Page 33 of Liar Witch

When I think about how many times I’ve almostdrownedin my life, it makes me want to flee back the way I came.

Don’t show weakness. I’m here for answers, and I’m not leaving until I get them.

I take one step closer to her.

One foot in front of the other. Don’t focus on the sea. Focus on something else.

I feel pathetic. An assassin scared of the ocean.

Out of nowhere, I spot theDeadwoodfloating just beyond the inlet. It’s far away, but I can just about make out two figures on the deck. My heartbeat calms. The clamminess of my palms becomes less noticeable and my breathing evens out.

It takes a while, but I get there eventually.

“I’ve followed our Goddesses all my life,” I begin, the second I reach Sophie. “I’ve adhered to the teachings of her priestesses without question, but the Alchemist wields the power of both the Sun and the Moon, as does Alletta. I’ve had enough of being lied to. If you want me to face this enemy, I need to know everything you do. Sending me in blind like that was damn close to sabotaging the mission.”

“I can’t tell you how they do it, because I don’t know.”

Sophie won’t stop staring at her hands. Her expression seems strangely lost, something I’m not used to seeing on the face of any high priestess.

It’s so easy to forget that while I may have just lost a mentor, Sophie’s lost a friendship that lasted decades.

“The knowledge was once widely shared,” she continues. “But the High Priestesses of a millennium ago decided that the practice was wrong and banned all mention of it. They sent the Shadows to chase down those who wielded the power, and for the most part, it was forgotten.”

“But it is possible to wield both Sunbeams and Moonlight. To call on two Goddesses.”

“Yes. At great cost. The practice… drives one mad. The more one uses the power, the greater the cost. The witches of old did some truly great things with both Sun and Moon. They held death in one hand and life in the other. Yet the more they used it, the more of themselves they lost.”

“Like Alletta.”

“She is older than Lily. Her madness began before any of our grandmothers were even born. It’s a miracle she still functions as well as she does.”

“More of a miracle that she’s content to remain in exile. Why was she not hunted by the Shadows?”

“I asked Petra the same thing.” Sophie’s wistful smile draws my focus back to the fleet of boats disappearing into the distance. “She said that Alletta was the one witch the Goddess never mentioned. As if the Lady forgot her existence at the edge of civilisation just as the rest of the world did.”

“You don’t think so.”

“No.”

Sophie doesn’t elaborate.

“But Lily’s death was called for?”

“Yes. Yet never recorded.”

“How does that even happen?”

Every contract a Shadow took was recorded. I’d diligently returned every single glass slide back to Glenna for three years. It was the first thing I was taught.

“You’re a Shadow, you tell me.”

I can’t. I have no idea how it would have happened.

Unless Glenna wasn’t the only corrupt high priestess.

That thought is disturbing, and not one I want to speak aloud. So I settle for changing the subject instead.

“So how do I kill Lily?”