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  “Ah. My uncle. Well... he was born without magick. His mother and father thought he'd be better growing up in the civilian world, where he wouldn't feel so inferior. Then, they had his sister – my mum, and she had magick. When my uncle tracked his family down and worked it out, he became bitter, convinced that witches were hateful people who utterly loathed humanity.” Liam explained. “It's not true, of course, but it was his way of dealing with rejection. When I came to join them, he got a kick out of showing my parents I was better than them because I'd chosen his side. God, when I think I could have spent that time getting to know my family once I was better – I don't think I'll ever forgive him for brainwashing me. The things I've done... not just to witches, to the people who protect them, too. I'm a traitor.”

  “Well, that explains his reaction to Grace.” Lila muttered, tightening her grip on his hand. Liam nodded.

  “The collars – I had no idea. I swear by the Goddess, Lila...” he sounded distressed.

  “I know. Hey, I know. C'mon.” she answered, worrying at her lip with her teeth. Against her better judgement, she drained her glass and watched as he did the same. He was tapping his cigarettes with his free hand, and she nodded, keeping hold of his hand as they walked outside, standing by the outside of the door. Neither was aware of the hunter spying on them from the trees across the road. They weren't as free to move about as they were lead to believe.

  Liam took out a cigarette, placing it between his lips and patting for his lighter before rolling his eyes and tapping the end, fire erupting and lighting the white stick. Menthols. Without hesitation, he pulled Lila against his side and away from the cigarette smoke, and she found herself breathing in his scent, a mixture of coffee, whisky and cigarettes. It spoke volumes of his habits, but she knew there was a good person underneath.

  Emboldened by the alcohol she'd ingested (and proving her intolerance to it), Lila stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. He instantly forgot his cigarette, dropping it in favour of cupping her cheek and sliding his fingers into her hair, pressing her into the corner between the door and the wall. It was passionate, all-consuming, and... he pulled away, breathing hard.

  “Lila.. that's a really bad idea...” he mumbled, though he hadn't removed his hand from her hair. “I'm nine years older than you, I'm a mess... you don't need me in your life, not like that.” Liam insisted, though his voice sounded weak, like he was mentally kicking himself every time he tried to do what he thought was the right thing – effectively proving Lila's point that he was a good person. She had an annoyingly good sense of people, possibly tied to her powers, though there were obvious exceptions. She hadn't noticed Sadie's possession, but then again she'd had no time to get to know the girl pre-possession. It was so hard for Liam to figure out what were witch traits and which were down to the person themselves. It was the curse of a biased education based on hate.

  “Age doesn't matter.” she insisted, bringing him back to the original conversation from which his mind had wandered. “The things we go through, none of us are anything like people our age. I... the way you've stepped up in your coven, the things you do when you think no one is looking – you're a good person, Liam... and I can't help how I feel, even if I am terrible at showing it.” Lila knew this had sprung out of nowhere, but the fact that he'd kissed her back meant he wanted to, right? There was no chance that he was drunk on the two whiskeys he'd had. He was someone who could handle that much just to take the edge off. “I can't help how I feel. We have so much going on right now; I don't wanna refuse ourselves the chance of having something good in it all.”

  Liam remained quiet, listening to her talk and then staying patiently silent afterwards. There was nothing she'd brought up which he could realistically argue with, and he had been harbouring feelings for her since practically the moment he'd met her. He'd really fallen when she had stepped up at the end of the battle and declared that the covens were merging. Even if she herself couldn't see it, she had a strength he envied, and an inner light which would be hard to dim, even when she felt down. Maybe he could bring something good to her life, maybe it would be a disaster, or maybe all the trouble they kept getting into would kill them before either of them had to worry about the semantics. With all of this in mind, Liam dipped his head again, brushing his lips against hers before pressing into it, softer and with more emotion, like he'd been holding back part of himself the previous time.

  “You're crazy, Lila Raegan. But thank you. For seeing past what they said about me, and for even considering this. I think you're nuts, of course, but from what I've seen of this world, it's the crazy people who seem to survive.” He grinned, pressing another kiss to her lips, then the cigarette caught his eye, burning the rubber of his shoe.

  “Crap!” he swore, dipping down to pick it up and taking another drag. Lila laughed, stepping away from him and sticking her hands into her pocket as she looked out into the pitch black night time. Figures shifted in the tree line, and she frowned, glancing at Liam, who was finishing the cigarette he had mostly wasted. Stubbing it out, he used a flash of fire to burn the rest to ash in his hand. The wind caught the ashes, sending them spiralling out into the air.

  “Come on, let's go back to the others.” she suggested, suddenly tired. She hadn't had a real moment to process everything which had happened in just one day, and she knew that this was only the beginning. Working with witch hunters could possibly be the worst thing she'd ever done, but as long as the others agreed with her, it was the path they'd take.

  Liam wrapped his arm around her again, opening the door with his free hand as they headed inside.

  “It's gonna be okay, Lila.” Liam spoke softly, in a voice she realised now that he reserved only for her.

  “I know. I think.” she answered.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lila's sleep was surprisingly peaceful, given the trauma she'd been through and the fact she was sharing her room with several others, where she normally slept alone. The sun was high in the sky by the time she woke, surprised that they were allowed to sleep this long since they seemed to be in a rush.

  It wasn't long before she realised that no one wanted to deal with the dirty witches.

  Sighing, she sat up, spotting a bag at the foot of the bed. She looked around to see whose it was, or at least who had brought it, when her eyes fell on Sadie helping Grace fit into a black suit with body armour discreetly fashioned into the shirt and knees. Well, that took the mystery out of it. Not to mention the personal identities they had cultivated. It would be a poor leader who failed to follow where her troops went, so she stripped out of her old clothes and into the uniform, noting the different coloured strips along the shoulders – it didn't take long to figure out what they were. Troy's were blue – water witch; Sadie's were yellow, marking her as an air witch, Adam and Rose wore green for Earth; She herself wore white for spirit, and Liam and Elsie – Well, Liam wore red. Elsie was dressed in her normal clothes, bag discarded.

  Woe betide the person who tries to put me in cheap fabric, her expression seemed to say, and Lila almost laughed out loud. Elsie was likely above things like that now, but sometimes a little of her old personality shone through, and it reminded Lila that not all was lost.

  She reserved a special, private smile for Liam; they seemed to have agreed that their budding relationship was no one else's business and shouldn't distract them from their mission. Still, she found herself blushing as his eyes lingered on where the uniform clung to her curves, reaching out with her magick to flick him on the ear. Liam's hand raised quickly and he looked bewildered before giving her an apologetic look. She didn't even grant him the favour of accepting it.

  In better spirits after her sleep and the prospect of a future if they made it through this, Lila automatically sought out coffee, pulling a face with every sip. She hated coffee. When Rose sat beside her, she slid it over.

  “Don't tell Adam.” she warned. “I don't even know why I order the stuff. It wakes me up, but
I swear it tastes like drain water.”

  “You make a habit of drinking drain water?” Rose asked, her grin showing that she had chosen to ignore the collar around her neck. Lila realised she should have expected nothing less.

  “Apparently. I'm gonna get a hot chocolate.” Lila answered, and did so. As she returned to sit beside Rose, she took the opportunity to listen into the conversations around them. Noah wanted to try and get the collars off, Grace snapped at him that it wasn't his life on the line – Adam wanted to find an antidote to the poison so that they could just remove the collars, which figured – he was an Earth witch, after all. Each had their own idea of a solution, but none were foolproof, and they couldn't risk it on a maybe. These were their friends lives on the line.

  Lila took her hot chocolate when it was put down in front of her, adding more milk so it was immediately drinkable, raising it to her lips and taking a mouthful, slightly unsettled by the way Rose was staring at her, as if she were judging her.

  “So, how long have you and Liam been a thing?” Rose asked, feigning nonchalance.

  Lila spat out her drink, causing everyone to look at her. She shot Rose a pleading look, grabbing napkins to clean herself and the counter up.

  “Sorry, hotter than I thought.” she choked.

  “Was it, now?” Rose asked, grinning. Grace shifted over into the seat beside Lila.

  “Ooh, are we talking about Lila's super secret fling with a certain hottie bad boy?” she asked, and Lila's face achieved a new shade of red, possibly one undiscovered by man.

  “It's not... he's not... we're not...” she spluttered, groaning. “Shut up.”

  “Hey, we have super scary collars on our necks, allow us our vicarious living.” Grace pouted.

  “Sonofa...” Lila grumbled. “Is this really appropriate? In case you hadn't.. Of course you noticed. Gods, I'm so inconsiderate, and you're both jerks for using it against me, if you hadn't worked that out. I have hot chocolate all down this top...” she jumped from topic to topic, unsure whether she should be discussing this or distracting them from it. She felt selfish for wanting to keep it to herself, especially since they were right – her stressful situation was nothing compared to what they were going through, and she had a light in the darkness.

  Grace rolled her eyes. “Spill, Li. In four years, I have never seen you have a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. The whole school was beginning to think you were asexual – which isn't a bad thing, by the way – but now I found out that you're not, I need details. Graphic ones.”

  “How did you know?” there was a whine in Lila's voice, and she wanted to smack herself for it.

  “We didn't, not really, but you vanished off with Liam and came back like an hour later all glowy.” Rose answered, still sipping the coffee.

  “Isn't that cold by now?” Lila asked.

  “Stop stalling, spill. Yes, it's cold, no, I don't care.” Rose reeled off, her voice monotone to indicate how bored she was.

  “Fine. It's not that exciting, though. We came down here to have a couple of drinks, talked a little – then he wanted a cigarette, so we went out there.” she pointed to the porch at the front of the restaurant.

  “And...?” Grace prompted.

  “And then... wemighthavekissed.” Lila raced through the sentence, taking a gulp of her hot chocolate immediately afterwards in an attempt to circumvent the inevitable onslaught of questions.

  “I'm sorry, what was that?!” Rose squealed, covering her mouth.

  It was so easy to forget they were in a life-or-death situation; Laughing and joking about boys was something so utterly civilian that Lila allowed herself to imagine she were back in high school, probably about Rose's age (and not having been nearly out of school entirely before experiencing her first kiss), chatting about who they were going to take to a school dance. This image was harder to accomplish in her mind when she considered that if she had been fourteen, then that would mean Liam was twenty-three.

  It was slightly strange how age became less of a big deal once you turned eighteen. She understood why Liam was so adamant that she take note of the age difference; others would. Maybe not her closest friends, who understood why it was so easy to bond with people they'd been through Hell with. It was important to make sure they weren't just together because of the convenience, however.

  Nothing which made her stomach flip like this could be down to convenience, right?

  Their reverie was interrupted by a cold voice which snapped them out of happiness like a bucket of ice thrown down their backs. Jeffrey. After her conversation with Liam the night before, she understood why his uncle hated witches so much – he'd been cast off like an unwanted birthday gift, and his magickal sister had been granted the life he should have. Lila couldn't imagine giving a child up, even if they had no magick at all. It would always be hard to do the right thing considering they couldn't hide their magick for a whole lifetime, but surely a child was better off with their parents? She knew that there were many situations where adoption was the right choice, but not having magick didn't really fit into that, in her opinion.

  Lila became aware of Jeffrey barking her name, and she snapped to attention.

  “Something on your mind, Raegan?” he growled, irritation and menace in his tone.

  “Sorry, I was just... thinking how unfair you've had it.” she answered, then realised it was entirely the wrong thing to do. Jeffrey's eyes narrowed, and his fist curled around the clipboard he was holding, almost tight enough to snap the plastic.

  “I have no idea what you're talking about, Raegan, and you should probably stop listening to the fabrications of a man who can't even decide which side he's on.” he ground out, exhaling his anger through gritted teeth. His reaction made him seem younger than he was, and Lila couldn't help it, showing pity in her eyes.

  There was a good chance he might shoot her in the back, if his expression was any indication of his intentions.

  “Moving along. Sharply.” It sounded more like a threat than anything else. Lila fell silent, slipping over to Liam's side, and she caught sight of Rose biting her lip to stop herself from laughing. At least her love life was keeping their spirits up, but she couldn't help but wonder what was so funny.

  “Today will be a reconnaissance mission. You will gather intel and test out their powers, to find the largest threat. We work with plans here, not just... winging it.” Jeffrey informed them. Lila pulled a face at the same time as Liam, since it was a direct comment on the way they had handled Beth, and Rose almost burst a few blood vessels trying not to laugh at their reaction.

  Sometimes, Lila forgot how young she was, and yet she was the one experiencing her first relationship, while she was old enough to scorn love at first sight. Maybe it was for the best, since her every move would be scrutinised by her coven – a frivolous relationship wouldn't exactly endear her to everyone. The fire coven was going to be the hardest to win over – they weren't sure of Liam because of his past, and they blamed Lila for Elsie's death and the fact they had been forced to initiate two new leaders within the space of a week. Careful moves would be for the best.

  “Are you listening to me, Raegan?” Jeffrey asked, clearly at the end of his wick with her, and Lila knew yet again that her daydreaming was a problem. Whenever she had a lot on her mind, she struggled to juggle what she was doing.

  “I was wondering what your last name is. Since we're referring to each other with it. Jeffrey seems a little personal.” Lila asked; that was a reasonable question, right?

  Jeffrey stared at her for a moment.

  “Smith.” he drawled.

  “Mathis.” Liam corrected, then shrugged at the vicious look he received for telling the truth. “What? You know everything about us, seemingly, so it's a fair trade. It's not like you have a life outside of killing people like us. You really have nothing to lose by giving them that.

  Jeffrey scowled, obviously fed up of these children he was dealing with – children with no military training, or
at least the hunter's equivalent, which was mostly guerrilla warfare.

  “Raegan. Mullan. Uh, Elsie, Aossi, Wayd, Dyzek..s. Who the Hell are you two?” he pointed to Grace, and to Noah.

  “Grace Hanover.” Grace answered, giving a salute, obviously determined to make sure he was aware just how furious she was at him, and that she was holding him fully responsible for the pain and suffering he was causing both her and her friends. Jeffrey Mathis was not exceptional at making friends, it seemed.

  “Noah Mac a'Chruiteir.” Noah answered, Troy snorted out loud.

  “Liar. We're not calling you that. It's Harper. Noah Harper.” he corrected.

  “Spoil sport.” Noah pouted.

  Jeffrey threw up his hands.

  “Move, Now!” he snapped, and they knew the game was up. It was time to get serious, and trust someone they all wanted to throw into a vat of burning oil. It definitely wasn't the most secure team in the world, and Liam caught Adam's eye, both men making a silent vow to keep the others safe at any cost.