Page 154 of Traitor Witch

"Did Petra send you?" The questions keep coming, in time with the lashes. "Has Glenna been conspiring with her all along?"

"You realise protecting Glenna and Petra is for nothing," the Alchemist mutters, striding back so I can see her. "In a few days, all that will remain of Sanctum is rubble. Nothing you can do will save them when a fleet of a hundred mage ships turns up. If Coveton has turned traitor as well, the fleet will go there next. No one will miss a tiny town in the middle of nowhere."

"Just like no one will miss a load of old women worshiping a dying religion," the mage adds.

There's a knock on the door.

The mage answers it, opening it just wide enough for a royal guard to stick his head through the gap. The man's eyes focus on the ground as he speaks, but the urgency in his tone keeps everyone's attention.

"Your Majesty, High Councilman, word just returned from your agents in Coveton. High Priestess Glenna is dead, killed by a rogue Shadow. As is High Priestess Felicity. It's been almost a month."

A slow smile spreads over the Alchemist's face.

"A rogue Shadow, huh?"

The Eagle is considerably less calm. "And this information took a month to reach us,why?"

"Forgive us, your Majesty. The new high priestess had our agents murdered, and the port was blockaded during the search for the murderer.”

"You may go." The Eagle snaps, and the guard's head disappears, the door swinging closed once more.

"So Glenna wasn't a traitor," the Alchemist muses.

The Queen scowls. "This changes things. An unchecked coven in the north could destabilise everything."

The whip clatters to the floor behind me, but I knowbetter than to think this is over. No, the more the Eagle feels like she's losing control, the worse things will get for me.

I don't know if I can take worse.

She strides for the door, ripping it open with such ferocity that the guards behind it flinch.

"Get me the royal interrogator. She talks by tomorrow morning or he dies for his incompetence."

The three of them trail from the room, replaced with a grim-looking man.

No. Not a man. A mage.

He's so preoccupied by the Eagle's threat that he doesn't even ask me a question before the transmutation circles form around me and my bones start to snap at his whim.

After the first hour or so, I start to float.

The odd, disconnected feeling makes it seem like I'm not really in my body at all.

Perhaps it's a survival method. Or a gift from the Goddess. Maybe I'm dying.

I'm too worn out from the pain to care.

But I don't break. My lips stay fused together, from pride, stubbornness, or loyalty, I don't know. It doesn't matter.

The interrogator will be the one dying at dawn, and from the look in his eyes as the hours go by, he knows it too.

Chapter Forty-Two

NIKLAUS

It's been over a fortnight since I saw her last. The worst two weeks in my entire immortal life.

Today was the day my mother finally lost her patience. She sent me on a doomed mission. One that no amount of strategy or strength could make successful. Then, on the eve of my third defeat, she announced the news I've been dreading since Cassie told me to make the bargain.