Page 128 of Mortdale

Thunder struck close by, and a glass vase beside her cracked.

The third omen.

She was here.

A knock rasped at the door, echoing through the quiet corridors until even the shadows shivered.

The thirteen witches slipped into the drawing room while I tucked a loose curl back into my braided chignon and walked across the dark foyer as lightning struck ground nearby, pulling the door open.

“Surprise,” Agnes said, striking a dramatic pose. She giggled when I took a few steps back. “Oh, don’t fret my darling Willow, I am here to celebrate! They must be so close to daggering one another to death by now.” She moved past me, twirling around the dark foyer as she took in the mansion. “Not shabby at all for a man with such poor taste in women.”

Her fingers curled under my chin as she feigned a pout. “What a surprise it was that you’ve survived to see this. I was sure you’d try to kill the bastard at the earliest opportunity to save Ethel. Did you know he’s the king’s son?” She mockingly gasped. “The scandal.”

“You wanted me to kill Logan?”

She waved a hand. “Wishful thinking. He was the only thing separating me from the Mortdale throne. I already had the Basilica under my control. And then he came. Started killing the Madness down with his brute, aggressive hands. He slowed it for so long—too long. The thing should have ravaged half of this wretched kingdom already if not for him.”

Her mouth twisted in a sneer as she grabbed my jaw. “And he wanted you. You are the most talented girl in the Crimson Weaver, but you are loyal to no one. This is why I always strung your dear friend along from the start. If I’d ordered you to kill the duke, you would have laughed in my face even if I’d told you he’d killed our sisters with his own bare hands. You would do it to save Ethel, though. But your mind—” She trailed a finger across my brow. “It has always been a thing to fear. I should have known you’d be tempted to doubt everything at every opportunity.”

“Why are you doing this?”

She shoved me back, waltzing around the dark space as she studied the family portraits. “I could have wiped humans off this realm with a simple plague. But I knew they would be useful to me one day. They breed like dogs. In ten, twenty, thirty years they had nearly ten times the population of Mortdale. The vampires on the other hand, they’d become a problem. Two problems I’ve just solved. Hurrah!” She lifted the glass. “To us.”

Stepping close to me until I could see the dark rage burning inside her eyes, she whispered, “Where is it? I know you have it. Do not lie to me, Willow.”

“I want you to stop this.”

Anger fled her face, leaving only a dull resentment remaining. “I should probably tell you a story,” she said, inspecting the paintings on the walls. “It is due time, after all.”

She dragged her sharp nails across Logan’s face and turned to me. “Many years ago my stupid brother fell in love with a human princess called Eudoria. And they had a child, would you believe!” she howled with laughter, wiping the tears from her eyes. That amusement vanished in a blink when her attention rolled in my direction. “How dare he be happy after all I suffered for him!” she bellowed, thumping her fist on the table. “How dare he bring a half-bred mutt to my doorstep, asking for my help after our father banished him for sullying our bloodline when he had forced me to do the same!” Taking a deep breath, she leaned back against the wall and smiled. “But then I had him killed along with that human bitch.” She put a finger to her lips as she swayed her way to me. “I almost killed you, too.” She pouted. “Oh, my dear Willow, how could I do such a thing to you?”

Lightning flashed across the foyer, creating steep shadows with eyes that bled terror. “What?”

“My sweet niece,” she cooed, cupping my face. “Where is it? Where’s my heart?”

All this time.

Goddess, all this time—

A stuttering exhale left my lips as I collapsed against a column, bracing my forehead against it and forcing myself to steady. “They…were they—” I shook my head. “You killed them?”

She rolled her eyes. “You have to understand, I had to make them suffer. I had to take away the thing they loved most.”

My hand came to my burning stomach as I dropped to my knees. Tears soaked the blue silk fabric of my dress as I laughed. And I laughed. All this time. I’d never…I’d not been abandoned? I belonged to two people who’d loved me? All this time?

Broken sobs tore through my burning chest as I mourned every second, every moment, every day of what could have been—of who I could have been. I mourned two people I’d never allowed myself to mourn. And they suddenly had faces, they had voices. The many false memories I’d used to comfort myself over the years suddenly took on colour; they had sounds, they were warm and cold and everything in between. They suddenly felt real. And they would have been real if not for her.

“That’s enough now!” she bellowed. “Where. Is. It?”

Nails digging into the wood, I pushed myself up on shaky legs, still laughing, eyes burning with tears as I led her into the dark drawing room.

She jumped a step back when I pulled the first curtain back.

The door behind her locked shut, and I pulled on another curtain. Her chest rose faster and faster as she watched me pull them all back.

Her eyes lifted to the walls behind me as she noticed she was surrounded by mirrors. Every single mirror in the mansion had been mounted on the walls, windows, and ceiling by Christof and Liam.

The thirteen witches rose from their armchairs, forming a circle around us and linking hands with each other, closing us in.