As much as I wanted to believe what I’d been told, that it was something necessary to the quest, ergo it wasn’t a good thing to fabricate anything or lie… I was worried.

We were getting closer to Lake Tarva. Closer to the cave. To the place that was filled with death. To where the wolf shifters had a battle in their Pack Wars that happened so long ago.

Atella kept popping into my head. My mother did as well, but that centered more on worrying if she was doing alright on her own or not. She hadn’t been picking up my calls at all. Each time I dialed her number, all I heard were the sounds to leave a voicemail message. Frankly, I hoped it meant she was actually resting this time and not working harder now that I wasn’t there to stop her. But Atella… I felt a sinking feeling in my gut that she hadn’t told me everything. Either that, or she didn’t tell me the whole truth. Or, anything of the truth.

I fidgeted with my phone. Picking it up when it uncharacteristically fell from my hands. Jo stared at me as if I’d done something totally alien.

“Are you alright?” she asked quietly, trying not to disturb the conversation the others were having closer to the front as we were within an hour from the place I’d marked on a film I’d placed over that map from more than 150 years ago.

I waved off Jos’ concern, seeing that she didn’t believe it for one second.

“The world is alright.”

She sat down in the spot next to me as I reached up a hand to fix the hairpiece I could feel slipping on my head.

“Let me help.”

I nodded and let Jo fix up my hair in silence as I had a sort of existential crisis.

Was I the wrong person for this mission? Was the High Witch setting me up for failure, knowing that the temptation of the reward upon completion would be convincing enough for me to go through with this?

I caught my reflection on the window, seeing Jo’s serious face as she set the hairpiece firmly in place. Reaching up to touch it lightly upon Jo’s declaration she was done, I remembered how my mother had basically forced me to bring it with for good luck.

I thanked Jo and straightened my back as I pressed my thumb nail into the flesh of my index finger. Pretending all was alright, I listened and conversed. Pretending I was confident, I helped lead us to Lake Tarva.

Pretending…

The world was alright, sure, but I wasn’t.

And it would be far more uncomfortable for anyone other than Jo to notice that.

I replayed my conversation a week ago, within my mind, the one that bartered me this quest of sorts.

Atella hadn’t called for me, rather, I’d been the one that went to her after I found that prophecy and spoke at length with Lizzie about the contents of the journal she had discovered.

And I said it all. Right to her face.

I might’ve expected a bomb to go off, but she simply smiled.

“Ah yes. Clever girl you are, aren’t you? Always have been.”

Despite the pleasant tone to her voice, I didn’t sense that it was a compliment.

“And?” I pressed.

“And I gather you’d like unlimited freedom and access to the archives… all of the archives?”

It was too good to be true.

Like a dream.

“And what if I do?”

“I could grant it to you,” she said, acting more diplomatic and generous than I’d seen her before. “As well as forgiving and forgetting this minor infraction you’ve admitted you made in order to find that specific prophecy.”

“For what? What’s the price?”

She sat down and gazed at me from her throne.

“A mission. A quest. I’m sure those are exciting things for you youngsters.”

I narrowed my gaze, holding my words.

She sighed. “Alas, your mother won’t be well enough to help me with this, and I’d rather not have to call up the council or go myself…”

The quest she was speaking of. Somehow, I knew it was related to those words of the prophecy, the one telling of fire and blood if it went wrong.

“You want me to-”

“Yes. I want you to go to Lake Tarva. Before the next full moon.”

“But that’s-”

“See I need you to bring the positive result to fruition.” She cut me off a second time, saying only what she wanted to.

“My mother is-”

And a third.

“She already approved.”

It forced me into a moment of silence. When she dangled the paper from her hands, tossing it to the floor at my feet, I knelt down and picked it up carefully. A signature was there. Made by magic. Fool-proof.

“What?” I looked up at her, my nose stinging.

“She’s cleared you to leave by the end of the week.”

“But she-”

“Was going to tell you today before you barged in here.”

I kept my mouth closed firmly. I wasn’t a fan of being cut off so many times. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t helpful. But my concerns weren’t to be had in this place, in front of her, were they?

“Unlimited access. Unlimited infractions without penalty,” she said. “And… a spot on the Witches Council.”

I stared at her in shock. Council members were 50 at the youngest. 120 was the oldest. A spot wasn’t easy to attain. It was like an exclusive group. Small.

And they made the most changes among witches. Combining their power, it would rival Atella’s. Of course, she also had a seat on the Council, but…

“If this is so important, why aren’t you sending a more skilled witch?”

A soon-to-be fifteen-year-old with lacking powers? On the Council?

“Because you…” She curled her lip in clear disgust. “You made friends-wolves who can help you. This isn’t some solo quest. We don’t need powerful beings to solve this. Frankly, it was your mother who got us into this mess in the first place,” she added quickly. “Since she can’t, you ought to fix this. This is your duty as her child.”

I had no choice.

She was saying she was sending me, no matter what.

My guardian, my mother, had already agreed.

There was nothing left to say.

“Dismissed.”

I turned around and left, letting the paper in my hand flutter to the ground quietly.