With the way she handled herself in the cathedral, it’s easy to forget this is all brand-new to her, but it is.
And my favorite student is more eager than ever to learn.
I just wish I could be part of this. Teaching her, guiding her. Filling up a whole new library with all the new discoveries she’s going to make about herself.
“Thank you for helping me with all of this,” she says now, as Laney returns from the bar with a fresh round of tea for the witches. “The Codex is still such a mystery. To be honest, I’m still trying to process the fact that I’ve got any magic at all, let alone that I’m a dark-fae princess with the power to read this ancient book.”
“You aren’tjusta dark-fae princess, Westlyn,” Tatiana says, glancing down at the Codex spread open before them. “Or just a witch, for that matter. The fact that youcanread this text can only mean one thing.”
“That I’m cursed, too?” West forces out a laugh, but it quickly fades into her teacup.
Tatiana’s face turns serious. “That you’re a Daughter of Cerridwen. Descendant of the ancient witches who transcribed the original fae carvings of the text.”
West looks up from her tea, her eyes wide. “But… how can you be so sure?”
“The book would not have chosen to reveal its secrets to you otherwise.”
Holy shit.
No wonder none of us could ever read it. We couldn’t even get near the thing. Only West. In all my research on the Cerridwen witches after we stole the Codex from Forsythe, I never came across anything about this.
“But it didn’t,” West says. “Not at first. It fought me tooth and nail just to open its pages.”
“That was very likely Cerridwen’s magic interacting with the dark-fae magic in your blood,” Fleur explains. “Almost as if it sensed a threat. Not from you specifically, but from the Wintermoon fae. The dark-fae magic within you doesnotwant its secrets revealed, yet the Cerridwen witches did reveal it. Spell by spell in this Codex. Now, those secrets are yours, handed down through your line.”
“What changed?” West asks. “As far as I know, I’ve still got the Wintermoon blood running in my veins. If anything, it’s even stronger now that I’m here. So why am I finding it easier to read the spells now?”
“Think of it like a new relationship,” Tatiana says, and I’m hanging on every word, my fingers itching for my tablet or a pen to write all this down. “You need time to get to know each other. To build trust. Yes, you’ve got Wintermoon blood, and there’s a lot of dark power inside you. But that doesn’t make you evil or undeserving. The blood of Cerridwen’s witches is equally powerful, equally accessible to you. You can achieve great works with both magics, or you can commit great atrocities. It’s all in what you decide to do with the power granted to you.”
Laney reaches across their circle and touches West’s knee. “Your task, Westlyn, is to decide what kind of witchyouwant to be. Not the witch the Archmage and his ilk wanted you to be. Not the one Verrick is attempting to control and manipulate. Not the witch some ancient prophecy has dictated for you, generations before you were even born. Not even the witch you believe your gargoyles want. But the truly powerful, divine witch of your heart and soul.”
“Goddess, this is all so…” West blows out a breath, her eyes shining with the same wonder I feel inside. “I spent my whole life believing I was useless. That I had no magic at all, no gifts, nothing to offer anyone but the burden of my existence. Now, I find out nothing could be farther from the truth. I’m a dark-fae witch born of two powerful bloodlines—a witch at the center of an ancient prophecy fated to bring together demons and dark fae in a new world order that’s sure to destroy humankind. I have all this magic inside me—lightanddark. And I’m getting stronger with every passing hour. And yet…” She lowers her gaze, a tear slipping free.
“What is it, child?” Tatiana says softly.
At this, West turns her face up toward mine, her eyes so haunted it breaks my heart. “I feel like I can’t do a damn thing to save the men I love.”
Tatiana places a hand over West’s, smiling at her with the same gentle affection and patience that earned my trust all those years ago. “It’s not that youcan’t, Westlyn. It’s that you just haven’t figured out how.”
“Rook is still trapped either way. The guys are still bound by this curse. We’re all stuck in Wintermoon, and… I don’t know. Why do I have all this magic if I can’t do anything useful with it? It’s not much different from when I couldn’t do any witchcraft at all. It’s almost worse, actually, because this?” She runs a fingertip down the center of the book, the pages alighting with indigo sparks. “It just feels like a tease.”
“Witchcraft is more than magic,” Laney says. “It’s a craft—just as the name suggests. And craft takes time to hone.”
“But you have to believe you deserve it,” Fleur says. “That you deserve the magic of your birthright. The more you question it, the more you resist it… You’re blocking yourself from receiving its many blessings.”
“How do I open up to it?” she asks, some of her haunting sadness fading in the wake of a new curiosity. The desire, as ever, to learn and grow and become. I’ve seen that look in her eyes in the library so many times during our sessions together, and seeing it return to her now is just…
Hope. That’s what it is. Pure hope.
“Become its vessel,” Tatiana says. “Know that the ultimate source of the magic in your blood comes from life itself—from creation, from destruction, from the air you breathe and the ground you walk upon. It comes from the trees and the sky, from the rivers, from fire. From love. Allow all of that to come to you, to flow through you, and eventually you’ll learn to channel it back out through your intentions.”
“Intentions like bringing Rook back? Breaking their curse?”
Tatiana nods.
“I dreamed it would happen,” she whispers. “Rook, turning to stone. But it didn’t play out the same way. In my nightmares, we were on top of the Blackmoor Capital building in the city. Manhattan was burning. Rook wanted me to go through the portal there, but Verrick showed up. Then he sort of became Zorakkov… It was all kind of jumbled up. I stepped on Rook’s glasses in the dream, too. So when that happened tonight, I just… Goddess, I just knew what was coming next. I feel… I feel like it’s all my fault. Like I should’ve seen this coming and done something to stop it.”
Oh, my sweet, wild witch. No…
