Page 11 of Traitor Witch

I’ve just raised my hand to slap him when he starts to speak low and fast.

“Guards with crossbows are waiting on the rooftops along the main-street, you need to stop running and blend in until you reach the temple. The boat will be here at nightfall, waiting to take you to safety. Ask the fishermen for theDeadwood.”

His voice is beautiful and deep enough to make me shiver. It’s enough of a distraction that his words take a while to sinkin. My eyes scan over his strong jaw and up past his cruel cheekbones to those pure white eyes.

Shit, he’s a seer.

Most people only remember that there’s a third goddess when they’re confronted with the evidence of Fate’s handiwork.

I’m no different.

The little gasp that escapes me is embarrassing, but I’ve got just enough presence of mind to remember my manners.

“Thank you, Seer.”

“Go!” He grabs my thighs and flings me off him.

I can’t help glancing behind me at the gorgeous, Fate-touched man before he’s swallowed by the crowd. His sun-kissed bronze hair is the last thing I see before I duck behind a stall and out of sight.

It takes hours of checking over my shoulders and taking detours through back alleys, but I speed up when Opal finally finds me. My familiar helps me look around corners for guards and Solars and for the hundredth time I’m grateful she’s not the traditional black of a Lunar familiar. She blends where I don’t and lends me power when I need to disappear into the shadows.

At the end of the day, I’ll need to refill the reserve of magic she keeps for me, but once the moon’s out that won’t be a problem.

It’s nearly dark when we reach the temple.

The place is eerily silent, even though it’s nearly moonrise. Most of my coven are still in their rooms, sleeping off the party of the night before. But Glenna will be awake. Like Felicity, she likes to start her prayers early. If she’s staying true to her habits, she’ll already be in the central courtyard with her men.

I leap up onto the roofs with just a little more magic to the sigils on my legs. Scurrying through the rooftop gardenswithout coming across another witch is usually impossible, but the Goddess is on my side.

The thong hanging from a tree branch and the empty jugs of wine scattered around indicate last night’s party got even wilder after I left, meaning the rest of the nocturnal Lunars will be sleeping off hangovers well into the night.

I slip through to the balcony overlooking Glenna’s courtyard undisturbed, congratulating myself for my own good luck.

What I find is worse than I could have dreamed.

Five bodies lay face down in the pool of water turned red with blood. None of them are Glenna, but I recognise the distinctive long, braided hair of one of her harem.

I’m silent as I drop into the courtyard but my gut churns as I bend down and check for a pulse.

All dead. Their throats slit.

“This is not good,”Opal whispers in my mind, hopping up onto my shoulder for a better look.

“Nil…s…a.”

The gurgle fills me with dread and I whirl to face the sound.

Glenna is huddled in the corner, silver dress stained with blood. Her haunted eyes stare out of a face so pale it blends with her dress and a slender dagger sticks out from between her ribs. Blood spreads outward in a macabre splotch over her abdomen, growing bigger by the second.

“Mother Lunar!” I rush to her side, dragging her into my arms, trying to stop the bleeding with my hands.

But her gaze is already ghosting over, her eyes fixed on the corpses of her husbands.

“We are betrayed…” she whispers with her last breath.

Her hand falls open. A ring I’ve never seen before tumbles onto the floor, still attached to a broken chain.

“No. No, no, no.” I push magic at her corpse, but it does nothing.