My mother clenched her fists, and exhaled sharply through her nose.
“Persi, that’s not helpful,” Rhi interjected.
“You know what’s not helpful?” Persi asked, firing up. “Going back on our word to each other at the first inconvenience.”
“Inconvenience?” my mother gasped, her voice rising an octave in her incredulity. “Persi, a woman is dead! That is a bit more than an inconvenience!”
“Okay, okay, bad choice of word, but you know what I mean,” Persi snapped.
“No, I really don’t, actually,” my mom snapped back.
“Stop fighting, please, this isn’t helping!” Rhi said, wringing her hands and looking back and forth between her two younger sisters.
“Nothing fundamental has changed,” Persi said, holding up her hand to silence my mom, who was already opening her mouth to argue. “No, seriously. Think about it. The grimoire is still here. We still don’t know who that woman is or how she found it. We need more information before we show our entire hand to the Conclave.”
“Show our hand?” my mom ground out, rubbing her forehead. “Persi, this isn’t poker. There’s a damn sight more at risk than some chips on the table. That woman is dead. Someone killed her.”
“We don’t know that!” Persi said. “Maybe she died of natural causes!”
“Under a bush? Less than fifty yards from the Source?” my mom shot back.
“It’s possible!”
“Yes, I’m sure that is the exact assumption the police will be operating under.” My mom’s voice was dripping with sarcasm at this point. Persi seemed to inflate, ready to begin shouting, but Rhi thrust out a hand toward her, her expression stern.
“Do not do it, Persephone Vesper. Donotstart shouting. There’s no time. The police and the Conclave will be here any minute.”
Persi deflated with a sigh and a pout. “Fine.”
Rhi chewed on her lip for a moment as her sisters looked on, waiting.
“We can tell them Wren met her. That she stopped by our house,” Rhi said. “We have to, or they’ll know we were lying. She asked fordirections here, remember? If they ask around, they’ll find out she was asking for Lightkeep Cottage.”
“But she came to deliver the grimoire,” Persi began, firing up. “How are we supposed to explain her visit if we don’t mention the grimoire?”
Rhi opened her mouth, and promptly closed it again. “We can come up with some excuse, I’m sure.”
“No.”
All three heads turned to look at me, each face startled, like they’d been so busy arguing with each other that they’d forgotten I was there.
“No… what?” my mom asked.
“No. No more lying,” I said, knowing the words were as much for myself as for them.
They all traded a look, and Rhi cleared her throat. “Wren, we can’t just?—”
“Yes. We can. We have to, starting with me. I knew about Jess. I knew she was coming before she ever showed up.”
A stunned silence met my words, but now that I started, I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going, letting the truth flow out, excising the wound that was poisoning me.
“Asteria warned me. She came to me in a vision when I was working with Xiomara, and she told me a girl would bring a book, and that I needed to trust her, and that she was connected to the Source.”
“When did this happen?” my mom whispered.
“Right after the Litha Festival. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, of course. It felt like gibberish, so I didn’t say anything. And as the months went on and I couldn’t connect with Asteria again, I sort of forgot about it. But then Jess showed up out of the blue, and I knew she was the girl Asteria had warned me about.”
The staring felt like needles against my skin, but I plowed on, determined to say it all now that I’d started.
