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“No. She was taken by things like him,” she jabbed the end of her spoon at Kit.

“By a vampire?” he asked, frowning.

Rilda nodded.

“Who assaulted a coven leader?” he sounded as doubtful as he felt.

“Well, no one knew she was a leader then, did they?” the old witch said, and paused as a massive squirrel tore past, the latest in her line of magical creations. This one was tossing huge acorns made out of leaves at pursuing children, which exploded in the air like brown fireworks right before they hit, making them duck and giggle.

“Why didn’t they?” Kit asked, bringing her attention back to him, although it was Gillian who answered.

“The coven leaders went into hiding when the war started going badly,” she explained. “The Circle was targeting the leadership, picking them off one by one, and leaving their covens in disarray.”

“So, they took assumed names and melted into the landscape,” Rilda added. “That’s the trouble w’us, far as they’re concerned. If we don’t use magic, we look just like everyone else. The killings mostly stopped, after that.”

“And what name did she go under?” Kit asked.

Rilda shrugged. “She was lucky. An old lover had been after her to marry him for years, a member of the local gentry. Thomas Seddon, his name was,” she added, and Kit felt something hit his chest like the jolt of a heart attack. Only he didn’t have a heart that could attack him anymore. For a moment, he didn’t understand what was happening.

Then a familiar voice sounded in his ear, although even more strangely, it didn’t seem to be talking to him.

The revenants were a distraction, meant to cover her tracks. She wanted the Seddons—they had the ring. The wife was a coven leader in hiding.

“Mircea?” Kit asked, confused.

But it wasn’t Mircea who spoke next. How does that cover her tracks? a woman’s voice demanded. A group of revenants roaming the countryside should draw more attention, not less!

Yes, but it would draw the Senate’s, Mircea replied, who know little about the covens, and were unlikely to discover the true reason for the attack. Whilst the Circle, who might be expected to have more knowledge, would not bother to investigate a revenant attack if the Senate was already looking into it.

So, she sacrificed an entire village to cover a single murder? the woman demanded.

It would seem so. Mircea’s mental voice was grim.

You should have let me kill her when I had the chance.

“What the devil?” Kit exploded.

Ask Mistress Rilda about the Seddons, Mircea said to him. Find out all you can.

“Go to Hades!”

I also need to know who held the other rings.

“Pray pardon?” the witch said, looking alarmed.

“Nothing. Please continue,” Kit said, trying for calm even while yelling every invective he knew inside his head. Where a certain devil of a master vampire had decided to hitch a ride, using Kit’s eyes to see through, after he was denied the right to come along. Son of a mongrel bitch!

I have been called worse, Mircea informed him dryly.

And deserved it, most like!

“So, she became Ellen Seddon,” the witch said, giving him a side eye. “Taking her mother’s first name and her husband’s last, and thought that she was safe. And, for a while, it looked like it. Lancashire’s pretty far outside the Circle’s main areas of interest, and while they have a presence there, t’wasn’t large.”

Kit could feel his unwelcomed guest’s excitement, and would have liked to change the subject just to spite him. But Mircea had seemed genuinely concerned in Paris over whatever he was investigating. Not to mention that he’d make Kit pay for it later.

“But fate caught up with her,” he said instead.

“Fate my arse!” Rilda’s blue eyes flashed. “Your people caught up w’her. T’was a vampire attack that killed her, before the Circle had the chance!”