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The crazy, demented witch had tried to turn her poor slaves into her followers, but it had gone terribly wrong just like it had for any other foolish witch who attempted the spell.
“That witch on American Horror Story?” Cadence asked. “She’s real?”
I winced. Walker quickly tried to quiet her down, but it was too late. Cadence had already gotten Josephine’s attention. My mentor peered around me at the young girl with matching green eyes. Her gaze turned hungry.
“She was real,” Josephine purred. “And she was a failure, but you and I will be different. We will usher in a new wave of witchcraft.”
“You’ll do nothing with her!” Walker bellowed.
Cadence stared at Josephine with eyes as wide as saucers. Walker tucked her behind him, and she didn’t protest.
“I didn’t fault Sybil for much,” Gloria chimed in, “but I always did doubt her for trusting you. She loved you too much to see how spoiled you’d become and how slimy you’ve always been.”
What Gloria said was true, but I knew she spoke to try to protect the younger witch and her brother. We needed to keep Josephine distracted. If she really decided to take what she wanted—Cadence’s powerful, young blood—she could overpower us in a flash. She was high on the magic of six fallen witches, but more dangerously, somewhere on her body, the Bloodblade was sheathed. She wouldn’t have come without it.
Josephine looked Gloria up and down. The Elder stood proudly in her velvet robes and lifted her chin an inch. Finally, Josephine chuckled.
“I look forward to killing you,” she said. She turned her focus to me.
“You can stop searching the crowd,” Josephine said flatly. “It didn’t work. Without your mother’s help, it killed her. Your mother betrayed me!”
“Because she wouldn’t let you hurt the one you supposedly loved?” I said. “You knew the risks. Most people don’t survive, and those who do aren’t witches or humans or anything that’s really alive.”
My hands shook with rage, but I walked closer to her on steady legs.
“I’d figured it out!” She threw her hands in the air. “I just needed help!”
“My mother was kind enough to not report you,” I argued. “She showed you mercy, and you killed her.”
“No!” Josephine shook her head. “I showed her mercy, until she got in the way again! Don’t you see, Freya? We shouldn’t have to be bound by the rules of some far-off High Witch! We should be free. I thought your mother would see that, but I was wrong.”
I waited for the High Witch herself to descend upon us from the sky, but everything remained still except for Josephine. She paced again, clearly lost in her own tragedy.
“I didn’t want them to die.” She wrung her hands. “But with change comes sacrifice. I had to amass enough power to face the most powerful of all witches, so I took it the only way I knew how.”
“The missing witches,” Walker said to himself.
“You Embraced them,” I added, “you stole their very life source.”
“Once I killed one,” she continued, “I knew I had to kill another. I had to make sure they wouldn’t die in vain. A couple of them understood. They gave themselves willingly to my cause. The others…”
Josephine licked her lips, and I nearly vomited. This was too much. Knowing she’d done something horrible and hearing her talking about it were too different things. I couldn’t play this game of cat and mouse anymore. If things didn’t end now, my wounded heart might actually kill me.
“I had almost gotten everything I needed,” she implored. “I only needed to Embrace my family’s greatest shame, and it would’ve been a done deal! The vampires had sworn their loyalty to me and loaned me the Bloodblade. With it and a fellow Moonflower’s power, I would’ve been ready to face the High Witch.”
“Mom stopped you from killing Cadence,” I said. Tears poured down my cheeks. “She died protecting someone.”
It was a noble death—the kind my mother deserved.
It didn’t make losing her any easier.
“I didn’t want to use the Bloodblade against Sybil,” Josephine admitted quietly, “but your mother was relentless.”
“You mean she was too powerful for you to Embrace,” I snapped, “so you had to use a coward’s weapon to kill her.”
“I did what I had to do,” Josephine argued. “Then the human showed up. You were supposed to handle him, but you failed me too.”
My hands shook from the force of my rage. “Sorry I didn’t kill an innocent man to cover your crimes.”
