Someone shakes my shoulder, pulling me from my memory-filled dream, and I grunt in irritation at the contact.

“Vinna, wake up. We’re here.”

The deep rasp of a man’s voice registers in my brain, and I peel my tired eyes open. I shake off the phantom pain in my limbs from the memory of the day I received my marks; or runes, I guess they’re called. Evrin watches me, curiosity brimming in his eyes as I blink a few more times to clear my head.

Wait, this isn’t my apartment building!

A Spanish style mansion frames Evrin’s head, and I shoot upright, my gaze sweeping over the immaculate landscaping and gigantic fountain.

“Where the fuck are we?” I croak, my voice heavy with sleep.

Real smart Vinna, what could possibly go wrong when you fall asleep in a car full of crazy weirdos? Way to think that through.

“This is where we’re staying. We all decided it would be best to do a quick beacon spell. It will confirm for sure if you’re a caster, and everything we need for the spell is here.” Silva tells me.

Aydin gives an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

“So you guys just up and decided this and now you expect me to what...go with it?” I ask, incredulous.

“It won’t take long, and then we’ll take you home. We’re leaving tomorrow, so this is the only chance you’ll get to find out for sure.”

I glance back and forth between Silva’s caramel brown eyes and the well-lit stucco monstrosity of a house behind him. My fear of missing out on answers overrides my apprehension at the shadiness of this situation. I climb out of the SUV and follow them through the front door, staying alert and keeping a suspicious eye on my surroundings.

“Keegan, set up in the library. The rest of you go get cleaned up, you have about thirty minutes,” Lachlan barks out.

The others split apart, and Aydin gestures for me to follow him. We wind through a few hallways before he shows me to a guest bedroom, pointing out the attached bathroom. Immediately thoughts of a steaming hot shower flit through my head, and I race into the bathroom, Aydin’s chuckles rumbling in my wake.

I lock the door, and adjust the temperature of the water to just shy of lava-hot and step into the stream of water. The steam and heat instantly relax me as I scrub the fight and aggression from my skin. The hot water feels so good, but it drains the last of my remaining energy, causing sluggishness to creep in. I crank the knob from red to blue and force myself to stand under the icy bombardment in hopes that it wakes me up a bit.

I towel off and wipe the steam from the mirror. I tilt my head from side to side and stare at my reflection. “Magic,” I say out loud, trying to get a feel for the word on my lips and tongue. I have magic. Maybe.

I look back and forth between my eyes and take in the seafoam green color that leaks into a darker jade that rims my irises. Long, thick black lashes frame my large eyes, and I have a small straight nose that turns up at the end.

Beth used to taunt me about my posh nose, always doing whatever she could to make me feel insecure. But I liked my eyes and my nose, so it didn’t bother me. My lips, however, are a whole other story. They’ve always been big and a constant source of teasing and torture when I was younger. Some people call them bee-stung lips, but Laiken always joked that mine were more wasp attacked.

Thinking about Laiken and her silly jokes sends a bolt of pain through my chest, but I try to shake it off. I lean in closer to the mirror and continue my scrutiny, running my hand over my long, almost black hair. I tilt my head and find the hints of plum that peek through in the right light. It’s down to the middle of my back now, cut in layers that under normal circumstances, make it look voluminous and textured. Right now, it just looks matted and tangled.

I may not have known that magic was behind the things that I can do, but I’ve been using it in many ways since it first showed up. Aside from the things my runes do, one of my favorite tricks is to use my unique skill set to dry and style my hair. It’s the best hairdresser a girl could ask for, and it saves me a crap load of time. Now, if I could just figure out how to magically apply my makeup, I’d be set. I tried it once, but the results were more of a what not to do.

I dry my hair until it’s straight and shiny, but I don’t bother to do much beyond that. I change into my spare workout gear and retrace my steps back out to the front door.

Dropping my bag by the entrance, I sit on the bottom step of the stairs and wait for someone to come to collect me. This place is massive, and I don’t want to get lost. Sure enough, soon Aydin tracks me down and leads me to a huge, fully stocked library.

I look around in awe and fight the desire to have a full-on Beauty and the Beast moment, twirl and all. When I’m done fighting off my inner Disney princess, I notice that the others are seated on brown leather couches and chairs arranged in the middle of the lounge area of the room.

“All right, Vinna, we’re all set. We just need your blood, and we can get this spell started.” Keegan tells me.

“Oh yeah, that’s doesn’t sound ominous at all,” I snark. “How much blood do you need and from where?”

Keegan gives me a warm smile, but this time I don’t match it. “Only a drop. A prick of your finger will do just fine. Then I need you to drip it right in here.” He points to a stone bowl that has some other unidentifiable things in it.

I move closer to the bowl that’s centered on a big leather ottoman. Everyone is watching me expectantly.

“Aydin, pass me your knife?” Keegan instructs.

“It’s fine, I’ve got it," I tell him.

I call on the runes that give me my throwing knives, and one solidifies in my hand. I use the tip against my middle finger. I extend the cut over the stone bowl and a couple drops of blood drip in. I release the magic, and the throwing knife evaporates.

“I cannot wait to find out how you do that," Evrin exclaims.

Keegan starts to add other things to the bowl, and it looks like he’s getting ready to bake something instead of performing a spell that could possibly change my future. My stomach growls, and I silently agree that brownies would be better than whatever this spell is supposed to do.

“So what happens now?” I ask.

“Keegan will combine your blood with spell-woven magic. If the spell works using your blood, we’ll know you’re a caster,” Silva explains, and I notice for the first time he’s standing by a set of windows instead of sitting with everyone else.

His ebony curls hang loose, instead of in a ponytail, and it makes him look younger than the mid-forties I pegged him as initially. Aydin growls and turns to scowl at Silva. He looks pissed as he stares daggers at Silva and then Lachlan. The venom in his eyes immediately makes me second guess what’s going on. Aydin turns to me, and we watch each other for a beat without speaking.

“This spell will also send out a signal to any blood relatives that you may have,” he grumbles. “You deserve to know everything that it does.”

Aydin’s words take a second to sink in, and when they do, I’m fucking livid.

“Whoa, pump the fucking breaks. You never said anything about finding any relatives! You said this would just tell me if I’m a caster or not!” I seethe at Silva.

“We need to not only confirm what you are, but we need to know where you come from,” Silva replies, showing zero remorse over not telling me the whole story.

“I already fucking told you where I come from.”

“No, you didn’t, because you don’t even know,” he shouts back at me.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“If Beth didn’t possess magic, then there’s no way she could be your biological mother. For a child to obtain magic, both parents have to pass it down. We don’t know how you ended up with nons, or how you’ve even survived on your own for this long. It doesn’t make any sense. We need to know where you come from.”

I plop down on the sofa, and the cushion bounces back against me. All my rage drains away with Silva’s revelation. I’m not sure if I should feel relief or rage right now.

What the actual fuck?

Is that why Beth hated me? I’ve spent most of my life trying to solve that puzzle, is this the missing piece? But if I wasn’t hers, then why the hell did she keep me for as long as she did?

“Well isn’t that just fucking perfect,” I grumble to myself.

They need to know where I come from, but I seriously doubt that road leads anywhere good. You don’t leave a child you care about with someone like Beth. Whoever I come from and wherever they are, they obviously left me on my own for a reason.