"There is a church here, in Bonelake that recruits white witches. These white witches help the council while they are also being sheltered by the council. I know you worry about your life but I don't think hiding here helps in any way," she was getting beaten obviously by the marks and scars on her body, with the lack of food and water, the woman looked like she had suddenly in these last few months since the last time she had seen her.

"Why do you want to save me, Penelope?" Caitlin questioned Penny, her eyes staring into her with intrigue. 

"I came here looking for answers because I was suspicious but if I am out here today like this, then it is because you helped me," Penny whispered to the woman. 

Though Penny was willing to help she wondered why the Artemis had not been caught until now. With the way they had arranged the portraits, one would think that Caitlin and her brother were adopted after their own children had been drowned. But it was the opposite, like deception to the eyes who visited their home. 

"Do you think they knew that it was black witches who they got you both married to?"

Caitlin nodded, "The female witch confessed that the plan was devised. That it was necessary for the consummation between a white and a black witch for the ritual."

Hearing this part, Penny felt she had heard or read about it. Was it in the church library? Or was it in one of the books that were written by Lady Isabelle?

No, it must be the church library. She tried recollecting it.

"It is for the start of the ritual, for a ma.s.sacre," Penny breathed the words out of her mouth. 

According to others, the witches had recently started killing people by creating ma.s.s murders in the villages and towns but that wasn't it. All this killing had a goal which was to unlock and unbind the powers of the black witches which were locked away by the white witches.

Consummation between white witches and black witches was never common in the past. It was because no one trusted black witches. Turned or not they were all categorized into one black box which no one was willing to touch. In the end, the untouched box only turned darker until there was nothing good about it. 

It was why most of the witches tricked each other. 

The consummation was only the fourth or fifth step when it came to unbinding the magic. But a mere intercourse wouldn't work. It would work only for the two peas coming from one pod. They had to be siblings for it to work. Everything had a rule that had to be followed. 

Not knowing how to put it out without offending the woman, Penny parted her lips to speak,

"Did you…"

"I did," Caitlin answered knowing well what Penny was implying. If she had shared the bed with the black witch. 

Of course, thought Penny to herself. If the steps weren't performed it would have meant the ma.s.sacre would be delayed but it didn't. The black witches had tried to perform the ma.s.sacre which had turned out to be unsuccessful. 

Lady Isabelle was one of the witches who came from the same era as the time when the black magic was driven away leaving the black witches with little to nothing which was why they were trying to test their hands with forbidden magic which wasn't working that great for them. It left them with only some spells and lots of potions. 

The death of the children she had seen in the swap wasn't done out of the accord. She took a deep breath as it started to sink in her mind. To kill that many children and keep them in there without throwing or burying them, it was all part of the ritual. A goal that the black witches had been working on for years.

Penny doubted that she had read the details about the ritual from the church too. Not bothering about it, for now, she looked back at Caitlin who had been observing her for a while now while she was trying to sort her thoughts out. 

"Wouldn't you want to know if your brother is still alive?" 

Caitlin might have found out about her the man she was about to be betrothed to and her sister-in-law to be black witches but would her brother have known or was he killed or chased away like Caitlin?

"Walter must have died. The woman must have killed him by now, he was too good to be her husband. Or rather no man deserved a wife like that," the woman had already made peace with her brother, not wanting to know more about him. 

A couple of knocks on the door interrupted them and the door opened for the guardsman to come in. 

"Time is up. Do you plan to buy her?"

Penny looked in the eye of the woman before saying, "No."

Getting up from the wooden chairs, Penny was about to turn away when she said, "I will come for her in a week," her words were directed towards the guardsman, "Make sure you don't break or kill her until then," her green eyes stared into the guardsman's eyes who only nodded his head. Giving a final look at Caitlin she left the slave establishment with Damien, feeling the eyes of the guards and the warden as they made their way out. 

Walking through the gates, they continued to walk until no one could see or spot them. 

"How did it go?" asked Damien. The room was a soundproof one that had not allowed for the people outside to listen to what they were speaking. 

"She's the same person in there. Are we going to Valeria or Quinn's mansion?" Penny asked him. 

"We are still going through the Artemis' case. Home can wait," answered Damien, taking her hand in his and they zapped out of there in a blink of an eye.