“Did it work?” Cam looked up eagerly. “Do you remember me?”
“I remember that you drive like an old man.”
A smile split across his face. “Too bad,” he said. “I was hoping I could tell you all my jokes again.”
Tav raised their chin and walked forward.
“Tav —”
“You’re not my keeper, Cam. Stay out of it.”
He fell silent. Kite watched curiously.
When they were close enough to touch, Tav stopped. “You remember who I am?”
Eli nodded.
“I don’t know where the Coven got my deadname from, but I don’t want to hear you say it. That’s not me, understand?”
“I understand, Tav.”
They exhaled. “Still want to finish your mission?”
Dark eyes. Gold ring around the pupils. Eli didn’t look away. “Now’s my chance, I guess. If I wanted to.”
“Yeah. Is that what you want?” Their voice was light, casual — but it was a challenge, and Eli was mesmerized by the fire in their eyes as they stared down the assassin who had been sent to take their life as punishment for daring to have magic.
“Spoken like a witch,” she said admiringly.
“Spoken like a human,” Tav corrected. “You should give us more credit.”
“You’re right. Spoken like a human.” Eli reached for her belt. When she raised the obsidian blade, Tav didn’t even flinch.
Eli spun it around and offered the hilt to them.
Tav reached out and took it. Eli held her breath. But this time, the blade did not cut or burn the magical part of Tav. This time, the blade rested in their hand, perfectly balanced across the lifeline of their palm. It looked like it belonged there.
Her hand fell across her other knives, a habit she had used to soothe herself since she was a child. The blades were warm to the touch.
“Are you sure?”
“Can’t leave you unprotected again. You get into so much trouble without me.”
“Says the girl who nearly got herself killed.” Tav’s thumb slid across the shaft of the knife, and Eli could feel the gentle touch somewhere under her clavicle. She shivered.
“Helps to have backup.”
For a moment, they stood in silence, staring at the sliver of volcanic glass.
She didn’t say, It’s a part of me.
She didn’t say, I trust you to keep it safe.
Tav knew. Eli could tell by the look in their eyes, and the careful way their fingers wrapped around the hilt. They knew.
So instead, she said, “Don’t lose it. It’s hard to replace.”
Tav grinned. “I’ll try not to.”
Leaves rained down on them, gold and green and scarlet tipped with bronze. The leaves brushed their shoulders and faces and fell to the forest floor in a carpet of colour and life and promise. Tav reached forward and picked a leaf out of Eli’s hair. They twirled it once and then released it into the air.
Somewhere, on another planet, there were other trees thirsting for the sun, their deep roots arching under the soil. There was life.
The image of the bleeding Earth blotted out Eli’s vision until all she could see was the steady stream of black essence flowing into the galaxy as the witches drank the life force of the world that half claimed her. The world that had made Tav and Cam. A planet with a life of its own. And every second Eli stood here was a moment closer to Earth’s death.
“What?” Tav caught the shifting mood as deftly as a prism catches the light.
Eli swallowed, throat tight, vocal cords clouded with fear. She could feel rose petals wilting in her sternum.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” she said. “All of you.”
Horror crept through the party as Eli relayed what she had seen.
“The entire planet?” said Cam, struggling to make sense of the scale of the threat. “All of it?”
“That must be why all the witches are fleeing Earth,” said Tav. “I wonder if the Hedge-Witch knows.” They fell silent, lost in their thoughts.
Kite crooned a quiet song that tasted of ice floes and algae.
“Did you know about this?” Eli turned to the girl with hands like water.
Her pale, pupil-less eyes glowed with an alien light. “I found traces,” she said, fingers rippling in midair. “In the archives. Mentions of moon people and a civilization of light. I don’t know what happened to them. I didn’t know they were ghosts. If those memories were written down, they have been lost or destroyed.” She bowed her head in mourning — although for the dead moon people or the loss of a precious book, Eli didn’t know.
Silence fell like a shroud. Even the golden rays that spilled over the branches felt cold and empty. Tav broke the tension, eyes flashing with righteous anger.
“The Heart.”
Cam looked up. “You think —”
“I think the Heart is the key. If we steal the Heart, they can’t hurt Earth anymore. They won’t have any power.”
“Will that heal —”
“I don’t know!” Tav tugged at their hair in frustration. “But look — if we have the source of magic, we can do whatever we want, right? We can stop the Coven. We can save Earth.”
We can power a revolution, thought Eli. We can break and remake the world. As she stared at Tav, she could almost see the faint outline of charcoal wings emerging from powerful shoulder blades. Eli could see them at the head of an army, turning cities to ash.
Could the human world handle that kind of power?
Kite’s hair was trembling, and her bluegreen glow dimmed. “You want our Heart?” She turned to Eli. “What will that do to our world?”
“I don’t know, but they’re right,” Eli found herself saying. She didn’t meet Tav’s eyes. She was afraid of what she would see in them. “Stealing the Heart won’t stop the witches, but it will hurt them. And if we can learn how to use it — well, maybe we can stop this. Without it, we aren’t strong enough to go up against the Coven. This is our best chance.”
“Now?” Kite whispered to herself. “Is it time? Already?” Her skirts pooled around her feet like water. “I thought we would have more time.”
“We don’t have time,” said Eli. “We have to get to the Coven.”
Everyone started speaking over one another.
“If we go back to the Labyrinth —”
“I could try opening a door —”
“The risk —”
Kite sang an arpeggio with a clear, strong voice. The others turned to her in surprise.
“If it’s time, then I can help,” she said softly. “I am the Heir. I will take you to the Coven.”
Eli narrowed her eyes. After everything they had been through together, she still wasn’t sure if she should trust Kite. “Aren’t you still under a compulsion?”
“That ended when the pine needle entered your body,” said Kite gently. “Or I would not have been able to save you from the wings of the Coven.”
“If you can take us to the Coven, why didn’t you tell us earlier?” The stones on Cam’s chest scraped against one another.
Kite stared at him and slowly began to chew on her hair.