Page 134 of Her Blood Revenge

‘A few miles north. Why? What is happening?’ the coven leader asks.

‘We have to go and help them!’ I look at Archie.

He faces me. ‘No. They’re on their own, Pix.’

‘How can someone so strong and powerful be such a fucking coward?’ I hiss.

‘And how can someone who was almost slaughtered by their coven be so willing and desperate to risk their life to save them? And then repeat the process with a coven she doesn’t even know?’ He throws an accusatory finger at Thalia. ‘Or sit and have a nice little chat with her after everything she did?’

‘Get your finger out of her face, Arch,’ Leo warns.

He ignores him and continues to try and argue with me. I cut him off.

‘Another slaughtered coven will only make Neve stronger. Whatever she is doing has a purpose.’

‘Yeah. One that seems to revolve around you! She needs you. So you’re not going anywhere near her.’

The ceiling of water above us groans and ripples.

‘That’s a hell of a lot of water to fall on us if the enchantments around us fail.’

‘Stating the obvious, Pix.’

‘Then let’s do something about it!’

The water witchcries hard and doubles over as her magic is drained and redirected. The curse of being a member of a coven. Of being owned by so many.

A fate I avoided.

I never made my pledge.

‘If we do nothing, Neve grows more powerful, and another coven will fall!’ I argue.

‘Let them fall. I have no love for filthy fucking witches!’ he yells hatefully. His words echo around me, repeating over and over. Each time he hears it, his face falls.

‘I’m a witch, Archie.’

‘I didn’t mean you.’

His hateful words shouldn’t come as a surprise. They shouldn’t hurt.

Yet they do.

I turn to the coven leader.

‘You have to send someone to help them,’ I tell her. ‘Please.’

She stands firm. A fierce and stone-cold expression on her weathered face.

‘Yourcompanionis right. The covens out there are on their own. My only concern is the safety and protection ofthiscoven. We stay hidden. That is how we survived imprisonment or death by the likes of your lover.’

‘You cowards. You are all fucking cowards!’

The water witch falls unconscious.

I spin to Archie.

‘We’re going.’

---