Page 48 of The Coven’s Sacrifice

“I um,” Colin began. “Yes, parents often come to parks to let their kids play and run around. For fun.”

Alexander, looking pleased with himself, nodded. “I thought so.”

“I do not see any children or dogs,” Jacob mused, looking about.

“I think it’s because there aren’t any playgrounds here,” Colin said, smiling softly at Jacob’s confused expression.

“Should we choose another park instead?” Jacob asked.

“Do you want to look at children?” Colin asked, amused.

Jacob shuddered. “No.”

I sighed. “Then why did you ask?”

Jacob let go of my hand to throw both hands up in the air dramatically. “I do not know, Harland! Maybe I wanted to see these playgrounds! Ever think of that?”

I laughed, grabbing his waist and placing a kiss on his cheek. He was so adorably cute, my handsome man.

“Let’s stick to a nature walk for your first outing,” Colin laughed, clearly enjoying Jacob’s adorableness as well.

“And use this private walk to talk about what Jetty had said,” Alexander said, reminding us of his dark confession.

“You think we should worry?” I asked, dreading his answer. Alexander had always been the pessimistic one of us, but he also thought the most logically. He tended to always know what to do and surprisingly enough, he was the one who ended most of our arguments, simply because he could remain calm and understand all sides. Just as long as our monsters did not get involved. When they did, then none of us could fix our issues and we could be in arguments for weeks, sometimes months.

“I sadly do,” Alexander sighed. “I always feared they wanted us dealt with, and once we learned that the freed vampires were still vampires, I knew their little issue with us would not be fixed in the end.”

“I never even thought about that,” Jacob said, sounding alarmed. “Of course, they had a plan to kill us after we had finally reached our freedom. Those old hags!”

“But they’re all dead, right?” Colin asked, worrying his bottom lip. “Wasn’t that what Jetty had said?”

Our trail was uphill now with lots of trees on each side, the trail all dried mud and stones as we tried to walk side by side for this conversation.

“The one who ordered him to kill the last sacrifice is,” Alexander confirmed. “But that does not mean all.”

“You think the coven still stands? After all these years?” I asked.

Alexander shrugged. “Jetty said they had lost their magic, but not that the coven was lost.”

“They can’t hurt you without magic, can they?” Colin questioned.

I grabbed his hand in mine, then stole a quick kiss. “Anyone can hurt us now, my love. But do not worry. We are still stronger than humans.”

“And,” Jacob cut in, grinning. “I have all of this anger from being locked up for eight hundred years. If they think they can hurt any of us, then I am allowed to hurt them.”

Colin appeared worried for a moment, whether it was for himself, us, or the witches, I had no idea. The emotion then fled to something very different.

Jacob groaned. “Please do not get aroused right now, Colin! I cannot ravish you properly in these woods!”

Colin let out a surprised laugh. “No, but on the dirt during a storm is totally fine?”

Jacob made a pfft sound. “It was romantic, admit it.”

“It actually was,” he agreed, smiling at each of us.

“See,” Jacob said, looking smug. “I knew I was romantic.”

I hauled him close again. “Very romantic.”