Chapter 16
Callum
The witch who steps into the room radiates power.
Deeper than Seren’s or Soleil’s, her magick has a metallic edge as sharp as a finely honed blade. It fans out into the air around her, prickling against my skin.
The witch—Esme—is older than my mate and her sister. Straight-backed and keen-eyed, her silver-threaded mahogany hair is pinned up tight enough to further sharpen her already severe features.
She eyes Seren disdainfully, and I swallow back a growl. The thread of that terrible magick pulsing from her is enough to override even my instincts—still far too on edge after everything that’s happened today.
“I’d ask you what you’re doing here,” Esme begins, then sniffs the air delicately. “But if I had to guess, I’d say poison?”
“Fungus,” Seren quips in a voice that’s still concerningly raspy, smirking even though she’s barely keeping her feet underneath her. “A real nasty one. Nearly—”
“You thought it would be appropriate to come here for help?”
Seren swallows hard. “Look, I was a little out of it when I came through the Veil, so I don’t—”
Esme turns her attention to Soleil. “And you thought it would be appropriate to use coven resources to help a witch who’s turned her back on us?”
Soleil, who’s tended to her sister and put me in my place with absolute confidence these last few hours, immediately wilts under Esme’s harsh words. Her shoulders sag and she drops her gaze to the floor.
“My apologies, High Priestess.”
Ah. So this witch must hold some sort of command here.
Esme certainly looks it as she stares Soleil down, as her magick flares again, filling my mouth with the taste of metal.
“Don’t blame her,” Seren says, more steady this time.
I reach for her, but she brushes me off.
She steps forward, not intimidated for a moment. “You expected her to let her sister die?”
A flash in Esme’s eyes, a spark of steel to match the power still spreading through the room. “I expected her to remember how this coven handles apostate witches.”
“And how’s that?” A new spark of magick, a lightning strike on scorched ground.
“You make life here so goddessdamned miserable that they’ve got no choice but to sacrifice their dignity to keep their place?
You make it clear the coven owns them, that their only worth is in what they can provide for you and your—”
“Enough.”
It’s Soleil, this time, who steps forward, right in between Seren and Esme as she finds her voice. Her thread of magic is like buried copper. Metal and earth, sharp and rich.
Goddess, it’s like being in the middle of a powder keg.
This much magick, raw and threatening to erupt, sets my teeth on edge. An instinct screams wrong, go, run, but Seren’s still here and barely standing, so I hold my ground.
If she can face it, so can I.
I’m not going to leave her here alone.
“If someone has to pay a price for this, I will,” Soleil says.
Esme stares her down. “I would have expected you to show better sense than this, Soleil. Especially considering your upcoming Ascension.”
Seren sucks in a sharp breath, and devastation breaks across her face.
That’s the only word for it.
Any slight bit of color she’d gotten back after her ordeal fades away, and a sheen of tears washes over her eyes. She shakes her head, her mouth opening, then closing, then opening again as she searches for her words.
“How could you?” she whispers, and Soleil flinches. “Ascension, Sol? Really? You really want to commit yourself to an entire lifetime tied to this fucking—”
“Stop.” Soleil’s voice shakes, her hands curl into fists at her sides. “I get it. I really do. You hate the coven. You hate me for—”
“I don’t hate you.”
Soleil’s laugh is sharp and broken. “Could have fooled me, Ser.”
The silence in the workshop is heavy, absolute, settling between the two sisters.
I wish I knew more about what was going on here, what to say, how to help, but I’m lost, and there’s no time to get a word in anyway.
Esme takes the silence as her opportunity to cut back in.
“It’s time for you to leave, Seren.”
For a moment, I think she’ll keep arguing, or perhaps that her sister will say something else, but in the end it comes to nothing. She turns to go, and after waiting a beat to make sure neither of the witches she just turned her back on are going to try anything, I follow.
We take a different route out of the coven hall than we took coming in.
Up a different set of stairs, then another, through a series of corridors that grow wider and grander until we reach a large open chamber at what must be the front of the building.
With walls rising three stories to a domed ceiling above and more corridors branching off into more sprawling wings, the room is vast and cavernous. The walls are covered in artwork and curios, the candlelight from the chandelier above and the sconces on the walls flickers low and warm.
And in that candlelight, eyes. Witches. All turned toward us.
Peering down from the landings above and the cracks of doors set just ajar. From the arched entrances to the corridors and the shadows in the corners. Despite the late hour, it seems as if the entire coven is awake and watching the spectacle.
Seren holds her head high, her back straight. She meets every pair of eyes we pass, many of them darting away as soon as she catches them.
Only to land on me.
The murmurs begin when we’re half-way through the large entrance chamber, headed for the door. Hushed exclamations and sharp inhales, whispers of Seren and demon and who is he?
I tune them all out.
The only witch I’m concerned with is the one walking ahead of me.
Though she still carries herself tall and proud, I don’t miss the lines of tension around her mouth, the dark circles under her eyes, the slight tremor in her hand as she reaches for the door.
I won’t intervene or do anything to diminish her in the eyes of her coven, but nor will I allow her to go without help should she need it.
No one speaks to us as we leave the coven hall.
No one tries to stop us.
We simply walk out the enormous set of dark wooden double doors and into the night beyond. They close behind us with a sense of finality, and some of the tension leaves Seren’s body.
Her shoulders slump, and she stumbles a step on the cobbled walkway.
I catch her by the elbow. “Back to the Veil?”
A short, jerky nod is the only answer I need. Opening a portal in the strange, sluggish magick of this realm, I guide her gently through it.
We step out just on the edge of the wards which guard the Veil, and it’s Seren’s turn to lead me forward. She untangles the complex web of magick, stepping us through like it’s nothing more than a cobweb.
We’re both silent until we step into the soft glow of the Veil’s light. She stands staring at it for a moment before she turns to me.
“Want to see if you can get back through?”
I nod and step forward to lay my hand on the stone arch. The Goddess must be feeling generous tonight, because the mist settles deep crimson almost immediately.
But I don’t step through.
I can’t leave.
Not yet.
Not until I know my mate is alright.
Despite it all, I still need to know she’s alright.
Seren is as subdued as I’ve ever seen her. Her usual sparkle is gone, replaced by a haunted, exhausted look in her eyes.
“Do you have somewhere safe you can go?” I ask, though the thought of parting from her now feels like it might rip me in two.
I almost lost her today.
Before we could get to know one another, before whatever this is between us even had the chance to begin, I almost lost her.
She lets out a long sigh.
“I… yeah, I guess I do. Though I’m really not looking forward to explaining all of this to my parents.”
“Your parents?”
“Yeah, I…” She runs a hand down the side of her face. “I kind of… live with them. For now, at least.”
I hum. “And their home is secure? You’ll be protected there?”
A soft laugh, tired and humorless. “It’s safe. Well. As safe as anywhere can be.”
I don’t like that answer.
And though I know I shouldn’t, though I know what her answer will likely be, I can’t stop myself from offering, anyway.
“What if…”
Seren looks over, brow raised.
Goddess, am I doing this?
How many rejections can a demon reasonably endure from his mate before he simply expires from humiliation?
One more, I suppose, as I let the offer slide from my lips.
“What if you came back to the demon realm with me?”
Seren doesn’t answer right away.
In fact, she doesn’t answer for long enough that sweat beads on the back of my neck. I shift from one foot to the other and then back again, as if that will do anything to dispel the discomfort coursing through me.
I shouldn’t have offered.
It’s not like she’s going to—
“Where would we go, if I came back with you?”
Startled, I clear my throat. “I… have a place. It’s small, but there’s room enough for both of us. We could rest and… maybe plan for what comes next? If you’re still in the hunt, I mean?”
The glint in Seren’s eye sends all that discomfort scattering to the wind.
There she is.
There’s the witch I know.
“I’m absolutely still in the hunt.”
Her words still have that same tired edge, but the glint remains, and the thread of magick between us tugs insistently at my chest.
“I wouldn’t have expected anything different.”
She smiles—a proper smile this time, full of the sharp determination I’m coming to know so well—then glances to the Veil.
“Alright. I’ll come with you.”