Chapter 32 #2
“Don’t be absurd,” she says, as if all of this isn’t already absurd. “I wouldn’t kill my own daughter, and Brom would at least be useful if he were to sire another heir with you.”
“You wouldn’t kill your own daughter, yet you wanted to siphon my magic from me?” I cry out. “You wouldn’t kill your own daughter, yet you would have given me over to your sisters, and they would have killed me?”
“I never had any intention of taking all your power, Katrina,” she says indignantly. “I only needed some here and there. I’ve been taking from you your whole life, and you haven’t even noticed.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“It’s a mother’s prerogative. I gave birth to you.
I gave you the gift of life. In exchange you owe me your soul.
Motherhood is a transaction the same as marriage is.
But I didn’t want to kill you, dear daughter.
I only wanted the best for you. When you give birth to Brom’s baby, you’ll see what I mean.
You’ll want the best for that child too. ”
“That child is owed to the demon!”
“And what an honor that is.” She raises her chin.
“Your child will usher in a new age. Goruun’s promises will all come true.
Witches will inherit the earth, and it will all be because of you.
You will be royalty, you the queen and Brom the king, and you will rule alongside your child. You will have eternal life.”
I shake my head. “No. No, that’s not what Sister Sophie told us.”
“What did Sister Sophie tell you?” she asks, tensing up.
“That they plan to kill us both. That when Samhain comes, they will fully take over Brom using the horseman, and they’ll drug me, and they’ll force him to impregnate me. And after that, Brom will be killed, and the same will happen to me once I’ve given birth.”
She frowns, sitting up straighter, the bloody water spilling over. “No,” she says. “That’s not right. That’s not true at all. Sister Sophie is lying to you.”
“I don’t think she is. She’s on my side, she says.”
“And I am on your side too, Katrina!” my mother exclaims.
I laugh bitterly, not sure who to believe anymore. “I can’t trust anyone,” I tell her. “The only ones I can trust are Crane and Brom. And we’re going to get out of here as soon as we can, as soon as we can get rid of the horseman from Brom. Then we’ll leave and we’re never coming back.”
My mother opens her mouth to say something, but then goes still, as if she senses something.
“Who goes there?” Leona’s powerful voice comes from the other room where I hear her enter.
My mother looks to me in horror and mouths the word: Hide.
There’s only one place to hide, only one thing I can do.
I quickly move along the wall until I’m in the shadows of the bathroom and I close my eyes, conjuring shadow magic through my veins, until I’ve blended in with the dark, until I’m sure that no one can see me.
Oh heavens, I hope no one can see me.
I watch my mother in the tub, but she’s not looking in my direction. Instead, she’s watching the doorway as Leona’s cloaked silhouette appears, with Ana right behind her.
“Sarah,” Leona says, her voice chastising. “What are you doing here?”
I hold my breath, terrified that my mother will purposely give me away, or perhaps do it by accident.
“You know why I’m here,” my mother says, her tone firm and cold. “Did you think I would forget it was a full moon? Not when I’m barely hanging on, not when I’m losing fingernails.”
“But we have strengthened the wards,” Leona says, lowering her hood.
I nearly cry out but manage to smother the noise.
Leona’s face is devoid of skin and fat, composed of slimy grayish brown muscle and sinew, her eyeballs nearly hanging out of black sockets.
This is what they look like underneath the magic.
Monsters.
“How did you get in?” Ana asks her, mercifully keeping her hood on, her face in shadow.
“You always underestimate me, don’t you?” my mother says snidely. “Think my power amounts to nothing just because I’m no longer part of the coven.”
“We are on lockdown,” Leona says. “The students and staff are getting restless. We’ve managed to make them think the Hessian is behind all of it, so they understand that the extra wards are up for their own safety.”
“And so, what is your plan?” my mother asks pointedly.
“In all these years I’ve never seen such sloppy, careless work.
People are losing their heads every other day it seems, not to mention the rumors have even slipped into town.
Normal folk discussing what’s happening up here, talking about missing teachers, and students committing suicide in front of an audience. ”
“That’s your daughter’s fault!” Leona snaps. “Your daughter and that damn professor!”
“And then there’s Brom, whom you’ve had no problem manipulating for your own gains,” my mother counters.
“You’re using him too!” Leona says. “Our gains are your gains. Our goals are one and the same.”
“Then why did Katrina tell me that you are planning to kill Brom after he impregnates her? And that you plan to kill her once the child is born? Did you think I would idly sit by and let you kill my only daughter?”
Oh no. No. No. Why is she telling them this?
“Who told Katrina that?” Leona sneers with her lipless mouth. “When did she tell you that?”
My mother lifts her chin. “When she and Brom were over for supper last weekend. She knows the truth. I don’t know how she knows, but she does.”
“Sophie,” Ana mutters, and Leona looks to her and nods.
“Yes,” Leona muses. “Yes, Sophie. As I’ve always suspected she might. She cares too much for her son.”
“As I care for my daughter,” my mother says. “Why is this a shock to you? Are you not used to mothers caring for their children?”
Leona lets out a sour laugh. “Oh yes, Sarah, you are the portrait of a perfect mother. Look at you, bathing in blood so that you can carve out your meager existence for another month. You know, had you not chosen Baltus and married Liam instead, we would have never expelled you from the coven. You could be feasting on the magic-filled parts of these witches, instead of bathing in their leftover blood. But you seem to love scraps. That’s all you deserve, after all. ”
My mother leans forward in the tub, glaring at them. “I need you to promise me that you won’t harm Katrina. I understand if you want to kill Brom, but you are not to harm my daughter in any way. She belongs to me, not to you.”
Leona scoffs. “You belong to us, Sarah, and by default, your child does too. If Katrina plays her cards right, then perhaps we can make an exception. But if she doesn’t, she’s as good as dead, and feasting on a witch of her power? Nothing will taste so sweet.”
“So sweet,” Ana chimes in, and I have to suppress a shiver at her ravenous tone.
“We just need that child, Sarah,” Leona goes on.
“That’s all we need. And we need it soon.
I don’t mind if the world outside the gates falls apart a little, because give us three months, and as soon as that child is born, then that world is over as they know it.
Maybe Goruun will help speed up the process even more.
Perhaps one month instead of three, and all of our troubles will go away. ”
“You seem overconfident,” my mother says grimly. “All this talk of her giving birth in three months and she’s not even pregnant yet.”
“Oh but you see, the plan is already in motion,” Leona says with a wicked smile. “The ceremony can commence as soon as tonight.”
“I thought you were waiting for Samhain?” my mother says uneasily.
“The harvest moon works just as well,” Leona says. “We already have Brom in the cathedral. The horseman was very adept in handing him over.”
No.
No.
My eyes go wide, my stomach twisting, and it takes all my energy to keep the shadow magic going, to keep myself hidden in the dark.
“You already have Brom?” my mother asks warily.
“Yes. His body, anyway. His seed. That’s what counts. I’m afraid the horseman has fully possessed him at this point, and there will be no going back. Once we find Katrina, our ritual will commence, with Goruun’s presence to bless the whole thing.” She pauses. “You haven’t seen Katrina, have you?”
My mother shakes her head. “No.”
“Why do I feel like you’re lying?” Leona says, stepping forward.
“I’m not lying.”
“You wouldn’t be lying to try and save your own daughter, would you?”
“No. I’m not…I…Have you checked Professor Crane’s room? I’m sure she’s with him.”
“We just came from there,” Ana says, and my heart drops. “There was no sign of either of them.”
Oh thank goodness.
“I see,” my mother says, averting her eyes.
“You told them,” Leona says, seething, leaning in across the tub. “You told them to run and hide, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t,” my mother says, shaking her head. “I didn’t.” Then she meets Leona’s awful gaze. “But I wish I did.”
Leona straightens up, a smirk on her fleshless mouth. “Hmmph. Thank you for being honest, Sarah. At least we know now that we can’t trust you.”
And at that, Leona puts her hand out and lights the bloody bathwater on fire.
“You should have burned like your ancestors did, my dear daughter,” Leona says to her as my mother screams and tries to crawl out of the bathtub. The flames catch, burning higher, and the heat fills the room, and it’s only by sheer luck that where I’m standing is still in shadow.
“No!” my mother cries out, the agony going straight to my heart, and the fire engulfs her head, the blood burning like she’s been doused in oil. She screams again, and I am certain any teachers left in this building will hear it.
But where will they go?
Where can they go when the coven will find them anyway?
Leona and Ana turn around, their cloaks swishing around them as they leave the room, and I am left alone with my dying mother as she burns and drowns in the bathtub.
And I can’t even save her. I want to. Despite all she’s done to me, I want to save her.
I want to try and redeem her, as if that will spare me some awful fate.
Blood runs deep, and it holds tight, and I want to spare her from this horror, solely based on the fact that I think she would have spared me.
But I can’t. I just stand there in the shadows, and I watch as she’s burned to a crisp, until the flames go out, plunging us back into moonlight, and her charred body sinks beneath the surface.
Until it looks like it did when I first came into the room.
As if nothing had happened at all.