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It was agony waiting until morning. I refused to wake my mother up, no matter how scared I was. I sat up in my bed, Freya in my lap, my window closed tightly and my windowsill lined haphazardly with every single trinket Asteria had ever given me—my pathetic attempt at cobbling together some magical protection until the sun came up. The ribbon and drawing I’d tucked back inside the pouch around my neck where it hung, heavy with realizations, against my chest. I dozed off sometime around dawn and woke a couple of hours later sore and stiff from falling asleep sitting up, with nothing but the wall for a pillow. I looked down at Freya, who was watching me intently.
“What about you, did you get any sleep?” I asked her.
She yawned pointedly in response. I took that for a no.
I had to tell my mom, Covenant or no Covenant. I thought I could wait until that evening’s renewal, but I knew now that I couldn’t wait. Whatever protection Asteria had been able to provide for me all these years, it was gone now. I didn’t know enough about magic to protect myself. I needed her help, even if it scared us both.
The door to my mom’s bedroom was closed as I walked past. It was only eight o’clock, I reasoned. She would be up soon. I walked through the living room on my way to the kitchen, and spotted Persi out in the garden. Her black hair streamed down her back like dark water, and she gazed out over the fruit trees, a cigarette dangling from her fingers, barefoot and clad only in an ivory-colored slip.
“She’s been out there since I woke up at six.” I jumped and whipped around to see Rhi standing behind me, wrapped in a fuzzy purple bathrobe and plaid slippers. She held two cups of coffee in her hands. “I was going to take this out to her, but I kept losing my nerve. Would you like to drink it before it goes cold? She takes it the same way you do.”
I reached for the coffee gratefully, and followed Rhi back out to the kitchen, where we sat sipping in silence.
“Have you seen my mom yet?” I asked. “She doesn’t usually sleep this late.”
Rhi shook her head. “No, but let her sleep. It’s been a fairly traumatizing few days. She probably needs it.”
I tapped my fingers on the tabletop, full of nervous energy despite how tired I was. I felt like a kid who’d skipped their nap and eaten a bag of pixie sticks instead. I didn’t think I could wait another minute for my mom to wake up. I decided to see if I could at least get a general question answered.
“Rhi, what do you know about protective magic?”
Rhi raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, a fair bit. Why do you ask?”
“I was wondering, if someone took a picture of… of someone, and wrapped it up with a ribbon… could that be part of a protective spell?”
“Hmm. That sounds like a binding. Yes, it’s a protective spell. How do you—”
“A binding?” I jumped on the word at once. “What does that mean?”
“Well, like I said, it’s a protective spell. There’s a bit to it, but basically, you use an image of the person—it can be a photo, a drawing, a doll meant to represent them—and you wrap the ribbon or string around it to bind that person from doing harm to—”
“Wait, is that how the Covenant works? Wasn’t it used to bind the Darkness?” I interrupted. “Everyone keeps using that word, ‘bind.’”
“Oh, no, that is much more powerful magic. The kind of binding you’re referring to is a much simpler spell,” Rhi said.
“And if the witch who performed that binding… if she were to die… would the binding still work?” I asked.
“No, the spell would break.” Rhi frowned, setting down her coffee cup. “Wren, where are these questions coming from? Where did you see—?”
I was saved from answering by the sound of the front door opening and closing, and a few moments later, Persi slunk into the kitchen. “Who does a woman need to murder to get a cup of that coffee?” she grumbled.
Rhi got up from the table. “I’ll make you one. No homicide required,” she said dryly.
“Any idea when your mom will be back?” Persi asked as she slumped into the chair beside me.
“Back?”
“Yeah. Her car’s gone,” Persi replied. “Where the hell did she go, anyway?”
A shiver of fear rocked through me, and I got up from the table. By the time I reached the front door, I was running. I pulled open the door, and stared out at the empty space in the driveway where her car should have been. My mouth went dry. I turned and sprinted up the stairs two at a time and skidded to a halt in front of my mom’s bedroom door. I knocked once, twice, and then just shoved it open. Her bedclothes were rumpled, but the bed was empty. A glance under the bed revealed her suitcase was gone, too.
I ran down the stairs to find Rhi waiting for me at the bottom. I answered her unspoken question.
“Persi’s right. She’s gone.”
19
“Wren, don’t panic.”
