Page 164 of First Ritual

Wild tipped my chin up. “You’re going to the sunflower field later.”

Was he asking or did he already know? “Me and Rooke, yeah. Are you guys going?”

“I tasted you last night, Tempest.” He touched the ruby between my breasts. “It’s best I stick close to you today.” He inhaled at the crook of my neck. “I can smell the new rune coming.”

38

“Okay, let’s try here,” I said, exiting the knoll behind Rooke.

“You sure? You said the last one was the last one,” she replied in the faint, echoing voice she gained when yielding her divination affinity.

She’d snapped in and out of the affinity at first, but we’d been at this all day—using Mother’s necklace and gems to find locations in the coven. The problem?

My mother grew up in this coven and lived here until her early twenties. There were a lot of locations.

I sighed, feeling the weight of a day spent looking at the past imprint of my mother while wishing she could pop into being. “I’m sure. Varden said that she often came outside to do work. We’ll do this last one.”

“No problem. Just for the record, that’s the third time you’ve said it, is all.”

I gripped the necklace that I was using to scry Mother’s imprint. “I just hope we see something useful this time.” We’d both been excited when the first few retells were crystal clear. Unfortunately, they were crystal clear on nothing important. Mother eating breakfast. Mother training in the apothecary center. Mother reading in the library.

I extended the hand clutching Mother’s gems to Rooke, who rested her hand over top. I felt a huge rush of her magic. The wind rose, snapping the bottom hem of my flowing dress, but I didn’t move as my heart beat increased.

Rooke grunted, and my feet slid an inch across the grass as she shoved more power down her affinity.

“Big one,” she announced in her hypnotic tone.

Thousands of echoes of my mother burst from the coven exit. My jaw dropped.

Rooke sucked in a breath. “Whoa. In hindsight, this wasn’t a great spot to choose. Which one do we follow?”

“Uh, no idea.”

“I won’t be able to keep all these retellings active for long.” Sweat already beaded on her brow.

Fuck, there were so many. Some versions of Mother were hazy. Some were young. In some, she was a toddler. My heart ached to sit here and watch, and to see that my mother’s life had been filled to the brim with happiness before her death.

One day.

“Is she pregnant in any?” I asked.

“Uhh” was the reply. “Hard to see.”

Mother’s pregnancy was news to the council and coven, so she must’ve left before showing. That wouldn’t help us.

I pursed my lips, still clutching the necklace that I’d used to scry her past locations. Really, I wanted to find her in an exact moment. Was that possible?

Holding her necklace high, I pushed magic down my apothecary affinity, and added a tentative burst down my divination affinity.

The outflow of power left me shaking, and my body turned of its own accord to face an echo of my mother.

She whipped back to look at me, and I froze before seeing she stared beyond me to the exit. Was she checking for company?

“That one,” I murmured to Rooke.

She craned to see. “Why?”

“My magic told me.”