Page 64 of Familiar of the Witch

‘Help you understand? Why? So you can pity me and my choices? I pityyou, Amber,’ he said forcefully. ‘Your mind is so closed. If you would open yourself up to the possibility of darker power, you could begreat.’

‘No,’ I said firmly. ‘Never.’ Never again.

'Pain is a great resource, Amber,’ he tried again. ‘When I broke that clearing on your mind, the magic didn’t take it’s toll on me, instead, it gifted me with strength from your pain. I was buzzing with power afterwards.’

The thought that he’d used my pain for his own gain made me feel faintly sick. And I wasn’t the only one whose pain he’d used. He’d removed Cindy’s tail and killed her. A familiar! ‘Goddess, Jeb, it’s so wrong. How could you do that to Cindy?’

He shrugged. ‘Something in black-magic use is making our familiars sick. No matter what you think of us, we love our familiars. Madame X is making potions to keep them going. She needs tails and the pain of their removal whilst the familiars are still alive. I was instructed to harvest a tail. Ria had made her about-turn known but there’s no leaving the black Coven, not ever. Ria had to be told that. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a mutilation is worth a million. So ... Cindy.’

‘Why not harm Ria’s familiar, Fido?’ Fido was a small brown mouse that often lived in Ria’s pocket.

‘The death of her mother’s familiar was sufficient punishment. The black Coven demands strength – we wouldn’t willingly make one of our own weak by removingtheir familiar, even to give them a lesson. Better to kill a family member’s.’ His tone was matter of fact. No doubt it would also have been tricky to separate Ria from Fido.

‘That’s insane,’ I muttered, horrified that anyone could even contemplate harming or killing a familiar as punishment. It was wrong on every level.

‘Letting insubordination go unpunished is insane,’ he countered. ‘I even got to clean up the scene.’ He smirked. ‘I took the blood-soaked carpet from the scene of her death because that held pain that could be used.’ His smirk turned vicious. ‘And it wasn’t even Cindy’s body that we cremated because I’d given it to Madame X for parts. Your oh-so-touching eulogy was for a stuffed toy cat.’

Horror clawed at me; depriving Cindy of her final rites was monstrous. ‘You’re evil,’ I whispered. ‘What other horrors have you committed?’

‘Too many to name,’ he said honestly.

‘Killing Melva – that was you?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, but that was because I was ordered to. Nothing personal.’

Rage flared in me. ‘Why?’

‘To keep you from learning about the prophecy, of course.’

‘And how do you know about that?’

‘Your fatherknew about its existence but he also knew you mustn’t hear it. Steps had to be taken.’

Unfortunately for them, Ihadheard it. They’d killed Melva too late, but they didn’t need to know that. ‘And the attacks on my mother, on me? Were those “nothing personal”, too?’

He waved away my words. ‘The attacks on your mum were never serious. They were a distraction for you. She was safe, she had griffin protectors.’ His expression turned a tad wistful. ‘I had a plan, Amber. I was going to woo you, make you fall in love with me. Your father would have seen me as his son-in-law and I could have inherited his whole empire. You don’t know what it’s like Amber, being a male in a matriarchal society. There are no coven fathers, Amber.’

‘Oh boo hoo,’ I snapped. ‘The UK is still a patriarchal society. Men are still paid more than women. There are only 34% of women as directors of top FTSE 100 companies. The glass ceiling is alive and well. Witches may be matriarchal, but our society isn’t. Don’t expect me to cry a river. And besides, there may not be coven fathers, but we have men on the coven council too, just as many as we have women.’

Helooked at me with exasperation. ‘But there’s no male Crone, no male equivalent of the Triune. The Leader is going to change all of that. You’ll see.’ He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. ‘You never saw me as anything other than dear, harmless Jeb, did you? I didn’t stand a chance. I waited too long, overdid the kindness routine. I thought I had time, but you had me friend-zoned. If you didn’t come round in a year or two, there are plenty of enchanted artefacts that would have made you fall in love with me, but the Leader was against that. I couldn’t risk his disapproval. If I could just have won you over, he would have been so pleased.’

Jeb huffed out a breath. ‘

You made me fail him.’ He glared at me and gestured towards Bastion. ‘If I’d known you were into bestiality I would have moved faster. Fucking a creature Amber? Really?’

Bastion’s growl was low and threatening and I felt his anger rising. Jeb’s answering smirk was triumphant. Bastion took a step toward him. ‘Stop!’ I ordered. ‘He’s goading you. Hewantsyou to kill him. We saw how the evil Coven deals with those that fail.’

Jeb ignored my jab and smiled as he taunted Bastion. ‘Yes, stop. Like a good little guard dog. Woof-woof.’

‘You attacked mymum,’ I interjected, trying to bring the focus back to the interrogation.

He shrugged. ‘Not seriously, only enough to divert attention. She wasn’t harmed – we just needed her to be moved from the home she was in. The griffins guarding her were more than a match for the vampyrs I sent.’

‘Why did you need her to be moved?’

‘Why? So that we could recover the harkan crystal from her room, of course.’

I felt the room closing in on me. ‘What? Why would Mum have the harkan crystal?’

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