Page 70 of Reaper Unhinged
“So we both have huge…things to discuss.”
Okay, this is headed into double entendre territory, not my intention. “Fee has started sleepwalking and trying to kill herself while doing it.”
He sits back and steeples his fingers. “Tell me more.”
“It started a few days ago, a scratching at the back of her mind, then the episodes of sleepwalking. Both times she ended up on a ledge about to jump. No, let me amend, the first time shedidjump, and luckily for her, there was someone to catch her. Oh, and she heard a voice in her head, urging her to do it. To jump.”
Jean returns with my hot chocolate, sets it down, and then beams at Elijah before leaving.
I take a sip. It is just the right temperature, sweet and thick just the way I like it. “I think it’s the hooded figures. They tried to kill her and failed, and so this is their new tactic. They must have done something to her.”
“It sounds like a reasonable explanation,” Elijah says. “But it would help more if we knew why they wanted your friend dead, and I have a theory about that.”
“You do?”
“Yes, but to understand my theory, you’ll need to understand a little about the world I come from.”
Um… “Okay…”
“I work with the Grimswood witches.”
“The super coven up north?”
His smile is wry. “The very one. We’re different. Our magic is…unique.”
“Not miasma?”
“Not exactly. The coven gains its power from the power of the stars, from the zodiac, and particularly the constellation of Ophiuchus. We call it the Thirteenth sign.”
“Last I checked, there are only twelve signs.”
“Yes, astrologers wanted the signs to fit with the months in a year, so Ophiuchus was forgotten…deliberately, we believe, because a witch born under the sign of Ophiuchus has the potential to be extremely powerful. There are only a handful born every century, and the Grimswood coven relies on them to act as an anchor for the coven. They keep an ancient threat at bay, and they have been hunted by the Grimswood adversaries for centuries. Cut down before they can reach their full potential.”
“You think Fee is one of these Ophiuchus witches? You think that’s why she’s being hunted.”
“No,” Elijah says with a smirk. “Fee isn’t the Ophiuchus. You are.”
* * *
I stare at him, uncomprehending. “What?”
“When were you created?”
“I don’t know…I found Fee the first week of December. I guess…I guess then.”
“It’s the time of Ophiuchus, and you took Fee’s witch power. You don’t require a connection to a coven to access miasma, and you don’t need to use blood, sex, or pain.”
“I—”
“You’re an Ophiuchus, created by a witch born of an Ophiuchus.”
My heart is thundering hard in my chest. “Wait, you think Fee’s mother was an Ophiuchus.”
“I am certain of it. The fire you spoke off, burning so hot it turned bone to ash, that is Bone flame. The Grimswood adversaries have scouts with this ability.”
“Hooded figures? Tulpas?”
“I think maybe they’ve found a new way to scout…Maybe they have someone strong enough to control tulpas. It would make sense. It would fit. The current Grimswood anchor is weakening. Her time is almost up, and we must have a new anchor. Our adversaries have been hunting potentials for years. We’ve managed to find most of them and are working to bring them into the fold, and now…Now I’ve found you.”
