Page 124 of The Blood Witch

“Swear it!”

Fey’s lip curled, anger twisting her words. “On the Goddess, I swear it. On my life, Alice, I swear to you that I cannot do Blood Magic.”

Tension washed away from Alice’s muscles.

“Thank you,” she whispered. The hands clutching her arms loosened their grip, and her shoulders eased lower. “Thank you.”

“No.” Fire and rage roared in Fey’s chest. “You don’t get to come in here asking questions like that and then thank me. What the fuck, Alice? What the hell is going on?”

With a groan, Alice put her face in her hands.

“I think… I think the council is in a lot of trouble, Fey… I think…” She let out a long breath and looked up at Alastair, eyes narrowing. “Does he have to be here for this?”

“It’s my fucking house!” Alastair said in a raised voice.

“Yes,” Fey said over him. “He does have to be here. Talk.”

“Fine.” Alice threw him one last reproachful look. “But he might not want to hear this.”

“I’m very quickly running out of patience, sister,” Fey said, voice low and dangerous. “Tell me what the fuck is happening.”

Alice’s jaw tightened. “I think someone is attacking the council members, one by one. I think they’ve been killing them.”

“The council?” Fey asked, frowning.

Alice nodded. “First Kellos. And then…”

Alastair shifted. “My father?” he asked, voice raw.

Alice nodded again.

“And whoever it is…” Fey paused, putting it together. “You think it’s a Blood Witch, don’t you? Someone who can use the fifth element?”

“I don’t just think it, babe. I know it,” Alice said. “They got to Linh, tonight. Someone killed her, right in front of us.”

Fey hissed out a breath.

“It was…” Alice looked down at her hands. “She was like a puppet, being controlled by something we couldn’t see. She was fine just a few minutes before, and then suddenly.” Alice shuddered. “I’ve seen that before. When I was first inducted into the Blades, we were sent to hunt down a rogue Blood Witch. One the White Priestesses must have missed during her awakening. And she was…”

Alice looked up, staring into Fey’s eyes. There was no trace of the strong, confident Witch Fey knew in those eyes. Alice looked terrified. “She was horrifying. She captured one of ours, used that… magic on her. And it was like, she was a doll suddenly, like she was just a shell with nothing inside.” She swallowed, eyes growing distant, lost in the memory. “Only two of us made it out that night. She took down two Blades before we could stop her, Fey.”

Fey’s eyes flashed. “And tonight, you thought it was me?” Rage rose, suffocatingly hot inside of her. Alastair stared at Alice with obvious disgust on his face. “Me? Attacking the council?”

“Can you blame me?” Alice asked. “You walked away from the antidote with all four pure powers. What if you had them all, Fey? You would have known how we would have reacted to that. How I would have reacted. You would have hidden it. Don’t lie, you know you would have.”

“Fuck you,” Fey snapped. But she didn’t deny it.

Alice groaned, stepping back away from her and looking around helplessly. “It could be anyone, couldn’t it? Any of the Witches we’ve given the antidote to.”

“New Witches, too,” Fey added, thinking. “Now that there aren’t any priestess overseeing the Awakenings, there’s no way of knowing how many are out there.”

Fey took a measured breath, trying to gather her thoughts.

It really could be anyone. Any Witch in the city. And they had no way of finding them.

“I need you to come and speak to the council, Fey,” Alice said, voice low, as though asking it pained her.

Anger, hot and fast, surged through her.

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