Claire sighed. “If only you were here a little sooner, hunters. That warlock did come here and he cost me an apprentice.” She looked at Rye and his aura unsettled her. If anyone was going to realize something was off, it would most likely be him. However, if things did go bad, she decided he would die first, for harming Leo.
“I finished him off for you,” she continued, her eyes going back to Tiff. “I’m rather surprised he got away. There was a time when no warlock stood a chance against the Wyvern Clan. Can you tell me why he was after me? I never got the chance to ask.” Claire smiled. It was sweet, cold, and slightly menacing. “I’m afraid I lost my temper.”
“We thought that bastard of Hecate was dead,” Josh grunted. “No warlock could survive what Rye did to him. Saffron woulda taken its toll on him.”
Tiff knew Josh was trying to save face in front of the Devereaux witch, but she wanted to preserve her dignity. They clearly messed up along the line and misjudged the warlock they hunted, but there was nothing they could do about it now, and it seemed that the trouble had passed. “May the Goddess reward you for your work,” she said with only the inkling of approval actually showing on her face. “We heard rumor you were considering taking your place as the Matriarch. A power shift to your family could mean reinstating laws that are not favoring to those who have strayed from Hecate’s Order. The warlocks who have integrated into our communities would be immediately shunned, exiled, or killed.”
Rye continued to look past Claire and at the guards. His aura was invisible and undetectable as he wormed it into the two men.
