Scott Tracey - Moonset

We entered from the rear parking lot, walking through one building after another as we headed towards the front of the school.

“I want to know where the rest of my family is,” Jenna demanded of Evanson. “We haven’t seen my brothers or my sister since we woke up outside that … farmhouse.” Somehow, she made farmhouse sound like it something reprehensible.

Evanson didn’t say anything, however. Neither did the redhead who walked behind us.

“It’s just like the drivers,” I explained to her.

“They’re not going to talk, no matter how much we try.”

“If Maddy would have taught me that spell to set his boxers on fire, I’m sure he’d say something ,” she sniped. I thought I caught a glimpse of a smile on Evanson’s face.

As we approached the main building, there was more activity in the halls. Men and women, stationed at every intersection. The closer we got to the front of the school, the more guards we saw. All in all, we probably passed thirty to fifty, and that was just down the main thoroughfare of the school. Every single one of them stopped what they were doing long enough to watch us pass. No one said a word.

Our guards led us towards the main office, a place that was quickly becoming my home away from home. From there they led us back into the conference room where I’d been spending so much time lately. Only this time, there weren’t only one or two people inside. There was a full-on dozen. The long rectangular table was full on three sides, with Illana Bryer in the dead center of one of the long sides. Across from her, the entire side of the table was empty, except for two empty chairs clearly left for us.

“Oh no,” Jenna whispered, as Evanson held the door for the two of us. One look at all the closed, emotionless faces in the room and I think we both knew that this wasn’t just a simple expulsion.

“Thank you, Aaron. That will be all,” Illana said formally. Once we were in the room, Evanson nodded once and closed the door from the outside. I watched him disappear down the hallway through the slats in the blinds.

“That’s Robert Cooper,” Jenna whispered at my side, nodding to a white-haired man who was so sour he looked like he had lemon juice running through his veins.

“This is a troubling night for all of us,” Illana spoke first, but she was speaking to her gathered comrades, not to us. We were the only two in the room under the age of fifty—although with witches you could never really tell. Some could have been close to one hundred. “For the past several months, we’ve all heard the whispers and scandal that has been plaguing this town.”

“Excuse me. But before you convene the lynch mob, the polite thing to do would be to introduce yourselves.” It was the standard Jenna response. However, it wasn’t Jenna who was speaking. I was.

Illana Bryer stared at me in shock. Twice in one night, I’d caught her by surprise. But I didn’t stop there. “And before you start with anything , the least you could do is inform us how our family is.”

“Absurd!” Robert Cooper glared at us from Illana’s right. “I don’t answer to you, Moonset. ”

In the corner of the room, where I hadn’t noticed him before, Quinn pushed himself off of the wall. “Grandfather … ”

“And I’ve heard more than enough out of you ,” the man continued with a brief look to his left, his voice dripping with contempt. “You’re lucky you aren’t seated next to the warlocks.”

Conversation began to spring up between different groups around the table. Two women to my left were murmuring about how it was “so upsetting.” A group of men who looked like they should have been at a sports bar were grunting about “mistake letting them come here.”

Jenna had taken her seat, but I didn’t. For once, I wasn’t going to be the one trying to placate everyone, and make things better. Besides, this wasn’t a fire we were just going to walk away from.

Screw the good twin.

“Excuse me!” My voice rang throughout the room, and all movement stopped. Quinn’s grandfather looked like he’d swallowed his tongue. “Are they okay? Where are they?” I kept my voice loud, and controlled. I thought I caught a glimpse of approval on Quinn’s face, but with him it was so hard to tell.

“Your family is fine, dear boy,” Illana said, her voice smooth and uncompromised. “As is the girl, I can assure you.” She, too, looked less murderous than some of the others around the table, but her tone wasn’t entirely respectful either. “They’ve shown no adverse effects to their

… trials this evening.”

“Where are they?”

“Safe,” Illana said.

“They were not deemed a threat,” Robert snapped.

“He has a right to know what’s going on,” Quinn fired back.

There was a moment’s pause before Illana stepped in. “Justin Daggett. Jenna Bellamont.

We’ve been gathered tonight after accusations that you have been known associates with a warlock.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said, feeling fire in my veins. “Jenna wasn’t even involved. She was as much a victim as the others.”

“Nevertheless,” Illana continued, as if I hadn’t said anything of value, “those are the accusations in play.”

“We’re the only ones they’re scared of,” Jenna murmured quietly, looking up at me. “They don’t care about the others.”

Robert Cooper cleared his throat. “And that’s all you need to know. Now then—”

“I am not bait.” I took a deep breath, and looked at the members of the Congress. None of them, save Illana, looked particularly intimidating. “And this is the last time you’ll use any of us like that.” Someone had to stand up. Someone had to put this to an end.

They’d brought us here, hoping we’d draw out their warlock. Hoping that maybe, just maybe, the warlock would take care of the Moonset problem for them. And if not, well, we could both be painted with the same brush. The whispers once again picked up around the table, from smug whispers of “how inappropriate” to more scandalized “of course it was them .” Everyone around the table had an opinion, it seemed. That’s when I knew for certain.

The Invisible Congress. Made up of the leaders of the Great Covens and a few token

Solitaires. They pulled at our strings and toyed with our lives. I looked down at Jenna, who was looking back up at me like we’d never seen each other before.

“Young man, should you choose to interrupt me again, I will have you bound and gagged,”

Quinn’s grandfather said, taking to his feet. We stood across the table from each other. I swallowed. “We’re all well aware of your need for dramatics,” he said, waving his hand in a way that included the two of us. “And I won’t tolerate it this evening. You lost your rights the moment you consorted with the Abyss.”

“Calm yourself, Robert,” Illana said, placing her hand on his arm. “Remember, we’re not at war any longer.”

The rotund, sweating man seated on the other side of Robert cleared his throat. “Are we sure that both of them are involved with the Denton boy? Their files indicate the girl is a risk, but hardly the boy.”

Robert looked to his left, pitching his voice for his grandson. “Bring the girl in.”

I followed Quinn with my eyes until he went to the door, and then I turned to watch as he disappeared across the hall. A few moments later he returned with Ash following behind.

There was soot covering her face. I could see rips in her shirt underneath the too-large jacket she was wearing, and her hair was a mess, but she looked otherwise unhurt.

“You can stand with Quinn,” Illana said, not altogether unkindly to her. But Ash didn’t move.

Jenna’s fingernails clawed into my wrist all of a sudden. I jumped, trying to pull my arm away, but she held fast. Her attention never left Robert. Her point was obvious— stare at your girlfriend later.

“The evidence is clear,” Robert continued. “The Moonset children may not have initiated the influx of dark magic into our world these last few months, but their involvement cannot be denied. If Ashen Farrer hadn’t invoked the spellform that saved their lives, who knows what would have happened?”

I glanced at Ash, who was still standing near the door, her eyes uncertainly moving around the table. She realizes there’s more to this, too.

“How did she learn a spellform at such a young age?” one of the ladies across the table asked, leaning forward in her seat. “There have been no applications on file with her name on them.”

Ash opened her mouth, but as it turned out, no one really cared to hear what she had to say.

The sweating man shifted in his seat, his hands steepled in front of him. “I could not presume,” he said loftily. “My boys would never violate the law like that.”

“You handle the training of spellforms,” the woman accused the sweating man. “How else would she have learned if not from one of your trainers?”

“Ash didn’t invoke that spell,” I interjected. “At least not by herself. I was the one who finished it. Not her.” In that moment, our eyes met, and Ash took a step forward. A step towards Jenna and I.

“You weren’t brought here to speak,” Robert said, coming to his feet again. “And I will not tolerate it any longer.”

“Point of order,” Quinn interjected, stepping forward again. “But the law states that Coven leaders have the right to speak before the Congress.”

“Oh, you can’t mean,” Robert sputtered. “That’s preposterous.”

“It’s well documented that the children are bound into a coven,” Illana murmured. “Although they are still Moonset’s offspring.” Her lips twisted in distaste.

“They are infants ,” Robert argued. “Neophytes.”

“The law is the law,” I said slowly. It was something that I’d believed in wholly before tonight, and the one thing our parents had never believed. To them, the world demanded revolution. “I am a coven leader, the same as many of you. And if we’re to be charged with aiding a warlock, then I lay the same charge.”

The room erupted into loud chatter, but I raised my voice and pointed. “At Robert Cooper.”

“There was something disturbing about the five of them. They would look at you with these eyes … like they knew what we’d done.

And then there were the spells. Simple magics went haywire around them. Miranda

Abbot suggested euthanasia, and was struck down by some sort of seizure. Those babies … those children of Moonset … they’re a threat.”

Nicholas Stone (C: Eventide)Official Report

This meeting, or trial, or whatever it was, was a farce. Cooper wanted us out of the way—and he’d break the law to do it. But thanks to all the reading I’d done for Quinn, I knew that a charge of invoking the black arts couldn’t be ignored. So long as it was made by a coven leader. Now all those papers make sense. He wanted me to be prepared.

All conversation died. Every pair of eyes in the room was locked onto me, and not a single one of them was anything less than dumbfounded. Especially not my target.

“This is preposterous,” he sputtered. “We don’t have to listen to this.”

“Yes, you do.” I realized what they must see when they looked at me—the spitting image of

Sherrod Daggett, calling them to account. “You brought us here, hoping that a myth named