Page 46

Chapter 46

The councillors crowded around me, offering congratulations. Seren was decidedly sulky.

‘Why aren’t the men here?’ I asked, genuinely baffled. Why would they willingly miss the Goddess’s presence? A ceremony like this happened once in a lifetime; to be on the Council and to choose to miss it was unthinkable.

Seren batted her eyelashes at me. ‘It was a moment of feminine power.’ Her tone said ‘ duh’. ‘They didn’t want to intrude.’

‘Who suggested they did not intrude?’ I probed.

‘Tristan,’ Seren pouted. ‘Why?’

Because I could only think of only one reason a witch would want to avoid the Goddess and that was because they’d been a very naughty boy.

I didn’t answer her question. I was the Crone now, a leader, so I led. We were in the midst of chaos and the witches needed order. I would give them that.

‘Take care of Willow – she will need to rest for a number of days. I must leave. The Goddess has laid a task upon me and I must get to it. I will be using the golems. Please let my appointment be known throughout the dead city and Coven-wide. Ready the list of suspects for my perusal and lock down the dead city. No one comes in or out until further notice.’ I gave them a brisk nod, turned on my kitten heels and left.

I congratulated myself on my semi-dramatic exit as we went back through the underground passageways. Bastion followed me silently; I sensed no surprise in him at my appointment.

I checked to be sure we had some privacy. Benji and David were a few steps behind us, so I felt able to whisper, ‘Why aren’t you freaking out?’

Bastion smiled. ‘Do you remember Melva’s prophecy? The witch, the Crone, her destiny clear, black witches tremble when she’s near. With heart and rune, she’ll persevere, a hunt for justice, she’ll have no peer. But lurking deep within the night, the Coven’s head, her Father’s might. A reckoning awaits in close sight, a clash of dark and radiant light .’ He cleared his throat. ‘You’re the Crone. You were always going to be the Crone. And now you’re a huntress.’ The pride in his voice made my heart swell. ‘We’re going to find black witches and kick their asses.’

I was surprised by how much joy and relief his use of ‘we’ brought me. The task laid on me seemed overwhelming but with Bastion by my side anything seemed possible. I might be the huntress, but he was my weapon.

I turned to Benji and David. ‘The Goddess said that Frogmatch doesn’t have much time. The black witches have him and we need to locate him – now. I can’t run through all of the secret chambers and hidden rooms under the city—’

‘—but we can,’ Benji interrupted, eyes gleaming at the prospect of helping.

‘You can move through the walls and locate Frogmatch without his captor being any the wiser.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Tristan is my chief suspect. He was the one who excused all of the men from meeting the Goddess, and it was his bodyguard, Mack, who arrested me and threw me in the dungeons. Tristan has been trying to discredit me because for some reason he sees me as a threat, so start your search in his chambers. Check for hidden rooms. Come back here when you locate Frogmatch. ’

The two men sank into the walls. The order had slipped out brusquely, which I hadn’t intended, but the Goddess’s warning had made fear curl in my gut and I never dealt well with fear.

I waited anxiously but Bastion was as calm as ever, an oasis of Zen tranquillity. It was actually quite annoying. At my slightly accusing look, he spoke up. ‘Do not underestimate the imp. He’ll be fine. Why do you think imps are so often linked to Satan?’

‘Because of the red skin and the forked tail?’ And the huge claws he’d grown into, and the smell of brimstone?

He shook his head. ‘Because, as we saw, they can be dangerous little buggers. The only reason the vampyrs got the imps’ tails was because they had enchanted them. Don’t write Frogmatch off yet.’

‘I haven’t, but the Goddess said he doesn’t have much time.’

He shrugged. ‘She wants us to prioritise him, which we’re doing. Worrying solves nothing, Amber.’

I glared. ‘Not all of us are stone cold.’ As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt his hurt. ‘I’m sorry!’ I blurted out, stepping closer to him. ‘I didn’t mean it. You’re not cold, not at all. You’re caring and kind and wonderful. I’m just worried and I don’t handle it well. I’m sorry. ’

He studied me and the sting of hurt faded. ‘Okay. I didn’t mean to demean your worrying, just to alleviate it.’

‘I know.’ I stepped forward and hugged him, then stood on tiptoe and gave him a soft kiss. ‘Hey,’ I said brightly. ‘Did we just have our first fight? Because that wasn’t so bad!’

He smiled and kissed me on the tip of my nose. ‘You’re so cute.’

‘I am not cute. Take it back.’

He grinned at me. ‘Second fight. We’re barrelling through them.’

‘Don’t be so hasty or we’ll miss out on make-up sex,’ I quipped.

Bastion smirked. ‘We don’t want to miss that.’ He walked over to Benji’s bookcase and pulled a book out. ‘This one looks like one of yours,’ he commented, passing me the paranormal romance book, Dry-ad Humping . I read the blurb with interest, it was a slow-burn romance between a dryad and her loyal gardener.

‘It’s not an enemies to lovers romance,’ I teased Bastion lightly.

‘Best put it back then,’ he replied with a wink. ‘As we know, the best romances are enemies to lovers.’

I put the book down just as Benji burst from the wall. ‘We’ve found him!’ he said urgently. ‘In a room off Tristan’s chambers, just like you thought. I can feel the wards but I couldn’t pass through them.’

‘Take us there!’ I snapped.

David had stepped out, too. He took hold of Bastion whilst Benji took me, and we all sank back into the wall. I fought a shard of fear; Goddess, how I hated travelling like this.

We popped out into a room about twenty seconds later. Twenty long seconds. I shuddered as I sucked in a fresh breath then pulled myself together. We didn’t have time for me to be a diva.

I looked around. We were in Tristan’s lounge, all polished wooden floors and lush fabrics and pillows. It didn’t look like an evil den, but appearances can be deceptive. I touched the walls and used my magic to run through the wards on them. As a reception room, these had wards against vampyrs and a few other helpful ones but nothing sinister.

But I could also see a hidden layer of runes that were not activated – and those were as sinister as hell. Once they lit up, no one would be walking in or out; Tristan could lock this room down like a jail cell. But for now they remained inert. In his arrogance, hiding behind his position as a Council member, he had assumed he was safe.

There was another door, warded to high heaven. I suspected it opened into an office that Tristan used as a dark ritual space.

I touched the wall and the layers of runes lit up as I ran my magic through them. At first glance it looked like they were really heavy-duty but, as I lifted the layers, I spied black runes underneath. Bad things would happen to people who breached those.

I licked my lips. I could start to paint ezro but we’d be here forever. I’d have to cancel them, rune by rune, layer by layer. It would take so long and the Goddess’s warning had felt urgent.

I didn’t know what to do. In desperation, I reached up and clasped my new necklace. ‘ Sisters, I need help. How do I get through the wards?’

‘Blood,’ came the instant answer from a chorus of voices. ‘ Use the griffin’s blood. He can coax down even the black wards with his blood.’

I turned to Bastion, astonishment on my face. ‘You can coax wards ?’