Fifty-Nine
We’re alive,I think, watching Charlotte tug her clothes to rights and look around bemusedly.Somehow, we’re all alive.I want to hug my best friend, to hold her close. And I will, as soon as I can find the strength to move. For now, I let Donovan hold me, reveling in the knowledge that my curse has been lifted. That the awful vision of him drowning in the blood tide, of his death on what should’ve been one of the happiest days of our lives, didn’t come true.
We stopped it, together. When I was out of control, when the power of the ley lines threatened to destroy me and everyone around me, he saved me from myself. It was his gift that sapped the Blood Witches of their power. His ability that stabilized the ley lines.
Together, he and I can accomplish anything.
The knowledge that I’m no longer alone—that this beautiful, stubborn, impossible man risked everything for me—courses through my body like sweet, drugging wine. I twine my fingers through his, never wanting to let him go, and he holds on just as tightly.
“Rune.” Mrs. Fontaine emerges from the crowd and rushes to my side, her gaze flicking over every inch of me. “Iris.Sweet girl. I was so afraid we were going to lose you.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, even though shivers run through me from head to foot. The after-effects of shock, I guess. A girl doesn’t channel the power of countless greedy ley lines, have her curse revoked, discover mysterious secrets about the man she’s fated to marry, watch her boss die right in front of her, and learn she has the power to make the world bend to her bidding every day. I think I’ve earned the right to shake a little.
She eyes me doubtfully, the way she always used to when I told her I knewexactlywhere that misplaced library book was, cross my heart and hope to die. One of her silver brows arches in an unmistakable gesture of skepticism.
“And you,” she says to Donovan. “Clearly there is more to you than meets the eye.”
“I—” Donovan starts, but he’s interrupted by Mrs. Hernandez.
“Louise!” she snaps. “We could use a little help here!”
Mrs. Fontaine looks over her shoulder at her fellow Sinsters, who are standing in front of the assembled Blood Witches, faces fixed in identical expressions of disgust. Cooper strides toward them, a trickle of blood running down his cheek. He catches Donovan’s eye, then gives him one of those guy-nods. Even though I don’t speak fluent Officer Asshat, I can interpret it just fine.We have a lot to talk about,that nod says.But I’m here for it if you are.
He’s obnoxious, yes. But I don’t hate him anymore. I can’t. When it counted, he came through. He saved Donovan’s life. If he hadn’t played the role of double agent so well, if he hadn’t acted when he did, Donovan wouldn’t be holding me right now. He’d be dead, and I’d be a prisoner of whatever these monsters wanted to do with me next.
A sob escapes me as Mrs. Fontaine walks away, and Donovan strokes my face, his fingertips rough but his touch gentle. “Hey. It’s over,” he whispers against my hair. “We’re alive. We’re going to be okay.”
Cradled in his arms, sniffing back tears, I watch Cooper confront the Blood Witches. Next to him stand the Sinsters, their expressions grim. “Cavea ad tenebras continendas,”they chant in unison as soon as Mrs. Fontaine joins them, and those fiery chains emanate from their fingertips once more. The chains bind the Blood Witches where they stand, keeping them from fleeing.
“All of you colluded in dragging Rune and Donovan to this retreat under false pretenses,” Cooper accuses, pacing in front of them. “You tricked the entire magical population of Sapphire Springs into coming up here, even those who didn’t know they possessed magical blood, and then stole their free will. And you tested their blood without their knowledge, obtaining access to privileged medical information and using it for your own gain. Make no mistake, High Priestess Marilyn will try you for your crimes.”
Georgia snarls at him, fighting the fiery chains that bind her. “You killed Ethan. The murder of a Blood Witch scion is no small thing. When the Scion on High finds out about this, there will be no place on earth you can hide from her vengeance.”
“Youwould have killed my brother.” Cooper’s lip curls, and Donovan’s arms tighten around me. “And how, exactly, do you think your precious Scion will find out? Certainly, you’re not going to be the one to tell her.”
“What do you mean? I’ll tell her every last?—”
Mrs. Grant steps forward, away from her fellow Sinsters. “Jenny,” she says, turning toward the crowd. “Come here, please.”
I watch, perplexed, as Jenny breaks away from the milling residents. “You want to alter their memories, I assume,” she says, coming to a halt at Mrs. Grant’s side.
My jaw drops. Sweet, kind Jenny, who’d always stood up for me, who runs the animal shelter, who I’ve known since I was a little kid—she’s a witch? I saw in the database she had Coven blood, but this is different. All along, she’s known who she was, that she had power?
Mrs. Grant nods, the gesture matter-of-fact. “There are a lot of them, but together, we can do it. I’ll call their memories of tonight to the surface; you alter them. We’ll do it for this scum first”—she jerks her head at the Blood Witches—“then for the rest of them. It’ll be a mercy.”
“What the hell?” Donovan sounds as shocked as I feel. “They can do that?”
“I guess they can,” I say, watching as Jenny sets her shoulders in determination. “This is almost as new to me as it is to you. Until I saved Cooper from that damned bus, I thought I was the only one who was…different. Every day since then has been a revelation.”
He holds me tighter still. “Yes,” he murmurs, his voice a low, delicious rumble. “It certainly has.”
“Cooper,” Mrs. Hernandez says, without dropping her hands. Those fiery cords still emanate from them, holding the Blood Witches in place. “Donovan. We’ll need you to move these bodies. Once everyone’s memories have been altered, seeing a couple of corpses will prove more than distracting. It’ll be traumatic, and we’ll have to start all over again.”
“God forbid something traumatic should happen,” Donovan mumbles, getting to his feet and pulling me up with him. “Just another day, right? Analyze some data, move some dead bodies… You’ll be okay here?”
“Yeah,” I tell him, realizing it’s the truth. “I will.”
I watch as Donovan makes his way through the dusk, navigating by the light of the fiery bonds that hold the Blood Witches. He kneels by Mina’s body first, then touches her face, closing her eyes. She was his grandmother, after all, and in the end she sacrificed herself to save us all. If she hadn’t lifted my curse and I hadn’t been able to channel the power of the lines, we’d be facing a very different scenario right now. I close my own eyes, giving a moment of gratitude for her sacrifice, no matter what she did to me.
