November Reign (Northarbor Coven #3)

23. Get Ready

Get Ready

Thyme

To be completely honest, the revelation about the demons shocked me to my core. Not because I didn’t think they should fight. They had legitimate cause to fight against the oppression Basil wanted.

No, it was more down to my biases against royalty. I had thought they would be similar in outlook to the royals of the human world: out of touch with the plight of the common people.

These royals, they loved their people. They were ready for their right to be free, even though the royals were already safe from a witch contract. Finally, royals I could respect.

There were so damn many of them! Over the course of the night while we celebrated the adoption and Barr’s mating, more and more of them, from every type of demon, came to tell us they would fight if we needed them.

Parker was prepared for them. Quite a few of them had cell phones. They worked in their realm just as well as they did in ours. He had an app for them to download that would send out a signal when we needed them along with a location so they would be close when they portaled in.

“You should come to the mansion,” I found myself offering. The others stared at me. “After the rest of the coven is gone, we can teach them ways to protect themselves from attacks.”

Gregoris nodded. “A wise idea. We should make additional protective charms they can wear in battle.”

He spoke as if it was a foregone conclusion there would be a battle. I suppose, in a way, it was. Basil wouldn’t give up until he was dead, and he’d make us fight for that to happen.

Ever the plotter, Damon sided with Gregoris. “In small groups over the next few days. We can give you extra charms for you to hand out on this side.”

The royals left, happy with the decision.

“Should we ask Sweetwater for their help?” Oak wondered aloud.

“No,” Toth said. “They have too much to deal with. Northarbor isn’t safe for them. We need to leave them out of this. If we really needed them, they would be there, but it is too risky.”

“It’d also bring more enemies on us,” Damon pointed out. “The aviary isn’t fully convinced by Basil. Not all of them buy what he’s selling, so he has limited numbers from them. When it comes to Sweetwater, they are all against them. It’s like a cult in the aviary. They’ve got them brainwashed into thinking the pack is going against the goddess.”

“Sweetwater gets messages from her. She’s visited them!” Cody’s face was lit with wonder, but also confusion. Like him, I didn’t understand why the aviary couldn’t see they were wrong.

“So we keep them out of it. That’s fine. The royals might be the turning point we need to win this.”

I hoped Oak was right.

Rather than go home to the mansion, we stayed in one of Mori’s hotels. None of us were really sober enough to go home where we would have to check our security before we said anything. We were safer in the demon realm, really. There, we were free to live and love as we pleased.

The party went on late, with all of us drinking a lot. Despite us being witches, the demonkin were incredibly welcoming. Some, the non royals, were understandably wary to begin with, though they quickly warmed to us. Helped when Oak made a drunken vow I hoped he would keep: to find a spell to break the curse of ownership over demons.

Seeing Damon surrounded by his new family, with demon friends, it made me wonder if I had it all wrong. Maybe he was right to rebel against being the High Witch of the coven. There, in the demon realm, was where Damon fit. Maybe I needed to find a way to free him from the coven before it destroyed him instead of him destroying it.

Drunk me was a melancholy me. I was grateful to get into the room Mori had arranged for us.

“Here. Drink some water.” Oak passed me a glass while he sipped on his own. The water was refreshing and tasted so pure and clean compared to back home.

We were silent as we sat in the little seating area near the balcony, watching demonkin go by. I wanted to talk about Damon, but I also wanted to enjoy the peace. To not think about the future or anything to come.

“Come to bed.” Oak stood, peeled off his suit, let down his hair and climbed into bed.

It felt like one of those key moments in our relationship. We were going to bed just to sleep. Neither of us were in the mood for sex, both distracted with other thoughts. It was a time for finding solace by being there for the other .

I took off my clothes, then joined him in bed, snuggling close.

“Want to talk about it?”

“No.” I shook my head for emphasis. “Just want to be here, with you.”

“There’s no place I’d rather be.”

When we returned to the mansion the next day, there was a crowd of our witches waiting outside. All our security and spells had done their job of keeping them out. Some looked irritated, the others amused at our rumpled appearance.

“My apologies!” Mori called. “There was a family wedding,” he went on without mentioning Barr. The Hellhound and his elemental mate would join us later in the day.

“I’m surprised you were invited,” Aster remarked to Oak. “I thought you were still on the shit list with Damon.”

“Well, I did help Thyme the other day.”

“Right, when he fainted.”

“Yeah. Damon’s been cool with me since then. It was Mori’s mom who invited me.” Oak took a step away from the other witch automatically when she got too close.

As cover stories went, it was a good one. It added to the change in attitude Damon was showing to the others when it came to Oak. Yet it wouldn’t make Basil demand Oak make a move just yet. Trying to buy time while also not dragging our feet, making Basil impatient, was incredibly difficult to balance. Everything felt like it was on a knife’s edge.

“Today, half the group will work on protection charms,” Damon said above the noise of the gathered witches. “The rest on defense.”

“Why charms?” Aster sneered. “It’s such basic magic most witches can do.”

My turn to think of a cover story. “It’s also so fundamental that people pick up bad habits and get lazy with it. Then when they need them, the charms fail because they are badly made. Consistently making potent charms requires patience, a fairly deep magical well, and passion for the craft.”

Oak, demonstrating a thaw in our public relationship, backed me up. “I’ve seen charms fail in the field.”

“Hmm, well, I suppose a refresher will be useful. Can I start with training, though?”

I would not harm the witch flirting with my man. The mantra repeated in my mind while Oak sauntered off with the flirting Aster.

Damon came to my side, squeezing my elbow. “Want to teach me about charm making?”

“Sure. I think you’ll be really good at it.”

Proven right about Damon’s charm making skills, I put the finished ones, mostly Damon’s work, away, until the demons would arrive to collect them. The coven witches thought I was going to be evaluating them, and I had, as they were made. The ones that didn’t make the grade, I corrected myself. I was not sending demons out there to fight without adequate protection.

Parker was off to check the mansion, along with Cody and Oak. My boyfriend was teaching Cody what to look out for. Apparently, there was a surveillance spell left behind. Rather than remove it and tip the listener off, they put a wide barrier around it. The people listening would hear stuff, but only what we chose for them to hear. Luckily, it was in a room we didn’t use much.

The demons arrived in small groups along with Barr and Jorgoth, both beaming and looking very in love.

“Are you sure you want to fight?” I asked the newly freed elemental .

“Basil robbed me of months of my freedom. Without my Barr, and his parents, I would still be in that cell. It is my fight as much as it is yours.”

“Very true, I just wanted to be sure you chose this of your own free will.”

“Thank you for checking, Thyme. I plan to be by my Barr’s side no matter what that means. He showed me true love, sticking by me while I was locked away. I cannot repay his kindness.”

“You can. Just love him as much and for as long as you can.”

“I understand now why he likes it here so much. You are all very kind and welcoming.”

Damon took that moment to stumble into the kitchen. He’d gone for a nap after using a lot of magic. That nap had included Mori, so I wasn’t sure just how much sleeping was done.

A gasp escaped my lips as I caught sight of his face. Blood dripped from a cut at his temple. One eye was bloodshot, swollen almost shut. He had many cuts over the lower half of his face. He looked beat to shit.

“Who did this?” I cried, rushing to his side, where I caught sight of bruises and marks. Just seeing them had me stumbling to a stop.

“Ta da!” Damon gave a flourish and bow. “I present to you my plan. ”

“What the fuck?” Oak rounded the counter to see what was going on.

Damon touched his face. His fingers came away bloody. He pushed them into my gaping mouth.

“Corn syrup.”

“Huh?” I tasted the blood. It was sweet. Fake. “Wait! This isn’t real blood.”

“Correct.” Damon peeled off his “wounds” all of which were carefully applied makeup and special effects. “We need to get the demons ready to move. We can’t wait for too much longer, or Basil will find out we’re preparing. He needs to be caught off guard.”

“How is this,” he pointed at the makeup, “a plan?” Oak asked dubiously.

“It’s simple. With this, we can give Basil what he wants.” He pointed at himself. “The book and me. I look all defeated, completely fake of course, and once we are in place, we end him.”