“Look, the poor dear is scared,” the first one says in a high-pitched, mocking tone.
I purse my lips, anger flaring within me. “Who are you? What do you want from me?” I can’t keep my voice from quivering.
“Nakarr,” the first one says. “Because when I suckled at my mother’s teat, I drank the blood as greedily as I did the milk.”
“Tegmine,” the second one says. “Because Sadal Melik himself came to me under the full moon and gave me this scar.” She lifts her forearm to display a jagged mess of flesh at the bottom of her elbow.
“He did not,” Nakarr snaps, glowering at Tegmine.
My lips part in confusion and fear as they bicker. I don’t know where I am or who these women are, but I’m more frightened than I was before. Their names are dark and menacing, as equally disturbing as their explanations.
“How dare you take the Ancient One in your name,” Nakarr snarls.
Tegmine slaps her, the sound echoing through the cave. I flinch back, eyes wide with fear. “We must not speak of him anymore,” she hisses.
They fall silent before Nakarr turns to me, “We haven’t asked our Sister’s name.”
Sister? I shake my head, pressing myself even further into the cold wall. “You must have me confused with someone else, I don’t know you. I have no sisters, I’m an only child.”
“Not that kind of Sister,” Tegmine purrs. “The true Sister, born of blood that has taken the same oath we have. The oath of the Bloodbane witches. The oath to serve the Ancient One.”
Bloodbane witches? I had heard Acubens mention them to Navi before, they’re enemies. “I’m human,” I say.
Nakarr shakes her head. “The oath is strong in your blood.”
“That’s impossible,” I mumble. “I have a human mother and a human father. I’ve never met a witch before, besides the occasional Wiccan.”
“What is this Wiccan?” Tegmine asks. “Enemies of the Bloodbane?”
“They don’t even know the Bloodbane,” I say hurriedly, hoping I haven’t just doomed any Wiccan that happens to stumble across a Bloodbane witch. “My point is I can’t be your Sister.”
Tegmine rushes towards me and I feel my heart skip a beat at the sight. She snatches my forearm and grips it tightly, her sharp nails pricking my skin. “Do you feel that?”
I begin to shake my head furiously but stop. I can feel my blood thrumming. It’s like I can feel every single drop of it in my veins rushing through me. A sensitivity to my own life force I’ve never felt before. My heart pumps faster, nerves coiling my stomach. I don’t want it to be true. “What is that?” I murmur.
Temine smiles and releases my arm. “That is the oath.”
“How?” I breathe.
The two women exchange a dark glance. “That will be for Maaz to tell you. If she lets you live.”
“If she lets me live?” I echo in disbelief. “What am I doing here? Why did you take me in the first place?”
Tegmine scowls. “We cannot let the Fae king have anyone of the Bloodbane witches.”
“Why not?” My brows furrow in confusion.
“Only one with the oath in her blood can break the curse Maaz put on him,” Nakarr says, her lips pulled into a smirk. “But no Bloodbane witch would betray her Sisters, not for some Fae king.”
“What curse? Why would Maaz put a curse on him?” This is the first I’ve heard of Maaz, though I suspect she leads the Bloodbane witches.
“Altair refused Maaz many years ago.” Nakarr shakes her head. “The stupid Fae thought she was below him.”
Tegmine cackles. “His pride is now his doom.”
I open my mouth to question them further when suddenly there’s a deep rumbling from the front of the cave. Tegmine rises and slips a dagger from her belt. She stalks towards the entrance of the cave warily.
“Get up,” Nakarr hisses. She wrenches me to my feet, and I feel that thrumming in my veins again.
Tegmine steps into the sunlight. Suddenly, a clawed paw bulldozes into her, sending her flying. She screams, and Nakarr shouts for her. I watch as Tegmine whirls on her attacker as it steps into view. A giant black panther with the wings of crows. Acubens.
“Nakarr!” Tegmine shouts.
Nakarr tosses me to the ground, I land with a sharp cry. “Stay put,” she snaps, plunging towards Acubens.
I haul myself up, using the wall for support and stumble after her. The two witches dance around Acubens as he swats at them with his massive paws and snaps his teeth at them. My ears are ringing from hitting my head against the wall after Nakarr forced me back down. I don’t know if going back to Altair is a good choice, based on what the witches have told me.
But what I do know is Maaz might kill me. And her temper is volatile enough to put a curse on a man who rejected her. I’m not sure I would be safer with her than with Altair. After all, he hasn’t hurt me yet.
At the entrance of the cave, I watch as Acubens’ teeth close around Nakarr’s arm. She shrieks in pain and drives her blade towards him. Tegmine, on his other side, has her own blade plummeting towards him. I scream, loud enough that birds erupt from the trees and scatter across the sky. Acubens drops Nakarr’s arm in time to dodge her blow, but Tegmine manages to drive her long dagger into his ribs.
He stumbles, hissing, and knocks her away with his sheer weight. She falls to the ground a yard away, struggling to rise. Nakarr cradles her arm, blood pouring over her fingers. Acubens turns to me, his face twisted in pain. “Get on,” he commands.
I run towards him and clamber on top of his back, nestled just above his
