“You met another angel?” Kristy’s blue eyes go wide and she looks at me in disbelief. “And you’re just now telling me this.”
Lucas takes my hand in his, letting me know he completely agrees with my decision to keep everything from my friends until now.
“It was like minutes after Lucas proposed and I just wanted to enjoy the night,” I admit, desperation obvious in my voice. “But then Julian appeared and I kind of forced him to go to dinner with us.”
“You met an angel and then took him to dinner,” Evander repeats, needing me to confirm it because it sounds so crazy.
“Yeah. He’s the only other angel who’s okay with me.”
“Wait,” Nicole sets her fork down. “What do you mean, only other angel who’s okay with you?”
I look at Lucas, and he gives my hand a squeeze. “Michael told me something that I didn’t yet share.” I run my hand over my head, feeling that headache coming back. It hasn’t been all that long ago, yet everything is melding together in my mind. “I shouldn’t have been allowed to live.”
“I figured so,” Tabatha says quietly. “Nephilim are often referred to as abominations in the rare instances they are mentioned in text. But this Julian, you can trust him?”
I nod. “Michael told me one other angel is on our side. And it’s Julian. Dad,” I say, and wince at how weird the word sounds. “Has had him watching me ever since Varrador discovered that the Nephilim baby born twenty-five years ago under the Virgo moon was still alive. He let himself get caught so we could talk.”
“Hold up again,” Nicole says, leaning back in her chair. Freya is on her lap, happily being hand fed pieces of chicken. “I’m confused. Only one other angel, other than your father, is on your side? That doesn’t make sense.”
I take in another breath. “When Heaven got word that there was a Nephilim baby on the way, Michael was ordered to kill it. Obviously, since it was his child, he wouldn’t do it, and switched me with Nancy Martin’s real baby, who died at the same time I was born. The rest of the angels think I’m dead, but if they find out I’m alive, they’ll kill me.”
“Holy hell,” she gasps. “So now that the demons know you’re alive and well, the angels could find out too.”
I nod. “Yep.” I swallow hard and take another gulp of saké. I don’t really like it, but I’m too lazy to get up and get myself wine right now. “And the reason Julian let us catch him was because he wanted to warn me of something.”
“Of what?” Evander asks.
“He sensed a disturbance in the area and said the Gates of Hell have been opened again.”
12
Everyone stares at me, waiting for me to go on.
“But he didn’t know if a demon actually got out, what kind of demon it might have been, or where it would have gone,” Lucas adds pointedly. “He’s obviously doing a great job keeping an eye on you.”
“Look,” I start. “I know I should have come running to you with this info, but I selfishly wanted to just enjoy being engaged because I know…I know…” I know there’s a really good chance I’m never going to get to marry Lucas.
I close my eyes, tears welling behind my eyelids. I’m not an emotional person, and seeing me getting upset unnerves my friends.
“Nothing happened,” Kristy tries. “So no harm done. If the world exploded or something, then I’d pissed.”
“What else did this Julian say?” Tabatha asks. She’s wearing a long black dress with a traditional ceremonial robe over top. It’s a dark, shimmery green with a moon-and-stars design embroidered into the hem. Her dark, braided hair is twisted up into a tight bun at the nape of her neck. She looks the part of the High Priestess, and right now, I need her authority and wisdom.
Because I don’t know what to do.
“Michael is the archangel,” I say and Kristy gasps. “Julian said that me being part archangel makes me just as powerful as he is as a, uh, regular angel. We didn’t get much time to talk before he said he had to go, and I haven’t seen him since.”
I take my hand out of Lucas’s and bring them to my face, rubbing my temples. I don’t want to be normal in the sense that I lose my magical abilities—that would be so awful I’d deem it torture—but I’d love to be a regular witch for a day.
Not with asshole brothers who want to kill you.
Or one with archangels for fathers, putting you in the middle of a divine war if you’re discovered.
“And to top that all off,” I start again, lifting my head and looking at the twins, “the Order of the Mystic Realm sent an assassin after me. They didn’t kill me, obviously, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they come at me again.” I let out a heavy sigh. “I just want to plan our wedding, but I know even that’s a long shot.”
“What about what your sister said?” Kristy leans forward. “The law forbids witches and vampires from being together but not Nephilim and vampires.”
All eyes fall on Tabatha as she considers it. “It could be worth arguing, though as a member of the coven you are to follow the coven rules. We don’t have many, but that—” Her eyes go to the large ring on my finger “—is most definitely against the rules.” She takes a sip of her wine. “And if angels are on the lookout for you, I wouldn’t let anyone outside of this room know who you really are. In fact…” Her eyes dart to all of us around the table. “I’d like to cast the Absconditum Charm on us all. Your life is at stake here, Callie, and if one demon was able to narrow down the birth of the Nephilim babe to a specific month out of your birth year, others will too.”
“What’s the charm for?” Lucas asks.
“It’s a secret-keeping spell. If any one of us breaks the spell, it will be known who told the secret by marking them with the letter T for traitor on their forehead.”
“Intense,” he says. “I like it.”
“It won’t work on you,” I tell him. “Though I know you won’t tell anyone.”
“Who else knows about you?” Tabatha asks.
“Just Abby and Eliza,” I say. “But I trust them both.”
“I have forbidden Eliza to bring it up to anyone but us,” Lucas assures Tabatha. I didn’t know he had done that, though it doesn’t surprise me. “She cannot disobey a command from her maker.”
“I don’t think she would anyway,” I muse. “She’s very loyal.”
Lucas smiles at the compliment. He gets annoyed with her but is overall very protective of his vampire daughter. “She is.”
“And you trust your sister?” Tabatha asks.
“I do,” I tell her. “And even if I didn’t, it’s not like anyone Abby would tell would believe her.”
“Very well. After dinner, I will conduct the spell. Do you have a de
cent supply of Calamus?”
“I might,” I tell her. “I don’t know how fresh it is.”
“I have some,” Kristy says. “If I need to go get it, I will.”
“Thank you,” I tell Kristy, whose cabinets are always fully stocked with every herb imaginable. She grows most herself, with the help of Olive.
“What do you think the Grand Coven would do if they found out I’m not a full witch?” I ask, almost afraid of the answer I’m going to get.
“I do not know,” Tabatha says honestly. “Power talks in the coven, and you, my darling, have always had a great deal of it. There is nothing in Witch Law about how to handle this, as a half-witch half-angel child is something most of us never thought possible.”
“There are very few accounts of Nephilim anywhere,” Evander goes on. “And I’ve spent the last few days scouring every text I can get my hands on.”
“Julian told me there are two other Nephilim alive right now, but have committed themselves to a peaceful life as Buddhist monks.” I pick up my fork and push my food around on my plate. “So I guess I could always join the nunnery.”
“Like they’d let you join,” Naomi shoots back, nudging my foot with hers under the table. “Not with everything you’ve done.” She eyes Lucas up and down.
“There is no need for that,” Tabatha says, reaching for her wine glass. This whole situation puts her in a weird spot too, I know. She’s already turning a blind eye to the fact that Lucas and I are together and now she’s going to have to cover up the fact that I’m not really a witch.
Well, not a full witch at least.
Should I not be allowed in the coven? I’ve been able to pass through the Covenstead door with no problems, and it’s specifically warded to keep anything but witches from passing through.
“And I can see both good and bad in informing them of who you really are,” Tabatha goes on. “You obviously have more power than the average witch, and the Grand Coven will want you in their corner. They can offer protection as well, against both the angels and the demons.”
“So what do I do?” I ask. “Tell them I just took a DNA test and it turns out I’m one hundred percent not that witch?”