Spiritbound by Dani Kristoff Page A

choose. Not one chosen for me or thrust in my way.’
    ‘Yes, but you must make sure you have all the facts,’ added his mother. ‘You cannot mix your seed with that family. I won’t have it.’ She started heaving in large breaths, her face going pale. His father leaned over and rubbed her back. ‘It’s all right, Del. Relax.’ To Declan he said, ‘We are just trying to understand you, guide you.’
    ‘Really? Then stay out of my life choices. If I ask for advice feel free to give it, but don’t ever comment about Grace or any other woman I take to my bed.’
    His mother gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
    ‘You slept with Grace Riordon?’ His father gaped at him.
    Declan was beyond angry now. He had a lot to process. ‘Yes, and I was her first. Her first lover at twenty-two because this coven has isolated her so much no decent warlock will go near her. That’s what your hate and distrust have done.’
    ‘It’s not as simple as that. You forget what happened before we left, why we left.’
    ‘I’ve not forgotten anything. I was there, remember? What she did was an innocent mistake. It wasn’t evil. I wish you’d damn well get that. Grace has the lightest and loveliest spirit of anyone I have ever met. She’s no dark witch.’
    His mother began to cry, but Declan was over it. He’d comforted his mother often when she’d cried, done what she’d asked so as not to upset her. It was time he hardened up. He turned away.
    The bloody coven with their secrets and rules had him fuming. They’d made a mess of everything and then left the younger generation to deal with it. Well, he’d had enough of that. He stomped down the hall and took a long shower. Later, as he tried to sleep, he realised he couldn’t. He needed a balm for the hurt inside; he needed something soft and gentle to soothe his mind. He needed Grace.
    ***
    By the time Grace was ready for bed it was near three a.m. She looked around the room at her wall of crazy hats and the quilt that she and Elena had sewn in their first year together, and wondered if this was what her life was going to be—this room, this house, this sense of being unfulfilled.
    Admittedly, losing her virginity to Declan Mallory was bit of an achievement. She couldn’t say that he had not fulfilled her as the tenderness was a tangible reminder. She sent some more healing there, even though it was kind of a cool reminder of their hot encounter. She chuckled to herself, recollecting her mother’s joy and Elena’s incredulity as she had related and embellished her first sexual encounter. As she flipped back the quilt and climbed between the sheets, she sensed her world was on a precipice—that she was going to fall and fall hard, or she was going to take off with wings into the sky and float and glide to a glorious future.
    ‘You’re being ridiculous. He said it was a one-night thing. You have to respect that.’ She huddled into the pillow and stared at the wall, her eyes trailing from the picture of her father to the one with her and Elena with Declan in the background, from when they were young. She struggled to find that thirteen-year-old girl inside of her as she studied the innocent faces, her dark eyes and her bright smile.
    Her focus shifted to Declan, looking at the child and comparing it to his adult face. His eyes were still dark in his high-cheekboned face and his smile, too, was reminiscent of the boy she had known. Yet he was tall and broad and a man now. His life experiences had shaped him, had changed him. One thing, though, was the same—the essence of him. That was an amazing realisation—that he was still that Declan, and if that was the case, she was still that Grace, even though she had been through so much, had borne so much from others. How could that be?
    She’d survived years of being shunned, of being ignored and overlooked, and in some cases despised. It was because she had love—the love of her mother and father. She had a very close