“I had hoped to never have to see this book again,” shemurmured.
“Do you still have the pages?” Periasked.
Jezebel looked at her and nodded. “The djinn has bewitched them. Only he can remove the spell. It was the safest way to protect them, as they couldn’t bedestroyed.”
Peri threw her head back and groaned. “Dealing with him is like dealing with an incredibly intelligent, boredtoddler.”
“Then he’s not any different from when I last saw him,” Jezebel said with asmile.
“He’s worse,” Peri said dryly. “Fine, so we need Thad. We’ll get him when it’s time. He’s working on something very important at the moment. Alright, Jezzy, you’re up. Tell them the things we had hoped to never tell anyone in order to protect them from certaindeath.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Z and Sly said at the same time. “If this is a witch thing, and there’s certain death involved, maybe we should just wait outside, or down the block,” Slycontinued.
Peri narrowed her eyes on them. “Jewel said Volcan has your sister and your mate. That makes you a part of this. Sit your warlock butts down. And don’t think I won’t be going to Cypher and Lilly about this. You should have gone to them immediately instead of trying to take Volcan on byyourselves.”
Both males hung their heads, sufficiently chastised. Peri motioned for Jezebel tobegin.
“Four centuries ago, a woman was enticed by evil. She welcomed it as a mother welcomes a child and let that evil change her into something vile. She was the first of her kind—a witch. And she was also mysister.”
Anna’s eyes were wide as saucers when she looked at Peri. “Wait, didn’t you kill the last witch, with thewerewolves’help?”
“They did,” Jezebel interrupted. “My sister Desdemona was the first witch created and the last witch to die, and Peri helped do what needed to be done, what Icouldn’tdo.”
“I’m sorry Mom,” Anna saidgently.
“I lost her a long time ago,” Jezebel said. “The woman the wolves killed resembled nothing about the girl I had once loved in ouryouth.”
Jewel frowned. “If Desdemona was the first witch created, and the last to die, why didn’t she just make more while she was still alive … like we’re supposedtodo?”
“Keep listening,” Periinstructed.
“There was something that my sister kept secret from her evil creator. You see, people who crave power and dominion don’t share well with others. They may act like allies, but any relationship formed is only one of convenience. Mona had every intention of one day being more powerful than Volcan himself. And she knew that her knowledge would be the key to finally overtaking him. Desdemona discovered something through trial anderror.”
“The women who she didn’t change died?” Jewelinterrupted.
Jezebel shook her head. “No, that part is different this time around. The women she tried to convert that could not be changed went mad instead of dying. Whether it succeeded or failed, the evil she attempted to put into their blood took away any good that had been in them, leaving only the darkness that every person carries. Some became witches. The others went crazy without the balancing influence of goodness in theirlives.
“But what she eventually learned was this, in order for the spell to be successful, the potential new witch must have some familial connection with the creator. Now”—she held up her finger to stop the questions that were already forming on multiple lips—“the familial connection can come in many forms. Obviously, blood relations sufficed—I’m living proof of that. But a family in which a person is adopted into is also sufficient. Finally, a form of family exists that isn’t created by blood or legal proceedings, but rather through the choice of its members, not terribly unlike a pack of wolves. Sometimes, the bond in such a family can be even stronger than the family one is born oradoptedinto.
“In order for my sister to change a woman, she had to fit into one of those categories. If you had met my sister, you would know that she had few if any that fell into the last category. The vast majority of witches that were created and practicing before the Great Purge were our blood relatives. It didn’t matter how close they were, first cousin or eighty-fifth cousin. They just had to be family. So, when Mona was the last witch left alive, it meant she was the last, or nearly the last, of our bloodline. She believed me to be dead. Mona didn’t make more witches because she couldn’t get emotionally close enough to anyone in order for the magic to recognize them as herfamily.”
“Why did she think you were dead?” Annaasked.
“And why wasn’t all the goodness sucked out of you?” Jeweloffered.
“As for the second question, I have no idea. As far as I know, I’m the only one in our family who ever felt any remorse after being turned by Desdemona. “You two”—she indicated Jewel and Anna—“are clearly able to retain some of your goodness owing to your gypsy blood. Perhaps, I have some small speck of this in me as well, not enough to make me a healer, mind you, but just enough to allow me to retain some of my goodness. I never was exactly witch material,” Jezebel said with a sigh. “I didn’t desire power, nor did I enjoy the darkness that I could feel trying to take over inside of me. I was immediately ostracized from my family, and I was ready to take my own life, but then I met Perizada. She’d had a run-in with Mona and a few other witches. Mona had dragged me along, though she knew I wanted no part of it. A few days after that encounter, Peri came back to see me. She said she was curiousaboutme.”
Peri shook her head. “No, that is not what I said. What I said was, ‘You are a witch and Desdemona’s sister. Why the bloody hell are you not an evilwench?’”
“That sounds more like her,”Annasaid.
“Yes, that was what she said. And I said, ‘I don’t want to be like her.’ Peri told me she would help me. I asked her why, why would she want to help me, a witch. She said, and this time I quote, ‘Because if I don’t help you I’ll have to kill you one day, and I actually kind of like you. I try not to kill peopleIlike.’”
Everyone was laughing except for Z and Sly. Peri looked at them and smiled. “You don’t know me well enough to understand my humor, butyouwill.”
“Do we have to?” Z asked, which only made everyone laughharder.
“So what happened?” Anna asked. “How did Perihelpyou?”
