Iago and I were lucky to escape with our lives. Most of the catacombs caved in under the weight of the collapsing house and the force of the bomb blast. If ever I needed proof of the protection magic can give, it was there when I found myself standing unscathed among the rubble. All around me was devastation. What had been a fine house was reduced toso much debris, broken windows, shattered bricks, even the twisted wreckage of Mama’s beloved iron staircase, like the spine of some great slaughtered creature. Through it all came a pitiful mewing. Iago emerged, ironically saved by the wicked blow Willoughby had dealt, as it had left him lying winded beneath the lintel of the double doors to the chamber. And there was the cask containing the precious vial of Elixir, risen to the surface through the random force of the blast, a precious piece of flotsam amid a sea of chaos. Everything else the coven possessed by way of sacred items for worship and necromancy was lost. The Great Chamber is sealed forever, and in it lay Maygor’s Silver Thread, the witches’ trove, and the chalice. I thank the spirits the priceless drops of the Elixir were spared. The cask holding the single existing vial is now safely hidden in a place I am confident it can remain undisturbed, the Montgomery diamonds nestling snuggly with it.

It has been hard to witness Louis’s grief at losing his father. He loved him, naturally, and I have agonized over whether or not to tell him the real reason for the earl being in the catacombs that night. To burden our friendship, to start our married life together with the weight of such a secret is not easy. But I have decided there is no benefit to him knowing that his father was about to betray the coven. Or that he was prepared to sacrifice me in doing so. The man is dead. He can do no more harm. And how much harder it would be for Louis to accept his death if he knew that his actions were all for him. It would take from him the memory of the father he adored, and saddle him with guilt for his death. No, it is better he never knows. I will simply have to bear this hurtful knowledge alone, for his sake.