Page 127 of Mortdale

“Whatever it is, it would have started here. With both human and vampire blood spilled.”

A plan so well thought I’d not even considered entertaining it. The manner of execution would have been brilliant if she’d not made one mistake—handing Willow over to me.

“And she married her to you?”

“I didn’t give Agnes a choice,” I said, slinging the whitelock around my neck again. “I chose Willow myself.”

He seemed stunned by the revelation, his sunken eyes bouncing between mine for several minutes. “I’d like to meet her. I have to meet her.”

My body and mind recognised a threat—it couldn’t help but tense at his words. “She’s everything you stand against. What happens when you meet her? Will you brand her like you do to everyone of her kind? Will you call her a heretic, treat her as such?”

His old eyes filled with dread—regret, too, it seemed, because they lowered to the gravelly ground. “I always blamed Roderic for what happened to my Eudoria. A heretic…a warlock is cursed, I’d told her back then. Touched by the devil, I told her when she revealed to me she was in love with him. I warned her to be careful, that nothing good would come from it. I thought it would make the pain a little smaller if I blamed Roderic’s kind for robbing me of my daughter’s love. She chose to be with him. And I never quite accepted that. That she’d pick him over her own family. Her mother died from grief not long after. I lost two of the people I loved most in such a short span, I didn’t even give myself time to think before I raised those banners.”

“It seems they were both running away from Meridian,” I told him. “They were coming back to you.”

He shook his lowered head in defeat. His heartbreak was loud despite the quiet sorrow in his voice. “If only I had known he was bringing her to me. I’d have resented Roderic a little less.” Inhaling a deep breath, he raked a long look over our armies. “It won’t change what I have done to her kind. I don’t want to ask for her forgiveness, I just want to see her. Consider it a dying man’s wish.”

The urge to hide her as fast as I could from the world was grave. “She’s spent all her life thinking she was alone. I would do anything for her to know she’s never been alone in this world. You can see her,” I said, standing.

Chapter 25

Willow

Christof and Theodora had left hours ago with Piper and her paternal grandmother who lived only a town over. Only me, Morgana, and Liam had stayed behind. The latter had not stopped pacing back and forth since Logan and the others left. The young soldier was itching to join them.

“You can go to them, Liam.”

“You know what he said to me before he left,” he said, settling by a window. “If something happened to you, I might as well have killed him with my own hands. And I really don’t want the man who’s raised me to die. We should have told him.”

“A vampire is no good poking in the business of witches. A witch did this, and only a witch can undo it.”

“And you’re sure this will not make your curse worse?”

I crossed my fingers behind my back. “I’m sure.”

Morgana came into the room, giving me a nod. “Everything is set. They’re all here, waiting for you.”

“You really think this will work?” Liam whispered as if someone was listening to us. “All this witch talk is really hard for me to understand.”

“She’ll be here soon,” I said, looking out the window at where a gathering of magpies composed tragic notes, nearly drowned out by the thunder travelling from the south. Two omens. Only one to go until Agnes would be here.

She already knew her heart was in my possession. She’d want to claim it back while everyone was distracted and Mortdale forces were too preoccupied with Morngate.

Sybil Fortuna was waiting in the drawing room along with thirteen other women—witches. Not all red maidens. Not all from Meridian.

“This was all I could gather with such short notice,” she said, her eyes lowering with so much guilt. “A small coven. But a coven.”

It had not been hard to convince her after I’d sent Arthur to kill her undead keeper. It had also not taken me long to figure out that Agnes had been keeping her under watch this whole time, and why. She was the only other person who’d known about Agnes’s love curse; it was obvious Agnes would be wary of her.

“I wouldn’t have burdened either of you with this. Asked you to risk yourselves,” I offered to them. “But I cannot do it alone.” Only a full coven could dispel a curse.

Sybil stepped forward. “You still don’t have to. One of us could abjure the curse.”

I shook my head. “A curse could bounce back onto the abjurer. I cannot put anyone else in harm's way. Not when I’m already standing with one foot in the grave.”

Her gaze filled with pity. “I’m sorry, Willow. Agnes and I—we were closer than sisters. Her pain was mine, and my pain was hers. At the time, I had not known what she’d planned to do. I thought she’d put the curse in place to protect herself. And I understood why she’d do it. I would do it, too. To love someone who doesn’t love you back is agony.” Her eyes screwed shut. “This is all my fault.”

“She would have done it with or without you. There’s no use in blaming ourselves.”