Page 90 of Spirit Storm

"And we don't know the spell."

"To reinstate what The Nine did, we need to learn the ritual and gather enough spirit witches to perform it."

I press my cheek against Asher's head and close my eyes. The pressure in the air around me shifts with my breath, layered and dimensional and distracting in a way that would feel miraculous if I wasn't currently falling apart. "So we need to find the spell. Learn the ritual. And find enough spirit witches to get it done."

"Yes."

All right. It's not great, but we're not out of this yet. Tharuzel possessing me is humiliating and humbling, but I'll make it up to the people I hurt. "Khylie and her family must hate me."

Asher eases back and wipes the dampness from his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "No one hates you, baby girl. It wasn't your fault. I'm just so relieved you don't hate me."

I roll my eyes. "As if that would ever happen. Not a chance."

Wylder is watching us. He’s holding himself in reserve, but the tension I read in him has nothing to do with Asher and me or what we've talked about so far. Wylder and I have only been together for a few months, but I can read him. And what I'm reading now is unsettling.

I draw a deep breath and exhale. "All right. What else?"

He glances once at Asher, then back to me. "Before Tharuzel released you from his hold, he told us you are the Key."

The word lands differently now than it did when Tharuzel said it to me in that strange, dark cave. Heavier. "He told me the same thing. He said he'd tried to control my mother first. When that didn't work, he marked my bloodline so he could find me and my sisters once we came into our powers."

The words taste bitter and I send an apologetic smile over to where Lily and Violet are taking this all in. "That was the whole point of the blood contract he forced me to sign. He didn't just want leverage. He knew exactly what I was from the beginning. He needed me bound to him."

Lily makes a small sound, and Violet takes her hand.

"He played me. He made me his puppet, and I was stupid enough to walk right into it."

"Poppy—" Asher starts.

"It's true." I don't say it harshly. It's just true.

Asher shifts forward. "First off, he gave you no choice. He held you in his realm of purgatory and said it was either you or your sisters. That's emotional blackmail, and you made the only choice you could in that moment."

"Wait, what?" Violet straightens. "Poppy? Is that true?"

"It is, but I don't regret that part. There was no way I was letting the ten-foot horror anywhere near either of you." Violet is about to argue, but it's a moot point now. I hold up my finger and give my attention back to Asher. "You said, first off. What else is there?"

Asher pulls out his phone and opens a photograph of a journal page, the handwriting looping and old. "Orion sent this from Khylie's family journals. It says The Key was the anchor witch. The one who was present at every single lockstone site during the original binding ritual."

I look at the photograph without really seeing it.

"Denmark and Ireland were the first two locations," he continues. "The ritual killed two witches in Ireland and one in Denmark. After that, The Nine adjusted. They rotated spirit witches in and out for different locations to manage the toll of it. Different witches at different lockstones."

"Except for one," I say.

"Except for the Key. The anchor witch was at all thirteen."

The number sits there. Thirteen lockstones.

All thirteen locations known only to the anchor witch who stood at every single one.

The realization doesn't come like a wave. It comes like a stone dropping clean through still water, and I feel it all the way down to my toes.

"The Nine," I say slowly. "It wasn't nine brave witches who did it together. Nine was just the number needed to perform the ritual. The Key was the one who held the whole thing together."

"Yes." Wylder's voice is very quiet. "The journal says the descendants of The Key would carry the knowledge of the location of all thirteen lockstones on a genetic level. You were never aware of it, but it was there."

"And now that Tharuzel has possessed me…" My voice sounds strange to my own ears, thin and far away. I press the heel of my hand against my sternum, trying to breathe past the horrible tether I agreed to because I thought it would buy us time and keep my sisters safe. "He's been inside my consciousness… so he knows where all thirteen lockstones are hidden."