Page 54 of Familiar of the Witch

‘Half its potential was still pretty terrifying,’ I muttered. ‘They opened a portal to the daemon realm and pottered through like it was a trip to shops.’

‘Maybe it is for them,’ Bastion said morosely. ‘They’re getting all those dark artefacts from somewhere.’

‘Or they’re making them,’ I countered. ‘We need that list.’ Because someone on that list had Frogmatch. ‘We need the list,’ I repeated firmly. ‘And I know just who we can talk to to get it.’

Chapter 43

Kass huffed; the huff sounded loud and grumpy over the speakerphone. ‘I really can’t give that to you, Amber,’ she said firmly.

I’d called her because I wasn’t sure whether she was back in her home Coven of Liverpool or still in Edinburgh. Apparently, she was in Edinburgh.

‘I need the list,’ I insisted. ‘We both know that I’ll only use it for good. I’m sure the Coven Council will be disseminating it to the other Coven mothers before long. We have to know who needs to be looked at more closely.’

‘That is not the current plan,’ she said drily. ‘We don’t want to blinker anyone. We all need to look internally at everyone, not just the ones noted as absent. We can’t guarantee that those who are missingareblack witches, and the Council is afraid we’ll start a witch hunt.’

I should have known that the Council’s decisive action was too good to be true; they were great at information gathering but glacial at action. I shook my head angrily. ‘The Council is being played – a black witch is there, telling you a bunch of lies. Who said we shouldn’t be looking hard at the missing witches?’

Kass’s voice tightened. ‘I cannot share Council’s deliberations with you, Amber. You know that.’

I hissed with exasperation. ‘Kass, you have got tothink.We need this list!’

‘The list is going to be given to someone else,’ she blurted.

‘Who?’

She paused for a long moment and I thought she wasn’t going to answer. ‘The Crone.’

I stilled. ‘We don’t have a Crone.’

She dropped her voice. ‘Willow is going to be the conduit. She is starting the ceremony now. She’s going to call on the Goddess to show us the identity of the new Crone.’

I blinked. ‘I thought there was an application process and a test?’

‘In calmer times, maybe. But the Council felt that we are in such dire straits that something needed to be done now. Willow, the Mother and the Maiden have sequesteredthemselves; they’ve already prepared the pentagram with runes. In a moment, they’ll be joining us and we will see what guidance the Goddess gives us.’

Her tone was joyful and exultant. Having the Goddess channelled in your presence was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It would leave Willow exhausted for weeks, but the Council wasn’t wrong: the situation was dire.

‘Shouldn’t it be you doing all this rather than Willow?’ I asked. Whilst Kass was technically the newest member of the Council, she was also its most senior one. She was the Coven member for the Symposium and represented us all at Symposium meetings. Despite being new,sheshould be the big boss in town.

‘It should be my job,’ she agreed flatly. ‘But Willow offered – firmly. The others agreed before I could get a word in edgeways.’

‘You may be new to the role, but you tested as the one with the most aptitude out of all of the applicants. And any one of them could have applied – Willow included. You can’t let them walk all over you. You have to start as you mean to go on.’

‘I know.’ She sighed unhappily. ‘I didn’t want to rock theboat.’

‘You need more self-confidence. You have to rock the boat because they need to know it’syourboat.’

‘It doesn’t feel like it’s my boat.’

Benji scratched his head and joined in the conversation. ‘I didn’t know anyone was planning on sailing. Is the boat by Portobello beach?’

Bastion snorted quietly. ‘It’s a metaphorical boat.’

‘Ah.’

Kass laughed, too. ‘Okay, that helped. I feel better. Oh crap, I’d better go. Willow is coming back in and everyone is glaring at me. I guess no phone calls are allowed when destinies are being made. Talk to you later.’ She rang off without a goodbye.

Benji and David stood up. ‘We’re being summoned.’ Benji’s eyes flashed white. Without another word, their clothes sank into their skin and they sank into the walls. In moments they were gone.

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