A Glorious and Devilish Expanse: Witches of the Island by Katie McGarry

Author:Katie McGarry [McGarry, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katie McGarry LLC
Published: 2022-07-16T18:30:00+00:00

19

Orion

Sitting on the bench away from the cabin, I was slowly losing my mind. Allowing Cassie space was killing me, but in my heart that’s what I knew she needed. But my brain was a whole other issue. I was split. Right down the center of my body. My heart telling me one thing: to trust Cassie, to love her, to give myself to her completely. But there was a pounding in my brain, a slicing pain that kept up this constant assault—Cassie was my enemy, Cassie had tried to kill me, Cassie would bring about the end of the Fae.

I tried to breathe through the pain, tried to push away the unwanted thoughts. I needed to trust my heart.

A hand on my knee and I flinched with the unexpected touch. I was the one who snuck up on beings, not the other way around. Asteria stood before me and I did a quick scan to see who was with her, but with Moloch gone, she was alone. She was a beautiful child and that heart I was trying to trust ached with the grief etched upon her face. “I have a feeling you’re not supposed to be by yourself.”

You love Cassie, came a melodious voice, and my eyebrows raised at the mere idea the demon queen was speaking directly to me. Even more disturbing was that it wasn’t a question.

“My understanding is that I love her very much.”

Asteria’s gaze flickered about my body. I see an ouch in you.

An unsettling in my soul. The demon queen could see what Wren and the other witches could not—whatever curse that was at work in me. “What does the ouch look like?”

Like the mud in the swamp Moloch said to stay away from because I’d sink.

That was a great description because I felt as if I were drowning.

Asteria held up her bandaged finger. I had an ouch and Cassie fixed it. Maybe she can fix you.

“Maybe.” I wondered if I should allow her to try. To do so would require a trust I wasn’t sure I had in me.

Are you going to make Cassie choose between me and you? The absolute pain and insecurity in her tone shriveled my soul.

Cassie loved on Asteria as if the demon queen were her own daughter, and Asteria clung to Cassie as if she were her mother. There was a bond there, one that touched me deep. Wren was right—my daughter, Asteria and Cassie were a packaged deal, and I was either in or I was out. The feather on my arm danced about, and a new wave of curiosity and warm desire rushed through my veins. What I wanted was to rush the house, take Cassie into my arms, hold her close and discover this new memory with her. But Cassie needed space, and I needed to give it.

If I truly loved Cassie, as my memories were pointing out, then this experience of not remembering her—all of the harm I had brought to her since then—had to cut her deep.

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