A Discovery of Witches

Matthew is “cold and impassive” after his talk with Domenico (277). Diana has a vision of herself as a child, coming home to Sarah and Em in tears, which morphs into seeing Matthew in armor. Diana is angry Sarah didn’t tell her about the Congregation. Sarah replies that since Diana didn’t acknowledge her magic, she didn’t need to know. Diana has another vision of Ysabeau crying tears of blood and telling Matthew that witches have his father. Matthew declares he and Diana will return to Oxford and will stop violating the covenant. Matthew is capitulating with the Congregation and upholding an outdated promise for Diana’s safety.

Matthew insists that Diana is not safe around vampires and tries to scare her, but Diana knows Matthew is safe. She has another vision of leaves and a hunting bow and hears a voice tell her “He’s yours…You mustn’t let him go” (283). Diana tells Matthew she loves him, taking him aback by saying it so soon. No one will tell her whom to love, so Matthew needs to stop trying to protect her and tell her what to do. Marcus calls with news that creatures tried to break into the lab but couldn’t get past security. Matthew plans to return to Oxford but tells Diana to stay behind. Matthew intends to deal with Peter Knox, promising to leave Ashmole 782 alone if Knox does also. From the watchtower, Diana sees Matthew drive away, and begins to cry.

Diana’s sadness, fear, and exhaustion manifest as witchwater. Her tears drop “into globules the size of snowballs” (289), and water pours from her mouth and fingertips. She is ready to succumb to, and become, the water. Ysabeau sings to Diana to bring her back to herself. Most witches nowadays are not powerful enough to draw the witchwater the way Diana did. Ysabeau explains that Marthe helped her control her second sight.

Ysabeau tells Diana how she made Matthew. Born in the local village, he was a smart, curious child. By the time he was a teenager, both his parents had died. Matthew became a talented stonemason, but his wife and son died of fever in 536, leaving Matthew distraught. He was suicidal, but Ysabeau didn’t want Matthew to die, so she made him a vampire. As a new vampire, Matthew was especially strong, hungry, and angry. When he learned to hunt, he regained his conscience and rationality.

Diana promises she will never stop loving Matthew. Ysabeau thinks that’s impossible unless she becomes a vampire, which would put them both out of danger, but Marthe promised Matthew that Diana would stay a witch. 

Under Matthew’s orders to make sure Diana gets exercise to keep her adrenalin down, Ysabeau takes Diana riding, reluctantly respecting Diana’s horsemanship. Ysabeau demonstrates how vampires hunt, testing Diana’s discomfort by killing a rabbit, a marmot, a fox, a wild goat, and a doe. Diana insists that Ysabeau can’t frighten her away from Matthew. Ysabeau tells Diana she must follow Matthew’s orders for everyone’s safety. Ysabeau discusses the meaning and power of family names and reveals that witches and Nazis killed her husband Philippe.

Diana’s relationship with Matthew impacts both their families. She calls Sarah and Em to confess her love for Matthew. Sarah recognizes Ysabeau as Mélisande de Clermont, a notorious witch-hating vampire who “ate her way through most of Berlin after World War II” (314). Diana describes the witchwater episode and her encounter with Domenico but tells her aunts not to worry. Em wants Diana to leave Matthew, but Sarah says she needs to make her own decisions, like her mother, who married Stephen despite peoples’ warnings. Sarah vows to stand by Diana. 

While searching for a pen and paper, Diana rummages through Matthew’s big mahogany desk and discovers the outline of a secret drawer. Diana is tired of Matthew’s secrets. She finds a hidden latch and opens the drawer. Inside, she discovers a velvet-lined tray holding three seals from the Knights of Lazarus of Bethany, one recently used. Images on the seals include Lazarus stepping out of a coffin the de Clermont emblem of the ouroboros, and a crescent moon with a six-pointed star. Diana realizes the seals belong to an order of knights from the Crusades. One is a private seal and one is a “great seal” (321), which means Matthew is the leader of the order, and that the order is still active.

Diana searches through the books in Matthew’s study for more clues. She finds titles that give more insight into his personality, including a seventh-century encyclopedia. She finds numerous manuscripts that are marked with Greek letters and finds they are ledgers, detailing large sums of money received and spent by the Knights of Lazarus over the course of hundreds of years. An entry in 1313 suggests that the Knights Templar and their wealth had folded into the Knights of Lazarus. Diana realizes Matthew must have an enormous number of secrets. She knows witches have secrets, too, and for their relationship to succeed, they must share some and “let the others go” (327). Matthew calls to tell Diana he is coming home, and finally confesses that he loves her.