Warlock Brothers of Havenbridge 01 - Spell Bound by Jacob Z. Flores Page B

perfectly pressed shirt and sighed. He only did that when he was about to get really bitchy. “Yes, well, I’m not the idiot who broke the law.”
    “Fuck you, Thad.”
    “You can be furious with me all you want,” he replied. “Your inability to control yourself is what keeps getting you in trouble.”
    “And being a cold, distant asshole is what you’d recommend?”
    He nodded. “If it prevents you from having your powers bound by the Conclave, perhaps. What this family needs to learn is how to rein in the emotions that swirl like a tempest inside us. You may find me indifferent, and perhaps in a way I am. But that’s because I’ve learned how to check the warlock tendency of losing our cool. Acting rashly typically gets warlocks nowhere but dead.” He surveyed Pierce and me with one sweep of his gaze. “Or do we need a warlock history refresher course?”
    “You know what, Thad?” Pierce asked as he rose from the couch. “I may let my emotions get the better of me from time to time, but I sure as hell don’t need lessons on what it means to be a warlock.” He clenched his hands into fists. A blue aura crackled around them, and the low hum of electricity filled the room. “Because I know exactly what and who I am.”
    “You only prove my point,” Thad replied. “You fall back on picking up the hammer when a screwdriver would suffice.”
    Pierce’s expression twisted. “What fucking hammer?”
    “He’s talking about your powers,” I answered, to which Thad nodded.
    “We’re more than just the immense power we wield,” Thad added. “It’s time we all realized that. Even father. We rely so much on our magic that we ignore the baser sides of who we are. We evolved from humans, and we retain human characteristics. Yet we shun them when we should be embracing them. Because, as loath as I am to admit it, Mason might be right, and it will be our humanity that will ultimately make the difference, not our supernatural gifts.”
    I had to do a double take. Where was Thad Blackmoor, and what had this man done with my brother? He’d never, in all the years I’d been alive, ever said I was right about anything. “What are you talking about?”
    Thad glided over to the living room door and poked his head into the hallway. After seeing nothing, he turned and answered, “What you said at Mabon raised questions I’d never once considered, and frankly the fact that you thought of it before I did was quite a blow to my ego.”
    “Gee, thanks.”
    “Something is wrong,” Thad continued. He rubbed his arms as if he’d gotten as cold as his frigid abilities. “The Conclave doesn’t just appear in the middle of rituals, and they don’t suddenly have blind spots in their powers. But they did and they do. The questions we should be asking are why, and why is this happening now?”
    “But what about everything you said last week?” He’d been the one to remind me of the reasons the magical orders had been separated. It was for the good of all magic. Where was that speech now?
    Before he could answer, the clicking of our father’s footsteps echoed down the hall.
    “Not now,” Thad said. “We can’t do this in front of Dad.”
    “What?” Pierce asked. “Why?”
    “It’s for the best,” Thad replied. He clutched at my and Pierce’s forearms. “Just promise me you’ll keep what we’ve talked about to yourselves and that you’ll only discuss this again when it’s just the three of us. No one else.”
    Pierce gaped at Thad as if he’d gone crazy. Pierce didn’t keep anything from Dad. In fact, he was the first one to tell our father everything. But I couldn’t dismiss Thad’s panicked expression. He rarely asked us for anything. If he was concerned enough to seek us out, that was reason enough to give him my word. “I promise.”
    “Fine. Me too,” Pierce said with a loud sigh. “But if I get in trouble because of the two of you, you’ll both find out exactly what it feels like to be a