known he’d had one.
“Who was Cyrus?” Tennessee asked softly.
“Myrtle’s son, Saraphina’s younger brother,” Riah answered softly.
Mom stepped back and I went right in Riah’s arms, needing to feel the warmth of his skin. I swallowed through the emotions I had no interest in feeling. “Tell them, Mother.”
“Well, it was right after you all left for the future and Saffie was taken…” Her eyes glistened like she, too, was battling her emotions. But then she licked her lips and tucked loose strands of black hair behind her ears. “Most of The Coven had died or left to move to Eden…that’s when archangel Gabriel returned. He told me I needed to have another child, because Saffie was half-fae…he said to beat Lilith, Uriel’s line had to be continued in a child without fae blood. He told me I needed to find a strong arcana line to do so.”
Bettina grimaced. “That’s cold.”
“It was the truth,” Riah said softly.
Mom took a deep breath and then chuckled. “I asked if he was offering, because I knew he had not used his one bloodline yet…but alas, he was not. He told me Earth would need all of Heaven’s help we could get to defeat Lilith when she returned and therefore the angels could not mix their lines directly and ours already had Uriel.”
“So he picked Elizabeth,” Tegan whispered.
“He did. It’s not easy for angels to find a woman among us so willing to make such a devotion and sacrifice…but Elizabeth Bishop volunteered.” Mom winked at Tegan. “I asked her when she was pregnant why she volunteered and she said I know where Tegan comes from.”
Tegan cackled. “I liked her so much.”
“So Cyrus?” Bettina asked.
Mom nodded. “Many, many, many times removed. But yes. Cyrus was my only other child and the only one to pass on the Proctor name. If you come across any arcana Proctors they come from me and Cyrus.”
Deacon whistled and shook his head.
Royce ran his hand through his hair. “That’s trippy, man.”
“Wait. Tim.” Easton tugged on his shirt. “Did you know this? Did Kenneth know?”
Timothy chuckled. “Yes, we both knew. And when they…fell…Kenneth and I mourned them together.”
Kessler cursed. “I knew that. I knew that.”
Tennessee grimaced. “But how are we related? Cousins?”
Timothy sighed. “I was hoping Kenneth could be the one to tell you that.”
“Maybe he can be,” Bentley spoke up for first time. “Can we see Kenneth?”
Mom grinned and gestured to her left. “Of course, he’s this way—”
“Wait.” I took a deep breath. I wanted to see Kenneth, he was my family too. But I sensed his weak energy and I knew he’d need help…and I was going to be selfish for the first time in my life. “There’s something I want to do first.”
Everyone turned to me with frowns but no anger.
Mom cocked her head to the side. “What’s that, dear?”
I looked up at Riah and smiled. His hand was warm between mine and his eyes sparkled like sunshine. “I want to do our soulmate ceremony. Right here. Right now. With my mother here to see it.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Riah
I gasped. “Right now?”
“Right now.” Saraphina’s voice was soft like the purr of a cat. Her lavender eyes were wide and sparkling up at me as she grinned. “I’m not waiting a moment longer.”
My heart pounded in my chest. This couldn’t be happening, I couldn’t be this lucky. “Right here?”
She bit my lip and tugged on my shirt. “We have waited three hundred and twenty-seven years for this, to be together…I do not care where we say the words or what it looks like. I care only that I make you mine forever and my family is there to witness it. Do you want to?”
My breath left me in a rush.
I opened my mouth, then shut it. Words were lost to me. The air stolen from mine lungs.
Do you want to? More than anything I had ever dared to wish for.
But it felt too good to be true. I couldn’t possibly be about to have it.
Hope was dangerous.
She must have gotten her answer in my shaken silence because she grinned and turned to her right. “Mother?”
I tore mine eyes from her face and looked toward her mother. “Is it all right?” I heard myself whisper.
Myrtle’s eyes brimmed with tears. She had both hands over her mouth. She nodded and then reached out and squeezed our arms. Then she spun and skipped away from us, shouting, “I’ll cast the circle.”
Ahead of her, Tegan was grinning and twisting her purple-tipped hair between her fingers. She held