A Fall of Secrets

He nodded again, his blotchy face reddening with fury.

It was too risky to stand with him here right by the gates. I moved us toward the back of the graveyard, reappearing right in front of Lilith’s grave. I pointed down at the etchings on the stone.

“Do you know anything about Lilith?” I asked. He certainly looked haggard enough to have been around long enough to know at least something about her.

“I know a little,” he growled.

I pointed to Magnus’s name. “Do you know who this person is?”

“Lilith’s loved one, obviously.”

“Why is there no death date here?” I asked.

“Most likely Lilith only provided us with the birth date and did not know when he died.”

“Could this person have still been alive when Lilith was buried?”

Shamus scoffed. “Do you honestly think that an Ancient would have gone against such a basic custom? Of course he must’ve been dead.”

“Then how could we have not known the death date? The Council records births and deaths of every single resident of The Sanctuary. The information is etched onto all the other graves here—”

“Perhaps Magnus did not live in The Sanctuary,” Shamus said. “Perhaps he lived outside.”

“Outside…” I muttered. “Then Magnus wasn’t a warlock?”

Shamus rolled his eyes. “You always did strike me as a dimwitted one. Of course he must’ve been a warlock. Just because he lived outside The Sanctuary doesn’t mean he wasn’t one of us. In the Ancients’ time, there were a number of reasons why witches and warlocks would be stationed outside.” He shook his head in disbelief that I should even ask such a question. “It’s considered treasonous even now for a witch to have a relationship with anyone but their own kind, not to speak of in those times…”

I paused, wondering if Shamus’ words were really true.

“I have answered your questions,” he said. “You should leave.”

I looked at the warlock, then nodded.

“Okay, I will.”

As promised, I released him and vanished myself away from the graveyard. But I was not yet ready to leave The Sanctuary. I reappeared on the beach outside the boundary again, making myself invisible as I sat down on a cluster of rocks. I stared out at the calm ocean as speculation after speculation flooded my brain as to who and what Magnus really was.

Chapter 33: Mona

I realized that there was one sure way to find out Magnus’ identity—or at least to confirm whether he was a warlock, as Shamus had insisted upon. If he was one of us, then he must have been born in The Sanctuary. This was another rule strict followers of the Ancients abided by. Even if a witch was stationed outside, she was required to give birth to her child within the confines of The Sanctuary.

I waited until night had fallen before standing up and dusting myself off. I penetrated the boundary once again and this time I headed straight for the Council’s meeting hall, within the Adriuses’ castle. As expected, the room was empty at this time of night. I walked across the hall and stopped above a trap door in one of the corners. Climbing down through it, I was glad to see that this basement still served as the witches’ archives. There were shelves upon shelves of leather binders and countless cupboards and cabinets filled with documents. It was all neatly labeled and organized, so it didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for—the birth records section. I already knew the date of Magnus’ birth, since that had been written on the tombstone, so I soon located the right shelf. I flipped through the month he’d been born in. There wasn’t a record of any Magnuses born then. I flipped through the parchment a second time, just to be sure I hadn’t missed anything, before replacing everything neatly.

So, Lilith had loved a man called Magnus. But he had not been a warlock.

This alone was intriguing. I was shocked that Lilith could’ve broken such a fundamental rule.

I didn’t know what exactly the relationship between Lilith and Magnus had been, but she’d held enough affection for him to want to list him as the only person on her tombstone.

Now that I thought about it further, she hadn’t provided a surname for Magnus either. Perhaps there was a reason for that. Perhaps Lilith had wanted to give as little information about him as possible to avoid him being identified. She’d hoped that people would just assume he was a warlock, as Shamus had.

I returned to my spot on the beach and sat down again, rubbing my fingers against my temples as I tried to process this new information.

I grappled with the idea that a person with as black a heart as Lilith could be capable of loving anyone at all, much less a non-warlock. I never would have guessed that she would be able to experience such emotions.

I recalled the ritual Lilith had performed to turn me into a Channeler. Rhys had made it clear that the only way for it to work was for me to be accompanied by someone I loved. I had been too nervous at the time for this to strike me, but now that I thought about it, I realized just how bizarre it was. Love and emotions never came into the equation with black witches. It was all about duty and service to a higher cause. The fact that Lilith relied on the power of love to perform such an important procedure as creating Channelers seemed to be at odds with everything she and the black witches stood for.

What I wouldn’t give to get inside that twisted woman’s head…

My breathing became heavier as soon as I had the thought. Unwanted memories resurfaced, memories of that day in Lilith’s cave when she had turned me into a Channeler. When she had probed my mind, seeing my every thought, my every fear, my most cherished memories… my palms grew sweaty as I remembered how violated I had felt to have her dark presence touching the deepest part of my consciousness.