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Chapter Sixteen
Astrid
The witches materialize around us and I spin, throwing a protective shield around me and Erik. He lets out a low growl, his inner dragon surging to the surface. His eyes flash silver.
They must have cloaked themselves, or otherwise Erik and I would have sensed them. My heart sinks.
“Did you forget how many talented seers there are in this coven?” says a familiar voice.
My mother steps forward from the group of witches directly in front of us. Her long, silver hair shines in the colored glow of magic surrounding us. She’s wearing long robes of emerald green. She doesn’t have a ball of magic at the ready like the other witches, but a shimmer of it moves across her fingertips.
I take a breath and swallow down both my panic and my anger. This is the first time I’ve seen her in years, and this is the greeting I receive? “Well, if you saw that I planned to come here, then surely you also saw why?” My eyes burn into her. I rotate my gaze to catch the eyes of the other witches, too.
She smiles, if that’s what it can be called, a thin pressing of her lips that shows her disappointment. “Sadly, yes. To steal something from those who once were your family.”
I ignore her barb, even though it sends a spike of rage through my belly. “But why? Did your seer tell you why I would do such a thing? Why it’s vitally important?”
“The magic shows us what it will, child, you know that,” my mother says condescendingly. “It showed us what we needed to know to protect what’s ours.”
Erik lets out another growl and steps closer to me, his heat pressing against my back.
“Interesting,” I say. “You’d think it would have shown you that the Night Guild is hunting me and my child. That our lives are in danger.”
There’s a momentary pulse of surprise in my mother’s eyes, and a low murmur runs through the other witches. So, they hadn’t known. I lift my gaze and turn in a circle, my voice rising.
“The Night Guild is being run by ancient beings, Darkness and Light. Two cosmic forces who should not have aligned, but for some reason have formed an alliance instead of balancing each other. I need the dagger to perform a spell to rebalance the magic that caused this to happen.” I pause, finishing my circle and resting my gaze back on my mother. “I do this to protect my child, but also to put an end to the Night Guild and protect countless witches across the globe.”
My mother falls silent for several moments, a calculating look in her eyes. “Perhaps you should have come to us, Astrid, sought our help instead of incapacitating two of your fellow witches and attempting to take the dagger by force.”
I laugh, bitter and empty. “You turned your back on me long ago, mother. You withdrew the support of the coven and haven’t even seen your own granddaughter in years. Surely you understand why I couldn’t take the risk. Her life is the most important thing. I will do anything to protect her.” I cast my gaze across the witches standing before me. “But, if you say all I need to do is ask for your help, then I offer my apology for misjudging you, and I ask now: give me the dagger, for a short time, so I can protect Lilli and put an end to the Night Guild.”
“I wish we could do that,” my mother says, making a good show of looking truly remorseful. “But it wasn’t us who turned our backs on you. It was you who chose a differing path. You chose a faerie over your own kind. A faerie who didn’t even know his own family.”
“Lilli’s dad was an orphan, yes. You say that as if it was his fault,” I growl.
My mother locks gazes with a point over my shoulder, and I know she’s staring at Erik. “It doesn’t seem you’ve learned your lesson. What is that, a dragon shifter? You’re still choosing others over your own coven.”
A blaze of heat and magic shoots off Erik, and the witches around us tense and raise their hands, their magic sizzling. The air in the room grows tighter.
“We are not your enemies!” I shout, lifting my arms in a gesture of peace. “Do you even hear yourself, mother? It’s bigotry, pure and simple. Me choosing to be with another supernatural being doesn’t mean I’m turning away from the witches. The Raven Society no longer condones this kind of prejudice. Or has news of that not reached you here? Are you so closed off from your own community around the world?”
This causes another ripple through the room, and several of the witches lower their defensive postures, their magic dissipating.
“The witches of Norway choose to stick to tradition,” my mother hisses, narrowing her eyes. “The other supernatural races are dangerous. I’m not going to abandon thousands of years of history just because you can’t find a man within your own kind.”
“You speak for all the witches of Norway, then?” I raise my chin defiantly. “You claim that they all wish to remain enemies with the rest of the supernatural world, despite the decree of Rowan Stonecroft, the new High Priestess of the Raven Society?”
“Rowan discovered she was a witch less than a year ago,” my mother says disdainfully. “She has no right to make such decrees for the entire society.”
“So, I am to understand that you refuse to help me and your granddaughter because of your bigotry against her father? That you would rather let us fall into the hands of the Night Guild?” I’m shaking with so much emotion it feels like I’m going to burst into flames. Behind me, Erik rests a hand on my shoulder.
“I cannot help, even if I wanted to,” my mother says. “Because I’m afraid you’re a day too late. Someone else has already stolen the dagger.”
I go still as stone, my brain trying to process what she’s saying. All of this has been for nothing? She’s merely been toying with me. Trying to humiliate me in front of the entire coven, just as she had all those years ago when I stood here, pregnant and alone.
And who had stolen the dagger? Was it the Night Guild? Or had my mother hidden it after the seer had her vision?
But before I can form words to respond, another voice speaks. A witch named Hilde, who I grew up with. “There is another dagger,” she says.
