Salem, Massachusetts
With a heavy sigh, Victor picked up a photograph of their family that had once been four, and clenched it in his large hand.
Tears formed in the corners of Silver’s eyes. It was two weeks after Samhain and the loss of Moondust. How she missed her mother.
And her sister.
What had Darkwolf meant when he had said she was someplace secure? Did he truly know where Copper was?
Polaris curled around Silver’s feet as she shifted on the leather chair in Victor’s library. The room smelled of cherry pipe tobacco and the thousands of books the enormous room held. The scent of leather made her think of Hawk and that familiar ache stabbed her again.
At one time the library had been a room she and her sister had never been allowed into when they were children, unless they were in trouble. Like the time Silver had accidentally spelled their pet hamster. The poor thing hadn’t looked at his cage in quite the same way after that incident.
Silver had spent the week with her father at their home in Salem, Massachusetts, after her mother had died, after Silver had lost everything.
Every time she looked into her father’s eyes his pain doubled her own. Often she wondered if her mother’s death had been the result of Silver’s tampering with gray magic. Had this been what the universe had wrought on her, threefold?
How could the universe be so cruel?
But the goddess and the Ancestors. Even the Elementals. They answered my pleas.
How could what she’d done been wrong? Perhaps the D’Anu had grown away from the original teachings of the Ancient Druids. Perhaps she hadn’t been wrong.
She sighed. Someday, the D’Anu are going to have to reexamine all of these ancient beliefs. Just because they’re old and traditional doesn’t make them right. The world is a grayer place now.
But would her mother still be alive if Silver hadn’t tapped such powerful magic?
Polaris slunk onto the seat beside her as she bit her lower lip and stared at the family picture her father held. Her chest ached and squeezed so much it almost felt as if her ribs hadn’t healed.
It was a picture taken only a couple of years ago, when they had spent three weeks together in Ireland. They stood before one of the ancient castles, a happy if not unusual family.
Copper with her laughing cinnamon eyes, mischievous smile, and hair the same color as her name.
Silver with her head tilted to the side, her hand to the pendant at her throat and her serpent bracelet shining in what sunlight there had been.
Victor standing behind his three women, his head high and a fierce and proud look to his eyes.
And then there was Moondust with her ethereal glow—which Silver could now see was from Elvin blood.
Victor cleared his throat as he set the photograph back on the bookcase. “There’s much I’ve been putting off telling you, Silver.”
She started and looked from the photograph to her father’s face. “We had a good time on that trip.”
“The last trip before—” Victor cleared his throat again. “Before your sister disappeared, and your mother...”
Silver went to her father and wrapped her arms around his neck. His familiar scent of cherry pipe tobacco clung to his woolen suit and she smelled his spicy aftershave. It brought back more childhood memories.
“I’m so sorry about Mother.” Silver’s tears ran freely now. “If I hadn’t—”
Victor took her by the shoulders so abruptly that he caught her by surprise. “None of this was your fault. You did what you thought was best, and damn the Coven’s blind eyes, but you saved a lot of witches, a lot of people.”
He gently rubbed her shoulders. “I’m proud of you, Silver, and nothing will change that.”
She swallowed, not knowing what to say, but the tears wouldn’t stop.
“Now for what I’ve been putting off.” From the massive mahogany desk in the library, Victor grabbed a box of tissue. He handed it to Silver and she clutched the box to her chest with one hand. She used the other to dab at her eyes with a tissue. “Sit down, my sweet.”
Silver dropped into her chair, her stomach clenching as she set the box beside her. She sniffed, trying to hold back more tears.
Victor put his hands behind his back and began pacing the deep burgundy carpet from one side of the library to the next. “It was my fault. I should have told you sooner.”
Silver started to say something, but her father stopped her with a raised hand. “Perhaps it is clichéd, but I fell for her the moment I saw her.”
No, not clichéd at all. Silver’s heart stuttered. She had fallen for Hawk in such a short time, as well.
Victor paused and cleared his throat yet again, but didn’t stop pacing. “When I discovered she was half Elvin, I was so concerned that it would affect you and your sister in being accepted by the D’Anu that I deemed it best to keep it secret. Your mother, gracious as always, agreed.”
He sighed. “When I learned you were practicing gray magic—” At this his face darkened and Silver clenched the tissue in her lap. “I was upset because of my beliefs, but also because I realized that by your being part Elvin, a more neutral alignment is literally in your blood—so you were at more risk.”
He stopped and slammed his fist on the mahogany desk so hard that Silver jumped in her seat. “The Ancestors wouldn’t have stood for this.” His face turned a darker shade. “Your being banished from the Coven, stripped of your status—unforgivable. I ought to wring Janis Arrowsmith’s neck myself.”
Polaris hissed as if in agreement.
Silver almost slid right out of her seat. In the week she’d been staying with him, he’d never said anything like that.
Victor turned his glare on his robe hanging from a coat rack in one corner of the library. The robe that signified his status as high priest of his Coven. “I’m considering leaving the D’Anu.”
She shot straight up to her feet, knocking the tissue box to the carpeted floor with a thud. “You can’t do that. With the San Francisco Coven torn and broken, the D’Anu need you more than ever to keep the natural balance.”
He fixed his gaze on her and Silver’s cheeks heated. She felt like a little girl all over again, but it didn’t stop her from saying, “The San Francisco Coven will be rebuilt with the Adept apprentices being sent from around the country. They will be fine. But your Coven needs you more than anything.”
“Sit,” her father ordered.
Silver gulped and dropped to the burgundy leather chair again.
“Your power has grown. I can sense it emanating from you.” He put his hands behind his back and looked up at the library ceiling. Silver almost stared at it, too, but kept her eyes on her father. She was too stunned at what he was saying to really know how to respond.
“This could be the Ancestors blessing your intentions, indicating that you’re right,” he continued. “Or perhaps it’s because you’re part Elvin.”
Silver still couldn’t get used to knowing that she was part of a race so old and powerful that she could barely comprehend it.
“How old was Mother?” she asked.
Victor rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “So hard to keep track. I believe she was over eight hundred years old when she passed on to Summerland.”
Silver’s eyes widened. “So she was—”
He waved his hand and nodded. “Many years older than myself. D’Anu witches, as you know, do not have as long of a life span, but we live far longer than humans do. I was a mere child in comparison.” A smile managed to touch his lips. “She kept me grounded.”
Silver didn’t know what to say so she just waited for her father to continue.
Victor hitched up the pant legs of his suit as he placed his bulk in the seat next to Silver.
He took her hands. “Copper is out there somewhere. I scried and saw only that she is lost and needs to find her own way home.”
“She’s truly alive?” Silver clenched her father’s hands tighter. “I need to find her, at once.”
Polaris raised up, his eyes focused on Victor.
Her father shook his head. “As I said, Copper needs to find her own way home.”
His dark eyes fixed intently on Silver’s. “As you need to find yours.”