Page 65 of Familiar of the Witch

His smirk was dark, twisted and full of schadenfreude. ‘Because she was its latest creator.’

‘You’re lying,’ I spat.

‘Am I? Your mum isn’t roses and kittens, Amber. Why do you think she went to the Third realm so much?’

‘To be there for me, to raise me.’

He laughed. ‘Poor Amber, so delusional. Do you think your mother is stupid? Why would she risk her sanity for something so inane? No. She was trying to undo her so-called crimes. But some things can’t be undone, no matter how hard you try.’

I looked atOscar. He was glaring at Jeb but his eyes were resigned. ‘It can’t be true,’ I breathed. ‘Oscar, tell me it isn’t true.’ He said nothing and my heart broke.

While we were distracted, Jeb pulled a knife from his ankle holster. He threw himself at me, the blade raised. But Bastion wasn’t distracted; Bastion is never distracted. Jeb was only two steps from me when Bastion’s talons tore through his throat. Crimson blood sprayed over me as he collapsed inches from me, staining my rug.

So Jeb had got his death by griffin after all, I thought dully. At least this time Bastion had let me question my erstwhile assistant before he’d meted out his own permanent brand of justice.

Chapter 53

I showered off Jeb’s blood whilst Bastion and Benji disposed of his body via a quick trip to the Coven incinerator. As I stepped out of the shower, I felt clean but utterly lost.

Oscar had made me an orange juice and he held it out to me, looking uncertain. I stared at it but didn’t take it. ‘You knew? You knew she’d used black magic?’

Frustration was visible in every line of his body. ‘It’s not like you think. What she did was for the greater good, Amber. She’s a good woman.’

‘She used evil magic. Yes or no?’

He grimaced then nodded. ‘Yes. As did you, once,’ he pointed out softly.

The wind went out of my sails. ‘Yes,’ I sighed. ‘I did – when I was young and stupid.’ I had saved Jake’s life using black runes, brought him back from the brink of death, but he had never been the same. I had often blamed theblack magic, the runes, but I should never have painted them on him. I should have let him die, but at the time I couldn’t.

‘Your mother was young once, too,’ he murmured. ‘She was trying to do what was right.’

‘The end doesn’t justify the means.’

‘Doesn’t it? That’s a question for each of us and our own measure of what is right and wrong.’

‘Can you tell me what she did?’

He shook his head, ‘She made me swear—’

‘—an oath.’ I sighed. Mum sure did love her oaths.

I had seen first-hand with Abigay what the cost of breaking one of Mum’s oaths was: death. So, although it half-killed me, I didn’t press Oscar.

The silence that stretched between us was tense and heavy, its weight like an anvil on my chest. My heart hurt and I suspected Oscar’s did too. I didn’t want that for him; it wasn’t his fault.

I’d been meaning to raise something and now seemed like the perfect time so I broke the silence. ‘I saw you.’

‘What?’ he asked, confused. ‘When?’

‘When Jeb broke the clearing on my mind. I was focusing on recovering forgotten memories from my father. Some of the memories given back to mewere the ones that had been cleared from me, but others were forgotten ones. Forgotten memories of myotherfather – forgotten memories of you. I remembered you brushing my hair for school and putting it in a plait. I remembered you doing maths homework with me at the dining room table. I remembered you sitting with me while I practised my runes.’

I cleared my throat. ‘From the moment you entered my life, blood relative or not, you were always there for me. I want you to know how much I appreciate that, Oscar. How much I appreciateyou.’

His eyes filled with tears and he looked away so I couldn’t see them. ‘Hey,’ I said firmly, ‘don’t be ashamed of your tears. You’re allowed to have big emotions too.’ I was channelling Bastion.

He swallowed hard and looked at me nervously. ‘For the longest time I’ve wanted to ask you something.’

‘Anything,’ I said simply. Oscar had killed ogres by chargrilling them, flung flames around like a pyrotechnician, defended me against all and sundry – yet now he looked uneasy. ‘Anything,’ I reiterated firmly, touching his hand.

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