“He belongs with whoever can break the spell.”
“Which doesn’t seem to be you.”
Mikayla flinched.
“Wyn,” Tamsyn said warningly.
“No, we’ve all been pussyfooting around this and pretending it’s okay. It’s not. There’s a reason demons and witches don’t get together.”
“I’ll be sure to return this tremendous support next time you bring home a lover,” Mikayla snapped.
Wyn snorted. “Do I really look like the get-attached type, little sis?”
“For that matter, does Ciar?” Tamsyn added, her gentle voice making her opinion all the more damning.
“Look, I can’t explain what he makes me feel. I get that our kind are less than compatible but that doesn’t change my mind. When I’m with him…” She trailed off, thinking of the way he’d looked at her last night. As if she were the only woman in the world for him. It should have been just sex but when he touched her, she felt precious, treasured. How was she supposed to give that up?
Tamsyn was watching her closely before her eyes widened. “Hell,” she breathed, “you love him.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Wyn said. “She’s not that stupid. It’s just lust.”
Tamsyn shook her head. “You’re not always right, Wyn.”
“Mikayla?” Wyn demanded. “Please tell me this is infatuation.”
She opened her mouth to agree but the words caught in her throat. The thought of Ciar breaking the spell with Alina was like a knife through her heart. Loving a demon was foolish, idiotic. Her sisters were right about that much. But now that she’d had him in her arms, Mikayla didn’t have a clue of how to let him go.
“Hell,” Wyn breathed, echoing Tamsyn’s sentiment.
“I didn’t mean to,” Mikayla tried.
“We are all so screwed,” Wyn moaned.
Tamsyn whacked her over the head. “We could at least try to be supportive.”
“Of my sister getting her heart broken? Sorry, no.”
“She’ll only get her heart broken if she can’t convince Ciar he’s hers.”
An attractive thought, Mikayla mused. Her three days were up, after all. What did she have to lose?
“Don’t you dare,” Wyn said. “Cut your losses and get out of this while you still can.”
And go back to drinking at the Black Cat with her sisters, casting spells for those with money enough to afford it and spending meaningless nights with men who didn’t matter?
Could she live with the knowledge she’d chosen to save herself pain over going after the one man who completed her? Even if only heartbreak lay in that direction?
“How?” Mikayla whispered. How did she let him go?
Wyn looked mutinous, Tamsyn just shook her head.
“Tam, stop sitting on the fence. Get over here on my side and stop our baby sis from ruining her life,” Wyn demanded.
“I can think for myself,” Tamsyn snapped.
Wyn shook her head in disgust. “Mikayla, don’t be an idiot.”
But she was very afraid that was exactly what she was being. An idiot who chose safety over the best thing to have ever happened to her.
Still, there was one obstacle in her path if she were truly to pursue Ciar. “Where’s Alina?” she asked.
“Outside,” Tamsyn replied. “Alone.”
“Good.” With the new revelations spinning in her mind, she needed to have a chat with the woman.
She headed for the door before opening it quietly and stepping out into the night.
Alina paced the backyard, barely more than a shadow weaving through the darkness. Mikayla was about to call out when the woman’s words stopped her.
“You wait,” Alina snarled. “When I bring home the true heir we’ll see how well you can keep your throne.”
Instinctively Mikayla moved back into the shadows as she listened. Alina continued to pace, gripping the cell phone with white knuckles.
“Don’t make me laugh, Rouke,” she said. “We both know what our relationship is.”
She paused, no doubt listening to the person on the other end of the line.
“I can’t have this conversation now,” she said at last. “You shouldn’t have called me here. No. No, Rouke, absolutely not. I can’t—that’s it. Goodbye. Don’t come looking for me.”
She snapped the phone shut and sighed, tilting her face up toward the heavens.
“Who were you talking to?” Mikayla demanded, stepping from the shadows.
Alina spun. “You,” she hissed.
“What’s going on?” She jogged down the porch steps to confront the woman.
“None of your business.”