Chapter 17 Morgaine
MORGAINE
The moment I saw Lavender and Sal standing there amongst the newly arrived rebels my heart swelled and I rushed towards them.
I would have recognised their distinctive red curls and silver crop anywhere.
They saw me coming, pushing my way through the crowd, and they both opened their arms to embrace me.
All of the emotions I’d been suppressing for the past several days sprang to the surface and I struggled to contain them.
After becoming immortal and losing everyone I’d ever loved, one by one, I had told myself I would never let myself care about another person—witch or otherwise.
But somehow, overall the last few years, I’d come to see these women as my sisters in more than just magic.
We held each other tightly for a few moments, the scent of earth and unwashed hair filling my nostrils. I breathed them in, my soul sisters. A sharp pain in my chest took my breath away as the memory of Rosemary’s broken body flashed before my eyes. I gasped, tears springing to my eyes.
“Where have you been?” I asked, pushing them both away and holding them at arm's length.
“Hiding,” Sal replied.
Lavender nodded. “We broke out of the dungeon and had to hide in the forest until we could track you and the sheriff.”
I shushed her, glancing quickly around, but everyone else was occupied with the handful of new rebels, leading them to tables and handing them bowls of soup. I didn’t see Stefano anywhere. I dropped my voice to a whisper. “Here, they call me Eleanor. And no one knows what I am.”
Sal’s expression was quizzical, but she nodded. “Alright, Eleanor it is.”
I took a deep breath. “And he’s here, too. The sheriff.” When they didn’t look taken aback, I sighed. “But you knew that already. You tracked him here?”
Lavender looked guilty. “We had to. It’s the only way we knew how to find you.”
“Find me?” I didn’t understand. I thought they’d be looking for Stefano, to take their revenge; not myself. Unless…My hand instinctively went to my chest where the mark hid beneath my black, high-necked dress.
“We saw the mark on his chest,” Sal said under her breath. “We knew you’d need us, if you’re to have any hope of removing it.”
My brows rose, but just at that moment, Millie appeared by my side. “Welcome to the Burrow, I’m Millie. You must be hungry? There’s plenty of vegetable soup, and a really special treat; bread pudding.” She grinned, dimples in both of her cheeks, and I could already see Lavender beaming in response.
I joined them at one of the long tables to continue our conversation, over bowls of soup, hunks of crusty bread, and dishes of warm, sweet pudding.
“How did you escape the dungeons?”
Lavender spooned vegetables broth into her mouth. “We picked the lock.”
“The handsome idiot gave us his dagger,” Sal said, around a mouthful of bread.
I shook my head, I remembered him saying something of the sort. For a witch hunter, the man really didn’t understand witches.
“We fled the castle under cover of night, and reached Papplewick by dawn. But by morning patrols had been doubled and there were guards knocking on every door. We couldn’t put the coven at risk, but they told us about the rebels, and how we could find them.
We hoped you’d found them, when we tracked the sheriff here.
” Lavender pushed her soup bowl aside and tucked into the creamy bread pudding.
She closed her eyes and murmured with pleasure; from the way they were both eating I could only assume they’d been foraging for the last few days.
But that wasn’t my biggest concern. “They tightened security that quickly after your escape?”
Sal raised an eyebrow. “It’s not just us. The brand-new High Sheriff vanished without a trace. The prince is furious, the guards have been given permission to arrest anyone they even remotely suspect of witchcraft. Evidence or no.”
Of course. I hadn’t even considered what Prince John must think of Stefano’s disappearance.
“The others on the wagon told us, the dungeons are already packed to the rafters,” Lavender added, letting her spoon clatter into her empty bowl.
“And they’re executing innocent women each day until he’s found.
” Her lips tugged down at the corners, the brief joy the meal had brought her already forgotten.
I put my hand over Lav’s, the thought of more innocent lives being stolen making my heart ache.
I couldn’t do anything to break the bond any sooner, but maybe if the rebels knew about the executions they could intervene?
I pulled my hand back and laced my fingers in my lap as Millie walked towards us.
“I hope you enjoyed that, ladies. I’ve assigned you to the same room, Eleanor will show you there so you can get yourselves settled. And then I’d appreciate your help in the laundry today. You too, Eleanor.”
I rubbed the linen sheet in my hands against the scrubbing board, slopping warm, sudsy water over the side of the tub. Lavender, Sal and I had been assigned to laundry duty, and apparently today was bed changing day.
I’d already washed a stack of linens and draped them over the ceiling-mounted drying rack, but the pile of dirty laundry next to me had barely shrunk.
Millie had left us in Agatha’s capable hands, and we’d washed in silence for what felt like an age, before Agatha finally trusted us enough to leave us alone. I immediately started interrogating my coven sisters.
“What do you know about this bond? What did you mean when you said I’d need you if I was going to try and remove it?”
Sal threw a wet bedsheet up onto the rack, flinging droplets of water at both me and Lav in the process. “It’s some of the most advanced magic I’ve ever seen. I imagine any disenchantment spell would require a full coven.”
I felt a prickle of sadness at her words; we weren’t a full coven anymore. I could see from Lavender’s shining eyes that she was thinking the same. I blinked away my own tears and cleared my throat.
“We already attempted the disenchantment. It failed.” I unbuttoned the neck of my dress enough to pull it aside and show them both the now almost black mark. Lavender gasped and Sal shook her head.
“What happened? Did you use the wrong materials?” She looked doubtful, and I knew why. I would never have attempted to perform magic, especially magic as important as this, without the exact right ingredients, and Sal knew that.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “We did everything to the letter. The items, the incantation. Everything.” I scrubbed a pillowcase aggressively, frustrated by the whole thing yet again.
“Perhaps the timing was off.”
But I knew I had it right. That feeling, the strange sensation of someone walking over my grave, I got it every single night at exactly midnight. The witching hour. No, it couldn’t have been the timing.
“Or,” Lavender began, then hesitated.
“What?” I asked, eyes narrowing. What didn’t she want to tell me?
“Well,” she said, slowly. “If one party is resistant, it can throw the spell out of balance.”
“Resisting?” I repeated, realising I sounded stupid. But I couldn’t get my head around what she was suggesting.
“If one of you secretly, or subconsciously, wanted to stay bonded, for example.” Lav winced as though I’d struck her, but I just sat there open-mouthed. Finally, I scoffed.
“No. Absolutely not. We both want to be separated just as much as each other. We’re desperate to break the bond, you should have heard us arguing when it failed.
There is nothing that man wants more than to be unbound from me—probably so he can try to kill me at the first opportune moment. And frankly, the feeling is mutual.”
I could see the thinly veiled scepticism in both of their expressions, and it made my anger burn all the hotter.
“I have heard one story,” Sal said, putting down the sheet she’d been wringing out.
“Years ago. From what I recall, it was another bond, similar if not the same. But something went wrong and it transformed into a curse. No matter what they did, it couldn’t be broken.
” Sal paused, and both me and Lavender hung on her every word, waiting.
“Until both parties had learned to stop fighting it and accept the bond. Only then were they able to remove it.”
I squinted. It sounded like an allegory, or an old wives’ tale. “Where did you hear this story, Sal?”
She waved my question away and picked up her washing again. “I can’t remember now, but it might be relevant. You never know.”
Lav stood on her chair to hang a sheet on the drying rack. “Maybe you just weren’t strong enough, hadn’t you both been injured? Maybe once you’re both fully healed, if you try again, it’ll work.”
I wished I was possessed of Lavender’s natural optimism. Unfortunately, I’d lived too many lives and seen too much to feel any sort of positive spin could be applied here. I dunked my last sheet into the now cold and grey water.
Lavender’s voice was paper thin when she spoke again.
“Or maybe,” she said, eyes welling. “The bond is so strong because it was intended for Rosemary.” She pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes.
“Perhaps it will take all three of us under a solar eclipse to break such a powerful bond.”