they’re just not telling all the truth. They don’t know it. Now, back in those days, Coven Leaders were also prominent figures in the human monarchies. Right around the same time King Henry VI was born, Uriel — the angel — had a son named Edward Proctor. Together, those two, with the help of many others, were able to defeat Lilith. But it required sacrifices.”
I shook my head and held my hand up. “Rewind a tad. Did you just say King Henry VI was a witch?”
“Yes.” Mum glanced over her shoulder at me and smiled. Her blue eyes sparkled in the golden lighting. “He was a witch. But he was also the Hierophant and Coven Leader.”
“WHAT?”
Her smile turned crooked. “I know what you’re thinking, he isn’t known as the best king by human standards. But he was. He was remarkable. Brilliant. He’s the reason we defeated Lilith and then the reason the human war ended.”
“Then why does history say—”
“Because he wanted it that way. It had to be that way.” Mum sighed and turned back to the painting. “He was right, too. Even if he never knew it.”
I frowned and turned to my grandmother. “What happened?”
“Heaven does not interfere lightly, and when they do they have strict rules they do not break. Archangel Michael came down and gave his sword to Edward Proctor, Uriel’s son – for only a child of Heaven could wield Heavenly power. Once the war was over and Lilith was gone, Michael told them that she wasn’t gone for good, that she’d return with a vengeance. They would never be able to defeat her without his sword, but he was only allowed to give it to Earth once.”
I shuddered. I did not like where this was going.
“So Henry, Edward, and Archangel Michael hid the sword here on Earth so that when the time came for Lilith to return, The Coven could go and retrieve it.” She wrung her hands together and glanced down at a cellphone I’d just noticed sitting on the sofa beside her. “Except, well…in order to hide it so no one else could find it, Henry had to give up his magic. All of his magic.”
My eyes widened and my pulse fluttered.
“The Lancasters are the keepers of the light, the first children of angels. Henry knew it was only our magic that could protect the sword. To hide it. So…he gave it up. But it required more than just his magic. It required every ounce of magic from the entire Lancaster bloodline. In the blink of an eye, the Lancaster magic was gone.”
“WHAT?” I looked to my mother, but she still hadn’t turned to face me.
Granny nodded. “Michael promised that when the time came, when the next war with Lilith was upon us, he would give one Lancaster their magic back and that one witch would have to go and retrieve the sword…until then no child born from a Lancaster would have magic. Those who married into the family lost theirs the second the vows were made. For six hundred years we’ve been essentially human, secretly and patiently awaiting the day our magic was returned to us.”
“Are you saying…are you telling me…” My heart pounded in my chest. “I’m the one—”
“Oh. No, no, dear.” She flushed and waved her hands. “Sorry, no. Your cousin Jackson was born with magic. He is the chosen one.”
Relief washed through me so hard I actually leaned back. I didn’t want that pressure. I didn’t want that mission. I shivered and exhaled. “So Jackson – wait, Jackson was shipped off to America for some fancy boarding school, wasn’t he?” I’d always adored my cousin, but he was rarely ever in England.
“Jackson was sent to Edenburg to study at the academy for witches. It’s located in our home country, Eden – which just so happens to be in America right now. He was sent there to study and to train so that he’d be ready when Michael returned for him.”
I whistled and shook my head. “Bugger. When will that be? When will Jackson go find the sword?”
“We didn’t know exactly, we only knew it’d be before he was eighteen. However…at six this morning, we all woke up with magic.” She stood and walked over to me, then sat down on the step beside me. Then she took my hands in hers. “We don’t have the confirmation yet, no one has been able to get ahold of Jackson this morning, but we have to assume that since all of our