Page 127 of Traitor Witch

"Absolutely nothing. Because only a Shadow can teach another Shadow," she snaps. "Glenna taught you what you needed to know to be her pet assassin. Tell me, girl, do you honestly believe that the Goddess sends her Shadows after businessmen and greedy town officials who just happen to openly oppose the monarchy?"

She keeps moving forward, forcing me to step back or risk our bodies crashing into one another.

"Did you truly think that the Goddess would ask a Shadow to start her duties while she was still young enough to be mortal?"

She's made her point, and she knows it.

I just glare at her.

"Glenna loved me. She was the closest—"

"The closest thing you had to a mother, yes, yes. Spare us."

The Mother Solar, taking pity on me, or perhaps just eager to have the scene we're making over with, steps in.

"The purge of Coveton was a regrettable necessity. Glenna's fall from grace is a dark chapter in the Northern covens' history. All we can do now is pray that High Priestess Danika continues to lead our sisters back onto the right path." She looks between us. "Lady Petra, perhaps it would be best to let our new arrivals rest. I'm sure Nilsa will join us in a few hours for the evening meal?"

"We don't have time for that." Petra turns her back onme. "Come,Shadow," she sneers the word as she starts climbing the steps set into the mountainside. "Or don't you want to know why you were brought here?"

I don't want to follow her.

My gut churns as I watch her move away and it feels as though I'm on a precipice. As if all the answers I've been chasing are suddenly within my grasp but I've realised too late how terrifying the knowledge will be.

My feet move before I've even registered that I'm obeying her. The water still drips from my hair onto the stone steps as we wind our way around the statue of the Goddesses, Opal keeping close to me. For such an old woman, Petra moves fast.

I still don't understand how she's aged like she has. Is it some penalty of magic? Some problem with her immortality? A curse?

Petra promises answers, but by the time we reach the pool atop the Moon Goddess's crown, all I have are more questions.

Petra takes her time, wandering around the edge of the room, lighting candles in white votives around the space even though it's still light outside.

It takes everything in me not to interrupt.

"Sit down." The earlier confrontation is gone from her voice, and in its place is a weariness that wasn't there earlier. This close to the sea, her hair is blowing around her face in a halo of silvery white, making it hard to determine her expression.

Only when I've taken a seat kneeling on the floor, and Opal is sitting next to me, does she speak again.

"The Goddess chose you when you were born, did you know that?"

I shook my head. "Glenna announced it to the covenwhen I was nine. She said the Goddess granted her a vision of my future."

"True, in a manner of speaking. But the vision was one given to all high priestesses on the day of your birth. There are only ever two Shadows. One student and one mentor. Every time a future Shadow is born, all high priestesses are told. It's supposed to prevent what Glenna did from happening and ensure the future Shadow is given the guidance she needs."

"I still don't know if I can believe you," I whisper. "Glenna was..."

"Let me tell you a story," Petra cuts me off, finishing with the candles and stepping towards the pool in the centre of the room. She starts lighting the floating candles one by one. "Twenty-five years ago, a baby girl was born to the Meliad coven. The Goddess marked her at birth as a Shadow and—knowing that the child would need another Shadow to train her—her mother and her harem waited until she was six, then took their precious child on a ship headed for Sulivad. From there, they planned to fly to Ilyani where I was High Priestess."

I don't like where this is going, but I can't tell her to stop.

"But they never arrived at Sulivad. A storm smashed the ship into the rocks by Fort Sole. The whole family was assumed dead, and I believed that the Goddess had judged me unfit to train another Shadow, and called the child home to the stars before giving me the chance."

"Glenna found me."

"Yes. But only after a certain sirenae prince, sent by his seer sister, rescued you from the depths and swam you to the nearest witch coven."

I'm frozen. I literally can't breathe.

"Niklaus Sirenae Regis, beloved younger brother of the Seer Cassandra Sirenae Regis. He had no idea that you werehis mate at the time—the bond doesn't kick in for immortals until all parties have reached the age of maturity—but he did as his sister asked and saved you." Petra turns her silver eyes on me. "You owe him your life."