Page 78 of Of Magic and Murder

“The coven she was supposedly transferring to,” Delilah says helpfully. “She never arrived. Did you know that?”

I shake my head. “No. I didn’t.”

“So you haven’t heard from her in weeks? What about Ashton? Has she contacted either of you? Checked in on her precious books at the library she abandoned so quickly? No?”

Another shake of my head as I wonder where she’s going with this…

“And the book?”

Oh. Shit. That’s where she’s going with this?

I keep my voice as innocent as I can as I ask, “What book?”

Delilah gives me a long look. I don’t think she’s buying my clueless act, and she proves that when she says, “The journal, Penelope.”

How does she know about the journal?

There’s no reason she should know about Garnet’s journal. Ash didn’t even know it existed when Riordan and I found it mixed in with the books on the floor, and we only told him because I wanted him to know I had it in case Garnet came looking for it. But Ash is the only one we told, apart from Max. We definitely didn’t tell Delilah… so how does she know?

“How do you know about Garnet’s journal?” I ask.

“Because she showed it to me.” Delilah pauses. “At the coven house, when she came and excitedly told me all about her theories of Moonburrow being built on the ruins of Avalon, and how there was a lodestone buried somewhere on shifter land. Unfortunately for me, she didn’t bring the book with her the night we dug up the lodestone together.” Another more pointed pause. “The night I killed her.”

I… she didn’t just say what I think I heard her say… did she?

“Garnet is dead?”

“Oh, Hecate, yes. Since the evening before ‘she’ left the note at the library, claiming she was moving on to another coven. I did that, of course. When I went to see if I could find the journal, but she must’ve hidden it with more than a spell because I couldn’t locate it with one of my own.”

Delilah’s magic couldn’t find Garnet’s book, but with one powerful spell that knocked every book off of the shelves in the Moonburrow Library, mine did.

Now, I know this isn’t the time to be proud of myself. Delilah just casually confessed to murder, but… at least I have the journal.

But Delilah?

If she really did find and dig up the lodestone before Riordan and I had the chance, she has that.

And I’m trapped inside of a warded circle with her.

How do I know that? Because, when I take a step backward, hoping that I can outrun her magic and get some help, I bump up against the edge and let out a short shriek as the jolt from before returns five-fold. I swear, I smell smoke, as Delilah gives me an impish shrug of her shoulders.

“Sorry about that, Penelope. Now that I have you where I need you, I have to keep you here. And don’t try to call for your wolf. He won’t be able to get to you and he’ll only hurt himself trying. Oh, no. This is between you and me.”

“Me? What did I do? What did Garnet do?”

“Garnet… ah, poor Garnet. It wasn’t intentional, if that’s what you’re thinking. Me murdering her the way I did. It just happened. She wanted to take the lodestone and bring it right to Serena and the coven council. But why should it belong to Salem? No. Avalon was here long before the beasts decided to claim this land and call it Moonburrow. Now that I have the lodestone, this land will belong to the witches as we rebuild Avalon. Garnet didn’t agree, and Garnet… she died, and it didn’t even count as one of the sacrifices.”

I’m sorry, but⁠—

“Sacrifices?”

Delilah huffs. “Don’t tell me that Serena’s precious Penelope doesn’t know how to activate a lodestone? It’s a secret among all coven leaders, but I would’ve thought… a true lodestone will protect the land it’s buried on. But if you activate it? There is no limit to what can be done with this.”

Reaching into her pocket, Delilah pulls out a plain stone. Seriously. You would never know that it was an all-powerful witch artifact except for the way it’s so perfectly ordinary on the outside with a shimmering, mirror-like aura I notice only now that he’s holding the flat, baseball-sized stone in her hand.

“Three sacrifices,” Delilah continues. “Three deaths on the land, dedicated to the magic while feeding the blood to the lodestone. I’ve already completed two of them. And to make it even more delicious, I used wolfsbane and this to ensure that everyone in this town believed it was one of those rotten wolves who killed my witches.”

I’m still reeling over the fact that Delilah is now implying that she’s responsible for Faith’s and Olivia’s murder when she lifts up the hand not holding the lodestone, flexing her fingers. Everything, from the tips of her fingers to her elbow, glows thick with orange. When the color fades some, I gasp.