Hayle Coven Inheritance

Chapter 3: Denial

Boo hoo, poor Ethie. I shoved away the overbearing crush of my own pity along with Gabriel's support and turned from him, heading for the house. I couldn't sneak away, not now. Not with GreatGram fully aware I'd lied to her earlier. I had to make the rounds, like it or not, but I could do it on my own terms and then retire early and suffer alone in silence like a good Hayle witch.

She'd trained me well.

Of course I had to pick just then to pass through the back door on my way to the kitchen. The exact instant Oliver chose to exit. We did a side to side dance, him grinning in that sardonic and mocking way of his while my jaw began to ache so badly a tick formed in one of my eyes from the pressure of clenching. Ever since I was a little girl, the very sight of Oliver Dane made me want to punch him in his smug, asshat face. The logical side of me told me it was likely an ancient reaction, a feeling he'd stolen Mom from me or something equally childish and born from growing more and more disconnected from my powerful mother.

But the rest of me just wished he'd fall into a hole and vanish forever.

He stepped aside at last, gesturing grandly for me to go by and I did, shoulders hunched against the even off chance I might brush against the soft flannel of his plaid shirt.

"Cheer up, kiddo," he said. He might as well have slapped me, the jerk. Because when did telling someone who was already in a cranky mood to cheer up ever work in the history of grouchiness?

My feet stuttered to a halt and I spun on him before I could stop myself, hissing up into his handsome, smiling face.

"Don't tell me what to do," I snapped.

His grin never wavered. Never. Wavered. Oh my elements and stars, if he said one more syllable I would honestly kick him in the privates. Maybe Oliver sensed I was at the edge of my very last frayed nerve because he let me go, though I could feel his eyes on me as I turned the corner around the end of the bannister, shoving through the pair of vampires standing there before I realized who it was.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" Uncle Frank-well, great uncle, but he was immortal so I figured I didn't have to use the qualifier-didn't grab me or anything, but his concerned blue eyes and the way his wife, the Wilhelm blood queen/Order leader, Sunny, emanated worry over me like a blanket of caring, pulled me to a halt. "You okay, peaches?"

I could have wept then, fury and frustration and resentment so tangible I felt it hanging between us until I wanted to scream and throw a tantrum like I was five years old. Instead, I shivered and shrugged and hugged myself, wishing someone would just get it for once.

Sunny exchanged a look with Uncle Frank before one of her delicate fingertips stroked my cheek. Cold, but kind. I looked up at her, into her model-beautiful face, the way her icy blonde hair never seemed out of place, how her flawless skin made her look like a statue. But Sunny was one of the nicest people I knew and I loved her with a desperation in that moment that only made things worse.

"I was coming to find you," she said, smile breaking over her wide lips. "Frank and I talked it over and we think it's time you stretched your wings." She winked at her husband, but he seemed less optimistic than her. "We had hoped you'd agree to come to Austria for a few days. To study with us. If you'd like that...?" She sounded hesitant then, as if leaving Wilding Springs and the endless pressure of being heir and all the horrible, nasty, wretched feelings tied to my relationship with GreatGram and Mom weren't suffocating me every single day.

"They won't let me go." I didn't mean to use such misery against Sunny, but my hopes had been dashed too many times. I really was pathetic and needed to get over myself already. "Everyone has offered and they've never agreed." Way to be thankful and everything. "What makes you think they'll change their minds now?"

Uncle Frank's hand caught mine and he turned, pulling my now unresisting body through the gathering of chatting witches, sorcerers and various other supernatural creatures I didn't really care about right now and into the kitchen.

I hadn't expected them both to be there. Mom and GreatGram. My heart lifted, though, as I let myself believe this might actually go in my favor. Uncle Frank and Sunny wouldn't push it, not tonight in front of everyone, if they didn't think they could make it happen. Did I miss something? Probably, in my angsty thunderclouding.

Mom looked happy and relaxed, a glass of wine in her hand, the other casually stuck in the back pocket of her favorite jeans. She smiled at me as Sunny slipped her arm around my waist and spoke.

"I've just asked Ethie to come study with the Wilhelms," she said, as if this was totally decided and she didn't need permission. And, for a heartbeat, I honestly thought she'd get away with it. That I was right and something had shifted I wasn't aware of. That the icy mountains of Austria called and I'd finally get to answer. Mom's face flexed in surprise, GreatGram silent and unemotional.

And then denial hit the fan so hard I had it all over my face a second later.

"Absolutely not." It was like someone stuffed a hard, angry ball of battling varmints into GreatGram's gut and triggered a cat fight of epic proportions. Sparks lit her blue eyes, her face- that familiar Hayle face, so full of expression-settling into the kind of steely resistance I was so used to. "You know better, Sunny. We've had this conversation."

"We had it," the Order queen said, still light and refreshing as Mom's jaw tightened, her gaze dropping to the floor while her shoulders slumped forward just a bit. Sure sign she was going to give in to GreatGram. So much for being the savior of Creation and all powerful and immortal.

She couldn't even stand up to her own grandmother when her daughter's sanity and happiness was on the line. But Sunny wasn't done. "I seem to recall, that conversation was put off because Ethie was only twelve. She's sixteen now." Sunny smiled down at me, a beaming, radiant angel in the midst of all the pushback of the Hayle power. GreatGram's disapproval was so strong the kitchen actually emptied, as if those who lingered were physically pushed from the room by either their own discomfort or her silent command. "She is to be a coven leader in a new age, Ethpeal." Sunny returned her calm, even innocent, gaze to GreatGram who continued to fume in her distinctive, silent way. "And a complete and well balanced all power education would serve the Hayle coven far more than keeping her here." She waved about herself like something in the room smelled off. "So provincial of you, my dear Ethpeal."

I gaped up at Sunny while my heart cheered so loudly I was sure GreatGram could hear me.

What the actual hell? No one had ever stood up for me like this before. Who was this woman next to me and why was she suddenly taking my side?

"How dare you speak to me-" GreatGram didn't get to finish speaking. Because-I was going to fall over and perish of shock and there was nothing I could do about it-Mom stopped her.

Mom. Stopped her. Mom. My mother. GreatGram's biggest fan. Pulled her hand out of her pocket, held it up and used magic-white sorcery-to still the air in the room and quiet her own grandmother.

Oh boy. Maybe I was actually going to come first this time. Mom was in big trouble. But she didn't seem to care. Instead, she met my eyes as she spoke.

"You know full well why we're keeping Ethie here, Sunny." She sounded tired, hand falling while the beautiful queen's arm never left my waist, long nails brushing against me through the thin fabric of my sundress. Goosebumps rose as Mom went on, finally looking away from me with her eyes pleading for understanding to meet Sunny's uncompromising energy. "When she's eighteen-"

"So much time wasted," Uncle Frank said. "Out of misplaced fear and old hurts that don't matter anymore. Do you doubt your daughter, your great-granddaughter and heir, would be safe with us?" He snorted like they'd insulted him. "This has gone on long enough, for no good reason. And you both know it. You, of all people, Syd." It sounded like he wasn't talking about the recent past, though. There was just too much weight to his words, to the faint flush that crossed Mom's cheeks, the way she bit the inside of her lip, eyes troubled. "I stood up for you then," Uncle Frank said. "And I'm standing up for Ethie now. Because someone has to. Even if the result is the same." He jabbed a finger at the pair of them while I beamed love at him even as I felt the truth of what was coming. Because Uncle Frank felt defeated, frustrated, like this was old news gone sour. Even Sunny felt softer, less like a bullet proof wall of not taking no for an answer. They'd put up a good fight, but I'd been under GreatGram's thumb too long. No way was she letting me go.

"This family's protection and continuance is all that matters to me." GreatGram pummeled her own son with that truth. "Have we not been through enough, endured enough, lost enough...?" GreatGram choked briefly before going on. "This coven and its heir must be

protected. And has been. Ethpeal receives the finest training from the most powerful leaders of our plane. Even beyond. But until she is eighteen and able to take on the full mantle of the Hayle family power, she remains in Wilding Springs where she is safe."

Even Mom looked shocked at that before her face fell. "I seem to recall another heir who had a hard time accepting who she was and who hated being confined." She blanched as if she hadn't meant to speak, to contradict her grandmother. A guilty look shot at Uncle Frank told me there was more to this particular story than I'd ever been privy to. What was I missing?

That stopped GreatGram in her tracks and I caught myself breathless, looking back and forth between her and Mom while they silently struggled, keeping the rest of us out of whatever conversation raged between them.

When they both turned away at last, the tension in the room snapped, making me blink. I hadn't realized just how much it had built until they both broke their gazes and turned back to me. Even I knew the truth from the sorrow in my mother's eyes, and instantly I blamed her for letting this go on.

And I let her feel it, the full brunt of my hurt and that she was the cause while GreatGram spoke again and my mother looked away from me, unable to meet my eyes any longer.

"Ethie stays until she becomes Hayle coven leader." And that, apparently, was final.

It must have been because of the knowledge Sunny and Uncle Frank had my back that gave me the courage to speak. Either that or I simply just had enough and snapped along with the tightness of the anger in the room. Because my sense of fury was gone, leaving behind a burning hole of nothing and emptiness.

"Then maybe," I said, quiet and calm, "you need to find a new heir. Because this one is done being bullied by her own damned family."

No one stopped me as I turned and marched from the room, up the stairs, to quietly close my bedroom door before collapsing on my bed to sob into my pillow and wish something horrible would happen to the nasty old woman who was supposed to love me.

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