Page 94 of Crossroads Magic
Broch shook his head, frowning.
“Long? Aware?” Juda shook his head, even though there was still no expression on his face or in his eyes. “Perhaps you are not the one I wanted, after all.” He moved toward me and I took a half step backward, shocked.
“Don’t break the circle!” Trevalyan warned.
I held still as Juda stopped right in front of me. “The one who bore you was weak. She would not do, would not serve, would not hold…not for what is to come.”
“What is to come?” Benedict said.
Juda looked at him but did not move away from me. “What you call trouble. Toil and trouble. Terrible times. Dark ages.”
“What do you mean, my mother would not serve?” I demanded.
For the first time, Juda’s face showed an emotion. It was as though the longer the voice of the town was using him, the better it got at manipulating more than just his voice. The expression that appeared was a pitiless smile. “She could not stand where you are and do what you have done. She could not reach me. You did.”
I was trembling and my hands, in Wim’s and Ghaliya’s, were sweating and slippery. I gripped their hands desperately. “You wanted me here instead. You killed her to get me here.”
“She was weak, but she made sure you were strong. She sought out the one who would ensure it.”
My father. Something in his bloodline? My mother deliberately searched for him?
Ghaliya was weeping, her soft sobs tearing at me.
“Oh, christ on a pony…” I breathed, my heart beating too fast, my breathing shallowing out. I tried to breathe deeply, but the panic hovered too close.
“Anna,” Juda said.
I looked at him, my eyes too wide, my heart thundering in my ears.
It really was Juda. The entity, the will of the town, was gone. For good? Juda was watching me, a great weariness in his face. “Tell it to leave,” he said. “I remember it all now. It showed me what I did. You can dismiss it. It will listen to you. Tell it to go and I will tell you everything.”
“Do what he says,” Trevalyan called out. “Command the voice to depart, and return when you call it.”
I swallowed, and tried to regain an even breath—one that would let me speak.
“Breathe, Anna,” Benedict said softly. “We have you. Nothing can reach you while the circle is whole.”
My breathing slowed. I grew aware of my wet cheeks and the way the tears were growing cold on my skin. “Is the voice listening?” I asked Juda.
“Yes.”
“Then I command you, will of this town, the thing that is here and everywhere, leave us now. I will call for you another time. Until then, go.”
“You will have need of me, child. Do not forget my power.”
“Go!” I screamed.
Juda’s head dropped to his chest.
My breath hitched as I watched him.
He lifted his head once more. It was Juda looking at me with his rich black eyes. “Thank you,” he said. “Now I can use…” He lifted his arm, let it drop. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his coat and shivered. “I’m sorry,” he told me. “It drove me to it. It would not stop talking to me, telling me what to do. I couldn’t sleep. On the solstice, when the veil is so thin and the voice so loud…I couldn’t stand it anymore.” He hung his head, and this time, I knew it was shame. Guilt.
Then he wheeled around to face everyone in the circle. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.
Olivia was weeping.
Trevalyan’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “It wasn’t you.” His voice was broken.
