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“You’re the reason my mother died!” My voice was shaky but I met her eyes without flinching. “She moved away from the magic world and made herself forget all about it, just so she could raise me as a Norm. And her magic turned on her and killed her. All because of you. All because you wanted the leadership of the Coven and you didn’t want anyone to disturb the status quo.”
“Why shouldn’t I have leadership of the Windermere Coven?” Rattcliff demanded. “Why should it always go to a descendant of Corinne Latimer? She didn’t even like the coven! She hated it!”
“Because they made her leave her Nocturne lover and forced her to stop doing magic the way that felt right to her!” I shot back. “Well, nobody is going to do that to me—to us!” I gripped Griffin’s hand tightly and felt his answering squeeze in return. “Griffin and I are Blood-Bonded and that means we’re together forever.”
As I spoke, my voice seemed to echo strangely across the Glade. I was dimly aware that Griffin and I were rising into the air again but I wasn’t sure if I was doing it—or if someone, maybe Corinne Latimer—was reaching out to lift us up.
“I am the Witch Queen!” I heard my voice rolling out across the miles. “And Griffin Darkheart is my Blood Knight. We will never be separated—not by power or might—and the Edict shall NEVER be restored. From now until eternity, all races of Others are free to mingle and to love and no one will ever revoke this right. This I, Megan Latimer, descendant of Corinne Latimer vow and declare. SO MOTE IT BE!”
The last words actually thundered out of me and then I felt the power abruptly waning and Griffin and I were sinking back down to earth. Weakness overtook me and he caught me in his arms and lifted me up, holding me protectively close to his chest.
“Oh my Goddess, Princess,” I heard Avery say beside me. “Do you know what you just did? You made an Edict of your own—an unbreakable one! Oh, this is going to cause so much trouble!”
He was right, of course, but I didn’t find that out until later. At the moment I was too tired to think of anything but the comfort of my Blood Knight’s arms around me and the warm feeling of knowing that Griffin and I would never be parted again.
Epilogue
“So why didn’t you ever tell us about the key?” Avery demanded, frowning at me over his cup of hot chocolate.
Our little coven was down in the Norm Dorm, trying to recover from our weird adventures and I was still feeling a bit shaky. Still, the delicious chocolate he had brewed us—using the brand-new caldron Griffin had bought him as a ‘thank you for letting me into the club’ gift—was helping a lot.
“Well at first it wouldn’t let me,” I said, taking another sip and licking whipped cream off my upper lip. “And later, I was afraid you’d want the whole story—which included Griffin’s matching lock and the reason he was locked up in the first place.”
Avery and Emma and Kaitlyn all glanced at Griffin, who was sitting quietly beside me on the couch. He was the only one not drinking hot chocolate but he didn’t seem to mind, probably because he knew he would be having a sip of my blood instead, a little later on. He looked quietly back at my coven-mates without saying a word.
“I see,” Avery said at last. “Okay, we’ll forgive you on that one. Especially since Mr. Darkheart here, was wrongfully accused.”
“I never would have believed he would kill people,” Kaitlyn said loyally, giving Griffin a shy smile. “That’s not who he is.”
“It almost was,” Griffin said quietly. He looked at me. “I almost killed you, Megan, when we were trapped in that damned snare together.”
“You didn’t though,” I pointed out. “You found the will to stop before you drained me completely.”
But he shook his head.
“No,” he said, looking down at his hands. “No, I didn’t—someone else stopped me.”
I remembered having a confused impression of him talking to someone but I had been too out of it to understand what was going on. I frowned at him quizzically.
“Who was it? Who stopped you?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Corinne Latimer maybe? Or maybe the Goddess herself. All I know was that the voice I heard and the presence I sensed was female and she—whoever she was—gave me the will to stop and helped me to save you instead of killing you.”
“That’s amazing,” Emma whispered reverently. “Do you really think your ancestress came back from beyond the grave to save your life, Megan?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But I wouldn’t be surprised. I think she wanted Griffin and I to have the chance she and her Nocturne never got.”
