can you talk about your own daughter like that?”
Mom is suddenly in his face, eyes flashing with malice. I automatically move to step between them. If a fight breaks out, I’ll be damned if Karsyn gets caught in the crossfire.
“Maybe I can talk about her like that because she’s no longer my daughter.” She says each word slowly, curtly, as if she’s trying to hurt me. As if she wants me to feel those words deep in my very soul. All she has to do now is renounce me as her daughter to the coven, and then all of my magic will disappear. But…
But will that be that bad?
My magic whines inside of me, a desperate plea for me to fight for it.
“You’re disowning your daughter because she doesn’t want to marry some fucking creep?” Elias asks in disbelief, and I know that this must be hitting a sore spot for him, considering his own parents left him. His eyes are wild as he balls his hands into fists, looking point two seconds away from slugging my mother.
“Do you boys think you know Peony?” Mom erupts into laughter. “The true her? You guys can’t even begin to understand—”
“We know all about her being a witch,” Karsyn interrupts with a scowl, and cold horror winds its way through me, taking me hostage. My first instinct is to lunge forward and place my hand over his mouth, stopping any more damning words from leaving his lips. My second one is to kiss the shit out of him for the way he defends me. For the way he normalizes something that others perceive as weird or different.
Mom’s face turns cold, chillier than a Michigan December, and behind her, Ryan gasps.
Lucas is the first to realize that Karsyn said something he shouldn’t. I can tell by the way he takes a small step backwards, moving so his body is protectively in front of me, shielding me from the ire in my mother’s eyes.
“You told them?” Mom asks me, and I can hear distinct amusement lacing her tone. She laughs haughtily, throwing back her head and holding her stomach. “You know what this means.”
I move to step around Lucas, but suddenly, Elias is there, pushing me farther back until there’s a solid wall of muscle separating me from my vindictive, malicious mother.
“Don’t,” I warn softly.
“What does this mean?” Karsyn sounds confused, having not yet grasped the severity of his slip.
“There are only two options,” Mother purrs, running a ruby-red nail down Lucas’s cheek. He glares at the offending limb as if he’s imagining biting it off. “One, and the most common, is a memory spell. It will remove all traces of witches and warlocks and magic from your itty-bitty little brains.” She begins to walk her fingers up Lucas’s chest, but he grips her wrist tightly before it can touch bare skin.
“And?” Elias crosses his arms over his chest.
“And nothing.” Mom shrugs innocently. “Besides the fact that you’ll also lose all memories of Peony.”
Ryan, the fuckwad, begins to chuckle gleefully, as if the thought of me separated from the Devils means that he actually has a chance with me. In his fucking dreams. Actually, no. I don’t want that coward dreaming of me.
“Next option,” Cassian seethes through clenched teeth.
“A simple binding spell.” Mom lifts her hand to her face, surveying each nail with rapt fascination.
“It’s similar to the ones witches use when they gain familiars,” I explain, my voice shaking ever so slightly. “It allows the witch to harness their energy if they ever need to, and it sometimes even gives the human in question some of the witch’s magic.”
“But it also makes them bond for life,” Mom throws in helpfully. “The men or women bonded will be dedicated completely to their witch.”
We can all hear what she’s not saying. If they do this, if they bind themselves to me, they will never be able to fall in love. Never get married. The magic will make them want to be around me at all times. Sometimes, witches and humans do this ceremony because they’re desperately in love. If that’s the case, the fates that be will declare them as “mates” of sorts. The bond between them is unbreakable and will only grow with time. More often than not, witches will bind humans to them for one thing and one thing only—more power.
So my choices are simple. Either erase the guys’ memories of me completely.
Or bind the men I once despised to me until my death.
And