Spiritbound by Dani Kristoff

own choices.’
    ‘Declan. You can’t mean that,’ his mother said in her soft tones. ‘The coven needs children. You must procreate.’
    ‘I can do that without settling down if I must, but I won’t. I wouldn’t abandon a child of mine.’
    Declan’s father rubbed his forehead. ‘Please, Son, listen to you mother. I don’t care who you father a child with, but stay away from that woman. She’s trouble. Her family is trouble.’
    Declan stood up, squeezing his fists together. ‘Dad, I said leave it alone. Grace is a beautiful person, full of light and love. She doesn’t deserve any of this mud you fling her way or the bad treatment meted out by the rest of the coven. She’s a powerful witch, too. You should see her—’
    ‘I don’t need to. I’ve seen enough from her family.’
    Declan walked forward, and his father and mother had to step back to give him room. ‘I’m going to bed.’ He turned away and then paused. ‘No. Wait,’ he said, facing them. ‘I want you to tell me what it is about Grace’s family that’s got you so uptight.’
    His parents shared a look. His mother tilted her head as if to say go ahead.
    ‘Declan, please. Sit down,’ his father said
    Suppressing a groan, Declan tugged out a chair at the kitchen table and took a seat. His parents sat either side of him. His mother took his hand and squeezed it. He returned the pressure.
    ‘You know Elvira’s sister, the one who caused a few “issues” before she left?’
    Declan shrugged. ‘Yes, I’ve heard the rumours.’
    ‘Well, what is not widely known is that Elvira had a brother. A younger brother.’
    Declan sat back, surprised. ‘I haven’t heard of him.’
    ‘Elroy. He—’
    Declan’s gaze switched between his parents. His mother chewed her bottom lip and she sniffed loudly. ‘He killed my brother,’ she said in a voice so quiet Declan thought he’d heard it wrong.
    ‘He did more than that. He killed a number of warlocks,’ his father added. ‘One was my cousin.’
    ‘How come people don’t talk about this? I don’t get it, and I still don’t get what this has got to do with Grace. She hasn’t killed anyone. She has the opposite problem.’
    ‘This is no joke, Son. For years after, witches selectively stopped giving birth to males. That’s why there is a shortage or warlocks. It wasn’t planned, it just happened.’
    ‘It was an instinctive reaction,’ his mother added, watching him closely. ‘I didn’t abide by it myself.’
    ‘Elroy Denholm was ten years old, Declan. Samuel was four.’
    A leaden feeling grew in his gut. ‘How many other boys did he kill before he was stopped?’
    ‘Three,’ his mother said.
    ‘Three warlocks. We don’t know how many humans he might have killed.’ His father slapped his hand down on the table.
    ‘Grace doesn’t know this, does she?’
    His mother’s eyes narrowed. ‘Who cares if she does or not? The whole family is tainted.’
    Declan sat back, astounded. ‘No, they aren’t. What if I did something wrong? Would you like to be tarred with the same brush, shunned and blamed for something you didn’t do? You raised me the best you could but I’m responsible for my own life, my own decisions.
    ‘Goddess. That’s it. That’s why you are clinging so hard, trying to direct me, control my life. You don’t want me to do anything that shames you, anything that deviates from your view of the world. You’re worried what the coven would say, what other people think.’
    ‘No, Son.’ His father reached up, grabbed him by the shoulder. ‘That’s not true. You could never shame us.’
    His mother wiped her eyes. ‘No. You are my pride and my heart. Nothing you could do to change that but…we want you to stay away from Grace Riordon. There are plenty of other witches to choose from. I don’t understand why you would even think of her.’
    Declan stood up, shaking with helpless rage. ‘Because it’s my choice, Mother. I sleep with a woman or the women I