Page 133 of The Mirror of Beasts

Her fair skin seemed to drink in the last glowing embers of magic drifting around us. A curtain of long, smooth hair that draped over her shoulder was darker than the night itself. The sorceress to her right, a slight, nervous brunette, watched us through her lashes, her long wand out.

“Kasumi,” Nash said, miming a slight bow over Neve’s still form. “As radiant as the first day I laid eyes on you.”

“How is it that you’re alive?” she asked. “And here I’d so desperately hoped the stories of your demise were true.”

“You know how I like to tease, Kas,” he said.

I grimaced, opening my mouth to say something, but Emrys’s hand suddenly found mine, drawing our linked fingers behind his back and giving them a squeeze. I followed his gaze.

The Sorceress Madrigal stood at the back of the group, glaring at all of us like a petulant child forced into doing something that bored her. Her waves of flaming red hair had been knotted in a low bun, and given that the last time I saw her, she’d been immersed in frothy black tulle, her crimson gown and matching overcoat, embroidered with all manner of bones, seemed unusually subdued.

“I told you they were here, didn’t I?” Madrigal said. “Now can I leave this godsforsaken place before I freeze a tit off?” Her eyes skimmed over us, bored and irritated, until they landed on Emrys. “Oh. Hello, pet.”

A small smile flicked up the edges of her lips, and if Emrys hadn’t been holding on to me, I might have stalked over and clawed it off her face.

“Well, my sweet rosy-cheeked darling, I always enjoy our reunions,” Nash said. “But I’d love to know what you’re all doing here.”

The cold air radiated off the stones around us, but nothing was icier than Sorceress Kasumi’s expression. “I came for the girl.”

“Oh?” Nash said, he and Caitriona shifting to block Neve from the sorceresses’ view. “Well, we have a few here for you to choose from.”

Kasumi’s eyes flashed, but she managed to control her tone. “The girl who possesses Creiddylad’s soul. She wrote to Madrigal seeking answers about her mother, describing her unique power.”

Madrigal looked up from where she was picking at her clawlike nails. “Her letters were so pitiful I found myself moved to bring them to the Council.”

“And buy yourself acceptance,” one of the other women said snidely.

“Don’t be jealous, Belinda,” Madrigal said. “It’s not becoming of someone with such a reptilian complexion.”

“Enough,” Kasumi told them. “Excalibur’s reaction has proven my suspicions that she is the one Lord Death seeks. You must let me see the girl, Nashbury.”

“No.” Caitriona’s voice was a blade that brought the leader of the Council of Sistren to a stop before she’d even moved. The other sorceresses raised their wands in response.

“Who is this?” Kasumi asked Nash, casting a steely gaze over Caitriona. She had taken his advice and applied the salve to the burns on her face and arms. The wounds were already starting to look better.

“That is Lady Caitriona, lately of Avalon,” Nash said.

The other sorceresses shifted, clearly intrigued as they tried to get a better look at her. The slight brunette at the High Sorceress’s side explained, “One of the two surviving priestesses.”

“I’m no longer a priestess,” Caitriona growled.

“And the rest of them?” Kasumi pressed.

“This is my daughter, Tamsin,” Nash said.

A strange pang went through me at that word. It wasn’t true, of course, but he’d never said it before.

“Great Mother, you reproduced?” Kasumi asked, aghast.

“Adopted,” I clarified.

“And that is Emrys Dye, lately of the Dye family,” Nash said. “Though we’re trying not to hold it against him, as he seems less fond of his father than the rest of us.”

Kasumi took the information in stride, her expression inscrutable. She gestured toward Neve’s unconscious form. “May I?”

“Cait,” I said. She looked to me, stubbornness burning in her. “Let her look. It could help Neve.”

Caitriona didn’t move, but she did let me draw her aside, just enough for Kasumi and two other sorceresses to approach the table.

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