“Youtrusthim. You actually trust a dem—”
“Yes, I trust him, and can you please stop saying ‘he’s a demon’ repeatedly? You sound like a broken record. I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s pretty obvious he’s a demon. He’s the only one who doesn’t stay in human form. It’s not something I’m going to forget.”
“It’s just…” Iris shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand. I get there’s a bit of a hurdle to overcome in adapting your perception of demons, but it’s not that big. Why are you so violently opposed to the idea?”
“There’s history. I—wehave history.”
Lily’s stomach felt like a pit inside of her. “You’re telling me what Mist said was true. The fire was caused by a demon.”
Iris dropped into one of the deck chairs and slumped forward, dragging her fingers through her hair. It reminded Lily of Mist’s posture that morning, and the similarity struck her as a terrible sort of irony. It felt like an ill omen.
The urge to rush back and check on Mist seized her, but she forced herself to sit on the chair beside Iris. She needed to hear the truth first.
“I should have told you sooner,” Iris finally said. “At first, I kept it from you because I wanted to find the right time. But years passed, and there never was a good time, and then, suddenly, it was too late, and I just— I’ve been living with this guilt and regret and hatred for almost a decade, and I didn’t want that for you.”
“You don’t get to decide that for me,” Lily said in a hollow voice. Her sister, her best friend, had lied to her about the most defining moment of their lives, and it felt like a knife in the back. “They’reourparents, Ris. How could you keep something so important from me?”
“I’m sorry. I really am. I wanted to tell you, I tried, but…”
“There’s no excuse you can give to make that okay.”
Iris looked away and wiped roughly at her eyes.
Lily took deep breaths, trying to keep the anger at bay. It wouldn’t help her learn what she needed to. “So, there could be truth to this prophecy after all, then. Why else would the demon come after us?”
“Because demons kill witches. That’s what they do.”
“But there has to be more to it than that.” She refused to believe her parents were killed for no other purpose than senseless violence.
“There is.” Iris heaved a sigh. “Your demon’s right. Our births were foretold a long time ago by some great seer.”
“Oh my god.” She took a breath, blew it out. It didn’t help. “Oh my god! But, how—?”
“Mam and Dad and the coven knew about the prophecy, and they also knew there would be demons after us. They knew Valefor would come, and they were prepared. The cloaking only fell for a short time, but it was enough. It was the only reason he found us, and even by then, they had already repaired it. He never even knew I was there.”
“You knew about this all along. Even before their deaths— How long have you known?”
“Only a few days before. It was our eighteenth birthday, the night we came fully into our powers. Mam explained everything to me right before so I would be prepared.
Lily swallowed the bile rising up her throat. “And she didn’t tell me. Why?”
“She never expected the power shift to be so dramatic it would cause the cloaking to fall. She never thought anything like this would happen. She wanted to give you time and space to come into it on your own.”
“So… she lied to me.”
“She wasn’t trying to lie. You just never liked the practice the way I did. You wanted to sew, you wanted to paint and draw. You were quiet and withdrawn. She just wanted to give you the space to be yourself.”
“A lie of omission is still a lie.”
Finally, it was Lily’s turn to assume that grim position. Planting her elbows on her knees, she leaned forward and buried her face in her hands.
“Nine years,” she said into her palms. “Nine years you’ve known about this, and you haven’t told me. Nine years, and I’ve never had closure. Nine years, and I thought there was some murderer out walking the streets facing no repercussions for what he did.”
“Thereisa murderer. His name is Valefor, and he’s a Duke of Hell instead of a human. And trust me, I have no intention of letting him get away with it.”
Lily shook her head. That Iris was dead set on revenge was not what she wanted to hear. “The fact that you could lie to me about this for so long… It’s like I don’t even know you.”
