The birdlike woman swallowed hard and kept her eyes on the table. “There are few in the Pleasure District who can escape her, Lady Jessamine. Fortuna runs this entire district with a heavy hand, and if I had said nothing, she would have destroyed my home. She’d have someone come in and ransack the whole place. It would be impossible for me to escape her.”
Her heart shattered into a million pieces. It hurt to know that someone who she had blindly trusted was so willing to give her up. There should have been some kind of warning. They’d helped Elissa. They’d given her the power to become a witch on her own, so she didn’t have to fear what Fortuna would do to her. All of these things were a blessing.
But then Jessamine remembered that they had terrified her as well. Elissa had been fine here without them. She’d thought that nothing could stand between her and the world, and that gods weren’t real. They’d all died, and knowing that she was wrong in that aspect must have been more terrifying than losing her life. But there was something inside of her that remained faithful to Fortuna.
A terrible feeling burst to life, one she almost felt guilty for even feeling. But without a god at their side, she was not sure they would succeed in this. Fortuna had loyalty on her side. True, real loyalty that was far beyond what Jessamine had yet to inspire. If Elissa was so willing to betray them like this, when she’d thought they had built something together, had Fortuna already won? No. Not this time.
Fortuna might have her foot on the throats of those who followed her. She might inspire fear in their hearts and was certainly more dangerous at this moment, butshe was not a witch.
Jessamine caught Elric’s gaze behind Elissa, and froze. All of his magic had slid free from his shoulders. The shadows stretched from his shoulder blades and caught onto the rafters above him, onto the door, the windows, sticky ink forming the wings of a predator. He was a monster hovering behind a witch, ready to give her the retribution she deserved for betraying them.
But Jessamine still had hope that not all was lost. Because Elissa still wouldn’t look at them. She kept her gaze far from any of their faces, and her body spoke of guilt as much as it spoke of fear.
Jessamine shook her head at the massive god behind Elissa, who would choose to end her life rather than save it. Elissa didn’t need revenge right now. What she needed was a family to make her feel safe.
Standing, Jessamine walked over to a bundle of sticks that Elissa must use for some of the birdcages. There were many of them, each in different sizes and thicknesses and different kinds of wood. She picked them all up in her hands, slowly returning to the table. Elissa flinched, as though afraid she was going to whack her with the sharp ends.
Instead, Jessamine chose a thin branch and placed it in front of her. “Break it.”
“What?” Elissa looked up at her.
“Break the stick, Elissa.”
She looked between Jessamine and Sybil, her eyes wide and full of fear. Clearly, the young witch thought this was a setup. That as soon as she broke the stick, Sybil might launch at her. Or perhaps Jessamine would snap her fingers and the barely leashed god behind her would snap her neck.
Still, Elissa lifted her shaking hands and took hold of either end of the stick. With a soft movement, she broke the stick.
“Lovely.” Jessamine took the two pieces of that stick and added two more. “Try breaking them now.”
Elissa did, but it took her a little more effort to do so.
She handed her another stick to add to the bundle, this one black as night and thicker than the other four. “Now try again with this one.”
Elissa added the stick to the rest, failed, and then looked up at her with confusion in her gaze. “Why am I doing this?”
“Because I need you to understand something. This is an important lesson, and I hope it will linger more than the others we have taught you. Try one more time.”
Elissa tried again, even struggled with it on her knee underneath the table. But try as she might, Elissa could not break the bundle of sticks. Some of the ones on the outside creaked, but none of them broke.
Jessamine took the sticks back and took the original stick out of the bundle. “When you are a witch on your own, it’s easy to feel breakable and overwhelmed. I certainly did. I looked at the world as the dangerous beast it was. A single witch is far too easy to break on its own.” She lifted the other two. “A coven makes us harder to break. Still fragile, I’ll give you that much. A coven is not indestructible.”
Then Jessamine held up the stick that had never broken. The dark, thick stick that was infinitely stronger than the other three. She handed it to Elissa to hold, watching the other woman understand what she was about to say long before she said it.
“We are a coven of witches who will outlast the ending of time itself. The more witches in our coven, the stronger we will be. One becomes two.” She smiled at Sybil. “And two becomes many. But we also have our god, who is unbreakable and unbendable. You were the one who sacrificed to him. You were the one who prayed to him, so you must have believed in some small way that he could save you.”
Elissa’s eyes welled with tears, her lower lip trembling. “Even if I believed it then, I still told her. I still stood by while you were all gathering clothing to hide in the crowds, and I still told her where you were and who you were.”
She did. And that stung.
The truth hurt, but then again, it always did. The truth was harder toswallow when it was someone Jessamine wanted to trust. But that was life, and sometimes, people made mistakes.
“Did you tell her I was here because you are loyal to Fortuna?” And when Elissa shook her head violently, Jessamine lifted her hand so the other woman wouldn’t talk. “I don’t want to hear excuses. I want to know the truth. No matter what, if you are loyal to Fortuna, then I will leave this place with you safely behind. I have no interest in the blood play that the nobility so love. Your safety is a promise, Elissa. All I am asking for is the truth.”
The last sentence vibrated with power that she hadn’t called upon from Elric yet. Still, the Deathless One echoed in her voice, deepening it with magic that ripped honesty out of Elissa.
“I am afraid of her,” Elissa replied. “I feel no loyalty to someone who inspires fear when she walks through the streets. I have no loyalty to anyone who runs this place. But I fear what she will do to me, and what she will do to those I love.”
Elissa’s gaze slanted to the parrot who still perched on the chair next to her. And Jessamine knew that though there was always a risk in manipulation, sometimes it was necessary.
