Page 13 of Witch Undecided
All eyes fixed on me.
I scanned faces, snagging on Astrid’s cool gray gaze, then focusing on warm brown eyes that had a hint of sadness about them. The deep auburn hair and the eyebrows that flicked up slightly at the ends gave her away as Leif’s mother.
“Welcome, Cora,” she said with a smile. “Please have a seat.” She indicated the spot opposite her and Astrid.
Leif pulled the chair out for me, then kissed my temple. “I’ll be back to collect you in a couple of hours.”
“See you later.” I sat and took a deep breath. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Leif’s mother said. “Call me Heather, or if you like, Mother.”
Mother? My throat tightened. I’d never called anyone mother before.
She frowned slightly. “Or not. It’s entirely up to you.”
Fuck, she thought I was offended. “No, it’s fine. I just. I don’t have a mother, so it just threw me for a moment, that’s all.”
And it felt weird admitting that fact because I was rarely thrown. Being here, amidst these witches and wolves, was proving to be an exercise in new emotions and experiences.
Heather’s brown eyes gleamed with compassion. “When did you lose her?”
I smiled thinly. Okay, here went nothing. “I never had one.”
Silence greeted my revelation and then Astrid broke it.
“Cora wasn’t born,” she said snidely. “She wascreated.” She arched a brow my way and sipped her tea.
Well, it looked like someone had done her research. Nice to know she cared, and yep, there were several soft gasps of shock.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I was here to make friends, and the best way to do that was to be open and honest whether they liked it or not.
“That’s right.” I picked up the teapot and poured some tea into my cup, adding milk then sugar. “I’m what you call a tulpa. I was created, and I inherited my creator’s witch genes.” I sipped the tea. “I’m happy to answer any questions you have.”
There was a beat of silence and then a young girl sitting two seats away from Heather spoke.
“How were you created?” She looked genuinely curious.
Oh, this one was easy. “Well, tulpas are entities created from an individual’s will. They usually remain inside the creator’s subconscious, but my creator was so powerful her will gave me a life of my own, and a mind and will of my own. It also gave me her witch power.”
“Wow,” the young wolf said. “That’s amazing.”
“Are you real?” another wolf asked.
I picked up a croissant. “As real as any one of you. I just didn’t come to be in a conventional manner.”
“Well,” Astrid said. “It must be worrying for the coven to be dealing with an unknown entity, but then I guess desperate situations call for desperate measures and it was lucky you were available to play backup for therealpotentials.”
She was making a dig, a shitty one, but still. I could let it slide and deal with her snide comments on and off, pretending they didn’t matter, or I could stomp on this now and make the status quo clear.
Ha, who was I kidding? There was never any choice for me.
I leaned forward, my gaze fixed on her. “If you want to make a dig, you need to stab harder. I have very thick skin.” I gave her a sweet smile.
She blinked sharply and then fixed a stunned look on her face. “Oh goodness. I wasn’t making a dig. I was merely making an observation.”
Heather sighed. “Astrid, please, if you plan on playing the mean girl, then own it.”
Well, well, well, it looked like Heather was my kind of gal.
