“To both my relief and my horror, the bond of friendship between you and your roommates was so strong, is so strong, they would not allow you to be alone. I remain terrified that something will happen to you, to all of you, but worse, I fear my silence will be the reason why you are unprepared.
“I am bound by the oath I made to your mother, Ivy. I cannot speak or write the truth of the pact we made, such was the power of it. I can tell you her death was not an accident. She sacrificed her life so you would be free and safe.
“She gave her last breath to ensure you would be invisible to the eyes of those responsible for her death. To ensure you would be protected. The enclosed package is your mother's journal, and in her own words she will explain why she did what she did, and for my part in it, I am sorry. I am sorry for all that you have suffered, Ivy.
“Ilsa Greene was truly a force to be reckoned with, and you are every inch your mother’s daughter. No matter your struggles, you never gave up, and I know she would have been so very proud of you.
“If I am dead, you will have the power to protect yourself, but it will be like a signal fire to a ship lost at sea. You will be seen.
“Be on your guard and surround yourself with your sisters. When they come for you, do not be swayed by their beauty and their sweet lies. They killed your mother, Ivy, because she refused to give you up. She died to keep you from them. Never forget that.”
With trembling hands, Ivy set the Headmistress's letter down on the table and tried to absorb what she'd just read. She looked up to Rowena, foolishly hoping her coven leader would have an explanation or some kind of insight, yet Ivy was surprised to see fury painted Rowena's cheeks crimson.
Silence reigned until Juliet slammed her fists down on the table top, rattling the dishes.
“That bitch! The entire time we were at school, all those times she called you into the office to tell you how dismally you were failing all your classes, what a disappointment you were—”
“Juliet.” Rowena's tone dripped with warning, but Juliet was on a roll.
“I don't give a shit what kind of oath or pact was made, all this time, all this time! She even admitted it! How she saw what it did to you, how it made you feel to wake up every day and fail, and all she sends you is a bullshit letter full of bullshit excuses and cryptic warnings—”
Rowena slapped the table and drilled a finger at the irate witch whose wild magic made the lights flicker.
“Juliet, enough!”
Juliet glared at Rowena but clamped her lips together and threw herself back in her seat, mutinously crossing her arms over her chest.
Shattered bulbs would follow soon if Juliet didn't cool it, and despite the shocking numbness permeating her, Ivy didn't want to pick glass out of her hair. After a beat, Rowena rounded the table and took Ivy's hands, pulling her up from her chair.
“You're holding your breath, Ivy.” Rowena's gentle admonition made Ivy aware the burning in her chest was partially due to the lack of oxygen.
It hurt to take that first breath. Like her emotions were smoldering embers set ablaze with a lick of oxygen, and suddenly there wasn't enough air to breathe.
“It's going to be alright,” Rowena told her as Ivy started to hyperventilate. “Callie is going to text Uriah, and we're going to figure this all out, okay?”
Spots danced across her vision, years’ worth of memories colliding like fireworks—all her failures, all the times she'd crawled into bed glad her mother was dead so she wouldn't be embarrassed by her daughter's complete inability to perform the simplest of spells.
She ignored Rowena's shout when Ivy tore herself away and ran from the room, stumbling over the pile of their shoes, nearly falling flat on her face, tripping on the hem of her skirt when she scrambled to get outside where there was more air and away from the letter that changed everything.
Everything she was, everything she thought she knew... everything. Ivy fell to her knees in the grass, her fingers clawing deeply into the thick carpet, feeling the ground ripple beneath her.
“Ro, just give her some space,” Kerrigan advised. All of them had followed her to make sure she was okay. Ivy heard the soft murmur of their voices as they talked amongst themselves, but Ivy rolled to her hip as she tried to process the bomb Le Doux dropped on her with that damn letter.
Ilsa Greene hadn't used up all her magic in order to have a baby, leaving nothing special or magical to pass on to Ivy. She hadn't died as the result of a fire. She’d been murdered.
All this time... all these years of believing she was a failure, the truth was her mother had given her last breath to bind Ivy's powers.
It was the only explanation for what Le Doux hadn't apparently been able to say outright, and if the binding was somehow tied to the Headmistress, her death three days ago would have cut the strings holding Ivy's magic back.
She distantly heard the roar of an engine and raised her heavy, spinning head expecting to see Uriah coming for her. The man who unfolded himself out of a white truck was most definitely not her mate.
He had on dark green cargo pants and a khaki shirt, a heavy belt circling his trim hips with a sinister black pistol holstered on the right, a brick-sized radio on his left.
His tawny hair was shaggy around his square jaw, his golden eyes piercing in their intensity as they touched on her. He was almost as tall as Uriah, leaner, cutting it close to being pretty instead of handsome.
In spite of his beauty, there was a blatantly supernatural and otherworldly energy swirling around him, ominous and dark, like a thundercloud sliding across the sun.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Juliet demanded rudely, her feet banging against the stairs as she stomped off the porch and down to stand in front of Ivy.
The man narrowed his eyes on Juliet, his nostrils flaring slowly. “Jules, always a pleasure.”
“Don't call me that, Ranger Dick,” Juliet snapped. “How did you even get past the boundaries?”
The ranger gave a droll hike of his eyebrows. “What boundaries? You don't even have a fence around the place to keep critters out.”
Ivy dashed the tears from her cheeks in time to see and hear Juliet take a huge breath, no doubt to let some scathing retort fly, but Rowena intervened. She came down off the porch to pull Ivy to her feet, keeping her arm tight around Ivy's waist.
“Care to introduce us, Juliet?” Rowena said.
Juliet gave a dismissive click of her tongue and defensively crossed her arms over her chest. “Park Ranger Abel McManus, Lion Pride Enforcer, aka a major dickhole.”
A shiver went down Ivy's spine, and with her arm around Ivy's waist, Rowena felt it and tensed. “I see. Well, to what do we owe this unexpected visit, Ranger McManus?”
Kerrigan stepped up to flank Juliet, forestalling whatever answer McManus might have made, speaking to Juliet as though the guy wasn't standing there.
“Girl, please tell me this isn't the same Ranger Dick who begged for a date, wined and dined you out by the falls, then ghosted you like a bitch after you put out.”
Ivy rolled her lips under her teeth and bit down to keep from laughing as a lick of embarrassment turned the ranger's cheeks ever so slightly pink.
Juliet gave a disdainful sniff, also going on to pretend McManus wasn't there. “Unfortunately, it is.”