were so wide I could see the whites all around them, and he stared at me with an unnerving intensity. “It’s a fact. You pose a danger to the whole world. Your kind destabilizes magic. Gives the demons that live in the ley lines a portal into our world. You can’t convince me that you’d have killed that woman without their influence. Hell, maybe you’re not even Sage anymore, just a demon wearing his skin.”
All I could do was stare at him, my mouth hanging open. Where the hell had this madness come from? Was it something he’d been taught, or was he mentally unbalanced? “I’m not—there are no demons, David. I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”
Except maybe I did. The childlike consciousness of the convergence had made itself known to me. I could imagine that under other circumstances, or linked to someone like Lina, that it could do immense damage. It wouldn’t understand that its new friend was a monster, and it would soak up the worst of humanity like a sponge.
“I wish I could believe that. Or even if I did, that it mattered.” He sighed, his shoulders lifting and falling with the dramatic flair of it, and he continued toward me, but slowly, like he mostly wanted to keep monologuing. “But it’s well documented. Witches can’t be rehabilitated. Once you touch a ley line, you’re forever tainted by it.”
Oh gods. Oh gods. I was about to be murdered in my own fucking kitchen. The same as my mother. I could almost see her lying there on the floor. Cheese, across the room. My stomach threatened again to empty itself everywhere, and I couldn’t help but think that would serve David right.
The black refrigerator behind him caught my eye, and I gave a hysterical laugh. At least the blood spatter wouldn’t give anyone nightmares.
Not like my mother. She would be so sad, me coming to the same ridiculous fucking end. Eighteen years of refusing to be around knives, refusing to buy any for my kitchen, and it came to this; David had brought his own.
I hoped Fluke was unconscious, and David would leave him alone. There was no reason to hurt an innocent fox. Not unless his ridiculous beliefs had some notion that Fluke was also “tainted” by my connection to the ley lines.
“Did Alan murder my mother because of you crazy assholes? Is it the whole Aureum, or just you? Or are you in some kind of murder cult as an extracurricular activity?”
He took another step forward, and my heart beat so hard against my breastbone that I was afraid it was going to bust its way out. I snatched the mop from behind me and brandished it like a sword. I wished I’d thought to bring Lina’s baseball bat, but why would I have? “Those old fools in the Dominus’s office would love to find a monstrous magic like yours and take advantage of it. We’ve kept it from them for a reason. They only care about power. As for Alan Brahms, he was charged with hunting witches long before he met your mother. He simply failed at his duty when he found her.”
“I don’t know about that. I was there when he murdered her, I think he did okay by your murder cult.” I swung the mop handle in his direction again, hoping to get a little space between us, but instead he grabbed it and stepped in close to me. My breathing stuttered at the proximity, and my brain seemed to have stopped working altogether.
His breath was hot against my face, his body pressed against mine in a horrific mimic of intimacy when he whispered, “We’re not a cult, Sage. We’re just trying to keep the world safe from monsters like you.”
As a last, and yes, unwise, recourse, I slammed my forehead into his face. The dizziness from earlier came back full force, and brought its friends, black spots and nausea. I meant to dive to the side afterward, to give myself some time and space. Unfortunately, between last night and today’s attacks, the sleeping pill, the exhausting attempt at a spell, and now the probable concussion, all I could do was slide down the wall next to the broom closet.
I gasped for breath, my pulse rushing in my ears, and now there was a bell ringing inside my head.
David took an unsteady few steps backward, lifting a hand to his head and looking dazed, blood trickling from his nose,