Page 86 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

“You’re okay,” I said.

“And you’re amazing, sweetie!” Mom squeezed me so insanely tight. “How did you learn to make a spell like that?”

“I had a pretty good teacher.” My gaze met Liam’s over my mom’s shoulder, and I saw emotion in his eyes. He knew I was talking about his mom. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“So am I.” She squeezed me tighter before finally releasing me and pulling away enough to give me a bright smile.

“I want to hear about everything that happened since the last time we talked, but I need to make sure the resort is secure first,” I said, looking at Liam again. “Any sign of the coven?”

“No. I sent them a warning, though,” he said.

“What kind of warning?”

“The video of you being stabbed and my magic healing you. The cameras they had trained on the bench at the anchor came in handy.”

So they knew killing me wasn’t going to be easy. At all.

“Don’t forget the messages,” my mother added.

“What messages?”

Liam crossed the room and picked his phone up off the coffee table. He pulled up a group text thread, and handed it to me. Other than him, I could see all three of the Villin brothers in the group. Our demon security team was involved, apparently.

Though I didn’t recognize any of the other phone numbers, I knew the area codes.

Most belonged to my coven.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that he could get the numbers for the most powerful of us.

The video of me was the first message, followed by two more.

Liam

If you ever try to kill another blood witch, I will personally hunt you down and end everyone involved.

Sebastian Villin

We will have our connections watching and listening. There are few things more disgusting than murdering your own children, and we won’t stand for it. Change your traditions, or we will become enemies. I’m sure you’ve heard how well that would work out for you.

No one had responded, unsurprisingly.

They were probably scrambling, though. Liam had told me that the demons were known for hunting supernaturals who hurt humans, so it wasn’t a stretch to imagine them trying to protect young blood witches.

My throat swelled at the thought that maybe the next girl wouldn’t have to spend her life hiding her magic and fearing for her life the way I had.

I set the phone down, and Liam took a seat beside me on the couch. His arm went over my shoulder, and I leaned against his side.

It definitely didn’t surprise me that he was taking a stand for blood witches. We were rare, but there was a good chance that any daughter he and I had could be a witch herself.

And if she was, there was a really good chance that she would be a blood witch.

My mom’s gaze flickered between us, a look of adoration in her gaze. “You guys are cute together.”

“Thanks.” I gave her a quick smile.

Then yawned, widely.

“I can get coffee and more food,” mom offered. “The Villins showed me their shop when I was in the tower earlier. It would be fun to go back and talk to them again.”