Appearing at my side, Roth knelt. “Just so you know? If Bambi dies because of your actions, I will drag out your death until you beg me to end it. And when you beg? I will hunt down every living family member of yours and they will pay for your transgressions. Then, and only then, after you’ve watched everyone you know and love die because of you, I will end your life.”

“Really?” I said to him.

He didn’t respond to me, still focused on Faye. “Do you understand me?”

The witch shrieked as I eased up on her throat. “I’ll be dead, so why would I care?”

“Really?” I repeated, staring down at her.

Faye took a deep breath and then stopped straining against me. Her body went limp against the floor. “Do it. Kill me. But I will never release the familiar.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“If I can’t have her, no one will.”

“Are you serious?” Furious, I jabbed my fingers into her side, cracking at least two ribs. She screamed. “Sorry. My fingers slipped.”

“Did they, though?” an unfamiliar voice demanded.

Looking up, I about choked on my own breath. A little old lady stood between two broken tables, only a foot or so from us. And she wasn’t just old. She appeared to be well over a hundred years old and then some. Tufts of snow-white hair framed a dark-skinned face. She was close enough for me to see how creased and wrinkled her cheeks and forehead were. Her pale pink shirt read WORLD’S BEST GRANDMA and matched a pair of pink linen cropped pants that draped her frail body. The white thick-soled sneakers completed the AARP and then some package. She was flanked by a man and a woman I recognized as Rowena, the hostess. I had no idea how she was standing on her own and not resting eight feet under, but those eyes were as sharp as a blade and her voice as strong as any of ours.

“The Crone,” Roth explained in a murmur, his entire body gone taut beside mine. “This will either go very badly or somewhat less badly.”

Great.

That sounded just great.

“Look at what they’ve done!” Faye shrieked, struggling against my hold, but I didn’t let her go. “Look at what they’ve done to the coven.”

“What they’ve done?” the Crone responded, and white caterpillar-like brows rose. “Was it not you who led them here? Was it not you who brokered a deal with a demon in the first place?”

“Wh-What?” Faye stammered, confusion flashing across her face, and I was right there with her.

The Crone stepped forward on thin legs. “When you offered the elixir in exchange for Lilith’s daughter’s life, you did so outside the bounds of this coven. I warned you then that every act, every word designed to benefit one comes back threefold.”