Page 13 of Lawful Mate
“It’s okay,” Theo reassured. “We both have a past. I don’t want you to hold back.”
She loved how he could already read her without her having to explain.
“So, his parents died our sophomore year. He’d always been part of my family, but I don’t know. I guess I thought if we were together, it would be more official. He needed a stronger connection to someone, and I wanted to give it to him. We tried, but it didn’t work. We both knew we weren’t each other’s true mates. I mean, deep down, I’d already sensed mine was out there somewhere.”
Theo brushed his knuckles down her cheek. “Did you guys stay friends after you broke up?”
“Yeah. It was awkward for a while, but eventually, we got past it. We realized being together romantically had actually strengthened our friendship. We wouldn’t have to wonder ‘what-if.’”
“Makes sense.”
“After college, I went to law school, and Ben opened up a restaurant in town. He and I saw each other often and spoke almost every day, so I knew about the girl he was seeing… Raina. I didn’t like her. It wasn’t a jealousy thing. There was just something about her, a gut feeling. Ben realized she was his true mate, so I never told him about my dislike and made every effort to get along with her. I just wanted him to be happy.
“He came to me one day. He’d found out she was studying dark magic and not just the stuff frowned upon by other witches. I’m talking poison, curses, even death spells, which are forbidden.”
“Why wasn’t she stopped?”
“There was never any proof she was practicing dark magic. You can’t just strip a witch’s powers for reading something. Also, she wasn’t very powerful.”
“What do you mean?”
Ivy explained how witches varied in the degrees of their power. Raina was a water witch, but the worst she could do was conjure up a light drizzle that covered a small area.
“So, her spell work wasn’t that powerful. If she had actually attempted any of those spells, I think she’d give someone an owie or maybe kill a wart,” she ended on a snort.
Theo looked pensive for a moment. “She was jealous of you.” It wasn’t a question.
Perceptive.
“Yes. Maybe because of my magic, or maybe she thought he’d leave her for me. Who knows? When I was done with law school, I moved back home. Eventually, he left her, but not to be with me. He found her dabbling in that stuff, confronted her, and told her to stop.”
“But she didn’t?” Theo asked.
Ivy shook her head. “She wasn’t good with the spells, but Ben told me she excelled with potions, including poison.” Ivy felt the tears pooling, so she closed her eyes to trap them there.
“Hey, we can stop.” He kissed her forehead.
“No, I want to tell you everything.” He wiped the tear that escaped. “After he broke it off with her, I tried calling, but he didn’t answer. I figured he needed space. Break-ups are hard enough, but choosing not to be with your true mate…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. Now that she had found her own true mate, she could fully understand the insurmountable pain Ben must have felt, knowing he would never be with his.
“I can’t even think about that,” Theo said against her forehead.
“Me, neither.” She gave him a shaky smile.
“What happened to Ben?”
“She killed him,” Ivy choked out. She couldn’t stop the tears now. Ivy became worried after two days of Ben ignoring her, so she went to his house. “I was too late. He was dead. Poisoned.”
Ivy explained how the matriarchs got together after Ivy informed her mother and grandmother about the dark tomes Raina possessed. Meanwhile, Raina, playing the grieving girlfriend, was only too happy to relinquish her books. She said she only wanted to understand why dark magic was out there and that she could never use it on someone, especially not her mate. “You should have seen her theatrics, wailing at everyone how it was an unjustified witch hunt.”
Samples of the poison were extracted from Ben to study, but nothing in his bloodstream matched anything in any of Raina’s books, and there was no evidence or any of the ingredients in Raina’s house. Ivy took a few samples from Ben to study, casting spells to uncover the properties of the poison and how to counteract it. By the time she was done, she knew exactly what Ben had suffered through and how long it took to kill him. She also knew the ingredients for the antidote that would have saved him if administered in time.
“I just needed proof.”
And last night, she got it.
Ivy had been tracking Raina’s whereabouts.
“That’s how I learned she was here in the city.”
