Page 162 of The Mirror of Beasts

“Hn.” Neve crossed her arms over her chest, fighting to look unimpressed.

“I shall leave you to it, then,” Kasumi said, starting back down the stairs.

“Have you searched the property for Lord Death?” I asked. “I told you, he has the mantle of Arthur.”

“We have,” Kasumi said. “He is no longer in the estate, or its land.”

“What about Madrigal?” I pressed.

As I’d suspected, there’d been no body to retrieve.

“Not as of yet,” Kasumi said. “Rest assured, the Council’s punishment will be swift and commensurate with the crime.”

My jaw all but locked with tension. Anger bled into my words. “What’s left of the Council, you mean.”

The only “commensurate” punishment as far as I was concerned was death, but with the blow they’d been dealt, they weren’t about to voluntarily reduce their numbers again.

“Please find me when you’re finished here,” Kasumi said to Neve. “With today being the solstice, we must discuss how your power might be used to destroy our enemy.”

“We don’t need to discuss anything,” Neve said, her hands curling to fists at her sides. “We need to find Excalibur. The light alone had no effect on Lord Death when we were in Avalon, and I have no idea how to change that.”

A hot, static buzzing grew in my chest.

“I already have some of the Sistren out searching for Caitriona,” Kasumi said.

“Check the Dye family estate,” I told her, remembering my dream of Emrys’s death. “Lord Death and the others may be using it, or at least keeping Olwen there.”

“You’re sure that’s where she would have gone?” Kasumi asked. “To find Lady Olwen?”

“Yes,” Neve and I said as one.

Kasumi lifted her hand in a silent farewell, descending the steps swiftly, careful not to meet the gazes of the living or dead around her.

I waited until she had left the chamber before facing Neve again. “We need to find Caitriona. And Olwen.”

Neve sighed. “The problem is, they’re not going to let me out of their sight. I tried to step outside for some fresh air and four of them followed me.”

Even now, I noticed that two new sorceresses had arrived and were pretending not to watch us.

“Are you … all right?” I asked.

Neve let out a hollow laugh, sinking back down to the step. “I guess as much as I can be. Having the answer about my mother … it doesn’t feel real. And there’s still the question of my father.”

I sat heavily beside her. “Do they think she’s still alive?”

“Robin couldn’t say for sure,” Neve said. “She would’ve been hundreds of years old by the time I was born … it doesn’t make sense.”

“Plenty of sorceresses wait centuries before having their first child, if ever,” I said. “That’s the least surprising part of all of this to me.”

Neve seemed placated by that, at least.

“If I don’t have the soul,” she began, “does that mean that it’s still out there?”

I didn’t answer.

“Tamsin?” Neve’s brow furrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“It …” It was a struggle to drag the truth out of me when I’d only just begun to accept it. I lowered my voice to a mere whisper. “I have the soul. It was in me the whole time.”

---