Page 49 of Beer & Broomsticks
She looked to her father who shook his head. With a sad expression and an exaggerated shrug, she looked down at her feet, scrapping her black patent leather shoe back and forth across the rug.
“I’ll return, wee wild beastie. If only to stop my father and Moira, yeah?”
She nodded up at him, tears shimmering and making the dark depths of her eyes seem fathomless. “I want you to be safe,” she said in an achingly sweet voice.
“I’ll try me best, darlin’.” He squatted down and tapped her nose. “But if I don’t return from this mysterious destination, you take care of young Aeden for me. He needs a good friend.”
“Aeden is my forever friend,” she said simply.
Ronan took it to mean she’d always use what magic she had to look out for him. If it came down to Sabrina and Damian Dethridge versus Loman O’Connor, he’d put his money on the child before him. “Good. That’s good.”
“Run upstairs and play with Aeden, Beastie,” her father urged. “We have adult things to discuss.”
CHAPTER20
After the children left, hand in hand and whispering all the way, the adults got down to business. Alexander listened, weighing the pros and cons of every suggestion tossed around that might get Loman to confront them on their turf. He couldn’t see it happening.
“My brother is too clever by far to fall for any of these ideas,” he finally said. “Loman will smell a trap coming from a mile away. The best you can do is be prepared for his strike when it happens.”
“And don’t forget, he’s not alone. At the very least, he has Moira. But if he’s been in touch with any of his old cronies, he’s likely to have a small army at his back,” Alastair inserted.
“Moira and I will have a reckoning one day soon,” Damian promised.
Alex had heard the story firsthand from the Aether himself of how Moira, along with Seamus, went after Sabrina and Aeden when the kids crossed the border of Damian’s property to a memory garden. Once the kids had left the protection of the Dethridges’ warded land, they were fair game. Moira had then tried to shoot Damian in the back when he visited Roisin and Carrick to bring Aeden home after a sleepover. And for the second time, that rotten bitch’s plans had been foiled by Roisin.
“The worst thing you can do is leave her alive without her magic.” Ronan gave Damian an evil little smirk. “She’ll die a thousand deaths when she can’t conjure what she wants at a second’s notice.”
“No. I have a score to settle.”
Never in all the time Alex had known Damian had he heard him so cold. The anger rippling off him was barely contained, and had the Aether been any more furious, they’d all have felt the backlash of his fury like acid in the air, burning their skin. If the man ever lost control, there would be no stopping the explosion of power able to decimate a city block… or worse.
“Try to remember to keep your rage in check, Dethridge. The rest of us will pay the price if you don’t,” Alastair warned.
With a droll look in his friend’s direction, Damian said, “You’re one to talk, Al. If I remember correctly, when your anger surfaces and you forget yourself enough to swear, you bring on a plague of loc—”
“Enough of that,” Alastair said with a narrow-eyed glare. “Let’s get back to the subject at hand. Castor’s evil twin.”
“Sure, and I never thought I’d ever hear that in a real world settin’,” Cian said with a short laugh.
“Nevertheless, my brother is the vilest creature you’re likely to come across in this lifetime.” Alex shot a look at his two nephews. They didn’t argue. “His favorite pastime is picking on those weaker than himself. Make no mistake, half the people in this room don’t hold a fraction of the power he has. He’s likely to try to divide and conquer then use your lack of abilities to his advantage.”
“Who does hold it?” When all eyes turned to Bridget, she clarified. “The amount of power he has? Who does hold it? You, Alastair, and Damian, I’m assuming, but what about any others?”
“My son, Quentin, yes, but he has a young daughter, and I’d prefer to keep him out of the fray if possible. These two—” he nodded to Ruairí and Ronan “—should be strong enough together. And if we find a way to restore Ronan’s abilities completely, he might be able to go toe-to-toe with his father.”
“Sabrina seems to have limitless faith in me. So how do I get this magical restoration of abilities?” Ronan asked with a less-than-enthused expression.
Alex couldn’t blame him. Even after all this time and all the power he’d accumulated, he found it difficult to confront his brother. Loman’s mind games could erode another’s confidence in themself.
“I can restore it with a blessing from the Goddess,” Damian said. “I’ll need a specific talisman that only she possesses so we don’t risk Moira’s black-magic blood spell reactivating in your cells.”
“What did I miss?” Alex asked.
“When Ronan was in the process of healing Aeden, Moira sliced his back with a poisoned blade. The infection spread too quickly, and the only way to save him was to remove his power. She’d designed the spell that would attach to the magical side of his DNA.”
“Clever.”
“Extremely.” Damian gave Ronan a commiserating look before he addressed Alex again. “Unfortunately for our friend here, he was forced to endure the removal of any abilities he possessed. I had to separate the magic from his DNA to save his life.”
