Page 39 of The Endless One

“I would like to go home,” Agnes murmured. “My boy…”

Hugo. Alexander. They both had remained in the Pleasure District, and Jessamine knew what that meant.

“You shouldn’t go alone,” she replied.

“It’s my duty. I should be the one to find them and handle it if…” Agnes swallowed. “When we find out the state they’re in.”

“Keep them safe.” Jessamine made sure to hold Agnes’s gaze, certain the older woman needed to hear her say it. “We’re going to get them back.”

“As you wish, gravesinger.”

Jessamine sent them all out into her kingdom. It was a larger project than even she had considered. There were thousands of people to put in safe homes, and if she was lucky, they would find all of them and make sure they were all okay.

“Just be careful!” she warned as the last few witches headed off. “Elric said the more we move everyone, the worse the spell is going to unravel. Move people intentionally, from the far corners of the district, and head in. That way, as it unravels, everyone who you previously moved will be safely inside.”

She had no way of knowing how long this would take. But she had never guessed it would be the better part of two weeks to fix what had been broken in her kingdom. There were so many people who had been outside. So many people who had been previously infected. They had to seal doors, make sure windows were boarded over; it took a lot of time, even aided by magic.

Jessamine had never seen so many spells flying through the air. She could feel the crackling energy every morning when she woke up, and it danced upon her skin every night when she fell asleep wherever she could. They all saved so many people, and still, somehow, it felt like they had done nothing at all.

Perhaps that was just exhaustion speaking, though. Two weeks of manual labor, casting spells, and encouraging shadows to do her bidding had been tiring.

But the stasis spell held. Even after all the movement.

The coven gathered in the courtyard of the castle. Successful after all these many weeks. Even Elric had joined them, although he was still a little grumpy that not only had her plan worked, but they had actually managed to contain everyone. Yes, his sleeping spell degraded by the time they were done, but now it was safe to wander around the kingdom and no one had to die.

The front garden of the courtyard was overgrown now. Usually, there was a gardener to take care of the manicured front area that was behind the castle’s gates, but Leon had left no one here at all. Inverholm had become a kingdom ruled by a king across the sea.

Anger still burned in her chest because of that. Her home deserved better than what it had been given, but she was back. Finally. And she would make sure the castle was given the care that it was owed.

The doors to the servant’s quarters burst open, banging loudly as a group of four witches came out with their arms laden with wine. Jessamine paused where she was, blinking in shock at all the bottles those women somehow held.

Laughter bubbled up in the air as one of the witches shouted, “Look at what we found!”

Sybil shook her head where she was seated on a bench beside Jessamine. “This is more like the coven I remember already. Good wine, a feast at the end of a long day of spells, and laughter that never ended.”

“I could get used to this, then.” Jessamine glanced over at Agnes, who had taken up an entire bench, dramatically lying down across the entire thing. “Agnes, darling, do you think you could pull all the benches into a circle for us?”

“I only just lay down, Jessamine.”

“And yet…” She sang the last word, hoping that the other witch would get what she was trying to encourage.

Agnes did. She sat up, groaning and frustrated, but still hauled the benches to the right area. Unfortunately, they had found Hugo in the Pleasure District, along with Alexander. Both of the young men had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were just as infected as the rest of the people in this kingdom, and thus, remained in the old coven house in the Pleasure District. Locked up with all the other spirits.

The rest of the coven had succumbed to the same fate. Jessamine wouldn’t forget the sound of their nails scratching on the door as the witches left them all in that home that was supposed to keep them all safe.

Sybil’s hand came down on her back, rubbing up and down for a moment before they joined the others.

“Elric!” Sybil called out, her voice almost too gleeful. “Will you do the honors?”

“The honors?” Jessamine asked as she sat down in the ring with the other witches. She was passed an entire bottle of wine, already uncorked.

Elric slumped down beside her on the bench, one of his arms stretched out behind her. “Witches always like bonfires. Ironically. But after everything we have done, all the spells, all the magic, there is a sense of comfort in a fire that people love.”

At his words, a few witches came over with logs levitating between them. They piled them high, one by one, and then Elric lifted his hand. She could see him pull the magic out of an elemental witch. It ripped out of her chest, the woman giving a little gasp as it did so, and then the white-hot spark landed on the logs.

It was still strange to see him yank magic out of someone like that. He did it so nonchalantly, like it wasn’t a big deal that he had just torn a woman’s magic out of her chest. But it was magic that he had given her, so was it really all that bad?

Jessamine gulped down a mouthful of wine and told her mind to quiet. She was still new to all this, still learning what it meant to be a witch, and they knew better than her. The other woman didn’t complain about it, anyway.