AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Poison, Fey realized, suddenly.
You can’t poison a Witch who had control over both Earth and Water. Earth recognized the toxins, pulled them together into one place within the body. And Water, whether commanded or not, healed it. It made the Queen immune to all attempts at poisoning. Made her heirs immune as well.
And now, it did the same for Fey.
But there was no way for Lilith to have known that.
As the poison drained from her system, the painful cramp in her stomach fading, Fey looked long and hard at the sandwich Lilith had made for her.
“Why did you really send Joy away, Lilith?” she asked, her voice low. “Did you figure you had a better chance if you could get me all alone?”
“What are you talking about?” Lilith asked, continuing to wash the dishes in the sink. But her shoulders tensed, almost imperceptibly, and if Fey hadn’t known her so well, hadn’t spent so many years with her, she might have missed that moment of stiffness.
But she didn’t miss it. And seeing Lilith’s reaction was all the confirmation she needed. Seeing her reaction was a clue to a mystery Fey hadn’t even realized she’d overlooked.
Lilith didn’t know she held power over Earth now. Had no reason to suspect poison wouldn’t have worked on her.
Lilith had insisted that their pasts didn’t matter, that they were Blades first and foremost. Lilith had never shared any stories about her time in the Queen’s army… had never even told them she had been in the Queen’s army at all, had she?
A memory tugged on Fey’s conscious mind, demanding attention. The night that Willow died, the night of the Winter Solstice ball, she remembered what Lilith had said when the Queen’s sister had been announced.
She had a daughter, you know.
Fey stared at Lilith’s back, at the raven black hair that flowed over her shoulders, at the pale almost bone-white skin. How had she never seen it before? How had they all been so blind?
“Cassandra had a daughter,” Fey said, her voice sounding foreign and strange to her own ears. “You told us that, didn’t you?”
Lilith froze. Then, slowly and deliberately she set the dish in her hand down in the sink and placed both hands on either side of her on the counter, her head down.
“A daughter the Crown made disappear. A daughter who wasn’t Goddess Blessed with all four elements…”
“No,” Lilith answered. “She only had one.”
And Lilith—the Princess the realm had forgotten—turned and unleashed a wave of Fire.
Chapter 56
SANA
The moon in all her celestial glory watched over the Water Temple as Sana took her place at the podium.
The Temple was full. Fuller than Sana had seen in years, and she knew it had more to do with what was happening around the realm than the impending Blood Moon eclipse. People were scared, she knew. When the Crown had named a Queen’s Blade, had implied that one of the realm’s strongest and deadliest Witches had gone rogue, it had frightened people. And fear often led to devotion, a reliance on the hope that higher forces, like the Goddess herself, were still in control. That no matter how scary the world around them seemed, there was a plan in place that they could rely on. That they could trust.
Sana took a deep breath. They were going to need her strength to get through this. Because there was a plan, after all. One devised to hurt their fellow Witches, not protect them. A plan not of the Goddess’s making at all.
And tonight, she would have to reveal it to them.
“We are in troubling times,” Sana began, addressing her congregation. Silence rippled through the crowd as they settled back into their seats to hear her speak. Most of them had heard her speeches time and time again, but tonight would be different. As though they sensed it, sensed the strain in her voice, the room seemed to tense, listening to her words with an intensity beyond the norm. “And in times like this, I am thankful. I am thankful for the Goddess, who watches over us and protects us. I am thankful for all of you, for sharing your time with me and our Water Witch sisters.
“But more than anything, I am thankful for our strength as a Faction. I am thankful the Goddess has given us the strength to handle anything.
“Water is the element of healing, my children, but so often do we forget that it is also the element of strength. Persistence. Water can quell the hottest Fire, and even in the roughest storm the ocean remains just as deep and powerful as ever. Even Earth falls before the strength of Water. There is no stone in existence that will not eventually be worn away to nothing under the strength and persistence of a single steady drop of water.”
Sana sighed, heavily.
“Tonight, my children, I am asking you to draw on that strength. Because tonight, I am going to reveal something to you that will not be easy to hear. But I ask that you trust me. I ask that you trust the Goddess, who watches over us all.”
She held their attention in the palm of her hand, some leaning forward in their seats to hear her speak.
