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What must it be like for Gil?

“That is the point,” Morgan hissed. “Change all! Put things back the way they should have been—”

“And let the Armada land?” Kit croaked. “You may as well invite the Black Circle in yourself!”

“I see no great different to the mages we have now!”

“Then you haven’t seen as much as you boast. The Silver Circle has its flaws, many of them. But it also has rules and codes of behavior. They don’t always abide by them, but they have them and they provide some measure of restraint.

“The dark has none. I have been to the continent; I have seen what they do there. The burnings that cover up the horrors they perpetrate, the magic they steal. They hunt magic users like prey, killing thousands—”

“And the Silver does not?”

“Not to merely suck them dry of their magic, no! There are ways to live with them—”

“Unacceptable ways!” Morgan snapped. “I will not be a slave to their laws; will not see my people a perpetual underclass! Let the dark come. The covens will fight them off—”

“The covens cannot stand against half of Europe, and neither can the Crown. You would bring utter destruction on us all!”

“Liar.” She put a hand on Gillian’s shoulder. “Look up, my dear. Look up and see the power that the covens could muster at their peak. Let the Armada land; they will find a witch behind every tree and stone, and a coven in every grove. We will slaughter them all—”

“You will die and take this country with you!” Kit said desperately.

“I?” the ghost said. “I am but a spirit, and he who was giving me strength has abandoned me. I can do nothing. But you,” she looked at Gillian. “You can save us all.

“You can save him.”

“Gillian,” Kit said urgently, “think for a moment—”

“She’s able to think without your help, vampire!”

The ghost looked like she’d have preferred to follow her comment with a hex to remove his vocal cords or to sew his lips shut, but thankfully, she didn’t have a body. She couldn’t do magic right now. And Kit took full advantage.

“Gillian, if you save him, think of the consequences. You never end up in your rag-tag group. You never get thrown into prison, never meet a Great Mother there, never become one yourself. And never help the thousands who have depended on you—”

“Thousands who won’t need help when we succeed!” Morgan snarled.

“—you can’t even know that you and Elinor will survive. If the Armada lands, and the Dark Circle comes to this land with a Spanish army at its back, anything could happen—”

“Yes, like our victory!” Morgan said.

But it didn’t matter. He and the ghost had been arguing, but Gillian had said nothing all this time. She was too busy staring at the forest, her hand having crept up to her throat as if she was choking, and the look on her face . . .

He didn’t think she’d heard a word.

And then he knew she hadn’t, when she scrambled to her feet and pelted toward the fight.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Gillian fled into the forest and it was exactly as she remembered: a desperate battle through wind and rain and magical attacks, to keep the Circle away from the Mothers whilst they completed the spell. But that had been complicated by the fact that much of the covens’ magic had already been expended, gifted to help with the enchantment brewing overhead, making them weaker than they should have been. And by the Circle assaulting them on all sides to thin their ranks.

They had expected some of that, and had saved up as much magic as possible in potions and enchanted weapons before the battle. But it wasn’t enough. The ferocity of the Circle’s attack had been unprecedented and unexpected, especially with a foreign force bearing down on all of their heads.

Now, Gillian knew the truth of it, that the Circle had realized what the Mothers were doing and knew they could afford to attack them with their full strength, including the magic they had stored up to counter the invasion. The storm would sink or severely weaken their continental enemies, leaving them free to expend their power on the covens.

It had been a cynical, murderous calculation, but it had also been effective.

Very effective.