32. Elianna

Chapter thirty-two

Elianna

“What could a throneless queen possibly offer a coven of all-powerful witches?” Azenna spat with a wicked cackle that her sisters echoed behind her.

I took a swaggering step forward. “I am willing to prepare my kingdom and vouch for your acts by allowing you and your kind to roam the realm freely among humans and fae, as you did centuries ago. All creatures will be treated fairly in my reign and without judgement just for existing. There will no longer be a need to hide. However, you will all be expected to abide by Velyran law.”

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, an eruption of belly laughter exploded from them all.

“ That was what you planned to barter?!” Veli hissed in embarrassment at my side.

“Is that not what they want?! They’ve been in hiding!”

“They already roam the realm freely, Elianna! Just not in plain sight!”

“We’re so fucked,” Zaela huffed out with a nervous laugh.

“Quiet over there!” I snapped at her, then turned to check on Avery, who was quietly observing the witches before us .

As the coven’s laughter ceased, my attention turned back to them as they began to leisurely disperse about the space, breaking the half circle they had remained in. The ones that appeared as twins gathered beneath an oak tree, leaning against its trunk, while the crone moved to sit upon boulders that were spread out through the ruins.

“That is what you offer to barter for our services to aid your war? Elianna, I am insulted.” Azenna laughed. “Surely you do not believe we have remained hidden in The Elora Isles all this time…the traitor you keep at your side should have been proof enough of that.”

“Why is she a traitor?” I demanded. Veli stiffened at my question.

“Ah, you do not know what she took?” Azenna taunted.

“She stole from the entirety of the coven. Against the wishes of the gods,” the crone called.

My eyes shifted to her, and I blinked as recognition took over me.

“ You .” I took a step toward her while pointing in her direction. “I have seen you before. You’re the crone from the village.”

“Hello, one who was promised …” she hissed with a malicious grin.

“That is what you spoke of when I saw you that day.” I took another step in her direction as anger flooded me. “Begging on the streets of a village of mortals. Eyeing them. Watching them. Tell me, crone , what were your plans for the villagers if I hadn’t scared you off that day?”

“Scared me off? Foolish girl, I simply left to speak to my sisters regarding the message from the gods. And as for your precious mortals…well, they were lucky that day.” I sucked in a breath as one hand balled into a fist at my side while the other moved for the hilt of my dagger. “I returned some weeks later to find it had been reduced to ash. Pity.”

“So the gods truly spoke this prophecy to each of you individually, then?”

“They did,” Avery interjected. “It was in Father’s journal. Veli was with him the day it came to her. She said it right to him.”

“Avery,” Veli hissed.

I lifted my hand and halted her as my eyes roamed over the witches who stood before us, watching us intently.

“So that is where you have been hiding all this time? Did you assume the role of the king's pet following the abandonment of your coven?”

“She is a healer ,” I stated. “She helps people. Veli tried to save my father.”

“Interesting that you will do such a thing for another species as you doom your own.”

“Enough!” Veli shrieked at the High Witch. “What I did was to save you. Or attempt to.” She moved to the heart of the ruins before us and spun as she addressed them. “Everything I did was to save you from yourselves!”

“Lies!” They all began to shout at Veli.

“You wanted the book for yourself,” Azenna assumed.

“Look at my eyes, Azenna. My skin. My youth! The book had remained untouched for centuries.” Veli’s stare wandered to Avery and then snapped back to her elder. “That is until a few nosey little fae stumbled into my life one day and refused to leave. ”

“You had no right to take it from us!” Azenna shouted, the crimson in her stare glowing once more.

“It was destroying you! All of you!” Veli roared.

I took an involuntary step back as power radiated from her.

“Witches were not created to be kind-hearted, Veli!” the crone hissed.

“You took the choice away from us all,” the twins voiced in eerie unison from the edges of the tree line.

“Judging by the hue of your stares, I would say your choice had been made back then, Madalae and Empri.” Veli crossed her arms at them.

The twin witches’ hard stares softened.

“If the cost of all power is our youth, some of us are willing to pay such a price. What use do we have for beauty when we rarely desire the usage of a male? Our choices should not matter to you,” Azenna barked.

“Mother of all the gods above, Azenna, you would have led the realm to its doom if I had allowed you to dig your talons into the book any further.”

“You are blaming me, little witchling? Be mindful of what you accuse, as my skin has yet to crinkle into ruin alongside some of our sisters. I should rip your heart from your chest for your defiance.”

“All those centuries ago, when our coven found the book within this very rift of the realm, you had not dabbled as deeply as those who had brought it to you.” Veli’s eyes shot over to the crone. “You have not yet held the true power you seek, so you still wear the skin of a benevolent witch. It is your eyes that would give you away. ”

Azenna’s face twisted into a grimace as her gaze roamed over each of us. A cackle left her. “You speak so confidently, Veli.”

“I am quite confident. I endangered my life and left the protection of my coven to ensure that none of you would succumb to becoming mindless monsters consumed by power.”

Azenna stormed up to Veli—the High Witch and healer now stood chest to chest. “You think you are so much nobler than us because you do not desire the greatest gift the gods gave us? You are not better than us, Veli. You are soft-minded and weak .”

“Is it the book that you seek?” Avery interrupted their stare-down, and all of our gazes moved to her as she stood on the far side of the ruins. “In exchange for your assistance in our war…is that your price? The book.”

My heart started racing as I stared at my sister. Zaela made eye contact with me for a moment and instant panic lit in her stare.

Azenna pivoted away from Veli and took a step toward Avery. “Do not toy with me, girl, for I do not sense the book in our presence. Do not offer something you do not possess.”

Avery then removed her pack that had been strapped from her back. She placed it in the soil at her feet and reached into it—when she pulled her hand from within, it held Veli’s small, woven bag.

“Avery,” I whispered, my eyes bulging in absolute fear.

“You foolish girl, what have you done?!” Veli boomed, jaw gaping .

She reached into the bag and removed the book from it. Power surged in the air, radiating from its pages, even while closed.

“ Tinaebris Malifisc ,” Azenna spoke softly in disbelief, her eyes shining with pure menacing anticipation. “It appears I was wrong, for you do have something worth bargaining for.”

Wicked whispers echoed through the space from the coven that worked to surround us once more.

“You will not lay a single taloned finger on this until we come to an agreement of what the use of this entails, and how you will fight in the war,” Avery spoke sternly.

“Avery, give me the book. Right. Now ,” Veli demanded.

“Do as she says, Avery,” I ordered as I took a step closer.

The air was charged with a fiery intensity that felt as if it would shatter into chaos at any moment.

“Avery!” Zaela shrieked after a few seconds of silence. “Listen to them!” she pleaded.

“Avery is your name,” Azenna said. “Well, Avery, it appears the decision is in your hands, not theirs. Your terms are that we fight in this war? May we use the magic of the book you hold to aid its end?”

My sister swallowed and turned to me as I shook my head rapidly, mouthing the word no .

“Do not let your crownless, clueless ruler choose the fate of your war!” Azenna screeched, whipping Avery’s attention back to her.

“Don’t speak of her that way!” Avery yelled at the witch, but her confidence quickly crumbled, replaced by a surge of nerves that visibly coursed through her body. “I—” she started.

Azenna tsked. “I am afraid I have run out of patience for your lack of assurance, little red one.”

“Oh gods,” Veli murmured, and my eyes darted back and forth between her and my sister.

I took a few hurried steps toward her, my heart pounding in my chest. Veli matched my urgency, and then we raced to reach Avery, where she stood across the ruins.

Veli reached out her hand as we sprinted to my sister, and her grip on the book loosened as magic began to slowly tug her towards us.

“Let it go, Avery!” Veli shrieked, and she did as commanded.

The book was soaring toward us in the air when, suddenly, it whipped to the left and shot out to Azenna instead.

“No!” Avery screamed, and both of our steps ceased.

Veli vanished from beside me and wisped herself before her High Witch, trying to intercept the book, but she was too late.

Azenna caught the ancient bound pages in her clutches and let out a wicked laugh that rattled the ruins we all stood in. Dark magic swirled and surged in all directions, and a deafening crack of thunder erupted above, the laughter of the coven echoing behind it.

I snapped out of my trance and continued my desperate stride to Avery, throwing my arms around her to protect her in case the witch tried to attack .

One by one, the three other witches shot out into the sky under the cover of their shadowy shields.

“Thank you ever so much, my dear red one. I promise you, we shall hold our end of your precious barter and use our power to end the war,” Azenna announced, her voice booming with crackling power as her shadows swirled around her feet.

Veli’s eyes glowed with fury-forged intensity as she lunged at the High Witch, conjuring a massive explosion of shadows from her palm.

The blast of hazy-darkness slammed into the fountain right behind Azenna as she disappeared before our very eyes, with Tinaebris Malifisc in her grasp.

The ruins fell into a bone-chilling silence. I inhaled, my breath shaking, as I turned to my sister, who had just inadvertently handed a book filled with the realm’s most sinister magic to a coven of malevolent witches.

Tears welled in her honey eyes as her lip trembled vigorously.

“Avery.” My jaw locked.

“What have you done?” Veli demanded, tone full of wrath as she stared at the fountain. “What. Have. You. Done?!” She turned to us then.

“I knew bringing her was a mistake,” Zaela murmured from where she stood, and my gaze shot to her as my lips curled back in a snarl.

A sob broke from Avery. “Veli, I—”

“You have no idea what you have done. Not a single fucking clue.” She moved toward us and my hand shifted to my sword at my hip on instinct. “What I risked centuries ago…what I have hid for all that time, was to protect the innocents of this gods-forsaken world from them. And you just destroyed everything.”

“How did she even get the book?!” Zaela snapped as she stormed to where we all stood.

I looked at Avery. “Well? How did you get the book?”

“Lia, I’m so sorry.”

“This is not a time for apologies.” I held up my hand to halt her efforts. “You need to tell us how you got that book and why you even thought to bring it here.”

The thought hit me then…of Avery disappearing below deck just after I had told her where Veli was putting the book.

“I brought it in case it was needed. If Veli needed it and we were under attack…I never planned to hand it over. I never knew Veli stole it to begin with or that it was something they desired!” she shrieked as tears ran down her cheeks.

“It never should have been brought here!” Veli boomed.

“You never told us you stole it!”

“Little Princess Avery still never minding her own business. People are allowed privacy! You are not owed everything just because of the last name you bear.”

“Enough!” I shouted. “Everyone calm down.”

Veli looked at my sister with disgust. “You have doomed us all.”

Avery winced.

“Will it hold?” I asked. “The barter. Will it hold since they took the book? That they will aid us in the war.”

“There was no barter made in magic or blood. No true bargain exists now. Just a reclaimed artifact. ”

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“And you!” she hissed at me. “Letting her taste your blood?! She has access to all your recent memories now! At the very least, for the last day. Just as I was about to scold you, the wind picked up, and the chaos ensued.”

“My memories?!” I shrieked as I glanced down at my bleeding fingertip she had slithered her tongue across.

“Yes! Which means she knows how we arrived here and what awaits us in the sea,” Veli revealed.

“Mother of the gods…Nox!” I gasped, terror taking over me at the thought of those witches on their way to him as we spoke.

Veli’s attention moved back to the archway from which we came, her eyes widening in alarm. “We will need to argue about this all another time.” Her gaze found mine, and I pressed my lips together tightly, clenching my teeth. “Evil lingers in the marshes.”

My eyes slowly widened. “Jace,” I breathed.

The four of us took off into a run instantaneously, back through the archway, as I desperately reached down into the bond to get a sense of him. Panic immediately consumed me, making it impossible to distinguish between whether the fear that I felt was his or my own.