Page 125 of Bedeviled

The hair on the back of my neck rises.

I don’t think that was gibberish, I say. I think Maelverynox was saying “serve two”—as in two individuals. And I think one of them was Eislyn.

Another long, heavy pause follows this revelation. Across our bond, I can sense the edge of Memnon’s horror.

You think all the demon attacks have been her doing? Memnon finally asks.

I bite my thumb, my pulse pounding. Yes, I finally say across our bond. They started after we returned from the Khuno River palace. Do you think she knew we were going to visit?

But of course she did, that was why she left a note for us to find. And it would be easy enough for her to leave a tracking spell for us to walk right into. From there, she’d know my movements, which would make ambushes fairly simple.

She could’ve found us by any means, Memnon says darkly. We haven’t been hiding. After a moment, he adds, But if she is behind these attacks, why has she only targeted you when I’ve made it abundantly clear I want her dead?

I want to scoff. Eislyn has always had big anime-heart eyes when it comes to Memnon, and she’s always wanted me out of the picture. Right as I’m about to say so, I hesitate.

It’s not that simple though, is it?

Two thousand years ago, Eislyn didn’t mortally wound me simply because she coveted my husband. Nor did she place Memnon in enchanted sleep that would last lifetimes simply because she wanted to be with him.

She turned Rome on the man after he built himself an army capable of conquering the empire. She designed an elaborate tomb for him, one replete with Sarmatian text she had to have taught herself from my own writing.

The level of deception and nuance that went into her entrapment of my husband is far too expansive for this just to be about love or marriage.

And then, most telling of all, there was something she said two thousand years ago, something that shook me to my core and set the events in motion that have led to this very moment.

The last time I saw Eislyn in my previous life, I say to Memnon, she told me that she had plans for you. I draw in a bracing breath. What if those plans haven’t changed? I ask softly. Maybe she wants you for the same thing she always has, and I’m still in the way.

CHAPTER 28

The conversation with Memnon haunts me as Nero and I make our way back across campus to my residence hall.

I didn’t think I was hidden away in the cemetery for very long, but the swarm of media personnel and Politia officers has greatly thinned out, leaving only a few lost-looking supernaturals lingering near the front of our school.

It’s quieter still when I approach Ravensmeade. The dark exterior has looked ominous and spooky in the past, but never desolate, as it appears now.

And yet, as I open the door and step inside, I smell brothy soup and yeasty bread, along with the scent of pumpkin pie. There are the sounds of sobs, and I see the red-rimmed eyes of what look to be a witch’s family lingering in one of the common rooms, but with all the sadness, there is a liveliness to this space that was missing in the past few weeks.

Cautiously I creep into the kitchen, the smell of tasty things drawing me in. I’ve barely stepped into the space when I notice the thick knot of witches sitting at the tables.

One of them, a witch named Cora, looks up, her eyes widening when she sees me.

“Selene,” she breathes.

At my name, other witches look over, and the conversations in the room fall silent.

She stands up from her seat, then so does another witch. Then another and another, until all of them have left their chairs. They move over to me as a group, and whatever has come over them, not even the sight of Nero at my side stops them from encircling me.

Thank you. I don’t know which witch says it first, but the words are repeated over and over again. Sometimes as whispers, sometimes as sobs. And one by one, my coven sisters hug me.

With many of the embraces come confessions.

“The man you were with, he healed me,” one of my sisters admits. “I was so close to death…”

Another holds me close. “You killed the demon who bit my friend.”

“You severed my bond weeks ago.” This confession is whispered by Yasmin, a witch who had at one point fought me.

“Told you, you are a hero,” Olga says when it’s her turn to give me a tight squeeze.