Total pages in book: 203
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
My heartrate kicks up even higher as the footsteps get closer.
“You’re awake. Good. I want answers.”
I look sideways to take in the person behind the voice. An angry-looking woman with a mass of chin-length curly black hair descends the stairs, eyes bouncing between Jase and me. She wears heavy, dark makeup and I’m not usually one to be critical of something as superficial as looks but given she’s behind our abduction I don’t feel bad for thinking it looks like the years haven’t been kind to her. She’s wearing a loose, patchwork multicolored, but predominantly eggplant-colored harem-pant style jumpsuit and combat boots. She has full sleeves of colorful tattoos on both arms.
She might be forty, no… maybe older, but it’s hard to say. A witch with a scent reminiscent enough of Aphra that I’m sure she’s a Starling coven witch. But of course… who else would she be?
The Starling coven wants their ancestor’s stuff. They’re also probably holding a grudge because of the recent death of one of their elder witches, Aviva Starling, who worked with the SCC. Aviva died during a conflict with us when she fell off a cliff and washed-up dead.
But according to those who were there, the river punished her, we didn’t. And it happened after she tried to drain Erica of her power, which is why the SCC wants the wand and cauldron sent to protected archives – so nobody else can dabble with the dark magic associated with those tools. I heard they belonged to a dark magic practitioner in the Starling coven that went crazy.
After all that happened with Aviva, I did a little digging to learn about the Starling coven and it’s heaps bigger than the Young coven, which has dwindled to just one branch: the five Young sisters, their great aunt, and now the addition of my brother. I read an old SCC report from over twenty years ago by SCC witch Lucinda Walsh that prophesied that the coven would grow again, that the Young sisters and their offspring would be prolific in baby-making.
As for the Starling coven, beyond having a covenstead a several hour drive from Arcana Falls, they’ve also got hundreds of members living in several states in the U.S. and Mexico as well as two provinces in Canada with a sprinkling of branches in Eastern Europe. They have annual retreats and weekly video calls and based on some conversations in my group chat with gal pals from summer camp as well as some other pack librarians I started a book club with. This coven is known for having people in both high and low places.
I’m shuddering with the knowledge that our presence here means that a Starling witch now holds that wand. So, if she has it, what’ll she do with it? And with us?
My pulse races as I think about the things I brought for Jase. Where are they?
Is this the danger Vivica and Erica were talking about? If so, why in the world would they send us on a mission with those implements when neither Jase nor I have the ability to fight off Starling coven magic? What in the world?
My racing thoughts are interrupted by the witch who demands, “Where is it?”
She’s glaring at Jase.
He glares right back with rage bubbling in his eyes, but he doesn’t answer.
“Where’s what?” I ask.
Her gaze swings my way and Jase immediately growls.
She ignores this and asks, “Who are you? Why are you accompanying him instead of that Young bitch?” She walks toward me.
Jase’s voice is lethal when he demands, “Step. The fuck. Off.”
The woman turns just her head toward him.
“This one?” She points to me. “Does she matter to you?”
She moves closer to me.
He bares his teeth as he struggles against the binds, veins protruding from his throat and his arms as metal-on-metal clangs ominously. If he wasn’t Jase, I’d be terrified of him. But she doesn’t look afraid, seems confident in the way she’s restrained and disabled him. When she takes another step toward me, Jase growls a deep, guttural noise.
I swallow while she squats beside me, still looking at him. Now there’s a smirk on her face.
“Maybe you should tell me where they are to keep me from harming hairs on this pretty head, hm?”
“Where what are?” he demands.
She reaches out and toys with my ponytail. I shrink at her touch, but there’s nowhere to go.
“Hands off. The artifacts are in my bag,” he grinds out, and the sound of metal-on-metal sounds again clanging as he tries to break free.
His binds don’t budge.
“Those things in your bag are decoys,” she states.
Jase looks at her like she’s delusional before he spits, “Bullshit.”
“I’m telling you… those are meaningless trinkets from the Young Coven’s ridiculous little shop, containing zero magic and no ties to my family whatsoever. I want my ancestor’s wand and that cauldron and I want them immediately.”