Isis' Betrayal (5 page)

“I admit that I didn’t have the best reaction when I found out about Ronan. Suvi could be right, this is huge for anyone. It changes your entire lives and he has a son to consider. Give him time.”

“Oh, bullshit. You know what I think? I think he’s still hung up on the mother of his son. How he could want a female that left him and his son high and dry, I have no idea.”

“What happened to that little voice that said he wanted you, too?” Pema asked.

“It’s drowning in Jose Cuervo,” she quipped as she leaned forward and picked up the bottle.

“I don’t know Braeden, but give him the benefit of the doubt, Isis. Give him a chance and listen to your gut. You have the feelings you do because you know him like no one ever will. You carry a piece of him…let that guide you,” Ronan added as he walked into the room.

“When did you become Yoda?” Isis asked, knowing she was being rude, but she needed to vent.

“I see the force is strong with this one tonight,” Ronan teased, ruffling Isis’ hair as he passed. “Okay, I’m going to leave you three to hash this out while I get to work. Have fun.” Isis watched as Ronan kissed Pema senseless, leaving her breathless, before leaving the house.

“Yeah, I want that,” Isis said. “I want Braeden and I to have that.” Her brand took that moment to begin burning as if to punctuate her point. “How long does this pain last?” she asked Pema, gesturing to her breast.

“You’re not going to like the answer. It’s going to keep getting worse until you complete the mating. Towards the end, I thought the flames of hell had engulfed my arm. Good news is that relief is instantaneous when you do the blood exchange.”

“Of course,” Isis sighed.

“Can I see your mark?” Suvi asked.

Isis nodded and unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her right breast. The tribal brand covered most of the fleshy globe, including the nipple.

Pema held up her mate mark and compared the two. “It’s interesting that they both have crescent moons. I wonder if there is any significance to this.”

“Yeah, I wonder what the design means. And, why the crescent moon? The full moon carries the most power,” Suvi remarked.

“Enough about mates and mate marks for now. Can we change the subject? Have you heard from Cele? Has she made any more threats against us?” Isis needed to think about something else. She didn’t want to sit there and obsess about Braeden any more. She needed to try and think about something else.

“
Cele told the elder witches that we are responsible for Claire’s condition. Dad told me that she is out for blood, and won’t stop until she makes us pay,” Pema replied.

“
Rumor is that she’s deep into dark magic,” Suvi added. “My guess is that she’s trying to heal Claire. There isn’t a spell in light magic that can reverse that kind of damage.”

“
Where the hell would she be practicing dark magic without being caught? The elders would never allow that at the academy. Hell, they wouldn’t allow it anywhere, for that matter. Don’t they have a ward set up to detect the use of such power?” Isis inquired, setting the half-empty bottle of tequila on the coffee table.

“My guess is that she practices at her house. It’s definitely big enough, and no doubt, she has found a way around the elders ward,” Suvi mused.

“
We need to find out if she is. The realm isn’t safe if she is accessing dark power. We also need to find out what her plans are for us.” Isis was itching to take action. That family had put hers through enough and she wanted to put an end to their reign.

“
You’re right. We can’t allow her to get away with it. The price for such magic is high and she could bring down all witches with her. But, we can’t just go to the elders and accuse her. They’d never listen to us,” Pema said as she began to pace the room, her hand running across her chin, clearly contemplating.

“
So, we go to her house and get proof,” Suvi suggested. The simplicity of Suvi’s idea was brilliant. Isis glanced at both of her sisters. It went unspoken between them that it was their duty to find out what the High Priestess was up to. No one else would even suspect her of wrong-doing.

“
Okay, but we can’t just go up to her door and knock. She will have protections set around the property,” Isis pointed out.

“
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Suvi asked.

A
smile broke out over Isis’ face as she high-fived Suvi. “Yep, breaking and entering.”

“
When Ronan said to have fun, I bet he didn’t mean this, but I’m in. But, we can’t go in what we are wearing,” Pema said, looking down at her short skirt.

“
You should wear those leather pants I gave you,” Suvi replied as she jumped up from the sofa and ran to the stairs. Suvi had given them leather pants last year for their birthday and Isis had to agree, if they were going to do this, they would be perfect. She quickly followed suit and hit the stairs running.

“
Are we really going to break into her house? That’s illegal in both the human world and the realm,” Pema pointed out and Isis heard her just a few steps behind. Her sister wasn’t one to break the law, but Cele didn’t play by the rules, either.

“
We don’t really have another choice,” Isis pointed out as she grabbed her pants from a drawer and kicked off her sandals. She quickly slipped on her leathers, loving the soft, buttery feel against her skin.

“I do want to see Claire for myself. Not that I doubt her vegetative state, but I need to see it,” Pema added as she undressed and dressed in the same black pants. Isis hated the guilt she saw on her sister’s face, but Claire had brought the condition on herself.

“You did nothing wrong, Pema. Karma’s a bitch. Remember, if Claire had her way, you’d be dead right now. Besides, we need to find out what’s brewing in that mausoleum.” Isis was more than happy to lend karma a helping hand.

“Who would want to live in a place like that? And who does her yard work? Oh my Goddess, she totally has a penis hedge. Look,” Suvi said between peals of laughter, throwing her arm across Pema’s chest, pointing to something in the distance.

Isis chuckled but shook her head. Her baby sister always had sex on the mind. Although, Isis had to admit, the shrub did look a little phallic in nature. “Get your mind out of the gutter, that’s a mushroom. What really pisses me off is that she pays for all of this with the tithing she makes the witches pay her. That’s why mom and dad never had any money.”

“Calm down, Isis. We need to stay focused. There are several layers of protection spells and we need to be on our game,” Pema said.

“Get down! That’s Cele’s limo leaving the property. I wonder if she’s in the car,” Isis warned, shoving Suvi’s head down when the headlights flashed through their car.

“You two stay down. I’m going to try and see if I can see her,” Pema said as she lifted her head. Thank the Goddess that Suvi had insisted they wear black beanies, even though, at the time, it had seemed a little overboard. “I can see Edgar in the front and someone in the back, but it’s hard to tell. I’m guessing she wouldn’t send her driver off without her. I say we take the chance that she was in the car, and give it a go.”

“You think she has Claire in there? What if she really has mashed taters for brains? I feel kinda bad for her,” Suvi voiced.

“She tried to kill our sister. Twice!” Isis snapped, thinking of when she watched Pema laying on the floor, barely conscious after Claire had poisoned her. “I don’t care if she shits herself all day long. Pema could be dead right now. Hell, we could all be dead if we’d been anywhere close to Pema’s car when that bomb went off. There are some things that are unforgivable. If you ask me, she got exactly what she deserved,” Isis spat, trying to reel in her temper when a crack appeared in the passenger window of Pema’s car.

“I should have controlled my magic instead of letting it get away from me. I didn’t intend to hurt her. I should have taken her taped confession to the elders for punishment. Maybe if I had, we wouldn’t be sitting outside Cele’s house about to commit another crime just so we can find out her plans for revenge. I’ve put you guys in danger,” Pema said as she gazed out the window.

Isis had known that her sister felt responsible for Claire’s state because she lost control and cast the spell that left her incapacitated. But she hadn’t realized Pema’s real guilt was because she believed she had placed them in danger. “Claire is the one who placed us in danger. If you hadn’t done something that night, I would have. Nobody messes with my sisters. Besides, I believe there were greater powers at play. You can’t try to cheat fate and get away with it.”

P
ema captured Isis’ gaze. “I love you, too. Both of you,” Pema said, rubbing her arms as if she was cold. For several moments, the three of them sat in silence while Pema was lost in thought. “I have a feeling fate isn’t done with us. There is something big waiting on the horizon. Can’t you feel it?” Pema asked, breaking the quiet.

“
I feel it, but I can’t think about fate or what awaits us right now. We are about to break into the house of the most powerful witch in the realm. Let’s do this, before we change our minds” Suvi said, anxiety lacing her words.

“
You’re right, she is only going to be gone so long, and we need to get in and get out quickly. It will take all of our effort to take down her wards,” Pema muttered, taking control as she always did. Pema was the leader, and true to form, rebounded before they exited the car. As she looked at Pema standing strong and sure outside the iron-gate, Isis knew she would follow her anywhere.

Isis momentarily questioned the sanity of their plan to break into Cele’s house. No going back now, she thought, as she muttered a conceal spell, shielding their car from view. When they stepped within a couple feet of the property line, Isis saw the shimmer of the spells. There were many layers that had been cast by various witches. The signatures were all similar, and Isis surmised that family members had cast them. It may have been Cele and Claire who cast them, or previous ancestors that had left their mark. Either way, they would need to access the power of three to get through this amalgam of enchantments.

“
How do we approach this?” Suvi asked in a whisper. Isis found herself distracted from her sister’s question by a faint masculine scent which reminded her of Braeden. Of course, that led her to think about her Fated Mate and her confusion about the compulsions she was bombarded with.

She had watched Pema and Ronan go through their ups and downs, but Ronan had returned to Pema within hours to sate his desires. How could a cambion, a creature known for their voracious sexual appetites, ignore the mating compulsion so easily?

Pema’s voice intruded and Isis put her concerns aside to focus on her surroundings. “The only way we can, with our combined magic.” Pema tucked a few of her blonde locks back up into the black beanie, flashing them a devious smile. “Power of three, baby.”

M
irroring her grin, Isis stood in the middle and grabbed both of her sisters’ hands. Their power was stronger than usual and Isis wondered if that was because of the addition of Pema’s mating stone. When she mated Ronan, Pema’s mating stone had embedded in her palm instead of becoming a freestanding gem. At that moment, the stone was heating between their clasped hands, and she instantly felt stronger from the warmth and power.

They walked closer to the gate and began to chant, intensifying the force. It felt as if the black turtleneck she was wearing was strangling her. Suddenly, she realized that it was the protections squeezing the breath out of her. She held tightly to her sisters and shut out all other thoughts.

“
Focus on unraveling the spells. They are intricate and varied, so let’s start at the top with the most recent layer and go in from there. I have a feeling that some of these are centuries old, left here by ancestors of the Wells family,” Pema instructed, voicing Isis’ suspicions aloud.

I
sis steadied her breathing and did as Pema indicated. She imagined the individual threads, and found the end of the closest one. Taking hold of it firmly, she mentally began pulling it from the nexus, encouraging it with her chanting. Vibrations traveled up her arms and shook her body, but the thread came free and she and her sisters released it to dissipate in the moonlight.

They repeated the process, experiencing increased resistance with each level. The vibrations became painful and Suvi cried out. Isis stepped closer, lending some of her strength to Suvi and felt Pema do the same. When they had stabilized once again, they tackled the final thread. With a great heave, it came loose. The shattering of the final ward echoed through the earth, causing a low-level earthquake. The smell of burnt sugar enveloped them as they quickly scaled the fence.

“
I feel like double-O-sixty-nine with the way I scaled that fence just now,” Suvi whispered when they landed on the other side.

“
I can’t believe you didn’t break your ankle in those six-inch heels. Seriously, Suvi, you need help,” Isis retorted, thinking of her sister’s idea of appropriate footwear for espionage.