Page 37 of The Unbound Witch
I thought of the way I'd reached through that human's back and ripped his beating heart from his chest. Though my emotions were far more muted than they'd been when I was alive, I could still feel my own remorse. Could empathize with the death that I'd delivered, while harboring hatred for my mysterious murderer.
Moving down into the hull of the ship, I tried not to think of what it meant to go home. I'd been keeping those thoughts from my mind for days. Everything I had with Nym would be over. She was my light and my future, but that was gone. Before it ever really started. Passionate kisses and stolen promises. One night of bliss and then a ball. And that was it for us. A whirlwind of heavy and tragic loss.
Raven would stay with Bastian. The shop… Who knew what would become of it. I didn't need to work, but did I want to? Would I even be able to? And then there was Scoop. But my heart wouldn’t let me think about him. About losing my soul partner. The ever present constant in my life, now just… gone.
She lay in a small bed crammed into a tiny room, awake and sipping tea as I crept in. Her dark, thick lashes fell heavy on her paling skin. She looked worse somehow. Gaunt.
“I'm fine. I swear I'm not going to break, no matter what he tells you.”
“Men will always think they know better, and half the time, they know nothing.”
Raven shared a small smile, sipping again at the herbal tea. “What do you think it's going to be like when we get home?”
“Well, if the shifters have managed to safeguard the Grimoires while we've been away, then I suppose it's going to be pretty similar to how we left it.” I settled just above a broken chair propped up in the corner in the teeny room, my knees nearly touching the dark gray sheets on the bed. “There's still Nikos to deal with. Still the coven leaders. And what are we going to do with Eden?”
She shook her head. “I'm not sure. I mean, you heard Bastian say the Moss Coven has been weakening for years because they've been cut off from the power of their Grimoire. Maybe they will feel it when it reenters the realm.”
I sat up straighter. “Endora is going to come with a vengeance if she knows that book is back.”
Raven placed her teacup on the tray wedged between the chair and the bed, rubbing her hands together before patting her forehead. “I'm not convinced Endora ever cared about Eden's disappearance, to be honest. She was willing to ship her daughter off to a king she hated. And for all these years, Eden has managed to hide from her mother with the book. If anything, I think Endora will be out for blood.”
“So, she'll be the same. Headache bothering you?”
Her voice grew quiet as she stared off into space. “I feel like I've been running for days and days and if I could just rest, I would feel better. Sometimes I do, and other times, it's like I can feel myself fading. Like I'm disconnected. I can't make sense of it.”
“It's got to have something to do with you being cut off from your magic. Maybe the human lands affect witches differently. We don't have enough information from witches who have left to know if it's something that happens.”
“What if casting the death spell is killing me, Kir?” Face full of worry, she blinked several times. “I was never supposed to have it, and maybe Death himself is punishing me, like he said he would.”
“I've met Death,” I whispered, remembering the hooded figure that pulled my spirit from my body when I'd been murdered. “If he wanted to take you, he would have never sent you back. Whatever is happening, it's not a punishment from him. But we can't rule out the fact that the coven leaders were involved. And they wanted you to die as a thirteenth generational witch. They need you to die to invoke their master plan. They could have done something we don't even know about.”
“When it comes to the coven leaders, I'm realizing they've done a lot of things we don't know about and all we can do is hope we discover all the truths before it's too late. But everything starts with getting home. We will figure it out from there, come what may. The coven leaders might be cunning, but so is Bastian.”
I threw her a glance, and she giggled softly.
“Fine. You're cunning, too. And we're going to need all that we can get. Eden has the final book with her. And I think we need to convince Bastian to give the books back to the covens.”
I drew back, my eyebrows nearly touching. “Have you lost your damn mind? We can't give them those books.”
“It's not right for us to keep them from the witches, and you know that. You know what it was like not to have it. To only see it in rare moments.”
“If the coven leaders could be trusted, that would be one thing, Rave, but they can't be.”
A soft knock on the door was the only warning before Eden swept in with a tray of crackers and more herbal tea. The perfect nursemaid, it seemed.
“I've brought more refreshments. I'll leave you two to chat.”
Raven pushed against the mattress, sitting further upright. “No, please join us. I think we need to talk.”
“Oh?” Eden sat on the very edge of the bed, leaning in as if she had no clue what we were discussing, though I'd heard her outside the door long before she entered the room. I suspect Raven had as well. It might have been the reason she brought the book up.
“What will you do with the Grimoire when we return?”
“Well.” She tucked her hands into her lap. “I suppose whatever the king wants to do with it.”
Raven poured from the teapot, the amber liquid steaming as the bits of herbs swirled within her tiny cup. “You’ve given your whole life to protect that book. Do you believe he should keep them, or should the Grimoires be with the witches?”
She bit her lip, considering the question. Though I appreciated that she didn't take the situation lightly, I wasn't sure which side she would be on, nor which side Ishouldbe on.