Elder Cleary swings back toward me. “Vinna, we do a family dinner every Sunday at my house. Is there anything you don’t like to eat?”
I stare at him confused. “Wait, you don’t live here?”
Elder Cleary looks around and laughs. “Of course not, this is Enoch’s home that he shares with his coven. I thought you’d be more comfortable here,” he declares this innocently, like my comfort was simply his biggest concern, but the pieces fall into place for me.
“Delicate flower broodmares,” I mumble quietly, shaking my head in disgust.
The guys told me about the elders and how they like tofacilitatematches thattheythink are appropriate. These fuckers are trying to match me up with Enoch and his coven.
I glare at Enoch. “Did you know that this was what they were up to?”
Enoch looks at me puzzled. “What who was up to?”
I jerk my chin towards his dad. “Daddy dearest. The other elders.” I give an incredulous snort. “Areyouin on this set up too?”
I don’t give Enoch time to respond before I round on Elder Cleary. “Do other caster females let you get away with this shit? Never mind, I don’t really care. You can’t just point me in the direction of the malesyouwant me to choose and think I will just fall on my back.”
“Vinna that’s not what—” Enoch starts to say.
Elder Cleary cuts him off. “Whatever I, or my fellow elders chose to do, it will always be what’s in your best interest. You have a lot to learn about being a caster and all that it entails. This is the best possible fit for your strong magic.”
“I don’t exist to pop out magic-filled babies at your fucking behest,” I growl.
“That statement alone shows just how much you don’t know about being a caster, or who we are.”
Elder Cleary’s reaction and response is cryptic, and it leaves me confused. I can’t tell if he’s saying that I’mwrongin thinking that they only want me as a broodmare. That my incorrect assumption shows just how much I don’t know about being a caster. Or that I amonlyworth the children I can give them, and I’mwrongin thinking I have some other choice.
Before I can glean any clarification, or find my way out of the maze of his words and my thoughts, Elder Cleary is gone. I stare at the now empty doorway, not sure what the hell to do about any of this.
All these people making decisionsforme is getting real fucking old. They just move me around, arranging me however they see fit, like a pawn in a game of chess. Well, I’m done questioning my next move. I’ll sit tight until I know the endgame. Then, I’ll flip the chessboard and fuck up all the pieces.Pawnis not a label I’m good with.
4
Ipull my phone out of my back pocket and try and call the guys. After several attempts of holding it at every possible angle — in every square inch of the room — I concede that theno signalindicator is, in fact, not lying to me.
I plop onto the foreign bed and run my finger across the runes behind my ear. Here’s hoping the magic in my runes has a better signal than my phone.
“Sentinel to Chosen, come back, over, cuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,”
“Killer, you ok?”
“Bruiser, this is not a CB radio, handles are not necessary, and neither is the static noise you are making.”
“Bastien, why do you want to spoil my fun? Didn’t you hear, I had a shit day… over.”
I sigh, and some of my tension sloughs away, as their voices sink into me.
“Killer, Knox? Really?”
He laughs, and it does more to wash away the trauma of today than I would have ever thought possible. “What? I like it. Tough but also adorable, and it’s technically accurate which I thought you would appreciate.”
“I guess it beats Squeaks,”I grumble, and Ryker chuckles.
“Come on, you know you secretly love it, Squeaks.”
I give a playfully annoyed moan, and marvel at just how quickly they can pull me from a horrible mood, moment, or memory, simply by being themselves.
“What the hell happened today?”I ask. “I thought I was going to be answering lamia and Sentinel questions, not being subjected to a fucked up child custody hearing and forcibly relocated to Enoch’s house.”
