I felt my face drain of color as I realized the girl and her parents… they weren’t fae. They werewitches.
“We were just taking a vacation to Paris!” the girl wept. “We weren’t anywhere near Malovia!”
Elijah waskidnappingwitches from other countries in Europe? That was far out of our jurisdiction. He’d completely lost his mind! Abducting humans was one thing— terrible, but not as threatening as the dangerous fire my cousin was playing with by capturing witches to execute. And for what reason? These witches had done nothing wrong.
“Silence!” the announcer said. “There is nothing that can save you now, abomination.”
“It’s all right, Kenna,” the girl’s mother said calmly, though her face was drained of color. “We’ll be in Alora soon enough.”
Kenna continued to sob. It was brutally difficult to watch. “Mother Miriam, goddess, help u—”
The girl’s cry was cut off as the executioner pulled the lever. The platform underneath the witches’ feet fell out from under them, and the nooses pulled tight. Emma gasped, smashing her face into my sweater so she didn’t see the swinging bodies.
At least the gods showed mercy on them, because all of their necks snapped with the fall. They didn’t suffocate. Their limp corpses hung there as the crowd around the gallows cheered, like this was a sports spectacle and not a loss of life.
Every fae knew that to hang a witch was a terrible insult. It was the highest offense against their kind. Elijah had meant to send a message.
“The Miriamic Coven isn’t going to like this,” Stefan said under his breath. The news continued to play the live footage of the guards taking down the bodies of the witches, carrying them to a pyre to be burned. Our friends didn’t say anything, merely watched as the bodies of the witches became ash— just like Lord Lucien.
“This fucker is going to plunge us straight into another war!” Alexei burst, pointing at Elijah on screen. A couple of people told him to shush, but his resounding glare made all of them shut up. Kiara put a hand on his arm, as if she wished to calm him, but didn’t know how.
Emma didn’t need to see this. She’d been through enough in the past month. “Come,onawilke.”
I guided Emma back to her dorm room. I hugged her, but it was like her spirit was detached from her body. Her blank stare as she embraced me had me very worried. I couldn’t imagine the kind of things she was plotting in her head right now— things I knew she’d been planning since Gabby had ruined her knee.
Or at least, I didn’t want to.
“How are we going to stop this?” Emma asked, like there was a solution right in front of us— one we couldn’t see.
“I don’t know.” As her shifter, I was supposed to provide her with answers, but it felt like I didn’t have any.
I just held her, because there was nothing else I could do.
The restof the night was quiet. It was like no one at the university quite knew what to say. I tried to keep Emma isolated from it all, but it was hard, as the news was playing 24/7 in the Rec Room. Someone had tried to turn it off, and had gotten yelled at by all the other students. This was a big deal, and it was as if we were all waiting for the inevitable blow back from the coven.
I stayed with Emma overnight, and did my best to prevent her from leaving her dorm. The last thing she needed was to deal with all this bullshit.
But we had to get breakfast, which meant we had to walk past the Rec Room, and all the people in it, in order to feed ourselves.
It was my plan to walk by the television as quickly as possible, but I realized it wasn’t an option once Emma stopped in her tracks. She pointed to the broadcast, and I turned. The news had suddenly cut off as another figure swept onscreen. Multiple people in the room gasped, and everyone’s eyes shot to the television as a woman appeared, standing against a black background.
I could tell by her attire alone she was a witch, part of the Miriamic Coven— probably a member of their governing body. This was the moment all of us had been waiting for. My blood cooled.
“My name is Priestess Margaret,” the woman said shortly. “I am a member of the Imperium Council, the Miriamic Coven’s highest order. I am here to deliver a message to every fae— shifter, sorceress, and child. The Imperium has witnessed what you have done to members of our coven, and the despicable acts you put them through last night before their disgraceful execution. The Miriamic Coven would like to say that this heinous crime will not go ignored. Our witches and warlocks are ready to fight, and our magic is strong. Each of our kind is ready to die defending our coven’s right to survival. Should the fae move in on our coven again, we will retaliate. From henceforth, if a fae should take another witch life, we will consider it an act of war.”
A shiver ran up my spine. Priestess Margaret continued speaking in that awfully detached way of hers, and it was by her tone I knew she was serious.
“King Elijah, I speak directly to you. You are a young king— don’t be getting yourself involved in a battle that you cannot handle. We have beaten you once, and if necessary, we will rally the other supernatural races against you so that we may win again, and this time, we will be sure to wipe the fae off the face of the earth. If you wish for the vulgar stain of your race to remain on this planet, you will immediately cease all further acts of violence against our coven. You have been warned.”
Priestess Margaret vanished from the screen. She was replaced by the blank and shocked faces of the newscasters.
The broadcasters rushed into commentary, but it was awkward and unsure. Emma shook her head, lips pursed. She’d gone from stunned to pissed.
She remained that way as she slapped food on her tray in the cafeteria. I was certain was she considering murder as she picked up her fork and stabbed her eggs so violently, the plate nearly broke.
There were whispers around the cafeteria that maybe Priestess Margaret’s threat would make Elijah back down, but I knew my cousin. Elijah wouldn’t be deterred by Priestess Margaret’s warning. If anything, it would rile him up. He’d view such a thing as a challenge.
“I have to get to class,” Emma said, after a long meal with no conversation. “I’m sorry, Ethan, I just can’t—”
