What’s New Pussycat(69)

“But you were protecting your life mate. So while I was full of maternal pride at what a fine man I’d raised, I also wanted to kill you myself.” Faith patted his hand with a smile. “Anyway, when I texted what was happening to my friend, that you’d sacrificed your life in order to rejuvenate Martine’s, she told me how to counteract the spell of a life for a life.”

“I can’t wait to hear this,” Max groused, shaking his head with a smile.

“I repeated a spell—some mumbo-jumbo in Latin.” She held up her phone with a text message from someone named Spooky Chick. “You can read it if you’d like. Essentially, I stole Escobar’s magic by opening up that bag of tricks and touching him. Whatever’s in that bag activates some sort of energy I’m still not sure I understand. Then, coupled with Dianna’s magic, and all of us holding hands, we created a potent conduit. That conduit created a current and brought you both back to life.”

“And stole Escobar’s magic?”

Faith winced again, smoothing her hand over her mussed hair. “I’m afraid he’s magicless now. A mere mortal forever.”

Derrick shook his head. “But wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of sacrifice? A life for a life, Escobar said.”

Faith nodded. “Losing his magic was the sacrifice—losing his immortal life, specifically,” she explained.

Derrick couldn’t help but laugh. “Dang, Mom. Who do you know who has a spell like that just sitting around?”

Faith patted his cheek and grinned. “I’ve been around a long time, honey, and being around a long time means I know a lot of people. Some of them witches. And as an aside, if you talked to me more, shared what’s troubling you, you’d have known that and maybe I could have helped much sooner.”

“But then again, maybe this was the part of the curse that needed to happen. The impossible?” Max asked, hugging his mother.

“Good point, son. I hope that’s true because wow, I don’t ever want to have to hear those words come from your brother’s mouth again.”

Derrick hugged her. “You could have been killed,” he murmured against the top of her head, fighting the residual waves of sheer terror the notion brought.

Faith leaned back in his embrace and grinned. “But I wasn’t, and neither was Martine, and that was the point. To save the mate you claim you don’t want for a mate. Now, I don’t fancy running back home again in shift. It’s cold and whether I like to admit it or not, my bones aren’t as young as they used to be. So I’m going to call a car service, let them charge me an arm and a leg to drive me all the way back to Cedar Glen, and leave the two of you to work this out. Maybe I can talk Dianna into coming with me so we can get to know each other.”

“Why would you want to get to know her?” Derrick asked.

Faith sighed and chucked him under his chin like she used to when he was six. “Oh, I think you know the answer to that, honey. Don’t play dumb—not after all this.”

He knew.

Now he had to convince Martine she knew, too.

* * *

Dianna gripped Martine’s hand, her eyes pleading with her daughter. “Do you understand why I protected you for so long now? Why I never wanted you to have to live with my mistakes?”

Martine’s head swirled with information, dizzy from not just the recounting of how she’d died and Derrick had offered his life up for hers, but of her mother’s admission. Seeing her mother for the first time in so long, so much smaller than she remembered, almost defeated, made Martine want to throw herself into Dianna’s arms and never let go.

But she’d been a part of this ruse. This maddening, insane ruse.

Pinching her temples with her fingers, Martine pressed her mother for answers. “So Dad didn’t know who you really were? Where you really came from?”

Dianna’s eyes went sad, the fine lines around them becoming more pronounced. “No, but he wasn’t always like he is now, honey. When I met him he was charming and funny, and I fell wildly in love with him. I was swept away. My parents warned me all my life about the lengths people would go to if they knew who I was, but I didn’t listen. I, much like you, wanted to be free of all the restrictions they’d placed on my life.”

Martine shook her head. “It wasn’t you who restricted me, Mom.”

“I didn’t do it purposely. I did it to keep you safe. Anyway, the only smart thing I did after meeting your father was not tell him who I really was or at least my real last name. I used my mother’s maiden name. Thinking back on it now, I don’t know what kept me from telling him. Intuition, maybe?”