Based on what we saw happen at Zara’s house—”
“They were trying to perform chaos magic, correct?” Yanna asked.
“Yes. Fortunately, they failed. As soon as it became clear the spell wasn’t going to work, Zara shoved Giselle into the pond holding the sacrificial souls.”
“They also floated a paper with a strange design onto the same water,” Harlow added.
Yanna’s brows lifted. “Did it look as though it was drawn in blood?”
“Maybe.” Harlow looked at him, then Dulcinea. “What do you think?”
Dulcinea nodded. “Definitely could have been blood.”
“It was a sigil,” Yanna said. “They would have used one to focus the spell and direct the chaos energy toward their goal.” She frowned. “I wonder why the spell didn’t work.”
“Because,” Harlow said. “Cy got me out of the pond without the witches knowing about it. They thought they had the right number of souls.”
“So that’s why Zara pushed Giselle in? To add the soul they needed?” Yanna clucked her tongue. “Those witches are a cold, calculating lot.”
“It gets worse,” Augustine added. “Adding Giselle to the pond didn’t work the way Zara had hoped. Something went wrong. Giselle emerged from the pond with one of the sacrificial souls melded to hers.” Explaining this without mentioning the lightning tree was growing more difficult. “It seems to have grown her power exponentially. She killed Zara like it was nothing. She also set fire to the house. And she’s got another wizard working for her, under fear of death most likely, by the name Ian.”
Yanna’s expression held many questions. “How do you know she has this other soul? Why would that give her more power? I don’t understand how this all happened. A failed casting of a chaos spell should have killed them all.”
Augustine glanced at Harlow. The look she gave him in return said she understood what he was struggling with.
She swallowed before addressing the table. “I know I’m not officially one of you yet, but—”
“Yes, you are,” Dulcinea interjected. “Don’t worry about what’s official and what’s not.”
Augustine smiled at her. He loved that she and Harlow had come to this new understanding, loved they were acting like a team and not competitors.
“Thank you,” Harlow said. “With that understanding, I assume anything said here can be kept in confidence?”
He knew what she was leading up to. “What you’re about to tell us won’t go beyond this room.” He glanced around the table, taking a moment to pause on each face. Yanna, Sydra, Dulcinea and Fenton all gave him a nod in return. “Go ahead, Harlow. Your words won’t go beyond these walls.”
She took a deep breath. “Inside my mother’s house, my house, I mean, the house that Augustine and I share, inside that house there is a very powerful thing called a lightning tree. It’s been there longer than the house.”
Yanna gasped. “I thought that was a fae legend. That’s real?”
Harlow nodded. “I wish it wasn’t.”
Fenton spoke up. “If you go back far enough in the archives, you’ll find sealed records of the deal made between Lally Hughes’s mother, the original owner of the land the tree was on, and the fae Elektos at that time. They built the house around the tree, weaving in protective and secretive magic to keep the tree hidden and to cause its memory to fade from people’s minds. Lally Hughes was granted immunity from this magic and as caretaker was promised the right to stay with the tree her entire life. Which she’s done.”
“It’s not like she has much of a choice,” Harlow said. “She can’t get too far from the tree for too long or she gets sick.” She sighed. “Anyway, I did something stupid. I tried to use the tree to bring my dead twin sister, Ava Mae, back to life. I poured her ashes onto the tree and she did come back to life, just not the way I expected. The tree turned her into a kind of spirit that was warped with the tree’s magic. She possessed me and it wasn’t until the witches threw me into the pond that I was able to get free of Ava Mae.”
Yanna made a bleak face. “I can already see where this is going. Ava Mae is the soul that melded with Giselle, isn’t she?”
“Yes. Worse, we’re pretty sure Giselle broke into our house, stole a piece of the lightning tree and had it on her. That’s how Ava Mae was drawn to her and able to take control of her.”
Sydra shook her head. “Unbelievable.”
“Tell me about it.” Harlow made