November Reign (Northarbor Coven #3)

7. Boundaries

Boundaries

Oak

Over the course of a few days, I noticed a change in Thyme. It was pretty obvious from his clumsy attempts that he was trying to flirt with me, which was cute, but not entirely welcome.

Why not, when I found him so attractive?

I didn’t deserve him. Pure and simple. I wasn’t worthy of someone as special as him. He was sweet, kind, intelligent, warm, while I was none of those things. Being with someone like me was an invitation for heartbreak. Thyme… he was worth more than me.

He didn’t know who I really was. He only knew a part of me, the small sliver of myself I was showing to what remained of our coven. I was a liar. Not to be trusted.

Without my sister around, the only person who knew everything, there was no one to call me out on my bullshit. If she was here instead of in Abrocaelum with the elves, her wife and their daughter, then she would be screaming at me to either tell the truth and see where the cards fell, or to draw a line and stick to it .

Hell, with her here, I would be as far away as I could be. No, that was another lie. I wouldn’t leave Zin and Pops to fight Basil alone. Not with baby Sage being so small. It would be easier to have some distance from Thyme with them around, though.

This all started when I changed how I was dealing with Thyme. Me being nicer to him gave him expectations of more. He thought, and he wasn’t wrong, that I cared about him. Problem was, caring about him could make everything fall apart, especially if he got too close. We could be friends and that was about all. Even then, he couldn’t know everything.

Thyme was so much better than me. He should be going for someone who could give him their entire heart and not the crumbled remains I had.

After the first fumbled attempts, I tried to put physical distance between us. Every time he came close, I took a step away. It fucking hurt to be the one causing Thyme pain and confusion. I saw the way each time he was politely rebuffed struck him like a blow.

Softening each try wasn’t helping matters. I could see the mixed signals I was giving him, and hated it.

“Oak?” Cody asked one morning after a lesson. Damon had pulled his brother away to the kitchen to make something for lunch.

“Hmm? ”

I wondered what this was going to be about. Cody had never cornered me about anything before. It wasn’t that we weren’t friends or even friendly, there just wasn’t a whole lot of time to work on something with him before and after his mating to Toth. They kind of kept to themselves a lot of the time, which I understood. Either that or Cody was spending quality time with his dad. Mori was big on growing a bond between them.

“What’s going on with you and Thyme?”

Okay, so I knew this was a planned ambush or intervention or something. Damon had cooked up this interaction and Cody had been the one to draw the short straw by asking me what the hell was going on.

“We’re friends,” I answered, simply.

He looked disappointed. “That’s it?”

“It’s all it can be.”

Cody jumped on that slip immediately. “Why?”

I stayed silent for a minute, but this was Cody, a witch who until earlier this year had no magic of his own, or at least barely a spark of power. He grew up in a home where he was mistreated for the circumstances of his birth. Punished for things outside of his control. He could outlast my staredown.

My sigh was long and resigned. “Look, Thyme is well out of my league. He’s only slumming it with me because we’re cooped up in a house with couples. ”

There was no way he’d look twice at me otherwise. Not after all I’d done with the accusations, icing him out, everything over the weeks and months we’d been cooped up together. I’d been a jerk, yet somehow he still had a crush on me. As soon as someone came along to treat him properly, he’d be in love with them. It’d be for the best, really.

“Hey! That’s not fair. You’re a catch!” Cody protested.

“I’m a mess.” I fixed him with a look. Cody reddened but didn’t look away.

“Thyme doesn’t think so,” he said stubbornly.

“Maybe not, but he’s wrong. He’d be better off with literally anyone else. What about Barr? He’s cute.” Just the suggestion stung. I knew it was pointless, too. Thyme coddled Barr like he did Damon.

Cody scoffed. “Barr’s in love with Jorgoth.”

I frowned. “Who?” The name was familiar, but I couldn’t place the connection.

“He’s a water elemental from Toth’s orchard. Well, no, he’s currently in the capitol in jail—“

“Jail! Why?” Was this guy a criminal? Did Barr have feelings for someone dangerous?

“Basil knows his true name so…”

Just his name had me suppressing a shudder. That didn’t make my confusion any better. Eventually Cody realized I didn’t have the full story, and continued .

“They are keeping him in this really nice place that’s spelled to avoid summoning. It takes a while to get out of these contracts, and with Jorgoth working for Toth they thought it was best to confine him rather than have him be used against us all. Jorgoth was happy about it. In the meantime they are trying to pin down his family tree, see if there is a royal connection.”

“Because royals can’t have contracts.”

“Right.”

It had been Mori’s plan to get Cody, and by extension, Toth, recognized as royal to save Toth from his witch slave contract. He’d technically bargained out of it, but just in case Basil ever went back on his word, Cody, as his fated mate, gave him a new name only he knew. True names between mates were never to be shared. They had also been made royalty to protect Cody, though as a half-witch, we didn’t know how he would be affected by contracts.

I hated the old tradition of enslaving demons to witches. The contracts were often cruel and unnecessary. Quite often, if you just spoke to a demon they would be willing to help you, given the proper compensation. Sadly, most demons weren’t accustomed to witches treating them fairly, and they tended to avoid us.

“So Barr and Jorgoth?” I asked, turning the conversation back to safer grounds .

Cody made a face. “Not technically a thing. Yet. If we have our way they will be.”

“You and Damon.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, well I hope they can protect him from being summoned.” I tried to end our talk without bringing Thyme back up. “I’m going to call everyone in for lunch.”

Maybe I fled the room after that. Cody couldn’t prove it, especially because I found Parker and Gregoris making out instead of watching the cameras.

Lunch was a subdued affair, partially because Parker was embarrassed I’d caught him, and Damon was sending me glares. Cody had clearly clued him in on my conversation and he was feeling some kind of way about it.

He couldn’t make me date his brother, even though I did want Thyme, it just wasn’t a good idea.

Giving him the evil eye back was immature, so I kept it at one time only and carried on eating my lunch. I needed away from these people. We had to up our game now that the attacks were increasing again, with magic users often supporting the shifters.

Basil was about to make a move, and we needed to be ready to end this once and for all.

Unfortunately, no one was on board when I broached the subject.

“They aren’t ready,” Thyme said, inclining his head towards Damon and Cody.

“There’s so much we still have to teach them,” Gregoris agreed. “Damon cannot be matched at hand to hand fighting, yet with magic he is…”

“Is what?” the man himself asked.

Gregoris fixed him with a look which told Damon to be honest with himself. “Not where you should be, considering your level of power. Your coven elders have spent months training you—“

“Our training was flawed!” Thyme automatically defended.

We were going around in circles.

“Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong,” I finally said, breaking through what was sure to be an epic argument.

“What do you mean?” Toth asked. He was the calmest of us all. Toth knew Cody would never be at the frontline of any battle because he didn’t have the heart for it. He would be our backup. The one to heal us, defend us, when things went wrong. He would get the book somewhere safe with Toth if we failed.

“Instead of playing to Basil’s strengths, why aren’t we working to ours? He doesn’t know how to properly fight a hitman. If we can protect Damon against Basil’s magical attacks, he can get in there with a physical one.”

The epiphany was so strong it nearly knocked me back. We had three fully grown demons with magic of their own, if we didn’t include Barr. Cody with his mixed magic could have skills we’d never thought of. Parker could shift, fly, and fight!

“What if,” Damon suggested, “we all take on each other’s fighting styles? I learn demon and witch attacking styles. Really throw them off. If they can’t predict what I’m about to do, they can’t defend against it.”

“You’ll still need to learn your magic,” Thyme added reasonably. “You’re a danger to us all if you don’t have full control.”

Damon was already getting up to talk to Gregoris about learning some moves. I heard him ask if it was possible for him to conjure demon wings so he could fly. With his magic, just about anything was possible.

The others left the kitchen, all talking about plans. I knew I had to clear the air with Thyme, so I hung back to speak to him while I helped him clean up.

“You should be making Parker and Cody do this.” I would never suggest Thyme ask Gregoris to do anything, the demon was scary looking. Toth would help just because Cody was.

“It’s fine. I was hoping to speak to you.”

“You were?”

“Yeah, I wanted to apologize if I’d made you feel uncomfortable, with the flirting, I mean.”

I hadn’t expected him to lay it out there like that. “Uh, maybe a little.”

Perhaps he didn’t expect me to say that, because his face fell. Fuck. I truly hated hurting his feelings.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Damon and Mori thought you were interested in me and said flirting might…”

Thyme’s face was the reddest I’d ever seen it, making me feel even worse.

“Ah. Well, I am interested—“

“You are?”

“But we can’t do anything about it.”

“We can’t?”

“No.”

That single word hung in the air between us for a long moment.

“Thyme, you are…”

“Is this because of Basil? Because I can’t help that he’s my brother. I wish he wasn’t. Being related to him ruins everything! ”

Yes , I wanted to say, just not for the reasons you think .

“It’s me. I’m not—“

“You’re doing the ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’ cliche? Really?” Thyme gave a bitter laugh.

“If you let me finish!” He flinched, my voice was too sharp. I sucked in a breath and let it out. “There’s too much in my past. Too many things I’ve done that I regret. You… you’re worth so much more than me. As soon as we’re not stuck here together, you’ll see that for yourself.”

I had to leave before I blurted out anything else and ruined everything between us forever.

Ignoring my buzzing phone, I stalked the halls of the mansion. Then, unable to take it anymore, I withdrew it from my pocket only to stare blankly for a moment.

Unknown number

Hey baby, miss me?

Unknown number

Come on baby, answer your phone

Unknown number

Oak, don’t make me come for you

Unknown number

I know where you are. Let me see you

Unknown number

You won’t like the consequences if you don’t answer me

Unknown number

Just a pic of your pretty face. I miss you

Unknown number

Ignoring me won’t work out well for you. I can see you whenever I want but I want a goddamn picture! Make it a pretty one

Unknown number

Answer me, dammit! Or do you want me to come get you? Is that it? Do you think I can’t?

Unknown number

I’ve always known where you are. I’ve let you play, but you better not have let anyone touch you Oak. I’ll cut their fingers off!

Unknown number

Remember that I’m the only one who’s ever loved you like you deserve

Unknown number

I own you Oak

Each message I read sent a shudder down my spine. Just standing in the hallways had me uneasy. Was he watching me now? I knew if I didn’t give him something, anything, he would just send message after message, or worse, come get me, unless I caved and gave him what he wanted. With my fingers mentally crossed, I snapped a selfie and sent it back to him. My finger hovered over the delete button for the entire thread. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of all the texts.

He didn’t leave me waiting long. A reply flashed up almost immediately.

Unknown Number

That’s better. You look tired. Go take a nap in an hour

As much as I wanted to ignore the order, I knew better. Pocketing my phone once more, I sighed. With some time before I had to face him, I made my way to the roof terrace. I needed air.

Even though the October air was biting, I just needed some space from the others. A place where I wouldn’t be overheard. No one was on guard duty here, so I had the peace I wanted. I slumped onto a chair and pulled out my phone again. The call connected magically even another dimension away in Abrocaelum.

“Hey, Zin.”