“She lied to you, Nora!” I interrupted. “Adrienne has lied to you since the very day you were born. What makes you think this time is any different? If you leave Yew Hollow, you’re giving her exactly what she wants. She won’t lift the Summers curse, and she definitely won’t leave me alone. Don’t fall for her lies.”
Nora tossed the backpack to the floor and plopped down on the bed, where she pressed one of the pillows against her face and let loose a muffled yell. With Gwenlyn’s attempt at murdering Alana fresh in my mind, I pulled the pillow out of her grasp. Her face was red and blotchy as I pulled her against me.
“Listen to me,” I murmured, gently untangling the knots in her hair with my fingers. “Fixing this isn’t your responsibility. Don’t worry, okay? Morgan has a plan, and I have one too. Everything will go back to normal soon.”
Nora scoffed and sniffled against my sweatshirt. “Yeah, right. I don’t even know what normal is anymore.”
“Neither do I,” I confessed. I kissed the top of Nora’s head. “But we’ll figure it out together.”
She wiped her eyes and looked up at me. “So what’s this plan of yours?”
My heart clenched tightly. “I can’t tell you yet.”
After the meeting at Morgan’s, I lay in the loft bed with Nora and stared up at the ceiling. Nora’s head rested on my shoulder, and I took comfort in the slow, even sound of her breathing. She was fast asleep, but I couldn’t hope to follow suit when so many things were racing through my mind.
Morgan’s plan was simple. Rescue Gwenlyn. Take out Adrienne. We were to convene early the next morning in order to share energy, receive healing, and reinforce our offensive tactics. Our only advantage was the element of surprise. Adrienne wouldn’t expect us any earlier than the end of the third day, so we planned to attack her before she could gather her wits. We had numbers, but Adrienne had Gwenlyn. And both of them were equipped with dark magic that was far stronger than the Summerses’ weakened witchcraft. No one had said it out loud, but it was bound to be a bloodbath. No matter Morgan’s determination, I didn’t have a lot of faith in the witches’ ability to win this battle. Somehow, someone had to put a stop to Adrienne’s wrath.
I’d already made up my mind. In hindsight, I’d come to my decision on the very night I discovered exactly what it meant to be made the catalyst of a curse. If my little sister was to live, then I had to die, and that was how things were always going to play out. In a few minutes, I would leave the loft, walk out to the yew tree in the town square, and give myself up to whatever natural forces controlled the world of witchcraft, but I wanted just a little more time with Nora before I had to leave her yet again, this time forever.
When it got to be too much for me, I slid out from under Nora and placed a pillow under her head. Trembling, I took a mental snapshot of her sleeping peacefully. Then, before I could lose my nerve, I picked up the butcher’s knife from the kitchen, left the barn, and took to the woods.
I shivered in the snow. I hadn’t brought a coat with me. There was no point with what I planned to do. The cold made me feel more alive anyway, nipping at my nose and ears. I caught a snowflake on my tongue and twirled through the trees to the beat of a silent song, trying to infuse my last few minutes on earth with as much joy as humanly possible.
In the town square, a tiny patch of sky was visible through the clouds. I took it as my parting gift from the earth. A few stars twinkled down at me, as if reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. I approached the yew tree with a deep breath. When I touched the bark, a faint glimmer of energy called out to me. All of Yew Hollow’s history was contained in this one piece of nature. Tonight, I would join it.
I pulled my necklace out from under my shirt and slipped it over my head so that I could hold it instead. The gold pendant felt warm and reassuring in the palm of my hand. I hoped that the piece of jewelry would find its way back to Alana or Nora, one last piece of me for them to remember me by. The knife, in contrast, felt as cold as the snow on the ground. I sat with my back against the yew tree and rolled up my sleeves. My eyes fluttered shut.
“Don’t you dare, Kennedy!”
16
Gwenlyn
I stumbled into Adrienne’s loft, unaware of how I managed to return there. She was hiding her location under a shroud of dark magic, guiding me to and from it through our connection. The Summerses would never be able to root her out. When she was good and ready, Adrienne planned to bring the battle to them.
Adrienne lounged in the queen-sized bed. “Well?” she prompted as I planted my hands on my knees to catch my breath. “Is it done?”
I shook my head. “Kennedy was there. She stopped me.”
Adrienne rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Of course. No matter, dear. Killing Alana wasn’t crucial to my plan. I thought we might just have a bit of fun.”
“You’re sick.”
She flicked this idea away with a regal wave of her hand. “Day three approaches, Gwen. It’s only a matter of time before the Summerses are completely eradicated.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, sitting down on the floor to untie my boots. The woods around us were snowy and damp, but the warmth of Adrienne’s loft made me uncomfortably hot. “You’re one of them. Alana’s your sister. They’re your family. How did it all go so wrong?”
“You already know the answer to this,” she replied lazily. She picked up a novel from her bedside table and flipped to a random page.
“Yeah, Kennedy was a threat to the coven. I don’t buy it.”
Adrienne’s gaze flicked up. “Of course you wouldn’t. Despite my hold on you, your allegiance to Morgan still exists, even if it is buried deep down inside of you. Why believe anything I say?”
I shrugged and leaned against the wall of the loft. “I don’t think the way you turned out is entirely your fault. Some abilities are tough. Look who you’re talking to. You think I ever wanted to be able to talk to the dead?”
Adrienne cleared her throat. “My ability is not ‘tough.’ Do not belittle my agenda in some backhanded attempt to appeal to my empathy.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “All I’m saying is that it must have been hard growing up objective. Humans have emotions for a reason. Not having them must’ve been like waging internal war.”
She pondered this—or ignored it—in silence. When my stomach rumbled, she pointed to the kitchen. “Quiet your insides and then go to bed. I’ve set up a room for you over there.”
I looked over my shoulder, where another portion of the woods had been transformed into a small but equally lavish addition with a dressed, full-sized bed and a privacy screen. “That was uncharacteristically kind of you.”
Adrienne snapped her book shut and rolled over so that I could only see the lace detailing on the back of her nightgown. “I take care of my own.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Though she was no longer willing to participate in the conversation, I could tell that Adrienne wasn’t asleep as I bustled around in the kitchen to look for a snack. Her shoulders were too tense for slumber. My thoughts wandered. No one, not even Adrienne, was inherently evil. I was the first one to understand that witchcraft didn’t manifest the way you always wanted it to. When your ability wasn’t as simple as manipulating water or light, you took precautions to control it. Sometimes, it wasn’t enough. You gave in, plain and simple.
Behind the privacy curtain, I stripped off my jeans and climbed into bed with a bowl of organic oats, yogurt, and berries from Adrienne’s pantry. The mark was impossible to ignore. The inky patterns across my thighs made it look like I’d spent far too much time in various tattoo parlors. I pressed a finger against one of the swirls. It faded under my touch then reappeared as I lifted my hand away. Experimentally, I massaged the top of my leg. The mark undulated across my skin, moving like ripples of a viscous liquid.
Your allegiance to Morgan still exists. That’s what Adrienne had said only moments ago. In the short time during which I’d inte
racted with her, I discovered that she had a habit of giving out useful information without meaning to. Perhaps it was a product of confidence or that she hadn’t expected to snuff the Summerses out in such a personal manner, but she had revealed two things to me that could tip the scales to Morgan’s advantage. First, Nora could break the spell. Second, I wasn’t as obligated to Adrienne’s cause as I’d originally thought.
Across the room, Adrienne’s shoulders rose and fell with her breath. She was finally asleep. I set aside my bowl and pushed the covers to the end of the bed. Then I closed my eyes, crossed my legs, and took a long meditative breath. For a few minutes, it felt impossible to get past the fog of Adrienne’s magic. It clouded my mind and body like a steady storm, but something fought to free itself. A tiny spark of my own consciousness was buried at the bottom of my soul. It was practically nonexistent, steadily dimming under Adrienne’s influence. I silently kicked myself for not rescuing myself earlier, but I would not let Adrienne make me her secret weapon.
Accessing that green flame was like swimming through mud. I led my mind through the swamp of inky dark magic, pushing aside intrusive thoughts and frightening inner voices that didn’t belong to me. I pressed against the barrier between me and my witchcraft, looking for cracks. Finally, a wisp of pure emerald reached out to me. I latched onto it, drawing it out and letting it wrap around my mind.
A gush of positive energy caused me to gasp aloud. My eyes flew open, automatically darting toward Adrienne to make sure she was still asleep. Thankfully, she hadn’t stirred. I looked down at my legs. The mark hadn’t disappeared, but threads of green had woven their way into the black.
I hauled myself out of bed, pulled my jeans back on, and laced up my boots. Every movement was a struggle. Adrienne’s power threatened to overwhelm me again at any second, while my own witchcraft fought to stave off her influence. I didn’t know how long I had, but all I had to do was get back to Yew Hollow before Adrienne woke up and realized what was happening.
I left the loft without a coat—Kennedy had stripped me of mine earlier—and ignored the cold. With two different elements of power battling for supremacy inside me, I was overheating anyway. With a last glance behind me at Adrienne’s sleeping form, I convinced my legs to break into a run. They protested, jerking me back toward the loft, but I persevered. Picturing my family helped. I used happy memories of Morgan and her sisters to ward off thoughts of betraying them. To my surprise, recent memories of Kennedy and Nora popped up too, like training Ken to use her magic properly and watching Nora use her healing ability.
Someone had closed the ward yet again, which was an inconvenience that I had already expected. I was prepared to use the majority of my power to break through to the other side yet again. What I didn’t expect was a loophole that made my plan unnecessary. There was a tiny crack in the ward, a fiery orange divot that provided just enough of a weak point for me to force my way through. Kennedy, of all people, still had faith in me.
I met another unexpected sight in the town square. It was the middle of the night. By now, the witches should’ve all been asleep or worrying silently in bed, but I sensed two distinct auras around the yew tree before it had even come into view. I hid behind an abandoned car and peeked over the hood to catch a glimpse.
It was none other than the McGrath sisters themselves. Kennedy’s orange aura glowed from the base of the yew tree while Nora’s pink one hovered a little higher. Their voices floated on the wind, angry and hurt. They were arguing about something.
A surge of nausea bubbled in my stomach as Adrienne’s power made another attempt to regain control over mine. I swallowed it back then did my best to cast an eavesdropping spell with my thread of witchcraft only.
“You lied to me, Ken,” Nora was saying, her voice thick with emotion. “You told me that everything was going to be all right—”
“I’m trying to protect you, Nora.” Kennedy sounded desperate.
“Well, I don’t want you to! What I want is for my sister to stop leaving me. Is that too much to ask?”
“It shouldn’t be, but—”
Nora knelt down next to Kennedy and pried something from her grasp. It was a knife. She threw it across the square, where it clattered in the gutter. Then she yanked Kennedy up from where she sat at the base of the yew tree—a surprising feat considering their difference in stature—and wrapped her arms around Kennedy’s midriff.
“Don’t you dare,” Nora ordered. “Don’t you dare leave me again.”
Suddenly, I understood. Kennedy knew what little chance the Summerses had of defeating Adrienne. This was her last attempt to save her little sister and the rest of Yew Hollow. She was planning to sacrifice herself to break the curse, a plan that Nora clearly didn’t approve of.
I shot out from behind the car and stumbled toward the sisters. The mark tightened around my legs, causing me to trip over the curb. I skinned my knees on the way down, but that didn’t stop me from crawling over the grass. Kennedy and Nora, alarmed, backed away from me, and Kennedy’s hands lit with the familiar sign of an impending ward.
“Wait!” I gasped, pausing in the street and holding up a hand. “It’s me. It’s me! Please, I can’t fight it off for much longer.”
The sisters exchanged glances as if telepathically consulting with one another. Then they both rushed forward, picked me up from the asphalt, and carried me the rest of the way to the yew tree. At the base of its trunk, I felt the faint power of the Summerses magic, diminished by the curse but not yet extinguished. I was exhausted, tired of fighting.
Kennedy crouched beside me, studying me warily. Nora made to approach me, but Kennedy blocked her off, ever the concerned older sibling.
“You left a crack in the ward for me,” I panted.
“You’re not going to make me regret it, are you?”
“God, I hope not.” I dug my fingers into the stiff dirt around me, focusing on the feeling beneath my fingernails rather than the black fog slowly creeping back into my consciousness. “I don’t have much time, but I need to tell you something.”
Nora shrugged off her coat and draped it around my shoulders. I hadn’t realized that I was shivering. “What is it?” she asked gently.
I honed in on her green eyes, which helped me to remember the true color of my aura. “Kennedy doesn’t have to sacrifice herself. There’s another way to end the curse.”
“Yeah, Morgan’s gun,” Kennedy supplied. “That’s her plan, but she’ll never get close enough to Adrienne to shoot her.”
I furiously shook my head. “Even if she did, it wouldn’t work. There’s only one person who can stop Adrienne.”
“Who?”
“Your sister.”
Nora took a step back in surprise. “What?”
Dark magic clenched around my ribcage. I doubled over, drawing in shallow breaths that felt like knives in my lungs. The more I revealed to Nora and Kennedy, the more Adrienne’s influence desperately tried to stop me.
“Adrienne made it so that the curse would still hold if she was somehow dispatched,” I managed to get out. “She passed it on to her only descendant so that the Summerses would still suffer if she was gone. If we get rid of Adrienne, Nora can break the curse.”
“Are you sure?” Kennedy demanded. She gently patted my cheek to keep my focus on her. “Gwenlyn, how did you find this out?”
“She told me,” I rasped.
Nora remained silent and wide-eyed, staring down at me as though she couldn’t process the words coming out of my mouth. I had no time to comfort her. With every passing second, I belonged less to myself and more to Adrienne.
“Hit me,” I pleaded to Kennedy.
Her face wrinkled with confusion. “What?”
A flare of black magic burst from my hands. I buried them behind my back and pressed them against the rough bark of the yew tree. “Hit me,” I said again. “Before it’s too late.”
Understanding touched Kennedy’s expression. As her right hand shot up
ward, I silently thanked her for not hesitating. The anticipation alone would’ve killed me. Instead, her first two knuckles landed on my temple before I had time to process the result. I saw a burst of orange light and passed out.
17
Kennedy
We carried Gwenlyn to the main house. She dangled limply between me and Nora, her feet dragging on the ground behind us. Neither one of us addressed the elephant in the room. We were still processing Gwenlyn’s insider information. I, for one, was trying not to think about it. In one fell swoop, control over the situation had changed from my hands to Nora’s, which was the last thing I’d wanted to happen. Every time I glanced over at her, her face was a blank slate. I had a feeling that she didn’t know what to make of this either.
As she was prone to do, Morgan somehow already knew of our approach. The screen door burst open as we piloted Gwenlyn up the steps. We paused for Morgan’s approval. She tipped Gwenlyn’s chin up, inspected the bruise on the side of her head, and raised an eyebrow at me.
I shrugged beneath Gwenlyn’s weight. “She asked me to do it. It was the only way to keep her from going back to Adrienne or doing something else rash. Can we come inside or shall we just continue lugging her around Yew Hollow?”
“Put her in the living room. Where did you find her?”
“She found us.”
As Nora and I turned to the side to maneuver Gwenlyn through the door frame, Malia, Karma, and Laurel trundled down the steps from the second floor. All of them looked sick and exhausted, but expressions of hope bloomed at the sight of Gwenlyn’s return. Malia disappeared into the kitchen, but Laurel and Karma accompanied us to the living room.
“Is she okay?” Laurel asked worriedly.
I grunted as I dumped Gwenlyn on the couch and ducked out from under her arm. “I think that’s a solid no. Adrienne is still controlling her.”
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