Chapter 13

Chapter 13

T hey barely had time to process the disastrous meeting with the High Priestesses before it was time to prepare for Willow's induction.

More tradition, and more posturing, but at least this ceremony was something to look forward to. Fey refused to bring any negative energy to Willow's special day, and she took an extra ten minutes in her shower to go through her breathing exercises, calming her irritation and bad mood, and grounding herself.

By the time she was showered and dressed in her fighting leathers and mask, she felt like a new Witch. She took in her appearance in the full-length mirror. A killer stood before her, nothing of her face visible but her eyes. Fey smiled at her reflection, and the monster in the mirror didn't smile back.

She was ready.

To some, the rite of induction must seem like a cruel thing. But cruelty doesn't necessarily negate the beauty of something. Is a lioness any less beautiful for being deadly ?

They entered as a group. Dameon, in front, and Willow behind him. She wore her uniform, freshly commissioned for her, but her hair and face were uncovered.

Lilith, Fey, and Joy entered behind them, a triplet of dark shadows.

The Queen sat on her throne. Four identical high-backed chairs had been brought for the Priestesses, and Fey was only moderately surprised to see they were all full. She had thought Lilith's outburst may have cost them Linh's support, at the very least. But there she was, present, though perhaps not as thrilled as she could have been.

"Who do you bring to my throne room?" Queen Edelin asked, her voice strong enough that it filled the entire room.

It was tradition, this song and dance. A ritual of sorts. A play they all knew by heart.

"A recruit, to the Queen's Blades, Your Grace," Dameon answered.

"And who claims her?"

"I do, Your Grace," said Leandra.

"As do I, Your Grace," echoed Claudia.

"A Witch of Fire and Earth," the Queen mused. "And has she passed her trial?"

Has she made her first kill , was the real question. The day after their celebration at the club, Dameon had given Willow an envelope with her first assignation. The name, photo, and known locations of her first kill. She could get no help from her sisters, not for this first time. They were forbidden to know the details, forbidden to offer any aid at all. In this, Willow had to act alone to prove her worth.

"She has, Your Grace," Dameon answered. Willow preened with pride behind him.

Queen Edelin's eyes traveled from Dameon to Fey and her sisters.

"And you, my Blades? Do you accept this Witch?"

"We do, Your Grace," Fey answered for them. "We would be proud to call her sister."

The Queen nodded, as though considering all the evidence before her. Then she stood.

"Kneel before me, Blade." Queen Edelin commanded.

Willow approached the dais and knelt. The Queen descended the steps but did not approach Willow, not at first. She went instead to the items an attendant had placed at the base of the dais, off to the side.

She picked an item from the pile. A metal plate, fashioned to form the image of a dagger.

The mark of the Queen's Blade.

The plate had a long handle rising from its back, and the Queen grasped it. She dipped the plate in a bowl of dark black ink.

"Earth," she said as she dipped it. The ink coated the metal, and the inside of Fey's arm, her Blade's mark, twitched in response.

"Fire," The Queen continued. She touched the metal image reverently, and it burst into flames.

When the Queen approached Willow where she knelt at the base of the dais, the air was full of tension. Sana, seated among the High Priestesses, looked away. She couldn't watch.

But Fey could.

"Your arm, Blade." Queen Edelin commanded.

Willow thrust her left arm out, holding the soft inner skin of her forearm out like a sacrifice.

"Air," the Queen intoned, and as she pressed the brand to Willow's arm, the flesh steamed.

Willow didn't scream when the metal was held to her arm. Fey hadn't either, and there was a measure of pride to it. To be able to accept that much pain silently.

When the Queen pulled the brand from Willow's skin, the mark it left was dark and raised. A perfect match for the scars on Fey, Joy, and Lilith.

A ripple of pain shot through her mark, and Fey struggled to not react. At her side, Joy and Lilith stiffened, as a shadow of Willow's pain seared through their marks and thundered through their bodies.

This was their secret. A secret hidden even from the Queen herself.

Through their marks, all pain was shared. Love, fear, hatred, and every emotion they felt tied the four of them together, braiding their lives together into one.

The four of them were more than sisters. They were parts of the same whole .

Queen Edelin put the branding iron down and lifted a pitcher above Willow's arm.

"Water," she said, pouring the salted water over the mark.

This time, Willow did scream.

"You did great, little one," Joy purred in Willow's ear as they helped her down the hall.

After the ceremony, Willow had managed to stand without aid. Stand, and bow, to her Queen and the four Priestesses, drawing her blades and holding them straight out from her sides in the traditional bow of their order. She'd even managed to make it out into the hallway, out of sight of all but her sisters, before collapsing.

"Lilith fainted," Joy told her. "Before the metal even touched her, I think."

"Fuck you, no I didn't," Lilith snapped, but the words held no real venom. Willow had done great, and Fey could feel Lilith's pride humming through their mark. Willow gave them both a shaky smile, leaning her weight against Joy and Fey as they escorted her back to the Eastern Wing.

"Is it over, now?" Willow asked.

"One last thing," Fey told her. "You need to get your final sigils. Then we'll get you to bed and you can rest."

Five, in total. Healing, strength, speed, power, and perception. The ritual wasn't nearly as painful, but it was tradition to do it all at once.

"Will… will it always feel like this?" Willow asked. "I mean… will I always feel you all through it?"

She looked down at her mark as she said it.

"Yes," Joy told her. "But it gets easier. You'll learn to tune us out, for the most part."

Willow shook her head. "I don't think I want to. I… like feeling you all. It feels…" She swallowed. "It feels like you're all a part of me now."

Fey stooped down to place a quick kiss on Willow's cheek. "We are, little sister. You're one of us now. And you never have to be alone again. "

Willow's answering smile was a ray of sunshine, and for the first time since that night Alice had been taken from them, since they'd felt her ripped away through that same mark, Fey felt whole.

Lilith gave Willow her sigils, just as she had done for Fey.

It required Fire, and though Joy had the power to tattoo them as well, Lilith had been made for it. She even kept her nails long, the points sharpened, to hide the metal blades she glued to the underside of both index fingers.

They wouldn't do much in a fight, her finger blades, but they were very handy for this.

Tapping the metal tip against the bowl of ink, Lilith called a small lick of Fire, letting the flames coat down her fingers and over the blade.

"This is going to hurt," Lilith told Willow, without preamble. From her seat in the common room armchair, Willow stiffened. Merle watched from a distance, tail twitching in irritation that his favorite spot had been usurped. "Not as much as the brand, mind you. But enough."

Placing a hand on Willow's forearm, Lilith held her steady as she brought the hot metal to her skin.

"We'll start with strength," Lilith said. Her finger descended and Willow screamed.

Fey felt her arm twitch in pain and rubbed at it absently.

"We start with strength because it'll make the rest easier," Joy explained as Lilith burned the intricate sigil into Willow's flesh. She stopped frequently to dip her finger back into the bowl of ink. "She'll do healing next, and after that, they'll all feel easy,"

Willow nodded, swallowing. After her initial scream, Willow clenched her teeth together and refused to make another noise.

"It's okay, you know," Fey told her. "You can scream if you need to. It's just us, now. And there's no judgment here."

But Willow shook her head quickly side to side.

"You're lucky," Lilith said, face drawn slightly in concentration as she worked. "Only Dameon has as many sigils as we do. It makes us practically invincible. "

"Dameon and the Queen," Joy corrected.

"The Queen?" Willow gasped. "She… fucking hell, Lilith, ow … She has sigils?"

Joy rolled her eyes. "Oh yes. She has ten . Double each of the sigils we do."

"How does she… keep them hidden?" Willow asked through clenched teeth. Lilith paused to dip her finger again, and Willow let out a shaky breath.

"Same way we do," Fey shrugged.

She held her arm out for Willow to see, twisting it in the light to show off her sigils and dark Blade's mark. Then, running a finger down her arm, Fey whispered the incantation to hide, the words flowing from her lips with ease and practice.

The skin on her arm wavered, like a heat wave, and the scars and sigils on her arms vanished. Like they were never there.

"You'll have to practice that," Fey told Willow. "But until you master it, we can do the incantation for you."

"There's one built into your uniform as well," Joy informed her. "You don't have to do anything to activate it, but it will hide your scent."

"My scent?" Willow asked, raising her eyebrow and turning to look at Joy. "Are you saying I smell?"

Lilith smacked her arm, snarling. "Stop fucking moving. If I mess up any of the lines, they won't work right."

"Some Shifters can smell us," Joy explained. "It took the Blades a while to work that one out, and a few of us supposedly died in the meantime. We need to stay anonymous, need to stay hidden. But if a Shifter can smell you in your uniform, they can track you later when you're just walking through the city. When you're not ready. Better safe than sorry."

Willow nodded, earning her another smack from Lilith.

"Almost done," Lilith said, dipping her finger a final time, and returning to her task. She burned a final line, curving an arch through the sigil for perception, and immediately Willow's eyes widened as her nostrils flared.

"Oh my Goddess," she whispered in amazement. "I can smell the bacon in the icebox. And I have never been so hungry in all of my life."

Lilith laughed, using a cloth to wipe the ink from her hand.

"Welcome to the Blades, sister," she said, smiling. "Now you look just like a proper assassin."