“Oh, I think so, yes.” I tried to keep my voice as calm and unconcerned as possible, trying to channel some of Persi’s coolness even as my heart thundered in my own ears. And I wasn’t lying. I felt recklessly right. Not for the first time, I wondered if Xiomara could hear my thoughts, because her mouth curved into the ghost of a smirk as she looked at me.
“Very well. So mote it be,” Xiomara said. “We have much to discuss. Perhaps we can dismiss our officers here, unless…” she let the words trail off, demurring to the police. Maeve stepped forward.
“We’ll check in with the team still over by the theater and update you with any relevant information. We’ll be in touch tomorrow. We’ll have to arrange further questioning, for Wren and perhaps for the rest of the Vespers.”
I suddenly felt like I would pass out from exhaustion. I swayed a little in my seat.
“Wren, you need to go to bed,” my mother said at once.
“I want to know what gets decided. About the book.”
“We’ll tell you in the morning, I promise,” she said.
“You’ll tell me everything? No secrets? No omissions to protect me, or whatever?” I demanded.
She solemnly held her pinkie out to me. I locked mine around it, smiling.
“If she doesn’t, I will,” Persi added, winking at me.
While the Conclave began to discuss the details, my mom and I rose to walk the officers out. Rhi and Persi followed.
“What will happen to Jess?” I asked Maeve as she stepped out onto the porch.
“We’ll begin the process of finding her family so that we can notify them. And of course we’ll be investigating how this happened, to make sure there was no foul play,” she said, smiling sympathetically. Like all thewomen in Zale’s family, she was very tall and broad, and there was something reassuring about her calm, solid presence. “In the meantime, we’ll hold the body until such time as we can release it.”
I shivered. I’d seen the body—touched it, even—but it still made my skin crawl to think of Jess that way. The door closed, and Rhi exhaled like she’d been holding her breath for hours. Then she immediately turned and smacked Persi on the arm.
“Goddess above, Persi! What happened to our plan?” she hissed.
Persi rubbed her arm, looking defiant. “Just because we have a plan doesn’t mean the Conclave is going to agree to it! I had to hedge our bets!”
“By goading the head of the Conclave into an actual physical altercation?” my mom asked, though she looked more amused than anything. “You’re going to bruise, by the way.”
Persi tossed her hair in a careless shrug. “Nothing a bit of makeup and a light glamour won’t conceal. Anyway, it was worth it to watch her lose that legendary control.”
“And even more fun to threaten her with litigation,” my mom added, grinning now. It was weird to see her and Persi on the same page, but they were certainly enjoying the Vesper coven victory at the moment.
“You think it will be okay?” I asked. “Letting them take the book?”
“Yes,” Rhi said. “I trust Xiomara, at least, to arrange this as we discussed. And if Ostara decides to, well…” she paused here, searching for the right word.
“Go rogue?” my mom suggested.
“Yes, I suppose so. If Ostara… goes rogue, we’ve Bound the coven to the book. We won’t lose it again, that’s certain. We can be patient while the Conclave reassures itself.”
“I was proud of you in there, Wren,” my mom said, turning to me. “You really stood up for yourself.”
I shrugged, unsure of what to do with the compliment, because it didn’t feel true. I hadn’t really meant to stand up for myself—I’d never been particularly great at that. But I did feel like I needed to stand up for the Vesper coven. For Asteria. I couldn’t let her down, not now, not when I knew she was trying so hard to reach me.
Voices rose in the next room, reminding us all that there was a conversation going on that we didn’t want to be left out of.
“Okay, off to bed,” my mom said, planting a swift kiss on the top of my head.
“And you’ll tell me everything tomorrow?” I reminded her. “Like… every single detail.”
“Yes, I promise,” she assured me.
I was still hesitating when Freya appeared beside me, winding herself around my legs once in a sinuous figure eight, before placing her front paws on the bottom step, and looking at me pointedly as though to say, “Coming?”
