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Elyria held out a hand, and Tyreste stopped mid-lunge, frozen in place. He strained, gaping at himself in disbelief. She flicked her wrist and released him, but she cocked her head in warning. “I didn’t come here to harm you, Anastazja. Your resilience has stayed with me, nagged at me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
“Ota, I’m sorry you had to learn this way,” Ana said gently, allowing a soft smile to linger on her aged father before moving on. He looked so old, sitting there, but he seemed to be improving right before her eyes.
Arkhady shook his head without looking at her.
As she swept her gaze back to Elyria, it was caught by a young woman with the most captivating eyes Ana had ever seen. She was younger than Addy but wore her regal pride in the lift of her chin and lengthening of her delicate neck. Elyria’s daughter, Ana realized, the one who would soon take her place in the highest role. Ana had no doubt that the younger girl would not have shown her the same mercy as her mother had. “High Priestess—”
“Please. Sit. You have my word no one here will be harmed.” Elyria gestured around. “You don’t have to trust me. Trust the hundreds of guards who would have us all subdued before we could eliminate more than one or two of you.”
“Comforting,” Tyreste grumbled.
Ana nodded to tell him it was all right. She took the seat at the farthest end from her father, turned half to the side to show she wasn’t planning to get comfortable. Tyreste reluctantly sat beside her, and Addy slid in opposite him.
“High Priestess, this is Tyreste Penhallow, my... mylove,and this is his sister, Adeline. Should you prove yourself a deceiver and any harm comes to either of them or their family, you can be assured I will take to the skies and burn your Rookery to ash.”
“Can you even fly anymore, sparrow?” quipped the violet-eyed heir. She rolled her eyes at another next to her, who laughed coldly. “My mother wisely stole your ability to land.”
“Who says I need to land to destroy?” Ana asked.
“Enough,” Elyria stated. “Raelyria.”
“Mother.” Raelyria’s nostrils flared as she folded her hands on her lap and glowered forward.
“Pjika,” Arkhady said from the other end. His thin voice was swallowed by the roaring hearth. She felt his vigor returning to him piece by piece, but only time would reveal how fully he’d recover. “High Priestess Elyria has told me everything. There will be other times to rehash it, to decide—” He coughed into his sleeve, and Lenik shoved a goblet of wine under his nose. Arkhady glared and the vodzhae recalled his arm. “Todiscussthe news you are unwed and with child.”
Tyreste tensed.
“But today we find ourselves evaluating the past years with the dark lens of new information. Had I known Magda had been sent by a wretched creature, determined to use our people to harm our friends... Well, it does not matter what I would have done, for our foe is strong and wily. He is resourceful and does not suffer under the limitation of time. Perhaps if we had all been working together more cohesively... Well, there is no room for ‘perhaps,’ is there? We did not, and here we are—fractured and dispirited, but not vanquished. As long as I draw breath...” He lifted his eyes to meet Ana’s. “I will use my strength toward whatever conclusion we require to excise this rot from our land.”
Elyria pulled a hard breath through her nose with a sharp turn toward Adeline. She lifted her hands and signed,Will you please show my daughter and the other Ravenwoods to the sitting room?
Adeline’s eyes widened in stunned surprise. She whipped her head toward Ana, but Ana was just as confused.
“One of your ancestors taught us the language of the deaf,” Elyria said, signing the same words to Adeline. “Ravenwoods are not impervious to the troubles of man. I have just asked young Adeline to accompany the other Ravenwoods to the sitting room, or elsewhere, if you prefer it, Steward. But I would like for the three of us to discuss this next part privately.”
“Four,” Ana stated. She flicked her eyes at her restless lover.
Arkhady lifted his shoulders at Elyria, and she nodded.
Tyreste signed to Adeline that everything was fine, to do as the raven asked. He told her where the sitting room was, and that he’d come find her soon. She wasn’t pleased, but she beckoned the others to follow.
The four watched the room empty in silence. Ana looked to the high priestess and waited for her to begin.
“I assume we are all now apprised and there’s nothing new to share,” Elyria said. “So let us discuss what we will do.”
“High Priestess,” Ana said, cutting in. She glanced at Tyreste, who still hadn’t settled. “We do have something new to share.”
Elyria swept her hands at Ana.
“We have been...” Ana tried not to look at her father. Every time she did, she faltered, whisked back to a time when he had been her hero. Before her was the husk of that man. The font of power in the room had shifted, to her, and she wondered if he could sense it as well. If Elyria could sense it. “Searching for answers in the old Wynter writings. As you know, my people were scholars and scribes, just as much as they were witches, and if there was going to be an answer anywhere, it would be within those writings.”
“It’s all mostly clinical though,” Arkhady said. “Documentation of people, creatures, places, scientific phenomena... If there was ever a mention of M—”
“Don’t say his name!” Ana cried. “It’s the same as an invitation. And he’s been...”
“He hasn’t... He’s found you?” Arkhady paled.
“Tak, Ota. He came to me in a vision and said if I...” Ana trailed off, realizing Mortain hadn’t tried to assail her mind since before she’d arrived at the cabin. His silence was as troubling as his presence though. “If I were to breed with the Ravenwoods, he would spare you. Niko. Tyreste. And he would put an end to Magda’s hold on this family and village.” She lowered her gaze to her lap. “And I accepted his terms. I thought I could outsmart him and find another way, once Magda was gone, but when I went to the observatory to warn Varradyn, he was dead. Magda had already taken his heart. And something inside of me, it snapped. I needed to warn the other Ravenwoods, to offer myself in atonement, and the sorcerer clung to that weakness and distorted it. He wanted me to lure another to replace Var. He almost won, but I was stronger, that time. And you know the rest, High Priestess. Ota, I assume you do as well.”
