Page 48 of Destiny of the Witch

Kate was young and she was grinning at me with youthful vigour and excitement; she was riding into danger and excited about it. Oh, to be young and reckless again, when you thought you were immortal and nothing was to be feared. I was older and I knew plenty of things that would get me quaking in my boots, though facing my father wasn’t one of them.

‘I’m grateful for it.’ I hooked my pendant out of my neckline. ‘I don’t suppose either of you can fix this?’

Willow let out a gasp. ‘That is vile!’ she gasped. ‘They have defiled the sisterhood pendant with blood! It needs to be cleansed. I will start right away.’

I was fumbling with the clasp when strong hands rested on my shoulders. I stood still as Bastion carefully undid the necklace for me then held it out to Willow. Huh. When I’d tried to remove it before I’d let myself be taken it hadn’t shifted, yet now it would come off. It was a fickle thing.

‘Thank you,’ Willow said politely as she took it from him. ‘Crone, leave this with me. I’ll have it singing with your sisters’ souls in a few minutes,’ she promised, grabbing a tote bag out of the car.

I turned to Kate and Justine. ‘We haven’t had much opportunity to work together yet, and this is rather throwingus in at the deep end, but is there anything I should know about the Triune? Anything helpful we can do?’

‘We can link our power giving one of us the power of three,’ Kate offered.

‘That might be helpful,’ I conceded.

‘Why do you think we’re here?’ she said with a cheeky grin.

‘And you’d just …give me your power?’ I asked.

‘For however long you need it,’ Justine confirmed. ‘We’re here to help you, but this is your show.’

‘Think of us as your back-up singers,’ Kate suggested.

Justine sent her a withering look and rolled her eyes. It made me smile; their friendship was clear to see, despite the age gap between them. ‘We’re not back-up singers, we’re justback up.’

‘You’re the one who said it was her show!’

I cleared my throat, ‘Well, thanks. I’ll be sure to get your help when it’s go time.’

‘Good. In the meantime, have some ORAL potion.’ Justine rooted around in her bag and passed me a vial. As Kate snickered at its name, I drank the potion and handed the empty vial back to Justine. ‘Thanks. Are youboth good?’

‘We came via a portal,’ Kate reassured me. ‘We’re fully charged and ready to go.’

‘Great.’

I excused myself and went to speak to Shirdal. I needed some war counsel, and he was just the man to give it.

Chapter 42

‘Shirdal,’ I greeted him. ‘Thank you for coming.’

‘For you, sweetheart, I wouldn’t be anywhere else. What’s the plan?’

‘I really don’t know. To be honest, I was hoping you’d have a plan.’

‘Killing everyone usually works,’ he suggested with no trace of humour.

‘Let’s leave that as Plan B,’ I suggested. ‘There are definitely captives here – my father said he has a truth seeker held here.’

Shirdal’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Okay, rescue the seeker then kill everyone else.’

‘Our priority has to be the harkan.’

‘Which is?’ he asked patiently.

‘A deadly crystal of murderous power that is slowly eating at my mother’s mind,’ I said simply.

Shirdal nodded. ‘It’s on team evil. We’ll kill it.’

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