Page 100 of Soul of a Witch

“Why did you come here?” I wrung my hands as I paced in despair. “Why couldn’t you just leave me alone?” My throat was swollen with panic, and I choked on my words, sinking into a nearby chair. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

A soft scent filled the air. When I looked up, a porcelain cup had appeared on the table beside me, filled with steaming tea. Although I couldn’t hear her without a radio nearby, I could feel my grandmother’s presence, warm and soothing.

“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. “I don’t know what I can say.”

Juniper had come back to Abelaum to enact her revenge. Anger hung around her like a cloud; even unconscious, her bloodlust clung to her with undeniable fierceness. Her life had been destroyed thanks to my family. Only my mother’s guilt-ridden betrayal of the Libiri had saved her. But that didn’t erase what had happened. It didn’t undo the harm.

She deserved her vengeance. Perhaps that meant I deserved to die.

Callum would have a fit if he could have heard me thinking that way.

From deep within the house, I could hear the piano playing. Its tune was light, soothing, intertwining with the birdsong around me. The house was trying to calm me, giving me a gentle song to guide me. Callum’s answer to this was violence, and I didn’t blame him for that. But maybe I could choose another way.

Juniper stirred, and tension shot up my spine. She groaned as she tried to raise her head, and I said quickly, “Be careful. He was rough with you.”

She went still, her eyes widening as she slowly turned them toward me. Her expression was hard, guarded. Her gaze moved over me like a cornered wolf, trying to decide whether she could bite or flee.

“Everly Hadleigh?” Her voice was husky, deeper than when I’d last heard her speak. It gave me a sudden vision of long nights spent in desolate bars, the smell of cigarettes heavy in the air and the taste of whisky on my tongue.

“Everly Laverne, please.” My hand shook as I sipped my tea, struggling to maintain eye contact with her. “My father never wanted me to have his name anyway.”

Fury rolled off her in a wave as she snapped, “Where’s my demon? Where the hell is he?”

“With Callum. He’s alive. Callum won’t allow him near me, so…”

“What the fuck is a Callum?” She got to her feet, her face contorting with pain. Regret that I’d sent Callum away suddenly seized me as I stared at her. She wasn’t quite as tall as me, but she was muscular, and her hands were balled into fists.

My fingertips tingled as they grew warm, my arms itching as fire flowed through my veins.

“He’smydemon,” I finally said. “He’s the guardian of this place. Of...me. I didn’t mean for him to be so rough with you. With either of you. But your demon...Zane...he’s fine. I mean…they heal quickly.”

“Don’t you fucking talk about him like it’s not a big deal thatyourdemon bashed his fucking face in.”

Unbidden heat flared in my chest.

“Did you come here to kill me, Juniper Kynes?”

Her answer was obvious before she spoke. Her anger shimmered around her in a red haze. There was a pulse in the air that I could feel in my chest, shocking me with its fury.

In quick, unbidden glimpses, I saw visions of her life. Handfuls of pills and bottles of liquor. Tattoos to cover the scars on her chest. Her brother’s pale corpse, wrapped in a sheet. Blood on her hands.

She avoided my question. Instead, she said, “You remember me. You looked terrified when you saw me in Abelaum. You looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

A ghost of my past. The specter of my guilt. I said, more to myself than to her, “Memories are far more frightening than ghosts.”

Her anger was justified. I envied her for having it, for being furious instead of frightened.

She glared at me. “You want to talk about scary memories? We share one: you, me...and your mother. Is she here? Is Heidi Laverne here?”

She yelled, as if hoping my mother would hear her. The red cloud of anger around her grew deeper, darker.

Maybe the truth would comfort her.

“My mother is dead,” I said. “Her mistakes…I can’t apologize for her. An apology probably isn’t even what you want to hear. She regretted everything. She tried to make things right.”

“She tried tomake things right?” She shook her head, lip curling in disgust as she charged toward me. “What haveyoudone to make things right, Everly? You were there too, hiding in the shadows like a fucking coward!”

She lunged, but she didn’t get far. Dangling vines snapped toward her, coiling around her arm and pulling her back. It wasn’t my doing; Darragh was watching.

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