Page 93 of Traitor Witch
The voice snaps my attention back to the figure on the dais.
I have to blink to make sure the sunlight isn't making me see things.
"Felicity?" I whisper.
But it's not her. Her hair, eyes, and face may be nearly identical, but I can tell the difference the instant a frown appears on the High Priestess's face. Felicity frowned withher brows, but the anger of this matriarch is etched into her whole face.
"I am High Priestess Elodie, mother of Felicity and Mother Solar of Ilyani," she says, her voice harsh and unforgiving.
Shit. Felicity's mother.
I sink to my knees, as I should have the moment I was addressed. My eyes stay glued to the floor as I wait for the deathblow.
"You saved one of my coven." Her tone manages to seem disapproving. "Yet killed my daughter."
I raise my head, because if I'm going to die, I might as well do it defending myself. "I didn't kill her. My only fault is that I couldn't save her. I swear that's the truth."
Her dark eyes, so similar to her daughter's, pierce through me like daggers.
The next minute is the longest of my life.
"Tell me how she died."
I swallow, but don't look away.
"We were flying together on the last day of my fostering. Felicity offered me the chance to join her coven. I'd just turned her down when her broom malfunctioned. She flew straight over the salt wall and crashed, but my broom wasn't fast enough to save her before the wraiths reached her."
Another long pause, my story being considered carefully.
"I believe you," Elodie whispers. "But that does not mean you are welcome here. We've already heard what you did to the Lunar temple. You are trouble, Shadow, and we have had enough suffering already. Ask your questions, then leave Ilyani."
I nod once and drag the ring out from around my neck.
"I need to find the owner of this."
Elodie doesn't blink.
"That is the crest of Mother Lunar Petra, who left this city almost a decade ago."
A stone sinks in my gut. "A Mother Lunar?"
"She took her coven across the sea to Idos after suffering many losses." Elodie finally breaks our eye contact, and I resist the urge to sigh in relief as she paces away from me. "She planned on building a sanctuary there for all witches, though I don't know if she ever succeeded."
"The Goddess sent me on a mission to avenge the murderer of my High Priestess, Glenna. If this ring belongs to Petra..."
Elodie snorts. "I sincerely doubt that the Moon Goddess wishes you to harm Petra. Glenna's corruption is well known to us. It is more than likely that the Lady of the Moon has simply set you on the same path which has already taken Petra's best Shadows."
"Glenna's corruption?" I echo, dumbly.
"Come girl, you can't truly believe that a Shadow of the Moon is sent to kill businessmen and town officials in one small, backwater city? A true Shadow travels across the world to take lives at the Goddess’s whim. All Glenna did was play goddess, and her hubris and love for you doomed her."
There is a tense silence, but Elodie doesn't give me time to try to work through what she's telling me.
"That is all I will say. Lunar affairs are not the business of Solar witches, and I have said too much already. Leave this city, Nilsa av Coveton." She takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders, and delivers another blow. "Take Elsie with you."
The girl looks up like she's been stung. "Mother Solar?"
Elodie's face is calm, but resolute.
