AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As we all leaned forward, looking at our four faces in the silvery reflection, I felt a prickling all along my scalp and knew something was going to happen.
Slowly, Avery began to chant.
“Goddess Bright,
She of Light,
Show us weakness,
Show us might.
Show us he whose heart is hidden
Reveal to us what is forbidden
Show us now before we part,
Give us knowledge of his heart.
So Mote it Be.”
Then he held out his hand to me like a surgeon asking a nurse for an instrument during a delicate operation.
“Megan, the hair,” he murmured.
I had kept Griffin’s hair and wrapped it carefully in a fresh tissue, just as Avery had instructed me to. Now I got the tissue out of my pocket and unwrapped it carefully, revealing the single black strand.
Avery picked it up carefully and dropped it gently into the bowl, where it floated on the surface of the water.
For a moment nothing seemed to happen and Emma said,
“I don’t see anyth—oh!”
Her words ended in an exclamation of surprise because the water in the bowl shimmered and suddenly we were looking at a picture which had somehow appeared on the surface of the water, like a movie being projected onto a screen.
“What is this?” Emma asked, frowning. “I don’t understand.”
I had to confess, I didn’t understand myself. The image I saw, shimmering on the surface of the scrying bowl’s water made no sense.
It was a picture of a woman with waist-length, wavy auburn hair wearing a long white gown. She was standing on a kind of dais and kneeling before her was a man who must be a knight—at least if his silver armor was any indication.
The knight had his helmet off and I could see that he had raven black hair and pale gray eyes, much like Griffin’s. He was looking up at the woman who was bending down to him. She was offering him her wrist which had a single crimson drop of blood shining on it.
The expression on both their faces was intense—love and devotion and protectiveness on the knight’s part and adoration and respect on the face of the woman.
“What is she doing? Feeding him her blood?” Kaitlyn spoke in hushed tones.
“That’s exactly what she’s doing,” Avery murmured. “Oh, this is interesting. Very interesting.”
“But it doesn’t tell us anything at all,” I protested, still keeping my voice low since the spell had not been broken. “I thought we were supposed to get thoughts or feelings. Is this what Griffin is feeling towards me?”
“You get different things from different Others,” Avery said. “Emotions are more common for Drakes because they have a beast inside—they live by instinct. But Nocturnes are much more cerebral. So this doesn’t surprise me.”
“Okay. So is Griffin supposed to be the knight and I’m the, uh, lady?” I asked, frowning.
“The Queen,” Avery corrected. “You’re the Witch Queen. And Griffin is your Blood Knight.”
“My what?” I said frowning. I remembered Avery and Griffin both saying something about the Blood Knight but I had no idea what it meant. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Remember I told you it’s an old Other legend?” Avery said. “About a witch who was also a Queen—or maybe I should say she was of royal blood and she also practiced the Arts and prayed to the Goddess. Her power and beauty called males of every kind to her but she chose a Nocturne to be her escort and he swore himself to her service. He was called her Blood Knight and they Blood-Bonded themselves together and swore to never be parted.”
“They did?” I asked. “But what about the Edict?”
“Oh, this was before the Edict, of course,” Avery said dismissively. “Like way before—the Witch Queen and her Blood Knight is kind of like an Arthurian Legend for Others. It’s that old.”
“So Megan’s a queen now?” Emma asked doubtfully. “I mean, I know you keep calling her ‘Princess Latimer’ but…”
“No, she’s the queen of his heart,” Kaitlyn said. “Isn’t she, Avery? Doesn’t this prove Griffin only wants to serve and protect her?”
“And that he wants my blood,” I said darkly, looking at the way the woman in white was holding her bleeding wrist to the knight’s mouth.
“Well, of course he wants your blood,” Avery exclaimed impatiently. “He’s a Nocturne for the Goddess’s sake! That’s what they all want. The point is, does he want all of it—i.e. to bite you and drain you completely? Or does he simply want to Blood-Bond with you by taking some of your blood and giving him some of yours, which is what the Witch Queen and her Blood Knight did? I think this…” He pointed to the wavering image in the silver scrying bowl, “Points to the latter and not the former.”
“But they can’t get Blood-Bonded, can they?” Emma said, sounding scandalized. “After all that was then…” She pointed at the bowl. “And this is now. What about the Edict?”
