Witch Undecided by Debbie Cassidy

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ireached for Sloane under the duvet as the shadow moved toward us, slow and deliberate. My fingers brushed her arm, and I was about to pinch her when the moon came out and lit up the shadow.

Not a shadow.

A silvery-gray ghost.

“Meredith?” I sat up, head swimming.

“Hush, child. There isn’t much time. I need to tell you…tell you it all while I remember, while it’s still here.” She tapped the side of her head.

“What?” My body felt odd and fuzzy.

“It’s not what happened. What they say isn’t what happened. What they did to us. The truth. The horrible, greedy truth is … is…” She squeezed her eyes closed. “That night I saw her start it. I saw her and I tried to stop her, and she did this.” Meredith plucked at her clothes, and they were suddenly charred and black. “She did this and she took it. She took it all and now—”

She looked out the window. “No time. No more time. Listen to me. It’s not true. You don’t have to—”

She shuddered and her gaze went blank.

My head was suddenly clear. “Meredith?”

Sloane stirred and opened her eyes. “What the fuck?”

Meredith turned away and began floating toward the door.

“Meredith?” I pushed back the covers and stood. “Stop. What were you saying?” I took a few steps toward her, but my legs had that awful pins-and-needles sensation running through them.

“Cora?” Sloane was right behind me.

Meredith passed through the wall and was gone, and then my legs gave way.

Sloane caught me and swung me into her arms before carrying me back to bed. “What the hell just happened?”

Wren remained fast asleep as Sloane shifted him from the center of the bed and urged me to shift into his spot.

I shuffled into it. “She was babbling stuff. She said she had to tell me something while she remembered.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, stuff about it not being real and about someone doing stuff to her.” I exhaled. “I feel weird.”

Sloane touched my forehead with the back of her hand and then pinched my chin to force my head up so she could scrutinize my face.

“I think she may have drawn energy from you.” She frowned. “It’s not something ghosts are permitted to do. I’ll report this to Anna in the morning.” She climbed into bed beside me and put her arm around me, tucking me into her side. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

I wanted to protest at being so up close and personal to her, but her body was hard and soft in all the right places, molding to mine, and I was so fucking tired.

I drifted off to the sensation of her thumb making circles on my shoulder and Meredith’s confused words circling like vultures in my mind.

She’d been trying to tell me something, but what?

Sloane was already goneby the time I woke, but she’d left a note telling me to meet her in the atrium for training after lunch. Meredith’s haunted face came to mind. Yeah, Sloane needed to speak to Anna about that. I was sure the ghost meant me no harm, but she’d managed to sap my energy good and proper. I still felt icky.

As a rule, ghosts weren’t permitted to draw energy from the living. Ghosts were classified into levels from those who were barely corporeal and unable to move solid objects to those who could draw energy from the environment and affect matter around them.

But Meredith was ancient, and last night, she’d seemed confused. What had she been talking about?

Wren groaned and sat up, rubbing his head. “Wren hurting.”

I scooped him up. “Headache?”

He closed his eyes and groaned.

Had Meredith drawn energy from him too? But not Sloane. I guess the tattoos across her back protected her from that sort of thing.

“Come on, let’s get you some food. You’ll feel better.”

I made it to the dining hall in record time carrying my mogwai, but by the time we got there, Wren was unconscious and unresponsive, and a strange silvery film had grown over his eyelids.

Fuck! I ran into the room. “Help, there’s something wrong with Wren.”

Several witches left their breakfast to rush over. I recognized Justine and Kel, the two witches who’d brought Wren to me a couple of weeks ago.

“Oh shit, what happened?” Justine asked.

“I don’t know.” Panic writhed in my belly.

Shit, what was I doing? I needed to get him to med bay. “I need Pippa!” I headed out the door and almost strode into a solid wall of muscle.

Hands bracketed my shoulders. “Cora? What’s wrong?”

Conah? “It’s Wren. There’s something wrong with him.”

Conah looked down at Wren and his brow furrowed. “Is that a…mogwai?”

“Yes, do you know about them, can you help him?”

“Has he been eating a lot? Like all the time?”

“Yes…Wait, is that not normal for mogwai?”

Conah reached out to stroke between Wren’s ears. “He doesn’t need help, Cora. He needs time. He’s entering the first phase of his maturation.” He locked gazes with me. “You’re the one who’s going to need help.”

“What do you mean?”

“Fully matured mogwai are dangerous.”

Jasper had said Wren was dangerous too. I looked down at my furry buddy. “He’s not dangerous.”

“Not now,” Conah said softly. “But he will be.”

“Explain.”

“Have you eaten?”

“What? Not yet. Conah, focus.”

“I focus better on a full stomach.” He smiled. “Wren’s in no immediate danger.”

“Fine.”

“Wait here and I’ll—”

One of the ghost servers materialized carrying a tray of food.

Conah smiled, flashing perfect teeth, sapphire eyes twinkling. “Thank you, Trudy. Say hi to Ella and Gemma for me.”

He knew their names? He’d only been here a day.

Trudy simpered and then dematerialized.

I arched my brow at him.

“What?” He gave me a wide-eyed, innocent look.

“Never mind. Just help me with Wren.”

“Let’s get him to my office.”

“You have an office?”

“Library, but while I’m here the space is mine.”

Figured. Conah would live in a library if he had the choice. He headed for the stairs and I followed, Wren clutched snuggly to my chest. He’d be okay. He had to be. Conah wouldn’t be so calm otherwise.

Would he?

The library wasa grand room with a vaulted ceiling and enough books to keep someone busy for years. It was also a mess. Books were piled on chairs and on the floor and shoved haphazardly onto shelves.

Conah frowned as he entered. “Shame. There’s a wealth of knowledge here.”

“Sloane told me you’d been tidying up.”

“Someone needs to.”

“I’m surprised they let you go through these books. Witches are notoriously protective of their knowledge.”

“I’m an exception.” He grinned. “Anna likes me.”

But my attention was on Wren again. The silver shit was spreading across his face.

Conah set the tray down on a nearby table. “You okay?” He peered at me with concern.

“I’m good.” I held Wren out. “Fix him.”

“I can’t.” Conah gently took Wren from me, carried him to a nearby sofa, and set him down on it. “This isn’t something to be fixed. We need to keep him warm and let his body do its thing.”

“And what thing is that?”

“Metamorphosis from infant to teen.”

“Wren’s an infant?”

Conah smiled at me indulgently. “Well in mogwai years, yes. There are three stages to mogwai development, but most mogwai never make it to the final stage.” His expression sobered. “The fae began culling this species a long time ago because in their fully grown form they’re vicious predators.”

Wren? A vicious predator. “Bullshit.”

Conah pressed his hand to my shoulder. “Cora, you can’t keep him. We need to take him back to faerie.”

“Take him back? To that shitty place where he’d been used and abused? Um, let me think about that…No.”

“He can’t stay here,” Conah said firmly.

Like hell. “You don’t know him. You don’t know what he’ll be like when fully grown.”

Conah gave me a sympathetic look. “Yes, I do. He’ll be a monster. He’ll kill everyone in this mansion and then he’ll move on to everyone outside it. Back in the day, mogwai were responsible for whole fae villages disappearing.”

I didn’t want to believe this. Wren was sweet and kind and I fucking loved the little tyke. It was like Conah telling me my baby was gonna grow up to be a serial killer. But Conah knew stuff. This was his superpower.

Still, I wasn’t ready to accept his words. “How do you know all this?”

“I read about it a long time ago.”

“And you believe it? Pfft. You can’t believe everything you read.”

The corners of his mouth dimpled. “You’re not thinking straight right now, Cora.”

“I’m thinking perfectly straight. Arrow straight. Wren saved my life. He would never hurt me or anyone else.”

Conah frowned. “He saved your life?”

“Yeah, he leaped onto a revenant’s face to protect me and told me to run. He almost died.”

The silver threads were slowly covering my furry friend’s body like a cocoon.

Conah crouched by Wren. “That isn’t typical mogwai behavior. They’re inherently selfish. Did you know they have a siren song when they’re infants? They use it to lure prey into a trance to make it easier to consume?”

The song he’d sung to the children, and he’d hated doing it. “Conah, I know Wren. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Hmmm, his behavior is uncharacteristic for a typical mogwai.”

I studied Conah expectantly.

He sighed. “Leave him with me. The metamorphosis can take a couple of days. I’ll keep an eye on him. We can see what his personality’s like as a teen and take it from there, but keep this between us for now. I’m not sure how the other residents will take the news. It could be a case of expel him and ask questions later.” Conah looked across at me. “And Cora, be prepared for the Wren you know to be gone. The metamorphosis will change not only his body but his brain chemistry too.”

I reached out and stroked Wren’s paw, the only part of him not covered in the silver threads.

“I love you, Wren. Stay with me, buddy. Please.”

Conah insistedI eat breakfast with him. My stomach was in knots, but he was right. I’d need to keep my strength up for training and for Wren. The eggs, bacon, and sausages went down well, and before we knew it, we were on to coffee and Wren was totally cocooned.

“He’s safe.” Conah covered my hand with his and squeezed in gentle reassurance. “It’s everyone else we need to worry about.”

I didn’t want to think about that. We’d worry about it once he came out of his metamorphosis. “How’s the translation going?”

If he was thrown by the change in topic, he didn’t show it.

“Good. Interesting.” He pushed the breakfast tray aside and drew a sheaf of papers covered in neat script toward us. “The Sons of Adam have an interesting history. I read bits and pieces before sending the book to you with Jasper, but now that I’m combing through it and cross-referencing with passages I’ve found in Lilith’s journals, I’m not so sure what’s fact and what’s fiction.”

“Like what?”

“There are notes about the multiverse and parallel timelines in Lilith’s journal, but her handwriting is a frenzied scrawl, as if she couldn’t keep up with her thoughts, and I can’t make out much of it. She mentions the name Vlad.”

“The Impaler?”

“I don’t know. And something about anomalies and undying, and here we have the word eternal. She says something about guardians, and there’s a binding spell in here too. It’s a mess.”

“Undying? You think she was referring to the Sons of Adam?”

“She must have been, but the funny thing is she only mentions the phrase ‘Sons of Adam’ a couple of times. Vlad is mentioned on several pages.”

“Jasper told me he overheard Anna use the name Mordecai when referring to the Sons of Adam.”

“No mention of that name in her journal, but he’s mentioned in the other book.”

“And no clue if they can be killed?”

Conah sighed. “I’m beginning to think that the only reason she kept them alive was because she couldn’t kill them.”

“That makes no sense. Everything that lives can die. It’s the balance of nature.”

“I think these creatures exist outside of our realm of understanding.”

“But they’re products of demon and human couplings, right? Descended from Lilith and Adam’s bloodline?”

“There’s nothing in her journal to confirm that,” Conah said. “But this book.” He held up the slender, leather-bound tomb Jasper had brought for me. “This tells us they’re fraternal triplets who spawned the vamp race we know today.”

“And Lilith let them live because she couldn’t kill them?”

“I don’t know why she let them live. And I can’t be certain that they can’t be killed.”

“But they only attack at night, so they must be weaker in the day, right?”

“That’s what we can assume.”

That was something. “So maybe we apply the classic vampire lore from the Stoker books and film. Stake through the heart, decapitation or burning.”

“All things Lilith could have done. All things the coven could consider.” Conah shook his head. “No, I think there’s more to it.”

Fuck. “I need to know what we’re up against, Con.”

“Powerful ancient beings with celestial blood and no known weakness aside from what the coven did to them.”

“Drew from them to create Croatoan’s prison, and even that didn’t kill them.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “But… it weakened them for centuries…” My gaze flicked up to lock with Conah’s sapphire one as an idea bloomed in my mind.

Conah’s eyes lit up.

Yeah, he was on the same page.

“If we could weaken them again…” we both said in unison, then grinned at each other.

“We need to find out what spell the coven did all those centuries ago,” Conah said.

Urgh. “Pretty sure all accounts of how the first elders locked Croatoan away, including the spell, were lost in the east wing fire.”

“Shit. It’s a shame witches don’t live for centuries.”

No, they didn’t, but… I sat up straighter as an idea occurred to me. “The ghosts of the witches who did the spell are still here. The original elder council.”

Conah leaned in toward me. “Then we ask them.”

“They’re not exactly with it, you know? Their minds are cloudy and confused, but maybe there’s a—”

“Spell to sharpen their minds.” He smiled. “Or I use my ability.” He held up his hands.

Oh, God, yes. Conah could get into a person’s or spirit’s mind and read their memories.

I pushed back my chair. “We need to speak to Anna. Now.”