Page 67 of The Unbound Witch

Torryn stood, setting his bowl on the counter in the back of the room. “Ready when you are, Pup.”

Atlas tipped the stone bowl to the ceiling, licking every last drop before springing to his feet. “We’ll be back before you know it.”

Bastian waved an arm in the air, conjuring a door, a mark on his arm glowing. “If Clariss refuses, we think of something else.”

“So, don’t let her refuse,” Kirsi added from behind us, arms crossed over her chest. “We don’t have time to fuck around, and we need her to gag Nikos.”

“Such foul language,” Atlas said with a wink, shifting and bounding through the door.

Torryn’s exit was far less dramatic as he shook his head and followed. Eden gathered Crow’s bowl and used magic to clean and put them away.

“Honestly, that’s probably the most useful spell I’ve ever seen,” Kirsi said, moving up and along the ceiling. “Makes me miss Scoop, though.”

Bastian filled two bowls with the thick, orange soup, passing one to me. “I’m sure he’s content with Nym’s tiger for now.”

She shook her head, looking toward the door he’d cast. “I don’t want him to be content. I want him to want me back.”

It was the most honest thing I’d heard her say in a long time, and something about those words hanging in the room held everyone else silent as we finished eating and watched that door to the Fire Coven, waiting and waiting. Each moment passing feeling a little heavier.

When Atlas’ black nose pierced the threshold, the white wolf leading a familiar face through the entry, I couldn’t help jumping to my feet, wondering how she would react to seeing me. If Atlas had told her the whole truth, or if she’d come in blind.

“Your Grace,” Clariss said, bowing low before she stood and crossed the room, pulling him into a hug. I hadn’t seen my appointed castle maid since I’d left that fated morning to complete the final Trial.

“I’d heard the rumors that you were alive, but I had to see for myself.” She turned to me, her lips in a hard line as she studied my face, and then the worn black dress. “You look as frumpy as I found you that first day, girl.”

I forced a smile. “Thank you for coming.”

Clariss crossed the room, taking both of my hands. “I wouldn’t have come for you had I not learned the truth from Atty. I’m sorry I didn’t have more faith, Miss Moonstone. But also, I swore I’d kill you if I ever saw you again. I thought you should know.”

I smiled. A real, genuine, ear-to-ear smile. “I missed you.”

She pulled me into a hug, and I sat in those warm arms for a moment longer than was probably necessary, grateful to have a sliver of vulnerability before the real work started.

“Shall we go?” Torryn asked, rubbing his hands together.

I looked at Bastian, recognizing the fact that he absolutely didn’t want to follow the plan, but was doing it anyway. A win. Small, but something. My eyes circled the faces in the room until I landed on Eden.

“Go. I’ll be fine. I’ll look after the place for you.”

I dipped my chin before slipping my hand into Bastian’s. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Famous last words,” Atlas said as we stepped through a new door rimmed with old, rotten wood, a clear picture of how Bastian felt. But who could blame him, really, when I was insisting on being the bait?

28

RAVEN

“Is the door open?” Kirsi whispered from beside me, though I couldn’t see her, could hardly see anything through the night.

“Looks like it,” I answered. “Stay close.”

It was only a crack, really, as if someone had left in a hurry and didn’t bother looking over their shoulder as they tugged on the heavy wooden door. The markings on the chipped wood from our selection into the Trials had been carefully washed away. While dirt still stained the outer parts, the center was cleaner than it had been in years.

With one decisive look over my shoulder, staring into the darkness where I knew he stood, waiting with baited breath, I pushed inside the home Kirsi and I had shared for so long. It smelled of dust and abandonment. Of stale crumbs and unwashed bedding. Maybe even a little hope and unanswered prayers.

With the bank of clouds that had moved in blocking most of the moonlight, I could hardly see the outline of our dilapidated furniture.

“Hello?” I whispered. Not only to Nikos, should he be hiding within, but anyone or thing that might have sought sanctuary in our home.