Eloise’s lips curved. “You always were dramatic.”
“And you,” I said, my voice steady even as the wards coiled tight around us, “always were predictable.” The power in the circle surged, hungry and bright. The pentagram flared, swallowing her in its light.
I met Hudson’s wide eyes across the boundary.
“Gotcha,” I whispered.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Be careful what power you take and what power you forsake. One will crown you, while the other will curse you.
The nervous murmurs of the crowd floated around us, but all I could see was the woman who treated me like a tool and a weapon, never as a granddaughter.
She raised a perfectly plucked brow. Eloise Roberts oozed class and elegance, but that didn’t make up for her lack of humanity. “Hosting the solstice and not inviting your grandmother is poor manners, Cora.”
Power radiated from her, one I now recognized as Donn’s.Don’t get too comfortable, Eloise. Soon, that borrowed power will be back with the god you made a deal with.
I shrugged. “Must have got lost in the mail.”
She didn’t stop to think about what Donn’s intentions might be or the ramifications of such an exchange. She had her sights set on becoming the ultimate ruler and had convinced herself of her own lies. Eloise Roberts truly believed in her wicked soul that she was uniting the world under her guidance to usher us into a better future. I’m sure historical dictators also felt the same way.
She took in her sister and daughters. “Yet the rest of the family is here.”
I gave a slight nod to Dayna.Let’s get this show on the road.Hudson prowled around the circle, keeping in the shadows as his beast rose to the surface, ready to intervene should this go sideways. Spoiler alert—it always went sideways. The real trick was in how you handled it.
I’d lowered the wards to let in all the people tonight, which left my property, myself, and my family and friends more vulnerable than I liked. But it was a calculated risk. Before this night was over, Eloise Roberts would be untethered.
My grandmother squinted at me. “What are you planning, Cora? You cannot compete with a god.”
I grinned as the gleam of blades surrounding us shone in the moonlight. I pulled my own from my thigh. “I’m not competing with a god though. Before me is a weak woman who is trying to grasp power from any source, consequences be damned.”
Eloise tilted her head. “If I were weak, I would be dead already. Not even Lucifer can touch me. You can’t fight against the power of darkness.” She tipped her head back to the sky and closed her eyes. “It’s raw, connected to something ancient and forgotten, but ready to be unleashed.”
“You are correct. But your core power is in your bloodline. Funny how we stumbled across a grimoire with the musings of a once logical and rational woman who genuinely wanted good for the world. That woman was honest and raw.”
My grandmother went still, and the silence surrounding us stretched taut. “Impossible. My personal grimoires are in my private collection. I took you for a lovesick fool, not a liar.”
Liz tutted. “You can’t erase history, Mother. Surprise, surprise, your insistence on punishment led to a photographic memory of the words you wouldn’t let us recite.”
“But we learned the hard way to store armor for a rainy day, to gather the weaknesses of our enemies,” Dayna added.
Eloise spun in a circle and pointed at her sister and daughters. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Dave handed Liz the grimoire in question, and she held my grandmother’s gaze as she recited the passage in question. The crowd took a collective step back, recoiling from the power swirling in the air but unable to look away.
“The Roberts curse, born from a jealous woman, ensured that any person a Roberts woman fell in love with could hold her power in their hands and ultimately make her powerless if they wished.”
Eloise scoffs. “Old news.”
Liz ignored her. “But Eunice Roberts changed the course of the curse, reversing the power exchange. When she became pregnant, that child drained the power of her father instead, who perished at her birth. Her name was Eloise.”
“Still no new revelations, daughter. What is your point?”
Liz’s eyes flicked up, and she lowered the grimoire. “My point is, you were the beginning of a separate bloodline, and when you further twisted the curse so that it was replicated in the firstborn of each generation, you began the process of severing the ties to what makes a Roberts a Roberts.”
“I am the strongest Roberts,” Eloise snapped.
I straightened my spine and snapped my fingers to get her attention. “Actually, you are the weakest. You relinquished your generational magic for greed, and now it’s time for us to clean house. Being born a Roberts doesn’t entitle you to our power. It is about upholding the morals and values of our bloodline—the one you rejected with your twisted manipulations.”
