The aggressive glances continued, the muttering and the insults. Kyra gave no indication that she had heard, her attention on the bread roll that she pulled gently apart. One Seer was brave enough to speak louder, calling her avile vixen.When he didn’t get the reaction he wanted he said it louder, his chair scraping as he stood.
“Why are we here while that sordid witch sits amongst us?”
Kyra continued with her roll, not even looking up as they murmured in agreement.
“She needs to be burned for what she has done.”
His mother, Sienna stood, but before she could speak Kyra finally responded.
“Tell me,” she said, her voice calm as she flicked her gaze to the five men with guns then back to the man. “What exactly have I done?”
The man stuttered, looking between the others. “You’re a witch, your very presence here has terrified the dead.”
“And for that reason I deserve to be burned at the stake?” she added. “I don’t know why I’m surprised, you’re the same people that ostracised a child because he was different to you.”
The man flushed, his face burning when he took an aggressive step forward. “You know nothing you little bitch.”
Xander was between them in a blink, savouring the scent of fear as he let his mask slip, to reveal the calm, lethal predator beneath.
“Look!” the man cried, his eyes skirting away to look anywhere else. “She hashimunder her spell!”
“I think that’s enough,” Sienna declared. “Thomas, please sit down. We all know why I have called for this dinner, and why it’s important.”
Thomas paused, hands fisted at his side.
“Actually, not everyone,” Xander said. “Tell me, why am I here when I’m still not welcome?”
His mother was the only person to look at him, to smile, but it wasn’t of maternal love or even familiarity. “We want you to come home, to be with your people.”
“I very much doubt the‘we,’in that statement.” Xander’s laugh was dark. “I'm not one of you, you made that perfectly clear to me as a boy.”
“Our numbers are dwindling,” she continued. “Our gift is no longer being passed onto our children.”
Xander remained where he stood. “And how exactly is that my problem?”
Sienna’s smile turned to the other Seers. “Look at how you’ve grown, so big and strong. We were wrong to cast you aside because of your magic.Iwas wrong.”
Displeased murmurs, faces twisted in irritation and anger.
Her arm elegantly waved towards the far door, two women appearing in the threshold. He recognised the one on the left, the woman who had watched them from the balcony as they had arrived. “Your children will have the gift, and so I call upon your duty as an Aes-Si Seer to spread your seed.” The women wore sheer robes, their bodies oiled and naked beneath. They were beautiful, faces carefully made up to emphasise their thick lips and jewellery draped between heavy breasts, drawing the eye.
They walked in short, slow steps, their hips swinging sensually as they reached forward as if to touch him. He growled a warning, the sound harsh as they snapped their hands back as if burned. The men with guns closed in, ready for their order.
“That’s enough!” Sienna snapped. “You’re my son, you will do your duty for your people.”
“I’m not your son,” Xander said, stepping back when the two women went to touch him again. He saw Kyra tense in his peripheral, her fingers gripping the table tight. “You lost that privilege when you handed me over like an offering. Do you even know what was done to me? What I had to go through?”
Her eyes shimmered, the truth that she knew apparent in the subtle tension along every line of her body. Xander smiled with teeth, noting the edge of fear.
“I was beaten until close to death, broken apart and pieced together like some sort of experiment. They made me into a monster.Youmade me into a monster.”
His mother’s lips tightened. “You were always a monster, it’s why we lost so many of us when those witches attacked, drawn to you.”
“That’s bullshit!” Kyra cried, her chair toppling over behind her. “How can you even say that to him knowing he was a defenceless child?”
“You don’t need evidence, just look at his eyes!” Sienna snapped, her tone so acerbic it could cut. “The old gods gave him those eyes of death, a penance for what he would do. But all will be forgiven once we have more Seers to carry on our legacy. Children who will have the gift as well as magic, able to defend themselves against your kind.”
“Xander isn’t the monster here, you are,” Kyra said, voice quivering.
