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“Is that why you led me to that building?” I ask.

“Yes. Inside holds the secrets to the prophecy. You just have to search for them.”

“Why can’t you just tell me?” I frown.

“Because you have to do this with the three kings,” she says. “It’s all a part of the prophecy. The Three Kings and the High Witch have to weather the storm together to fulfill the prophecy.”

“What is a high witch?” I ask.

“You will become the most powerful witch that the world has seen in 300 years,” she tells me. “But you need to train. Your ability to heal yourself has been perfected because of the curse, but you need to know how to defend yourself and how to fight back.”

“So, I need to go to that building?” I ask.

“Yes. Go as soon as you wake up.”

“Will I see you again?” I ask.

“I don’t know, Lilith. I’ve fulfilled my part of the prophecy. My soul will be able to move on now,” she says softly. “I am so proud of the woman you have become. Your father and I are proud of you, Lilith Ann.”

“That’s my name? Lilith Ann Deverell?” I ask.

“Yes. You need to wake up now, Lilith. I love you, my sweet girl.”

“I love you too, Mom,” I say as sadness creeps in. She smiles softly at me as she fades away.

I open my eyes and look around the room. Everything looks exactly how it did in my dream just now. Daemon is still fast asleep, so I slowly slip out of bed and go to the closet for shoes.

I want to go to the library and get back before they wake. Kael will be angry I’m going into the woods without him, but I need to do this. I don’t know much, but I do know that if a witch has dreams like these, you’re supposed to listen and obey.

I quietly open the door and step out of the room. As soon as I get the door shut, I turn on my heels and rush down the stairs. I decided to go the route that I know and slip out onto the back patio before running toward the garden. I follow the same path that Mom took me earlier, when it eventually opens up, and I step into the woods. It’s cloudy tonight, so it’s nearly pitch-black outside.

“Lumina,” I speak aloud with my hands outstretched, palm side up. As a spherical ball of light starts to materialize in my hands. I roll it around as if forming it, and it glows brighter. Soon, the small ball of light in my hand is illuminating the area around me as I continue my walk along the path to the building.

When I get to the building, I don’t hesitate to open the door. Although the outside of the building looks dilapidated, the inside is immaculate. Whatever magic protects this building is preserving it as well. It looks much bigger inside than it does outside, and there are row after row of shelves filled with books. Sitting on a small podium, off to one side of the room, there is a black, leather-bound book. Immediately, I head in its direction, and when I get close to it, I see the word ‘Deverell’ etched into the cover.

It’s my family Book of Shadows. Mom must have left it here before she was caught. I send my little ball of light up to illuminate the rest of the room so I can look at the book. When I touch the book, something inside of me feels relieved. It is almost like my soul is happy that I reunited with the book. Which, admittedly, is an odd way to feel, considering I was a newborn the last time I ever would’ve been around it, if at all.

Thinking about what Mom said, I suppose I was assaulted by Morwen. If he did, then so did Zypher and the rest of the men he brought around. If that’s the case, then all maidens are being assaulted. It’s not necessarily something I had a choice over. When I was a kid, I was told that we had a choice, but whenever it came time for me to be placed somewhere at eighteen, no one asked my opinion about whether or not I wanted to get power-fucked by a wolf shifter a half dozen times a day or more. No one asked me whether or not I was a willing participant when I was made to take every man in the pack, multiple times a night, every month. Another pack visited, and no one asked me if almost 80 men could fuck me.

I was fed flavorless food for five years. I wasn’t allowed to leave or to talk to anyone that he did not want me talking to. Morwen bent me over his desk, like it was part of his job then intentionally tried to hurt me. A fox shifter would’ve been injured by that. All of this should bother me more than it does. But why doesn’t it? Mom looked at me with such sorrow in her eyes when she said that I had been assaulted too.

Not that I agree with it, but I understand why the guys had to do what they did with the other maidens. If the guys died, there would be no one to take over, and there’s a good likelihood that another country or another group within this country would. Gods know what would happen then. All these rules regarding the fox shifters and the maidens revolve around the curse. Maybe that can change now. Maybe witches can be reintegrated into society and allowed to live freely.

I hear the door open behind me, and I know it’s the guys. I have no doubt that they are mad at me. “Lilith,” Kael growls at me.

“Deverell,” I say, flipping through the book to skim over the various spells.

“What?” Daemon asks.

“That’s my last name. Deverell. My full name is Lilith Ann Deverell,” I explain. “My mom told me.”

“I thought she was dead,” Callum says quizzically. The men come to stand beside me to see what I’m looking at.

“She is. Morwen found her and had her drained,” I say bitterly. The more that I think about it, I realize she never answered that question.

“We’re going to need a little bit more context,” he says. “Why are you out here?”

“I had a dream. At least, I think it was a dream. It was like an astral projection, where I was having an out-of-body experience and I could see the entire room and what was going on, but then I saw the wisp again, and it changed into a woman. She looked just like me and was about my age.”