My stomach rolled. I knew from experience that being fed from could feel pleasurable, immensely so, but those people had not volunteered to be chained to that bed and fed from. I knew they hadn’t. I was there in the Land of the Lore when they were lured in by magic, hunted, and then kidnapped.

“For centuries, I’ve had an agreement with The Coven, each Coven, that so long as we remained within the walls of Avolire, we would be free to live how we see fit.” Sweyn strolled forward. In the back of my mind, I wondered why they had released her from their magic rope, and when did she put that red cloak on? But Sweyn kept walking until she was maybe ten feet in front of Cyrus. “Have we not been paying for our past crimes by living in these bitter conditions⁠—”

“After Lilith left, of course,” their Hermit Card said with a cocky smirk. “Lest you think it was not documented which side of the One Hundred Years’ War you chose.”

I gripped Everest’s arm and peeked around his shoulder. Elizabeth Bishop was staring at me. Her expression was unreadable. To her right stood the High Priestess and Empress—which I only knew by the Marks on their arms. They were nearly identical to each other, with black curly hair and big gray eyes. They looked just like Esther. And they were looking right at me.

My eyes widened. I ducked back behind Everest to hide. If that dragon sensed Coven magic on me, then the other Coven members would even more so. Because I felt them as if they were my own Coven. They had to be confused. Though, Elizabeth Bishop had called me Tower, so she knew which Card I was. I wondered what else their psychic had seen.

“What I want to know, young Cuthbert,” Sweyn drawled, “is if you have justification for being here yourselves? It is as unlikely your entire Coven were in the area as those humans were.”

I slowly peeked around Everest’s other arm and my gaze landed on another set of women who looked like Esther, except these two had to be teenagers while the others looked more grown. They looked nearly like twins. Had I not known any better, I would have assumed they were. They must have been sisters or something. Their arms told me they were the Magician and the Moon. The Irit girls. Elizabeth had said the Irit girls were upstairs. These four have to be ancestors of Esther and her mother. They have to be.

“Sounds like you’re making threats again, Sweyn.”