Page 10 of Black Willow Witch
Emberlynlovedthe manor. She would snap up the opportunity to live there again. But to do so would earn her the wrath of her family, Reena, and probably also the werewolf clan, who thought they’d be making a shit-ton of money by building all those houses for the coven.
Kage’s eyes danced. ‘You know that Millicent will be looking up at you right now, laughing her ass off, right?’
Emberlyn swiped her tongue over her teeth. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I do.’
‘This is unbelievable,’ Gill breathed. ‘Absolutely unbelievable.’
None of the amusement that Emberlyn could feel rolling from the twins could be seen on the faces of her relatives. As they eyed Emberlyn, all appeared a mix of furious and worried.
Theyshouldbe worried. The manor’s magick fed on power, and she had plenty of that.
She found her eyes drifting to Ripper . . . only to realize that he was staring at her. There was nothing to read in his expression, though.
‘It isn’t necessary for you to put yourself through the bother of attempting to gain entrance to the manor, Emberlyn,’ Gill told her, all kindness. ‘Whichever one of us it chooses will pass your mother’s earrings to you, along with Lucie.’
Emberlyn snorted. ‘No, you won’t. You’ll keep the cat and claim you can’t find the earrings; that Grams must have tossed them out or buried them somewhere to mess with me.’
Gill hiked up an offended brow. ‘You think me that petty?’
‘Totally.’
‘You’re judging me by Millicent’s standards.Shewas the petty one. I was not close to Avery, but I would never begrudge her daughter a pair of her earrings.’
‘If my mother wanted you to have the house, Emberlyn, she would have left it to you,’ Dez cut in. ‘She might have raised you, but she didn’t care for you. You weren’t family to her, you were her protégée. One she loathed because, though she did a good job of corrupting you and your magick, you never lived up to her standards. Which you shouldn’t take personally, because nobody did.’
It hadn’t been about standards, but whatever. ‘“Corrupted” isn’t a word I would use.’
Gill scoffed. ‘You might look pure class at all times with your glossy hair and manicured nails and stylish clothes; might be all manners and grace and stuff. But there’s no hiding the crone within. It comes out somehow. With you, it’s in the eyes.’
Mari’s nod was hard and curt. ‘Just because you don’t wear tatty black clothes and robes and have scruffy long hair like Grams did doesn’t mean you aren’t like her.’
‘And you’re always smiling,’ Dez tossed out, his brows drawn together. ‘What has anyone who was raised by Millicent got to fucking smile about?’
‘She wanted to mold you into another version of her, and she did,’ Ames spat. ‘The difference between you and her is that she wore her evil on the outside.’
Emberlyn gave an uncaring shrug. ‘What any of you think about me is irrelevant. The manor will choose whom it chooses. Which may or may not be me. You can’t forbid me from attempting to enter it to play the odds. And you won’t,’ she firmly stated, her voice hard.
Reena sighed, long and loud. ‘She’s right, we have no choice here but to follow tradition – any Vautier witch can attempt to enter the manor.’
Gill’s eyes widened. ‘But she shouldn’t be allowed to do this! She’s not really family.’
‘And she hardly had anything to do with Millicent at the end!’ Dez burst out.
It wasn’t for the lack of trying. ‘None of you did. Aside from Ames. And my guess is that she only allowed him to visit so she could fuck with him.’ Emberlyn looked at Ames. ‘She told you that she’d made you her main heir, didn’t she? That you’d inherit everything?’
He averted his gaze, cricking his neck.
Dez scowled down at his son. ‘You never told us that.’
Ames spluttered. ‘She made me promise not to. Said she’d know if I went back on my word. And she was super clear that she didn’t want Emberlyn to inheritanything. I’m shocked she left her the dolls, earrings and cat.’
‘She said the same to me about Emberlyn,’ Mari piped up. ‘And although she didn’t tell me I’d get the house, shehintedat it. Said stuff like how I’d make a good lady of the manor one day. What about you, Emberlyn?’
‘I never asked; she never said,’ Emberlyn replied. ‘I figured she’d leave everything to your mom and Dez.’
‘Sheshouldhave,’ Gill insisted. ‘It’s our birthright. She might not have made you false promises, but she’ll have taken magickal measures to make sure that you don’t get inside the manor. By leaving the earrings in there, she ensured you’d never get them.’
‘No, she ensured I’d have totryto get them,’ Emberlyn said. ‘And I am going to try.’
