Page 155 of Black Willow Witch
Ripper kept pace with her as she began making her way to the High Priestess.
‘I won’t ask if you’re all right,’ Emberlyn said to her. ‘It would be a stupid question.’
‘He wanted me dead,’ Reena murmured in a hollow voice, staring down at Ward. ‘As if to steal my position from me wouldn’t have been vengeance enough, he wanted me dead.’
Ripper frowned. Vengeance?
Emberlyn tilted her head. ‘He was right about you and Carver, then?’
Reena swallowed. ‘Yes. And I don’t blame him for his anger. But there is such a thing as divorce.’
‘Indeed,’ Emberlyn muttered. ‘Do you think he was always part of the faction or that they recruited him; showed him evidence of your affair so that they could use him?’
Ripper started in surprise. He hadn’t known that Carver and the High Priestess had had an affair. But, looking back on some of their interactions over the past year, a few clues had been there.
‘I suspect it was the latter, but I cannot be sure.’ Reena put a hand to her throat. ‘Why didn’t he just confront me? Yell at me?’
It was Ripper who replied. ‘Most likely because you then wouldn’t have trusted him as implicitly as you always have; you might have even considered him part of the faction.’
‘He hid his pain and rage well. It never occurred to me for even a moment that he knew. To think how much he influenced who I should and shouldn’t suspect were faction members . . . He deliberately ensured that I was confused; that I doubted my own judgement; that I turned my attention away from people like Ames and Ruben.’
Pausing, Reena shifted her gaze to her sister. ‘Penelope did the same. I trusted her. Just as I did Ethel. So when they supported Ward’s opinions on who could be part of the faction, I allowed them to slide my suspicions elsewhere.’
‘Penelope made clear that she’s the one who wanted to take your role from you,’ said Emberlyn. ‘Did you know she’d had her eye on it?’
Reena took a shaky breath. ‘Growing up, we had both talked of being High Priestess one day. But she wasn’t unkind to me when I took on the position.’ Reena flashed a self-deprecating smile. ‘She claimed to be proud of me, and I thought that she meant it.’
Hearing more vehicles approach, Ripper looked up. ‘The Watchers are here.’
The Watchers dashed out of their vans, their jaws dropping even though they’d been warned of the carnage they would find. Recovering fast, they sprang into action. Some took reports, some bagged up corpses, some moved Ethel and Thad, others piled the Rabid into the vehicles.
Ward’s brother Marvin, however, joined Reena in her moment of grief – as devastated by the situation as she was.
Meanwhile, Emberlyn went inside to call both Paisley and Kage to deliver the grim news about their parents. She returneda short time later, her expression sad and somber. ‘They were crushed,’ she told Ripper. ‘Also furious, but mostly just crushed.’
He draped an arm around her shoulders and nuzzled her temple.
A Watcher from his clan approached. ‘We’re heading off now,’ he told Ripper.
Marvin stirred. ‘I’ll give Reena a ride home and then join you all at the unit.’
Once the Watchers and High Priestess were gone, Emberlyn used a little magick to ‘clean up’ the scene – removing bloodstains and repairing damage to the fence and gate.
Ripper looked from Kerr to Logan. ‘I want wolves patrolling the perimeter of the manor overnight. Once the coven finds out that some of their loved ones are dead, they might get the stupid idea to march over here and confront Emberlyn. It’s unlikely, but I’m not willing to take chances.’
Kerr gave a curt nod. ‘We’ll make it happen.’
‘You just focus on your witch,’ Logan told Ripper. ‘We got this.’
Ripper tipped his chin their way and, seeing that Emberlyn was done magickly cleansing the area, ushered her into the manor. Closing the door behind them, he planted a palm on it. ‘Now, tell meexactlywhat happened out there. You only told the Watchers a bullet-point version. I want a full rundown.’
‘Okay, but let’s do this while we shower. I need one in a major way.’
So they headed to her en suite bathroom. As they soaped each other down under the hot spray, she relayed everything. He remained silent, just listening, his anger kicking up the more he heard. Fuck those son of a bitches. And fuckhimfor not considering—
She flicked him on the forehead. ‘You’re not allowed to be mad at yourself for responding to the emergency call.’
He glowered. ‘Ileftyou.’
