Page 46 of Blood Coven

Azalea’s arm was still tightly entwined with Juniper's when she turned to face her. With her free hand, Azalea slipped out a scroll and unrolled it. The parchment shook in the soft wind.

Juniper’s heart sank. She didn’t feel fear, nor anger, just sadness. She knew what her mother was going to do. My life is not hers to take, she thought sourly.

She pulled free of her mother and stared her down. “What happens here?” she repeated.

The dull gray evening faded to black; soon, the full moon would be in effect. Juniper foolishly thought her mother had found nothing that would ensure her control over the man—the Wolf. It appeared that it was nothing that Juniper was privy to. The look Azalea gave her now suggested otherwise. She did not tell Juniper because she was part of the answer. The cold from the rock-hard ground seeped through her shoes, but it was nothing compared to the chill she felt from the look on her mother’s face.

Juniper didn’t complain; it simply wasn’t in her nature. In a slender, naked tree behind her mother sat the crow. Juniper knew what the familiar was capable of doing to a person. She knew that if she ran, she would be torn apart until she was forced to submit.

“Why did you bring me out here, Mama?” She watched her mother’s face carefully. She knows I warned Matthias, that I begged him to leave before it was too late.

She shook her head. Was that really something that could be viewed as betrayal? In her heart, she knew the answer was yes. If there was one thing she learned over the years about her mother, it was that she could not be trusted, even at the best of times. Juniper understood this a long time ago when she killed Riina. All Azalea spoke of for ten years was Matthias’s return. How she wished he would come back. She wanted him back because he would carry on the family name. He was the son of the only man she ever loved.

It was something Juniper couldn’t do. I was safe so long as it was just us, for Mama would never push away both her children. But Azalea’s favorite was back, the one that could protect her, take care of her, and give her proper grandchildren with a woman of her choosing. Matthias will never do that for her. Especially if I do not make it out of this forest alive.

Juniper knew Matthias only agreed to stay for her. Earlier, he had asked for the cure for Ana, begging Juniper to make him something. That’s when she knew Matthias had something planned, and she could only hope he would not screw it up. To hide something from Azalea was a difficult—but doable—task.

“Mama, please answer me.”

Azalea reached her hand up and placed it against Juniper’s cheek. “You were always the sweetest of my children.”

“That is very kind of you to say,” Juniper said. “Mama, why are we here and not preparing for the displacement?”

“We are, my child,” Azalea replied. She placed a blank scroll on the ground and set rocks on each corner to keep it unrolled. Then she reached into her pocket and withdrew a crumpled piece of paper, clearly torn from an old book.

“What do you need from me?” Juniper asked, though she did not want to know. Up in the tree, Aegidius hopped along the branches, growing closer in case Juniper fled.

“You are the most important ingredient, Juniper.” Her mother’s eyes burned. “The agony I must bear will give me full control of the Wolf, and everyone who uses the curse after me will have to suffer the same agony I will tonight.”

“What agony?” Juniper stepped back from her mother’s touch, just beyond her reach.

“The most powerful of curses require a blood sacrifice, Juniper. You will be mine.”

Juniper shrank back as Azalea pulled a knife from her pocket. She brandished it before her, staring at Juniper as a twisted grin stretched across her face.

Juniper knew that Azalea’s smile was authentic, the smile of a mother who loves her son beyond sanity, more than she could ever love her daughter. Jealousy tore at Juniper’s heart, quickly turning to disgust. Disgust that she ever followed her mother down this path, wishing she had run away with Matthias all those years ago. But she had been corrupted, her mother whispering things in her ear since birth, making her choose her over common sense.

“Matthias was right to leave,” Juniper cried in fury, though she trembled where she stood. “Do you think he will stay here with you when he finds out you’ve murdered me?”

“You are so naïve, child. Either he will be my Wolf, or he will be kept here by one. A blood oath will keep him here regardless of what he is. When he kills that succubus who has latched onto him, he will have nothing left. And because you betrayed me, planting the seed of escape in his head, his daughter will have to die, too. The curse I will create tonight will cost us both our daughters.”

“That is what pushed him away in the first place, you pitiless crone,” Juniper spat.

Azalea simply smiled. “A broken man can only be comforted by his mother. In time, he will accept this. He will not be allowed to leave this town without my permission. Now, that is enough talking, child. On your knees.”

Juniper considered running—she was much faster than her mother. Even if her mother’s familiar didn’t catch up to her, the thought of running through the bitter cold to greet nothing but locked doors chilled her to the bone. She knew no one would let a witch into their home. She had dug her own grave the moment she began working with Azalea. I hope Matthias is smarter than Azalea believes him to be.

Juniper dropped to her knees, slamming hard into the ground. Juniper’s placid features fell, lips curling down as tears lined her eyes. She looked up at her mother, keeping her hands loose by her side. Her hair hung freely over her shoulders, the mousy brown strands resembling the tree bark around her.

The forest was once her sanctuary.

A beautiful doe stepped into sight, and Juniper made eye contact with her familiar. She shook her head slowly to tell her to stay where she was. Either way, the doe would die. If she interfered with Azalea’s plan, her mother would slaughter the deer and eat her for supper once she finished with Juniper. If she stood aside, she would die when Juniper did as the link between their souls severed.

“Matthias will find out what you have done here,” Juniper repeated as Azalea unsheathed the silver blade. “He will make sure you are brought to justice.”

“Enough, child.” Azalea kissed Juniper upon each cheek, then her forehead, before moving behind her.

How many times has she kissed me like that? Juniper thought helplessly. I wish her love for me had been real.

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