Raven and Sage Nightshade's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Three nights later, Raven found Sage's bed empty again. The green silk sheets lay cold. Raven knew where her sister had gone. The greenhouse pulled at Sage like a hook in her chest. Petra offered power, and power was the only thing Sage still wanted. Raven understood the truth now. Dragging Sage home each night would never work. She had to give her sister something better than Petra's bargain. So she went to the one witch stronger than any of them. Raven climbed to her mother's room at the top of the house. Morgana Nightshade sat among dark red pillows, a bouquet of black moonflowers resting beside her. Spiders moved through her gray hair. She did not look up when Raven entered. "You come to beg for your sister," Morgana said. "I already smell the greenhouse on you." Raven's voice shook, but she spoke anyway. "Sage wants status. Petra gives it to her for cruelty. Give her a real place in the coven instead. Give her a title. Then she won't need Petra." Morgana rose. Her long skirt dragged cobwebs across the floor. For the first time she faced her daughter fully. "You think a crown cures her?" she said. "The corruption is not hunger for rank. It is rot. A title feeds the rot. It does not starve it." "Then help me starve it," Raven said. Louder now. "You said one of us becomes queen. Pick Sage. Make her your heir. Not for cruelty. For protecting the coven. Give her something to be proud of that isn't killing." Morgana studied her a long time. Her face never softened. "A queen trained in mercy," she said slowly. "That has never been done. The witches will test her. If she fails, I combine your souls to save the line. You know this." "I know," Raven whispered. Morgana lifted a single black moonflower from the arrangement. She pressed it into Raven's hand. The petals felt cold and heavy. "Bring Sage to me at the next full moon," she said. "I will name her my heir before the coven. But understand what you have done. You have put your sister in a contest she can still lose. And when she rises, every rival witch in this realm will come to tear her down." Raven held the flower against her chest. "She'll have a reason to stay now." "She will," Morgana agreed. "And so will Petra. You have not closed one door, Raven. You have opened a louder one." Raven carried the moonflower down the dark stairs. She had won. Sage would get her path to status, a true one, not Petra's poison. But her mother's warning sat in her gut like a stone. The greenhouse no longer owned her sister. The whole coven did. And every witch who wanted the crown would now hunt the girl Raven had just raised up.