Page 13 of Traitor Witch

“I’ll try, but the evidence is… and now you’re running away.”

Does she think I don’t know how this looks?

“Can you see any other way?” I demand, turning my back on her. “Glenna was the only one who could have sorted this out.”

Danika shakes her head, but I know she’s being naïve if she thinks otherwise.

“I heard the whispers when I was running here. I know the whole city thinks I’ve gone rogue. Unless I can prove I’m innocent, they’ll kill me on sight.”

The truth stings, but not as much as how quickly they all turned on me.

Opal has just enough magic left for me to jump back onto the balcony and out of sight.

I make it out of the temple before I realise I’m now covered in the blood of both high priestesses and clutching a bloody murder weapon. I don’t have enough magic left to activate the sigil at the base of my spine which would let me blend into the shadows and the Moon is still absent.

The first person who sees me will run straight to the guard, or the covens. I’m not sure which is worse.

There’s no other option but to grab one of the white robes I have stashed around the town and change quickly. I pull the white, hooded cloak over my face before I step out onto the street, tucking Glenna’s athame into my boot, and hugging Opal to my chest as I go.

There’s nothing more I can do but keep my head down and pray.

“I don’t mean to question this great plan you have, but where the heck are we going?”Opal’s sarcastic tone makes me wince.

“I met a Seer. He told me to go and find this boat…”

“Which boat?”

“The Deadwood.”

“You can’t swim, have no money, no broom, no cauldron, and hate water more than I do,”she objects.“But, let’s put all that aside and pretend it’s a good idea, even if it’s just one suggested by a complete stranger. Why are we running away to prove our innocence?”

“And I suppose you have a better idea?” I demand, my voice rising.

A vampire couple walking past gives me a strange look, and I grimace, pulling my cloak closer around me before I have to turn my focus to dodging a family of shifters on their way home.

When we’re alone again I continue, voice quieter this time. “I can’t go back until I can prove—somehow—that it wasn’t me. The easiest way to do that is to find the people who killed Glenna and Felicity.”

“Yes, but why that boat?”

I ignore her. The truth is, I have no idea why. My mind keeps flashing back to when my eyes connected with the Seer’s white ones. Something in my gut is telling me he’s genuine.

I want to believe it’s the Goddess, helping me. Mother Moonlight only speaks to her High Priestesses, but I have to hope that perhaps she gives little nudges to lost, lonely shadows too.

It’s either that or a year of celibacy has made me a sucker for a pretty face.

The Goddess is just rising as I reach the docks, and I clutch the white cloak around us both as I realise what that light means.

I’ve lived to see my twenty-fifth winter solstice moon.

I’m now, officially, an immortal.

It doesn’t grant witches the same amount of strength,speed, or healing that most other supernaturals gain upon freezing into their immortality, but the coven still celebrates with a huge party. Danika and Ophelia should be spending the evening screwing the brains out of their new harems. Even I had envisioned picking a lover from amongst the revellers to break the dry spell my fostering forced upon me.

The moonlight tingles as it touches me. It’s a cold feeling, not unlike being sprayed with icy water. I know that’s the Mother’s magic settling into my cells, freezing them.

I have to physically shake off the sensation before I approach the fishermen tidying their nets on the side of the dock.

“I’m looking for theDeadwood,” I venture.