Karma sat on the arm of the couch and brushed Gwenlyn’s hair away from the bruise on her temple. “How do we sever the connection?”
I crouched down and rolled up the hem of Gwenlyn’s jeans. As I suspected, the mark had traveled to her other leg. “I have a feeling that we won’t be able to do that until we get rid of Adrienne for good. This mark is no joke.”
“So the plan’s still the same then,” Laurel said. “Find Adrienne at daybreak.”
I glanced at Nora, who made herself small in the far corner of the room, with her chin tucked into her chest. “Hold on to your hats. Gwenlyn came with a warning label this time.”
“What do you mean?” Morgan demanded.
Malia returned from the kitchen, carrying a fresh bowl of healing salve toward Gwenlyn. I took her arm, stopping her from getting any closer. “You don’t want to do that. We can’t afford to let her wake up.”
Morgan stepped up to me. “Kennedy. What’s going on?”
I filled them in on Gwenlyn’s side of the story. The news called for an immediate change of action. We could no longer march into Adrienne’s territory as we had planned. For what felt like the hundredth time in a matter of days, Morgan called the rest of the coven for a meeting at the main house. Soon, the residence bustled with stress and activity. Gwenlyn remained unconscious on the couch, surrounded by a cage of auras that would hopefully keep her restrained should she wake up.
Morgan positioned Nora at the head of the dining table. I sat directly beside her, across from Morgan, while the rest of the witches settled in chairs or around the room. I reached for Nora’s hand, but she pulled it away and tucked it underneath the table. When I tried to catch her eye, she pointedly looked away.
“Hey,” I murmured so that the others wouldn’t hear. “Are you okay?”
Even if Morgan hadn’t called for order at that exact moment, I had a feeling that Nora didn’t plan on answering me. She stared down at the table, tracing a divot in the wood with her other hand as the witches quieted down. They all watched Morgan, waiting for her to announce a new plan. Morgan did not hesitate to give them what they wanted.
“At this point, we’re all aware of the gravity of our situation,” Morgan began. “We are sick, we are tired, and we are fed up with the longevity of this curse. Thankfully, we have finally received some intel that might actually give us a leg up. With that in mind, I move to restructure our plan of attack.”
The witches murmured to one another. To my left, Nora tensed up. I moved my foot underneath the table to tap her shin, trying to get her attention, but she stoically ignored me.
“Our main intention remains the same,” Morgan went on. “At dawn, we pool our resources and set out for Adrienne’s camp. Gwenlyn will lead us there. However, instead of devising our strategy around me, our main goal will be to keep Nora safe. We’ll move to get her as close to Adrienne as possible, at which point Nora will be the one to take her out.”
“How?” someone called from the back of the room. “She’s just a child.”
“If you recall,” Morgan replied, “Gwenlyn vanquished the last enemy who threatened Yew Hollow when she was only sixteen. Why should Nora be any different?”
It was Nora who answered. “Because Gwenlyn wasn’t going face to face with her own mother.”
The coven fell silent as Nora calmly slid her chair away from the table. The witches parted as she left the room. I craned my neck to see where she had gone, but the creak of the back screen door opening and closing was enough to give me an idea. I stood up to follow her, but Morgan took my elbow.
“Maybe it’s best you leave her alone,” she said gently. “She needs time to process this. It won’t be easy for her.”
I shook off Morgan’s grip. “Like you bothered to ease her into it. You don’t understand, do you? I may hate Adrienne, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s Nora’s mother. Nora grew up loving her. Now, all of a sudden, she’s being asked to kill her.”
“Well, she doesn’t have to kill her—”
“It’s too much for her,” I declared. “She needs me.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Morgan insisted. “Let her stew. She’ll come back to us.”
I stared down at her. “She’s not you, Morgan. She’s not Gwenlyn. We’re different than you. No matter what happens, we always find our way back to each other. That’s not something I can ignore because you tell me to, even if I am technically a part of the Summers coven.”
Morgan finally stopped pressuring me. Instead, she gestured with an open hand for me to leave the room, and so the rest of the witches watched as I directly ignored the coven leader’s suggestion, pushed my way through to the kitchen, and let myself out onto the porch.
In the darkness, I almost missed the glimmer of pink across the backyard. Nora sat in one of the swings in the rickety old playground that was the only adornment of the Summers property. I hopped off the porch and jogged toward her, but she didn’t look up when I approached. Instead of pushing her to talk to me, I sat down in the adjacent swing, tilted my face up to where I thought the moon might be hiding behind the clouds, and pushed off. The rusty chains creaked in protest and the height of my seat failed to accommodate my long legs, but there was something oddly freeing about coasting back and forth in a hypnotizing pendulum. It reminded me of what childhood was always meant to feel like: innocent and blissfully ignorant.
After some time, I allowed the swing to slow. It swayed gently as it lost momentum, and when I passed by Nora’s unmoving seat, she reached out to find my hand. I dug my toes into the cold ground to stop the swing from carrying me away from her. She held tighter to my fingers but didn’t say anything. Then, she stood up from her swing, sat in my lap, and buried her forehead against my neck.
“I know,” I murmured, tucking her into a more secure position. Swings weren’t exactly built to hold two people, especially when one of them was as tall as a titan. “I know, Nora.”
She wasn’t crying or anything. She simply wanted to sit in the arms of someone who knew her. This was why I’d ignored Morgan’s warnings to leave Nora alone. This was the basis of our relationship. I loved no one else like I loved Nora. Now more than ever, it was us against the world.
She fiddled with the gold chain around my neck, pulling the tree pendant out from beneath the collar of my shirt. “This was Alana’s, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“No wonder it always felt so special to you,” she said. “It’s charged with her aura. You probably felt it, even if you didn’t understand what it was at the time.”
It was too much for me to consider the possibility that my mother had been with me for my entire life and that the necklace was her way of staying close to me even with Adrienne’s curse in place. I took it from Nora’s fingers.
“Enough about the necklace,” I said. “What about you?”
She lifted her head from my shoulder to peer across the yard to the Summers house. “I’ll do what I have to do. The Summerses will be safe.”
“I’m not worried about the Summerses.” I tapped her nose affectionately like I used to do to get her attention when she was younger. “I’m worried about you.”
She shrugged, lacing her fingers together behind my neck. “I don’t really feel anything. Just numb. What do you want me to say?”
“I’m not sure about this whole plan to let you lead the charge,” I told her. “Not that I doubt your competence, of course. I just think the Summerses are putting too much pressure on you. This is our family, Nora. You and me. If you have a better idea as to how to handle all of this, I’m willing to listen.”
“What else can we do?” She unspun my hair from its bun and let it flow through her fingers as if she were admiring the color of it. “The thing is, Kennedy, the Summerses are our family too. We may not share a last name or know them as well as we know each other, but you can’t deny it. Our mothers are or were members of this coven.”
I bowed my h
ead. “It doesn’t feel like it. I don’t know Alana at all.”
“Because you were robbed of the chance,” Nora reminded me. “I haven’t been sleeping lately, Ken. I keep thinking about how much better off your life would’ve been if Adrienne didn’t exist.”
“Hey,” I said, catching her eye. “If Adrienne didn’t exist, then you wouldn’t either, and I wouldn’t give you up for the world.”
A hint of a smile found its way to Nora lips. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. And there’s no point in pining for a different outcome,” I told her. “You can’t change the past, Nora. All you can do is try to affect the future. I have to ask you something though. Seriously.”
Nora looked up. “What?”
I took an uncertain breath. “Do you really think you can do this? Take Adrienne down? I know you’re a superhero, but this goes deeper than your abilities.”
“I don’t need offensive powers to contain my mom,” Nora replied. For the second time, she took the tree pendant around my neck. “Can I borrow this for a little while? There’s something I need to do.”
“Sure.” I unclasped the necklace and gave it to her. It coiled up in her palm. “Is there anything I can help with?”
“Not yet.”
18
Gwenlyn
By the time I woke up from Kennedy’s right hook, I had been moved from the town square to the barn. The entire loft space was illuminated by a rainbow of auras, crossing over each other to form a makeshift prison. The witches didn’t trust me on my own, and they had every reason not to. The war within me had not ceased. Adrienne’s magic called to me, even at a distance. My own craft fought to silence it. The resulting clash rattled my mind and body. I curled up on Nora’s bed, holding my head between my hands as it ached with the overflow of energy. I was glad for the cage of auras. At least I couldn’t do any more damage to the Summerses if I was locked up.
I had no clue as to how much time had passed since I found Kennedy and Nora at the yew tree, but a glance outside provided me with the basic information. The sky was just beginning to lighten. The ground was still dark, but snow blanketed the entire town. There were no footsteps or tracks nearby, but that didn’t mean the Summerses hadn’t already commenced their march to Adrienne’s camp. I worried that I hadn’t given them enough information. Yes, Nora could defeat Adrienne, but how did she plan on doing it? It wasn’t like her incredible healing power was going to suddenly manifest into a tangible sword to fight Adrienne with.
The most difficult thing about being in quarantine was not knowing what was happening outside. I had no way of making contact with Morgan, Kennedy, or any of the other witches, which was probably intentional in case I was feeding information to Adrienne. Even so, it was painful to wait. The analog clock on the wall mocked me. Every tick of the second hand felt like an hour. It was pure torture not knowing what Adrienne might be doing to my family.
It was worse when I realized that I didn’t have to wait long to find out.
The door to the barn fell off its hinges as Adrienne forced her way through it. She wore a white fur coat, a matching hat, and heeled boots that should’ve been impossible to walk through snow in. When she spotted the floating auras in the loft, she picked her way toward the stairs as if navigating a dirty bar bathroom and invited herself up.
“Ugh, what a nuisance,” she said, waving away the witches’ confinement system with one gesture of her hand as I stared up at her in utter shock. Her black aura swept through the colorful array, nullifying its effect. As soon as it had been disbanded, another power surge rocked through my body. The dark magic finally overpowered my own. “Come along, Gwenlyn. It’s time we put an end to this absolute circus of a coven.”
And my body obeyed no matter how much my subconscious protested. I followed Adrienne down the loft steps, where she took one of Kennedy’s coats from where it hung by the door and offered it to me. I slipped my arms through, cuffing the sleeves to compensate for Kennedy’s long arms, and followed Adrienne out into the snow.
“Where are we going?” I asked. The tail of her coat slithered across the cold ground. It was the only part of her that I could look at. The rest of her reminded me of my betrayal, making me queasy.
I knew from the angle of her trajectory what her answer would be before she spoke it. “To the Summers house. Everything begins and ends there.”
“They’re waiting for you, you know,” I told her. “They’re prepared to take you down. You’re making a mistake. What chance do you stand against an entire army of witches?”
Adrienne’s answering laugh made me shudder. “Oh, please. An army? My dear, armies have numbers and strength and weapons. As of right now, the Summerses’ only advantage is the sheer size of their coven, but you forget that this curse has been wearing them down for months now. They might as well be an angry swarm of church mice. No, I intend to waste no more than an hour on these women. The air in Yew Hollow is wreaking havoc on my skin, and I long to return to Windsor Falls without the stress of this ordeal hovering over us. Are you all right?”
I had fallen to my knees, gagging and retching. Adrienne’s nonchalant tone regarding the Summerses’ demise was too much for me. I couldn’t accept the idea of flattening Yew Hollow and going to Windsor Falls to work beside Adrienne, but my body revolted when I tried to reject it instead.
“Oh, dear,” Adrienne said, taking a step away as I convulsed again. “You know, this wouldn’t happen if you just gave in to it. In fact, if you stopped to consider the advantages of working with me, it would allow you to feel stronger than ever.”
I forced half of a reply out through clenched teeth. “I—hate—”
“Shh,” Adrienne interrupted, dropping down next to me. “Save your strength. Here, I’ll help you finally pick a side. This will relieve you of that horrible nausea.”
Before I understood what she was doing, she pricked the tip of her own index finger and reached out to me, drawing on my cheek in her own blood. As soon as her flesh touched mine, I felt the mark react. It twisted and turned around my legs, pulling more power from Adrienne’s blood. Soon, I felt it slither up my torso and back, like living vines, until it wrapped all the way up to my neck. I vibrated with energy, and Adrienne stepped back as I rose from the ground.
Every part of me thrummed with power, begging me to release it. Adrienne grinned as I leveled a curse at the nearest tree. The trunk exploded, and the giant elm toppled over, sending a resounding crash through the woods.
“Nice, isn’t it?” Adrienne noted. “Let’s put it to good use.”
Morality went out the window as we strolled, now side by side, through the forest. I only had one objective. Rid the world of the Summers coven. It no longer mattered that Morgan was my adoptive mother, or that Kennedy and Nora would never see each other again. All that remained was a ravenous hunger for destruction.
At the edge of the forest, Adrienne did not pause to study the layout of the Summerses’ potential defense, instead marching straight on. I immediately took in the sights. Guard witches were posted at each corner of the main house’s roof, gazing out across the yard. As soon as they spotted us, they raised the alarm, firing sparklers in the air that were meant to warn the others of our approach. All at once, the Summerses burst out of the house, streaming across the lawn. It was the saddest charge I’d ever seen. The witches moved sluggishly, relying on their witchcraft to keep them upright. Adrienne bared her teeth in a grin. This would be an easy fight.
From this distance, I couldn’t see Morgan, Kennedy, or Nora within the throng, but I had expected this. I knew Morgan. I knew that she would keep Nora hidden and protected for as long as possible. Chances were that Nora was at the very center of everything, with Kennedy at her side. I opened my mouth to tell this to Adrienne, but something stopped me at the last second. It was my last shred of hope, the tiniest light in all of the darkness, and keeping it to myself was the last thing I could do to resist Adrienne’s hold on me.
Adrie
nne took out the guard witches with one spell. Black lightning ripped from her hands and tore across the sky. As it struck the witches, they tumbled from the roof and lay motionless in the grass. This seemed to fuel the Summerses’ anger with Adrienne. They surged toward us in a diamond formation. For a split second, I doubted Adrienne’s ability to fend all of them off, even if they were weaker than usual. But then Adrienne lashed out.
The first sweep of her hand took out ten witches in the front line. They went down easily. Morgan had put her weakest witches up front in anticipation of such an attack. It was no more than a distraction. There was another line of witches to take their place. Adrienne struck again. This time, she was less successful. These witches had wards and defense mechanisms in place. Adrienne’s hex deflected off of most of them. Only two additional Summerses fell to the ground.
In the middle of the backyard, we made contact. A black, spherical ward erupted around me and Adrienne as we crashed against the Summerses’ defenses with a deafening boom. With a jolt, I realized that I was contributing to the chaos, casting my own hexes at the women I had once considered family. Malia, Karma, and Laurel appeared out of the fray, forming a triangle around me as they joined hands. Morgan’s sisters were a force of nature, each of them possessing a hardy amount of power, but they were no match for the energy that Adrienne directed through me. When they attempted to craft a containment ward, I blasted apart their defenses. The sisters were wrenched away from one another, landing in confused separation. Laurel recovered first. Her aura flared and the dirt beneath my feet turned to viscous mud. It sucked my boots into the ground up to the ankle, rooting me in place.
With a growl of frustration, I looked away from the battle to free myself from the earth. Laurel’s spell held fast. Adrienne hadn’t counted on something so simple to disarm me. There was no dark magic application for this. I had to lean down and physically dig my feet out of the mud, at which point Karma appeared in my peripheral vision. With a quick, witchcraft-fueled jab of her fist to my temple—the same place that Kennedy had hit me hours earlier—she stunned me momentarily. I dropped to my knees, bracing myself against the frozen ground.
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