Page 30 of Jacinth

Fishing in my pocket, I pulled out a fine silver chain bracelet with a large, fiery red jacinth in the center, flanked by two onyx beads. The beads were engraved with protection markings. Jacinth gasped in delight and reached her fingers out, no doubt worried her hand would go through the piece.

“Now see, when I was in town today, I visited some aliens to get this piece. After that, it occurred to me that if I wanted it to be more than a decoration for your headstone... I could visit some witches. Hold out your arm.”

The grin on her face was immeasurable as I slipped the delicate links onto her wrist.

“Oh, holy ghost! It’s beautiful! And look, it has the charmed sign on it!”

“That’s actually a triquetra, it’s to protect—”

“I’m charmed! I’m totally Piper with the freezing power. Sky! You get to be Phoebe, of course. Niko, you can be Prue. You can just get ghosts to move stuff for you. Birdie, you can be Paige, I guess, cause she’s the only one left.”

“What about me?” Orion asked, almost hesitantly.

“Oh, you can be Leo.”

I didn’t know what any of this meant, but she was so damn cute when she got on a roll. Orion turned back to the grill, clearly trying to hide how pleased he was to be included.

Sky sidled up to Orion as though not wanting Jace to see him, and I moved to block her view, just in case.

“In the show, Leo is Piper’s husband. Just thought you should know,” he whispered.

Well. Now Orion was smiling like a motherfucker.

CHAPTER 22

Skyler

I remembered this bit.

Unfathomable as it had been when first I saw it, it was coming to pass.

This exact moment.

Jacinth was grinning at Birdie, and Niko was staring at her like she was the only star in the sky. Orion, quietly edged closer, hoping to soak up some of the warmth in her orbit. All of us. Happy.

This was what I thought would never be when I had stumbled on her grave... was that two days ago? It felt like a lifetime. Then again, I had never been good at tracking time, and the Fates had sent me on one hell of a wild goose chase. I still couldn’t work out why I had needed to see a deep dive through Orion’s past. The only consistent thing in most of the visions was...

“Orion?”

He jumped as though caught red-handed and took a large step away from our girl. She noticed the move. Even if Orion missed it, I saw the satisfied hint of a smile that turned the corner of her full lips.

“What ever happened to Alisdair?”

“Alisdair?” Orion’s confusion was clear, and I realized he had never spoken of the boy.

Without giving anyone the chance to question where the thought had come from, I plowed on, “The boy you trained with. They disciplined him for misconduct, or something? I just wondered what became of him.”

I could see Orion slipping into his brooding stance and hoped I wouldn’t have to wait too long. He could literally brood for hours when given license to do so.

“Orion?” I would continue to prompt him until I received either an answer, or some other sign I had pushed him into action. I was very good at trying his patience, and I had plenty of practice at it.

At last, he spoke.

“Alisdair was my best friend during training. He... lost his way. Gave away his faith in the teachings and began learning a darker art of necromancy. They sent him to trial for what he did, not simply misconduct, but a gross abuse of his power. Alisdair stole magical essence from other students, teachers... and me. He was executed during my final year of training. What would make you bring him up? How do you even know of him?”

This made no sense. Why was I seeing a dead man? What did all this have to do with what was happening? Unless...

“How was he executed?”

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