Page 86 of Heart of a Witch
“You’re lucky I didn’t send anyone after you. I gave you space, even after youbeatyour own father.”
My lip curled. “Because you hadbeatyour own son—almost to death, I might add.”
“For his own good.” He shook his head, running his finger along the fresh scar. He looked up in prayer, closing his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. “I forgive you for what you did. You’re not seeing clearly, and Zerheus teaches to forgive family. You aren’t seeing clearly, and it’s not your fault.” He hung his head, the lump in his throat moving up when he loosed a sigh. “Are you staying at the Weathermore residence?”
Something felt wrong. He knew I was. He had eyes and ears everywhere, but his tone… “Why?”
“Where are they?”
My nose wrinkled. “I don’t know. At home, most likely, and Ambrose is going to one of those church meetings this evening.”
He sneered. “Ambrose.”
“Don’t you dare hurt them,” I warned, as I’d seen that look before, “just because we left you. Don’t hurt them because I hurt you, like you did to Sandra.”
He grabbed my wrist, his stare latching onto mine, panic glittering with madness. “Sandra deserved what she got.” He loosened his grip when my hardened stare found his. “Corbin didn’t deserve all my wrath,” he admitted. “Only some of it. I realized once you left and where you had gone who’s behind all of this.” A gust of wind swept between us, flurrying snowflakes into my vision. “The Weathermores are witches, an entire family of them. I believe them to be those who escaped. Victoria is Victoria Amberwood, and the brother, Ambrose, is Cassian. The younger sister is Alexandra Amberwood. It all makes sense now. They are the ones who got away, minus the mother who could be out hiding or dead. They are known to kill their own, you know.”
I pulled my hand from his grasp forcefully. “They are not witches. You’ve gone mad.”
He stopped me as I went to turn. “Believe me, son. Your brother got ahold of this.” He lifted a grimoire. “The handwriting inside is not his. It doesn’t say who it belongs to, but I’m certain it’s one of theirs. Perhaps Alexandra’s. Why else do you think they got so close to our family? They’re seeking revenge against me.”
“Why would they do that?”
He ran his hand through his thinning hair and replaced his black hat. “Because I killed one of their own.”
“Who?” I asked, recalling how they’d said their parents had died.
“Their sister. She was the one who tipped me off to who would be at the club that night.”
“Why would she tip you off, and if she did, then why did you kill her?” I took a step back. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Because the Blackwood family was going to kill her brother, and I found out when I staked out their black magic club. She saw me. She knew who I was and panicked when I knew her name, all their names. I was going to kill her that hour, but she made a deal with me instead. She told me everything about the club, about the sacrifices they did and how to get in, the passwords and spells protecting the place… In exchange, I agreed to not harm her or her family.”
My heart was racing. “What changed?”
“Nothing. She ran into the woods with her witch lover, one of the Blackwoods, that evening and thought herself safe when we took down the club, but I wasn’t going to let her go. I don’t make deals with witches. I captured them both and executed them. I was going to hunt her family next, but they’d already gone. Clearly, they were smarter than she was.”
I pulled my gloves from my pocket and pulled them on as the winds picked up. “That may be, but my Victoria is not a witch.”
“Your Victoria?” He closed his eyes. “Zerheus help us. You have fallen for the girl?”
“I… I don’t—that’s not important. I know her, and she’s good.”
“She’s tricked you.” Fury swallowed his expression. “She seduced you, as witches do, and her family has infiltrated ours. I should have seen it. She even played dress-up in white and came to me the morning after the ball, trying to win me over. I knew then something was off with her, but I thought it was desperation on her part to become a Shaw. Then I found the hexed bag—and the grimoire in Corbin’s room—and you turned against me and moved in with them of all people. The timing of when they moved to town, their obvious aliases, aside from Victoria’s… It all clicked into place after you left.”
“Right there.” I pointed out the flaw in his logic. “Why would she continue to call herself Victoria if she really was on the run?”
“I’m not sure.” He wrung his hands. “But she’s clever. They all are. Lady Abor’s blood boiled in my sermon. It was not tuberculosis. The only difference that day was all three of that family were in my church. They did this.”
“Father—”
“You have fallen into the arms of our enemies. They are using you to get to me, and you’re letting them.”
I shook my head, a lump forming in my throat. “I’ve heard enough. I’m leaving, and if you try to come after them based on your ridiculous superstitions, you’ll have to come through me because they’ve done nothing but help me—and Corbin, who almost died.”
“I made a mistake,” he said carefully.
“No.” I pointed a finger in his face. “People learn from their mistakes. You’ve been doing this for most of our lives. The only monster here is you.” I turned away, my heart racing as I stormed down the road. There was no way he wasn’t going to come after them if he thought they were witches, and I had to protect them—protect her.
