Page 9 of Cruel Revenge
“What are your plans for today?” I asked.
“I was going to see what Zuri was already planning for your bachelorette party if I can get a hold of her. If not, I’ll just keep getting further ahead on my schoolwork. No classes today, so…” Carey shrugged.
“You can go out with the others. I’m sure the wolves wouldn’t mind hanging out.”
Carey shrugged.
“They’re always willing to go paintballing or something, but I really enjoy studying. I know it’s weird, but I like learning more than paintballing.”
“Whatever you want,” I said, shrugging. “I’ll be with Olivia and Dirk today. Call if anything happens.”
“I will,” she said, smiling as she picked up our breakfast plates from the table. She’d been the last to sit down, so clean-up was hers if she had nowhere pressing to be. As I walked out of the house, my phone buzzed. Checking it, I chuckled to see that Olivia had ridden with Teagan to the packhouse. I knew Dirk had ridden with Landon. It was pretty well planned. They wereabout to start walking over, and I quickly texted back to tell them to wait; I would pick them up.
I didn’t get out, seeing only Dirk and Olivia waiting outside. As they got into my car, I felt Heath, Landon, and Teagan disappear from my territory in Heath’s office.
“So, how is everyone this morning?” I asked, mostly looking at Olivia beside me in the passenger’s seat.
“Oh, lovely. It’s a nice morning. A bit cold, of course, but the sun is out. Good day to check on home.”
“And you?” I asked, my smile turning toothy as I looked at Dirk.
“Heath yelled at me already. Sorry about the mess,” he said.
“Forgiven.” I nodded, dropping the topic, glad that Heath had taken care of it. While the boys came to my house to be boys, there was a line to be drawn about leaving my kitchen destroyed when Heath and I had been otherwise preoccupied for several days.
As I started driving, I turned my attention to the road, but also to Olivia.
“So, how have you been? Have you and Teagan settled in to living together yet?”
“Oh, um, yeah,” Olivia answered with a pink blush covering her cheeks. “He’s really easy to live with.”
“I bet,” I said, chuckling. “Has my mother reached out to you recently?”
“Yeah! Well… she showed up in my dreams and told me it was really her, but it was also a dream, and I could have been making it up, but I remember it was so clear that I think it really was her. We talked about how my magic was still changing and how I need to keep being careful with spells I’ve been able to do for years. She thinks I’ve got a pretty good handle on it, but things could still happen.”
“Wow. I’m sorry this happened to you because of me,” I said, frowning.
“This is the eleventh time you’ve apologized for something you didn’t do,” Olivia said with a bright, clear laugh. “It’s not your fault. Subira and I already discussed how she didn’t know this would happen, either. She never gave her blood to someone outside of the family before. It never changed Zuri or Jabari. It hasn’t done anything to Makalo… or Aisha, either. We think Aisha is free from the impact because she’s technically using Jabari’s magic, thanks to how their mate bond works. The magic still comes from Subira’s line, her children. She explained that to me when she told me she had done some testing about what happened. I’m the only person this has happened to, and there was no way any of us could have known.”
“Still…”
“I’m more powerful than I could have ever imagined. It just makes spells need a little attention and care. I can cast more, heal for longer… none of it’s bad. It just is what it is.” Olivia continued to smile. “And I have one of the best teachers of magic that humanity has ever produced. She’s a genius, your mother. Absolutely incredible.”
“She’s incredibly special,” I said, almost in a whisper, knowing that Subira was probably one of the strongest witches to walk the earth and had been since the day she was born, over five thousand years ago.
“She’s actually excited I can still heal. She explained her power was always so big, so immense, that the intricacies of healing were impossible for her. Plus, her knowledge of human anatomy was limited as she was learning magic and still undeveloped enough to attempt healing.”
“Undeveloped?” I asked, frowning at the word choice.
“Magic… grows with an individual. It’s different for everyone, but like all things, as you go from child to teen to adult, itmatures with you. When she was younger, she probably could have attempted healing before her magic matured to its full strength in her adulthood,” Olivia excitedly explained. I never gave her a chance to talk too much about this with me. We all knew she talked Teagan’s ear off about it, but we also knew he liked it.
I was unconscious for it, but apparently, he was immediately protective of the witch Dirk brought to help me while I was poisoned. She healed my physical body, boosted by Subira’s blood, while Subira entered my mind to help guide me through the trial the poison forced me to face. A warped version of my own reality, torturing me into giving up and dying or forcing me to find courage to face the reality it was based on and wake up. The injuries I had gotten in my head had appeared on my physical body, scaring everyone. Dirk had made the best call, going to find help. Subira approved of Olivia immediately. If she hadn’t, Olivia wouldn’t be in my car, smiling brightly as she talked about the magic she and Subira were now working on together. She certainly wouldn’t be living with Teagan.
“That’s interesting. I never considered that she was ever weaker than she is now. I thought she was born the way she is.”
“Yeah, it’s not well known, because to everyone else, it just looks like young witches and warlocks are training and that they’re getting better, but the power does change, even without the training. It’s why we start training young witches and warlocks the moment their magic presents itself. It only gets harder as someone gets older.” She chuckled. “Unless it’s Subira doing the training. Makalo is lucky to have her as his grandmother and can help him as a late bloomer.”
“He really is,” I agreed, nodding. The family didn’t know Makalo existed until he finally came into his magic, and Aisha reached out to Zuri for help. She had raised him alone well into his teens, keeping him away from the dangerous politics of thewerecat ruling family so he could forge his own path one day, instead of being roped into the danger and drama of his paternal family. His magic coming in so late meant it had come in with a bang.
