Page 70 of Mortal Desires

“It doesn’t matter how I got there anyway.”

“You felt the tether?” she asked.

“The tether?”

“Yeah,” she said, bringing her hand over her stomach. “It’s like a force yanking you toward your soulmate. That’s what separated us all.”

“I did feel a tug.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “You think that’s where everyone went? To their soulmate?”

Marnie looked at Grayson before she replied, “At first no. I thought something sinister happened. All of you disappeared and that weird parade—”

“I forgot about the parade.” I looked at Vic, but he was already shaking his head to let me know he had nothing to do with that.

“The parade was human,” Grayson interjected. “My sister-in-law was invited, that's why I was there.”

“The parade was still weird, Gray.” Marnie sighed. “It just appeared out of nowhere.”

“It was a trap,” Vicious spoke for the first time.

His timber was low and menacing. I was used to it already but I had to giggle when Marnie jerked in her seat, alarmed when she heard him for the first time.

“By whom?” I asked.

The kettle chimed and everyone in the kitchen jumped but Vic, he barely hid his smirk.

“Someone in this realm,” he said as Marnie managed the tea. “A witch family perhaps. Someone who knew how to invite mortals.”

“It was a social media event,” Grayson said. “I can look around to see if I can find who originally sent it.”

I nodded. “That’s good. We need to find that out for sure.”

Marnie put the tea in front of me, her own blend I remember well, I smiled gratefully and took the cup into my hands taking a big sip.

“There’s something else.” I winced as I spoke.

I didn’t want to say a word. I want to kiss and hug my sister and then go back to the underworld and sleep in our bed curled around Vic. But this wasn’t our honeymoon.

Our sisters disappeared, a witch family might be involved, and our father was out there somewhere. I remembered when my problems were that my new husband made me watch him stroke himself every day.

“What is it?” Marnie rounded the table and took a seat beside Grayson, his hand coming to her leg straight away.

“Dad escaped from hell.”

My dramatic statement was followed by confused faces. It wasn’t the most normal of circumstances but it wasn’t the craziest thing said around this kitchen either.

“I’m sorry?” Marnie replied with a smile hoping I was joking.

I glanced back at Vic and he came to my rescue, plastering his front to my back, one big hand on my shoulder.

“We got news this morning that Adrian and an old witch named Cassandra escaped the underworld,” he explained on my behalf. “We went down to the beginning to see if it was even possible.”

“Beginning of what?” Grayson asked.

“Everything,” Vic replied.

Before we got into one of the puzzling afterlife sayings I cut them off. “They escaped through the caves like the old legend says. But the problem is that they were both dead. If the legend is correct one living soul needs to guide the other.”

“Are the old legends true?” Marnie shook her head. “Like the Greeks.”

---