Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,66

behave like a pack of scolding aunties. But I had also listened to their conversations where they talked about “those people” or “taking care of it”, and even as a kid I knew when they were talking about hurting and even killing Sinistrals. At the time it didn’t mean much to me, it was just what people on the council did.

Now, my feelings could not be more different, but I was facing them head on.

“Helena,” said Shoshanna. She was the oldest of this group, but they were all the younger councilwomen. Shoshanna was about fifty, a tall thin hard working woman with thick black hair striped with white. Astra and Melusine were close friends with each other, Astra with largely Asian heritage and Melusine as blonde and WASPy as they come; both enjoyed discussing astrology and medicinal plants. Riggs usually just went by her last name, she was the youngest and newest member of the council, with a military demeanor and an eagerness to please the older women.

It would be much easier if I didn’t know their names and their hobbies and who grew the best roses.

But, here we were. They weren’t soft people. I couldn’t be soft either.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said. “I’m out here doing my job and suddenly you’re attacking my friends.”

“We have intel from the warlock council,” Shoshanna said. “You have been systematically working on houses that were owned by Sinistral warlocks that are on the list.”

“The list?”

“Persons of interest. And they were in possession of some valuable, ancient artifacts that we know you now have in your possession. You’re working with a crew of Sinistrals. The jig is up. Your parents have pleaded on your behalf not to hurt you, but we can only guarantee that if you come peacefully. Give up now and your work crew can go. You have about five seconds to come with us before we cast an honesty spell on you, interrogate you, and dispatch the rest of your friends.”

“What the hell? I’m a grown woman obviously just doing my job! Look how dirty I am! Do you think I’m concerned with ancient artifacts?”

“Why are these incubi here?”

“They’re…helping.” This was going nowhere fast.

They knew I knew. I knew they knew. It was like…just a silly game we were playing.

The weird thing was that I knew how far the council would go to maintain power. I’d even seen how my brother was hurt. But some part of me didn’t really believe they would ever turn brutal toward me.

Or…maybe this is actually them being gentle, I thought. If they really wanted this thing and it was just Jake, Jasper, Graham and Byron without me here, they would have killed them all without even engaging in conversation or offering them any mercy.

“Did you kill Billie and Gaston?” I asked. “Or are they just injured?”

“I don’t know,” Astra said. “We didn’t check on them. Billie went down hard and her familiar is dead.”

She said that so casually that I was horrified. Not just for Billie, but because I could tell Astra had killed enough familiars that she felt it was barely worth faking that she cared.

“Your time is up, Helena,” Shoshanna said. All four of them lifted their wands, and the wind picked up, swirling around them, as they swiftly generated a spell together.

“Don’t give in, Hel,” Byron said. “We’ll protect you.”

“Byron—”

“Don’t—give—in!” he cried. “Promise me! Be my brave queen of a new dynasty.”

I understood what he meant. I had a chance to be brave. A chance to stand with the werewolves and incubi and demand a better world.

But I wondered what good it would do, anyway, if they killed us all.

I wondered if I had a single attack spell in my arsenal that would work on four council witches.

It was equally possible that I was just freaking out about killing my mom’s friends. I mean, my brother didn’t kill Piers. These things were hard to do, to say the least. I never expected to be in the center of a war, but it was starting to look that way.

I had to trust the people who trusted me.

The council members spoke in unison, in a spell language that I didn’t even know, one too powerful to be taught to anyone below the highest of ranks, and they unleashed their spell toward us. It rushed at us in a blast of light, and I cast a defensive spell, even as I knew it wouldn’t stand against the four of them.

I’m going to