Page 120 of When Wishes Bleed

“Come with me,” he urged, clasping my hand and pulling me toward the door. “There’s something you need to see.”

He threw open my front door and tugged me onto the landing, where I gasped at the sight of every witch in the Gallows staring back at me. “What is this?” I whispered, inching backward.

Brecan was the first to bow, then everyone did. Ethne, Mira, and every witch from every House. “Thank you for saving us, Sable,” Ethne’s voice rang out over the crowd as she straightened.

Tears clogged my throat.

I didn’t do enough. I hadn’t saved Bay or Wayra. I was too late to help them.

My fingers trembled as the assembled witches bowed again and then meandered back to their chores.

Brecan hugged me from the side. “You are revered.”

A strange laugh bubbled out of me. I didn’t deserve it, but for the first time in my life, it felt good not to be looked upon as a pariah.

That evening I washed my hair, scrubbed the soil from my cuticles, and donned the best dress I had left. Arron waited patiently downstairs near the door, peeking out the window across the lawn. “I’m not sure I’ll be welcome,” he said with a wince.

“You are a member of the House of Fate, and we have been invited to mourn. You are as welcome as I, Arron.”

He inclined his head, but I could see he thought we might be in for a fight.

As the stars began to wink, the two of us walked across the lawn side by side, our strides falling in sync. Brecan waited on the landing, greeting each witch as they entered his home. Each wore the colors indicative of their Houses, a kaleidoscope of red, blues, and green. Arron and I added black to the hues.

Brecan had cleaned up, too. He donned new, pale blue robes that somehow made his lavender eyes brighter. I was absolutely certain Mira had helped with those.

Two Fire witches climbed the steps, pausing to greet Brecan. They bowed to him, expressed their condolences, and entered the House of Air on silent slippers.

Brecan took a deep breath and let it out when he saw me. “I’m glad you came.” When I tried to bow like the other witches, he wouldn’t allow it and instead pulled me in for a hug. “Thank you, Sable.”

I squeezed him tight and stepped away. Brecan accepted Arron’s brief bow and waved us inside.

Every wall was painted sky blue, and on every ceiling was painted a different type of cloud. It was light and airy, just the way the witches of the Wind would want it. The furniture was painted white, accented with silver candlesticks and pale tapers. Even the soft-spun drapes looked like airy extensions of the sky.

In a large, open room where rows of witches lined the walls, Wayra’s body hovered in the air beneath a constant torrent of wind that held her upright and still, as if there was a slab of marble beneath her. Her long, white hair stretched to the creaking floor boards. Once all had mourned her, she would be offered to the sky. Brecan would float her up until she vanished from sight, and the goddess would receive her body.

Wayra wasn’t as young as most of the witches in The Gallows, but you’d never know that by looking at her. She didn’t have a single wrinkle. Her skin was as flawless in death as it was in life.

Arron and I paused in front of her for a long moment and then moved further into the House to allow others to pay their respects, before exiting out the back and making our way to the House of Water.

Mira’s dark blue robes swirled around her like a whirlpool, wrapping around her legs. A tear fell from her eye when she saw us in Bay’s line. She took a moment to usher in three Earth witches and then threw her arms around me. I cried into her soft hair.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed.

Her body shook with the sorrow that tore through her.

Arron waited on the step, giving us a moment to grieve together. When we parted, I pulled him up onto the landing to stand beside me. “You remember Arron,” I said politely, desperately trying to regain my composure.

“I do. Thank you for helping us. At first, I wasn’t sure we could trust you,” Mira said honestly.

His cheeks turned scarlet and he stared at his feet. “It was nothing.”

“Do you know where the witches who helped your mother are hiding?” she asked.

I gave a nod. “In the Wilds.”

“I want to hunt them with you.” A calculating chill took over her demeanor. Mira wanted them to pay. In addition to the witches, they killed the animals she’d brought to life and sent to Thirteen.

“I plan to leave at midnight.”

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