Silver Moon (Colors of the Moon #3)

Chapter 15

"Are you listening to me?" Effie's voice pulled me back to reality.

"Of course." It was a knee-jerk reply—one I had developed during our countless lessons on the history of our kind.

I was half lying on top of the small kitchen table with the older witch now standing behind the chair across the table from me.

"Then what was I saying?"

I lifted my upper body, so I was now cupping my neck with both hands while my elbows were still nestled on top of the table. "For the last half an hour you've been telling me about the duties of the High Priestess. That it's my duty to unite the seven covens and protect my kind. In return my fellow witches and wizards allow me to channel their magic, enabling me to use the magical powers of the other covens."

And so it went on. I had already heard all about my duties on more than one occasion. After all, my mother had never missed an opportunity to remind me why she was so busy all the time.

A few minutes after Effie went back to her slow pace up and down the room, Theo entered the room. He plotted himself down on the chair next to me and tugged my hair behind my ear. While Effie ignored his presence, I tuned out her words and focused on him instead.

"Did you find anything?" I whispered.

"No." He shook his head and leaned back against the chair. "Still no lead."

While I was busy settling into my new position, he was in constant contact with his pack. They were trying to figure out who was behind the rogue attack on his castle. None of us believed for a moment that the rogues had been working on their own.

I had tried asking Kasey about it, but she didn't seem to know much more about it either. It made me wonder once again why she ended up helping them in the first place.

"How does the black witch still dare to hang around you?" Theo didn't even bother with lowering his voice. "She needs to be punished for what she did in the castle."

"Kasey's being punished as we speak. She's forced to act as my guard."

"Are you listening to me Gabriela?" Effie stopped and turned to glare at the two of us.

Before I even had a chance to open my mouth, another set of voices came from right outside the kitchen.

"I know you're not reading, so could you stop with the childish tantrum and talk to us." I recognized Rob's voice.

Curious to what was going on, I stood and walked out of the kitchen with Theo and Effie right behind me. Inside the living room we found Rob towering over Vivian, who was sitting in the same armchair as yesterday and had a book raised in front of her face.

"Rob—" Zara hurried over to her mate and tugged on his sleeve.

"You want me to talk to you?" Vivian slammed her book down and glared up at her brother. "You who lied to me about who your girlfriend is? Or should I talk to Gabriela, who none of us even knew was a witch?"

"Yes, we lied to you and we're both sorry," Rob said. "But you've got to understand that it wasn't our choice. The supernatural world has strict rules about telling humans."

"Ha!" Vivian pulled her book back up.

"Why don't we go for a walk around the village to calm down?" Zara's desperate eyes turned to me. "We can do that, right?"

"Sure." Although having them parading around Allium wasn't the smartest idea, it was still better than this.

"Are you trying to leave without me again?" As if on cue Kasey entered the room and focused her eyes straight on me.