I roused myself from a restless sleep, dressed only in my linen shift. My sisters rose around me. Most of them had been sleeping, as well. Only Elodie was fully dressed, her red and black velvet gown trailing across the ground as she walked. A thick fur mantle fell from her shoulders. Of all my sisters, Elodie was the only one who dressed this way—like a high-ranking noble, rather than the servant she had been in life.
The soft lines and shimmering velvet accentuated her sharp features and the razor-straight cut of her black hair. My sister could take on any face she pleased, but I’d always found her own the most terrifying. The complete lack of emotion—be it anger or excitement or sadness—was more eerie than any mask.
Like the lady she played, she did not drag the man herself. I recognized the spell that she used to haul him along, one in her repertoire as an earth-bound witch.
Our active powers were determined by the manner of our death. But unless we had our sisters’ chanting along with us, the spells we cast must belong to our sacred bind. I’d frozen to death and been gifted with frost I could mold into ice and snow. I was a water-bound witch.
When she reached the center of the cave, she released her prisoner.
The man’s face was covered in scratches that still oozed. One of his legs stuck out at an unnatural angle. A fragment of bone was visible through one of his battered fingers.
Without speaking, the rest of us fell into place. There was no need for discussion. One of our sisters had brought this man to us for judgment. His crime would be heard, and the coven would punish him. We each took our spots on one of the points of the pentagram etched into the stone in lines of solid gold.
Aurienna had woken from slumber as well. She caught my eye as we took our positions on opposite sides of the pentacle. Her red hair hung in loose curls past her shoulders, nearly to herwaist. She, too, wore a loose linen shift and bare feet. She was even close to my age, dead in her early twenties, resurrected only a decade before me.
But the chasm between us was immense.
Aurienna had mastered her power quickly. She controlled the vines and the pines with equal ease. Could whisper a few words and turn an otherwise innocuous tea deadly. She did not hesitate to use her power for the good of the coven.
She controlled the gifts the Dark God had given her.
She was not controlled by them.
Maura appeared last. She wore black, as always, accented with bits of gold. A black linen shift embroidered with gold thread. A black brocade overdress trimmed in decadent black leather and fastened with gold and mother-of-pearl clasps. Every piece was carefully chosen to accentuate her harsh natural beauty. The black she wore matched the lustrous cloud of tight black curls that just brushed her shoulders. The warm gold contrasted the cool undertones of her porcelain-white skin.
A beautiful nightmare.
Elodie waited only for Maura to step into place before speaking. “I found this man filching berries from coven lands. When I confronted him, he attacked.” I searched Elodie’s face and body for any indication of injury and found none. “And then he tried to run.”
With those few words, she’d laid three crimes at the man’s feet. The punishment for each was the same. My stomach clenched. I hated being woken from sleep, but in that moment, I was grateful I had not yet eaten breakfast.
In a hundred years, I had seen this scenario play out dozens of times. But still it had not become routine.
Elodie threw back her fur mantle, freeing her hands to accept the dagger that Maura had ready. Elodie had caught him, so hislife was hers to take. We all must stand witness, but she would do the task. And she preferred it bloody.
Her expression remained blank as she approached. I felt the ice begin to form in my veins. I tried to soothe it back to sleep, forcing deep breaths in and out of my chest.
But when Elodie brought the point to the man’s chest, just below the clavicle, something inside of me snapped free.
“Maybe he is willing to pay your price.”
It was the only escape. The same one I’d offered to Rowellyn in the glade all those years ago. The price was Elodie’s to set. But if the man was willing to pay it, he could walk away. Few humans knew the covenants of witches. They did not know to ask for this stay.
Every one of my sisters looked at me. I’d felt the weight of their gazes so many times before. Their disappointment.
Maura’s mouth twitched into a frown. The others spanned a mix of confusion and disbelief. But Elodie, as always, was unruffled. She stared at me for several seconds, the point of her knife still pressed against the trembling man’s chest.
“Maybe he is.” With a single quick movement, she took the man’s hand and pressed the dagger into it. She did not step away. Despite the earlierattack, she did not distance herself from the man she’d now armed with a knife. She gestured downward. “Cut it off.”
He shook his head, not understanding. His entire body shook, even as he clung to the knife like the lifeline it was. “What? I…”
Elodie gestured again. This time, there was no confusion. “Cut it off.”
Horror stole the man’s features, distorting them until they were unrecognizable. “No,” he cried, tears pouring down his cheeks.
Elodie had died for the love of a man. Betrayed by one.
I should have known better. I should have known this would be her price.
