Luca's POV
TW: mention of dark elements
"Mother, show us what you are seeing!" I urged Sophia.

"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Sheri screamed at me so loudly the pictures on the bedroom wall actually shook. There was a crack as Lorenzo slapped his sister across the face.
"You're done f*****g talking! Please, Sophia. I have to know!!"" Lorenzo asked my mother. Sophia continued to project more images, this time of a young Sheri and who must have been hers and Lorenzo's parents.
"Sheri, you are not to see that young man anymore!" Sheri stomped her foot at them.
"Some things never change." I rolled my eyes and continued watching.
"You two never have anything nice to say about my boyfriends! All you do is try and run my life!" This sounded like a normal teenage squabble.
"Because you are not making good choices! There is no future with this man, especially when he finds out who you really are!!" Sheri's mother spoke calmly and with reason.

"What are you talking about!!" Sheri challenged her parents.
"Sheri, I am a demon. You are half demon and this boy is a Fae. It is forbidden! And furthermore, you aren't his true mate! He'd have known if you were, and told us!!" Her father stated.
"SO! You and Mom aren't true mates! Why can't this be the same for Kenneth and me!" Sheri snapped back at them.
"It doesn't work like that with Faes! Their souls are matched before they are even created by their Goddess! Once they find their mates, that is it! You are NOT Kenneth's mate, and we cannot allow you to be with him romantically so that it spares his true mate when he finds her!"

"Just like you spared Phillip, right Mother?" We watched in shock as her mother slapped Sheri across the face.
"You may not see it, but there is a BIG difference. I loved your father from the moment I saw him and I always will! Phillip didn't find me until three months ago, after I'd already been with your father for many years and had children! Phillip accepted my rejection and can now find someone else! Now your father and I have said all there is to say about this, Sheri! If you continue down this path, we will not help you with anything! Stay away from that young man!" Sheri's mother was laying down the law.
Suddenly, that image disappeared and another image appeared of Sheri and a Fae man with blonde hair. "Sheri, I have no hard feelings about your mother. I understand she loves another and has since long before we met. My Goddess clearly made a mistake and I have moved on."
"That's good to know." Sheri smiled sweetly. As soon as the man turned his back, Sheri pulled a knife and plunged it right into the man's back, stabbing him repeatedly! All of us gasped in shock and Lorenzo fell to the floor sobbing.
"YOU!! YOU KILLED HIM AND PINNED IT ON OUR PARENTS?!" Lorenzo wailed.
My mother fell back, fatigue in her face. "Luca, this is a spell I very seldom use because of how draining it is. I need to regenerate." Marshall helped my mother to her room and came back a couple of minutes later.
"It all makes sense about Sheri now, doesn't it?" He pointed at Sheri.
"You were in love with some boy. Your parents wouldn't let you see him because of your half-demon side. You killed your mother's true mate that she rejected. Not only did you frame your parents for the murder, you sat back and let the Fae King execute them?! " I couldn't believe what I had just seen. I know I'm an evil son of a b***h, but this woman may have outdone me!
"I HAD TO! THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY TO BE WITH KENNETH!" Sheri wailed to the point of hysteria.
"Kenneth Piretti was a Fae!!! He would probably have rejected you as soon as he met his true mate!!" Lorenzo shouted.
Sheri took a deep breath. "Even though we were just kids, we were very much in love! But Mom and Dad just wouldn't have it!!" She cried.
"You didn't team up with us to get revenge for your parents' deaths. You teamed up with us to keep your dark secret hidden and all this bulls**t you pulled was to keep us from finding out!!" Tears ran down Sheri's face.
"You were about what, fifteen when you knifed that man and masterminded this whole plan to get rid of your parents??" Marshall asked her. Sheri nodded silently.
"It was a perfect plan. There was absolutely no connection to me or that man. But my parents had a lot of friends and allies. They pleaded their innocence to whoever would listen. After they were executed, people asked me questions and I....I just...."
"You couldn't keep your story straight." Marshall finished for her.
"I knew one day someone would figure it out, so I erased my identity the day I turned eighteen. My name was Sherry Rossi, but I changed it to Sheri Sosri. I met Ezra a year later and seduced him, even getting pregnant with Stefanie quickly, so Ezra would feel like he had to marry me. It gave me yet another name and buried whatever trail my name left deeper. I never loved Ezra, I just wanted to stay in hiding!!" It takes a lot of things to make my blood run cold. Sheri's callousness about murdering someone, framing her parents for it and marrying a man to keep her identity a secret did it!
"What happened to Kenneth?" I asked curiously.
"I don't know. His parents made him dump me, and they all moved far away. I never saw him again!" Sheri muttered.
"So in the end, it was all for nothing! You killed someone and masterminded our parents' execution FOR F*****G NOTHING!" Lorenzo went ballistic and started to trash the room. Marshall jumped and suddenly, everything froze! Even me.
"Y'all, as much as I have enjoyed this little melodrama going on here, we've learned more than enough! Now Luca I can help you get to my granddaughter, but we need to tie up some loose ends first and get our focus on other things. Get what I'm saying?" This is the reason Marshall Sherman and I get along so well. He unfroze everything and I turned to Sheri.
"You have lied, you have omitted and hidden things, and you have manipulated and schemed this entire time we have been together! We are DONE with your games, Sheri, whoever the hell you really are! F*****G DONE!"
"LUCA...PLEASE! DON'T!" Her pleas were useless. Within a minute, I turned Sheri Hunter into jet black ash.
"Good riddance." Marshall shrugged and threw his cigar butt at the ashes.
I turned to Lorenzo with my hands raised. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you!"
"Because I have been watching the Wizards and her Gypsy grandfather train her! I know how the Queen will fight! And I'm f*****g P*****D at the Miller bloodline for executing my parents wrongly! So count me in!!"
"Now that right there is probably the best thing I've heard out of these rejects in the last two months! No offense, Marshall."
"None taken, you made the right call son." Marshall enthusiastically agreed.
"It's settled then. Lorenzo, you can stay, but you take a good long at your sister's ashes. Because if I even suspect you are pulling the same s**t she did, that's what will happen to you!!" I warned Lorenzo.
"Understood. What do you want to know?"
"Everything f*****g thing!" Lorenzo told us how two wizards have been helping Brynn freeze time and how long it could last.
"Can she do anything else?" Marshall asked.
"It may be something from her father's side, but Brynn just...knows things. I can't really explain it. Even before she learned Arlen was her mate and was working as one of my drivers, she could sense a route or a customer was going to be an issue and would let me know." Lorenzo explained.
"I have to ask. Did you know Brynn was your grandniece?" I asked him.
"I didn't know until you teamed up with Sheri and you began talking about it." Lorenzo confirmed.
"And it doesn't bother you? That you are working against your grandniece's mate?"
Lorenzo stared at me with total hatred in his eyes. "I don't care. I want that f****r Arlen Miller and his bloodline completely eradicated!!!"
"I like you already." I smiled, happy to have Lorenzo on my team.
"Marshall, you deal with a lot of supernaturals. Any of them have an ax to grind with Arlen?"
"Yes sir, I have quite a few Faes who hate his guts. Most of them he banished. Now one of them joined my team fairly recently and she despises him like none other. Said after he had his way with her, he cooked up some charge to banish her and when she questioned him, Arlen scarred her face up good!"
"Didn't realize a p*mp takes on women like that." I said.
"It sure doesn't stop my clients from wanting her! Kelli DeMaio is good for business!" Marshall grinned at me. We heard my mother awaken and open her door.
"What did I miss?"
"I finally killed that b***h Sheri!" She smiled in relief.
"About freaking time. I see you are still alive." She told Lorenzo who smiled thinly at her.
"I have been watching the Fairy Queen train and know her tricks." He said.
"I am sorry about your parents. I know too well how savage the Miller family can be." Sophia bowed her head in respect.
"Mother, I think we are almost ready, but we have to weaken Arlen." I told her. She raised her eyebrows at me.
"A mass witch attack?" She questioned.
"We need at least ten if not fifteen covens to really do some damage. We have to make it where Arlen has the least number of Faes to create more barriers! Marshall, can you round up the girls who have grievances against Arlen and see if they will fight?" I asked him.
"I sure will." Marshall began sending texts and not even a minute later his phone started pinging.
"Kelli DeMaio said, count her in. Several others are telling me the same." Marshall told us.
"I can't wait to see the look on Arlen's face when he sees the Faes he banished trashing his precious Kingdom!" I smiled to myself.
"What about the wolf packs that have been helping Arlen? They should pay for interfering!" My mother said.
"And they will. But we need to get rid of the magic that is protecting those packs first. And I know JUST who is first on my wolf hit list!" Amos Rainwater has long avoided responsibility for killing my best friend. His time is coming too!
I took a deep breath and began. "My fellow witches, this is your ruler. I am in need of at least ten covens to be ready to attack King Arlen and his Kingdom in the next forty-eight hours. I will take volunteers first but if I don't have enough, some covens will be voluntold!"
My head began to throb with so many coven leaders willing to help us. I called them out as Sophia wrote the names down.
"Luca, we have twenty-four! That's over five hundred witches!" She said in amazement.
"Arlen must have really p****d some people off!" Lorenzo exclaimed.
"The last Witch Ruler, my sister Desdemona, felt his wrath. One of his friends killed her!" Sophia told him. Lorenzo put his hand on her shoulder to show empathy.
I clapped my hands together, excited to not only have my mother but two strong men and almost a quarter of the witch world on my side.
With their help, I will kill Arlen Miler and finally make his Queen mine.