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Forty-Three

ELSPETH

I paced back and forth in my cottage as Draven leaned over a piece of parchment and scribbled across it. He’d been at this for three hours. The first hour, he’d moved his hands over me, saying words I hadn’t recognized as he drew out a golden light from me. The curse, he’d said. The light had gathered into a ball with all kinds of symbols and words on them. Draven had grabbed the ball of light and set it on the counter. It was the makeup of our curse, he’d told us. All the pieces and parts of it that he’d have to untangle to undo it. I’d never seen anything like this. Had never seen a cursebreaker in action. It was fascinating.

After that, he’d hunched over the little island in our kitchen, muttering to himself the entire time, wholly focused on his task.

Cursebreakers were some of the most powerful witches. It required immense skill to be able to break a curse because unlike other witches, cursebreakers had to be able to think on the spot. They often didn’t have time to prepare elaborate spells or do trial and error. It made sense now how Draven had been able to so easily get me out of the mud. He’d had practice performing spells in dangerous situations where lives were on the line .

One day, I’d ask him to tell me some of his stories, but for now, I just wanted to know if he could do it. If he could break the curse.

“Don’t worry,” Georgie said. “He’s the best.”

Prue sat on the couch, and Mama paced back and forth, gaze darting to Draven every once in a while. Elm and Adelaide hadn’t been here when we’d arrived, and I was guessing they were somewhere making up, much like Draven and I had at his tavern. Auggie was gone, as usual, but I had no idea where she was. She’d just said she had something to check on.

“Oh, I can’t watch this anymore.” Edgar curled his wings around his eyes. “It’s too nerve-racking.”

“Do you need to take a walk?” Georgie asked.

Draven’s head snapped up, his eyes flashing.

Georgie raised her hands. “I promise I’m not running away. We’re just getting a little fresh air.”

He didn’t respond at first, just staring at his sister, assessing. “Fine,” he said. “But don’t be gone too long.”

Georgie swallowed and nodded. She and Edgar left the cottage, door clicking closed behind them.

Draven straightened.

“What?” I asked. “Did you figure it out?”

“No,” he said, frowning at the parchment. “I’m not sure this curse can be broken. When your grandmother cast it with her final words, she bound it to her death.”

My heart sank as he spoke.

He tapped the quill he was using on the counter. “Which means as long as she stays dead, the curse cannot be broken.” He straightened. “I’m so sorry, Elspeth.” His gaze moved to my sisters and Mama. “I’m sorry to all of you.”

Mama’s shoulders sank right as the door burst open, Auggie marching in, her face pale and her eyes wide.

“I think I’ve done something bad,” she said, worrying at her bottom lip.

Draven came to stand beside me, kissing my forehead and resting his arm around my waist.

“You’re going to have to be more specific than that.” Prue peered at Auggie over the top of her book.

“I’ve been working with Helena,” she burst out.

Draven stiffened.

“Working with Helena?” I asked. “But Helena manages famous people. You’re not famous.”

“Helena discovers talent,” Auggie snapped back.

Draven stood still as a stone next to me, his gaze focused on Auggie. Fear flashed in his eyes.

“So what’s your talent?” Prue asked.

Auggie shot her a withering look. “Helena said I was beautiful, that I had a great sense of fashion. That she could see me as a model. Someone who showed off the latest trends from top designers.”

My stomach curled.

“Well, that sounds wonderful.” Mama clapped her hands together. “My daughter. A model!”

Something wasn’t right.

Draven stepped forward. “What did she make you reveal?”

I looked between Draven and Auggie. “What does that mean? Reveal what? What does that have to do with being a model?”

Draven sighed, staring at Auggie. “Are you going to tell her, or am I?”

“What’s going on?” Mama threw up her hands.

“She requires a secret,” Auggie said, her normally confident voice now small and quiet. “It’s insurance. Binding. Something she asks for to make sure her clients uphold their end of the contract when it comes to performances, duties, giving Helena her fair cut. I thought it sounded reasonable, but I’d been holding out on the secret,” she said. “Because there was only one secret I could think of that would be good enough for Helena to accept.”

My stomach dropped like a stone to the floor. “No. Auggie, you didn’t.”

“When we came back here, I went to Helena right away. Told her I was ready to sign with her, reveal my secret.” She sniffled. “I told her we don’t have magic.”

Mama gasped, and Prue dropped her book to the floor. I stumbled back into Draven’s chest, and he wrapped his arms around me.

“The contract is binding,” Auggie said. “Helena told me she can’t reveal the secret unless we are in breach of contract. ”

“How are you in breach of contract?” I asked. “You just told her the secret.”

“The secret is the breach.” Auggie’s voice shook. “After I revealed the truth, Helena told me that unfortunately not having my magic means I can’t be a model, not when I’m living here illegally.”

My mouth dropped open. “That sounds like a scam.”

“It is,” Georgie said from the doorway, Edgar perched on her shoulder. “I know because Helena did the same thing to me.”

“Georgie.” Draven stepped forward. “You don’t have to do this.”

“It’s okay,” Georgie said. “They can know.”

“Know what? What did Helena do to you?” I asked.

Georgie brushed past me and sat on the couch, taking a deep breath. “After my parents died, I went to live with my grandmother for a short amount of time. Helena was frequently at Grandmother’s house, spending time with me, making me believe I had a friend. I didn’t always get along with Grandmother, and I frustrated her a lot.”

“Why?” I asked, not understanding.

“Because she wants me to be her heir, the next Witch Superior. But that’s not what I want for myself. I don’t want to be the leader of the Witchlands. All that responsibility, the work, it’s not for me. Grandmother wanted me to start training for the Witch Trials.”

The trials where the most powerful witches in the land came together and competed to decide who would be Witch Superior after our current leader stepped down. Those who wanted to participate often spent decades training for the trials, not even knowing when the trials would be invoked.

“It got to the point where Grandmother and I were barely speaking because I wasn’t ready to train, to take on this big responsibility, especially not after I’d just lost my parents.”

I nodded. Poor Georgie. That had to be so hard.

“Helena understood. I could talk to her, and she’d listen. She was so warm, so friendly. She stepped into a role that had been missing since my mother died.” Georgie’s eyes filled with tears. “She made me believe she cared about me. That she loved me. It happened slowly, over the course of a few months. Helena would mention the Witch Trials, would talk to me about being Witch Superior, about the good I could do. She preyed on what she knew about me, on what I was passionate about: saving creatures. She’d almost convinced me to do it.”

Georgie sniffled.

“Then I overheard her and my grandmother talking. The entire thing had been a ruse, my grandmother bringing Helena in to do what she couldn’t.” Tears ran down Georgie’s cheeks. “It felt like I was losing my parents all over again.”

Draven’s jaw locked, his eyes squeezed shut.

“But why would your grandmother bring in a talent manager?” Prue took her spectacles off and cleaned them with the skirt of her dress, then perched them back on her nose.

“Because she’s not a talent manager,” Draven said. “That’s her cover.”

“She’s a magistrate,” Georgie said, and my entire body went cold.

“But she’s a vampire.” My brain couldn’t make sense of this.

“It’s something Grandmother is doing to help with peace talks with the other realms,” Draven said. “She’s bringing in other species, giving them positions of power as a show of good faith. Helena is very good at knowing when others are keeping secrets. As a vampire, she can sense heart rate, breathing rate, pulse. So if she thinks you have a secret, she’ll latch onto you. That’s why she makes an excellent magistrate.”

I swallowed, remembering our first meeting at the market, how anxious I’d been when I thought she noticed we didn’t have our wands. She must have picked up on that, then chosen Auggie as her target to find out what was making me so nervous. I gasped. That was why she’d lied to me about Draven, told me to stay away from him. She didn’t want me learning her true identity before she discovered our secret and fed it to Witch Superior.

This couldn’t be happening.

“If I’d known,” Draven said, “I would’ve warned you.”

“Nobody knew,” Auggie said, looking so small, no longer my larger-than-life sister. “I wanted to surprise everyone with my contract. But Helena never actually thought I was talented. She never actually believed in me. She was working me the whole time, hoping I’d reveal a secret that she could take back to Witch Superior.”

Tears dripped down her cheeks, and my heart broke for her.

“Well, we have no choice.” Mama’s voice wobbled. “We leave immediately. We’ll leave the Witchlands. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be better than staying here and waiting for Witch Superior to arrest all of us for breaking the law.”

Draven’s head dropped.

I looked out the window, spotting Adelaide and Elm walking hand-in-hand. They could get married, and Adelaide could be safe. Or maybe not since she’d still engaged in illegal activity. But I also didn’t want her and Elm’s love story to start that way: with a forced marriage. I wanted them to get married on their own terms, when they wanted. I wanted Prue to get that job at the bookstore. I wanted Auggie to regain her confidence. I wanted to stay here. With Draven.

“No,” I said, voice hard.

Everyone’s heads snapped in my direction. “We’re not running anymore. We’re not living in fear. We’re going to speak with Witch Superior. I’m going to.”

Mama’s face paled. “Elspeth, you can’t.”

“I can.” I raised my chin. “Because this life we’ve built in Thistlegrove is worth fighting for. I’m sick of running. I’m sick of making you all run. It’s time to take a stand.” I looked at Draven. “Take me to your grandmother.”

“You don’t have to.” Georgie pointed a shaky finger out the window. “She’s already here.”