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In that sense, she and Abel deserved each other. Like often called to like, didn’t it?
“I wasn’t so sure you would agree to speak with me,” she said, her voice soft. “We were once friends but, well, that was a long time ago.”
Cain strode toward the empty chair that was positioned opposite her own. “A friend wouldn’t have done any of the things you did, so I’d say that was the wrong choice of word.”
Her smile dimmed. “You left us no choice when it came to the banishment.”
Annoyance spiked through him. “Do not pin the blame for your actions on me. Own them. Or don’t. But do not use me as your scapegoat.”
Her eyes briefly slid to the side, and she rested her clasped hands on her lap. “I did not ask to speak with you so we could rehash the past. The present is my concern, and it should also be yours. This woman you have given sanctuary to … She is not what you think. Her old Priestess, Esther, told you that the land of Aeon is perishing, yes?”
Sitting, he gave a slow nod. “She did.”
“Nothing has been able to fight the blight. It continues to spread like a cancer. More, our people are continuing to fall ill. If it wasn’t for our healers, I suspect that many would be dead.”
Cain said nothing. He simply stared at her, keeping his face blank.
“My people managed to find someone who, like Wynter Dellavale, was brought back from the afterlife using forbidden magick. He examined the decay. He verified that, as we’d come to suspect, the land has been cursed.”
Cain forced himself not to tense.
“We had hoped that the male witch would unravel the hex for us. He was not able to, however.” She paused. “He said that his power was no match for it. That each attempt to snap the threads of the curse achieved only in stretching them—they bounced back into place like elastic every time.”
Impressive. Unheard of—at least for Cain—but impressive.
“I asked how that could possibly be. He said that it wasn’t simply dark magick at work. But he had no clue exactly what elseisat work. He was certain of one thing, though. Her life-force is not tied to the curse. Her death would therefore not be enough to undo it.”
Cain was so taken off-guard that he must have betrayed his surprise in some way, because Lailah nodded and said, “Yes, I think we now see what has become clear to me and the other Aeons—Whoever you are harboring is not merely a witch.”
“You’re only just figuring this out?” Cain had sensed that early on. He just had no actual clue what exactly Wynter was. “That was always your problem, Lailah. You never viewed mortals as a threat, so you paid no real attention to them.”
Her mouth tightened for a mere moment. “When I exiled her, she warned me that there would be consequences. It was such a casual warning. Very matter-of-fact.”
“And I’m sure you dismissed it.”
“Having never demonstrated any great displays of power, she’d never given me any reason to assume I should heed her. It wasn’t until it became clear that she is not a simple witch that I recalled how something else happened that day. There was a disturbance in the air that felt … strange. Wrong. Alien. I cannot explain or adequately describe it.”
“And you dismissed that as well,” he guessed.
“I did,” she admitted through gritted teeth. “Perhaps I was right to do so. Perhaps it was nothing. But perhaps it wasn’t. What I am certain of is this: She broke my hold on her mind and body in order to fight one of our keepers and free herself. That is no easy thing. I do not know what exactly Wynter is, but if she was able to hex a place such as Aeon so thoroughly without tying her own life-force to that curse, we have to ask ourselves … What else can she do?”
That was indeed an excellent question. At this point, Cain had a great many questions for his oh-so secretive witch. “It seems that she might be more interesting to have around than I initially thought.”
“Don’t be a fool, Cain. If she can be a threat to Aeon, she can be a threat to Devil’s Cradle. Perhaps even to you.”
“You don’t really believe the latter, but you’re hoping I will. Why? What is it that you want?”
Her face hardened. “I would have thought that was obvious. I want you to surrender her to us. Return your rights to her soul, withdraw your protection. Send her back to Aeon with the conduit and her old coven member.”
“Essentially, you wish me to do you a favor? No, Lailah, I’m not feeling motivated to do that.”
“It would be in your best interests as well as ours. Wynter is a power we don’t understand.”
“You and the other Aeons are all about destroying what you don’t understand,” he said, his voice hardening. “If something doesn’t fit neatly in a box, if you’re not so sure you can effortlessly kill it, you reach the conclusion that it must therefore be eradicated.”
She swallowed. “As I said before, I didn’t request to speak with you so that we could revisit the past—”
“But there are so many parallels, aren’t there? Curses, mysteries, secrets, deaths.”
