Page 30 of My Dark Obsession

‘ Gossip Reveals Secrets-Fama Detegit Secreta’

Amaya

“He just strolled in? The self-entitlement!” Bri screeched as she placed another ice bun on my plate.

Jerry had found her in a pile of welcoming trees by the portal the next morning, giggling and chatting away to them as they wrapped themselves around her.

She had been in disbelief when a branch had reached through and pulled her over.

After many gasps and, “Oh my Fates Above” from her, we had settled in the armchairs by the fire with a boxful of her sweet treats.

I sat and stared at her beaming face. I hadn’t known where to start, what to say. What were you supposed to do in these social situations? I had never done this before.

“So, tell me everything.” She had asked as she peeked over her huge cup of coffee.

And before I knew it, I had blurted everything, from the twins, to waking up in the Dead village, Rí and I’s mating, Cole, my lack of magic, Isa.

Everything down to Ziel poking about my bedroom last night.

I told her of everything that had been piling up in my thoughts, all my unanswered questions and more.

She gaped at me, her mouth open with an unchewed piece of bun hanging from it.

I took a big gulp of my own coffee and almost moaned from the bitterness.

It was still so hot it burned its way down my throat.

I was still getting used to a coffee actually being hot.

Lyal’s stale left over coffee was always going to be ingrained in my mind.

I squinted at her as she hastily chewed and swallowed her bun, sat forward and placed her coffee on the table.

She stood up, smoothed down her bright blue dress that was scattered with daisies and…

threw herself at me. I had just enough time to stretch my arm to the side, so my precious hot coffee didn’t spill all over us.

Ravioli’s loud squawk pulled a surprised squeak from her as she squeezed me tighter.

I didn’t know what to do.

She was hugging me.

Did I pat her back?

I looked at Ravioli with wide panicked eyes and I swore he was laughing at me, a low cough like noise that sounded like a chuckle.

I gave him the finger .

“Ummm,” I hummed as I slowly patted Bri’s back with my empty hand.

“I…I’m sorry. It’s just. You had such a shit life. You knew nothing of Wisteria. And…and…”

Fuck.

Oh fuck.

She was crying.

I was freaking out.

“Your little brothers...” she sniffled and pulled back slightly; her eyes were watery and red rimmed.

“You deserve the world. I’m so happy Rí found you.

I’m so happy that we are now best friends!

I will show you everything you need to know in Wisteria!

I will make sure you are always filled with hot coffee and iced buns and…

and…and when you get your brothers here, I will spoil them with as many cakes as they can eat and… ”

“—wait! Hold on.”

I pulled myself from her arms, gulped a mouthful of less than hot coffee and frowned at her.

“You’re crying for …me?”

She smacked my arm, shocking me with her surprising strength as she picked up her abandoned drink and sat back down.

“Of course I’m crying for you! You lived a shit life! You were dealt a really shit deal and yet you still protected those little boys?”

“Well yeah. Because they’re mine.”

“Your obsessive side is so cute.” She grinned.

Fucking cute? Never in my life had I been called cute before.

Useless, pathetic, vile, mongrel, monster. Never cute .

Had she said we were best friends? We barely knew each other.

Is that how being someone’s best friend worked?

I observed her silently as she chatted away.

Not once had I felt the uneasy churn in my gut in her presence.

In fact I was actually fairly…settled with her.

Her constant chatting hadn’t once annoyed me; her happy bubbly self almost out done the noise in my head.

Bri was easy to be around; I could talk to her without fear of weakness.

She didn’t demand I be someone or something I wasn’t.

Bri was my friend.

We chatted for what felt like hours; well, she chatted, and I listened. Sitting and simply just enjoying someone’s company was…nice.

I walked her to the portal when she claimed the cemetery ‘freaked her tits off.’ I had laughed and grazed my hands across the well-kept stones as Bri informed me of her plans for the afternoon.

“So I thought I’d slip a little something in his coffee and then the shit he’d spew would be real.

” She laughed; her head thrown back as she pictured her little plan.

Apparently, some White witch was trying to shut her shop down, stating it was too “human” and nothing about it reflected their supernatural beings. But so what?

“He still drinks the coffees, so why is he being a douche?” She sniped as we passed the welcoming trees.

“What are you? A shifter? What made you think of a coffee shop right in the centre of the shadow land?” I asked curiously, completely ignoring the fact Ziel had already told me you just didn’t ask that question here .

Beaming at me she said “I love that you asked me. I’m a White witch. Well, half. But I don’t relate to the Light City and their order.”

“Wait…you’re a witch?” She was the first White witch I had come across that wasn’t all about the Light City and the correct way to act. You would never have assumed she was a witch at all.

“Yep, didn’t you wonder how you didn’t sleep for like a straight twenty-four hours or more after that first coffee from me?”

How did she know that?

She giggled as the tree closest to the portal wrapped a branch around her arm, the purple droplets smearing across her blue dress.

“I make my own coffees, the brew is…different.” Winking, she unwound herself as we walked through the portal.

I wanted to make sure she was safely through, because there was no way I was letting anyone that belonged to me or was my friend go anywhere without protection.

I knew Rí could take care of himself. He could simply eat anyone who annoyed him, but Bri, her infectious laughter and bright happy eyes needed me. I could feel it.

“Amaya. You are hereby summoned by the Council. Your presence is demanded immediately.” Standing with his arms at the sides as if preparing for a fight stood a rather boring looking man.

I sighed, the Council outright just irritated me, the way they thought they could make demands of me, how they thought they had a right to anything in my life. Ugh. Men who thought they ruled and were God’s fucking gift were the worst .

People like the Councilmen where the reason why I hated people. They were the ground beetles of the world; they mostly hid under rocks scared of the world, but when people challenged their manhood, they’d climb out, eat up the slugs and slide back away.

But all bugs were easily squashed.

“She’s not going anywhere with you Gary,” Bri said firmly as she stepped in front of me with her hands clenched at her side. She was slightly taller than my 5 ft 3 but damn, that’s what I would call cute .

Also, ew. Gary? The name suited him.

I snickered at Bri and moved in front of her. I didn’t need protecting. Especially from someone like Gary.

“It’s fine, you head back.”

“No way! I’ll…” I gave her a firm yet kind-I think it was a kind- look and said, “Bri, I got this.”

She sighed, frowning at the messenger before she said, “Okay, fine, but I’m finding Rí and telling him.

” Walking up to him, she poked his chest. A little zap of electricity spread across his body making the man flinch and wince as she then muttered, “And then I wonder who her dragon will take his anger out on then, hmm?”

The thought of Rí shifting into his dragon and eating someone out of anger for me was…exhilarating. I would never get used to someone wanting to protect me.

***

I walked through the white corridor and thought of my boys.

The white walls reminded me of the nurse’s room in their elementary school.

The school were due their yearly shots, and so we lined up like all the others.

The parents stood smoothing the children’s hair and talking softly and lovingly to them, discussing what warm dinner they would be consuming that evening.

Elyas, Elfyn and I stood staring straight ahead, our stomachs cramping with hunger.

When we were next in line the nurse had simply said in her flat sluggish voice.

“The boys aren’t down for shots. They aren’t registered.”

“If they aren’t registered, how are they even in school?” I had asked back, no expression in my voice as I stared blankly at her.

After the parents had tutted at me for taking up their time, we had left, and it was that night I had searched Lyal’s office and found they had no paperwork. No birth certificates, no foster paperwork. Nothing. They were essentially…not there.

Why did Lyal have the boys? Why me? What about the three of us was important that he wanted three fucked up kids? Could there have been a chance he knew? Knew that I wasn’t human?

No, no that couldn’t be it, because Lyal was as sluggishly human as they came.

I entered the circular room without knocking and stood with my hands hanging loose and looked at the three figures with a bored face.

“Amaya.” The salt and peppered haired man nodded at me, his eyes looking behind me, no doubt searching for Rí.

“It seems we got off on the wrong foot. I am Mikhail, and this is Fergus and Finigan. We are the Council and bring order to Wisteria and have done for the past eighteen years.”

He paused; was he waiting for me to gush and applaud him?

I stared at them in silence.

“We understand the confusion you must be feeling with everything if you truly are from the human realm.”

Was he trying to trip me up there? They still didn’t believe me, and I simply didn’t care.

“Now, as the leaders of this realm—”

“Who appointed you?” I interrupted.

“Excuse me?”

“Who appointed you three leaders?” Did I have to spell it out?