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Talon jerked his chin. “You’re still wearing the Circlet of Nebula.”
Willow glanced at the bracelet around her wrist. “Is that what it’s called? It won’t come off.”
“It will come off,” he replied. “But it takes a certain kind of magic. Do you know why they bound it on you?”
“I have a few theories.”
“They need you in their coven. There’s something they want in this building, and you’re the one with the keys.”
“Why didn’t they just buy it themselves? Astrid literally handed me the keys.”
“There’s a centuries old curse on the coven,” Talon said. “They can neither buy nor sell land or any structure upon it. It was meant to make them wander, never to settle anywhere.”
“And why should we listen to you?” Montgomery questioned. “You’re one of them.”
“No, I’m not.” Talon seemed truly offended for the first time. “I hate my mother. I hate everything she stands for.”
“And that’s why you refused to work here in the shop when she asked you?” Willow guessed.
“They never told me what they wanted me to do for them here. I didn’t want to set foot in this shop.”
“Yet here you are,” said Montgomery. “In the shop.”
“You could have been just like them,” he said to Willow. “How could I have known until now?”
“What’s changed now?”
“There’s a different kind of magic about you. It took me a while to sense it. You’re not like my mother.”
“I still don’t understand what they want from me.”
“The Daughters of the Twilight Veil, as I mentioned before, wandered everywhere after being cast out of Salem. This was almost four hundred years ago, so naturally, over the centuries some of them abandoned the coven in search of something else. That didn’t bode well with the other witches. There's a rumor the ones who left met a treacherous end. I’m not sure of the details. All I know, is the remaining members came up with a bond to devote their lives to the coven forever, and that’s when the Circlet of Nebula came about.”
Willow clutched the bracelet around her wrist, thinking of the terrible noise it made when Esme tried her magic on it.
“My mother never was good at communication,” Talon continued. “She wouldn’t tell me what she’s up to if I begged. My guess is there’s something she wants and owning this building—either through inheritance or family connection—is the only way to get it. And since you’re part of her sisterhood now, it’s as good as hers.”
Willow didn’t like the sound of all this. But it still didn’t all add up. How could a silly bracelet make her one of them? Dear lord, she was a Twihard!
“What about the house she lives in? She doesn’t own it?”
Something about the idea of a powerful witch having to pay rent to a landlord cracked her up. She’d get evicted if her witchery was ever found out.
“She inherited it from her third husband in 1883. He’d built it for her, apparently.”
“Your mom’sthatold? How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-one. And before you ask, I don’t know my father. He died when I was a baby. I’m not saying she hexed him, but I’m not saying she didn’t, either. He just died unexpectedly.”
“Sounds like a common trend with this town,” Montgomery said.
“Talon, I need you to answer me honestly. Do you think your mother had anything to do with the deaths of the owners of this building?”
“I really couldn’t say for sure. Only one.”
A lump formed in the pit of her stomach. “Which one?”
“There was a witch who was lured into the coven at a young age. She was impressionable and stupid, according to my mother. But she was extremely beautiful and had a talent for making any man fall for her. Superficially, of course. So, they charged her to get the original owner of the Moonstone to marry her, so she’d inherit it for the coven. They had some kind of plan, I’m not sure what. But it all went sideways when the young witch fell madly in love with the man. His name was… Mortimer or Montgomery or something. And when he refused her, she went a little crazy and poisoned him.”
