“No,” Glinda whispered in horrified denial.
“Vivian's place in Edinburgh,” Odin confirmed. “We searched her home and during the search, Slate was taken... by Vivian. She showed herself and I didn't understand why she would take that risk until we reached the top floor. We found both King Verin and Slate in the attic, which had been converted into a slaughter room.”
Osamu cursed in Japanese.
“A slaughter room?” Glinda clutched the neckline of her robe together. “How did you survive?”
“Elaria,” Odin said simply. “But I don't believe Vivian expected us to make it out alive. That's why she was confident enough to appear to us as herself.”
“But why?” Glinda wailed. “Why would Vivian do this?”
“I believe she may be after Elaria's goddess magic,” Odin said. “But I don't know for certain. We can interrogate her as soon as we find her. We should probably take teams from every family to hunt her. Vivian is—”
“Here,” Osamu cut him off.
“What?” Odin gaped at Osamu.
“Vivian got back a couple of hours ago,” Osamu clarified. “She's here, Odin. We don't have to hunt her.”
“She came back?” Odin asked in shock. “After all of that, she came backhere?”
“She must think that she can maintain her innocence,” Osamu concluded as he stood. “Whatever her reasoning, let's make the best of it.” He pulled out a cellphone and dialed. “This is Osamu, I want every witch on security patrol to meet me at Vivian Lake's rooms now!” He slid the phone back into his pocket and headed for the door. Halfway there, he looked over his shoulder. “Are any of you going to join me?”
We rushed after him.
Chapter Forty-Six
We barged into Vivian's suite without knocking, surged through her sitting room and bedroom, and strode into her workroom with a group of witches at our back. Vivian was there, talking with another woman. A woman I recognized.
“Eleanor?” Slate stepped forward and scowled at the other woman. “What are you doing here?”
“Eleanor,” I whispered as things started to click. “Sweet Persephone, it wasyou.”
“What?” Eleanor frowned, looking back and forth between Slate and me. “What are you talking about?”
“I didn't know that you were a Water Witch,” I tried to get it all out before Odin mistakenly accused Vivian of crimes I was now certain that Eleanor—blonde, fair-skinned, and Slate's ex-lover—had committed. “And you live in Slate's zone. You could have taken something of mine and used it to enhance Vivian's spell. Hell, you could have grabbed something of Verin's there too. Who knows what he left behind after the battle. You wanted me to leave Slate so you crafted a charm to jack-up Vivian's spell into obsessive levels, didn't you?”
“Elaria, what... oh!” Eleanor's eyes went wide and swept downward. “No, you don't understand.”
“Oh, but I think I do,” I snarled. “Even with the love spell enhanced, you couldn't be certain that it wouldn't wear off eventually so you came up with a backup plan—one that included a Greek monster. You were in the Zone during the battle, you must have heard all of the gossip about what happened when I was Gargo's prisoner. You knew that Scylla would jump at the chance to kill me so you went into the Atlantic and bargained with her. Had she already gone after Triteia when you colluded with her or was that a part of the plan as well? You wouldn't want it to be obvious that I was her main target, not my cousin.”
“You're a dead woman,” Slate growled and lurched forward.
Torin grabbed Slate and held him back, “Let Elaria finish. She needs this.”
Eleanor's stare went to Vivian—who had gotten to her feet and stood staring at Eleanor as if she couldn't believe what was happening—and then swung back to me in horror. “Elaria, I'm not—”
“When Scylla failed to kill me, you realized that you had to up your game,” I cut her off. “But you weren't strong enough to face my allies and me in a fair fight. You needed a way to bring us to you—to get us on your playing field. So, you broke into Vivian's home and built a slaughter room, then you took Verin as bait to lure us there. And when we arrived, you used your illusion potion to make yourself look like Vivian, then grabbed Slate—ensuring that he'd be safe while making Vivian look guilty. So, if we did manage to survive, we'd be pointing the finger at Vivian, not you.”
“I'm not—” Eleanor started to shout.
“It was you who took my keys!” Vivian's voice drowned out Eleanor's. “All of this time we've spent working together, crafting the ultimate illusion potion, and I thought you simply wanted the fame that would come with that. But that's not at all what you were after. You needed the potion and a scapegoat, didn't you? Were you trying to set me up for this from the beginning or was I simply convenient?”
“I will fucking kill you, you little traitor!” Eleanor screeched and cast out her hand.
Vivian ducked as a stream of water thinned into a blade and shot at her head. Odin and Osamu leapt for Eleanor, restraining her with hands and magic while my guys got Vivian out of range. They pushed her back, behind the wall of security witches, who then formed an impenetrable barrier in case Eleanor tried to run.
“I can't believe this was all about getting an ex-boyfriend back.” I shook my head at her. “You're a fucking lunatic.”
