Katherine took stock of her body—present and accounted for, eventhough she wished that the more painful parts of it would consider departing for a bit. Most of her cuts had already sealed, her bruises further along than they should’ve been. Fiona’s hands were wrapped in gauze, concealing newly done cuts. Healing spells, Katherine realized.
Fiona nodded at Katherine’s palms, which she realized were wrapped in bandages of their own.
“Couldn’t do anything about those, unfortunately,” Fiona said. “That whole no-using-magic-to-heal-a-cut-used-to-do-magic thing can be a bitch sometimes.”
Katherine huffed a laugh. “Literally blood on my hands, huh?”
There was an awkward pause. “Is everyone else okay?” Katherine finally asked, unable to wait any longer.
“Everyone made it out,” Fiona said. “Tess did a good job clearing the area, pre–saving me. We were in the middle of figuring out how we were going to saveyouwhen Silas carried you out of the building as it was literally falling apart. It was very hot.”
Katherine made herself smile, but her focus was still on her hands. She turned them over in her lap as she felt for her magic. It was normal again, that calm well she had come to expect. Her blood was just blood, her veins just veins. But she could still feel the phantom of that unsettled power, haunting her with painful memories.
Fiona paused, biting her lip, cutting Kathrine’s thoughts with an instant pang of anxiety. “Silas wants to talk to you. When you’re feeling up to it.”
Katherine tried to sit up, but Fiona pushed her back down. “When you’re feeling up to it, Katherine. I have a feeling this isn’t a conversation you’re going to want to rush into.”
Katherine leaned her head back. Her feelings for Silas were a minefield. She wasn’t sure there was a way to sort through them without causing a detonation.
“So Sunspot is…?”
Fiona shook her head. “Gone.” She kept the sadness out of her voice—barely. Katherine couldn’t escape the guilt that flooded her.
“Not your fault,” Fiona said. “You did what you had to do.”
“I snapped and burned down our home, Fi. No one had to do that.”
“You incapacitated Sylvia. Who knows how many lives that saved.”
Katherine swallowed. “How many kids did she make snap?”
Fiona ran her hand along Cheez-It’s back, scratching until he raised his butt high off the bed. “At least five in Southern California so far. Silas’ friend Anika brought one to Niles, and we have witches out searching for the others.”
Five in their small area meant there were dozens more elsewhere. “How far out do the snaps go?”
Fiona bit her lip. “We’re hearing reports from all around the world. It seems like it was most concentrated on the West Coast, but Sylvia’s reach was global.”
Katherine cursed under her breath. That kind of chaos… it would be impossible to undo. There would never be a way to track the full extent of Sylvia’s destruction, the amount of lives tainted by her fucked-up choices.
“This whole thing has been a real exercise in team-building for Aestas,” Fiona said. “Everyone is very rah-rah, all hands on deck. George is even coming down from Oak Grove to help. He was appalled to hear what happened with Sylvia. Unlike Henry, who just mumbled about how this was going to mean a ton of paperwork for him.”
Fiona was trying to keep the mood light, but Katherine could see the stress on her face. It would be months, maybe years, of work to find every witch Sylvia had snapped, and the longer they were out there alone, the more people would get hurt. The more peopletheywould hurt, permanent stains on their conscience.
So many lives ruined. By Sylvia.
Fiona seemed to sense what she was thinking. “She’s alive.”
Katherine sucked in a breath. She didn’t know what she’d wanted to hear.
“A bunch of armed guys from Noctis showed up like ten minutes after the fight ended and found her in the rubble,” Fiona said, filling in the weighted silence. “She was barely breathing, but they healed her. They took her back to New York for trial. None of us even got to talk to her—she was still unconscious when they took her away.”
Katherine tried to hold back the flood of emotion, but she couldn’t. “God,” she said. “I shouldn’t be this upset. She’s a murderer.”
“Sylvia did some fucked-up shit, but that doesn’t change how important she was in so many lives before she went off the deep end,” Fiona said softly. “She saved all of us, in one way or another. You’re allowed to mourn the loss of that person.”
Katherine leaned back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling. She wondered what would happen to Sylvia. She’d likely spend the rest of her life in Noctis custody. There was a chance that the coven would turn her over to the actual police, but that seemed unlikely—they’d want to keep this under wraps, desperate to avoid the negative attention Sylvia’s actions would bring to the witch community.
Fiona reached into her pocket and pulled out an object, setting it on the bed. Katherine stared at it, running through the gamut of emotions once again.
