Page 260 of Castings & Curses

When he finally stopped, the pages revealed were full of hand-painted sigils. There were over two dozen that I could count, each with a lengthy text, maybe a description, next to it.

“Well, I’ve seen some of these hanging on banners in the school,” Rio whispered, Magnus moving closer to her.

“We all have,” I agreed. “But there are more.”

“A lot more,” Enok murmured and turned the page.

Holy. Crap.

The pages with hand-painted sigils went on for a good portion of the book.

Were they all elementals?

What could this mean?

I was shocked and curious, and I wanted to tell Arlo what we found.

“So, what do we know?” Rio asked.

“Well, the Council only acknowledges five elemental covens, even if I’ve never seen any mention of the Somnior Coven anywhere,” Mabe offered, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

“Makes sense if there aren’t any more spirit witches.”

“Maybe,” Enok said, and his gaze flicked to Maia. My roommate shook her head slightly, and he pressed his lips together as if to stifle his next words.

“But if there are so many more covens, why only acknowledge five?”

The tension in the kitchen grew as we all pondered the reasons behind the Council of Covens’ actions.

What were the most common motivations for anything?

Sex, money, and power.

In this case, I was sure it had to do with power. Magic, to be specific.

“You want to know why the Council has only acknowledged five elemental covens? Want to understand why they’ve been training us for the ‘good of the magical community’ like worker bees in a hive? That’s easy,” I muttered, shaking my head as red fury wound its way through me. Everyone froze, eyes riveted to me as I slammed my hands down on the table.

“To control us. To control everything.”

EPILOGUE

I marcheddown the hall to Headmistress Armstrong’s office with my five roommates. Angry was not a good look on us, but I was pretty damned miffed at being played.

“Excuse me, you can’t go in there!” Armstrong’s secretary tried to stop us, but we were not having any of that.

“Yes, I would need the delivery to arrive forthwith—excuse me, Chambers, I will call you later.”

Headmistress Armstrong hung up her call and faced us expectantly. She steepled her hands on her clean desk, eyebrows raised as she waited patiently for us to speak. I inhaled and stepped forward, noting the look of surprise on the headmistress’ face.

Earth witches were not born leaders, and though there had been no vote, the compulsion to stand in front of my sister witches was great. I felt their power surge through our bonds, even Mabe’s, whose magic was unstable, and Enid’s, whose powers were unknown.

“Well, I take it you have something to share?”

“Actually, we have something to demand. You’re not only headmistress of Westwood, but you are the leader of the Council of Covens, correct?” I asked, waiting for her to reply.

“I am. For now,” she added.

“The Coven has removed all records of the Mobilis Coven from our texts and histories, we want it back.”

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