A feral growl rumbled in Ael’s chest. All these years, Tahti knew his mother was alive, and she never told him. “Why did you never fucking tell me? And why did you leave your house? You play too many fucking games!”
The witch shrugged. “I had more important things to do. But I left my book for Seda to find?—”
Kalon cleared his throat, and they all looked at him.
“Hello, Tahti,” he said from the ground with a broad grin on his irritating face. “How have the millennia of nightmares been since you stole from me?”
Tahti seethed and pointed a bony finger at him. “You! Why areyouhere?”
“Oh, you know… just here to collect the stone for Seda. The stone you stole fromme,” he said. “Do you recall? Or has your mind finally given out after all these years?”
“The stone isn’t yours, asshole,” Ael replied, his irritation with Tahti now doubling with Kalon’s voice in the mix. He was right. Kalon wanted the stone. Why wouldn’t Seda just allow him to kill the man?
Kalon winked at him.
“You two know each other?” Seda interrupted, looking between Kalon and Tahti.
“Tahti and I used to… be friends,” Kalon said with a pause and a chuckle. “Get me out of this mess, Fae witch, and I’ll forgive your transgressions and no longer haunt you when you use your magic.”
The witch’s eyes narrowed as she looked down at him. She spat on the ground and smiled widely, showcasing her dark, sharpened teeth.
“You should really get those checked out,” Kalon said as he grimaced at her rotting mouth.
“Enough!” Seda snapped, glancing at him before turning her attention back to Tahti. “Release my friends from this hold. We’ll not harm her. We’re here to collect the stone and leave. The stoneyoutold me I needed. Where is it?”
Tahti waved her hand in the air, dismissing Seda. “We have things to discuss first. The stone belongs to Misandra, or as you know her, La Uma. You came here looking for a fight, thinking you needed to kill a monster, but that’s not the case, child. Not everything in this life is brute force or fear.” She looked to Ael’s mother and motioned her over.
The spider’s body gradually moved closer, her eyes fixed on Ael. He swallowed hard. How did he not realize she was still alive? All this time… he could have spent it with her, could have come to her when she needed him. She didn’t need to be alone in this cave like she was. She had been here for hundreds of years, wasting away in this cold cavern.
Tahti grabbed the severed head from Sacha and tossed it toward La Uma. “This one betrayed the balance. This one tried to hurt an innocent. We offer him to the Amethyst Wrath.”
Both Tahti and Sacha bowed before his mother, and her emerald-colored eyes began to change, swirling into a white hurricane.
The severed head’s eyes shot open, and it began to moan loudly.
“Find a place for him. His pain will continue to power the yanantin,” Misandra softly said.
Ael looked at her in confusion. Why did she bring these beings back to life only to condemn them to eternal pain and suffering?
Sacha grabbed the beast’s head from her maw and backed intothe entryway, telling it through muffled words, “You brought this upon yourself.”
Tahti wiped her hands on her worn dress. She looked at Seda and sighed. “You are powerful, child. You’ve gotten past our suppression spell. I’m quite pleased. You’ll need that to move forward.”
“What do you mean?” Seda asked.
“To defeat the evil in this world, we need strength. But not only that—we needcompassion. The world is unbalanced, and malevolent beings with sinister plans are rising. Not everything is what it seems. Some of the beings you call monsters are just part of nature. Have you seen that yet?” Tahti took a deep breath and pointed to Misandra. “You set out to kill a monster, but what happened? She isn’t a monster at all. She’s a testament to perseverance. She was wronged and torn from her child, and now devotes herself to our cause. You must do the same. You must return the yanantin to this world. It’s why you were created, why you werereborn.”
What the fuck?Ael thought, looking at the woman like she was bat shit crazy.
“Hold up,” he interrupted. “What do you mean by ‘reborn’? I swear if this is another trick of yours…”
A long pause followed, and Tahti glanced up at his mother. She nodded at her.
His mother walked into a dark alcove and returned, holding the same dark-blue, diamond-shaped gemstone he remembered from his childhood.
She spoke, interrupting the silence, “This is not her first life. She’s aguardian, my Cahir—the key to the Celestial Vault, Bearer of Moonlight, and Arbiter of Eternal Justice. The crystal is hers to take, to bring her wrath upon this imbalanced world. We, the Coven of the Wilds, are mere subjects to the cause, spanning across a multitude of species. Doing what we can to aid the Mother Goddess. And you, my Cahir, were born to help her.”
She smiled at him and held the stone out to Seda. The rippling blue light cascaded around the room, highlighting everyone in dancing blue ribbons.
