A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness [228]
A thunderclap echoed through the kitchen, setting the pots and pans clanging.
When the sound had faded into silence, Sarah spoke. “If someone doesn’t tell us what is going on immediately, all hell is going to break loose.” A spell rose to her lips.
My fingertips tingled, and winds circled my feet. “Back off, Sarah.” The wind roared through my veins, and I stepped between Sarah and Matthew. My aunt kept muttering, and my eyes narrowed.
Em put her hand on Sarah’s arm in alarm. “Don’t push her. She’s not in control.”
I could see a bow in my left hand, an arrow in my right. They felt heavy, yet strangely familiar. A few steps away, Sarah was in my sights. Without hesitation, my arms rose and drew apart in preparation to shoot.
My aunt stopped muttering in midspell. “Holy shit,” she breathed, looking at Em in amazement.
“Honey, put the fire down.” Em made a gesture of surrender.
Confused, I reexamined my hands. There was no fire in them.
“Not inside. If you want to unleash witchfire, we’ll go outside,” said Em.
“Calm down, Diana.” Matthew pinned my elbows to my sides, and the heaviness associated with the bow and arrow dissolved.
“I don’t like it when she threatens you.” My voice sounded echoing and strange.
“Sarah wasn’t threatening me. She just wanted to know what we were talking about. We need to tell her.”
“But it’s a secret,” I said, confused. We had to keep our secrets—from everyone—whether they involved my abilities or Matthew’s knights.
“No more secrets,” he said firmly, his breath against my neck. “They’re not good for either of us.” When the winds died down, he spun me tightly against him.
“Is she always like that? Wild and out of control?” Sarah asked.
“Your niece did brilliantly,” Matthew retorted, continuing to hold me.
Sarah and Matthew faced off across the kitchen floor.
“I suppose,” she admitted with poor grace when their silent battle had concluded, “though you might have told us you could control witchfire, Diana. It’s not exactly a run-of-the-mill ability.”
“I can’t control anything.” Suddenly I was exhausted and didn’t want to be standing up anymore. My legs agreed and began to buckle.
“Upstairs,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “We’ll finish this conversation there.”
In my parents’ room, after giving me another dose of painkillers and antibiotics, Matthew tucked me into bed. Then he told my aunts more about Satu’s mark. Tabitha condescended to sit on my feet as he did so in order to be closer to the sound of Matthew’s voice.
“The mark Satu left on Diana’s back belongs to an . . . organization that my family started many years ago. Most people have long forgotten it, and those who haven’t think it doesn’t exist anymore. We like to preserve that illusion. With the star and moon on her back, Satu marked your niece as my property and made it known that the witches had discovered my family’s secret.”
“Does this secret organization have a name?” Sarah asked.
“You don’t have to tell them everything, Matthew.” I reached for his hand. There was danger associated with disclosing too much about the Knights of Lazarus. I could feel it, seeping around me like a dark cloud, and I didn’t want it to enfold Sarah and Em, too.
“The Knights of Lazarus of Bethany.” He said it quickly, as if afraid he’d lose his resolve. “It’s an old chivalric order.”
Sarah snorted. “Never heard of them. Are they like the Knights of Columbus ? They’ve got a chapter in Oneida.”
“Not really.” Matthew’s mouth twitched. “The Knights of Lazarus date back to the Crusades.”
“Didn’t we watch a television program about the Crusades that had an order of knights in it?” Em asked Sarah.
“The Templars. But all those conspiracy theories are nonsense. There’s no such thing as Templars now,” Sarah said decidedly.
“There aren’t supposed