Page 114 of When Wishes Bleed

Cyril smiled. “Fate no longer controls me. I cast him out.”

“You couldn’t,” Ela argued, but her voice wavered.

“I told you I would be stronger than he, stronger than you all one day,” Cyril said sweetly, but there was something in her tone that made the hair on my arms raise. My belly started to burn. I clutched it with my hand.

A voice inside my head spoke gently. “Be still, little one.”

Grandmother’s eyes snapped to mine. She stared at me until her eyes went blank. “He lives in Sable,” she whispered, her fingers raising until they covered her mouth.

“What?” Mother asked. Her brows kissed as she crouched down and looked into my eyes – the way Grandmother had.

“She is only a child, Cyril. How could you?”

“Have you been keeping secrets, Sable?” I cowered from the look Mother gave me. “I didn’t send Fate to her, Priestess. I would never have wished such a future for her, but perhaps it is fortuitous.”

“Fate will do nothing but twist her, as he’s twisted you. The Circle will not allow that to happen. We must protect our home, our Houses, and the witches within them – from Fate, from you, and now from Sable.”

“Do as you must, Priestess, but know that I will protect my daughter from you as well.”

Mother called upon the sky. It turned dark, much darker than I had made it. The ground shook underfoot, vibrating the smooth pebbles beneath my pointed boots. I didn’t understand all her words, but knew what she’d done. Her spell had created a divide between the Priest, Priestesses, and me. A magical circle was rooted around me, preventing their magic from being used to harm or influence me. I could feel the dark power radiating from it.

My grandmother looked horrified. “Recant the spell,” she demanded.

“Never,” Mother snapped. “I will protect her from you. I will protect her from this kingdom, and I will find a way to cast Fate out of her as well. I’ve found that I might need his favor again to achieve the goals I have in mind…”

The voice in my mind spoke up. “Do not fear her, little one. She cannot force me away.”

Fate was speaking. Grandmother said he was inside me, and now I could hear his voice. I felt the knot of him in my stomach.

“Cyril, if you continue down this path, you will be banished. Both of you.”

Mother threw a laugh over her shoulder as she took my tiny hand in hers and began to lead me back to the House of Fate. “And which among you is strong enough to cast us out?”

My mother was the one who drove the wedge between my grandmother and me. Grandmother feared Fate, and Cyril driving him out only sent him looking for a new witch to inhabit. For some unknown reason, he chose me.

She lived in terror of me because of his influence, combined with that of my mother’s. She knew that even though she bound her own daughter, she would never be able to bind me.

And now Tauren was at the mercy of my mother, a woman who didn’t know the meaning of the word.

Fate clawed at my insides. “Where is he?” I begged him. “Tell me where Tauren is.”

Focusing, I heard voices. Many distressed, quiet voices. I walked to the front door and threw it open, my eyes landing on the witches gathered in the Center. They huddled together away from their priest and priestesses, who still burned. I looked for his tall figure, but couldn’t see him among the crowd.

“Tauren!” I called out, searching for him among the hundreds of familiar faces. When the witches saw me, they began to shout, begging for help.

I would help them, but first I had to find Tauren. She hadn’t killed him yet, or else I wouldn’t be here.

My stomach sank the moment I found him.

He was bound and gagged, a noose cinched tightly around his neck, standing on the trap door of the gallows.

Cyril suddenly appeared in front of me, stopping me on my way to him. I sucked in a startled breath. My heart began to thunder. I wasn’t afraid of her, but I was terrified she would hurt Tauren. For a long moment she stared at me in silence, taking me in from hair to pointed heel. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she found me lacking. The feeling was mutual. She was beautiful at first glance, but at second, I could see the hatred she harbored, clinging to her like a parasite.

I looked back to Tauren, hoping I was strong enough to save him, and that if I couldn’t, the spell I’d used to bind us would save his life and Brecan and Mira would arrive in time to spirit him away and hide him from my mother. That somehow the two of them could bind her, in water or in the sky, so she couldn’t hurt anyone else.

The trapped witches’ cries grew louder.

Cyril threw a glance their way. “Do not pity them, Sable. They are what is wrong with The Gallows. The Houses are divisive. The Priestesses and Priest clamored for power they didn’t deserve.”

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