Hello?
“Mom, this is breaking my heart…”
“Peace, Evangeline. She’s almost through it.”
Stop hurting me.
Stop.
Please.
Oh gods, it hurts so much.
“Mom.” A sniffle, a drop of water on my skin from above.
“I know, baby. I know.”
Cool fingers stroking through my hair. “I’m here, Moira. Come back to us. No one will ever hurt you again.”
The crack of bone. Laughter. Pain. The sizzle of fire.
And blood. So much blood.
Stop.
But she never did.
STOP.
Magic squeezed me like a vise.
STOP IT.
A scream filled with hundreds of years of rage shattered my body. Power ripped through my veins, tearing through that dark magic and claiming it for my own. I felt Sarah’s pain and confusion, Ethan’s heartbreak, and that poor witch’s soul fighting to be free. I could cut those cords right now, set them all free, but doing so would scar Ethan more than I could bear.
I had to slowly extricate him from the spell, and from all the black veins inside this working, it would take time.
Time I would be forced to watch and feel Ethan sharing his heart with another woman.
I opened my eyes to see Evie above me, her eyes red-rimmed and moist, cheeks wet with tears.
“Godsdammit, Moira,” she croaked. “How could you not tell me? Why didn’t you tell me how much pain she caused you?”
Her lips trembled. Cliona sat beside her, staring at me with a world of pain on her face. “Child,” she said in a shaky voice, “I am so sorry for what you endured.”
I reached up and took Evie’s hand. “Why would I force you to share that pain?”
“Because I love you, you stupid bitch!”
I let out a wet laugh. She slapped me on the shoulder and sniffed. Then she bent down, gathered me in her arms, squeezing me too tightly, and started to sob.
I cried with her for a little while until I was drained. Evie finally let go of me and helped me sit up.
“We are never doing that again,” she swore, glaring at her mother.
Cliona looked down at her lap. “I had—” She licked her lips. “I’m sorry, Moira. I did not know.”
No one could ever know my mother’s true depravity. I’d never be able to put into words all the things she’d done to me. “It was necessary. I have the spell.”
