Page 43 of Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones

Nissa’s house was quiet. Too quiet. And there was a distinct lack of wards that made me feel on edge.

“Something isn’t right,” I muttered.

“Agreed,” Rook said as he strode further down the corridor towards the kitchen. I remembered this place, even though I’d only been to it once before, but my memory of the rooms was a little hazy. Almost like I knew what rooms came off the downstairs corridor but not what was in them. Very strange.

A mark on the archway into the kitchen caught my eye. There was something familiar about it. A circle with infernal runes carved at five points on its diameter. Shit. What did it mean? What did it—

Wait. Oh, fuck.

To pass is to die.

“Stop!” I yelled, but I was too late. Casimir crossed the threshold beneath the arch and a cacophony of cackles echoed around the room. The candles that littered every surface room burst to life and faceless white robes emerged from the shadows. I immediately recognised my coven. A low chanting hummed but I could barely hear it over Casimir’s cries of pain.

“Stop it!” I screamed, stepping towards him. Agony sliced through my chest as I watched him crumple to the ground, our connection going haywire.

“Raevyn? Is that you?”

One of the hooded figures stepped forwards, her belly round with an unborn child.

“Mum?”

She threw the hood back and took off her mask. There were dark circles under her eyes and her skin was pale. My heart lurched for her. What the hell was my grandmother doing?

“How?” she whispered, shock and awe etched into her face.

I went to answer but a sharp hiss had me looking at my feet where Casimir was curled in on himself, clutching his chest.

I knelt in front of him, cupping his face and tipping his gaze to meet mine.

“I can’t hold him back,” he whispered.

“Who?”

His eyes flashed, and that silver ring I thought I’d imagined before flared around his irises. “Run, Raevyn.”

Sweat peppered his brow and his body trembled beneath my touch. He seemed to be at war with himself, keeping something at bay, but what? Was this the darkness the others had referred to?

I stood back up and took my knife from my belt, scoring through the charm on the wood so that it wouldn’t harm any of the others. But Casimir had already crossed the threshold, he’d be stuck in the Coven’s clutches until we could reverse the spell.

“Well look what the cat dragged in.” I didn’t need to look up to know who spoke those words, her tone dry and scratched, like an old piece of paper.

“Hello, grandmother.” I instantly felt the temperature in the room drop. The low chanting ceased, and an uneasiness seeped in. I could feel Hawk and the Revenants’ power curling around my limbs, almost as if they were lending me aid and comfort as I faced the woman who had murdered me.

“You’re looking very alive for a dead woman,” she said coldly.

I stood up and faced her. She didn’t look any different. Still had the same wiry hair and wild eyes. I thought my sacrifice might have marked her somehow, like it had my mother. But no. She hadn’t changed a bit. “And you’re looking quite calm for a murderer.”

She barked a laugh, a wet a raspy sound that had a shudder rolling over my spine. “You were sacrificed for the greater good, child. You had no other worth.”

“Lies,” Nox spat as he came to stand next to me. “She is worth more than all of you put together.”

She gave another laugh. “And who are you to know such a thing?”

I felt the others stand in a line behind my back.

“We are the Deathwatch Revenants,” they said in unison – which was a little eerie, “and we’re here for Nissa Crowley.”

“Except for me,” Hawk said with a smirk. “I’m a Moroi and I’m just here for the maiming.”

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