A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums (Lilith and Co. #1)

Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

L ily Joy. My cousin. What a pretty name. Victoria kindly gave us her address. Before we left, both Connor and I made sure she understood how important it was for her to keep my info on the down low, but also to prepare. Get as many people she trusted on our side as possible. I hated being the prophet of doom and gloom. I mean, for the rest of my life, however long that might be, Victoria would remember me as the woman who’d brought on the end of days.

I’d much rather be remembered as the spunky woman with the cute hair and sassy sense of style always ready with an intelligent quip and a mostly kind word. Was that too much to ask for?

“Well, if you’ll excuse us,” I said as I reached for Connor’s hand. It made things easier for us to be touching when I moved us with magic. Plus—and I would never tell him this in fear of giving him an even bigger head—I craved his touch right now. It settled me. Heading into the unknown and all that, Connor kept me anchored to a reality that I hoped we’d get to live rather than the one that currently faced us. Then I closed my eyes and focused my mind on Lily Joy’s address somewhere in the middle of the English countryside. Some little town I’d never heard of. I knew it was the middle of the countryside because the moment I concentrated on the address, I saw the home in my mind.

When I opened my eyes again, Connor and I stood in front of a thatched-roof cottage trimmed in natural, aged wood. The window glass reminded me of the window glass used in a colonial village I’d toured once. Natural wood and utilitarian shutters framed the outside of each window. A stone path welcomed us to the front door. Plants and flowers lined the path.

I found so much comfort around witch-owned cottages. Even though I wasn’t a witch, I still kind of was. Lavender, rosemary, and sage—I got that kid at Disneyland feeling all over again.

“You love this,” Connor said reflectively.

“I do.”

“You’re glowing.”

“That’s nice of you to?—”

“No, Simone, you’re actually glowing. Look.”

What in the ever-loving—no way could this be possible? My skin glowed a golden, shimmery light. Uh… this was definitely new.

Connor reached his hand over to brush it along the skin on my arm. “It’s warm,” he whispered in what I considered awe. “So a new achievement unlocked.”

“It appears so.” I smiled sheepishly, but then Connor pulled me into his arms and my glow engulfed the both of us.

“I feel it inside me,” he went on. “I feel you and the glow. Like you’re separate entities but joined at the same time. I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s not just your emotions, Simone—it’s literally you. What do you think it means?”

“I have no clue,” I answered him dreamily, sighing. Then I shook my head, realizing it was a spell. Not the glowing, that was all me. But the dreamy quality I felt, it was an enchantment that Lily Joy must have placed on her home.

“What?” Connor asked, drawing his eyebrows down in evident confusion.

“Part of this is a spell. I’ll explain later.”

Let me just say, I struggled to free myself from the feeling that engulfed me. Of everything in the world that I had to do, being held close by Connor was something I wanted to do. Still holding his hand, I walked us up to the door and knocked.

After a minute or so, the door cracked open. The woman’s eyes went big when she took us in. I expected her to ask, “What are you?” I mean, I always got the “What are you?” question. But she surprised me with a, “How did you break through?”

“Really?” Connor asked. “That’s your first question for us?”

Her exasperated sigh sounded so similar to mine. I laughed.

“Oh yeah,” Connor went on. “She’s definitely related to you, sweetheart.”

“We’re related?” Lily Joy asked.

“My name is Simone.”

Lily Joy gasped. “Lamia?”

Shocked, I nodded, blinking like an idiot.

She looked from side to side then held the door open. “Please, come in.”

We walked inside the home filled with comfortable furniture. Big. Old. Lived in. A fire roared in the stone fireplace, filling the room with peaceful warmth. “I love your home,” I said and she smiled.

“Thank you. It’s taken me a while to get it how I wanted it.” Then I watched as she shut the door behind us and swiped a flat hand through the air above it. The cracks between the door and doorjamb glowed an orangey hue before dissipating. “Please have a seat.”

Now that I got a good look at her, and this might’ve sounded crazy to most people, considering the distance between us in the family tree, but she looked like me. Same dark eyes. Same natural hair color. Although a bit thinner than me, she had those same soft features, cheeks, chin, and nose. She even dressed similarly, I mean, not to what I wore today, but an all-around style. She wore an oversized, pale pink sweater and black, skinny jeans. If I scanned my wardrobe in my mind, I was sure I’d land on that exact same sweater.

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

“Water?” I responded and I half-expected her to wave her hand and have the glass appear in my hand. That wasn’t what happened. She walked to the kitchen and came back expertly carrying three tall glasses of water, handing one each off to both me and Connor before taking a seat across from us.

“Thank you,” Connor said.

“Does it just kill you to be pleasant?” I asked him teasingly.

He winked. “Only with you.” Then he took a sip of his water before setting the glass down on the table in front of us.

I noticed Lily Joy’s eyes moving between Connor and me as we bantered. “Your words make it sound like you don’t like each other, but the feeling I get from you is far different.”

“He grew on me,” I answered. Then tacked on, “Kind of like a fungus.”

She pointed between the two of us. “So he’s your protector…” Connor and I both nodded. “But he’s also your mate?”

“Guilty,” he replied.

“I’ve never met a mated protector before.”

“Well, I’ve never met a relative before,” I said and she turned her head to look at me in apparent disbelief.

“You were orphaned, too?” she asked.

Uh… why did her too hit me as ominous?

“Yes, I was orphaned. How did you know my last name?”

“My parents died when I was a baby. I don’t know how. But life was very difficult. I have power like a witch, but I’m not a witch. Not really. Every year, I’d get a little more power—like the universe was doling it out in increments. Then a couple of weeks ago— bam ! It was like the magic smacked me between the eyes.”

I looked to Connor. A couple of weeks ago? Like when Connor and I had met? What did I do with this information?

“Anyway,” she continued, shaking her head as if to clear it, “I jolted awake in the middle of the night. A woman’s voice said, ‘ Simone Lamia. Remember Simone Lamia. ’ Then she was gone. I couldn’t go back to sleep to save my life.”

“You don’t sound like you’ve grown up in England,” Connor said.

“Oh, that’s because I didn’t. I’m American. I was drawn here a couple of years ago by the will of some long-lost relative who left me this land.”

“No way that’s a coincidence.” Connor voiced exactly what I was thinking.

“Here’s the thing,” I said, then I let out a long breath and went for it. “You’re not a witch. I mean, you are, but you aren’t. Just like you said. The same as me. I… well… Our family history is a bit hard to hear.”

Lily Joy gripped her glass in one hand, resting it on the other as she leaned forward, listening.

“I think the woman you heard—the voice that woke you up—was Lilith,” I said bluntly.

And cue the disbelieving eyes in five… four… three… two… There they were. “Excuse me?” she asked.

“It’s kind of a funny story. See, Lilith is my grandmother. She took me on the day I was born because Grandad Adam led a surprise attack and killed my parents, Shoshana and Baruch. You’re my cousin through my uncle Peter, Shoshana’s brother, and one of the two children of Lilith and Adam.”

“Lilith and Adam? Like Garden of Eden Lilith and Adam?”

“That would be them,” I answered.

“And you call that a funny story?” she asked taken aback.

“ Funny curious , not funny ha ha ,” Connor answered for me.

“How are you here, now?”

“Lilith could time jump. She left me here as an infant.”

“So… we’re Lilium ?”

“‘Lilium’?” I asked.

She nodded. “The children of Lilith. My parents left me with a book. More like a diary, I guess, because it was handwritten. One of the passages said Lilium are the children of Lilith. Stronger than any witch. Stronger than any super. Most would kill for what we’re apparently capable of. I just never put it together. They’re rare—or, we’re rare. I’m embarrassed to say that I thought it was super superstition.”

“ Surprise! ” I joked.

“You’ll have to excuse me here, but I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around this. I’m a direct descendant of Lilith. The Lilith. The woman so powerful that men demonized her in the Old Testament.”

“It’s a lot to take in,” I agreed.

“Why do you seem so calm about this?” she asked.

“Connor, plug your ears,” I ordered.

“I’m not plugging my ears.”

“Connor,” I repeated more forcefully. “ Plug your ears .”

“Fine,” he grumbled, but he grumbled while plugging his ears.

“He’s not supposed to hear this?” Lily Joy asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t want him to. He gets a big head.”

“About?” she hedged.

“He grounds me. Connor is why I’m so calm. Without him, I’d be a mess.”

“Finally, you admit it,” he said, drawing a laugh from me.

“You’re supposed to have your ears plugged.”

“Have you learned nothing, Simone?” he asked, and yeah—his coal-black eyes smiled with heat and love just for me. I was putty in his highly capable hands.

“So you need my help,” Lily Joy said. “That’s why you’re here.”

“Pretty much,” I agreed. “Hey—what was that spell outside? It was…” I felt my cheeks heat thinking about the way Connor had held me. The tenderness of his touch. A trill of goosebumps ran up my arms.

“It didn’t work,” she replied and I cocked my head, looking at her curiously.

“What do you mean, it didn’t work?”

“It’s a spell to keep supers away. You two should’ve started fighting, completely forgetting why you’d shown up at my door. If the spell had worked, you’d have fought as you left me alone.”

“Damn right, achievement unlocked,” Connor mumbled.

“What?” Lily Joy asked him.

“Simone changed it. She changed the spell. Her skin started to glow and then I felt her inside me. She made me remember the tenderness I felt toward her. The bond from being mated.”

“Can you teach me how you did that?” Lily Joy asked excitedly.

“If I knew how,” I said. “My powers were bound. They’ve been coming back more and more since I connected with Connor. I had no idea I could do that before it happened. And I knew it was a spell that you put up. But…”

“So your parents were killed by Adam. Now you show up at my door. As much as I like this ‘hey, cuz’ get-to-know-you type of visit, I think Lilith led you here.”

“I mean, I wish it was just a ‘hey, cuz’ visit. I like you,” I said. “But I think Lilith led me here, too. I sort of have men—possibly demons—trying to kill me.”

Lily Joy’s mouth dropped open. “Demons?” she asked. “You couldn’t have said shifters? I have tons of shifter repellent. Easy-peasy.” She ended with a flip of her hand.

“Have you ever heard of a person, man—witch or demon—named Beetle?” I asked.

“Beetle?” she asked. “No. Never. But the name doesn’t fill me with warm fuzzies.”

“Me either,” I replied. “He killed my fiancé. Connor’s sure Jeffery and I never would have married?—”

“You wouldn’t have,” he cut me off.

“Testy,” Lily Joy teased.

“It’s a trigger subject for him. But the gist of it is, Beetle got to Jeffery to get to me. I met Beetle once in a bar. He’s a bad dude.”

“Tell the truth,” Connor said. “You met him because you went to meet him. Get this,” he said to Lily Joy. “She thought it was smart to hunt down her ex- fiancé’s killer .”

“He wasn’t an ex when he was alive.”

“Can we stop talking about him?”

“You’re jealous?” Lily Joy asked Connor.

“It fucking guts me whenever she brings him up. Physically guts me. I can’t handle thinking about her being with another man.”

“I think the universe put a little too much punch in the destined mate mojo,” I replied as I stood from the chair that I occupied to drop down on Connor’s lap, surprising him. Then I grabbed a hold of his cheeks, turned his head, and planted a big, ol’ kiss to his lips. “I’m sorry,” I said low. “When we’re alone again, I’ll do that other thing you like, you know—” I ran my nose along the side of his face. “To make it up to you.”

“Do yourself a favor, Lily Joy. Don’t find your mate,” he said this right before kissing me hard again.

“I think that means he forgives me,” I said after he tore his lips away.

“Nope,” he said. “Though I think I’m ready to try…”

Lily Joy huffed, clapping her hands together once. “Right. Let’s get you two a room. We need to work on finding all your powers. Or at the very least, getting you to understand the ones you’ve already harnessed so you can recreate them.”

She stood and stretched. Lily Joy held a great deal of power. The house felt protected. Coming here had been the right choice. If we were going to be safe anywhere, it was here. I made a mental note to ask her more about the wards and charms she put around the property tomorrow. The day had finally caught up with me and I felt exhausted. “If you’ll follow me,” she said, leading us upstairs to a hallway. She pointed. “That’s my room.” Across the hall, she pointed out another room. “That’ll be yours. The bathroom is at the end of the hall.” She finished by pointing out the last room. “It’s getting late, so I’m heading for bed. We can start first thing in the morning.”

Connor pulled me into the room and shut the door. “I believe you promised me that other thing I like.”

A shiver ran down my back. I believe I did, Connor Baghest… I believe I did.