“Say the fucking word. Admit what you did to her and what you and the rest of the Tribunal conspired to do to this Coven, and I will give you a swift death. But make no mistake, Itan, you will die either way. I will make sure you suffer for every day you made her have to look at your disgusting face, fearing that it would be the day you came back,” Willow said, waiting as he considered his options.
He glanced toward the other Tribunal members, the horror on their faces making me feel like I had finally gotten one tiny piece of justice. They feared the exposure that would come with Itan’s confession, but they didn’t look as if they questioned the truth of my words, seeming to believe me more than my own mother had. She had the grace and decency not to look at me, not to meet my stare as the truth of what she’d called nightmares and brushed off finally came to light.
I resisted the urge to scream at her.
That was a rage for another day.
“I raped you,” Itan said finally, the words making me slump in relief. They crashed into me like a torrent, washing over me like the snapping of a bond I hadn’t known existed. I’d been trapped beneath the weight of this secret for so long that the relief of no longer having to bear it in silence made me feel heavy in a new way.
I didn’t know how he appeared so quickly or why, but the moment my breathing turned ragged, massive but gentle hands gripped me around the shoulders. I didn’t even have the energy to flinch back from that touch as Beelzebub turned me into his chest, offering me a place to cry where they couldn’t see.
His bare chest pressed against the side of my face, but I couldn’t make myself pull away, not when the tears finally came and poured down my face. Not when silent sobs racked my body and made me tremble.
I couldn’t let them see.
“Shhh,” he soothed, rubbing those gentle hands over my arm where he held me steady. “I’ve got you, songbird. Let it out.”
“And the rest?” Willow asked, moving on as Lucifer moved forward to take the place I had vacated. Beelzebub shifted me slowly, inching me out of the way and out of the center of attention.
“The Covenant and the Tribunal conspired to rid Crystal Hollow of the Vessels once and for all,” he said. I couldn’t see anything but Beelzebub, but even I knew that was a half-truth meant to save face.
To make him look like a hero, even now.
“Tell them how you planned to do that,” Willow pressed.
He groaned, the sound reaching me. “Don’t say another word!” the Petra Tribunal member yelled.
“We were going to starve them. To do that, we were starving the Source. When the magic dies, so do the family lines. Breeding becomes more difficult, witches fall sick. Their blood becomes less potent until…”
“Finish it, Itan,” Willow snapped.
“Until only the Tribunal remains. The Vessels cannot feed on us without breaking the bargain, and the Vessels would then be weak enough to fade away. The Tribunal members would carry the magic within us then, and we would return the power to the Source. We’d fix it,” he said, as if it changed anything. As if it changed any of the reality that they’d been actively attempting to sacrifice all of us so they could have freedom for the rest of their lives.
“You mean after everyone in the Coven was dead, you’d fix it for yourselves,” Willow said, always having the words to conveythe absolute horror that we all should feel at this secret they’d kept.
“Yes. That’s exactly what I mean,” Itan agreed.
I pulled my face from Beelzebub’s chest to look at him one last time, to commit his weakness and his death to memory as Willow wrapped her vines around his throat once again and twisted, snapping his neck so quickly and efficiently that I wondered if she felt any hint of remorse for her actions.
If she felt as empty inside about it as I did.
The rest of the Coven didn’t seem to share my emptiness as Beelzebub tore me out of the center circle, the Coven members descending on the Tribunal members that had betrayed them. He spun me away from the bloodshed, shielding me from it by placing himself between me and the violence.
But I would never unhear my aunt’s dying screams.
6
BEELZEBUB
Most of the witches were dining around the grounds, either in the hall or out on the grass, sitting in small groups as if it would offer them safety. It was not lost on me that they kept to their own houses, the colors of their uniforms a dead giveaway to what enabled them to separate. I couldn’t say for sure if that had been the case before the archdemons arrived, or if it was a consequence of the bloodshed from the day before.
The memory of my songbird’s tears wetting my skin was enough to make me seek her out in every cluster of red I passed. The overwhelming need to check on her was strange to me, a new complication I hadn’t anticipated.
I should hate her for everything she stood for, for the lighter side of the magic she’d been gifted by Lucifer when He turned His back on us and left us in Hell to pursue His next adventure on Earth. I should absolutely despise her for the pull of her song on me, for the way it was a constant battle to stay away from her. I hated that I looked for her in every corner, checked the shadows for the gleaming light of her soul that radiated warmth and beauty. That need to seek her out had only gotten worse since the day prior, and even knowing I had been a willing participant in offering her my chest to hide her tears, I couldn’t help but feel like there was more to it.
I didn’t regret the contact, even as I struggled to stay awayfrom her the next day and finally succumbed to the urge to hunt down the little siren wherever she’d hidden herself away from the rest of her Coven. Being there for someone who needed me felt strangely uplifting, like I’d done a good thing in offering comfort to my enemy.
I’d meant it when I said she was far more interesting than most of those I’d encountered since coming to Hollow’s Grove. I fully intended to make the best of the situation and allow her to be my entertainment until Lucifer made sense of His infatuation with Hiswife.The very notion that He’d bound Himself to her willingly was ludicrous, both of us knowing exactly what that meant for Him.
