Chapter 26

“When word spread that the Zoya had been stripped of their title as a royal coven, leaders from across the world showed up to petition my father to take the Zoya’s place.” She finished what little was left of her wine, then glanced around as if she suddenly regretted not getting a refill.

I gently pushed my glass across the table toward her. “Go on.”

“Thank you.” She lifted my glass and took a long, slow swallow. “One day, Samara and Ivy showed up.”

“Of course they did.”

“Back then, they were known as the Celestine Coven, and Samara was their leader. They were rightfully powerful, but there were other, more powerful covens who were far superior.” Piper cleared her throat and shifted in her chair. “Samara was willing to accept whatever decision my father made, but Ivy wasn’t so agreeable.”

I huffed. Talk about an understatement.

“Ivy, though, she was much too conniving and cunning. She offered my father a deal he couldn’t refuse.” Piper frowned. “Ivy offered to find a way to break the curse that wouldn’t require my father to make a decision that would inevitably divide the royal covens more than they already were. In exchange, he agreed that if they were successful in breaking the curse, he would grant them the title of royal coven. They swore a blood oath.”

“That’s why Samara reached out to us.” I blinked, all the pieces of the puzzle sliding into place. Well, all but one. I titled my head. “Back then, there was no way to break the curse.”

“No. Chloe hadn’t been born yet. But that didn’t stop Ivy from trying. She searched for years for a solution. Both her and my father were getting desperate. It wasn’t until Samara learned about Chloe that they were finally close to upholding their end of the deal they’d made with my father. By then, though, it was too late.” Her voice dropped with a note of sadness.

“Combined with the fact that Samara never returned, Ivy lost her chance at becoming a royal coven.”

“Exactly.” Piper nodded. “Their failure to find a cure is what led my father to do what he did. Tensions had reached a breaking point, and even though my father tried to keep the peace, tried to assure the magical community that he was actively working on a way to stop Rector, the covens were becoming impatient. So”—she released a heavy breath—“my father, in his desperation to hold onto the Pendragons’ rightful position to the throne, formed an alliance with dragons.”

My body stiffened, and everything in me went numb. She didn’t need to keep talking for me to know how this story ended. No wonder she’d been so eager to help us get rid of Ivy once and for all.

“That’s why, when Isach came to us and explained his situation, we didn’t hesitate to help him. But the more he talked, the more we realized what Ivy’s true intentions were.” Piper finished my wine, then dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “She’d managed to do exactly as she’d promised—she found a way to break the curse—and in our world, our word is our bond. Despite his death, my father was still bound by that blood oath.”

“How? Last I knew, death was one of the only ways to break a blood oath.”

“Usually, yes. But the wording was precise. The oath wasn’t bound to my father’s life. It was bound to the entirety of the royal covens, so as long as they exist—”

“She can cash in on the blood oath.” I rubbed my hands over my face, my mind weary with all I’d learned so far.

When I said I’d wanted answers from Piper, I never imagined I’d get a crash course in witch history, or how it was all linked to my family and the curse.

“If that’s the case, why hasn’t she?” I asked.

“Don’t you see?” Piper held my gaze, her expression exhausted and tormented. “That’s exactly what she was trying to do. With your family’s help, she defeated the entire Zoya Coven. She assumed Isach was dead, too, which meant there were no more surviving Zoya. No one to reclaim their status as a royal coven. She wrongly assumed all the Pendragons were dead. The leadership that’s currently in place is weak. The royal covens are divided.”

A switch flipped in my brain, and my jaw dropped. I sat up straight. “She was going to demand the blood oath be fulfilled, wasn’t she? That’s why she was amassing such a large coven. She was planning to take over, to lead the entire magical community.”

Piper was silent for a moment, and her hesitation was all the answer I needed.

“That sneaky little bitch,” I muttered.

“As the last four living Pendragons and the rightful heirs to the throne, my sisters and I had a duty to stop Ivy before she could do any more damage than she already had.”

My head spun. But only one thought stuck out to me above all else. “Heirs to the throne?”

That must have been what Sophie meant when she said Piper had responsibilities she couldn’t ignore. Why now, though, when they’d spent so many years in hiding? Why not just keep hiding and forget all about the throne and the royal covens?

“If there are four of you, and you’re all heirs to the throne, how do you decide which one of you becomes queen?” I asked.

I couldn’t believe those words had just come out of my mouth, or that my soulmate was the potential queen of the witches. If she chose me, too, did that mean I’d be king of the witches? King Jax certainly sounded better than Prince Jax, but I highly doubted they’d allow a vampire to rule over them. And I wasn’t sure I wanted that level of responsibility.

“That’s a long, complicated story for a different day.” She gave me a warm smile and rested her hand on top of mine. “I’m tired of talking about me and my family. It’s your turn.”

I laughed. “I’m not sure what I can tell you that you don’t already know.”

“Just because I know about your family history doesn’t mean I know you.” She gave my hand a squeeze.

I glanced out the window, then back at her. “Wanna get out of here? Maybe take a walk. I’ll tell you so much about me you’ll be begging me to shut up.”

Her laughter was light and airy, and the sound wrapped around me. “I’d like that.”

After paying the bill and leaving a generous tip, I took Piper’s hand in mine, and we headed outside. The night air had a biting chill, not that the cold bothered me, but I hoped she wouldn’t be uncomfortable. We strolled down Main Street. The streetlights had already kicked on, the glow illuminating the sidewalk. Many of the small gift shops and specialty stores were still open, and while quite a few people were out and about, the town was rather quiet. Summer was tourist season around here.

“So, what do you want to know?” I kept my pace leisurely, though she didn’t seem to have any issues keeping up with me.

“Is it true you love Chloe?”

My steps faltered. “Jesus. You don’t hold back, do you? When you said you wanted to know about me, I thought you meant like my favorite color or movie.”

“Okay, fine.” She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “What’s your favorite color? How about your favorite movie? Why are you in love with your brother’s wife?” Her tone had a sharp edge of jealousy, and I bit back a smile.

“Red. Don’t really have one. And I’m not in love with Chloe. Do I love her? Yes. She’s family, and we’ve been through a lot together.”

“But you were in love with her at one point?” Piper raised a brow, daring me to deny what we both knew was the truth.

“Yes. And that was wrong. I know that now.” I tugged on her hand, guiding her closer to me and out of the way of a couple speed walking behind us. When they passed, I said, “I was so jealous of Trent. I wanted what he had—a soulmate, someone who loved me unconditionally, who’d fight for me no matter what. I wanted that singular reason to live and breathe, and for a while, Chloe became that person for me. I watched over her, protected her. In her own way, she did the same for me, and I mistook her loyalty and kindness for something it never was.”

“And now?” she whispered, her face turned up toward me as we continued to walk.

“Now she’s exactly what she’s supposed to be. My best friend. My sister-in-law. The reason my brother is happier than he’s ever been.” I smiled. “What about you? Any relationship mistakes you regret?”

She laughed. “No. Living in secrecy makes it a little difficult to meet people.”

“Makes sense.” I gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“Isach told me about Hannah.”

I groaned. “You witches like to gossip, don’t you?” I sighed. “What do you want to know about her?”

Piper moved closer and rested her head on my upper arm as we walked, and everything about this moment was perfection. Regardless of what happened between us, I would never forget this night.

“Did you love her?”

“Yes, but not as much as I should have for what I put her through.” I frowned, the guilt of what I’d done to her sucking the joy out of the night. “I thought she was the one, and I’d been foolish to think I could find a loophole in the curse.”

“She wanted you to change her, right?”

I nodded. “She begged me and Trent. Sean warned us not to do it, but we didn’t listen.”

“What happened to her… that wasn’t your fault.”

We’d have to agree to disagree on that, but I wasn’t about to start an argument with her about something that happened so long ago. Nothing I could do to change the past.

“Now that the curse is broken, do you think you’ll ever try to change anyone?” she asked.

My heart slammed hard in my chest. If I’d learned anything about Piper, it was that she had this way of asking for something without directly asking. So, what, exactly, was she trying to ask me right now?

“If you asked me to change you, I would.” We came to the end of the street and stopped to wait for traffic before crossing. “But no, I don’t plan to change anyone any time soon. I don’t have any reason to.”

She fell silent. What was she thinking about right now? Piper couldn’t even tell me with any certainty what she wanted from me, if I was her soulmate, so I highly doubted she’d be asking me to change her. And even if she did admit I was the one for her, would she really give up being a witch? As both she and Sophie said—they had responsibilities to their kind.

Piper shivered. I wrapped my arm around her and tucked her against my side. “Want to head home?” I asked.

“You don’t mind?”

“No.”

I only hoped when we got back to the cabin she wouldn’t go hide in her room. I wasn’t ready for the night to end just yet. There were still so many things I didn’t know about her, things I wanted to ask. Whether or not she’d tell me anything was a different story, but I could be very persistent when I wanted.

As soon as we were back in the car, I turned the heat on high. Piper held her hands up in front of the vents, closed her eyes, and tilted her head back. My breath caught, and I couldn’t stop from staring momentarily.

“Thank you for taking me out tonight. Even if I did have to tell you to ask me.” Her smirk teased me with the promise of so much more.

“I would’ve asked you eventually.” I pulled out of the parking lot. “Not my fault you couldn’t wait to get me alone.”

Her surprised laughter made me smile. “We weren’t exactly alone.”

“No, but we didn’t have my family or your sisters around, either.”

“True.” She eased back in the seat. “I guess this qualifies as my first official date.”

This time, I was the one who let out a loud, shocked laugh. “And we spent the entire night talking about your messed up family drama and my ex-girlfriends. This has got to be the worst first date ever.”

“Good thing the night’s not over yet, huh? You’ve still got a few hours to salvage this train wreck.”

Unable to stop grinning, I sliced a look at her. “Train wreck? That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”

She shrugged.

“All right.” I nodded, silently accepting her challenge. “Then I guess we’ll head home. You can pick another ridiculous movie for us to watch, which we won’t actually watch because you’ll be too busy interrogating me about whatever pops into your head, and while I’ll answer you, I’ll secretly be fantasizing about things that don’t involve talking. Then, we’ll end the night with a lame good night hug, which will linger because you won’t want to let me go but for some reason, you’re too afraid to let me too close.”

She remained silent.

“Am I wrong?” I asked.

“You’re always wrong.” Her tone was light.

“Except for that one time you told me I was right.”

Piper shook her head, her smile lighting up her whole face. I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles, then laced our fingers. She didn’t pull away. Rather, she shifted in the seat, so she was leaning closer to me.

“I’m feeling generous tonight. You can pick the movie,” she said.

I laughed. “Gee, thanks.”

“And I’ll totally be judging you on what you pick.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Piper.” I squeezed her hand, and she laughed softly. She could judge me all she wanted if it meant I could spend more time with her.