Chapter 591: Deluded
Erica stepped away, a sob lifting her shoulders. Mom glanced at her, breaking the hold we'd both held on each other. When Mom's eyes met mine again, she calmed enough the Council magic fell away, though I could still feel it bubbling around her edges.
"Damn you, Syd," Mom said, spinning away from me, feet thudding on the floor as she paced toward the table. "You had to disobey me, didn't you?"
"I don't believe you," I said as my own anger faded, now numb, my body dull and heavy as shock set in. Almost as if she'd physically injured me. "You let those covens be destroyed. You let Mia's magic be stolen. All to keep this quiet."
Mom's rage returned, though she had a firm hold on her power this time. She spun back, voice an unrecognizable shriek.
"I already told you, I was protecting them!" Her voice echoed in the large chamber, bouncing from wall to ceiling to floor, pummeling me with sound. "Now they are out there, stirring up their families, alerting the Brotherhood we know what they are doing. Just begging for another attack." Her hands shook as she held them out to me. "When they were clueless, they at least had their defenses up. But now? They will scatter, go to ground. Retreat further, like they always do. Cut themselves off while I've been trying to bind them together, to keep them safe through numbers." She pulled on two fists full of her long hair, manic rage in her eyes. "How am I supposed to protect them now?"
Um. Wow. Deluded much? How could she possibly think she was protecting anyone when all those witches were lost on her watch because she refused to act? Worse, where was the delusion coming from? No amount of reaching for her gave me the information I needed and I was now seriously concerned Mom had lost her crackers.
"We should have hit them first," I said, snapped, actually. "Instead of waiting for them to chip away at us a bit at a time."
Mom seemed to waver before she shook her head.
"They barely agree to work together on simple things." Mom sagged, hands dropping to her sides, desperation radiating from her. I knew how hard Mom worked to destroy old territorial lines when it came to cooperation between covens, but this was insane. "I had to keep it from them," she whispered, more to herself than me. "I had no choice. They couldn't handle what was happening." She looked up at me. "I thought I could work around the sorcerers, uncover what they were up to." Mom tried to take on the Brotherhood? Okay, I'd give her points for that. "But then the Dumont magic was taken and I had no choice."
A cover up.
She sobbed once, clutching at herself, face twisting in grief and anger. "I had it under control."
My sympathy vanished with her last words. "Your way is clearly working so very well, Mother," I said. "I say let there be panic."
Mom growled, an animal ready to attack. Charlotte tried to step in front of me, but I held her back with one hand while Mom jabbed a finger at my bodywere.
"Be careful who you threaten this time," Mom said.
"And you, Council Leader," Charlotte answered in a crisp, clear voice. "And you."
"Miriam, this is..." Erica struggled to define her feelings even as a list of words ran through my head. Horrible. Unbelievable. Disastrous.
"This is not how I wanted things to unfold." Mom turned from me, toward Erica. "Tell me honestly, if the Council knew, would this have turned out any differently?" She took a step toward her friend, Erica shaking her head as her blonde hair tossed around her face, not to say no, but in clear denial of the truth Mom shoved down her throat. "Or would they have debated and wailed and formed a committee before declaring it was a fraud until the next event." Mom was almost to Erica's side, her former second's weeping started up again as she clutched her fisted hands to her mouth. "And the next. And the next. Until it was too late. Tell me, Erica. Would you have acted?"
She turned from Mom with a sob, met my eyes.
And in hers I saw reality. Mom was right.
The Council, so tied down by law, so afraid of taking action, would have ended up in this place anyway.
"You're welcome," I said to Mom. "I think I finally managed to make them respond, wouldn't you say?"
She didn't take that very well, oh no, not even a little bit. Her power crackled again, but she didn't strike out at me. Not this time. Charlotte twitched next to me as Mom's hands clenched repeatedly as she spoke.
"You've done nothing of the sort," she said, disdain slamming into me like a hammer blow. "You've only stirred the nest. Once they've accepted what's happened, they'll go right back to their old ways."
What the bloody hell was wrong with my mother? "Then act now," I said. Almost shouted. "While you have their attention." I just wanted to shake her and shake her and not ever stop. A sick feeling preceded my next words. "Have you even told them how to defend themselves from the Brotherhood?" Surely she'd passed out that information.
Mom's face crumpled so fast I went from rage and shock to fear for her as she backpedaled, finally collapsing against the table. Anger rushed from her, the power of the Council flaring once before it dissipated. A deep, wrenching sob ripped through her, shook her to the soles of her feet, as though her body was no longer able to maintain such rage. "Syd," she cried, "I tried." Mom pressed her shaking hands to her face, crumbling in half, falling to the floor. I rushed to her side, supported her. Mom's blue eyes, bloodshot with weeping, locked on mine. "I didn't know it was this bad," she whispered. "I swear it. And I was doing my best to keep them safe. You have to believe me."
Erica gaped at Mom, mouth opening and closing before she managed to speak. "Tell me you have a plan."
Silence.
"Mom," I said, grief rising like a tide, threatening to take over and sweep me away, "you must have known after the Dumont power was taken they wouldn't stop there." She had to have understood that.
Mom shuddered. "I didn't have proof," she said. "The Enforcers found nothing, no bones, no ash. The vision Demetrius showed us is the first real evidence we have." Her hand slid out, lifted the shard of bone resting by her foot. "And this." Her hand fisted around it as she rose, rejecting my help, using the table to balance herself as she stood, turning her back on me.
I trembled as I stood there, staring at my mother's bowed shoulders, begging her silently to act, to do something.
"Let me reach out to the other covens," I said. "I can warn them, prepare them for-"
Mom spun, face eerily composed considering she'd just been a sobbing mess, wiping tears away with the cuff of her robe. Such huge mood swings made me worry for her sanity, for all of us. "You've done enough, Coven Leader," she said, voice cold and quiet. "I now have panicked families to deal with. Thanks to you."
We were back here again, were we? "Are you kidding me?"
Mom's mouth turned down, though she refused to meet my eyes. "If you had only shown me your evidence in private," she whispered. "Syd, we're done. Go home."
I laughed. I couldn't help it. There was nothing else to do, except maybe explode. And I just didn't have the energy.
"You need my help," I said.
Mom looked up, eyes empty. "You will go home right now," she said, "or I will have you arrested."
Charlotte's snarl, her hands on my arm as she tried to tug me away told me the feeling I had from Mom wasn't imaginary. I wasn't making it up.
She was dead serious.
"This is High Council business," Mom said.
Erica's choked cry snapped us both out of our focus again. "It's High Council business," she said, "now that we know there's business needing our attention." Her eyes settled on me, shoulders squaring. "And because of Syd, we do." The angry look Erica fixed on Mom was the first time I'd ever seen her stand up to my mother. "No thanks to you, Miriam."
We all stood frozen, a tableau of blame and rage and grief. Until the doors banged open again and the Council rushed in, other witches piling in after them, screaming for answers, crowding Mom, shoving her back while she wrapped herself in the Council power and forced them all to silence.
I didn't wait for Mom to kick me out. Shoved off Maurice and his pinched dislike, pushed past the two limping Enforcers, unwilling to stand there any longer and listen to Mom lie to the people she led.
Hating I knew she was right about them.
I just hoped she took my advice and forced them to act before habit-and the fear to act-set in.
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