“I’m just surprised,” Ember said. “I haven’t seen you since that first night.”
Starling chuckled. “Oh, but I have seen plenty of you.”
Ember arched a brow. “What does that mean?”
The sprite waved her upper right hand dismissively. “I have been waiting to speak with you alone, which has been difficult since the two of you have been inseparable these last few days. Not that I am complaining. I have waited centuries for Nyte to drag himself out of Despair and live again, and my is heliving. You have certainly brought out something new in him, witchling. Seeing the two of you, hearing the two of you…”
She grinned wider and fanned herself.
Ember gaped at her. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. You’ve been watching us have sex?”
Starling rolled her eyes. “You mortals are so uptight. But no, I did not stay to watch. I simply check in from time to time. I am…keeping guard, you could say. Which is why I must speak to you.”
“Why me and not Nyte?”
“Because this is something only you can do.” Starling flitted up to hover in the air in front of Ember. “Did Nyte tell you Sarnessa is looking for him?”
Ember’s stomach dropped. How long had Nyte known? And why…why hadn’t he told her?
She looked down, clutching the box. Did he…still have feelings for the succubus? He’d spent four-hundred years in self-imposed exile to overcome the pain of her betrayal. He would’ve still been there had Starling not invoked the summoning through Ember. He’d said it was because he had been left vulnerable, because he’d needed time for his heart to recover. But that didn’t mean he harbored no feelings for the succubus who’d awoken so much inside him.
“No,” Ember said with a shake of her head as she slid the box onto a shelf. “Nyte didn’t tell me.”
Starling moved closer and placed a hand beneath Ember’s chin, lifting it, forcing Ember to look at her. She was surprisingly strong despite her diminutive stature. “I know whatthoughts are traipsing through your head, witchling. Cast them aside and set them ablaze so they never return. He carries only hatred for her. If he did not tell you, it is because he did not want to frighten you.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
“To prepare you, because she will come. What she stole from him before she will try to take again. She covets its power, and it will be especially potent now. So I have a boon to bestow upon you. Something to use against that succubitch.”
Starling flew to Ember’s shoulder, placing her mouth near Ember’s ear, and whispered words that Ember couldn’t understand. Words that resonated with untold power, sending a chill down Ember’s spine even as they sparked an electric tingling in her fingers and toes that crackled up her limbs.
And though it didn’t make any sense, though it wasn’t how reality was supposed to work, she felt those words take root in her mind. It felt like simply hearing them made them part of her, like she could call upon them whenever she needed.
When Starling finished, she drifted back with a smile. “Recite that incantation against her.”
Ember touched her fingers to her chest, where she felt magic swirling inside her, ancient and mysterious. “You want me to cast a spell against a succubus?”
Starling nodded with a grin. “Send her straight to hell.”
“I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t even know how I summoned Nyte to begin with. I was sleeping!”
“Ah, witchling. You have the power in you. You were never taught to harness it, but it is there, and it is yours to command. And when the moment comes… I believe you will know what to do with it.”
Ember’s brow furrowed. All of this was so new to her. Things she’d thought were make-believe, things that should’ve existed only in fantastical fiction, had become part of herreality. Why would she ever have thought that she could cast spells? That she was a witch?
I’m seriously going to need to have a talk with my family.
The curtain into the storeroom was swept aside, revealing Nyte in the doorway. His eyes flicked to Starling. “I thought I felt your presence here, sprite. What mischief are you making now?”
“Mischief?” Starling scoffed. She pressed the side of her face to Ember’s cheek, her wings fluttering against Ember’s hair. “I am simply having a chat with our lovely witchling.”
One of his dark brows arched. “Our?”
She pouted and flitted over to Nyte, crossing her arms. “You are such a possessive nocturnus.”
He smiled at her, his bared fangs conveying little warmth. “With all the watching you do, you’ve surely heard my claims on this mortal. She is mine.”
A light, tinkling giggle escaped the sprite. “And I am overjoyed to hear it.” She patted his cheek with both of her tiny left hands. “I must take my leave. So much to do, you understand. Ta-ta!”
