Read Online The Void (Witching Savannah Book 3) by J. D. Horn - Free Book Online

battles. Soldiers would use it to invite the spirits of the great warriors or even animal totems to possess them. The other signs, they don’t fit in, but I’m sure whoever disturbed Jilo’s grave was not trying to molest her.” Iris handed the phone to Jessamine, then pulled her hand quickly back like she’d been shocked. The women’s eyes locked—Iris’s widened while Jessamine’s flashed at first in surprise, then glinted with a trace of malice. Something had passed between the two women. Iris’s psychometry had betrayed something I didn’t think Jessamine had planned to divulge, but somehow this revelation had changed the balance of power between the two. Jessamine shook off any sign of insecurity, while Iris looked wounded.
    “Then why are they messing with Gramma’s grave?” Martell asked, breaking the moment that had passed between Jessamine and my aunt.
    Iris cleared her throat and closed the book. “I suspect they were trying to tap into any residual power that might have been lingering. Could you put this away for me?” she asked, and Martell returned the book to its place on the shelf. “Your great-grandmother was a very brave woman.”
    “Perhaps a bit too brave,” Jessamine said, crossing to Martell and dropping his phone back into his jacket pocket.
    “Perhaps.” Iris nodded sadly. “In the days before her passing, she opened herself up to some very dark magic.” Jessamine bristled, but Iris held up her hand to fend off Jessamine’s reigniting anger. “If she had not done so, we would not be standing here today. She saved my life. She saved all our lives. Hell”—Iris allowed herself a profanity—“she saved the whole city.”
    “And still you witches desecrate her resting place,” Jessamine said. Her voice remained steely, but her eyes had softened. She seemed to be torn between her need to be angry and the realization of how important Jilo had been to us.
    Iris did not make an attempt to defend witch-kind, even though I surmised she had already chalked the desecration up to magic workers rather than true witches. “I assure you we will deal with whomever committed this abomination, and we will deal with them harshly.” She reached out and pulled Martell into an embrace. “I promise you this,” she said in a near whisper.
    Jessamine seemed to be satisfied with Iris’s vow. She stood tall and, after casting another look at Martell, said, “We’ll see ourselves out.” She moved elegantly, her head held high as if she’d just won some great victory. I got the sense this entire encounter had meant something more to her than making sure Jilo’s rest remain undisturbed. Iris released Martell and walked over to my grandfather’s desk.
    “Ladies,” Martell said with a bob of his head, then followed his cousin out of the room.
    “Martell,” Ellen replied, as we both turned our attention to Iris.
    Iris stood stock-still with her back toward us and her arms drawn around herself. She stared up at my grandmother’s portrait. I sensed she was waiting, waiting for the clack of the front door. When that sound reached us, she turned back toward us. Her face had flushed, and the pulse in her temple betrayed a black anger. Tears welled up and rolled freely down her cheeks.
    “Good heavens,” Ellen said, then rushed to her sister’s side. “We will deal with this.” She pulled Iris into her arms and stroked her hair. “We will.”
    Iris struggled and freed herself from Ellen’s embrace. “It isn’t that,” Iris said, a quiver in her voice. “That woman. Jessamine. She is one of us.”
    “A witch?” I asked incredulously.
    “No.” Iris clenched her fists. “She’s a Taylor.”

SIX
    “ Our families got history, my girl. Real history. ” Jilo’s words spoken last July had come back to haunt me in November.
    “What I read from Jessamine—” Iris shook her head. An anger like I’d only seen once before, the night she learned Connor had left me to burn in Ginny’s