“I’m sorry,LiLi, I don’t mean to—”
“I don’t want totalk about Libby, yeah?” Liam interrupted. “I’ll deal with Libby on my terms. Iget that you’re looking out for me, and I appreciate it, but it’s notnecessary.”
I nodded, then changedthe subject. “Tell me, did you feel anything when we landed in New York?”
“What, likesomething wrong with the plane?”
I shook my head.“No, not like that. I mean did youfeelanything.”
“Oh, that kindof feeling. No, why did you?”
I nodded. “Aye. Ifelt out of sorts from the moment we touched down and it got worse the longerwe were here. I thought it might be jetlag or a side effect of the lateststrain of Blue Fang I took before we left home, but I feel fine now that we’reup in the air again.”
My brotherscoffed. “You have to stop using yourself as a test subject.”
I laughed. “Nowyou sound like Da.”
“Do you need meto heal you?”
I shook my head.“I was able to speak an invocation of peace.”
“I will alwaysenvy your connection to the ancient ways,” my brother said.
“We’reallconnected.”
“I know, butyou’ve always had the deepest connections to our earliest times as a people.Haddi certainly saw it in you. Teacher’s pet.”
I frowned. “So,you didn’t feel any kind of psychic disturbance?”
“Not at all.Unless you count Gavin Trask giving me the fucking creeps.”
“Well, whateverthe feeling was, it’s gone now, so I’m gonna try and get some rest,” I said,slinking back down into my seat. “Watching you play TV star all evening wasexhausting.”
Liam chucked apillow at me, which meant I had an extra pillow and he had none. I grinned,sliding it behind my head as I reclined my seat flat and pulled the blanketover me. Unfortunately, sleep wouldn’t come without a fight. Whatever psychicactivity had been plaguing me in New York may have left, but I still couldn’tshake the effect it had on me.
CHAPTER THREE
Lennox
ISAT IN church, my baby sister, Briar Rae, pressed up against me because it hadsomehow become my responsibility to keep her from running amok through thepews, and I tried to focus on what Reverend Guy Kelly was saying. The problemwas, Reverend Kelly was not only boring, but he was a blowhard, and I justwanted to go home and read something that wasn’t the Bible or the Hand of theCross Doctrines. Of course, my father would have a stroke if he knew about thebooks hidden underneath the floorboards in my room. More so, if he knew I’dstolen them from Walpole’s Books. I’d never stolen anything before in my life,and I’ve never done it since, but I knew my father could see what books I’dchecked out at the library, and knew he’d never approve of the ones in mysecret library.
Typically, myfather would be preaching on a Sunday, however, he was still in New York finishingup with the Chuck Larson show.
I shivered. We’dbeen raised to believe the Cauld Ane were evil. Magic was evil, after all. Boththe Bible and the Hand of the Cross referenced it heavily in the scriptures,but they didn’t seem evil to me. They seemed kind. A kindness I rarely sawamong my own, but I could never say that to anyone out loud. That was athought, along with a thousand others, I’d keep to myself and take to my grave.
Reverend Kellyslammed his fist on the podium, drawing my focus back to him.
Today’s diatribewas on the evils of loose women. He actually used those words, ‘loose women.’ Iinstinctively reached up and covered my sister’s ear, pulling her close to mychest, blocking her other one, doing my best not to glare at the reverend.
In today’s dayand age, women didn’t have a whole lot of say in much. At least, not in mysocial circle. Now that I was twenty-five, my father would choose a husband forme. The only reason I wasn’t married already was because of my mother.Technically, she was my step-mother. I’d lost my real mother when I was almostfive and my father had married Vivian shortly after her death. I couldn’treally remember my real mother anymore, so Vivian was really the only mother Iknew, but I could tell she was losing her influence over my father, and I wasgrowing increasingly concerned that he may force me to marry one of hiscronies.
I shuddered. Orworse yet, force my sister to marry one of his cronies.
“Women should beseen and not heard,” he said with all the fire and brimstone he could muster.
I thoughtthat was children.
I rolled myeyes. I didn’t know of another human on this planet I disliked more than thisman.
