Free Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) by Heidi R. Kling Page B

literally on the edge of her seat. Not only had I crossed the line into enemy territory, but I’d met a warlock outside the Stones, and lived to tell the tale. The only one who didn’t look entranced was Orchid. Rightly, she looked pissed that I’d kept such a huge secret. When I mouthed “Sorry,” she just shrugged.
    When I got to the part about the mixed rainbow of energies, I hesitated.
    “That’s enough,” Camellia said, holding up her hand.
    I stopped, grateful to her. She probably didn’t want the coven to freak out even more than they were already. Or get more flustered.
    “I just have something to add, if that’s okay?”
    Camellia nodded. I stood up and faced the coven.
    “I found something today. A riddle in an old book in the library, or I should say, it found me.” I glanced over at Iris, then peeled open the paper rose and read aloud the prophecy. Everything I learned. Word for word. The crowd again succumbed to chaos. The elders still and guilty; the young witches outraged and worried.
    “We planned on telling you Daughters of Light about the Year of the Curse,” Camellia tried to assure them, “but we wanted to wait until after the Gleaning, so you wouldn’t be distracted.”
    “Distracted?” Orchid chimed in. “By our disappearing magic?”
    “How could you keep this from us?” Laurel stood up, confronting her. “I just thought I was screwing up!”
    “Girls! I will have order!”
    A loud crack and the lights flashed again. “This is why you were not told of the secret until you were ready. This is why we have a hierarchy. We can’t have mayhem.”
    “Look, I was really upset too. But there is an addendum to the curse. A chosen Spellspinner is supposed to give us the key to breaking it. I—well, Iris and I believe that this Broken Magic Man in the riddle could be the warlock I met on Black Mountain. The ‘broken magic’ meaning the dark energy in him is fading, and the light energy growing.”
    The room rang out with commentary and chatter once again.
    “I think Logan could be the Roghnaithe.”
    “We still lack sufficient evidence to make that assumption,” Camellia said.
    “Actually,” my mom butted in, “we have every reason to believe. This is the most promising lead I’ve seen in my lifetime. And Lily has offered to find out if this boy could be our key toward peace, to unlocking the curse.”
    “What if we don’t want peace? What if we don’t want the curse broken?” an older witch, Nettle, blurted out, her voice as prickly as her name.
    “Would you just as soon live as humans, then?” I said. “Because that is the only other option. By June of next year, our magic will be eradicated.”
    The girls were silent now.
    “What do you propose we do, then?” Nettle pressed.
    “I’d like to find out if Logan can help us,” I said. “Even if it doesn’t work, I need to try. We’ve all worked too hard, our magic means too much to us. Sure, we could give up our magical halves and go on to live decent lives as humans, but why would we want to? Our magic…it’s a gift. One I will fight to preserve for us. For you. It’s what the Seven Sisters want; otherwise they never would’ve gifted us with a clue to help find him. The one male Spellspinner left who could possess both light and dark magic.”
    When I sat back down, the room was silent.
    “That,” Iris leaned in and whispered to me, “Is why you were chosen as our leader.”
     
    After the rest of the coven left, I talked to Camellia and Iris alone.
    “While I don’t approve of that stunt you pulled in there, Lily, giving information to a coven who was not yet ready to hear it, I do applaud your motivation.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Now we need to discuss how you will go about discovering whether or not this boy wears the mark. Read the riddle again.”
    Under a broken rose moon lies a broken magic man with the art of a broken rose moon.
    “What’s a rose moon?” I asked.
    “What the English used to