“We can’t let her know we know her secret, not yet. We need to use this information as a weapon against her,” I continued. We needed any advantage we could get over them.
“I see.” She tapped a long brown finger on her chin. “Wait here.” With the snap of her fingers, she was gone.
“I hate it when she does that,” Luka mused.
“I think it’s kind of cool,” Nico said as he fell back into one of the chairs around the table.
The fire once roaring in the tent was nothing but smoldering embers now, as we continued to wait for Hecate to reappear.
Nico fiddled with a coin on the table, spinning it and trying to stop it with his finger without it falling. “How long is this going to take?”
Astria shrugged. “I don’t control Hecate. Anyone who tries to doesn’t value their life.”
The flaps of the tent rustled, Hecate’s form appearing before us once again.
“Took you long enough.”
“You wanted your secret kept, so I had to be careful, princess.” Hecate’s red eyes narrowed at Luce.
I stood. “Where did you go, what did you do?”
“I went to go pay Keziq a visit.”
“You did what?” I all but seethed.
“What did you think I was doing?”
“I told you not to alert her that we know her secret!”
“Which is why it took me so long. I waited until she was sleeping before sneaking into her room. Have some faith, Lennox Adair.”
“What did you find out?” Luka rose to my side.
“There is good and bad news. The good news is, she only has two more lives linked to hers, and her magic will not allow her to link any more lives. The Ichor magic has taken too much from her, trying again might take what life she has left.” Her gaze flickered to Luce. “So once you sever those two ties, Keziq will cease to exist.”
“What’s the bad news?” Kara pressed.
I already knew what the bad news was. She didn’t even have to say it. Keziq might have only two more lives linked to hers, but one of those lives was Luka’s.
52
LUKA
“The only way to kill Keziq is if I die.”
Lennox didn’t even look at me, her gaze fixed on the fire still burning in the tent. It didn’t keep the cold from slithering along my veins.
“Yes,” the first witch confirmed.
“So we could kill her over and over again, but each time she’ll come back until Luka and the other tie are severed or they die.” Kara’s voice was quiet.
“Yes.” Hecate’s lips were set in a firm line, the wrinkles coating her face scrunching.
No one said anything, the only sounds in the room were our ragged breaths and the fire crackling in the hearth.
“Who’s the other life?”
“Adreona is the other life.”
