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“That’s our house cat?” I blurt, my jaw dropping and eyes growing to the size of saucers.
“I knew he was too big to be a normal cat,” Nolan chimes in, sounding happily vindicated.
Connor grunts his agreement, as if he, too, suspected something, which is blatantly not true. The only feelings I tracked from him was the desire to make friends with the furry creature, opposed to the super protective mode he is in now.
Donovan slowly kneels down to pull a knife from his boot, while Kaleb looks toward their black truck, clearly trying to calculate how long it would take him to retrieve more weapons.
“Will you guys chill? If he wanted to hurt us, he would have done it by now,” I grumble, finally getting a hold of myself.
I don’t know why I get surprised anymore. If I’ve learned anything from coming to this town, it’s that everything is weird, and nothing is what it seems. Of course my house cat can turn into different giant cats with claws that can disembowel people. Why would I assume anything else?
My paternal grandmother purses her lips in frustration. “Could you please have him shift to his humanoid form so we can talk like civilized people?”
Mildred crosses her arms over her chest and leans her weight on her back foot. “I have no control over what he does. Based on his posture, I believe he sees you as a threat. I would have to agree, since you want to take Callie from her home.”
“This is not her home.” The woman waves her hand in a general gesture of everything around her. “Living in the human world was only meant to be temporary, until she came of age and could return to witch society. Which, if you recall, I fought for while you were too depressed to get out of bed. If it weren’t for me, she would have been bound and trapped here for the rest of her life!”
Shame drags at my nan’s features, and I can’t stand the thought of her feeling guilty for a second about grieving my mother. Squeezing through all of the people standing guard around me, I run toward Mildred and hug her. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
Her eyes are glassy as she looks sadly down at me. “No, as much as I hate to admit it, Carlotta is right in this instance. I failed you.”
“But then you saved me,” I counter stubbornly. “I wouldn’t have any of this without you.”
“I’m only sorry I didn’t get to you sooner,” she murmurs, running a hand down my hair.
“Sooner? You weren’t supposed to look for her at all,” Carlotta argues, pushing strands of her dark, wavy hair out of her eyes. “She was supposed to live a human life, and then on her eighteenth birthday, I was supposed to reintroduce her to witch society and bring her before the council so her magic could be unbound. Had you asked, I might have had you join me, but you can never do things in the proper order.” She again motions to the crowd at large. “Clearly, you didn’t bother to wait until today to tell her about our world.”
Donovan flips the knife, catching it by the blade, and then back by the handle. “No, we told her the truth. It’s bullshit to leave her in the dark about what she is.” His black wings burst from his back, ripping through his shirt, the sunlight casting the feathers in an oil dipped rainbow of colors. His trademark cocky smirk pulls at one corner of his mouth. “Granted, the wings kind of gave it away.”
Apparently not one to be left out, Kaleb sighs, tugs his shirt up over his head, and summons his wings. Standing tall, he glares at my paternal grandmother, his feelings clear about leaving me ignorant of the life I was born into.
One thing I will give the woman is that she has confidence for days, standing defiantly against everyone here who’s ready to rip her to shreds if she dares step out of line. She lifts her chin and holds out her hand. “Callie, it’s time to come home to where you belong. Don’t you want your magic back?”
Ice fills my veins as the memories of how my magic first manifested floods my mind. Wind howls through the trees as I hold up one hand, palm out. “The Bastard you birthed cracked the binding spell years ago.” With a single thought, I slam the woman into the classic car. “I don’t need you, and I don’t need the council. If any of you try to take me from my home or steal my magic again, you won’t live long enough to regret it.”
The wolves howl a haunting battle cry.
Nolan groans. “Not the car!”
I look over at him incredulously.
He sighs. “It’s your birthday present.” Pulling out a small blue box with a pink bow from his pocket, he pops it open to show a set of car keys. “Surprise.”
My gaze shifts back to the car. It’s the same rich blue as the box with black racing stripes. I have no idea what kind of car it is, but I do know that it’s vintage, which means only one thing. “This is one of your cars, isn’t it?”
“It’s a 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302,” he explains with pride. “Connor and I modernized the interior, gave it a current gen sound system, but restored the rest to as close to the original as possible.”
“It’s amazing, but I don’t know how to drive a stick,” I reply, looking forlornly at the beautiful vehicle.
Nolan waves his free hand. “That’s easy to teach.”
Carlotta slowly gets to her feet, and the first signs of weariness cross her tan features. “It’s clear that there are things that have happened that I wasn’t privy to.”
“And honestly, I don’t want to go through it all to explain it to you,” I state, my insides buzzing for me to flee this whole mess. With an apology in my eyes, I ask Mildred, “Will you tell her everything?”
“Everything?” Mildred echoes with surprise.
I nod my head as my heart hammers in my chest. “She should know what he’s really like… and knowing the truth might change her opinions on some things.”
