"What the hell were you thinking?!" Theo erupted the instant Kasey broke the spell cast over him and Zara. In a flash he diminished the distance between us and grabbed my shoulders. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't mark you right now!"
Despite his strong hold and obvious anger, I did nothing but stare back into his silver eyes. My brain was too busy trying to solve the puzzle of how Darlene had been able to channel magic. It shouldn't have been possible. Only I possessed the ability.
"Gabriela?" This time Theo's voice was much softer.
"Let her go," Kasey said from behind my back. "You can shout at her later."
"What happened?" He lifted one of his hands to nudge my chin upward while raking his eyes over every corner of my body.
Kasey's words flooded my ears as she began explaining what had happened in the square. Her voice flew into one of my ears and out through the other, while the rest of my mind was still spinning with all the unanswered questions.
"I've had enough of this witch." Theo let go of both my chin and my shoulders. Instead, he grabbed my upper arms and tugged me forward. "Let's go back to Silver Moon. We'll figure things out from there."
"I can't leave."
"Sure you can. I still have that stone of yours. You'll have a better view on things once you're away from this madness."
"No, she literally can't leave." Kasey plotted herself down onto the couch next to Vivian. "Both she and Darlene are prohibited from leaving Allium until the matter is resolved."
"What happens if the Darlene turns out to be telling the truth?" Rob asked from where he and Zara were still standing near the wall.
"That's never going to happen." Kasey shook her head.
She sounded completely convinced while I didn't feel so sure anymore. After all, I had felt her channel magic.
I didn't struggle when Theo pulled me over to an armchair. After he sat down, he pulled me onto his lap and nudged my head so it was resting on his shoulder. Then he began running his hand up and down my back.
While a silence stretched on, I found myself wondering what would happen if Darlene turned out to be telling the truth. If she became the High Priestess, then there was no way I could make her pay. Even if she was really involved in my mother's death. Was I really prepared to let her walk free?
"Do you realize that if Darlene's telling the truth we're second cousins?" Kasey mumbled while biting on one of her nails.
I hadn't even thought about that. If Darlene's claim about her grandmother was true, then the three of us were actually related.
"There's no way it's true," Kasey answered her own question. "My mother would have told me if she was cousins with your mother. No one would be stupid enough to hide a connection to your family."
I didn't know how to respond to that. Just like Kasey I doubted anyone would keep a connection to the family of High Priestesses a secret. But then how had Darlene been able to channel magic?
The living room felt like it was frozen in time until Effie flew through the front door. The way she was pressing her lips tightly together told me all I needed to know.
"It seems Darlene is telling the truth," she said. "At least partly."
"Which part?" Kasey was the fastest to respond.
With a loud sigh Effie sat down onto an empty armchair and then looked at me. "Her grandmother was Luciana's sister."
"But was she the younger or the older sister?" I asked.
"I'm not yet sure." Effie pursed her lips shut.
"Then what are you doing back here? We need to know if she was older or not." Kasey glared at the older witch. "It makes all the difference."
"I'm sure she knows that." Vivian rested her hand on Kasey's shoulder.
"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not perfect like you!" Kasey shook off Vivian's hand and shot up from the couch. "Some of us haven't been living our lives wrapped in cotton. Some of us don't like the thought of having been lied to for our entire lives."
"Excuse me?" Vivian bolted off the couch, facing the equally fuming Kasey.
Just like that I felt like a spell had been broken. I regained control over my mind and my body.
"That's enough." I rose from Theo's lap. "Nothing will change if we start blaming each other. We may know that the three of us are related, but it's not the end. Nothing's decided yet."
And nothing would be decided until I figured out if Darlene was really involved in my mother's murder.
I first turned to face my childhood mentor. "Effie, you have the greatest access to our history, so I would appreciate if you dug into this mess. We need to know if my grandmother was the older or the younger sister."
"Of course," Effie nodded.
"What if it turns out that your grandmother was the younger sister?" Zara asked.
"Then we'll find out why my grandmother became the High Priestess and not her sister." I wasn't going to stop until I knew every last detail of our messy history. "There must be a reason why no one remembers my grandmother even having a sister, let alone possibly an older one."
I was determined to get to the bottom of this. Not just for the sake of my role as the High Priestess, but for the sake of our entire species.
"I know this goes without saying, but I'm still going to say it." Theo stood and positioned himself next to me. "You have full support of the werewolves. Whatever you might need, it's yours."
"I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm on your side as well." Effie extended her hand toward me.
I latched onto her fingers and squeezed them. "Thank you." I looked around the room to the faces of the people closest to me. "It's already late, so why don't we all settle for the night. Tomorrow we can begin with the search for the truth."
Slowly I made my way upstairs to my room with Theo right behind me. I expected him to wish me goodnight at my door and then move to his own room, but instead, he followed me right into mine.
"We need to talk." He shut the door with a silent click and turned to face me.
With a sigh I crumbled onto my bed. After everything that had happened today, there was no wonder I felt like someone was banging a hammer against my temple.
"Look Theo, I'm thankful for your support, but can we talk about this tomorrow?" Tomorrow I could deal with anything thrown at me, but not today. Today I needed some sleep.
"I don't mean the situation with the witch." He began to stalk across the room toward me. "I'm talking about your stupid stunt with freezing me."
This time I was the one who froze. With the Darlene mess I had almost forgotten about the spell I had used on him and Zara. However, he obviously hadn't.
He diminished the distance between us until he was looming over me. He rested his hands on either side of the bed, leaning so close our noses were almost touching.
"I have already threatened to mark you before." His eyes flashed with small drops of silver. "But you clearly don't believe me."
Without giving me time to react he lowered his head to the exposed part of my lower neck. My breath caught in my throat as he stopped just before his lips could touch my skin. I expected my every instinct to tell me to push him away, however, instead I discovered nothing of the sort. I didn't want to push him away.
My heart sped up as my throat closed up. It struck me like a bolt of lightning. I was already past the stage of still deciding if Theo and I were even going to work. Somehow he had managed to sneak into my heart without me truly being aware of it.
It wasn't yet love, that much I was sure of, but it was close. I knew that in no time I would find myself utterly at his mercy as I wouldn't be able to live without him. I could only hope that when the time came he would feel the same way.
Instead of his sharp teeth against my skin like I expected, his warm breath tickled my skin as he chuckled. "You're not resisting me. You want me to mark you, don't you?"
He kissed the base of my neck while I felt like he'd just banged my head against an ice-cold bucket. With not a second to spare I gathered my magic and send him flying across the room—but not too harshly.
"You're starting to warm up to me." He grinned at me from the door where he landed.
"Get out." I glared at him.
He only chuckled while I stretched over the bed behind me and grabbed the closest pillow. Then I hurled it across the room, adding some of my wind magic to speed it up.
"I'll see you later." He caught the pillow with the still present grin before turning around and leaving my room. With my pillow still in his arms.
I continued to glare at the closed door for a few heartbeats before I shook my head at my own behavior. I padded over to the bathroom and took the quickest shower possible. Sleep was now back to being the only thing on my mind.
Dressed in nothing but a stretched-out shirt and a pair of blue panties, I exited the bathroom and froze in the open doorway. In what I expected to be my empty bed lay Theo sprawled across the entire length, still clutching one of my pillows in his arms.
I stared at him, unable to believe my eyes. Surely this couldn't be real.
He lifted the blanket off the empty half of the bed and patted it with his hand. "Come here."
"What do you think you're doing?" No matter how angry I wanted to sound the question came out as a breathless whisper.
I couldn't stop my eyes from wandering down his sculptured arms and smooth stomach until I reached the edge of the blanket just above his hips. While a part of me wished for him to be wearing nothing underneath, another part knew that it wouldn't wise for either of us.
"Do you really think I'm letting you be alone inside a room after you disappeared out of the house and used a freezing spell on me?" He rested one of his arms behind his head.
"I..." I was at a complete loss of words. I tried telling myself it was because of his unexpected presence, but deep down I knew his naked figure in my bed was to blame.
"Don't worry." A wicked grin curled the corners of his lips. "I'll behave."
I snorted at his words and tilted my head to the side. Did he really expect me to trust his word after he threatened to mark me not only fifteen minutes ago?
"Either you come to bed or I'll come over to you." He still looked relaxed despite the low undertone that had snuck into his voice. "Either way I'm not leaving."
While my rational side was telling me to send him flying out of the room, every other part of me screamed at me to just let it go. Just so I could finally get the much-deserved sleep.
With a sigh I dragged my feet over to the bed and without casting a single glance in his direction I slipped underneath the blanket. I settled on my back, expecting my every muscle to tighten in alert. Instead, the moment my back touched the soft mattress, a loud sigh escaped my lips and my body relaxed.
I didn't even have the energy left to protest as he pulled me across the bed and turned me onto my side. He positioned me, so we were facing each other, both of us lying on our sides. I expected him to at least remove his arm once he settled down, but instead his right arm remained firmly nestled just underneath my ribs.
"Don't even think about getting used to this." I tried to glare at him, but my eyes refused to cooperate. Instead, they began to flutter close.
"Shh. Go to sleep." He wrapped his arm tighter around me and pulled me even closer to him.
We were lying face to face, his warm breath tickling my cheeks. I expected to be bothered by his proximity, however, all it did was make me feel more comfortable.
"I mean it." I settled even deeper into the mattress. "Tomorrow you're going back to your own room."
A couple of silent heartbeats ticked by and I felt myself starting to drift off. Just before I fell asleep, his whisper reached me.
"We'll see."
***
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- E