AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Someone snorted—Xiomara, I thought. Ostara was unperturbed, however.
“We could allow the Covenant to lapse,” she said. “We could stop relying on the blood of a single coven to protect this place and find a new way to bind the Darkness; one that does not place the burden so squarely on so few shoulders.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound dangerous or complicated at all,” Persi drawled. “I’m sure there are just heaps and heaps of spells that would work just as effectively. And I’m sure the Darkness will be happy to sit by while we try them all out.”
“Ostara, we have discussed this before. We have voted on it,” another voice said, this one with a Scottish brogue. “The will of the Conclave was clear: maintain the integrity of the Covenant if at all possible. We have three Vesper witches in front of us. Therefore, it is possible.”
“Possible, yes, but not our choice to make, Davina,” Xiomara said. “That choice belongs to the Vesper sisters, and we must allow them some time to make it.”
“But there is no time!” Rhi cried. “Asteria is dead! The Covenant of the Three has lapsed, hasn’t it?”
“Your mother took steps to ensure it would not,” Xiomara said.
“What steps could she poss—oh.” My mom’s voice rang with sudden understanding. “The will. The house. She left it to Wren.”
“It was a contingency plan,” Xiomara explained. “She did not intend to die before telling all of this to you. She planned to come see you, to explain everything. But her illness had other plans.”
“She called me,” my mom said, her voice low, tremulous. “She called me several times. I wouldn’t return her call.”
My throat tightened. I hadn’t known that. Add it to the long list of things my mother hadn’t told me. I thought of Asteria’s letter to me, cast into the garbage, and saw it for what it actually was—a desperate last resort. The words made so much more sense now, in light of everything I was hearing:
There are things you must be told—truths that must be revealed to you, and I fear that your mother cannot see that. Come to me this summer, as soon as you can, and until then, please promise me you will wear this charm. For protection. For guidance.
My hand flew to the charm I still wore around my neck, the one she had enclosed in the letter. Had Asteria known the kind of danger I would find myself in when we came here? Was I wearing a spell that was meant to ward off that danger?
“The will isn’t just binding legally, it’s enchanted as well,” said a quavery voice, and I realized that Lydian was also there in the room. It was the first time she had spoken. “You have seven days, from the time of the reading, to renew the Covenant. Otherwise, it will lapse, and the Darkness will be free once more.”
“Unless we find another way to bind it,” Ostara added, sounding frustrated.
“Oh, Ostara give it a rest, won’t you?” Lydian snapped.
Nova could barely suppress a gasp; evidently people did not generally dare to talk to Ostara in such a tone, as a rule. But from what little I knew of Lydian, she ran such rules over in the street in her rickshaw and didn’t give a damn.
Lydian continued, “I don’t deny that it would be preferable to use a binding that does not rely on a single coven’s blood. I think we all agree that your point is a good one, Ostara. But we are hemmed in by powerful magical boundaries that we oughtn’t to test. Once the Covenant is renewed, we will be free to explore other ways to defend our safety.”
“We’ve had centuries,” Ostara ground out. “And we’ve done nothing.”
“The Covenant has never been in such a precarious state before, nor has it ever failed us,” Davina said. “Why should we have searched for a solution when no problem had yet presented itself?”
“Yes but—”
“We must allow the Vesper Coven time to come to their decision,” Zadia’s voice cut through. “We cannot move forward without it.”
There was a general flurry of arguing.
“We’ll need time, if they refuse, to discover how—”
“There may be no other way! It’s lunacy to gamble with—”
“You said we have seven days,” Rhi said.
“Seven days from the reading of the will. That was two days ago,” Persi pointed out.
“Fine, five days, then,” Rhi said. “That’s hardly enough time to…”
“We don’t need five days.” It was my mother who spoke now, and her voice, though quiet, cut through the room and silenced everyone. “I’ll stay. I’ll renew the Covenant.”
I was holding my breath. The hand that grasped Asteria’s necklace was trembling violently. I could hardly believe my ears. And neither, it seemed, could Rhi or Persi.
