by Jayne Hawke
Kyra’s spell was broken, and I lunged forward, hacking and slashing at her belly until organs were exposed and bulged outwards. Her hands clawed at my skin, but there were no nails or claws there. No harm was done. In one last moment of desperation, she used her last remaining energy to lunge forward and aim those long fangs at my throat.
She was too slow. Too clumsy. I knocked her to the ground and stomped down on her throat, ensuring she would never move again. Her eyes remained open, reptilian and somehow relieved. Her face relaxed, and there was almost a mask of serenity there. Or perhaps I was just trying to make myself feel better about the fact that killing was getting easier.
45
FIONN PUSHED OFF THE wall and casually stepped over the broken forms of the witches. Crouching down next to Kyra, he reached out and snapped off one of her fangs, the crisp sound echoing around us in a mockery of what he had just done.
He gave me a small shrug when I watched on in horror.
“It may be useful,” he said mildly.
“Elves,” Briar muttered.
He gave her a predatory smile sharp enough to make her take half a step back.
“Now what?” I asked.
“One coven down, many more to go,” Fionn said.
That was no comfort. It felt as though we’d done nothing more than taken some lives. I should have been happy that there were fewer Apophis witches in the world, but it hadn’t brought me any closer to Cole.
AMY HAD MADE SURE THAT Briar was healing ok from the witch bite. Thankfully, the pack worked like an efficient unit and no one else had been bitten. Fionn watched on with curiosity but said nothing. The elf’s gaze was setting me on edge. He was cataloguing every little gesture and movement; they would be used against us at some point.
“We need to understand the political landscape with the witches. Going around killing all the covens we suspect isn’t going to get us the answers we need,” I said.
“It does feel really good stabbing snake people though,” Sky said.
Fionn had made himself comfortable in the middle of the kitchen while my pack milled around him. We had made ourselves coffee and dug out Pop-Tarts and cinnamon rolls. Briar and Adam gave the elf a wide berth, and Amy ignored his presence entirely.
I nudged the elf with my elbow before I took the seat next to him at the kitchen table.
“So, do you have any good ideas?”
Fionn took a sip of his tea, ignoring me. I wanted to poke him harder and make him stop being an ass, but that would only make him win this little game. My chest tightened as I realised how similar this was to the game I played with Cole. Quiet and unspoken as we tested and teased each other.
“The Brigid coven and the other Tuatha De Danann in the area would be logical. As would the Morrigan coven Sky came from,” Fionn finally said.
“We need to understand how the covens fit together, who has suddenly come into power, influence, money. How can we do that?” I asked Amy and Sky.
“I still have access to the witch web, we’ll look through the records there,” Sky said.
The idea of looking through numbers didn’t really appeal, but marching around like mindless killers wasn’t going to get us what we needed. Lines had to be drawn.
We gathered around the kitchen table with our laptops, and Sky gave us all access. Briar put on some modern rock music, and we settled into a comfortable work pattern.
Fionn looked over my shoulder and watched as I opened up the website expecting something brutally simple. The site was sleek and elegant with a white and silver theme running throughout. News sat high on the page, records were perched on the slender bar at the top.
I watched as gossip ran in real time down a Twitter-style timeline on the right hand side. Anonymous names talked about how witches were sleeping with members from other covens, someone had stolen a pet crow, and there was a mention of a party out in Colorado.
It felt too normal.
Amy and Briar were looking into the Brigid coven, Sky had the Lugh coven covered, Adam was checking into the Morrigan coven, and that left me with everyone else.
There were more covens in the state than I’d realised. Somehow I had thought of them as having bigger, more sprawling territories than they did.
“A lot of it is business and digital. There aren’t as many hard boundary lines as shifters have,” Amy said.
“So we need to dig into business records and such?” I asked.
“Afraid so.”
This was going to be a long night.
46
IT WAS COMING UP ON sunrise. Adam and Briar had crashed out a couple of hours prior. Amy was struggling to keep her eyes open, but I was determined to keep pushing on. Cole was out there. He needed us.
We had found that the Brigid coven had been remarkably steady. There had been some pressure and comments from a Bast coven about their status as fae witches, but nothing had really come from it. The Morrigan coven, however, was looking disastrous.
Sky’s jaw had clenched so hard I was worried she would break something. It had turned out that the Morrigan coven had been corrupt for quite some time. Humans had been paying them to take out rivals under the guise of their harming supernatural beings and drawing the Morrigan’s attention. The businesses were almost bankrupt, and then suddenly they could afford to buy up new businesses and positively flourish.
There were a lot of strange transactions and staff changes within the businesses we could find. It was also noted that the coven leader had suddenly stopped taking on Morrigan work.
“Bethany had retreated into her quarters away from the rest of the coven a couple of months before I met you, but that was assumed to be relatively normal. We were a very strict coven. No one asked questions above their station. I should have asked more, but I was happy. The Morrigan gave me good work. I was comfortable. It wasn’t perfect, I certainly didn’t have friends there, but the high points felt so good,” Sky said.
I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. There was no point in blaming herself.
“So we remove the Morrigan coven, and speak with the Brigid coven about an alliance,” Fionn said.
Sky narrowed her eyes at him when he said ‘remove the Morrigan coven’.
Fionn sighed and levelled a very weary expression at her.
“They are no longer your coven and we need to remove the Apophis influence entirely.”
“We don’t know if the entire coven is corrupt. I wasn’t.”
Fionn shrugged.
“Then we take out the top echelons and leave the new council to deal with the rest.”
He made it sound so simple. We were just wiping out some of the strongest most fearsome witches in the area.
“We need proof,” Sky ground out.
“Are you really telling me don’t have enough? Would you like a neon sign saying ‘Apophis witches are here!’?”
Sky rubbed her temples.
“We need sleep. We’ll discuss it later.”
With that, she stood and retired to the living room, leaving me with the elf.
“You understand it needs to be done,” Fionn said flatly.
“I do.”
There were too many rumours, too many business transactions, and too many ties to the Epona coven we’d taken out. The top echelon, at least, were corrupt and involved with Apophis. I understood that it hurt Sky, but this was war, and we couldn’t afford to lose.
“WHAT ABOUT THE GAROU and shifters?” Sky asked around a mouthful of croissant.
I hadn’t been able to sleep very long so had gone on a baking spree. It had been too long since I’d lost myself in the simplicity of baking. Before I knew it, I had a dozen muffins cooling and a large batch of croissant dough. Pastries weren’t really my thing, but they and the pain au chocolat had come out beautifully. It gave me something happy to focus on, the delicate layers of the pastries.
“We have the Blue Dagger pack on our side. Digby’s whatever is a definite enemy-”
&n
bsp; “Sleuth,” Briar said.
I looked at her.
“A group of bears is called a sleuth.”
“Ok, well, Digby’s sleuth is suspicious as hell.”
“You’re not just saying that because they’re bears?” Amy asked.
“No. She’s right,” Fionn said as he helped himself to another raspberry and white chocolate muffin.
For such a lithe man, he could really eat. I supposed that shouldn’t have been that surprising, but I still hadn’t expected him to eat more than the rest of us.
“What about the cougars?” Amy asked.
“We’ll look into them after breakfast.”
“I have a good feeling about the shifters,” Adam said.
“Oh?” Sky asked.
“They, we, have very little interest in gods. Most shifters treat them with a mix of hostility and mistrust. I think it would have been too difficult to sway shifters over to Apophis. That and shifters really don’t like snakes.”
That sounded good to me. It made me breathe a little easier, the idea of shifters, beings so like myself, turning to Apophis didn’t sit well at all.
Sky had been quiet and withdrawn through breakfast, which was actually at 4PM. It must have been hard on her, finding out about her coven like that.
Amy put her arm around Sky’s shoulders.
“Being a solitary witch isn’t so bad, you know.”
Sky smiled at her and exhaled slowly.
“I know. It’s just, there’s a lot in my head right now.”
“What about the Hephaestus coven?” Briar asked.
Amy flinched and took a gulp of her coffee.
“There’s no way the techno witches would go dark side,” Sky said.
Amy smiled and gathered up the dirty plates.
“Have we checked their records?” Fionn asked.
“Not yet,” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Amy said quietly.
Fionn went to speak, but I put my hand up to stop him.
“Thanks, Amy.”
Fionn raised his eyebrow at me. I mouthed ‘we can trust her’, back at him.
He shook his head and continued eating his muffin.
47
MY PHONE RANG, STARTLING me out of my thoughts about how best to deal with the bears. Erin, alpha of the Blue Dagger pack, had been eager to handle them. It seemed she and her pack had some unpleasant history with the bears.
Rowan, the Blue Dagger beta, and Amy’s future life-bond, had come over to help us pull together the big picture for the politics in the area.
We had found that the Brigid coven had snubbed the Epona coven entirely, and they were in the clear. I was tasked with bringing them onto our side. Amy’s old coven was also in the clear, and Amy was tentatively reaching out to them in hopes of talks.
The cougars looked to be good too. Their position wasn’t as strong as it had been in the area, which gave me confidence that they’d join us without too much trouble.
“You should put the alpha of the cougars, Erin, and Cole on the new council. Then keep the Brigid witch, add a techno-witch, and Amy for the witches. The fae are suitable as they stand,” Fionn said.
Amy paled.
“I’m not sure, I mean the council is a huge responsibility.”
“And someone needs to speak for the solitary witches,” I said.
“She’s right. Solitary witches are treated worse than dirt. Having a strong voice on the council will help a lot of people,” Sky said.
Amy pursed her lips and returned to tidying the kitchen while she thought about it. I knew that it was a big ask, and we were assuming we’d get Cole back to stand on the council. In truth, the expectation was that I would sit on the council, but Fionn was being oddly kind and saying Cole.
“What will happen in the witch community with the gaps we’re leaving? What about the role the Morrigan witches play?” Briar asked.
She was making notes on everything she heard about the witches. I’d have to borrow them at a later date, especially if I was going to sit on the council. This was the life I was going to have to lead now.
“The remaining Morrigan witches can step up and return to their position in the world,” Sky said sharply.
“You mean they’ll continue as enforcers?” Briar asked.
“Yes. We will, they will, return to be closer to the Morrigan and reduce the chances of such corruption returning. There was a move a year or so ago to make sure that the lower witches didn’t have direct contact with the Morrigan herself. It was said that it was a waste of the goddess’s time and we should trust in our elders.” Sky swallowed. “I refused to give up my direct connection to her. It felt so wrong. I don’t know why the goddess didn’t tell me of the rot within my own coven.”
“That is not how she works,” Fionn said.
Sky turned a venomous look towards him.
“And how would you know?”
Fionn gave her a knowing smile and said nothing.
“What matters is that the Apophis influence is being removed, and we will be able to move forward into a positive, stronger future,” Amy said.
I didn’t know what we’d do without the diplomatic Ma’at witch. She knew what to say and when.
“What happens if Cole really is gone?” Adam asked.
“Then I will hunt down every single person involved in his death and make them beg for such mercy as death,” I snarled.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Fionn said.
I hated him in that moment. He was right. A guardian’s role was so much more than protecting just the garou. I needed to step up and handle the politics to truly watch over my people. That would mean I couldn’t run around the state hunting down and torturing witches. I would need to be careful, restrained.
“What’s the plan of action for today?” Amy asked.
My phone rang again. I’d ignored it the first time in favour of teasing out the knots we were dealing with.
“Yes?” I answered.
“You are summoned before the council. Be there in 30 minutes.”
The man on the other end hung up. I growled and dropped my phone on the table.
“The council just summoned me.”
“You can’t be surprised after we slaughtered an entire coven of witches, the leader of which was on the council,” Fionn said mildly.
Once again he was right, and once again I hated him for it.
48
MY Firefly t-shirt and denim cut-offs didn’t match at all with the pristine suits the council were wearing. Fionn had changed into a beautiful navy blue suit with faint silver stripes, his eyes practically glowing as he stood next to me. I should have felt better, safer, with such a powerful hunter at my side. The fact remained that he was an elf, and he’d rip my throat out as easily as defend me.
The Brigid witch stood distant from the Morrigan witch. Her expression was blank, but fire danced in her eyes as she watched me walk into the room. She was my best chance at an ally. We needed her and her coven on our side to help us rebuild the council and remove the Apophis problem entirely.
Digby was the first to speak, in deep rumbling tones, “You dared kill a councilman’s coven?”
“They were Apophis witches,” I said flatly.
“They were good Epona witches. The good they did-”
“They were Apophis witches, and you knew it. They turned into snake people and tried to sacrifice me in their basement,” I said.
Digby’s eyes widened a little, and I noted the new silver bracelet he wore. A slender ring of silver with a suspiciously snake-like appearance, the clasp widened into the shape akin to a copperhead or other viper.
“The fact remains that you cannot barge into homes and slaughter those you find there,” the bear growled.
“Can’t I?”
I felt Fionn’s smirk as he enjoyed watching this play out.
“No. You can’t. Even a Morrigan witch must play by the rules,” the Morrigan witch said stiffly
.
“And yet here I am, a guardian, not a witch. Remind me, what exactly makes a Morrigan witch stand above their fellows?”
The Brigid witch watched very closely.
“Our lady is above others. She placed us as the protectors and enforcers.”
“You believe you are above guardians?”
“I know we are.”
“And how do the rest of you feel about this sentiment? Knowing that this woman stands before you stating she is above the rest of you?” I asked.
“That isn’t what I said,” the Morrigan witch snarled.
“But it was,” I said flatly.
“Damn witches, you’re all the same,” Digby rumbled.
The garou stepped forward. He had blended into the background, a silent observer.
“I believe it is time the Morrigan witches were reminded of their true place in the world,” he said with cool certainty.
He caught my eye and gave me a small nod. I had another ally.
“I stand with my wolf brethren,” the cougar said.
“Traitors, the lot of you. We stand and work for the betterment of the world. You are weak and pathetic. Loxwood deserved to die,” Digby spat.
I was moving before I’d even registered the desire to do so. Digby was kneeling before me with my claws sinking deep into his fleshy throat as I snarled in his face, all before I had realised I intended to move at all.
“What did you say about Cole?” I snarled.
“I said he deserved the miserable death. He was weak-”
I ripped his throat out. Warm blood coated my hand and streamed down the bear’s chest as his eyes widened and became glassy while his body came to terms with the fact life had left its cage.
Stepping back, I dropped the flesh and sinew on the floor and looked around at those who stood before me. Who else had taken part in Cole’s disappearance? Who else had wished him harm, or worse, harmed him?
“You cannot just kill councilmen! You will suffer for this!” the Morrigan witch snapped.