Blaise
Celeste had never once, in twenty-two years, missed our monthly moonlight gathering.
I told myself that three times over the course of the evening, repeating it enough would make it less true than the seat beside mine at the ritual table, the one she'd claimed since we were children sitting cross-legged on cold stone floors during our first lessons, had sat empty through the entire gathering. High Priestess Odalys had noticed too. I'd caught her gaze flicking to the gap more than once, though she said nothing until the circle broke and the rest of the coven filed out into the night.
"She isn't answering her phone," I said, the moment the room had cleared enough to speak freely. "I've tried a dozen times since sundown."
Odalys's expression didn't so much as flicker, though I'd k
