The Keeper and the Dragons
Copyright© 2023 by Charly Young
Chapter 25
Keeper House, Emory, Washington
The wildflowers that dotted the meadow in front of Keeper house were in full fall bloom. The apple and pear trees were fully fruited. The peaceful beauty of the place had been interrupted this day by a legion of guardians who were carefully searching for clues to fully understand what had happened here.
Anna, the hedge witch, had come upon the wolf killed corpse of the young witch when she had come to collect Jeffery for his lessons. After hearing the tear-filled accounts of the two traumatized youngsters. She called Althea, collected the two children and left for her home trusting the others to do their job.
Althea Hayden was barely holding herself together as she and Birdey Penrose reviewed the scene.
“We were responsible for keeping that little girl safe. The mother only knows what Lachlan Quinn will do when he finds we’ve failed. Whatever was the Alpha thinking to sanction this. This is a full escalation of our conflict. He can’t possibly gain anything.”
“Bah, the boy will do nothing and good riddance to the shifter girl. Althea, surely you must realize that the alpha has done us a favor.”
“What favor? You know how precious children are to us. Violet was my niece’s youngest daughter. What am I going to tell her mother? That I sent her daughter to her death. You and I taught that girl her first spellcraft. The Alpha has declared war and war he shall have.”
“Althea,” Birdy’s voice was calming. “There is no need to go there. I’m sure Violet’s death was an accident. The Alpha assured me...”
Althea turned to face the other coven queen. “When were you talking to the Alpha?”
Then a terrible suspicion hit.
“What have you done, you stupid woman?” Her voice held a note of rising hysteria.
“I did what was necessary to protect the covens,” Birdy Penrose’s voice was smugly triumphant. “Sister, you know as well as I do that the Red Queens will sanction us severely if they find we have trained a shifter.”
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