“I’m not sure what you are inferring.”
I could almost see the patience waning in the Sapphire Witch. I knew what Mother wanted her to do in order to admit her crime. Our leader knew it. Heck, the entire assembly knew it.
Elearah slightly shook her head, taking a stilling breath. “You assisted in an attack against an Iron Knight, guardian to the royal line of the Wolf Shifter race, impeding him from performing his duty and nearly taking his life. I would say it is a miracle he lived, but it was his unbreakable sense of duty that helped him fight to survive. Your vile actions resulted in innumerable tragic deaths, including that of the former king and queen of the Wolf Shifters.”
Gasps of horror spread around us with the revelation; my gut violently tightened.
Shit.
“Iron Knights are by all intents and purposes immortal, Devirah, so that is no small feat. Only an extremely powerful Witch could have performed such an act. There are only two of us alive with that kind of ability, and we both know I had no part in it.”
My mother straightened, egotism and defiance sparkling in her eyes. “I cannot deny your words. I am extraordinarily powerful indeed.”
Elearah’s nostrils flared, but she maintained her composure while they held each other’s fiery gazes, engaged in a battle of wills. A dreaded silence descended on the room.
There were lines we didn’t cross like viciously hurting innocent souls in this city—they had already suffered enough—or any innocent soul for that matter. Corrupt souls had it coming though, part of karma and all that jazz. Other than that, we were free to cause havoc to our evil heart’s desire, which essentially brought us back to why we were here today.
No matter what her verdict was for Mother’s actions, Sariah was right about one thing. Our leader was fair. If there was one thing I respected about Elearah, it was the way she ruled the Goddess Blessed.
No judgments or hatred existed between us. Nothing more than a bold rivalry. The Sapphire Witch had made us into one strong and unified race, regardless of our beliefs, practices, or chosen paths. She was a Light Bearer—good for all intents and purposes—but she didn’t force us, Shadow Bringers, to follow her example or be anything other than what we chose for ourselves.
“You have crossed a line, Devirah,” Elearah finally spoke, breaking the ominous silence that had engulfed the castle. The contempt for my mother’s behavior was clear in the tone her voice took. “You intervened in another race’s dealings with their enemies, and as a result, you hurt innocent souls. Killed them without any regard.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Mother’s expression changed to worry and bewilderment, but I knew her emotion was as real as Alysah’s pink hair. “I was only trying to help. I wasn’t aware of their true intentions until I was already there. If I had known—”
“Enough, Devirah!” the Sapphire Witch’s voice thundered through the vaulted ceilings, and everyone’s breaths lodged in their throats, including mine. “You hurt innocent people. Do you know how much pain you inflicted on that race? Lending your powers to their enemies, provoked a ripple effect of events that separated an innocent baby from her parents and her true family, causing years and years of despair.”
With a shake of her head, she rested her back against the throne and beheld the Crimson Witch sternly. A fleeting emotion crossed her blue eyes, yet it was so brief that I doubted anyone else saw it. I had. The expected disapproval was present, but there was also profound disappointment and an evident ache that hid behind it. It was as if somehow, Mother’s actions had hurt her directly, instead of those other people.
As though the act had been intended to break Elearah’s spirit, and not the shifters.
It was gone the next moment, and an admonishing mask fell in place over her face. The tension increased in the assembly while Mother and our leader seemed to resume their staring match to the death. Mother’s eyes sparkled with defiance and satisfaction, yet the Sapphire Witch’s were no longer readable.
That fact deeply troubled me. What would be the punishment for the Crimson Witch’s cruelty?
A warm tingling suddenly engulfed my left hand, and my eyes dropped to find a small piece of paper materializing through shimmering white flames within my grasp.
“You shouldn’t worry. It’s going to be okay.”
Reading the well-intentioned note didn’t ease my tension. If anything, it sent my pulse into a frenzy. #StupidPulse. My gaze flew up to find liquid-mercury eyes focused on me, a supportive smile stretching Connhor’s naturally curved lips.
“Is it really, you smart ass?” I snapped back at him and saw his gaze drop to his palm, reading my message.
He stifled a laugh, which was noticeable only when his right brow quirked up, and he licked his bottom lip—you know, in that telltale way guys had when they were trying to be cool and not smile.
Grimoire note: Hot-ass guys, that is.
His silverish-white flame engulfed the note in my hand, dissolving the paper into thin air after reading his short reply.
“Trust me…”
“How dare you?!” Mother roared, and I jumped to my feet, startled. “You have no right to do that!”
What in the astral snake pits? My stomach dropped when I realized what had happened. The penalty had been revealed, and I was too distracted with Mr. Goody Two Sexy Shoes over there to listen.
“Woman!” Sariah hissed, roughly pulling me down so that I sat again. My leather-clad butt smacked the chair with a resounding plop. I was too distressed to seek revenge for her touch, so I let it go. “Get your shit together, Amorah.”
“Right.” I took a deep breath, hating the fact that my otherwise “screw you” demeanor was disrupted. Not only because under the fake, cultured elegance of the affair, this was essentially my mother’s trial, but also because of Connhor Whyte, who was still staring at me.
“You have acted against our code, Devirah,” the Sapphire Witch answered coolly. “Now you need to deal with the consequences.”
“What was the decree?” I whisper-hissed to Alysah, much like she normally did.
The bubblegum pink strands of her pigtails swayed as she shook her head, her nose wrinkling in confusion. “Well, she has to surrender her amuletum, and she’s strictly prohibited the use of magick for six months.”
“Wait, what?” My startled gaze went to Mother and the head of the magistrate, who were engaged in an energetic, yet—you guessed it—polite argument. My frown deepened. “That’s it?”
Not that the penalty wasn’t severe, but given what Mother had done…
“Yep,” Sariah answered from my right, clearly bored. I turned to see her right hand lifted, fingers extended as a small nail file expertly reshaped her gold nails without her touching it.
“Oookay,” I answered, adding way too many o’s to the word. I feared Mother would be stripped of her powers completely, or worse… banished from Salem like a few defiant Oathbreakers had been subjected to in the past, shattering their ties to our sisterhood forever. Yet, for Mother, this seemed like—
“Nothing more than a slap on the wrist,” Alysah concluded, mimicking my thoughts.
“Right,” I agreed, taken aback though everyone around us gasped—clutching their chests or covering their mouths at the punishment. One day was a long time for a Goddess Blessed not to do magick, let alone six months.