Page 5 of Familiar of the Witch

‘Have you tried taking 4312?’ Some potions have names but all of them have a numeric designation. I wished to heck I’d stuck with numbers rather than naming my ORAL potion. Live and learn.

Kass frowned. ‘Isn’t 4312 a muscle-building potion? For use after long-term comas?’

‘Yes, but I’ve been researching fibromyalgia and exercise comes up frequently as something that helps. It makes sense that 4312 might have some positive effects.’

She blinked. ‘I’ve never thought of that. I’ll definitely try it.’ She gave me a rueful smile. ‘I’ll try anything at this point. Pain management only does so much.’

‘Yeah, that sucks.’ Although I am bad at verbalising my feelings, she deserved my best efforts so I tried. ‘You do so much for so many. Your Coven admire you –Iadmire you. Some people in your circumstances would fall down and they wouldn’t get back up. But you … you keep on going. I admire that a great deal.’

Kass looked away. When she looked back at me, there were tears in her eyes. ‘Thank you. I appreciate that more than you know.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I feel like a fraudhaving the membership seat,’ she confessed in a wobbly voice. ‘It should have been you.’

‘We all battle imposter syndrome now and again, even me. You deserve the seat,’ I said firmly. ‘You earned it. I trust you to use it for the betterment of witches everywhere. Now, you’d better go. I don’t want you getting caught. Mack will be back soon, no doubt. Tell Bastion I’m okay, alright?’

‘I will. Hang in there, Amber. The trial starts in the morning. Get some more sleep.’

With the food and drink warming me, I planned to do nothing of the sort. After all, the witching hours were for plotting. I touched the kiss mark that the imp Frogmatch had once given me. It was time to call in some favours.

Chapter 4

I watched Frogmatch disappear through the bars and move off, his little claws clacking on the cold flagstones. Dawn was still an hour or two away as I huddled on the pathetic excuse for a bed, hoping my plans with the imp would bear fruit.

I was still sitting there, shivering, when a vampyr phased into my cell. A scream slipped out of my throat before I could quash it. My bound hands fumbled with my skirts, wrenching them out of the way to grasp the hilt of my athame.

The vampyr hovered before me, waiting almost patiently for me to produce my weapon. His eyes were leached to black; he was being controlled by a necromancer.

I raised my athame. With my wrists bound, I had no option but to adopt a two-handed grip. My heart was thundering, but I struggled not to show my fear as I shotto my feet so I had room to manoeuvre. But even with the best will in the world, I knew I couldn’t beat a vampyr, not with their lightning reflexes and super speed. Not when I could barely hold a weapon. I wished for magic with all of my heart, but nothing came.

The vampyr smiled and its teeth were blood red. ‘Hello, my daughter. You’ve been looking for me.’ His voice was a low groan, discordant, like the words were being pushed unwillingly out of a bagpipe.

A chill ran down my spine. My father was controlling the vampyr! Goddess, my mum’s fears hadn’t been unfounded. My father wasn’t just a black witch; he was a necromancer.

‘You’re a necromancer,’ I stated the obvious aloud.

‘Yes,’ he said a moment later using the vampyr’s rattling, wheezing breath. ‘You could be great too, Amber. You’ve done well and I’m very proud of you, but you could be even greater than you are. You have so much potential that it glitters in you, my child, but you have only scratched the surface of your worth.’

‘I know what I’m worth,’ I disagreed. ‘Nothing will make me kill for power.’

A huffingbroken sound bubbled from the vampyr’s lips and it took me a moment to realise that he was laughing. Revulsion swept through me.

‘You’d be surprised what you will do, Amber. Perhaps not for power but for love. I see the way you look at Bastion. What would you do to keep him safe?’

Anything.An icy shiver slid down my spine and fear pricked my scalp. My father – whoever he was – had been watching me closely enough to know that I had feelings for Bastion. It wasn’t love. It was just … loneliness, the need for companionship. Bastion was yin to my yang but that didn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean love.

‘Bastion doesn’t need me to keep him safe,’ I retorted.

‘That may be right, daughter, that may be right. But perhaps one day there will be the pitter-patter of tiny feet and then we’ll see what you wouldn’t do for your children.’

I didn’t tell him that I didn’t want children; he didn’t deserve to have that knowledge about me. ‘Don’t pretend that you became a necromancer for me. Youleftme.’

‘I was forced to!’ The words came out in a furious snarl and a drop of the vampyr’s bloody red spit landed on my cheek. I forced myself not to wipe it away and to hold the blade steady.

‘You could have sworn to have stayed a white witch instead of twisting further into darkness,’ I argued. Then I changed tack. ‘Was it you who attacked my mother?’

The vampyr’s head twitched sharply. ‘None of the attacks on your mother were designed to harm her.’

For some reason I believed him. ‘Then whatwerethey designed to do?’ I asked impatiently.

The vampyr smiled. ‘I’ve no doubt you’ll find out soon enough. You’re fairly implacable once you get started.’ His head twitched violently to the other side and blue eyes flashed at me for a moment, full of horror and revulsion.

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