Page 54 of Witchy Woman

“Believe me now, Hazel?” I ask, trying to distance them from Ash and my closeness with him. “I was talking to Mom in Hell and that’s why Ash couldn’t feel me.”

“You didwhat?” Ash rears back. “What now?”

Hazel sighs. “It’s not that I thought you were lying, I promise. It’s just...beyond anything I ever thought possible. I’ve been trying to mourn her...and...I don’t know how to process any of this!”

I deflate. I have to learn to stop picking at her. We were so good at being sisters for so many years. It’s ridiculous that a handful of months have destroyed all that.

“We can talk about this when you’re done?” Ash asks. He’s probably worried, but he’s being that safe calmness in the storm that he always seems to be.

“Wait for me upstairs.”

He presses another kiss to the top of my head and goes for the stairs.

“Second door on the right!” I call after him absentmindedly. I completely spaced on the fact he’s never been inside the house before.

The silence that follows is deep, deafening in the absence of any noise. Even the house doesn’t know what to do.

“Mom is alive?” Hazel finally breaks the silence.

I nod, something in me knowing the answer before she even finishes asking. “She is. Whether Draven is using his magic to keep her alive, or she’s using her own, she’s alive. And she needs our help.”

A tear slips down Grandma’s cheek, but she can’t form words. Not yet.

And I don’t blame her. Grandma and Mom have barely seemed related, let alone mother and daughter, but I can’t imagine how Grandma’s feeling.

“So we’ll help her,” I say. “We’ll help her because despite all the shit she put us through, she doesn’t deserve to suffer in Hell at the hands of Draven.”

Hazel’s cheeks are wet, and she doesn’t protest.

There’s nothing more to discuss tonight. We need time to process before we untangle these emotions.

But Ash? Ash deserves a conversation.

Anxiety grows around the room like vines around a tree. It’s practically growing out of the walls by the time I close my bedroom door behind me.

His feelings are valid. Repeating that to myself does nothing to quell the defensiveness sliding up my skin.

“Please. Explain to me what’s going on.” His request isn’t unreasonable. He deserves that, at the very least.

I sigh. Where the hell do I even begin?

Actually, Hell is probably a good place to start.

“Do you remember the daemon incident at the market? When my sister was attacked?”

He nods. I bite my lip at the way his forearms bulge as he crosses them.

“His name was Botis, and he was sent by a warlock named Draven. Draven and my mom apparently had some sort of affair—the details are murky—before she met my dad. And whatever it is ended when she met him, because my dad was her soulmate. This pissed off the warlock, because of course it did, and he decided to make her pay. So she banished his brother to Hell,hekilled our dad, andshe’sbeen hunting his family. Although the details on that are murky too, because I don’t think any of them are his blood relatives. But whatever. And then he kidnapped Noah—that’s Hazel’s human soulmate—so we went to a meetupDraven set up. And Mom dissolved her and Draven in a giant water bubble. We’ve been assuming she’s dead, but I didn’t really think she was because the fire told me she wasn’t. And tonight the fire was so big and unfiltered and I could finally hear it. Really hear it. And it was her, and she’s alive so now we have to go get her.” I exhale a heavy breath. I may need a drink after that.

Ash blinks. Blinks again.

Opens his mouth to speak, then shuts it. Blinks once more instead.

“It’s a lot.” I twirl a lock of blonde hair between my fingers. Ugh. I have to stop doing that. It’s a nervous habit and I look like a worried child when I do it.

In a moment, he’s across the room and I’m buried in his arms. One hand is splayed across my lower back, the other tangled in my hair.

Both pressing me impossibly close.