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She snorts like the question is amusing. “I have known I would see you on this day at this time for the past three years, Valerie Darkmore. Your mother made sure of that.”
“I—my mother?”
She smirks at me over the counter and pulls some tea bags from the cabinet. “Your mother came to see me three years ago. Not long after the disappearance of her eldest.”
Calliope.
I sit up straighter at her word choice.Disappearance, notdeath.So she’s known Calliope wasn’t dead.
Does that mean my mother has known all this time too?
She turns her back to me as the kettle whistles. “I don’t think she ever expected one of her daughters to come into their dormant nature. Not when the last Darkmore to do so was so many generations ago.” Magnolia shuffles to the seat across from me, setting two mugs of steaming tea between us. “She came to me after Calliope’s initiation in order to prevent the same from happening to you.”
“She knew what really happened to Calla,” I whisper. “And she let us believe she was dead.”
Magnolia shakes her head. “She knew your sister had turned. But she did believe her to be dead until recently. Your father made sure of that.”
My teeth grind at the wordfather,but I don’t correct her. “What do you mean,dormant nature?”
She flicks her wrist. “The mutated gene that allows blood witches to tap into their necromancy ancestry through vampirism is unpredictable. It skips generations in the same way the werewolf gene does. Of course, there’s minimal documentation of when itdoeshappen, for reasons I’m sure you’re familiar with by now.”
“So she knew this was going to happen to me but didn’t bother to warn me.” I don’t mean to say it aloud, but there it is.
So many secrets. So many lies. And for what?
Magnolia sips her tea, apparently unbothered that it must be scalding. “It wasn’t a guarantee it would happen to you too. I’d say statistically, it was quite rare.”
“Then what did you tell her when she came to see you three years ago? What does that have to do with this?” I pull the note from my pocket and place it on the table.
Magnolia doesn’t acknowledge it. She doesn’t even blink.
“We considered the infinite paths your life could take to find which would result in your survival. She chose what she believed to be the best option.”
I stare at her, trying to process the words.Infinite paths your life could take…
“You’re a seer,” I breathe.
She says nothing and adds another spoonful of sugar to her tea.
It’s one of the rarest forms of lunar magic. Until now, I’ve never met a witch with the ability before.
But it’s also the closest link to dark magic a natural power can have, even more than necromancy. And magic like that always comes with a price.
I swallow hard, my hands tightening around my cup. “What did you see?”
She clucks her tongue. “Many things. Many versions. Many deaths.”
A shiver runs down my spine, but I force myself to sit up straight.
“The only solution we saw that would allow you to remain at the academy, at the estate, was to connect you with your anapófefktos. In doing—”
“I’m sorry, my what?”
Her forehead creases as she snaps her fingers, as if searching for the word. “It is believed you and another soul have a string of fate connecting you, an invisible line that has always been there, in this life and every other. The wolves call it mates. Humans, soulmates. You get the idea.”
I don’t lean back in my chair so much as collapse against it. Because years ago, I might have laughed at the ridiculousness of this conversation. But instead, there’s a burning in the backs of my eyes, the truth sitting like a rock in my throat.
A small, knowing smile rises to Magnolia’s lips. “Having you paired with Prince Reginald was no accident. Your mother knew he would ensure your survival through initiation, even if in the moment, he didn’t understand why.” She tilts her head to the side. “He just needed a nudge.”
