And the dagger— “Air,” I confirmed. “Each of the four binds of witch power.”
“So, Maura made a talisman for each of the four binds?” Garrick was trying to put together the pieces because I was too fraught to do it myself.
I managed a nod. “Yes, but… no.” My power swirled inside of me. It was not any one sensation that I could put a name to, just a wrongness. I had not touched the talismans before. ButI forced myself to, then, one by one, turning them over in my hands until I was sure.
I set down the last one and turned to look up at Syleris. There was so much I wanted to infuse into that look. But I did not need to. He knew exactly what was in my mind. And my soul.
“Do you want to explain?” I asked.
Syleris’ only acknowledgment was his words. “A witch’s power is determined by her death. When she resurrects, her new power falls within one of the four binds. She is only able to cast spells within that bind, unless she allies herself with a sister witch.”
I turned back to the talismans laid out in a line on the brick floor.
“These two are finished.” I motioned to the salt cellar and the signet ring first. Then the two others, the dagger and the comb. “But these two have not been consecrated—no spell has been said over them. And they have not been charged. They are inactive. Little more than what they appear to be?—”
Dessert.Isanara’s forked tongue darted out from between her fangs.
You cannot eat the talismans.
Wasn’t your goal to destroy them?
When there was only one, yes.
Had that plan changed? I did not think so. But there was still some part of this plot that I was not seeing. Not clearly. Not yet.
Garrick pointed to the dagger and the comb. “Why didn’t she consecrate these two?”
“Because she couldn’t.” I sighed. My throat was very dry. Maybe some water would help ease the headache. But I pressed on. We were building toward something, and I could feel the importance. My power nearly screamed it. “Maura is fire-bound. Elodie and Auri are both earthbound. I am water-bound. And the air… I killed the only air-bound witch left in Velora.”
“When we made our bargain,” Syleris said. But we all knew. Both of them understood what I’d done, and they’d still chosen me.
A new sort of overwhelm threatened me.
Garrick cleared his throat. “The green witch told you that Maura was after power and protection.”
I did the same, trying to speak around the emotions. “Yes. These symbols here, beside the marking for the bind—that is a protection rune.”
Garrick hummed. “But why four? If they are so powerful… surely one would be enough.”
“Maybe now, with magic and power constrained as they are by the curse. But if we conquer the Seven Gates… who knows,” I said. I did not have an answer.
It was a good question, and one I’d been mulling. Along with one other. One that might change everything. But it was almost midnight. “We must find Auri. I think I know what is happening.”
CHAPTER 49
KORYN
“Won’t she be above,with the rest of your coven?” Garrick asked as he followed me around the curves of Balar Shan.
I shook my head. Certainty was not an experience I was familiar with, but I trusted the sense of rightness. My power rose and fell in icy waves beneath my skin, each crest a confirmation of what I already knew.
By now, I knew the route to the apartments the Midnight Coven had been given in the center of the tower. The music of the masquerade continued above, the fae making their hypocritical offerings and celebrating the Winter Tithe. But my focus had shifted.
For the first time, I felt something I’d thought could not exist in Balar Shan. Hope.
Syleris had disappeared. He showed himself only to Garrick and me. Only the masks and the crowd had allowed him to be with us like that in the presence chamber. But I knew he would be paying attention to the conversation between Auri and me, even if he was not physically present.
He was darkness. But he wasmydarkness. And I was slowly learning that I could not hide from it, or from him. Bad choices did not make a person bad. Good people did not make onlygood choices. I could live with the duality in Garrick. Loving him meant accepting it. Now I had to do the same for myself.
