Southern Secrets: Book 2 in Southern Charms Series

Chapter Thirty-Two: Coming Together

Rose

The Visians kept their distance as Lyrian led me to her home- a sturdy vine made unit that had survived my tantrum. When she walked through the entryway, the house seemed to sigh in relief. The flowers brightened considerably, but the light turned harsh and cold when Ash and I entered. A clear reminder of the distrust these people felt for us.

"Sit," Lyrian said, pointing at silk cushions on the ground.

I dropped like a stone, my legs giving out the moment I bent at the knee. Ash's descent was just as graceless, but his bound hands and long limbs made lowering himself to the ground difficult. Lyrian watched us with twitching lips, likely reconsidering her offer of a truce. After all, what could two awkward teenagers do against the cruel king of Atlantis?

"Before we can become allies, there is the matter of the demon squatting inside your friend," Lyrian said, directing her words at me and pretending as if Ash was incapable of speaking for himself.

"Of course."

"There are four in this camp who have the Gift of Exorcism. We will return Malphas back to his prison."

Ash cut me off with a growl and said, "If that was an option, what was with the death threat."

The priestess shrugged. "I cannot guarantee you will survive."

"Enough," I said, power crackling around me as my irritation grew. The others in the hut muttered and pointed, unhappiness clear in their broad faces. I wasn't helping my case by losing control, but I was tired of the constant bickering. It was time to set the record straight.

"No one is going to exorcise Malphas except for me, and Ash will not die."

"If you have a plan to kill the sorcerer without harming your boyfriend, then I am all ears."

Cheeks pinking, I stuttered in reply. "Yes, um. No. I'm not killing Malphas. You recognized me as the Augur, yes?"

The room broke out in murmurs of the affirmative. Some sounded reverent, even considering their fear of my Siphoning abilities. Lyrian folded her hands over her brown knees and nodded. "Yes, we know."

"So you know what I can do." Which was a thought to file away for later because I barely understood my new abilities. "I've seen the truth of what happened the night Malphas took the form of a raven, and it's time everyone here knows what happened."

Ash's spine straightened with a snap and silver flashed in his brown eyes. Malphas looked at me imploringly, shaking his head, before retreating deep inside his host like a sullen child.

"He said a few things I don't feel comfortable repeating," Ash explained, "But it sums up to 'No.'"

Addressing Malphas directly through Ash, I snapped, "If they exorcise you and Ash dies, then our deal is over. No body. No revenge. And that's what you want, right? Revenge for Chavi. What Atticus did to her."

"Chavi," Lyrian snarled. The white light around us darkened to a blood red. "You dare speak her name here. After what he did to her."

"He will show you the truth."

"We can't trust anything he says," a Visian woman said as she restrained Lyrian's trembling form. "He is a weaver of lies."

"But the blood of an Augur can't deceive." The women who went before me shared that knowledge with me, and everyone visibly relaxed, acknowledging the truth of the statement.

"He won't do it, Rose," Ash said, his gaze turning inward as if listening to Malphas. I couldn't help noticing that he seemed less angry than before- not like he was accepting a future as a host, but like he was understanding what I saw in Malphas. That he was as much a victim of another's manipulations as we were.