Page 340 of Sigils & Spells

Opening one eye, I saw Headmistress Armstrong deep in discussion with a healer as she went over what I suspected was my chart. I was still tired, but feeling fine.

More so when I felt a welcomed warmth at my side.

“There you are,mo spréach,” Brandon whispered, brushing his hand over my head and lowering his forehead to mine in his trademarked greeting.

He kissed my eyelids, my nose, and my mouth, and I responded in kind, my heart soaring from his attentions.

Christ, I loved him.

“I love you too, my Tana.”

“And that’s enough of that now,” Gran said, and I gasped, turning to look at the woman who’d practically raised me.

“Gran?”

“Of course, child, did you think I would stay away from ya?”

Green eyes similar to mine danced with joy as she came forward and gave me her own backbreaking hug. She sighed and sniffed, murmuring stuff and nonsense, offering comfort. I lapped it up greedily, like a thirsty dog at a water fountain.

Brandon gave us some space, but he did not leave the room. I was grateful for both things as I sniffled and gave in to the heartache that filled me.

“I saw what happened, Gran. They took Da. I don’t know where.”

“Easy, love. I’ve hired a lawyer, an old witch friend from my academy days. He’ll be out tomorrow latest. They fined him for trespassing.”

“Thank God!” I cried out, happy to hear the news.

“But what about Ma? Stolbright let it slip there was this big conspiracy and a coverup—"

“She said quite a few things then, didn’t she, Miss McKenna,” Headmistress Armstrong entered my room, closing the door behind her.

I sat up, eyeing the woman distrustfully.

How could I take anything she said when she was part of the machine, determined to lie to us and keep us in the dark?

My Da might be a lot of things, but he was right. The Council of Covens had a secret agenda, and Armstrong was at the heart of it.

“I understand your reluctance to trust in me, Tana,” the headmistress said. “Mrs. McKenna, Mr. Flint, you are welcome to stay, but I must have assurances what I am about to reveal stays here. It is for your safety, and Tana’s that I insist on this,” she said.

“Yes, of course,” Gran said, nodding her head and narrowing her eyes at the ex-professor.

“I swear it,” Brandon agreed readily.

“You know, when I accepted the position as head of the Council, I wanted to make changes for the better. I was alive during the wars, worked in the transmissions offices for the forerunner office that later became the Council. We were called the Legalis Coven.”

I waited patiently while Armstrong paced the room, expelling on her history. I admit a lot of the info went over my head. Whether because I simply did not understand it, or because I was still addled from my magical use, I could not say.

“Before the wars, elementals worked together, forming covens and feeding each other’s creativity. Once the Council put a stop to that by dividing the elementals and keeping them apart, something started happening. Something they did not want to tell anyone,” Armstrong said quietly.

“We’re losing magic,” I finished for her, recalling what Stolbright let slip.

“Yes, Miss McKenna,” the headmistress replied, ignoring my Gran’s sharp intake of breath.

“The world is losing magic. It has always been a finite thing. Once used, magic is supposed to be absorbed back into the ether, to be gifted to the next magical creature birthed. Witches, of course, can inherit stores, and magic and gifts are often passed from generation to generation.”

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“It means witches and wizards are in trouble—”

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