Once Upon a Dark October

Chapter Eighteen

I t was the first occasion since I had been living at the estate that I had seen a carriage arrive, and from the reactions of my coven-mates, it was not a regular occurrence. As we picked our way along the beach to the cliffside’s private path, Morrigan explained that they did not have visitors calling on them unless it was some vampiric business that required urgent attention.

Dreadmist had long forsaken the rule of royal blood—blood sorcerer or otherwise—and the ruins from those ancient, bloody days lay crumbling on the outskirts where Sonia’s coven now resided. A High Council governed us now, elected by the harbor residents. Morrigan’s status as the harbor’s sole blood sorcerer kept her well within their sights, she’d told me. They did not always trust her, but her magic was sometimes required to investigate dire circumstances where her skills were necessary.

Morrigan hadn’t said it outright, but it sounded as if the High Council tasked her with the unpleasant business of punishing vampires who’d broken long-established rules. It seemed that they relished a blood sorcerer’s methods whenever it served them .