I’m just going to send you memes until you wake up. Fuck knows you’ll probably need a laugh.
Of the nearly thirty memes and gifs I scroll past, the ones he clearly made himself are my favorite. The group chat with Tori, Evie, and Brynne is next
Tori Hektreia
Nyx I just heard—are you okay??
Brynne Pembroke
Babe, she just nerfed the school wards with her epiphaneia. At best she’s freaking out. You know how well she handles change. And emotions. Lol.
Evie Hektreia
They’re calling in everyone who can wield primordial magic to fortify the wards again. We’re all going.
Tori Hektreia
Don’t worry about getting in trouble. This kind of thing happens all the time.
Tori Hektreia
Well, no it doesn’t, but everyone knows how dangerous epiphaneia’s are. They can’t expel you for something you had no control over especially when they brought you here in the first place.
Evie Hektreia
Mom just said there’s going to be a Council hearing.
Brynne Pembroke
Oh Nyx’s going to love that.
Tori Hektreia
It’s okay, she’ll take care of everything.
Mmmm yeah. I’ll believe it when I see it. As I scroll and see Thane and Killian’s names pop up, I don’t take my own advice, because why the fuck are they texting me?
Thane Rorvik
Are you okay? Mercer called me in to help with Luther and told me you’re here too.
Killian Hastings
That was a hell of a show, baby girl. 10/10, no notes.
Unknown
Congratulations on surviving your epiphaneia.
This is Roth.
I drop my phone onto the bed like it’s just burned me and stare at it, half expecting Roth to text me again just because he knows I’ll freak the fuck out. After a quick text to Milo and the girls group chat to let them know I made it back to my room, I put my phone on silent without responding to the others.
Instead, I brace myself for whatever Brandt’s research turned up. Which is practically nothing—the first document is mostly just citations from texts where Bloodwitches were mentioned, mostly legends and tales, except the one about the creation of vampires. It’s a gruesome account from the housemaid who found the witch drained of blood and limbs strewn around her destroyed cottage. Whoever wrote it down emphasized the witch’s missing grimoire, and my stomach drops.
I’ve caught bits and pieces from Tori, Evie, and Brynne about witchy stuff like that. Every coven has a grimoire that tracks family trees, members, and historical events, and also things that they’ve discovered or created like spells, rituals, potion recipes. With the Hektreia coven surviving hundreds of generations, theirs is like… the witch equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. If a Bloodwitch was powerful enough tosingle-handedly create an entirely new magical species, even accidentally, what else could be in her grimoire?
Unfortunately, there’s nothing about where Bloodwitch powers to come from—no mention of being passed down through generations or otherwise inherited. But I begin to notice a pattern the more I read—no matter where a Bloodwitch appears throughout history, there’s a ripple effect through time. Sometimes the world changes for the better. Most of the time for worse.
