Mathilda, SuperWitch (Mathilda's Book of Shadows #1)(111)
And people were scared.
* * * * *
When Aidan and I arrived in Denver, Daphne in tow, Josie, Rory and Cosmo were already at the house, otherwise known as The Acre.
Gabriel was with them.
As was Windspear Jones.
(Oo la la… more like a Native American Indiana Jones. Hoochie mama he was cute.)
As was Douglas Addison and my mother.
* * * * *
I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now that Douglas Addison is my Dad.
Deep cover, indeed.
And Gabriel is my older brother.
I don’t credit it, considering that Gabriel is a super-lean, vampire machine and Viv, Su and I all carry our fair share of curves and not a single blood-sucking tendency but there you go.
Genetics.
Who understands them?
Mom was in Seven Kinds of Heaven to have “all my babies” for the first time in all our lives under one roof.
Not to mention “Dad” being there (which meant, even though all her babies were under one roof, Mom and Dad spent lots of time in her bedroom – ACK!)
* * * * *
You see, the neon pink fluid Ash injected me with was not only a protection against the magic-stripping spell but also a magic-regenerating spell.
While Viv, Su and I had been busy so had Mom, Mavis and Gran.
In Agatha’s evil plan, Ash was meant to be injecting me with a drug that would render me motionless.
Instead, he injected me with a brew of potent Honeycutt protection. A spell that simultaneously blocked the severing of my magic but also, with a good deal of help from the natural magicks that permeated The Tor, regenerated me to full power (and then some).
When my aura “exploded”, that was extra magic my body couldn’t hold and Dad and Gabe (you know he had to have a nickname) stayed close so they could absorb it and so that no one else would.
That magical spell also simulated pain (unfortunately).
But it had to look real.
* * * * *
When Althea’s magic was torn away by the Edwards Coven, they gave it to Dad-slash-Douglas in their preparations to make him a “Dark Lord” whatever that was… even Dad didn’t get it, he called it the “crazy rantings of a loon” (loon = Agatha).
So when Viv, Su, Lucy, Josie and I took it back, Mom had secluded Dad in my Tower Room so he would be protected from any magical surveillance for when the magic was stripped away again and restored to Althea.
(Oh, forgot to mention… as a vampire, Dad could act as a vessel to store magic. That’s why Althea’s magic didn’t disburse and why Agatha thought that he and Gabe could absorb mine.)
So, at that crucial moment on The Tor, Agatha and the rest didn’t know Althea had powers when she marched up that hill with Josie.
* * * * *
I could go into a long explanation of how it all worked.
But I won’t.
History will dissect it, I’ve no doubt.
* * * * *
I could be pissed off that a lot of folks were keeping a lot of stuff from me all this time, hell, all my life.
But I was alive.
And so was (most) everyone I cared about.
So how mad could you be?
I was classified as a Hazardous Sage.
I was a young witch.
Powerful but unripe.
And I had a lifetime of pretty f**king important work ahead of me.
And anyway, forgiveness is a powerful thing.
And we were at war; there was no time for petty trivialities.
And now it was all in the open, there was no more pu**yfooting around.
And all eyes were on me.
I had to keep focus.
I had a war to win.
* * * * *
Aidan flew with me to Denver, I slept with my head on his shoulder most of the way.
He was careful to give me space.
Well, not too much space.
We spent a lot of time watching movies.
Me with my head in his lap, him stroking my hair (this felt nice, as in, ultra nice).
Okay, so we made out a lot and maybe fooled around a bit and I’d kind of, um… made it a practice to sneak into his bedroom at night and sleep next to him (just sleep, after we fooled around a bit, that is).
But, I was happy to be alive.
And I was happy he was alive.
And, well, he’s hot.
* * * * *
Aidan and I didn’t talk much about things.
Like, say, how he and Ash faked Aidan’s death.
Or, say, how it was so easy for me to lose trust in him and Ash.
Bottom line, there wasn’t a lot to say that wasn’t ugly and damaging.
So, we just didn’t say it.
Don’t judge me, it worked.
* * * * *
I hadn’t cried, didn’t seem much point.
It wouldn’t change things.
It wouldn’t bring Althea back.
* * * * *
Ash was supposed to have recuperated a lot longer than he did before attempting a trans-Atlantic flight but yesterday he arrived on the doorstep, leaning on an ebony, silver-handled cane, pale as Dad and Gabe, his father Marcus by his side.
He, of course, wasn’t going to give Aidan even a hint of the upper hand by staying away too long and he wasn’t stupid enough to think that Aidan wasn’t going to take advantage (see entry above).
* * * * *
I know what you thought but I did mention that elfin magic is powerful.