“I am your sister,” she said quietly. “I always have been… and I always will be.”
She melted away into the rising dawn, the trees answering to her command as they whisked her away.
I watched until I could not hear or see or sense her with any of the Dark God’s gifts.
You must not give in. That is what the Auri in my dreams had whispered. But it was only a dream, brought on by infection and riddled with nonsensical hallucinations.
But paired with her words tonight… it made an ominous warning.
CHAPTER 62
BEFORE
I should have waitedanother year or two. Maura was going to find out. She’d only sent me over the mountains to fetch the palmarosa that the priestesses and priests grew in their gardens for use in the temples. The temples were the only place where the plant still reliably grew.
Instead of harvesting the plant and slipping back across the mountains, I’d journeyed south. I carefully kept out of sight of the southern road and did not encounter any humans.
But with every footstep, the words echoed in my ears.
I should have waited.
I should have waited.
I should have waited.
Another prolonged absence from the coven lands, less than two years after my last, was too suspicious. Maura was going to find out, and then I would have doomed not only myself, but Kyna as well. Maura would kill her to teach me a lesson and finally separate me from my past.
My chest ached with the effort as I climbed the last bluff between me and the sea. Once I reached the top, I would be able to see the cottage. I counted out the months on my fingers,pressing each one into my thigh as I ticked them off. The child should be nearly a year old. If it had survived.
I should have waited.
I should have prayed to the Dark God for Kyna’s baby to be healthy. Instead, I’d begged him to carry her away from Velora by whatever means necessary. If that meant losing her husband and the life growing inside of her, at least she would be safe from Velora’s curse.
But what I should have done did not matter, because with my next step, I crested the hill that overlooked the sea. There was the little cottage, perched on the bluff. Sand blew between the golden grasses. Once, they’d been green and thick with seabirds. For someone who had never seen the landscape in the time before, I knew the mixture of gold and blue must seem beautiful. For me, it only ratcheted up my worry.
The cottage looked the same. The thatched roof was in good repair, as were the walls. I was too far away to see the decorative seashells tucked into the grooves of plaster between the stones. But the walls themselves looked straight and sturdy.
Every window was closed tight.
Kyna liked them open, even before she’d met the man who’d chained her to this continent. I summoned up his name from the dredges of my memory. Merrick.
I walked faster. The chorus in my mind shifted. I should not have waited so long. To a witch, two years was nothing. But humans were so fragile.
Merrick’s boat bobbed in the harbor, the deck conspicuously empty. Why wasn’t he out fishing?
I should not have waited so long.
Ice filled my chest, sending shivers down my limbs. I broke into a run.
I was close enough to see the seashells.
I forgot to knock on the door. It wasn’t locked.
I blinked into the dark interior, my senses struggling to sort out the details as they flooded over me. A fire blazed in the hearth—unnecessary with the spell I’d placed on it to keep the water and ice out. Kyna knew that.
But Kyna was not there.
She was not at the worktable slicing bread, nor in the chair that faced the window. My throat closed as I spun to the bed in the corner. The curtain was closed. I ripped it aside, but there was no one there, either. Just a rumpled pile of blankets.
