Their stay in Valeria extended, and Penny continued to study the books along with Lord Alexander where some of the white and black magic could be performed by him, reacting to his words and movements in his hands. In the meantime, Damien started to take up cases that were handed down by Alexander which came from the council, this way both of them had their time occupied during the day unless one of them was free.
More than two weeks had passed since they had come to Valeria where Penelope's mother couldn't catch hold of where her daughter was right now.
After the failed massacre, the black witch had fled from Wovile in the interest of keeping herself alive so that her daughter's pureblooded master wouldn't come after her. After all, she had got the man poisoned to set him and her daughter as a sacrifice but everything had failed. She had hoped to catch her daughter again but she was in Bonelake and her magic wasn't working on her.
The time of Winter was coming to an end and it was turning the atmosphere back to being wet, muddy weather which the people of Bonelake were used to. It had only rained today. The hood that she wore was drenched and wet. The black witch made her way to one of the local inns of Bonelake which was shabbier than the other inns which also served food.
"What will you eat?" a young man came to take her order, a bandana over his forehead and an apron which was tied around his waist.
"Lard on bread," the woman replied to him, pulling the hood that had been covering her head. The boy stared at her, and she asked, "What?"
"Is that all?"
"If there is something you can offer me for free please don't hold back in bringing it to the table," she gave him a look, her eyes keeping him in place before the innkeeper called his name, snapping his gaze away from the lady, he quickly went to the innkeeper to clean the table which the customer had only left.
One of the advantages of being a black witch was that no one would ever doubt them. Unlike the white witches who always kept watching over their shoulders making their existence known to the others, black witches were highly scheming. Laure continued to drink the water and finished the meal very slowly. Looking at the people who can come here where she needed to steal money from. Or rather use a scapegoat here.
If it weren't for a stupid daughter, she would have had money in her pocket. Instead, she had only a few coins in her pocket. She would have been paid after the massacre, not only paid but she would have lived like a queen while the humans and vampires would fear and bow down at her and the rest of the black witches.
Everything had been going according to the plan. It was a plan that started almost a year ago when one of the black witches started to recruit the other black witches, she was a young girl but her knowledge over the council and the people, her goal to bring back the locked black magic had ignited people to start working with her.
Building an entire town was no easy task and to have them built along the marking where the curses had been placed after the entire town was done in the two lands, everyone had hoped for this to be it.
Her hand clutched on to the plate she was holding.
One mistake. It was only one mistake and it had cost her. Only if that little bitch had died.
Laure had everything planned together with the other black witches and the white witch but somehow her dear daughter and the pureblooded vampire had escaped from there. She still couldn't figure out what happened. Did the curse spell which they were using for the massacre not work?
How did they escape though?!
With her daughter who had failed to complete the task of the ritual, the massacre had stopped. Not even throwing the other older white witch helped in the ritual. Laure wondered if it was because she had tapped into the forbidden magic to spill out magic on the land.
A man sitting across the room from where Laure sat staring at her, waiting for her eyes to meet his eyes and he smiled. The smile that wasn't pleasant but one with ill intentions. Laure, in the beginning, didn't smile.
With the meal done, she walked outside in time to be caught by the man who appeared to have a carriage waiting for him at his call.
"Milady, do you need a drop?" asked the man, his head bald and his age which appeared to be somewhere in his early forties.
The black witch stopped and turned to look at him, a polite smile on her lips, "No, thank you."
"Please, I insist," he persisted. It took less than five seconds to look him up and down to notice that he was married with the ring settled on his ring finger. Laure looked not more than thirty, her age never showing which was another ability to manipulate a person to their charms and whims.
She turned to him, gauging him this time knowing men like him like the tips of her fingers.
"Do you have money?" she asked and the man couldn't be any happier. He pulled the bag of coins which he had pushed in his pocket. She gave him a sweet smile while glancing at the coachman who didn't bother to look at them or was rather trained to not look at the woman who was picked by his master, "Okay."
The man pulled out the door for her to get inside the carriage and Laure did when the man said, "Milady, please," he gave her a bow. Placing her delicate hand on the sides of the door, she stepped inside the carriage and the man followed her soon before the carriage started to move away from there.