Hunter’s hand found hers and he squeezed, his grip an anchor.“We won’t let you be a martyr.”
She let herself lean against his shoulder for a heartbeat.“You don’t understand the things he did.The way he watched me, learning.The way he touched me like property, like a thing he could use.”Her voice went quiet, threading through memory like a seam that mended itself with each telling.“The night in the Boutique—when he was punching and kicking me, he had lost control—I don’t think he even understood what he was doing in that moment.”
Lennox’s mouth flattened.“Had he ever been that bad before?”
Brielle nodded.“Had he hit me before?Yes, many times.Had he lost control to the point where I am not sure if he was even human?No.He wanted to make himself feel big and invincible by making me small.”She closed her eyes, the image clear and raw.“I fought.I used what I had, and I scared him, but it wasn’t enough.He ran, because he heard sirens, not because he was in any way, shape, or form afraid of me.That’s the worst part—I did not faze him in the least.”
Saffie’s fingers curled around her own mug, knuckles pale.“Are you sure he knew nothing of magic when you first got together?”she asked softly, eyes flicking to Brielle for confirmation.
“If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said yes, but now?”Brielle’s jaw tightened as she shook her head.“That’s what terrifies me.He could have used his magic to kill me, hurt me, do whatever the hell he wanted to me in those first few months, and I wouldn’t have known what the hell was going on.”
Hunter cursed under his breath.“I want to kill him—my bear wants to eat his heart from his chest.”
Lennox chuffed a sound that was very much his bear.“And I would join you in the feast, brother.”
Brielle sent her lovers a smile.“I love that the both of you want to protect me, but no more of that vivid imagery, please?It is enough to give a witch nightmares.”
Saffie laughed softly and nodded toward Brielle’s mat.“Set your wards, sister.We have no idea when this fight will come to us, but come it will.”
Brielle took a breath and set her palms on the mat, closing her eyes.She began a slow chant—old vowels and consonants that tasted of salt and roots.The sound rising from her chest aligned with the pulse of the city, threading through alleys and wires, calling on small, local wards she’d sewn into the building’s bones.The spell felt familiar and steady.It was a stitch she had learned from Willow and polished herself, combining sigils and scent and a touch of her own thread of fate.
Hunter watched her work, his brow furrowed.“Show us what we can do to help.We can learn to hold the line, to be the muscle if you need your hands to,” he waved his hands around like he was conducting an orchestra, “do whatever the fuck that is.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him, gratitude at the surface like sunlight.“When I’mweavingthese wards, yes, you can hold the perimeter—literally.Stand at the doors, at the street corners.If the wards flicker, I need you to hold them—be the anchor for the spikes of dark that might try to slip through.”
Lennox nodded.“Protect and pummel?”he offered with a crooked smile.
“Exactly.”Brielle gave him a wink in return, then turned back to her work.“And there’s more.I’ll need circulating sigils—things that can reroute any trace of the ritual energy Caleb left behind into safe channels, drain the residue into ley sinks.”
Saffie’s face softened.“You have come a long way, sister mine, but you can’t do all of that alone.”
“I know.”Brielle’s voice was thin with honesty.“But I have to try.The danger he represents isn’t abstract.He’s learned and he’s patient.”She paused, then met each face around her.“If I don’t try to close these doors myself, someone else could get hurt.I’ve seen what that cost.”
Silence fell.The rooftop felt small and enormous at once, crammed with resolve and fear and love.
Saffie reached for Brielle’s hand and squeezed.“Then we’ll do it together.We’ll teach the wards what to look for.We’ll build contingencies, and we’ll do sweeps.Your coven will stand with you.”
Hunter’s eyes burned with something fierce as he added, “And I’ll stand at the threshold.I’ll take whatever he throws at us.”
Lennox’s grin was sharp but soft at once.“And I’ll bite him for good measure.”
Saffie rose and moved closer, her tone suddenly practical.“We’ll plan.We’ll set watches and training rotations.We’ll string wards across the building and the surrounding streets.We’ll start tonight.”
Brielle felt a swell of gratitude so big her chest ached.“Thank you.I don’t want to be alone in this, but I have to protect my family.”
“You’ll never be alone again,” Hunter said.He leaned in and pressed his forehead to hers.“Not while we breathe.And they are our family, too.”
She breathed with them, steadying herself on the vow like a rope.The night softened, the glow of streetlamps painting the rooftop in gold.For the first time since the Boutique, Brielle felt not hollowed but held—by magic, by friends, by the two men who had become something like a home.
“Okay,” she whispered at last.“Then we start.”
Her voice was small, and it was loud.It was an ember and a roar all at once.