Even if the thought of it made my heart hurt in a way I refused to acknowledge. He was my enemy, and when I found the bones, I would send his soul back to Hell where it belonged.
That was how it had to be.
“I heard something calling your name,” she said, swallowing as she looked at Gray. “I think it wanted you to be next.”
I dug my nails into Gray’s skin, forcing a smile. “I thought I was hearing things,” I said, admitting it when left with no other choice. To deny it would just seem odd, would only raise his suspicions, given that I hadn’t been the only one to hear the call. “It felt like compulsion.”
Gray tensed, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
Della nodded, clutching her own amulet as she looked at Gray. “It did. I followed it. I worried…” She swallowed, hanging her head forward. “I found him, but whoever killed him was gone by the time I got there.”
“Who else heard this voice?” Gray asked, glancing back at the small group that stared at me intently. I swallowed, dreading what was coming.
“I don’t know,” Della admitted, but there was no doubt in my mind that others had heard it call my name. The way they looked at me… They knew it should have been my body lying in the dirt.
“At least they won’t think I’m the killer now,” I said, trying to grasp at the silver lining.
“Don’t tell anyone about this, just in case, Miss Tethys,” Gray said, holding her gaze intently. “Until we know who we can trust, we need to keep this to ourselves.”
“You suspect someone?” she asked.
He nodded. “None of the Vessels do anything without my knowledge. I can attest to the whereabouts of each of them tonight.”
“So it wasn’t one of them. But who else could use compulsion?” she asked.
“The prophecy referred to a daughter of two. If one of those lines happened to be the Hecate line… that witch could compel if she managed the impossible and found Charlotte’s bones,” he said, but my brow furrowed.
That wasn’t possible. Because it certainly hadn’t been me who lured the witch from his bed.
I didn’t speak a word.
29
WILLOW
I walked through the halls, unable to find any sort of rest despite the midnight hour. I knew without a doubt that the odds were great it wasn’t safe for me to be walking through the abandoned halls, but as I dragged my hand over the stone walls of the school, I couldn’t seem to force myself to care.
There was something so peaceful about the halls being empty, something soothing and calming about thinking of my aunt following that same path all those years ago.
Had my dream of her been real? Had it been the exact moment of her death that I’d somehow dream-walked into?
The Hecate line had been known for prophecy and metaphysical magic far more elusive than the more tangible magics of the elements the other lines favored. The cosmic witches focused on divination even more intensely, but the ways they channeled the stars to tell them the stories of the future were far different from the Hecate way of hearing whispers from the ghosts of our ancestors.
From the bones of Charlotte herself.
But I didn’t yet have the bones, had no connection to Charlotte aside from my distant, removed blood that was just as far removed as the Covenant. But whereas my relation to Susannah filled me with some of my greatest shame, the connection to the brave witch who had started it all was my source of pride.
The image of her walking through the forest at night filled me with a sudden rush, her deep auburn hair blowing in the wind as her cloak fluttered about at her feet. She was younger than I’d imagined. Something dark glimmered in the distance in front of her. The figure of a man waited for her at the edge of the trees, and the magic pulsing off him was dark.
Stained with death and decay, he held out a hand for the young witch.
She spun, and her eyes connected with mine in a moment of shock. It was the same feeling I’d had when Loralei stared at me and spoke. Even though Charlotte didn’t speak a word, she nodded briefly once before she stepped into the embrace of an eternal darkness. It choked out the light, flooding the hallways that both surrounded me and didn’t all at once. The sconces lining the halls flickered out, the lightbulbs within them bursting. The sound of glass striking the stone floor jolted me out of the illusion.
I gasped for breath, feeling as if I’d only just returned to my body. My skin felt strange, suddenly foreign, rather than the home that had housed my soul for the entirety of my existence.