by Jayne Hawke
“We will bring you here when we have more evidence and a clearer path as to how to proceed,” Fionn continued.
I knew better than to directly contradict him, but I desperately wanted to throttle him. He turned his delicate features towards me and gave me a small smirk. It took everything I had to keep my wolf in check and make no moves to sink my teeth into his throat.
The council filtered out of the room. The garou was the only one who didn’t give me a good glare full of deadly promises. He walked with his shoulders back and refused to meet my gaze. I was left with some hope that I would be able to bring him and his pack on side. I was going to need all of the allies I could get.
Once the door was closed and I was left alone with Fionn, I growled and paced, trying to purge the tension and frustration that had been locked within me.
“You cannot brute force your way through this situation. You need allies and finesse. From what I can see, you need to purge these Apophis witches and reconstruct the council from scratch. I will, of course, maintain my seat, and I feel quite good about the garou Rafe, but the rest could easily be grasping at whatever threads of power this Apophis coven is offering.”
He was right. Of course he was right. That didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
“And what do you recommend I do next?”
“You need hard evidence. If you start ripping out throats without the evidence to back it up, you will make the situation worse. You need to be able to show the world that they are corrupt and dangerous.”
I slowed my breathing and thought through what he had said.
“There’s something wrong with Kyra, the Epona witch.”
“Agreed.”
“So, we start with her coven, the same coven that Liam, the Apophis witch we believe we killed, came from.”
“’You believe you killed’? I was told that you killed a dragon and left nothing but rags behind.”
“We did, but we had no proof that it was Liam.”
The elf’s features tightened, but he said nothing.
“You believe this coven’s plan is to bring forth the avatar of Apophis?”
“Yes.”
He walked in a small circle.
“I do not know much of gods. Would it be possible for him to have multiple avatars at once?”
My insides froze at the thought. We knew that one avatar would be enough to plunge at least a good section of the US into darkness and chaos. An entire coven of them could be a risk to the world as a whole.
40
The last thing I wanted to do was invite a fae into my home. For all I knew, they were like vampires, and I’d never get rid of the elf once I’d let him over the threshold. We needed somewhere we could talk freely, though, ideally with Amy and Sky to help us navigate the witch society.
I wished I hadn’t been so content to lose contact with Jake. He had chosen to disappear, but I could have worked harder to keep something between us. I turned my music up louder and shifted my thoughts to the things I could do, rather than to regrets and guilt-riddled anxiety.
Fionn drove a very sensible pitch-black car. It was all smooth lines, with a surprisingly powerful engine under the hood. Yet it blended in well with its surroundings and the cars around it. No one would have thought twice if he’d have said he was just some corporate office worker somewhere, albeit a strangely beautiful one.
He kept up with my pushing my Mustang, and easily caught me on the corners when he slipped behind on the straights. I needed to get my head straight, and taking the long route home was giving me a chance to do that. The witches were in deep with the Apophis witch, which didn’t make much sense to me. Sky was being torn apart and had lost her magic due to having two gods arguing over her, and yet they seemed to be courting two gods with no side-effects.
That being said, Kyra was wrong. I didn’t know exactly how or why, but the wrongness didn’t leave me. The more I looked back on my memories of the discussions with her, the way her hands moved and her necklace caught my eye, the more I saw the wrongness. Digby was clearly in deep, too. Bears were always difficult to deal with, such was their nature, but there was far too much aggression and eagerness to leave.
The Brigid witch was an unknown. The tension between her and the fae could give her motive to try and connect with the Apophis coven. I swallowed hard when I finally accepted that there was likely an entire coven of them out there.
If the Brigid witch was genuine, then she could potentially give us the fire we desperately needed to purge the world of the Apophis coven. If she was on their side, I suspected she would be the most dangerous foe of all. I needed to understand how the witches were connected and who would stand to gain, and lose, the most from this alliance and situation.
Briar and Adam were home earlier than expected, both in their wolf forms. They had been sunbathing on the driveway. Ears pricked and bodies tensed when they looked past my car to Fionn’s. They had stronger territorial drives than I did. I wasn’t sure if that was because they were born rather than turned, or whether they were very protective over the fact they finally had a territory. Either way, they stood with their hackles up and teeth bared, ignoring me entirely.
“I invited Fionn here,” I said pointedly as I got out of the car.
Briar’s ears flattened against her skull. Adam’s head tilted slightly.
I stared Briar down.
“Fionn is a guest here because I asked him to be,” I growled.
Briar shifted into her human form as Fionn came and stood next to me with his hands in the pockets of his expensive slate grey suit pants.
“He’s an elf!” Briar complained as she crossed her arms.
“I am!?” Fionn said in mock horror.
I pursed my lips, ignoring the elf.
“I am aware of what he is. He’s here to help us with the Apophis witch problem.”
Briar softened and Adam shifted into his human form.
“He’ll help us get Cole back?” she said softly.
“Yes,” I said firmly.
Fionn looked at me with a curious expression.
“I am?” he whispered.
“You are. And if it turns out that Cole has... departed, then you will help us wipe the Apophis witches out. I’m sure it’ll play out well for you and result in a nice power vacuum you can make use of,” I said.
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
“And there I was thinking you were entirely clueless about politics.”
41
“I’m not surprised the Morrigan witch was throwing her weight around,” Amy said as she wrapped her hands around her mug of coffee.
Sky shot her a dark look, which Amy ignored.
“We have a unique position in society,” Sky said stiffly.
“We?” Amy asked.
Sky ground her teeth and looked away.
Fionn watched on in fascination. His cup of tea sat untouched before him. It had taken us ten minutes of searching to find some tea for him to drink. He had been lucky to drink anything at all by the end of it.
“The Morrigan witches have been pushing their unusual position very hard these past few months,” Fionn said diplomatically.
Sky narrowed her eyes and said nothing.
“Are you going to deny it?” Amy pushed.
Sky slouched.
“No, I can’t deny it. I’m also not a part of it. I’m not high enough ranked to be pulled into those sorts of decisions and politics. I do as the Morrigan tells me, nothing more, nothing less.”
“You think the Morrigan witches are involved with the Apophis witches?” I asked.
“It is possible.”
“No, it’s not. We’re protectors. Defenders. We keep the magic users in line and stop things like this from happening,” Sky said vehemently.
“And yet, you didn’t,” Fionn said mildly.
He took a small sip of his tea and smiled, apparently pleased with it.
“I was sent to
resolve the issue of the Apophis witch,” Sky said pointedly.
“Do you not think it unusual to send a single lower witch to take down an entire dangerous coven bent on destroying the world?” Fionn asked.
Sky tensed, her entire face tightening before she took a big gulp of her coffee.
“I understand that it’s hard, especially with everything else going on, but you have to consider it,” Amy said gently.
“I can see the reasoning,” Sky said.
“And?” Fionn pushed.
“They’re no longer my coven. I don’t have access to the information you’re asking for.”
“Wait, back up, I missed something,” I said.
Sky sighed.
“I was officially removed from the coven while you were meeting with the council. I am without a home, or my magic.”
“If you choose the Morrigan, you can get your magic back, right?”
I knew that her magic was as integral to her as my wolf was to me.
“Yes. Or if I choose Set.”
“Set witches are rare. Storm bringers and chaos witches haven’t been seen in a century,” Fionn said.
He watched Sky with a fresh intensity.
“We need to see who would best benefit from the power the Apophis witch is offering, and who has been acting weirdly. I saw Kyra, the Epona witch, at the council meeting. I swear her necklace kept moving, and there was an oddness to her. We couldn’t find any trace of her online either,” I said.
“I agree that there was something wrong about her. She would be a sensible starting point,” Fionn said.
“Then we go to this Epona coven and interrogate them,” Sky said firmly.
“Your Morrigan coven is not out of this yet; we have the Brigid coven to consider, too,” Fionn said.
“What of the Brigid coven?” Amy asked.
“There was a Brigid witch there at the council. Fionn baited her into an argument about their place in the witch world, due to the Tuatha De something,” I said.
Sky glared at Fionn.
“The Tuatha De Danann are thought to be fae in some circles, thus not real gods. That makes the witches who deal with them... complicated. The Morrigan is one of those gods,” Sky said stiffly.
Fionn smiled at her and met her gaze without flinching.
“Wait, so why are the Morrigan witches respected enforcers, but the Brigid witches are treated differently?” I asked.
“Because the Morrigan witches were quick on their feet. They pushed their position with their lady, the battle crow, and made themselves enforcers. That ensured they were respected and had access to the wider community. The Brigid witches are by their nature gentler and, thus, were pushed down with the other Tuatha De Danann witches,” Fionn said.
Sky bristled at his words but said nothing.
“What about Epona? Is she one of those?” I asked.
“No. She is a small Celtic goddess, one that spread into the Roman world. She was mostly focused on horses and other equines,” Amy said.
I chewed on my bottom lip.
“Could the Apophis witch have focused on these Tuatha De Danann witches? If their position in the witch world is precarious?” I asked.
“It would certainly have been an intelligent play,” Fionn said.
“What would happen if it turned out the Tuatha De Danann were, in fact, fae?” I asked.
“It would give the fae a stronger foothold in this world and plane. Witches have been using their magic for a long time, and binding themselves to them. That would open up the possibility for fae royalty to control witches and have covens devoted to them,” Fionn said.
I allowed that all to circle around in my mind while I slowly drank my coffee. It made sense to me to at least begin with these possible fae witches. They seemed like the ones most eager to gain power and respect, and if the Tuatha De Danann were, in fact, fae, it would explain how they could deal with both Apophis and their own gods.
“So, something that’s been bugging me. How are these Apophis witches still working with their own gods? How do they still have their magic?” I asked.
Sky narrowed her eyes. She could see my line of thinking and didn’t like it one bit.
“We’re not sure. Apophis is a dark and chaotic god. It could be that he has found a way to work with the witches without claiming or offering them any of his magic. The blood witches were working with him, and yet they had none of his magic,” Amy said.
Sky relaxed some.
“Or perhaps this is proof that they are fae,” Fionn said with a broad smile.
42
The plan was, as Fionn so elegantly put it, a very garou plan. We were going to bang on the Epona witches’ door and try to get evidence they were working with Apophis. Sky was still a Morrigan witch, even if she no longer had the backing of her coven. That, combined with my guardian status, granted us access into their coven home.
And if they didn’t comply, well, we were all ready to bang some heads together.
“What are we looking for exactly?” Briar asked.
Briar, Adam, Sky, and Amy had all squeezed into the back seat of Fionn’s car. They had refused to step foot in my Mustang, and the other options lacked the space needed for six people.
Classical music filled the small space while we tried to relax and forget about the fact we were in the car with an elf. Briar had reminded me that elves were the deadliest of the fae, brutally efficient killers, in a hiss before we had left. I was painfully aware of what I was sitting next to, but the fact remained that there were bigger stakes to focus on.
“Well, if they’re devoted and dumb,” Sky shifted her weight, “then they’ll have snake statuettes, a shrine or altar devoted to Apophis, anything snake-ish really.”
“If they have more brains, then we’ll be looking for anything Egyptian. Books, paintings, anything at all,” Amy said.
“You know, it says a lot that the Egyptians never worshipped him; they went as far as to have anti-Apophis rituals,” Sky said.
Amy looked at her quizzically.
Sky shrugged.
“Set was Apophis’s main adversary. He protected Ra, in his boat, from Apophis and defeated him each night to allow the sun to rise again each morning. Set is pushing quite hard for me to choose him, so I’m gaining snippets of information.”
“So you’re saying that your accepting Set would help us find and destroy the Apophis witches?” Fionn said.
Sky looked out the window and refused to answer.
“We will not push her into a decision. It will impact the rest of her life,” Amy said firmly.
Fionn shook his head and muttered something I couldn’t quite catch.
“I assume you were complaining that we’re soft for not thinking like fae,” I said.
“Yes,” Fionn said with a sweet smile that didn’t reach his cold predatory eyes.
It was easy to forget what the elf was sometimes. His beauty made him so easy to overlook. The long lean limbs were far more powerful than they appeared at first glance, and those teeth were sharp enough to tear through flesh as efficiently as a wolf’s.
“And if we don’t find any evidence of Apophis with the Epona witches?” Adam asked.
“It’ll be there,” I said.
“And if it isn’t?” Adam pushed.
“Then we find out what exactly is wrong with them and what they know. They’re involved. They have to be,” I said.
Kyra was not a normal witch. If she wasn’t directly tied to Apophis then she was somehow tied into the rest of this mess. My instincts told me she needed to be removed. It was a matter of finding the excuse to do so.
43
There wasn’t a single horse in sight. The small house was set back amidst what looked like good pasture land to me. It was green. There were solid fences around it. I had no idea what else they might have needed, but I saw no reason why there weren’t horses on it. They were, after all, the horse witches, weren’t they?
“Shouldn’t th
ere be horses?” Adam asked.
“Yes,” Sky said.
“Maybe they’re in a barn,” Briar said.
I snorted.
“They’re not even trying to hide the fact that they’re working with Apophis,” I said.
“Perhaps,” Fionn said.
I looked over at the fae as he carefully drove down the long winding driveway towards the simple house. What had I missed about him? The oath was magically binding, but had I misunderstood some wording?
We pulled up in front of the building and waited for a moment. It wasn’t planned or verbally agreed upon, but there was something in the air. We hadn’t announced our visit. A garou would have greeted us by now. Surely the witches were aware of our presence, and yet there was no sign of them.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that this felt like a trap. Glancing at Fionn, I wondered again what his motives here were. If we removed the Tuatha De Danann witches from the equation, what power would that give him? Perhaps he was hoping we’d prove they were in fact fae witches, and that the shift in power would be huge should that happen. I quietly hoped they were, in fact, fully fledged gods.
The group spread out behind me with Fionn casually wandering by my side. His longer legs allowed him to saunter while I marched. He kept his hands in his pockets. I wanted to remove the little smirk from his face. If this was a trap and Cole suffered because of it, I’d make sure he never smirked again.
I banged on the old wooden front door, feeling it rattle beneath my fist. There was movement from within, hurried footsteps and whispered commands. I banged harder this time. They were doing something in there, and I was not in the mood to wait and see what it was.
A tall older man opened the door with a genial smile on his face.
“I am Guardian Mercier. I am here under suspicion that you’re working with the god Apophis.”
His eyes went wide and the colour drained from his face.
“We’re Epona witches, we would never...”
“Move aside. We’re here to find evidence,” I said.