Page 88 of The Unbound Witch

“No!” I jerked. “I know them.”

“Knowing someone and trusting someone is completely different,” he growled.

“I said I was sorry.”

He didn’t take his eyes from the silenced witches, making their way toward us as he whispered, “New plan. Rule one: don’t touch magical shit floating in the air. Rule two: trust no one. Hide that book.”

I wrapped the book into the folds of my black cloak, and it hummed against my body. Once they were close enough, we could see the fear on their faces, even as they looked into the face of Grey. He waved an arm in an arc, enclosing the group of us in a dome of fire. The witches huddled closer together, moving slower.

“Nobody likes a showoff,” I whispered.

“Actually, most people do when it involves fire,” he said in a very Grey sort of way before approaching the others.

“You … you’re…” the one I’d known to be Margreet stammered.

“Alive?” I asked, quirking a brow.

“And with the king’s man?” She whispered the words as if saying them louder would reveal a scandal.

“What can you tell us about what happened here?” I asked, confident they’d be leery to speak to Grey.

The silent witch chanced a glance at Grey before studying the ground. “Isolde Stormburn and Xena Foresthale forced all of the witches down into the pods, claiming a mighty storm was brewing, and they had a plan to harness its power. Everyone gathered in the same hall where we met you for your Trial, and waited. And waited. But they never came back down.”

“They stopped the storms,” the man beside her whispered, his mousy brown hair tied up in a bun the way Bastian liked to keep his. “When the elders came up to check, it was quiet. Xena was gone, and Isolde was dead. Burned into the ground as if she’d been struck by the lightning she commanded with her magic. I don’t understand.”

The third witch spun in a circle as she looked over the horizon, before turning back again. “Where is it?” she asked, her high-pitched voice panicked as the flames grew around us, never expanding outward, but crackling and snapping as the heat pushed in on us.

“Margreet, it’s not even out here anymore,” the mousey one said.

“The Grimoire is untouchable now, we think. It’s floating in an electrical orb somewhere in this field. The elder witches voted us responsible for its return.”

I glanced at Grey, who would not meet my eye. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

He flicked his hand, and the fire vanished.

“Stay here,” he ordered the silent witches as we stepped away.

Placing us in his own barrier so we would not be overheard, he crossed his thick arms over his chest, waiting. Clearly, he was still upset about the whole… blasting him through a field thing.

“We have to leave the book with them.”

He went deathly still. “That isn’t an option, and you know it.”

“It is the only option. You know what happened here. Xena had the Forest Coven Grimoire, and Isolde had Storm’s. One of them cast and not only did the storms stop all together, but Isolde died. Xena got spooked and ran off. We can’t possibly hunt down the books and keep them. It’s not safe for us to travel.”

He shook his head, rubbing his jaw. “Raven, be reasonable. It’s too dangerous, and I know you can see that.”

“What was the plan here? To come in and steal the Grimoire, but then what? It’s more dangerous to take that thing to the next coven, where there could be two more Grimoires and risk both our lives and half the world. We can leave the Grimoire with the silent witches. You can bind their words if you must.”

“This can’t be the long-term solution.”

I pushed my fingers through my hair, looking up at the eerily still sky. The Grimoire hiding beneath my cloak continued to whisper. Louder and louder, like a nest of cicadas in the summer. Bash didn’t seem to notice at all. I placed my hand on the book as if to soothe it, feeling another jolt of electricity before an absolute truth struck me so completely, I stumbled backward. I was connected to this book. Not just physically, but something more.All the books.

“What is it?” All hints of annoyance and frustration left his face as he reached for me in concern.

“I, uhm. It’s the book. It’s… I know where the others are.”

“Just like that? You know?” He clenched his fist at his side as he looked up with a sigh. “I’m telling you that book is as dangerous as they come. We need a long-term plan.”