Page 148 of Lady of Shadows

“She was here more than once? With you? Alone?”

The High Witch cocked her head to the side, examining him. “I never understood why it bothered her so much to keep things from a male, especially a male who was not her lover. But seeing you here now, I suppose I can see it on a small scale.”

“We rarely had dealings with the Witches while Eliné was queen. How often could you have seen her?” he demanded.

A smirk spread across the High Witch’s face. “TheCourtsrarely had dealings with me, Prince. Eliné and I were close friends, sometimes closer than friends. She handled any affairs of the Witch Kingdoms personally.” Before Sorin had a chance to reply to that, her eyes slid to Scarlett. “You are completely off your tonic now, I assume, judging by your ease of Traveling these days?”

Scarlett was leafing through a book she had plucked from the shelf,but she looked up with a curious expression on her face. “How do you know about my tonic?”

“I was the one who created it for your mother,” the High Witch replied simply, sprinkling some sort of green powder into one of the cauldrons.

“You knew she was expecting a child?” Sorin asked incredulously. “You have known of her existence this whole time?”

Hazel studied him intensely for a long moment, as if debating if she should say anything further. “The queen was born here. I delivered her myself.”

Sorin felt like he had been punched in the gut, the air sucked from his lungs. “How long?”

“Until they departed for the human lands shortly before she turned three.”

“Three years? She lived here? While Talwyn struggled on the throne? For three years?”

“This is why I did not want you present in this meeting, Prince,” the High Witch snarled through gritted teeth.

“It is how you knew who I was when I was here yesterday?” Scarlett asked softly.

“You look just like your mother,” the High Witch said. “I nearly called you her name when I first laid eyes on you.”

“Who is the other you’ve allowed in here besides my mother?” Scarlett asked, returning to skimming the book in her hands.

“Eliné,” the High Witch answered, moving down her table to another cauldron.

Sorin was about to question such a bizarre answer when Scarlett stepped forward, gently closing the book in her hands. “Who is my father?”

“I do believe the Oracle told you the question you should be asking that will lead to the answer of that one,” the High Witch replied, stirring a cauldron clockwise.

“Indeed,” Scarlett murmured. She stepped forward again. “Hazel, please.” A soft, sorrowful smile filled Scarlett’s face. Sorin braced himself for the rage of the High Witch at being addressed by her name and not her title, but it never came. Instead, the High Witch’s features seemed to almost soften.“Sorin knows Cassius as well. They are friends. In the human lands, men are superior in every way. I will need him to help me get Cassius out.”

Those violet eyes narrowed as the High Witch said, “You fear for his safety?”

“Yes,” Scarlett answered quietly.

“If you have stopped taking the tonic, you can access your powers in any land, with or without that ring on your finger. You and your blood kin are some of the most powerful beings at this moment in time. You will not need the prince.”

“I will, Hazel. I have a history there, and it is not a pleasant one. Furthermore, I have more than the task of retrieving Cassius while I am there, although that is the most pressing. In fact, I will need more than Sorin, and that is why I am here,” Scarlett replied. Sorin resisted the urge to step to her side when she moved even nearer to the High Witch. “I would like to bring Sorin and his Inner Court with me to Baylorin, and I need them able to access their magic while there.”

The High Witch turned back to her various concoctions and stirred one, bending down to sniff it. “There is a tonic that can do it, but it is much like the one you took, Young Queen. The body will become dependent on it and go through withdrawal if it is not taken. You will need to learn to brew it, and upon returning, they will not feel well. I trust you remember the process of expelling the tonic from your body? This one will be worse. The cost of gaining power is greater than the cost to deny it.”

Scarlett glanced at Sorin with a grimace. “I understand. They will be able to choose when and how often to take it, but I am not an apothecary. Can you not make several doses to take with us?”

“Do you know precisely how long you will be gone? Exactly how many doses you shall need?” the High Witch asked, turning to the shelves of ingredients behind them. She reached up and pulled down several bottles of crushed herbs and powders.

“Of course not,” Scarlett answered.

“Then that is not possible, is it?” The High Witch turned back to face them once more. Her violet eyes settled on Sorin, and to his surprise,she addressed him directly. “How much history does she know, Prince?”

“History of her lineage or history of the Witches?” he countered.

“Are they not linked?” she replied, her lips forming a thin line. When Sorin did not respond, the High Witch sighed sharply. She waved a hand, and a book floated from the bookshelf to them. Scarlett held open her hands as the book settled into them, flipping to a specific page. Sorin looked over her shoulder at an illustration of the various territories.

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