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“What’s going on?” Reza demanded.

“Our killer is still loose, and I know who their last target is.”

Chapter 38 Avery

“I did it for Abigail, of course.” Patricia Aldridge adjusted the glasses that magnified her eyes a size or two. “I’d never really had a group of friends before. I met her along with Theresa in this student group for witches.”

Her smile struck Avery as tragic and adorable. There was a palpable loneliness about Patricia Aldridge.

“I used to read about them when I was a kid and I thought—what would be cooler than being a witch? My mum never would have allowed it in the house. She didn’t even like candles on birthday cakes. But at university? I could explore.” She turned that sad but polite smile to Magistrate Fiore. “So, you have to know that when she introduced me to real witchcraft, my world became so much better. I finally felt in control of something—and I had a coven!” Her shoulders bounced with a barely contained joy even now. “Three people who were not only special but thought I was special. I’d never had that before. I took my responsibility as a witch very seriously. I read all the pamphlets about keeping magic society secret and safe. I not only knew the laws of magic but had done a lot of personal study about how even something as simple as a glamour could be abused. I started carrying a hagstone with me everywhere—just in case.” Her smile dropped. “I’m telling you this so you know that I took our laws very seriously. And I love this society so much. I have the highest respect for it, I swear!”

“I believe you,” Fiore said.

“But Abigail was my first real friend—ever! She’d done so much for me, I never thought… I believed she had the same respect, and I was wrong. I knew she wanted to get back at Professor Hingley, and I did sympathize with that. He did not treat her very kindly, and while I was personally opposed to baneful magic, I was assured that we were merely performing a ritual that would force him to face the ill deeds he did. I did not act with malicious intent, I was ignorant of the actual ritual being performed, and I have been an otherwise model citizen. Perhaps we can work out some sort of community service?”

“Thank you, Patricia—”

“Please don’t be hasty,” the young girl pleaded. “How was I supposed to know?”

Chapter 39 Saga

“I was wondering if you’d figure it out,” Roxanne greeted Saga as she entered Gideon’s chambers. The young girl was standing beside the table where the council and Avery sat.

From the door Saga could see something reflective in front of Fiore. Those seated around the table looked to be in deep meditation, their heads slightly bent and their eyes closed.

Though Saga had experienced the dreamlike state of reviewing a case file, it was unnerving being on this side of it. Saga and Avery had had the comfort of knowing they were alone, behind locked doors. There was no one wandering about while they were unconscious. Saga wondered if the group reviewing the trial could hear them speaking outside of the spell.

“In fact, I was almost hoping you would,” Roxanne continued, moving to Gideon’s seated figure. “You’re the only one who can really appreciate what I’m doing here.” She gave a pained smile. “How is my mother?”

“Much the same as I imagine the last time you saw her.” Could she jostle Avery out of the trance? She approached cautiously. If Roxanne thought she was on her side, then she stood a chance to save these people…

“I had the pleasure of that introduction not long ago,” Roxanne spat. “It isn’t like I expected my mother to recognize me. But after what they did to her, she didn’t even want to know what happened to her baby. Said there would be no point. It was a life she would never live and therefore did not find logic in dwelling on.”

“Yeah,” Saga empathized. “That seems pretty par for the course when someone’s been sundered, unfortunately.” Taking another few steps closer, she kept her eyes on Roxanne. She could see the light reflect off the shard of mirror in front of Fiore—it was positioned so the dragon would be staring right at it when they came out of the trance. Saga shifted her coat to her other arm. “When I was left at the altar earlier this year, my mother seemed more disappointed that I was upset than at my ex-fiancé for leaving. Any display of emotion has been seen as an overreaction and a reason to discredit whatever point I was making.”

“Exactly,” Roxanne whispered. “They’re barely human anymore.”

“So you wanted revenge for the mother they took from you…” Just as Iona had tried to suggest to Saga. As she stepped up to Avery, she reached out two fingers to tug on her sleeve as hard as she could manage without drawing attention, concealing the action beneath her coat.

“Not just the mother, Saga. The life. They didn’t just take her life, they took mine.” Roxanne choked on the words. “I meant what I said before—if I didn’t have Velouette, I would not have survived growing up. I was passed from one house to the next my entire life, and the good ones were where they neglected me.”

Saga tugged harder as Roxanne used a cloth to both shield another piece of mirror from her own gaze and break it in two over her knee. “What about her former coven, her friends? What did they do to deserve your ire?”

“They abandoned her.” Roxanne set a piece of mirror in front of Gideon. “Only one of them ever came to see her, and even then it was to assuage her own damn guilt.” She placed the next piece of mirror in front of a dark-haired woman at the table. “I didn’t mean to kill them. I just wanted them to see what they’d done.” Her lip curled, and she looked angry and disgusted. “But I’m not sorry that the guilt it brought up in them destroyed them either.”

Saga gave one final tug that caused her to lose her balance, and her shoulder knocked into Avery’s. “Shit.” Terror gripped her as her attention shifted from her friend’s form to Roxanne, who looked amused at her.

“Don’t worry about it.” Roxanne smacked a man who seemed a cross between a tree and a dwarf upside the head. “You could cut their hearts out if you could find them. They still wouldn’t notice.”

So, Saga was truly on her own then. “How do you know that’s what happened?”

Roxanne hesitated. “What do you mean?”

“How do you know that’s what the mirror does? What if it shows them a false perception or nothing at all? What if it just drives them mad? What if the sole intent of the relic was to create ruin and hate?”

“Because its ability to show someone the full weight of their actions is why my mother stole it in the first place.” She broke another piece of mirror and set it in front of the tree man, but her voice was less certain.

“Your mother stole it with the express intention of killing John Hingley,” said Saga. “I heard her admit it herself, Roxanne. Sundering may be a cruel and unjust practice, but it’s very possible your mother would have been as volatile as the people who hurt you growing up. I’m asking you to consider that mirror might not be what you think it is.”