All Just Glass - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [4]
“Witnessed.”
The Rights of Kin were one of the oldest of the Macht witches’ laws, spoken by the very first Vida after her mother was brutally slain before her eyes, and passed down orally for centuries before written language was developed. They applied to every living line descended from that ancient tribe but had not been called upon in more than a thousand years.
When witch-kin is slain, there shall be no safe haven, no higher law to protect the guilty. Every hunter shall turn her blade to the task, and there shall be no rest until those responsible have been slain. These are the Rights of Kin.
“Adianna.” She wasn’t being asked to witness; Zachary had already spoken for their line. A tremor of nervousness passed through her as Dominique gave her orders. “I am putting you in charge of this hunt. Nikolas and Kristopher are necessary targets, but your highest goal is the creature wearing Sarah’s form. I want you to find her, and put a knife in her heart. Is that clear?”
Adia glanced toward Zachary, but he had dropped his gaze back to the blades before him, accepting Dominique’s delegation of power without question.
Zachary was older, twenty-six years to Adia’s nineteen, but he had been a child when his mother and his two siblings had been lost. Dominique had become matriarch of their line, and Adia would inherit that title from her, so it was natural that she would want to put Adia in charge of this mission.
What Dominique could never know was that Adia had already failed once, when she had turned around and let one of them give Sarah his blood. Adia had been there. She could have ended this travesty before it began. But she hadn’t been strong enough.
Now the command had been given and there was only one possible response.
“Yes, and I will obey,” she replied, her words formal despite her silent dread. She had to make herself strong enough. Anything else would be a betrayal of her line.
Michael turned his face away as if he couldn’t stand to look at her anymore. Evan stood and said flatly, “I will send my son to you,” before walking out the door.
Dominique stepped back and glanced at the clock before saying to her daughter, “If there is a next generation, you will be its matriarch, but I’ve held you in my shadow longer than I should have. The hunters you will be working with are your peers, so it is right that you lead them now. I will get out of the way unless you call me in.” Then, in as close to an admission of weakness as Adia had ever heard her mother utter, she added, “For now, I need to rest.”
Adia did not think Dominique had truly slept since she had bound Sarah’s powers two days before. She had given good reasons for Adia’s leading this hunt, but Adia suspected there was one more: Dominique was tired, in body and heart.
Adia nodded, though it felt odd to have her mother looking to her for permission. “You rest. We need you strong. Once you’re up, you can start calling your contacts.” Dominique’s network of hunters and informants was impressive. Adia knew only some of them.
Only once Dominique left did Hasana approach Adia to say, “I should set those fingers before they start to heal that way. It looks like you need stitches in your arm, too.”
“Where’s Caryn?” Adia asked, wondering why Hasana hadn’t gone to check on her daughter.
“She brought her own car,” Hasana said, moving to examine the wounds while she spoke. “She thought we were being called for Sarah’s trial, and insisted on coming to speak on her behalf.”
Caryn herself had nearly been brought to trial not long before for far more severe crimes than Sarah had ever committed; if she had been a hunter, and not a healer, she never could have justified her actions. But maybe she had thought she could justify Sarah’s.
Adia sat while Hasana set and splinted her broken fingers, then put six stitches in her upper arm. The healer’s power numbed the pain from the injury and the needle going into and out of damaged flesh, leaving Adia with a disconnected sensation. In some ways she