smug expression absent. “Found something interesting while researching the chaos magick.”
“And you had to show me alone? Could’ve just sent a text.” I swirl the amber liquid in my glass again, watching the light catch it.
He shifts uncomfortably in his chair, a warning sign that whatever this book holds, I’m not going to like it. “Not about this.”
Lightning flashes outside, illuminating the kitchen. The grimoire shifts in response, dark energy rippling across its surface.
“Your mother’s name was Sarah Well,” Vex states, sitting back. His words drop into the quiet kitchen like stones into still water. “Before she married your father.”
I freeze, glass halfway to my lips. The whiskey catches the lamplight, gleaming like amber. “I’m aware. What of it?”
“Because my mother’s maiden name was Well too.” He opens the grimoire to a family tree, aged parchment crackling beneath his fingers. Pointing to two branches that split decades ago, he continues, “They were sisters.”
The whiskey burns as I knock it back. Rain drums steadily against the windows, nature’s percussion to this twisted family reunion. “We’re cousins?”
He shakes his head. “No. Worse.”
“Worse?” I feel a dread spike in my blood. What could be worse than being his cousin?Oh, you just had to ask, didn’t you?
Vex chuckles. “Your dad fucked my mum.”
“Oh, for the love of all things unholy,” I mutter, resisting the urge to throw up. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Wish I was. Explains why we hated each other on sight at university,bro.” His laugh is bitter, echoing in the small space between us.
