The Fates

P R O L O G U E : I N C A E C U S

Five Years Ago

"He's resurfaced again," Elder Ramos announced to the Council. Whoever this was, his reappearance was not a good thing. The harsh whispers and stunned expressions gave that much away, even if they didn't reveal much else.

"Where this time?" one brave Elder spoke up above the rest of the hushed questions that more or less wondered the same thing, just without the courage to address Ramos.

"Scandinavia for sure, although there were suspicious reports from Sub-Sahara as well. We're not sure what he looks like now, but he's back. We have to assume he's on his way here at any moment."

Well fuck. I would leave if I had mastered the teleportation spell that we had been studying, but I couldn't very well risk ending up stuck in a wall or sending out a burst of smoke. Both had happened in training class. I had to wait until the meeting ended to sneak out, but I didn't expect to be eavesdropping on anything more the Council rumblings of new banned spells and reports of magic gone haywire mixed with our progress reports. Every week since I mastered the cloaking spell, I had attended Council meetings, and nothing even close to what was normally discussed ever made me feel like I was actually intruding.

I didn't exactly feel entirely all that bad about listening in. I was a curious person, and the Council was supposed to tell us anything important anyway. I liked the thrill of sneaking in and out, even if the content of the meetings were a snooze-fest. This week, though, felt dangerous.

"How do we keep them safe?" Elder Floak asked the group. She had always been one to look out for my sisters and me, even if she liked to pretend to hate us. Floak was like a pseudo-grandmother beneath the hard shell.

I waited for her question—a fair question that I very much wanted to know the answer to—to get any response. The room just fell silent for a long moment before Elder Ramos cleared his throat. "We don't. We trust that their training will be enough before he finds them. It always has been before, and it will have to be again."

Double fuck.

There was no doubt that "they" was my sisters and me. We were the only ones that train under the Council instead of in covens like other witches. The three of us were born into a long line of reincarnations, not that we could remember them. The Fates. Prophesized to be the greatest witches of our generation, to serve and protect the world's covens from each other and from outside forces.

Those outside forces apparently included whoever "he" was, although history class with Elder Beecher had yet to cover him. I had a sinking feeling that Hope would know who this guy was, since he seemed to be pretty important, and she always knew more than whatever Beecher felt compelled to teach. Then again, Faith might know too if Beecher had actually covered it and I had just fallen asleep or skipped that lesson.

Lost in thought about whoever he was, I didn't really notice when everybody else in the room evaporated into the air, not even leaving a puff of smoke, the lucky bastards. I dropped my cloaking spell and walked out of the large oak doors unceremoniously, determined to share what I had learned with my sisters. I would have to tell them about my eavesdropping habit, but it seemed important enough to deal with Hope's anger and Faith's disappointment if it meant being able to pool some information together.