Chapter 36

36

The advisors had left the stage, all barring Wild—who refused to budge from behind my chair—and Barrow, who held two droppers.

The droppers contained a minuscule amount of truth serum that glowed a pure white. Serene had measured and remeasured and then triple-checked the dosage amount.

I would answer one question.

Frond would answer one question.

He sat on the chair next to me, and I’d been enjoying the smug smirks he was aiming at his groupies. And their return smug smirks. I’d been trying to appear worried the whole time, which may have fueled his smugness.

When Wild’s parents visited during the three-hundred-year anniversary of Caves, I’d gone out strong against them, setting my feet in stone. Acting weaker may have served me better then. Acting weaker could serve me better now, so I was willing to appear cowed and afraid. This was just another type of trap.

Barrow stopped before me, an apologetic look in his eyes as he held up the dropper. “My apologies, High Esteemed.”

“Go for it, Barrow.” I opened my mouth, and he squeezed the end of the dropper. I felt the serum burn through me, and I grunted, tightening my grip on the armrests of my authority.

Wild grunted, too, and I could feel the extent of his iron will as he worked to stop from whisking me away to a hiding place.

Frond’s voice permeated the burning sensation filling me. “Tempest Corentine, have you ever practiced dark magic in any capacity or intend to do so in the future?”

He’d tried to cover the past, present, and future in his question.

There was no point in resisting such potent magic. There was no resisting it. My heart squeezed, my chest loosened, and my lips opened. “I have never and will never practice dark magic.”

I grunted again as the truth serum burned away and released me of its grip.

Loud talking filled the chamber, growing louder by the second. I was too busy composing myself to dissect the emotions of the coven. I sent a query to Wild, who sent me a visual. Some magus were nodding. Some were shocked. Most relieved. A few defiant.

As if truth serum could be outsmarted.

There was no trap against it. That was why the truth would always come out.

I took a steadying breath, then nodded at Barrow.

Barrow didn’t bother apologizing to Frond, and I got the feeling the magus wanted to ram the drop down the other man’s throat instead.

But he dutifully squeezed the liquid into Frond’s mouth.

Frond cried out, doubling over. Allergic to truth?

I finally allowed myself to smile. “Frond, you gave me permission to use truth serum to prove your innocence. Here is my question. Have you passed a steady stream of information to the original coven in exchange for their promise that once I’m evicted from the authority, and they claim this coven for their own, you will be appointed the newhigh esteemed?”

There was a huge intake of air from the watching coven.

I’d tricked Frond, yes. No one seemed to mind very much.

Frond could no sooner resist the truth serum than I had. But boy, did he try. His jaw clenched, and his eyes bugged out. Tension ran through his body, and magic surged into his hands.

He screamed against the power of the truth serum, and then a torrent left his mouth. “Yes! They promised me the authority in exchange for coven secrets and information. I’ve given it to them since Wild came here.”

His words induced a silence far greater than any I’d managed to inspire. And that was saying something.

There was a hurt to the silence that I couldn’t have ever created because I’d only been part of this community for a few months. These magus had grown up and old with Frond. They’d looked to him as a council member and an esteemed.

His group—those I could see—were slack-faced or aghast as they stared at the man on the chair beside my authority. They’d believed he had their best interests at heart when cold ambition had driven his actions for over five years.

“There’s much I could say to you now,” I said quietly, knowing everyone could hear me regardless. “But the faces of those you’ve betrayed are comment enough, and those looking at you have a far greater right to tell you how they feel than I do. If they wish to, then that’s their choice. As leader of this coven, my duty is to uphold coven law. You have broken several of them. You’ve acted selfishly and without consideration of the coven as a whole. You are found guilty of passing on coven information to outsiders. You are found guilty of treachery. You will occupy a holding cell until which time as the extent of your guilt is determined, and a choice is made regarding your future here.”

Frond rose and whirled on me in one jerking movement.

Wild was behind him in a blur, but that didn’t stop the furious words bursting from Frond’s mouth. “Don’t bother. I am wanted in another coven, a true coven ruled by true leaders. I wash my hands of the Buried Knolls and those within it, not least of all its high esteemed, who is nothing more than a pathetic magus who happens to possess four affinities.”

Oh, good. He’d decided to make things easy. “Are there any who choose to join Frond in departing?”

There was a ripple through his group. They lowered their gazes, but one stepped forward in valiant loyalty.

Josie glared daggers at me. “I will not live under your rule.”

This day was working out well. I dipped my head. “So be it. The choice is yours.”

Josie looked behind her. “Bed, you too.”

Bedwyr’s eyes widened. He whispered loudly, “What?”

“We’re leaving,” she said, throwing another glare my way.

“Uh,” he lowered his voice. “Josie, I don’t think…”

She snapped, “You cannot be fucking serious.”

“I’m sure we can all work it out. Sounds like Frond wasn’t in the right.”

Any hope of accepting Bedwyr into her bed in the future dwindled and died with those words, judging by the chilling look in her gaze. “You spineless sack of shit.”

Bedwyr grimaced as she stormed out of the chamber, but Frond stepped closer to me. Or tried to.

A snarl ripped from Wild, who clutched Frond’s shoulder tight and wrapped his magic around the older magus’s body.

“Time to leave,” Wild purred, shoving Frond forward.

Frond obeyed the magic moving his legs, and we all listened to his furious shouting as he was marched from the chamber with Wild in his wake.

A good thing that Wild would be occupied for a while.

A good thing Frond and Josie weren’t here to overhear the next part too.

It was time.

I could take the easy road today, only to find it hard tomorrow or next week. Or next year.

The turn of events today had left the coven at a loss. Two coven members just left, one of them out of sheer hate, and one out of sheer ambition. I felt the impact of their departure, so the coven would more so.

“I’m sorry it came to that,” I told them honestly. “I’m sorry that some of you were used in the process. There will be no ramifications for those who supported Frond. I only ask you to consider why you did so. Was it just your belief in my use of dark magic, or are there other reasons you disagree so strongly with my rule? I am always willing to listen. A united and healthy coven is what I will always work toward.”

It’s time, I thought at my demon.

We didn’t work like that anymore. We didn’t converse as such. She would have felt the pulse of my determination, and in return, I felt her cool acceptance.

“With you all here,” I said, interrupting the deep frowns and contemplative quiet of my community, “and considering why we gathered today, I believe it’s time to give you an explanation for these unusual aspects of my magic that several have witnessed. I have never practiced dark magic, and I never will, but there is a side to me that is directly responsible for things like the black smoke.”

My gaze swept to the wide-eyed panic blanketing Rooke’s face, Sven’s frantic head shaking, Huxley’s nod, and Corey’s quick scan of the coven. Varden had closed his eyes.

Not everyone agreed.

I didn’t need them to. I just had to agree with myself.

“The story is a long one,” I said, sitting in the chair Frond had occupied during the truth trial. “It begins for this coven when my mother and grandmother suddenly departed this coven and the knolls.”

The mood was subdued, and emotions were low after the intensity of the trial. As much as ever, the coven would listen to all I had to say.

“I grew up outside of the coven, as you’re aware, but I never knew the reason for that. My grandmother troubled herself to teach me and my twin sister coven etiquette. My mother never spoke of the coven, however, except to extract an oath from me and Syera when we were twelve years old. She made us swear to never come to this coven.”

Low whispers rang out.

I nodded. “I grew to believe there must be something horribly wrong or dangerous about this coven. She never told me more. Neither did my grandmother, Rowaness. Until a short while into my time here, I knew nothing of why they’d run from this place. I naturally suspected there was some issue with my father. I was never told who he was, and as the council can attest to our conversation during my initiation into this community, I held no interest in figuring out who my father was. The Mother had other plans for me, however.”

There was some exchanged looks at that. Was I about to reveal my father to them? I could tell the magus middle-aged and older were grossly intrigued by my tale. They’d grown up with my grandmother or mother and would recall the emotional impact of waking to find them departed. I only understood how much in the wake of Frond and Josie leaving today. My female ancestors had been greatly loved here too. That hurt would be remembered.

“The reason I came to this coven is that I gained a tether for no obvious reasons about a month prior to arriving here. The tether wasn’t a typical magus tether. I couldn’t locate the person on the other end. I couldn’t feel anything from them. Five years prior, I’d lost my tethers when my family was killed by a powerful supernatural—of whose race I was unaware until recently.”

There were gasps and murmurs, and it took me a moment to recall that although I hadn’t troubled to hide the truth in recent weeks, many magus here were unaware of my family’s real fate. “As you might fathom, this new tether became my hope and survival. I hadn’t felt connection to another being in so long, and the arrival of this bond—no matter that it was an odd one—was a beacon. I had to find the person on the other end.” I heaved a sigh, then smiled. “And so I arrived here expecting to be murdered on site, having only my childhood imaginings to go off.”

There were a few chuckles at that.

“Consider my surprise when I wasn’t killed or locked away.” I arched a brow. “Consider my surprise when I found a community and started to feel connection to those around me. Why did my mother and grandmother flee? Nothing added up. That mystery pressed almost as much at my mind as that of my mystery tether. And then the mating ritual with Wild began to ramp up. Tied in this ritual, I became aware of parts of my magic and past that I’d successfully locked away since the murder of my family. I became aware of a barrier in my divination affinity, the affinity I’d gained upon the loss of my grandmother, mother, and twin. I was, with the help of some here, able to piece together why a divination journey back to the night of my family’s murder always resulted with me waking at the base of the north mountains.”

This all seemed so long ago. I’d figured out so much about myself and the hidden past of my mother. Perhaps I deserved credit for that. My life had been turned upside down so many times, and I still managed to land on my feet most times.

The coven didn’t know where this was going. They didn’t want more bad news. They wanted to know about me too. They wanted understanding.

“For everything I put together, five more questions arose,” I admitted. “More than ever I had no clue about my magic, my past, the pasts of my family, the identity of my father, the person on the other end of my tether, nor of the mating ritual happening with Wild. There seemed no way to explore what had been. Each time I went back, I was forced into a deep chaos—a chaos that grew deeper and lengthier with each journey. I was stuck until, quite by chance, I followed an echo of my mother across the knolls one day. There was something about this echo of her that seemed off. I tracked this version of her across the meadow and up into the alpine forest. I followed her to a ravine there.”

Everyone knew what ravines meant.

“I hadn’t expected the sudden appearance of my grandmother in the repeat,” I said. “A conversation between them finally revealed who my father was and why my magic was blocked. Their conversation told me why they left and—” I swallowed. “—the conversation helped me to understand why Hazeluna made me swear never to join this coven.”

I closed my eyes. “I have struggled with the weight of this knowledge since that night. I have struggled with keeping such an enormous truth from those here. I have tried to convince myself—as others have—that this truth was not one I had to share. That I could keep it as mine alone until which time as I might ever want to tell this coven. Inside I have warred between the feeling that I was betraying you through omission, the feeling that I needed time to understand my new self, and also the towering fear of what may come once this coven knew all of me. Fear of losing my grip on the happy and healthy coven I envision and hope for in our future. All of those were in my heart and mind for the last months as I played Caves to win, knowing—as my mother and grandmother had—that demons were using the game to infiltrate our midst and conquer us. Knowing—as my uncle and grandfather had—that our time was running out and the division within this coven could be what eventually killed us.”

I stood and held my hands, palms out, toward the coven. “Caves is done now, however, and I have come to see that fear should not stand in the way of this coven, nor their right to choose their leader. I relinquish the authority so that the leader you elect can fill it. I will not sit there again unless you decide it when in full capacity of the truth.”

Dread filled me. Hope too. As well as a curious nudge from Wild.

I sent him reassurance, then tilted my chin. “That night in the ravine, I learned my father was the previous demon king. I learned that I am half demon. I learned that my demon was blocking my divination affinity. And I learned that my presence in the knolls could be making the demon magic here stronger. This is why my mother and grandmother ran from the coven. This is why I was made to swear never to return.” As the volume steadily increased, and magus surged to their feet, I raised my voice also. “This is why I can speak in the demon tongue. This is why my blood hurt the demon leader that night. This is why they fear me—because I am of the bloodline of their last ruler. This is why the new leader slaughtered my family five years ago, to be rid of anyone who could challenge him.”

The shouting made saying anything else pointless.

So I showed them.

I called forth my black smoke.

I called forth my black scales.