Page 11 of The Witch and His Crow

‘Then please, explain exactly what my crime is here, and if not, I trust you will let me leave immediately.’

The little softness to his gaze completely faded within a beat. Jonathan splayed his hands out on the table, inching towards me in a territorial warning. He might as well have pulled out his cock and pissed on me, it would have been more threatening. ‘Unfortunately, your crimes are yet to be determined. Wasting the Coven’s time and resources, we could start there. Chaos, the string of deaths you have left behind in your wake. You must have been six at most when the Hunters?—’

‘Watch your tongue.’ Ire erupted from me, sharpening each word.

Jonathan recoiled, the cogs behind his bright eyes turning as he picked his next words carefully. ‘Where have you been all this time, Hector?’

Ah, so finally we get to it.

‘Answer carefully,’Caym warned, his caw a distant cry in the back of my mind.

I calmed my breathing, sensing Caym trying to help me down our bond. He was right though. I had to be careful. Answering the question with the truth would really make me a criminal, and not in the sense that Jonathan likely imagined.

‘I didn’t ask for the Coven to search for me. That was your choice and responsibility. And you’re clearly shit at your job, since you couldn’t find me in eighteen years.’ I leaned forwards, being the one to close the space between us. ‘As acting-Grand High, I would say you need to re-evaluate those who work beneath you. Sounds like they could do with some training. And in regards to the deaths you’ve accused me of, it sounds like I’ve only saved you time and resources. All those Hunters dealt with, saving you energy. If anything, I expected some thanks.’ I lifted my bound hands as much as the rope allowed. ‘Not this.’

Jonathan took a moment to allow my words to sink in. The silence stretched on, his expression slowly morphing into a mask of pure displeasure. His eyes flared wide, his composure failinghim. With a sudden crack, his palms slapped against the table, but I was prepared for it. I’d had practice in breaking people down. Jonathan was no different.

‘Where have you been?’ Jonathan repeated, clearly unfazed by my snarky response.

‘Around.’

‘Thatdoes not answer my question.’

My lip curled, flashing teeth. ‘I know.’

‘Hector, I strongly suggest you cooperate with me.’ Danger flashed in Jonathan’s eyes. He made sure his next threat was so quiet that those watching outside the room couldn’t hear it. ‘You must know I have the means to enter that mind of yours and get the information out myself.’

Caym responded, cawing far in the distance, heard only by me. I sense my familiar’s desire to tear this man’s face off with his talons, to peck at his eyes and feast on his entrails.

‘I owe you nothing, just as you also owe me nothing,’ I remind him. ‘You have no grounds to keep me here.’

That sickly, thin-lipped smile lifted on his face, flashing two rows of rotting teeth. The enamel was brown and stained, a dramatic gap flashing between his two front teeth. ‘There is a suspicion, within the Coven, that the reason you have evaded us for so long is because you are working with our enemies. That they have been the ones to protect you, to keep you concealed. Of course, the deaths of the Hunters suggest otherwise, but unless you cooperate, I am confident I can find a reason to explain those to strengthen the argument that you are not onlywiththe Hunters, buthelpingthem…’

‘Bull-fucking-shit.’ I saw red. It overwhelmed me, thrashing through my body in a wave of heat and fire. The beast within rose to the surface, only to be stifled by the thistlebane. My skin blistered and burned the more I call upon it, but the pain was only motivation.

Jonathan looked like a man who’d won. ‘You must admit, there is merit to the suspicions. You wished to keep the key to our salvation away from us. The very thing that would ensure our kind strengthened their ties to magic again. And yet it is the Hunters who would do anything to keep us powerless. Weaken us. Your actions aid them, no matter how many of them you leave dead behind you.’

I didn’t look away from him, not for a second. ‘Howdareyou.’

Jonathan pressed a hand to his chest. ‘How dare I? All I have done is lead the search for you. The lost child of Heather Briar, our greatest Grand High. I have exhausted all avenues, all attempts to locate you for close to two decades. And the only reason as to why I have not been successful, the only thing that makes sense, is you have been cloaked. So, unless you can tell me another reason as to your disappearance, then unfortunately, you will be treated in the same manner as the Hunters would be.’

Jonathan had not only hit a nerve, he’d fuckingsnatchedit, torn it out of me and played skip-rope with it.

Those watching on from the window could only see his balding head, not the winning smile he flashed at me now. Caym shifted uncomfortably in the back of my mind, longing to spear through the glass window and tear this man to shreds.

Hewas the reason I had evaded the Coven for all those years. To prevent the very thing my blood was the key to starting. And it had begun that night as mother spoke to the shadows and conjured my familiar out from them. All to protect me. Caym had wrapped his wings around me, gathering me up in shadows, and had not released me since.

That alone kept me silent. For her. Because this was her final wish.

My familiar had protected me until this moment. And now, I sensed his panic thunder through me as though it was my own, alongside our shared sense of failure.

But I was on my own. Familiars were outlawed by the Coven hundreds of years ago. I had no doubt that Jonathan would delight it tearing mine from me if I told him that Caym was the reason I had been cloaked, not the Hunters. And Caym knew I wouldn’t say it. All because my familiar was my last tie to my mother, the last thread that made her memory and power feel like a physical thing. Tangible. Giving up Caym would be giving up that last part of me that felt my mother’s resounding love.

My silence was only proof that I was not willing to respond.

Jonathan’s eyes glowed with the circlet of white as he conjured up his gift. I knew what he could do—infect the minds of other witches, seeing thoughts and memories. No one could punish the acting-Grand High for doing what he believed was just. And I was powerless to stop him rooting out my darkest secrets. ‘It truly saddens me, to have to do this?—’

The door didn’t slide open, but crashed open with the force of ten bulls. A small gasp broke out of Jonathan as he choked on his attempt, his eyes returning to their mundane colouring.

---