“I am many things,” she admitted with a chuckle, taking my hand gently as she guided me further into her realm. “A coven leader. A mother. A protector. Most importantly, though, I know you want to know something about that Castle leader. So ask, my sweet witch.”
I let her sit me down on a chair that looked transparent, the same current running under it, while she took another opposite me.
I sank into it with ease. My muscles relaxed, and for the first time in months, I felt like I could drift off into a deep sleep.
Not one plagued with nightmares.
“We haven’t seen any markings on him, but he is getting stronger.”
Her smile never changed, like she knew exactly what I was going to ask. Because she did. I had seen that look on the seer in my coven many times over.
“Then it isn’t witch lives he is taking,” she said. “And I think you know that.”
I gritted my teeth.Do I, though?I wasn’t so sure I knew much of anything anymore.
“I don’t know much about these rituals.”
“Don’t you?” she asked, leaning forward. Her eyes dug into me. “In your memories, isn’t there something you witnessed that might provide you with some answers?”
My parents’ murder flashed before my eyes. I clenched my fists against the rage building up in me. I was so comfortable in the chair, mind unperturbed by anything else, that the memories seemed clear. More painful than before.
“That was different. My coven?—”
“Ex-coven,” she corrected. I didn’t know why that sent a pang through my chest.
“He didn’t have markings either,” I said quickly.
Morgan just stared at me. Long enough for me to realize what I had said.
I cursed and looked down at the ground. A stray fish caught my eye. Unease traveled through me. Vesper and Aurelia tried to fight it through the bond, but it was too much without their presence.
“I don’t want to go back,” I whispered, hating how weak I sounded.
I was weak. I couldn’t save Vesper by myself. Couldn’t save Aurelia. I was a burden to them both, and now I was sitting with a coven leader talking about things I really shouldn’t.
“But someone is waiting for you. He went through a great deal to save all three of you. Don’t you think you should return the favor?”
I looked up at her to protest, but my eyes caught sight of something that had been banned for at least a decade. A single orb, bright red fire raging inside it.
My mind flashed to the dream the seer sent me.
The coven will burn.
Was that a message for me? A warning? And was Morgan giving me the keys to something unthinkable?
“If you want to enact your revenge, it’s possible. But I ask that you save him.” She gave me a long look, then whispered in the most broken voice.“Please.”
Only then did I see the resemblance between her and the boy in my dreams. It wasn’t the color of their hair or their eyes, but their features. The way they looked on with a soft, knowing gaze.
“His mother?”
She shook her head.
“His aunt. I watched my sister die to save him from that monster you once called coven leader. Our entire family was born with the power to see the future and has been hunted since. I am asking you to save him for her. Bring him back to me.”
My mind stalled. Had the seers been leading me to this moment in an attempt to get one of their own free?
Now I’m starting to know how Vesper felt when she realized her entire life had been controlled by people behind the scenes.
