Unblessed Witch (Phases of the Moon #4)

16. Grimshaw

16

GRIMSHAW

“I can’t face Astaroth until I know I can trap his magic inside of him before he is killed,” Deva said to my father. “Because if not, if I kill him and it drains him of power, he’ll just return like I did and then we’ll be?—”

“Completely fucked.” Cage finished.

Right now, it was just our small group of parents and some military advisors, like Edna, so everyone was speaking freely. Considering the late hour, most others in the camp were resting and recovering. Something Deva needed to do herself. Her shoulders slumped in exhaustion, her brow furrowed as her mind worked a million miles a minute.

Tonight had drained her. From the attack, to saving Lazaro, to connecting with Astaroth…it wouldn’t be long before she hit a wall and it all became too much. The problem was that we needed to act fast if we wanted to get the jump on Astaroth. His recovery time was probably quicker than most. Still, if we wanted to be successful, we needed to buy some time. We had over twenty fatalities but mostly sustained injuries that were being examined and healed as we spoke.

“Have the wards been reinforced again?” I asked my father.

“Yes,” Hellebore answered instead. “They just finished.”

Deva winced. “Sorry about that.” Everyone in the room waved off her apology; it wasn’t needed. No one minded considering she’d done it to get Lazaro to safety and literally bring him back from the dead.

“Good.” I smoothed my hand through Deva’s hair. “So we have some time while we continue looking for a solution for our problem with Astaroth.”

Boneclaw nodded, already flipping through the pages of one of his many tomes, Oz working alongside him. Deva had relayed her visions to him, so he had all the latest information and was on a mission to fill in the blanks.

“While you all work on that, we are going to rest,” I stated. Though I think that everyone in the room understood that when I said ‘we’ I mainly meant Deva.

“What about the numbers problem?” Deva asked. “And while we may have some time, we know that Astaroth is weak right now. Sick, apparently. We can’t afford to wait forever.”

Cage’s mom spoke up, entering the tent with her husband in tow—I hadn’t even realized they’d stepped out, I’d been so focused on Deva. “We may have a potential solution to that, actually. We sent some of our sons to the city after the battle. Most of our family will be coming to the camp this morning to serve as reinforcements.” Which was a sizable number, to say the least. They were spread throughout the whole of Carmina. “But we’re hoping to pull more volunteers from the city itself.”

“If Astaroth and his people can recruit en masse, so can we,” Cage’s father said. “They’ll make it clear the immediate threat he poses to every single unblessed witch in the city.”

“Something we’ve allowed to exist for far too long,” My father said. “I think after Astaroth has been defeated, we need to really look at what’s going on in Carmina.”

Deva immediately nodded and I felt a small surge of guilt. My family, while working toward the ‘good’ of Carmina, hadn’t been very proactive about protecting those within its territory. We could have done far better, and it took my little jaguar coming into my life for me to realize that fully.

“Until then”—my mom turned her attention to the group of us—“you’re right, Grim . Rest . In a few hours, we’ll hopefully have some additional backup and an answer to the dilemma with Astaroth.”

“I’m going to stay and help,” Oz said. Deva stood and began to walk over to him as if to help, but I scooped her off her feet and left the tent. If left up to her, she would stay up even if she was practically falling over. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Grim,” Deva growled, trying to wiggle out of my arms.

“You haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours,” I countered. “You’re sleeping.”

Deva huffed but didn’t otherwise fight me on it, instead melting into my chest. The camp was quiet as we passed through tents, and I could hear the others following behind, talking about what they planned to do while Deva slept. If she heard them she didn’t say anything, and as we reached our tent and I looked down, I found that she had already fallen asleep.

Smiling at the peaceful expression on her face, I brought her to her cot, glad she’d managed to shower off the blood from the battle before our meeting. Pulling off her shoes, I tucked her under the blanket and made myself comfortable on the floor next to her, a sleeping bag laid out.

Deva wasn’t the only one who needed rest, so I didn’t hesitate to close my eyes, keeping my magic on watch to make sure our tent stayed secure.

Of course, I trusted the Society, but we would be stupid to think there weren’t traitors in our camp. I would love for that to not be the case, but it was always best to assume the worst when it came to matters of safety and security—especially when it came to my little jaguar.

As my eyes grew heavy and my breathing evened out, I fell easily into a deep slumber, knowing that when I woke up, the world would turn into a far more violent place.

“Grim, we need to wake up.” Deva’s soft voice had me blinking my heavy eyes open to find that my nose was buried against her neck. How the hell did that happen? Pulling back, I realized that at some point Deva had moved to the floor. My arms were wrapped around her center as she laid tucked against me.

“I’m not sure about that,” I mused, closing my eyes once more as I began to pick up on the environment around us. The noise outside of the camp had increased drastically, and the excitement and energy strumming through the air made me think reinforcements had arrived.

“No, seriously.” Deva’s laugh had me smiling as she tried to wiggle away from me. “I literally can’t get up.” Something I loved, for the record.

Letting out a groan, I rolled back to let her slip away. She managed to sit up, her flushed cheeks and bright eyes making me feel ten times better. She looked rejuvenated and well rested. Honestly, I felt much the same. I could have continued to push myself, but I had a feeling the battle ahead was going to take every part of us, so some rest was a good thing.

“Morning, sleepyheads,” Cage said as he entered the tent with Alek and Lazaro. “Breakfast is being served outside.”

Deva immediately shot up, and I chuckled at her clear eagerness to eat.

“They have coffee,” Alek assured her, the two of them slipping out the tent. Yawning, I managed to sit up and stretch my arms above, feeling every ache from the battle yesterday.

“Did either of you manage to rest?” I asked Lazaro and Cage.

“Yeah,” Lazaro assured me. “Oz even got some sleep after they identified three spells they think Astaroth’s associate may have been referring to.”

“And if they aren’t the right ones, one of them should work for the purpose of what Deva needs it for,” Cage added.

Feeling positive about the news, I stood and made my way out of the tent as well. The sun was high in the sky, marking that it was nearly noon. In a rare occurrence, there were very few clouds in the sky, and the sunny weather had me feeling a thread of surprise, wondering if it was a good omen for the battle to come.

Although, the weather didn’t surprise me nearly as much as the scale by which our camp had grown in hours. The population seemed to have tripled in size.

Lines of people were going tent to tent, gathering weapons and makeshift uniforms. I could tell many of the individuals were from the city, and the change in tide boosted my outlook. If they were willing to fight, maybe we could overcome the obstacle of numbers and scale that had nearly been our demise in the previous battle.

When I arrived in the center of the camp where my cousin was directing people, I was unsurprised to find Kazimir by her. The bastard had said maybe two words to her—surprising considering how much he liked to run his mouth—but he hadn’t left her side.

“Hey Grim,” Artemia said happily. “Isn’t this amazing? Over two hundred joined us this morning.”

“That’s great,” I said authentically. “Have you seen Deva?”

“Over there.” She nodded toward where my little jaguar was holding a mug of coffee and looking around with wonder. Making my way toward her, I saw an emotion pass over her face that was so damn intense it made me want to demand what she was thinking about.

“Hey.” I dropped a kiss to the top of her head.

“This is amazing.” Deva whispered. “Truly amazing.”

“The turnout is really good,” I agreed. “I’m a little surprised by it, but maybe I shouldn’t be.”

“When I lived on the streets there were always whispers of Astaroth. Everyone knew what a monster he was and how he wanted so much of the witch population eliminated. Now they have a chance to take back power. I think everyone is aware that Carmina needs a change…and they are willing to fight for it.”

Her voice went even softer as she continued, “I’m sure I passed so many of these people every single day when I lived in the downtown district. I know what their daily existence is like, and they know that if left in charge, Astaroth is only going to make things so much worse.”

“Carmina does need a change,” I agreed, rubbing her back. “When this is over, we’ll focus our attention there. My family and the Society have sat idly by, assuming the status quo was good enough for too long. It’s time to fix that.”

“It’s going to be a long road.” Deva took a deep breath and sighed. “You know, I’m realizing now how large of a community the unblessed witches had in Carmina. Especially those that lived like me and Oz, on the streets and disenfranchised. This goes even farther than Astaroth; it’s ingrained in our culture, and it’s not okay. None of it is okay.”

It really was unacceptable. I had no idea how our society had gotten to this point, but somewhere down the line someone had created a value difference between the unblessed and blessed witch types, and as a result they hadn’t been given an opportunity to fully thrive in this world.

“The unblessed witches cannot survive and grow in a world where people like Astaroth exist,” Deva hissed, her eyes flashing with anger. “In my mind, he is the last true barrier for change.”

Capturing her chin, I spoke in a serious tone. “Deva, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to correct this. Like you said, it won’t be overnight, but if we don’t make a move for change, we are worse than Astaroth. I can’t stand by and let my family claim they’re working for the betterment of Carmina when they aren’t doing shit to help half the damn population.”

A fire filled Deva’s eyes as she nodded. “Thank you, Grim.”

“Deva!” My little jaguar’s friend, Lavinia, appeared out of nowhere, looking extremely excited about something and interrupting our moment. When she all but pulled Deva from my arms, I had to resist the urge to let out a low growl of annoyance. I didn’t mind Deva’s friends, at all really, but what I did mind was my woman being taken from me. Although when we turned the corner, entering a row of smaller tents, I felt a familiar pull of magic.

Orix. My familiar.

“They told me to come find you!” Lavinia chimed. “Apparently someone requested for all six of them.”

“Boo!” Deva nearly slid down on the ground to throw open the carrier she was in, the unique creature immediately snuggling her back. I couldn’t resist the urge to smile as I opened up Orix’s carrier as well, his nose twitching in hello, before I picked him up and set him on my shoulder to rest.

“I missed you so much.” Deva booped her nose to Boo’s as the creature let out a purr that had Orix trying to replicate it— and failing .

“Not worth it, but good effort.” I pat his head in understanding.

“Magus?” Cage called out before appearing next to his familiar’s travel carrier. “There you are, buddy! I wondered when you guys would get here.”

“You knew?” Deva asked.

He shrugged. “Figured we could use all the magic we could get our hands on.”

Smart. That had been really fucking smart on Cage’s end.

Deva smoothed a hand over Boo before opening the carrier for Chistov, Springer, and Fozzy. The latter stayed in his container and offered us a disinterested look while the second immediately jumped out and crawled up Deva’s arm.

When a cold nose nudged my arm, I saw that Chistov was right next to me, so I gave him a little head pat of welcome. I had to admit, having all the familiars close by was something I had missed. Not only were they mildly entertaining, but my magic felt more stable with Orix close at hand.

“How do we keep them protected in battle?” Deva asked.

“That’s a good question,” Cage admitted. “They need little armor or something.”

The minute the words were out of his mouth, Boo shifted.

“Oh wow.” Deva’s eyes widened as she placed her familiar down on the ground so we could look at her properly. The shapeshifting creature, made of black shadows and two long horns, now had armor. Legitimate silver armor.

“Well that only covers you—” Deva’s words were cut off as a poof of magic surrounded Orix. I burst out laughing when I realized, as the cloud of smoky magic dissipated, my rabbit had armor of his own. It was made of soft leather, but it was armor nonetheless.

“You smart girl,” Deva laughed, unable to stop herself. “Even Springer has some.”

“That is adorable!” Lavinia crouched down and tapped Boo’s nose.

As Lazaro, Alek, and even Oz joined us, all of them surprised but happy to see their familiars, I couldn’t look away from Deva’s smile.

That was what I would be fighting for.

That is what I would be killing for—to see that smile every single damn day.