Chapter 27
I’m miserable as I stand outside Ravensmeade, answering the Politia’s questions about last night’s battle, reliving the horror again and again with each pointed question.
I’ve been doing this for at least thirty minutes, ever since Olga told me that officers were looking for me and I reluctantly headed over to my residence hall.
As if the situation weren’t uncomfortable enough, it’s Officer Howahkan who questions me. The same Officer Howahkan who also questioned me a month ago about my coven sisters’ murders when I was the prime suspect. After my last experience with him, I will never not feel guilty in his presence.
“Walk me through the entire evening’s events again,” he says now.
Weariness tugs at me as I repeat what happened last night all over again, starting with my encounter with Sybil, followed by my walk back with Kane and the demon who ambushed us, not bothering to omit my more questionable decisions throughout the evening.
I go over how Memnon came to help us, noting the way the officer glances sharply at me at the mention of my husband’s name.
Clearly he’s aware of who my soul mate is.
Finally, I discuss the attack in Slain Maiden’s Meadow. And though I’ve already told him all about the massacre, I still choke up repeating it.
Officer Howahkan finally closes his notebook. “You did well, Ms. Bowers. That was nothing short of brilliant, what you did with the mushroom circles, and it must’ve cost you a great deal of power.” He gives me a piercing look, and I shift under the weight of his words.
“Not many witches can brag about taking down well over two dozen demons,” he adds.
“I had help.” Anything to deflect from this sudden praise.
The officer nods, glancing back down at his notepad. “I’d like to get in contact with your husband, Mr. Uvagukis, and have him corroborate these events.”
I nod and rattle off Memnon’s phone number, unsure what sort of relationship my soul mate has with the Politia at this point.
“One last thing,” Officer Howahkan says. “Did you notice or have any theories on why these demons might’ve ambushed your coven sisters?”
I roll my wedding ring around my finger nervously. And for the first time during this questioning, I lie.
I shake my head. “None.”
Because I do have a theory, one I have no interest in explaining to the Politia.
Last night, the demons weren’t there to feed on my coven sisters to complete a bond.
No, last night, I’m pretty damn sure they were there for me.
Just when I’m sure Officer Howahkan is done with me, he flips his notebook shut and says, “Can you show me your best estimate of where the first demon attacked you last night?”
My eyebrows rise. “Oh…o-of course.”
I’m so used to most of my issues falling outside the purview of the Politia that their thoroughness comes as a shock—a slightly unpleasant one, given that all I really want to do right now is fall onto my bed and dissociate.
Instead, I trek into the Everwoods, Officer Howahkan and a few other officers he’s waved over following along.
“I’m not sure exactly where the attack was,” I say apologetically as we move between the trees. “It was really dark…”
My words fall away as a chill washes over me. The woods around me seem to grow colder, and the air has the faintest sulfuric tinge to it.
I glance at the ground, and there is the circle of salt where, only hours ago, a demon was once contained.
“This is it,” I say, my eyes trained to that circle.
Officer Howahkan directs the other officers and calls for their forensics unit.
Once we’re where it all happened, I have to recount the whole ordeal all over again, ending with giving the officers Kane’s contact information so he can also have a joyless day recounting the previous night’s traumatic events.
I brace myself for the moment Officer Howahkan might request we head over to Slain Maiden’s Meadow to recount the events that transpired there, but thank the ever-loving Goddess that shortly after the forensics team arrives and begins to rope off the space, he lets me go.
I stumble away, my nausea rising.
Est amage, Memnon says, his voice gentle, so gentle, are you alright?
A violent shiver racks my body. Fine enough, considering the last twenty-four hours we’ve had.
Should I come over?
I’m already shaking my head. I’ll be alright.
Vow it, he demands, or I’m storming the gates of that school.
The corner of my mouth twitches. I honestly wouldn’t half mind the sorcerer taking it over if it meant Henbane remained open. I vow it.
Instead of returning to my house, where swarms of people still linger, I move deeper into the Everwoods, retracing my way to Last Rites Cemetery.
Something is tugging at the corner of my mind, and I need a moment to think on it.
I pass the area Sybil and I were in last night, picking up my discarded coat along the way. I continue on, to the familiar, empty crypt that houses the ley line entrance.
Once I’m inside the chilly stone tomb, however, I ignore the glimmering tear in reality, instead choosing to sit on the stone floor, Nero at my side.
I lean my forehead against him, thinking back to last night. Going over the events with Officer Howahkan drew something to the forefront of my mind, something I didn’t have time to mull over earlier.
Was it a coincidence that a demon was lying in wait for me on the very evening that, only a few hundred yards away, a whole legion of them were attacking my coven sisters on Eislyn’s behalf?
Or how about the other attack, the one that ran me off the road? Was that also unrelated?
I glance up from Nero’s fur and stare unseeingly at the wall across from us as a tiny detail from the first demon attack comes to me, one I might be misremembering. But now that the thought has taken root, I can’t shake it.
Memnon? I call out across our bond.
Reconsidering me storming the gates? he responds.
Tempting, I say, but no. I need that brilliant mind of yours.
Praise me again, and I will do whatever it is you ask of me.
I grin. Save your kinks for tonight, est vexsava.
My love.
I hear Memnon’s harsh exhale at the endearment.
Do you remember that first demon who attacked me? I ask.
I do, he says darkly. The levity is gone entirely from his tone.
After you read his mind, he was muttering something for a moment. Do you remember what it was?
It was gibberish, nothing more.
Entertain me anyway, I say.
There’s a pause, then Memnon says, “Serve to.”
The hair on the back of my neck rises.
I don’t think that was gibberish, I say. I think Maelverynox was saying “serve two”—as in two individuals. And I think one of them was Eislyn.
Another long, heavy pause follows this revelation. Across our bond, I can sense the edge of Memnon’s horror.
You think all the demon attacks have been her doing? Memnon finally asks.
I bite my thumb, my pulse pounding. Yes, I finally say across our bond. They started after we returned from the Khuno River palace. Do you think she knew we were going to visit?
But of course she did, that was why she left a note for us to find. And it would be easy enough for her to leave a tracking spell for us to walk right into. From there, she’d know my movements, which would make ambushes fairly simple.
She could’ve found us by any means, Memnon says darkly. We haven’t been hiding. After a moment, he adds, But if she is behind these attacks, why has she only targeted you when I’ve made it abundantly clear I want her dead?
I want to scoff. Eislyn has always had big anime-heart eyes when it comes to Memnon, and she’s always wanted me out of the picture. Right as I’m about to say so, I hesitate.
It’s not that simple though, is it?
Two thousand years ago, Eislyn didn’t mortally wound me simply because she coveted my husband. Nor did she place Memnon in enchanted sleep that would last lifetimes simply because she wanted to be with him.
She turned Rome on the man after he built himself an army capable of conquering the empire. She designed an elaborate tomb for him, one replete with Sarmatian text she had to have taught herself from my own writing.
The level of deception and nuance that went into her entrapment of my husband is far too expansive for this just to be about love or marriage.
And then, most telling of all, there was something she said two thousand years ago, something that shook me to my core and set the events in motion that have led to this very moment.
The last time I saw Eislyn in my previous life, I say to Memnon, she told me that she had plans for you. I draw in a bracing breath. What if those plans haven’t changed? I ask softly. Maybe she wants you for the same thing she always has, and I’m still in the way.