Page 131 of Revenant

I reach across the table without thinking and put my hand over hers, and her fingers tighten around mine. “Now, it’s my turn.”

She blinks. “Your turn?”

“You just told me all of that, and if I don’t say it out loud to someone who isn’t a vampire, I’m going to lose my mind.”

“Okay.” She squeezes my hand.

“I talked to my mom.”

Her brows draw together.

“There’s a mirror. I guess it has been in my family forever. I didn’t know what it was. Bastian’s been helping me work through Veil’s grimoire, and I—talked to her.”

“Alicent.”

“She told me about my dad, about how he killed her coven and kidnapped her, forcing her to make your pack’s suppression rings.”

Moriah’s eyes cut to the dainty silver ring on her finger.

“She forged that ring, and however many before it, until my dad—your uncle—stopped being whoever he was supposed to be and got her out. She said they hid for a decade before someone helped them find my parents that night. Someone close enough to know how her cloaking worked.”

She’s gone pale. “I don’t know who.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“If I did, I swear I’d tell you. I want that on the record between us, right now. I don’t know who it was that helped track them down, and if I find out, I’ll hand them to you myself.”

I believe her. I don’t know if I necessarily should, but I do.

“There’s more.” I swallow. “What’s inside the mirror is every Calder witch going back to the start of my bloodline. All their magic. She made me promise that the wolves will never have it again. Not even a shard. She said my dad told her the rings were only the beginning of what the pack was planning. Apparently, your elders—”

Moriah closes her eyes. When she opens them again, she looks ten years older. “We need to break this curse. If the pack elders are planning something, it’s serious, and we’re in danger.”

“Eldritch has been training me. My magic, I mean.”

Moriah’s mouth twitches upward into a smirk.

“Don’t sit here and pretend you didn’t know he was a vampire. He was a witch, apparently. Before all of this.” I shrug. “He’s spent centuries shepherding girls like me through coming into our power, so.”

“Girls like you.” She arches a brow. “How many of those are walking around?”

“Fair.” I lean in. “Anyway. We have a plan, Mo. And it’s happening at the gala.”

40: Pryce

Strings of pale light loop between the old stone columns in the quad, and the staff has hauled out the long banquet tables that only see daylight once a year. A florist I’ve never met is arguing in hushed French with someone about the placement of wisteria in the ballroom, all while alumni have started trickling in through the front gates to tour the grounds. I can smell them before I see them, that particular tang of witch blood mixed with various wealthy elites.

I’ve turned the plan for tonight over in my head so many times. We’re hoping the binding only takes a little magic from everyone, eliminating the need for actual sacrifices. That’s the theory at least, and what we’ve led Alicent to believe. She doesn’t need to carry that burden if things go sideways.

The trouble is I’ve lived long enough to know that magic this old doesn’t care what we intend. It takes what it’s owed and one thing we’ve learned is Calder magic always takes the most.

It wasn’t my first choice to leave her.

Over the last few months, she’s grown into her magic, allowing it to evolve into a weapon that would indicate she no longer needs our protection. Regardless, none of us want her to stop sleeping in our beds. And considering she hasn’t brought it up, I’m assuming she feels the same.

I told her I had errands, but she knew it for what it was the second it left my mouth. She’s across the quad now, tucked into the coffee shop with a wolf who handed her existence over to us without losing a single night of sleep over it.

I never thought that would be the thing that gave me peace.