Chapter 331 Start at the Root

Emilia’s POV

“I said no. You can quit trying to change my mind.” Sebastian’s voice cut through the bedroom.

I’d laid out everything, every word Vesper Crane had spoken in that office, but he flatly rejected my choice. No matter how I tried to get him to consider it, he refused.

“Darling, I…”

“Emilia, I’m telling you to stop trying to persuade me.” He rounded on me. “It’s a threat to your life. I will never sign off on that. Never.”

I folded my arms. “The witch said it might be a risk. Every surgery carries a risk. You know how many women still die in childbirth in this country? Should we ban that too?”

He shot me a harder glare. “Emilia, don’t play word games with me. Don’t dress up one thing as another. I graduated from the Ivy League. I run a corporation with more zeroes on its balance sheet than you’ve ever had to count. Do you honestly believe some cheap little rhetorical trick is going to work on me?”

“Well.” I tilted my head. “I wouldn’t know, would I? I only went to a perfectly ordinary state school. We poor public-university graduates can’t possibly keep up with a man who lists his alma mater the way other people list their allergies.”

I raised an eyebrow. “It must be exhausting being the smartest man in every room you walk into. Especially when the room’s empty.”

His mouth opened. Nothing came out.

“Fine.” He dragged a hand down his face. “I won’t argue. I’ll simply tell you it isn’t happening. Who’s to say that witch won’t take her chance and do something monstrous to you? Witches are evil and devious.”

I couldn’t help myself. “You know those mean the same thing, right? Two hundred grand a year, and they never taught you to use fewer words.”

“You should pay attention to what I mean,” he roared, “not the meaning of the damn words!” He wrenched the door open. “I’m sleeping in the study tonight.”

The door slammed hard, rattling the paintings on the walls.

“He’s impossible.” I sank onto the edge of the bed.

“Ryder’s in a state too,” Eve murmured. “He won’t hear a word of it either.”

Moon Goddess. Wolf and man, cut from the exact same stubborn cloth.

“But this might be our only shot,” I muttered. “I want a child, Eve. I want it so badly.”

“A baby isn’t a decision you can make on your own, though,” she said gently.

“I know. That’s the whole reason I talked to Sebastian.”

“Sebastian and Ryder are only fighting because they’re terrified of losing us,” Eve went on. “So what if we found a way to bring the risk down to almost nothing? Wouldn’t that change things?”

Her words caught on something inside me. She was right. I’d charged into that glass tower like a fool with a checkbook. I knew nothing, not whether Vesper could be trusted, not the true price of the spell, not what her coven’s quarrel was with my mother’s Hollowthorn line. I’d promised the world without reading the fine print.

The more I turned the plan over, the more the holes opened up.

Suddenly, I understood exactly why Sebastian had blown up. This was like marching into a boardroom, demanding approval for billions to buy some company nobody had ever heard of, promising the shareholders they’d strike gold, and then failing to produce a single page of the plan. Of course they’d throw me out.

If I wanted this to work, I had to do my homework first.

The next morning, I drove out to Chuck and Mindy’s place after talking them into having me over for lunch.

I told them everything. Chuck listened, then turned to his wife with an infuriating little smirk. “I told you. These witches can’t be trusted.”

Mindy arched a brow. “That’s rich, coming from a man who happens to be a witch himself.”

“Nice counter, Mindy.” I took a sip of my coffee. All that explaining had left my throat raw.

Chuck knocked back a mouthful of whiskey. My uncle loved his liquor and reached for it as naturally as most people reached for water. “Sebastian’s damn right, Emilia. That spell will kill you. You should’ve walked out the second she said it.”

“Not helping, Uncle. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’m on the side of the man who’s terrified of burying his wife.” His voice dropped, rough and unexpected. “When Mindy’s cancer showed up, when they put her in that hospital bed and I thought she might slip away from me, I nearly went out of my mind. I know exactly what it feels like to face losing the one person you can’t live without.”

Mindy put a hand over her heart, then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Chuck. That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me. Why did you never tell me any of this before?”

I rapped my knuckles on the table. “Hate to ruin the moment, you two lovebirds, but I’m still sitting right here.”

Mindy laughed and brushed at the corners of her eyes. “So, Emmy. What’s the plan?”

“I need Sebastian to agree to the spell. And he won’t until I can prove I’ve dug into every corner of it. So I start at the root.” I set my cup down. “My own bloodline. The Hollowthorn witches. Chuck, what do you actually know about them?”

Chuck straightened in his chair. “Well. I told you the story once. My parents crossed a powerful Alpha down south, angered a whole pack, and had to run with Tanya and me when we were still children.” He scratched his jaw. “I’ve got these faded scraps of memory, though. Growing up on the edge of a forest, some little town at the end of the world. Sounds an awful lot like the reclusive lot Vesper described. If you want to understand the Hollowthorn witches, Emmy, you’ll have to head south.”