“Oh, wow. I’ve said wow a lot this evening.”
“It’s a lot to take in.” She pulls a few books off the shelf. “You should come and sit in on my class. I’m teaching beginners right now and we don’t have to tell the students you’re a total ‘noob’, as you put it. They’ve had plenty of observations and won’t think anything of it.”
“Really? That would be great. Because I am a total noob.”
“Hey, you’ve fought demons. You might not know the ins and outs of everyday witch life, but you’re really not a noob. For being entirely self-taught in a short amount of time, it’s impressive. You’ll catch up and catch on fast.”
“I can’t thank you enough for going out of your way like this.”
“It’s not out of my way.” She hands me a large stack of books. “You’re part of the coven, and we take care of each other.”
“That’s incredible.”
“That’s witches.” She smiles again and pulls one more book from the shelf. “If you’d like to come back on a weekend or over a holiday, I can give you a better tour of the school. It’s a bit hectic on a school night. Only the older students are permitted to leave on weekends unless their parents pick them up, though most stay. The Academy is quite competitive and just this year we have enough students to compete against Thorne Hill High with a handful of sports.”
“Where do they think you guys come from?”
“A fancy boarding school blocked from the public eye near Lake Michigan. Many of our coven members hold what you’d consider regular jobs, and their children are friends with other non-magic children in town.”
“Wait, so most of Thorne Hill is occupied by witches and warlocks?”
“Yep, nearly half of the town is. And that’s also why our vampire population is so low.”
“Makes sense now that I know witches and vampires don’t get along.”
Ruby nods and we start our way toward the door again. “And I’ll echo what the High Priestess said. We have no rules against dating a hunter, but I’d suggest you both be careful when you’re out in town. A lot of us aren’t too trusting of hunters.”
“Because they know the truth about witches?”
“Because they won’t hesitate to kill us.”
Chapter
Ten
“What’s all this?” Ethan asks, taking his headphones off. He’s still in the parlor playing video games. I drop the armload of books onto the coffee table and unzip my jacket.
“Books.”
“Wow. Glad you told me or I never would have figured it out.”
I look at Ethan and roll my eyes. “I have homework. Well, kind of. Ruby gave me a bunch of books that first and second-year students use in class.”
“You’re new to being a witch, but you’re no beginner.” Ethan sets his PlayStation controller down and picks up a book. “You already know most of this stuff.”
“She said the same, but I’m reading this more to try and pick up on witch culture, I guess you could say. And speaking of that.” I take off my coat, toss it on a chair, and sit on the couch next to Ethan. I just need to spit it out. “I found out something interesting. I found out a lot of interesting things, but one stood out more than the others.”
“Yeah?” He flips through the book, glancing up at me.
“They said the whole hunter-witch thing goes farther than hunters just not trusting witches. They think I should be careful.”
The book falls shut, and Ethan turns his face to me, giving me an incredulous look. “Be careful? Around me?”
“Not you,” I say, hating the way this conversation is going. “I love you. I trust you. But…is it true? Are you not supposed to be with me?”
His eyes meet mine and my heart pounds loudly in my ears for one beat…then two…then three.
“If the Order doesn’t want us together, then it’s news to me,” he says and relief floods through me. “I know their stance on witches.” His face tenses. “And you know my stance on the Order.”
“I do,” I say. Ethan has been on probation at least once and isn’t one to follow the Order’s rules. He was born into it and didn’t choose this life. He was actually punished when he applied and got accepted into college. His entire family was threatened with expulsion from the Order when he did leave for college. If you ask me, they would have been better off. You don’t have to be in the Order to hunt demons, after all.
“So, the reason your dad didn’t want Isaac or any other hunter to know I’m a witch is because of the tension between hunter and witches,” I say slowly, needing to get it all out there.
“Right.” His eyes meet mine and he frowns. “The Order is still under the assumption that witches are evil and dangerous and get powers from the devil. Obviously, we know that’s not true.”
“But you believed it before?” I lean back, eyes narrowing. “You said that.”
“Well,” Ethan starts. “Yeah. It’s what I grew up being told. Anora, I never thought you were evil. And my family doesn’t think that either .”
“What would happen if the Order finds out you’re dating a witch?”
He shrugs. “Nothing, because I wouldn’t fucking care what they said about us.” He takes my hand and the moment his skin brushes against mine, a wave of desire goes through me, making my heart swell in my chest. I love him so fucking much and finding this out is making me feel like I’m stuck in a whirlpool, rapidly spinning around and around, at risk of being pulled under dark, icy water. The Order can make life hell for Ethan and his family if they want to. Finding out about us will give them a big reason to want to.
“Anora,” he breathes and brings me to him. “I love you and nothing is going to change that. Nothing will keep us apart and I sure as hell am not going to listen to the fucking Order when it comes to this.”
I lock my arms around his shoulders and look into his eyes. “I love you too.” Inhaling, my chest rises and falls, brushing against him. “Why didn’t you tell me from the start that you didn’t trust witches? It would have saved me the effort of trying to get Sam to like me when her mind was already made up.”
“She likes you more than she’ll admit,” he tries. “And we’d just met so telling you that I, uh, grew up thinking all witches were the villains from fairytales didn’t seem like a good thing to say. Plus, you had a lot going on with finding out about demons and having them kill your friend.”
Nodding, I let out another breath. “True. And it’s not like we’re going to change the Order’s mind.”
“Right. They’re stubborn sons of bitches stuck in the past. It doesn’t fucking matter, babe. They can chastise us all they want and it won’t change a damn thing.”
“Right,” I echo and feel better. Because it doesn’t matter. “Where’s Nik?” I ask, realizing he’s not home.
“He ended up going out on a date.”
“Seriously?”