Page 87 of The Heartless One
This time, she would not make the same mistake.
“Here it is,” Sybil murmured, pausing in front of a quaint cottage that seemed far too meager for Fortuna, even as a hiding place. It was small, with stone walls and a fence that was well kept, with flowers all around it.
“This looks like a fairy house,” Jessamine muttered. She placed her hand on the front gate, pausing only when Sybil touched her arm.
Jessamine quirked a brow, looking at the other witch, who should have been rushing just like her.
“Don’t make any rash decisions in there,” Sybil muttered.
“I don’t plan to.”
“You’ve made a habit of doing so, Jessamine. I want you to know that I will be there with you, but neither of us can underestimate her. She is a dangerous woman, a viper waiting for us to come to her in her den. You get lost in your own mind and memories sometimes, dear one.”
Jessamine nodded shakily. “I’m not here to save anyone or to linger in the memories I have ofdearFortuna. What I once felt for her was lost the moment she killed all those people in her home. There is no saving a woman like her.”
“Then what are you planning to do?”
Jessamine could feel the costs of her past churning inside her. All the people who she still felt guilt over losing. Benji and the terror he’d felt as she yanked his memories out of him. Callum, the man who had once been like a father to her and who had betrayed her for fear of what he would become.
Fortuna would be another name added to that list. Yet another person who had once been important to Jessamine. But now, she would have to suffer.
Licking her lips, she replied, “I’m going to do the same thing I did to all those who stood in my way before. Callum’s punishment is a mere flicker compared to what I intend to do to this woman who took so much from so many.”
Sybil’s hand landed on top of hers on the gate, and she squeezed Jessamine’s fingers. Together, they stared at each other. Two women who had gone through too much in their lives. And this was their moment to take down a part of what had made it so hard.
“Together,” Sybil said. “For all the witches who came before us.”
“And all the witches who will come after.”
They pushed the gate open and strode toward the front door. Jessamine could see there was a moment where Sybil started to go around the back, but Jessamine wasn’t going to play that game. Instead, she spread her fingers and called upon the magic that was finally listening to her.
Elric’s shadows always seemed to cling to her. But now they creptout from underneath the bushes, rolled over the edge of the roofline, and dropped down at her feet. Even Nyx appeared from her shadow, prowling out of the darkness and arching her back beside Jessamine as she stared at the door.
“It is time, my darlings,” she whispered. “Find her!”
They slithered away, sinking underneath the door and through the cracks around the windows. Anywhere they could get into the house, they did. The only one who remained at her side was Nyx, who snarled and hissed as she stared at the door. One by one, all the lights in the house blinked out.
“What spell is that?” Sybil asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.
“It’s not a spell. It’s just… magic.”
The other witch looked at her then with a sharp expression, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. And perhaps Jessamine should have felt the same way. She didn’t know why she was able to do this now, but since the party at Fortuna’s, her magic bent to her will almost intuitively. All she could figure was that she was closer to Elric than she had ever been before.
And with that closeness, something inside of her had awakened.
She opened the front door, and Nyx slipped through her legs to disappear inside. A glimmering dark thread connected the two of them, linking her with her familiar, making it simple to follow the little cat through the house.
Nyx was the first to find the wards that Fortuna had thrown up with the last sliver of the Crone she still had. The throbbing red magic permeated the house, but it was weak. Far weaker than it should have been.
Jessamine reached for Sybil’s hand, and together, they whispered a spell. The words were ugly and dark, but they severed through the Crone’s magic with ease. There wasn’t much left of it, after all.
She could hear the faint sounds of Fortuna moving about. Her cousin wasn’t being quiet, which suggested she believed her wards would hold. So Jessamine slipped into the single bedroom and sat down in one of the twin chairs before a fireplace. Sybil remained by the door, ready to close it behind Fortuna once she decided to join them.
It was a nice room. The cottage had likely once been owned by someone with excellent taste. The chair was deep and comfortable. The bed was cushioned nicely and decorated with a hand-sewn quilt that looked ready for grandchildren to bounce on top of it. There were even paintings on the wall, clearly done by a novice artist but depicting flowers from the garden they’d just walked through.
The door opened, and Fortuna walked through with a candle in her hand. “He couldn’t have put me up in a nicer place?” she muttered. “Of course not. Why would a king spend any money at all on the woman who got him his throne? Damnable man.”
Jessamine felt Nyx crawl into her lap. The tiny cat sprawled over both of her thighs, her eyes reflecting the candlelight back at Fortuna.
