Page 76 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

“For that I have no doubt. But I'm telling you that you have the capacity to work your own magic, not just his.” The Drude paced for a moment. One hand, strangely white with heavy blue veins racing through it swirled through the air. “It’s true. If you let him mark you, claim you, mate you in more than the physical sense, then you share some of his abilities.”

Nephesh’s fingers twitched, but he didn’t release me. He had told me this. None of it was a surprise. “I know that.”

“Bear with me. Because I believe that you are a unique case. Out of all the other soul bounds we have located, I believe you carry your own magic. It’s what made you so difficult to locate. It’s why you managed to evade us all those years. Even after we took your parents.”

My heart nearly stopped. “My parents?”

That sickly colored hand disappeared back under the huge, domed sleeves once again. I took a step toward him, even as I heard Nephesh’s sharp intake of breath. “You took my parents?”

“We had to get to them before the demons did. To try to find a way to convince you not to join their side.”

I lunged forward, screaming as my body nearly slammed into the bars. “You’re a monster! I would never join you! You ruined my life.” My words faded as my throat closed and tears choked me. Nephesh’s hands were on my upper arms, holding me on my feet as I stared at the Drude through blurred eyes.

“How could you kill them? They were good people.”

Silence fell, and somehow deep in my chest, our bond sharpened to a nearly painful point. I looked back at Nephesh, his features still blurred by my tears, but I was surprised as he slowly began to shake his head.

I slowly turned back to the Drude. The entire room seemed to be waiting on his orders. The tension only ratcheted up until finally he held out his hand, a bloom of fire inside it.

“Bring them in.”

Nephesh’s grip on my upper arms tightened even further, and I stared in shock as two people were marched into the room. Like the others, they wore simple, dark cotton shirts, but without the utility belts and weaponry that so many of the others did.

Something thick and hard settled in my throat as they stumbled forward. The female figure was petite, slender arms pulled back at an odd angle as they attempted to catch themselves from face-planting at the foot of Drude’s swirling robes. One of the soldiers yanked back on her arms, drawing a soft cry from her lips even as the male’s head swiveled around, obviously distraught at the sound of the woman.

“No,” I whispered, but I knew only Nephesh felt it. Fear vibrated through my heart, straight through my veins and into our bond. It was met only with a quiet solidarity. I looked back, wondering why the bond was suddenly so quiet. Especially when a few minutes ago, I thought maybe we’d made a real point. But Nephesh’s face was as blank and emotionless as the other end of the bond strung tight beaten us.

I swallowed, letting my desperate eyes turn back. The Drude was talking again, that eerie voice filling the entire space.

“Your parents didn’t realize that when they met, married, and conceived you, they were merging two of the most significant and ancient witch bloodlines. The talent had been lost for generations, but the blood remains. And with that the chance of something else.”

I waited, horror making me still. The Drude glanced back, and with a jerk of one wrist, the soldiers gripping the new hostages reached up and ripped the hoods off their faces.

My knees nearly buckled as I saw two of the faces that I had once loved more than anything else. The ones that I had missed every part of each day since the day they’d thrown me into a back closet of our house. I’d heard the struggle. I’d known what those sounds meant, the muffled cries, and then finally the drag marks as they were hauled out of the house.

I had waited two weeks for them to come home, going to school like I thought I was supposed to be, hoping that if I was good enough, then one day they might come back. After two weeks, I attempted to report them to the police as missing. But they’d ignored me.

That was when I realized that I was alone in this life and I could count on no one else. But now, they were there, standing in front of me. They had aged in the ten years since I’d seen them, but I imagine I wasn’t exactly the awkward, gangly fifteen-year-old I had been either.

“How is this possible?”

The two figures were looking at me, then the Drude, then me again. My father’s soft brown eyes were filled with tears, his mouth opening repeatedly as if he couldn’t decide if he was allowed to call out for me or not. My mother, with her brilliant red hair so close in color to mine that I was startled at first. Mom’s eyebrows were lowered, suspicious as she glanced around all of us then settled back on me.

She had always been the realist in my family. My father and I had been the dreamers. And I could almost see her, even now, analyzing the entire situation.

My lips felt frozen. “They’ve been with you this whole time?”

“With me? No. But yes, we knew that there would come a time that we would be able to find you and then they would come in handy.”

I swallowed. All this time.

“You will find, witchling, that I am most adept at playing the long game.”

“I hate you.”

“Most do.”

“Let them go,” Nephesh’s voice boomed behind me, making me jump as I realized that I was pressed up against the bars again. But even as the iron pressed against my face, I was unable to look away. If I did, they might disappear. Or I might wake up. Ten years. I’d been waiting for this moment for ten years.