Page 152 of Liar Witch

“Are you all right?” I mumble, glancing over at him. I was so caught up with the state of the twins that I didn’t notice if the others were also wounded, and I feel like a shitty mate as I realise there’s blood on his clothes, too.

He nods, his eyes soft as he waits for me to open the door. His hand reaches out to trace a small, pink line I hadn’t even noticed on my leg.

“Must have happened when we were running,” I say. “It doesn’t hurt.”

His frown doesn’t disappear, but he lets it go. His icy fingertips leave my skin and I turn back around, twisting the handle and letting us back into my workroom. It seems a little dishevelled but otherwise unharmed by whatever happened to the ship while Val and I were on land. My scrying bowl sits on my desk, already filled with water, and Opal winds between my ankles as I cross to it.

I bend to give my familiar a single long stroke, which makes her purr, but she abandons me and jumps up into the fae’s arms instead.

Kier looks astonished for a second before she nips him, prompting him to start scratching her ears.

I watch them for a second, thinking how cute the two of them look, then turn back to the bowl. I pray with everything in me that it’s Elsie and Reva with news that they’ve found a way to break a fae bargain. But when I close my eyes, borrow power from my familiar and trace the magic back, it’s Danika’s face that ripples to life on the surface.

Opal hops up onto the side and stares down at the Mother Lunar. Like last time, she’s wearing her hair in those warrior braids, but there are streaks of dramatic red dyed into it now.

I dip my head instantly, and Kier—who followed me into the room—does so as well.

“Mother Lunar,” I whisper.

She sighs and waves away my bow with an imperious wave of her hand. “I see things with your pirates aren’t going well.”

Of all the things I don’t want to talk about, she hits the most painful one.

I glance back at Kier, then sink into the chair and sigh, dropping my head into my hands. “How could you guess?”

“Do we need wine?” With my eyes closed, I can pretend I’m talking to the old Danika.

“Or maybe something stronger,” I mutter.

To my surprise, a second later, a glass clunks down beside my head. I glance up at Kier, then back at the ruby-red liquid.

“Thank you,” I whisper, taking a deep drink before turning back to my old friend, who’s also in the process of accepting a glass from someone I can’t quite see. “I’m sure you didn’t scry me to talk about my harem problems.”

“No,” she says, her voice soft in an almost apologetic way. “Firstly, I’ve got to issue you a pardon on behalf of both covens of Coveton. Mother Solar Sophie brought a written and signed confession from the Mother Lunar Petra. Rachel and I have shown the proof to our covens that both the Sun and the Moon chose to have Felicity and Glenna called home to the stars. The records of their deaths have been examined as well and added to Petra’s section of the records room in our temple. You are officially no longer an exile, and may return home at any time.”

A weight I haven’t even noticed that I’ve been carrying disappears from my shoulders. It’s a stupid thing, but I’m glad I can still go home. Even if I’m not certain I’ll ever live there again. Petra told me Shadows are meant to travel the world to find their targets, and my pirates certainly have no desire to be tied down to one city.

“Thank you,” I whisper, eyes burning.

Danika looks almost as emotional as I am, but she brushes it off. “Now that’s out of the way. I have two witches here who claim to be looking for you. They arrived with a mage and the last group of evacuees from Ilyani.”

I grin. “Elsie and Reva. Why didn’t they just scry me themselves?”

“We tried,” Reva grumbles, coming into focus behind Danika, sipping her own glass of wine. “But you’ve got some serious shielding going on over there. We couldn’t get a lock without a direct link to your magic.”

The sigils I carved into theDeadwoodto keep Klaus out of my dreams. I groan at my own stupidity.

“I should have thought about that. At least that means Lily, or any other witches working for the Queen, won’t be able to find me either.”

Danika nods. “I had to commune with the Goddess to find you. It took hours, and it’s not something anyone without a High Priestess’s connection would be able to do.”

Her explanation is cut off as Elsie gets impatient and sticks her face into the frame. “I figured it out!”

Danika smiles, and Reva’s eyes noticeably flick towards the ceiling. “Shethinksshe’s figured it out.”

“There’s like a sixty per cent chance it will work,” Elsie objects, the two of them arguing across Danika, who just looks amused by the whole thing. “That’s better than half.”

“Still not a guarantee.”