Page 15 of November Reign
“Right.”
It had been Mori’s plan to get Cody, and by extension, Toth, recognized as royal to save Toth from his witch slave contract. He’d technically bargained out of it, but just in case Basil ever went back on his word, Cody, as his fated mate, gave him a new name only he knew. True names between mates were never to be shared. They had also been made royalty to protect Cody, though as a half-witch, we didn’t know how he would be affected by contracts.
I hated the old tradition of enslaving demons to witches. The contracts were often cruel and unnecessary. Quite often, if you just spoke to a demon they would be willing to help you, given the proper compensation. Sadly, most demons weren’t accustomed to witches treating them fairly, and they tended to avoid us.
“So Barr and Jorgoth?” I asked, turning the conversation back to safer grounds.
Cody made a face. “Not technically a thing. Yet. If we have our way they will be.”
“You and Damon.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, well I hope they can protect him from being summoned.” I tried to end our talk without bringing Thyme back up. “I’m going to call everyone in for lunch.”
Maybe I fled the room after that. Cody couldn’t prove it, especially because I found Parker and Gregoris making out instead of watching the cameras.
Lunch was a subdued affair, partially because Parker was embarrassed I’d caught him, and Damon was sending me glares. Cody had clearly clued him in on my conversation and he was feeling some kind of way about it.
He couldn’t make me date his brother, even though I did want Thyme, it just wasn’t a good idea.
Giving him the evil eye back was immature, so I kept it at one time only and carried on eating my lunch. I needed away from these people. We had to up ourgame now that the attacks were increasing again, with magic users often supporting the shifters.
Basil was about to make a move, and we needed to be ready to end this once and for all.
Unfortunately, no one was on board when I broached the subject.
“They aren’t ready,” Thyme said, inclining his head towards Damon and Cody.
“There’s so much we still have to teach them,” Gregoris agreed. “Damon cannot be matched at hand to hand fighting, yet with magic he is…”
“Is what?” the man himself asked.
Gregoris fixed him with a look which told Damon to be honest with himself. “Not where you should be, considering your level of power. Your coven elders have spent months training you—“
“Our training was flawed!” Thyme automatically defended.
We were going around in circles.
“Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong,” I finally said, breaking through what was sure to be an epic argument.
“What do you mean?” Toth asked. He was the calmest of us all. Toth knew Cody would never be at the frontline of any battle because he didn’t have the heart for it. He would be our backup. The one to healus, defend us, when things went wrong. He would get the book somewhere safe with Toth if we failed.
“Instead of playing to Basil’s strengths, why aren’t we working to ours? He doesn’t know how to properly fight a hitman. If we can protect Damon against Basil’s magical attacks, he can get in there with a physical one.”
The epiphany was so strong it nearly knocked me back. We had three fully grown demons with magic of their own, if we didn’t include Barr. Cody with his mixed magic could have skills we’d never thought of. Parker could shift, fly, and fight!
“What if,” Damon suggested, “we all take on each other’s fighting styles? I learn demon and witch attacking styles. Really throw them off. If they can’t predict what I’m about to do, they can’t defend against it.”
“You’ll still need to learn your magic,” Thyme added reasonably. “You’re a danger to us all if you don’t have full control.”
Damon was already getting up to talk to Gregoris about learning some moves. I heard him ask if it was possible for him to conjure demon wings so he could fly. With his magic, just about anything was possible.
The others left the kitchen, all talking about plans. I knew I had to clear the air with Thyme, so I hung back to speak to him while Ihelped him clean up.
“You should be making Parker and Cody do this.” I would never suggest Thyme ask Gregoris to do anything, the demon was scary looking. Toth would help just because Cody was.
“It’s fine. I was hoping to speak to you.”
