in there a while. Like maybe days.”
“Air, fire, and water,” Claire whispered. “Interesting.”
“Sounds like someone was trying to get rid of us early on,” Aerin said, contemplating the shocking circumstances. “But who would try to kill babies, and in such horrific ways?”
Moira put her feet down and leaned forward intently. “Who’s been threatening us lately? Trying to take business from Tierra? Kidnapping Claire, and making you sicker’n a dog?”
We Horsemen are determined to put a stop to this, to kill if need be, Julian had said.
“You’re right. It could have been the Horsemen,” Aerin agreed. Which meant that they weren’t merely adversaries, they were truly enemies.
A sniff sounded from the doorway, and they all turned to see Tierra holding the Grimoire open, her eyes red-rimmed and watery. “You’re never going to believe what I found,” she said, her voice husky with tears. “It’s a letter from our mother… written right before she was murdered.”
37
“I don’t want to read it,” Aerin said, taking a gulp of her liquor. “I’m not ready.”
“Me neither.” Moira mirrored her action with a gulp and then refilled both their glasses.
“We should probably be sober when we do,” Claire agreed. “Paraphrase?”
Tierra’s skirt swept the floor as she made her way to join them, setting the book gingerly in the middle of the table. “Basically it says she knew someone was after her the moment she realized that she was pregnant with quadruplets. She was afraid that she’d be dead before she had a chance to raise us. Even though she was aware of the prophecy, she couldn’t bring herself to terminate the pregnancy, and she felt that we were supposed to live, but knew that we would be separated. So she hid the Grimoire with magic so that it only appeared when we, four, were together in this house so we could use it to save ourselves.”
To Aerin’s dismay, she found she didn’t have to be reading the words for them to affect her. Tears burned in her throat and misted her vision and she blinked rapidly to stop their fall. All her life, she assumed she’d been tossed away like someone’s trash. But no, she’d been wanted.
And that changed everything.
“It says here that she didn’t believe that we would end the world, at least not with fire and brimstone,” Tierra continued. “Then she tells us that she knows everything we’re going through as witches. The isolation, the pain, the power, the temptations, and the need for… ew.” Tierra made a very girlish face of disgust.
“Ew, what?” Claire demanded, her voice a little suspiciously thicker than before.
“The need for… sex,” Tierra whispered that last word as though it was a curse.
Aerin busted up laughing, joined by Moira and Claire.
“I guess it makes sense,” Claire postulated thoughtfully. “We all do take power or healing from passion, or emotion, and those are the major things needed for good sex.”
“Some of us give power and healing that way, too,” Moira reminded them.
“I’m no saint.” Aerin raised her glass, beginning to really feel the effects of the whiskey. “But no matter how busy, stressed, or angry I am, I still crave the “D,” know what I’m saying?”
“I sure do!” Claire giggled. “Who do you think out of the four of us has slept with the most men?”
They all turned to Aerin, who didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.
“You have the dirtiest mouth,” Tierra accused with a laugh. “And the dirtiest mind.”
“Don’t look at me.” Aerin held up her hands. “I pick a pony to ride and keep him in the stable for a while. You know how it is, takes too long to train them right. You two are the queens of the one-night stand.” She gestured to Moira and Claire, who looked at each other with mischief in their eyes.
“We’ll go on three,” Claire suggested. “Just blurt out the number.”
“M’kay,” Moira agreed with a sloppy smile.
“There’s a number?” Tierra asked, her green eyes wide with astonishment. “Like, you keep count?”
“You don’t?” Moira asked.
Aerin slapped the table and pointed at Tierra. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed with a loud laugh. “You don’t even have a number? As in you’ve lost count?”
“Damn girl.” Claire nudged her. “Respect.”
Moira stood, wavering a little and speared Tierra with a withering look. “You’re tellin’ me that you’ve been lecturing me all this time about respecting myself while you’ve been humping like a two-peckered jackrabbit?
“No.” Tierra held her hands up, as though to defend herself, her voice raising a few octaves to a defensive squeak.