Then I heard her say, “Let their meaning be clear. Let the language she does not know be the voice inside her head, inside her heart. Let the spell book bring her near. The old way is the true way.”
The witch pulled her hand away, and I opened my eyes just in time to see her flinch in pain. A slicing pulse cut through me as well, stealing my breath in a single gasp. I stumbled back, and Shiksa pressed into me even more, seeming to somehow absorb part of the blow.
The Bog Witch doubled over, losing her poise for the first time since we’d run into her, and said, “Your power is... too much. You are not the moon, but the sun.” Her ragged breaths scraped through her chest as she struggled to stand upright once more. She glanced fearfully between Katrinka and me, a new fear twisting her features. “Your mother and aunt were pale moons that destroyed what they touched instead of saving it. If you two, as bright as the sun is in the sky, fail at what you set out to do, you will not just destroy a family. You will destroy us all. The land will never recover from your scorching.”
Fear, cold and raw, burst to life in my blood. I shared another look with Katrinka and wondered what she thought of all this. “What did you do?” I asked the witch.
“Gave you true sight. The grimoire is yours to use now.” She stepped back, her eyes flickering to the sky in a nervous sort of way. “The magic called to them. They’re on their way.”
“Who?” Katrinka asked.
Shiksa had begun to look at the sky in the same way, afraid, cowering.
“The Raven Queen’s army.”
She meant Ravanna. I didn’t know if it was true sight or the evidence I’d gathered on my own, but I knew the Raven Queen was my aunt.
“Go,” the Bog Witch ordered. “Tell her of none of this. And do not share the grimoire with her. There must be two, but she would cut you both down and take it for herself.”
“Take what for herself?”
“The Seat of Power. The Crown of Nine. The Crown of Sight. The realm. The sky. The sea. All of it. She will take it all and swallow it whole.”
The steady beating in my chest became a wild roar. I clutched Katrinka’s hand as the air seemed to come alive with movement. Wings flapping. Birds cawing. A swarm of ravens so thick and numbered, they seemed to blot out the sun in the distance.
“Go!” the Bog Witch shouted. “Go, before it’s too late.”
Movement on the ground too. The people of the bog who had been in poor hiding while she told us her tales began running away from this place. They fled all at once, surprising me with their number and ability to stay hidden in the feral land of the marsh.
“What about the Crown of Sight?” Katrinka demanded, her feet planted firmly where we stood. “How can we find the dead place where it lives?”
I had nearly forgotten about this second crown. And had yet to understand why it was even important. We had the Crown of Nine, which secured the realm. What other crown was out there? And why had no one else heard of it?
“It’s closer than you think,” she said, swirling her arms in a purposeful kind of way. “But I cannot help you find it. Send the fox. Or let it find you. Now go. I will hold them off for as long as I can.”
Our feet seemed to release at the same time, whether held by fear or by magic we had only just noticed. Both Katrinka and I turned and fled back the way we came. Shiksa leaped from my arms and sprinted ahead, seemingly wanting us to follow.
Not knowing what else to do, we did. She found the driest paths and the surest footholds. She avoided low-hanging branches and other obstructions, quickly leading us back the way we’d come.
There was a great cacophony behind us. The sound of birds screeching and wind rushing. I dared not look back while we moved so quickly forward. Something unseen urged Katrinka and me on. An urgent need, a new purpose, an old magic we had only just met. Maybe all three. Maybe more than just those.
And then, out of a wall of fog, just like the Blood Woods and our own castle grounds, we stepped back into Fenwick Keep’s gardens. Our feet touched smooth, black cobblestone again, and the trees beyond the fog seemed to set themselves right once more.
We did not speak as we caught our breath on the steady walk back to the castle. No one seemed to have been looking for us, nor had we set off any sort of panic. The gardens and castle were as empty and quiet as we’d left them hours before.
The only difference was the one singular raven that landed right in front of us once we were nearly inside the castle. Katrinka screamed in surprise, but it only cocked its head and danced around on its little bird feet before taking flight again.
We clutched each other once more and then hugged each other.
“What does any of that mean?” she rasped in my hair.
I trembled against her, my mind racing to understand all that had just happened. Meeting a Bog Witch on any day would have been enough to upend the natural order in which I understood the world.
But what she’d assumed about me. About Katrinka. What she’d...revealedabout us both. How did she know us? How did she know so much about my mother and Ravanna?
Ravanna, who was my aunt.
Ravanna, who was the Raven Queen.
