“And you never helped her? Instead, you magically neutered me! It wasn’t just demon power that you suppressed— I couldn’t access witch magic either. I couldn’t even set a fucking ward.”

“You could set a ward. You just needed to use your blood.”

“And how would I know to do that?” I asked through my teeth.

“We both know you weren’t interested in using your power.”

“Because I had none to use!”

She laughed. “Would you truly have used your power as an adult? You loathed the witches with every fiber of your being.”

If she knew that, she’d been watching me more closely than she’d wanted me to know.

“I loathe the witches because when my mother ran to them for help, they convinced her to leave my sister with them and take me on the run. That coven was one of the most powerful in Durham and they left her alone. And yes, if I’d known I had enough magic to keep me alive, I would’ve used it.”

She merely raised one eyebrow. I put my coffee back on the tray so I wasn’t tempted to throw it at her. “At the expense of becoming over-reliant on it? On never learning the skills you needed from Edward?”

I went still. “How do you know about Edward?”

She smiled. “Who do you think told your mother to take you to him?”

Great. She told my mother which direction to head in while she was obviously fleeing for her life. Good for her.

“Who is my father?”

“Nothing good can come of this, Danica.”

“Who?”

“He was a high demon who was in the underking’s inner circle. He was immediately entranced by your mother and they had an affair.”

“What happened to him?”

Harriette shrugged. “He went missing. Your mom insisted he never would’ve left her, but it sure looked like he decided the responsibility of a baby was too much for him. Your mom was… fragile at that point. She’d had two relationships that had… imploded, and two little girls who were… different. She was all alone in a world where being alone made you a target.”

“Why did she have to run?”

“You’re a Nephilim.”

I frowned and she clarified. “A child that is half demon, half human. Although in your case, you had the added benefit of being witchborn. It was forbidden to create such a child. It still is. When your father found out your mother was pregnant, he warned her that his enemies would eventually come for her and would try to kill the baby. She told me they were planning to leave together. Instead, he left and never returned.”

“So when we left… it was because she was worried that someone connected to my father was coming for her?”