Page 202 of The Warlock's Trial

Nadine cast a witch light, because the hall was so dark. The six of us sprinted down the hall, until we came to a stairway at the end. It didn’t appear to lead anywhere, until I looked upward to see a trap doorway. I took the stairs upward before anyone else could reach them, and I shoved the trap door open with my shoulder.

The dark walls of the coven’s courtroom surrounded me, and sconces flickered with candlelight from the walls. I emerged from behind a long podium, and I realized the secret tunnel opened directly beneath where the judge sat during trials.

I stepped down from the podium and looked around the courtroom, but it was empty. Nadine climbed out of the trap door, and the others followed into the courtroom. Professor Wykoff came up beside me and spun around, looking confused.

“Where’d they go from here, Tal?” I asked desperately.

Talia placed her hand on the podium, but she didn’t have a chance to speak before the front doors of the courtroom opened. Heels clicked against the marble floor. We whirled toward the sound to see three priestesses coming our way. Claudia’s dark dress swirled around her ankles, and the Seer priestess was flanked by Mira—the false Curse Breaker—and Professor Hernandez—the new Mortana Priestess.

“You found our secret tunnel, I see,” Claudia sneered. “We didn’t expect you all to survive. Of course the idiots we planted to stop you didn’t do their job.”

“I’ll take care of them,” Mira stated, but her confidence was unfounded. She lifted her hands, and black tendrils of magic curled out of her fingers. It was all too reminiscent of what I’d seen her brother Leroy pull off the night we fled Octavia Falls a year ago. With just one touch of his magic, people would drop dead. It appeared she was gifted the same power.

I aimed the Mortana Wand at her, and her magic shriveled to nothing. Mira’s features darkened, like she had thought she was impervious to the Wand’s powers.

My friends already had their Wands out, which put the priestesses in the crosshairs of four Oaken Wands. I didn’t know what the council thought they were going to do; the Oaken Wands were far more powerful than they were.

“The only reason you’re still alive is because you’re going to tell us where our son is,” I growled.

“So you can kill us afterward?” Claudia gave a chilling laugh. “You’re too scared to go through with it. I can feel it.”

All our friends instinctually shrank closer to me, apart from Professor Wykoff, who’d been standing several paces away and closest to the priestesses. She didn’t dare make a move, though.

“That’s it?” Nadine demanded in a shaky tone. She inched even closer to me, until our arms were touching. “That’s been your power all this time? A Seer who can feel fear? Of course we’re afraid! You don’t have to be a Seer to know that. What use are your powers?”

A sinister smile spread across Claudia’s face. “It’s certainly helped my business negotiations.”

“We aren’t here to negotiate,” I seethed. “Tell us where our son is, or die.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A female voice came from the hall. Lilian and Margaret stepped out of their hiding place and into the courtroom.

Margaret held a bundle in her arms. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the tuft of hair on Marcus’s head poking out of the end of the bundle. A moment of hesitation stopped me from ripping their souls straight from their bodies, because Lilian was standing alongside Margaret, pointing a wand at Marcus.

“Your child has been cursed,” Lilian stated. “Hurt any one of the priestesses, and he will instantly die. Are you willing to risk that, reaper? Do you really want your son to meet his brother in the Abyss?”

I had the thought that she could be bluffing. Yet I realized if I truly believed that, I’d have killed them already.

The priestesses were playing a dangerous game. And they were holding the most valuable card in the deck.

Chapter Twenty-Four

NADINE

“Name your price,” I stated. I took Lucas’s hand in mine, because it was the only way to keep from falling completely apart. I didn’t really care what they wanted. They could take the Oaken Wands, or have my life. I’d give it to them, as long as they didn’t hurt my son.

Lilian got right down to business. “You will help us create a Master Wand—an all-powerful wand that rivals the power of all the Oaken Wands combined. This wand I’m holding was carved from a branch of the Protection Tree. It is much like the Oaken Wands you possess, but it requires an enchantment to hold true power.”

“Why not just take the Oaken Wands from us?” Lucas demanded. “Why go through all this trouble?”

“The Oaken Wands are five different Wands, and therefore must be in the hands of five different people, which requires trust,” Lilian said. “Any one of its wielders can stab us in the back. It’s better to have all that magic in one place.”

I narrowed my eyes. “That’s why you needed me alive. You need one person from all five Casts to complete the spell.”

Lilian laughed, like she found me naive. “Even the making of the Oaken Wands required cooperation from the entire coven and proper alignment of the stars—one singular member of each Cast would not be enough for their power. But the Oaken Wands can only utilize magic that is already in existence. True power would be that which can create energy from nothing. What we need is a demigod such as your son.”

“Demigod magic is not given up easily,” Margaret added. “The child will only lend his power to someone he trusts—to his mother. It just so happens that his mother is a Curse Breaker, able to transfer magic from one place to another. Help us create the Master Wand, and your son will live. Refuse, and he will perish in the Abyss for all eternity.”

I realized this was the spell Magnus had mentioned. The priestesses had been planning this ever since they found out I was giving birth to demigods.

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