Page 11 of The Mirror of Beasts

The pressure crushing me against the bars released and I hit the ground hard, gasping. My fingers clawed at the rough stone as I tried to steady my galloping heart.

“Tamsin?” Olwen called out. “Are you all right?”

I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t speak just yet. As the light retreated, it cast the cell back into a deeper darkness. I blinked against the spots floating in my vision, and even then, I wondered if I was imagining it—the way the magic seemed to linger on Neve’s skin like a dusting of stars before it winked out entirely.

My breath was stilted, burning in my aching chest. At the sound of the sorceresses’ steps shuffling forward, I curled down into myself, my entire body bracing for more pain.

“What … are you?” Acacia ground out. The three sorceresses were unharmed, but their hair was flying loose, their long robes and gowns askew, as if they’d barely come through a windstorm.

“I told you,” Neve said, the pleading note back in her voice. She pulled against her restraints, trying to sit up. “I’m one of you.”

“That was not the Mother’s magic,” Hestia said, breathless. “That was not our magic.”

“It must be his,” came the third. “Death magic. The power of Annwn.”

“No!” Neve said, pleading. “It’s not! I—it’s—”

Hestia turned her back to us, lowering her voice to a mere whisper. For the first time, she sounded uncertain as she spoke to the others. “Do we kill her?”

I rolled onto my stomach, fear roiling in my gut. Caitriona slammed her back against the stone bars, as if she could break them with sheer will.

“Try it,” she warned, the words brimming with lethal promise.

“What is that dull old saying? It’s better to beg forgiveness than seek permission?” Ice shot through my veins as Acacia’s gaze fixed on Neve. “I think it best we kill them all.”

Then, through the veil of terror descending over the vault, came the knock.

It wasn’t a timid sound so much as polite. I thought I’d imagined it until it came again, louder and more insistent.

The sorceresses looked to one another.

“Were you expecting someone?” Acacia asked the others.

“If it’s one of the Council—” the nameless one began.

“Well, go and see to it, then,” Acacia said, waving a dismissive hand in her sistren’s direction.

“Me?” Hestia complained. “Why do I have to do everything?”

There was a third knock.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” Acacia groused, the skirt of her sapphire-blue dress whirling with her. “If any of them so much as whimper, break every bone in their bodies.”

My pulse thundered in my ears as I forced myself to sit up.

“Ah-ah,” Hestia tutted. “Stay where you are.”

“We didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” Neve whispered.

“Then you’re worse than traitors to the Goddess,” Hestia said. “You’re fools.”

Moments later, Acacia’s shuffling steps returned, her black cloak flaring out behind her with the force of her fury.

Hestia arched a thin brow. “Who was it?”

Acacia shoved a rumpled piece of parchment against her chest, then turned to glare at us, indecision passing over her face. Hestia’s eyes widened as she read it. Plum Hair ripped it out of her hands to read it herself, then turned to someone I couldn’t see.

“This cannot be real,” Plum Hair murmured. “This is a trick.”

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