Chapter 35
Seren
The walk through the woods is as silent as the last couple of hours Callum and I spent in my car.
Not a companionable silence. Not a comfortable one.
He’s made his position about going back to Faerie clear, and I think he knows where I stand.
There are too many reasons it makes sense to go.
I’ve never been a very altruistic person—and certainly, the reasons I have for wanting to face the fae queen again aren’t entirely selfless—but between the fact that we may have enough to win the bounty, and the added benefit of stopping a hoard of hunters from trying to get into the human realm, I think we’ve got enough reason to at least try.
But Callum’s obviously not convinced.
He’s not being entirely honest with me, either, about his reasons for being in this hunt. Even though I let it go last time when we still barely knew each other, now I want to know.
Maybe I still don’t have the right to know, but… damn it. I want to know.
All of it has me in a mood as we approach the edge of the wards.
A good night of sleep will probably make it better.
Especially a good night of sleep in Callum’s big, comfortable, fur-covered bed. With him curled around me, of course.
Even if I’m a little mad at him, I’m still only human.
“Glamour,” I say, holding out my hand.
He slips his ring off and transforms. Wings stretching behind him, tail whipping off what I’m sure isn’t the most pleasant of sensations after wearing the glamour that long, I’m thankful to have my demon back.
“I’ll keep it safe until we get to your place,” I tell him, slipping it into one of my bag’s secure pockets. “And I don’t think Angelique wants it back. You can keep it for if…”
For if you ever need to come back to this realm.
Will he ever need to come back to this realm?
In the rush of the last few days and the way we’ve fallen so easily together, it’s strange to realize we haven’t talked about any of it. Not what happens after. Not what any kind of future might look like.
After the hunt, I remind myself. We’ll talk about it after the hunt.
A flash of concern crosses Callum’s face, like he’s realizing the weight of all those unanswered questions, too.
“Come on, it’s not too much farther,” I say before either of us can open a can of worms that doesn’t need opening tonight.
Besides, after just a few more steps, we’ve got bigger problems.
As soon as I crack the first ward, something falls from a tree above us.
No, not just something.
Dozens of somethings.
Drifting down like snow all around the clearing, small iridescent bubbles pour from the treetops.
They’d almost be pretty if, you know, they weren’t probably put there by a bunch of witches pissed off I keep making them recast their wards.
I barely make it two steps back, and only choke out a single syllable of a warning to Callum before the first bubble pops.
I can’t move.
My feet root themselves to the earth, and all my muscles lock up. I can still move my eyeballs, can still cry out, but other than that, I’m fucked.
Beside me, Callum is, too.
The magick isn’t all that different from the spell I used on him the night we met, and I hope to the Goddess it wears off just as quickly. At least before any vengeful coven witches show up and take us down to their dungeon.
“Seren, wait!”
“Not like I really have a choice,” I call to the familiar voice echoing through the trees.
Out of all the witches who could have been behind this, I suppose I should be thankful it’s my twin, but it’s hard to remember that considering how fucking annoyed I am.
Soleil bursts into the clearing, and has the good grace to look at least a little ashamed when she spots me and Callum.
“Sorry,” she mutters, reaching into her pocket, pulling out a spray bottle, and aiming it at my face. “Gonna attack me if I give you the counter-spell?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” I say through my teeth.
“Just… hear me out?”
“Fine,” I huff. “Do it. Callum, too.”
“Close your eyes.”
I obey, and a cool mist kisses my face. A heartbeat later, the paralysis has melted away. She does Callum next, and by the time we’ve both regained the use of our bodies, I’m about ready to go back on my promise not to curse her.
“Sorry,” she says again, running a hand through wind-tangled hair. “I just didn’t know how to stop you so I could talk to you before you left.”
“And out of all the options you had, this was the one you went with?”
She scoffs. “Oh, please enlighten me. What would have been better? Asking you nicely to stay for a damn second to talk? Because that’s worked so well the last few times I’ve tried it?”
I let out a long breath, because I really don’t have anything to say to that.
Never would have expected to be at a point where my own sister felt like she had to curse me into having a simple conversation.
But here we are.
No point arguing it, so I try to poke a different sore spot.
“Aren’t you risking pissing off the coven witches, booby trapping their access to the Veil?”
Soleil avoids my gaze, looking up at the trees instead like there might still be some of those devious little bubbles waiting to fall. “The bubbles were… specially made.”
“Specially made,” I say flatly.
“For you,” Soleil explains. “I keyed the drop mechanism to trigger when it sensed the ward-breaking method you use. Still don’t know any other witches who’ve cracked that kind of magick.
And I scattered tracking beacons throughout the woods so I’d have a heads-up when you were getting close and could run down here. ”
She gestures to the nearest tree, and sure as shit, I spot one of the small, metallic beacons affixed to the bark.
“It’s a good spell,” I begrudgingly admit as I massage feeling back into one of my shoulders and try to ignore her compliment. “Fucking annoying. But good.”
As irritated as I am right now, I can’t pretend like it’s not.
Mentally, I’m already brainstorming ways I might copy it.
“Thanks,” she says, and though she still looks contrite, a smile plays around the corner of her lips.
A smile is—annoyingly—tugging at my lips, too, but I bite it back.
Instead, I make myself remember all the reasons the two of us are on the outs. And with that comes a flash of the last thing I learned before I left this realm three days ago.
Any momentary amusement dies immediately.
“Aren’t you risking your precious Ascension, coming after me like this?”
The taste of the word is bitter on my tongue.
Ascension. To the coven’s highest ranks.
She’ll be tied to the Crescent Coven for the rest of her life, standing with Esme and the others as they lord over all their little witchlings. She’ll become a coven councillor, maybe even High Priestess someday.
Goddess, didn’t I want the same thing, once?
I’d be a liar if I pretended my own adolescent fantasies didn’t include sitting on that proverbial throne.
Not that it excuses Soleil.
I grew up.
I learned the hard truths about the coven.
I chose a different path.
She knows just as much as I do, and she’s still here.
Soleil looks down at her feet. “Nothing is written in stone.”
Her voice sounds… small.
My sister is never small.
She may not be a witch who draws attention or seeks the limelight, but she never diminishes herself, either. The sound of her doing it now puts a pin in my anger, deflates it, leaves me reeling and confused.
“What do you mean? You’re not going for Ascension?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then what did you—”
“I meant exactly what I said. Nothing is set in stone. I’m an Ascension candidate, yes, but there’s still a hell of a long way between candidate and councillor. And I… I don’t want to talk about it with you, Ser. I know what it would mean, okay? For us. I know it would mean you’d never speak to—”
She stops abruptly, takes a deep breath, casts her eyes toward the moon above, and blinks rapidly.
When she’s gained a bit of her composure back, she reaches into the satchel she’s got slung across her chest.
“I brought something for you.”
“What?”
“Here,” Soleil says, shoving a finely made leather case into my hands. “Take it.”
“What is it?”
She laughs softly, the sound of it edged by tears that bring a lump to the back of my throat.
“Something that might keep you alive.”
Unzipping the top and peering inside, I find it stuffed to the seams with vials and containers of salves and potions. Herbs, dried flowers, small capsules painstakingly filled with various remedies.
“I asked around,” Soleil continues. “And I’ve got to say, there’s a shocking lack of knowledge around the coven hall about what goes on in other realms and what threats you might face, but this was as good as I could do.
It’s all labeled, but uh, you might want to look through it beforehand so you’re not scrambling in an emergency. ”
That lump gets even thicker.
I don’t know what to say.
I don’t know why she did this, how to thank her, how to bridge this huge, awful gap between us without—
My momentary spiral is halted in its tracks when Soleil throws her arms around me.
“I know you’re not a hugger,” she says, “but you’re just going to have to deal with it. I get to hug you before you go off and potentially get yourself killed again.”
“Again?” I say with a wet laugh. “Do I have to remind you I didn’t actually die the last time?”
“Not for lack of trying,” she mutters, and hugs me tighter.
We both hold on for a few moments longer. In those moments, I can pretend no time has passed. I can pretend I didn’t turn my back on the coven who raised me and I’m not mad at my sister for choosing to stay. We can travel back through time to a moment that wasn’t this damn difficult and sad.
Soleil breaks the embrace first.
She blinks away the lingering tears in her eyes and sets her shoulders, stands up straighter, transforms back into the kind of witch who should absolutely have a place on the Crescent Coven council.
Hopefully, she’ll be able to make something better of it. Hopefully, she’ll be the change their dusty old halls need.