Page 13 of When the Wicked Sing
Swimming inside, she was hit with a wave of nostalgia. The witch’s home was cluttered, filled with objects whose origins and purposes were a mystery to Mariana. She remembered curling up in the corner with a pile of orbs, lost in the histories Astra had brought her from the Athenaeum. Back then, the witch’s home had been a sanctuary, a place where she wasn’t judged for her scars. But now, the tunnels outside were filled with the cursed—a far cry from the adventures she once had.
A pile of bones in the corner caught her eye, and she went still, only releasing a breath when she realized they were just fish bones.
She grimaced at the thought of eating any sort of creature.
Passing the bones, she entered the main room. It was large but crowded, the black stone table littered with scraps of ingredients. It felt like a lifetime ago when she’d sat there, learning about dark magic and siren history.
“Am I interrupting?” Mariana asked, eyeing the dead squid on the table and the jar filling with shimmering black liquid.
“No, just refilling the stock of stygian oil,” the witch replied, her hands stained as she worked.
“Isn’t that lethal to touch?”
“Only if inhaled. Or if it enters the bloodstream.”
Mariana leaned on the table, watching the dark liquid fill the jar from the tube stuck inside the squid.
“What happens if it does?”
“The toxin blackens your veins, and they would need to be cleansed. It’s terribly taxing on the body. I recommend avoiding it if you can. Otherwise, you’ll be wishing for death.”
Mariana frowned, the thought unsettling. She glanced down at her hands, still trembling from her earlier confrontation with her mother. Although, teaching those cursed sirens to back off had helped ease the tension slightly.
“Did you know?” she asked, lifting her gaze. “Astra planned to trade knowledge of Seraphina’s amulet to the fae king in exchange for Sirenia.”
The witch tilted her head, unfazed. “Yes, I knew. What of it?”
Mariana stared at her, incredulous. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Cybele would, eventually. And she has, hasn’t she?” she said while removing the tubes.
Mariana scoffed, biting back the arguments on the tip of her tongue. The witch had always been loyal to Cybele. If her mother had decided to keep something from her, the witch would have respected that.
With a sigh, she rested her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands.
“You seem conflicted,” the witch observed, her claws tapping rhythmically on the stone.
Mariana dropped her hands, exclaiming, “Of course I’m conflicted! How can I help Astra if I’m kept in the dark? And how am I supposed to convince Cybele to let me go to Aurelia?”
“She won’t.”
Mariana shook her head, frustration boiling over. “Why? She let Astra go, why not me?”
The witch regarded Mariana with a steady gaze. “The fae realm is dangerous for a siren. Astra had top-tier Guardians, and even they couldn’t prevent what happened. Aurelia is the fae capital. They’d cut off your tail and sell it to the highest bidder. Your scales would be ripped from you and used as currency. Do you understand?”
Mariana stiffened, holding back the urge to roll her eyes. “You think I can’t defend myself.”
“I think you don’t have it in you tokillthem. You’ve been trained as a warrior, but you’ve never faced a fae opponent. Hesitation will cost you—not only your life but Astra’s as well.”
The witch’s words were a punch to the gut. She stared at her mentor, feeling like her eyes were about to swallow Mariana down into an endless black hole. Glancing away, she imagined killing someone, driving a blade through their chest. The thought made her stomach sour instantly.
“You’re brave, little one, but you’ve not seen death the way some of us have.”
Grabbing the dead squid off the table, she moved toward a curtained wall and pulled it aside to reveal a cage of slithering, red-eyed serpents. Mariana recoiled as the witch tossed the dead squid into the cage, the serpents devouring it in seconds. The witch let the curtain fall.
“Why do you keep those things in here?”
“The sound of them puts me at ease.”
