I didn’t even register the compliment. The implication of Corbin’s words sank in, turning my blood to ice. “You’ve all been…stalking me?”
“We prefer to think of it as being bodyguards from a distance,” Arthur said, his voice shaky.
I thought of the tower bedroom they’d decorated, how they seemed to perfectly judge my taste.Because they’ve been watching you through windows and spying on your private moments.
The thought turned my stomach, but not as much as what they were saying about me being awitch.
“We didn’t want to interfere with your life, to give you this burden before your time,” Corbin said. “So we stayed in the background, just keeping watch for the fae, as my parents did before me. We never saw any fae activity around you – it would take an enormous amount of power for them to appear in America – until the night your parents were killed.”
I remembered how that fae – Kalen – tried to drag Kelly and I toward the Ferris wheel. A flash of the fire seared against my eyeballs. The screaming of the crowd, the groan and crack of the wheel as it collapsed, the acrid smoke burning my throat as I tried to run inside to save my parents. I remembered Kalen waving at me from across the field, his expression smug, and how the smoke had obscured him as he shapeshifted into the dog. He must’ve rigged that explosion, with the idea it would take out my whole family. Cold settled all over my body.
I hate the fae. I hate them more than anything.
Even more than I hate the guys for lying to me.
“I am so, so sorry, Maeve,” Corbin’s voice changed. Gone was his ‘history professor’ tone as he recited the facts. Tightnessclawed at his words, as though he struggled for breath. I dared a glance at him, knowing it would melt a tiny bit of the ice, and was surprised by the depth of the pain in his eyes. “When I saw Kalen walk up to you and your sister, I thought that was his move – that he was trying to lure you away. I never could have predicted he’d bring down the wheel. I never?—”
Corbin choked on his words, whipping his head away so I could no longer see his face. Flynn stood up. I expected him to say something cutting to Corbin, but instead, he went across and tapped his friend on the shoulder.
“You okay, mate?”
Corbin shook his head. I wondered what was going on with him – his face had paled. His hands balled into fists at his side. Was it something more than just guilt over letting my parents die?
Good.I folded my arms.Let him feel guilty. It’s his fault the fae were drawn to me.
Flynn glanced at me, and gave me a smile that contained none of his usual mirth. “Allow me to continue the saga. Where were we? Yes…we had a duty to watch over you, because you’re the daughter of Aline Moore, who was the fecking best witch of her time.”
I glared at Flynn. “You said my mother was a witch before.”
He nodded. “It’s true. She was the High Priestess of the Briarwood coven, which is why she wears those jewels in the portrait upstairs. All of us—” he swung his arm around the room, indicating the other guys “—are the children of one or both parents who were also part of that same coven.”
Flynn started to say more, but Corbin cut him off. He wouldn’t look at me but he still wanted to be the one to talk about the history. “Twenty-one years ago, there was an attempt by the fae to break open the gateway and enter our realm. The Briarwood coven – our parents’ coven – fought them off andsent them back, but at tremendous cost. My parents lived, and Arthur’s, but Flynn lost his father and Rowan both his parents. We don’t know who your father was, but since he would have been a member of the coven, we presume he died also. Your mother was pregnant with you during the attack. Leading the coven through the powerful spell took too much from her, and she went into premature labor. My parents helped to bring you into the world just as Aline passed away, but not before she gave them specific instructions.”
“And what were these instructions?” My voice dripped with sarcasm. “To polish the cauldron? To feed the black cat? To de-bristle the flying broomstick?”
Corbin cringed. “They were about you, Maeve, and the power she passed down to you.”
“This is absolutely ridiculous! You’ve all been reading those Harry Potter books too many times. My mother wasnota witch and I don’thaveany powers.”
“Then how come you’re pulling us all into your sex dreams?” Arthur shot back.
I rubbed my bare shoulders with my hands, keeping my arms folded across my chest, as if their presence would keep in all the anger and confusion from pouring out of the wound they’d opened up.
“If you truly have been spying on me for my entire life,” I growled, “then you must know by now that I need empirical evidence if I’m going to believe anything as fantastical as this. If you can’t give me that, then I’m getting straight on the next plane back to Arizona.”
Corbin shot Rowan a look that was pure ‘I-told-you-so.’
“What if we can make you believe this?” Flynn asked, his voice hopeful. “Will you complete our coven?”
I glared at him until his buoyant expression withered away.
“The library,” Corbin choked out. He stood, still not looking at me, and trudged out of the hall. I glowered at his back but followed after him, the other guys clattering along behind me. We passed rows of gilded portraits. I half-expected the grim faces of the castle’s former owners to start moving and talking. It would be the least wild thing to happen around here.
In the library, Corbin walked across to his enormous desk, opened the top drawer, and drew out a small envelope sealed with wax similar to the one Emily used. He handed the envelope to me.
“This is from your mother,” he said, still refusing to meet my eyes. “She wrote it on her deathbed. She gave my parents strict instructions to ensure her daughter read it once she turned twenty-one.”
I turned the letter over in my hands, my fingers brushing the yellowed edges and the ring of dust gathered around the seal. MAEVE was written across the front in a florid, ostentatious script.
