Auri gave a little flick of her fingers, and the tulip detached itself from the vine. I caught it. It was so light between my fingers. But it was real.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Sit down.” The words were gentle, but they weren’t a suggestion. I was wearing my emotions on my face again.
I stared at the tulip for several long breaths, counting the petals to try to calm my racing pulse.
“Where are the others?” I finally asked. There was no doubt we were alone. Maura would not have allowed such a fanciful use of power.
Auri’s fingers went back to work, this time weaving together several strands of a thick, verdant grass. “Maura spends much of her time in conference with the fae king. Elodie is her shadow.”
So, Elodie had stepped into the role that had been McKean’s. I was not surprised. Her power was very useful, especially in the Court of Lies. Maura could send Elodie anywhere, have her pretend to be anyone, and gain useful intel. I wondered if the fae king even knew the nature of my sister witch’s power.
At least I knew that it was Auri who sat across from me now. Elodie could steal Auri’s face, but she could not replicate her power. A witch’s power was tied directly to her manner of death. Even though their powers were both earth-bound, they manifested very differently. Auri had never confided the details of her own death.
Maura was fire-bound. She’d been burned alive. Ironic, for a witch. I was water-bound. Frozen to death in a stream. Once, all four binds had been represented in our coven. But with McKean’s death, the Midnight Coven no longer had an air-bound witch. But covens were rarely balanced between all four binds.
I counted the tulip petals again. Six. So many flowers had five. I found it comforting that my favorite flower did not conform to the pentagram. My power throbbed at the memory of the pentagram drawn in ash just a few rooms away.
I carefully lay the tulip on the table. It would be too easy to freeze the stem in my hand while I had this conversation.
“Auri,” I said, using the name she’d told me she preferred. It felt like a manipulation. No better than the Dark God. Mystomach clenched, but I kept going. “I need to know what Maura’s true purpose is. I know that she is creating a talisman. I need to know why.”
Auri was careful. She did not jerk suddenly or misplace a blade of the grass as she weaved it back and forth. She paused with purpose, but she did not look up.
“I am bound by the same covenants as you,” she said.
Her bright red curls were loose around her shoulders, in the preferred witch fashion. As she spoke, one fell forward to partially obscure one side of her face. It couldn’t have been intentional, but it felt convenient. She was hiding from me.
There was nothing unnatural about one sister witch speaking to another. But we both understood my implication. I wanted Auri to tell me Maura’s secrets. Auri was bound by the first witch covenant—allegiance to coven—just as I was. That meant doing as she was told by her head witch.
But Auri had fought against Maura’s edicts before, when she’d come to the forest before the Memory Gate to warn me. I had to convince her to fight them again.
I could not manipulate her. I was not like the Dark God. I could only offer her the truth.
“She tricked me into entering the Seven Gates. She bargained with the fae king, the mortal enemy of the witches, to bind me against my will to a fae prince and increase my chances of breaking Velora’s curse. But before I could complete them, she separated me from my familiar and brought me here.Shebroke the covenants. There must be a reason.”
There was no such thing as a good witch. I had to accept that. But Maura was evil. There was a difference between the two of us. I had to believe it, or I would not have the strength to keep going. I had to keep going. For Isanara and Kyrelle. For Garrick, whom I did not want to die despite my inability to trust him. Maybe even a little bit for myself.
Auri was silent for a long time.
My eyes dropped to the tulip on the table between us. I counted the petals again. Six, just as perfect as they were a minute ago.
“A witch at your mercy must answer three questions,” my sister witch finally said.
Hope burst to life in my chest. “You are brilliant, Auri.”
I would have to choose my words as carefully as Auri had in the throne room. She would still be bound by the covenants. Allegiance to coven would be the relevant one here. But she would also be compelled by the ancient power that Maura had revealed to the fae king. I’d been shocked by her betrayal at the time; now I was thankful for it.
My power hummed beneath my skin, eager even after the extreme expenditure only a few hours before. But I had to keep it carefully controlled, or I’d kill every living thing in this room. It would be a poor way to repay Auri’s loyalty.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Six petals on that precious, beautiful tulip. I inhaled, exhaled, and formed a dagger of ice in my palm. Crystals of ice rushed through my veins. One dagger wasn’t enough. Why not a sword? Or a storm of stalagmites to impale anyone who got in the way.
The Dark God was not even here, but it felt like his dark influence lingered.
But his was the ability to see and amplify, not to create. This came from me.
A fresh layer of frost coated the ice dagger in my hand.
