The Witch Is Back

by Brittany Geragotelis

  Closing the distance between Colette and me, I found myself hesitating. What if she was dead? Would she be cold already? How would I get her back to the cabin? Fear engulfed me as I was brought back to the moment that I’d realized my mom was no longer alive. I’d totally lost it then. It had taken me forever to even begin to deal with the loss.

  Get her down now, Hadley! The words seemed to scream their way through my head, despite the morbid memories.

  Lifting up onto my tiptoes, I grabbed Colette around the shins and tried to push her upward in an attempt to either get her down or make it so there was some slack on the rope. Neither worked and I strained to see what I was dealing with.

  Only, when I looked up I nearly let go of Colette altogether.

  There was no rope.

  In fact, there was nothing holding her up in the air at all. She was simply floating there above me. Like a ghost.

  Still, just because there wasn’t a noose around her neck didn’t mean she was free from danger. Not from whatever magic had her in its grip at least. Taking a step back, I squared my shoulders and forced myself to breathe deeply. There wasn’t enough time to calm myself, so after inhaling twice, I aimed and let loose the spell a half a foot above Colette’s head.

  “Exbiliby totalitum!” I yelled. The trunk behind Colette exploded into splinters.

  Damn. Missed.

  I could hear footsteps falling on the forest floor behind me. Without turning, I knew that more people had joined the previous four. Which meant this was going to get real ugly, real fast if I didn’t get Colette down. Now. And even then, I wasn’t sure I could defend us both.

  Starting to panic, I tried again.

  “Exbiliby totalitum!”

  This time I could feel the magic being severed, and I rushed forward to catch Colette as she fell. Luckily, I was able to soften most of the blow . . . for her, at least. I, however, fell under her weight, my hip smacking the ground hard. I felt a burst of pain as something sharp ripped through my clothes and into my skin.

  “Mother of magic!” I screamed out loud, but didn’t let go of Colette.

  I wanted to inspect my injury, but one look up showed that the figures were almost on us. So I struggled to a standing position, and forced the pain down.

  No time. Toughen up. Think fast.

  I tried to take a step with my bad leg and it nearly buckled underneath me.

  This is not good.

  “Colette!” I yelled, glancing back at my friend and seeing her wince slightly.

  A wave of joy flowed through me at this slightest of movements. It meant that Colette was still alive. Now if I could just get her to become functional again, we might get out of this alive. . . .

  I turned back to the robed gang running up behind me. There were seven of them now. Most of the ones that I’d previously left on the forest floor were up again, seeming none the worse for wear. I’d been able to handle four of them earlier, but that had been with my adrenaline running on full blast and no complications. Defending a passed-out Colette, while suffering from a bum hip, were both complications.

  Groaning through the pain, I took a sturdier stance and then closed my eyes to concentrate. Feeling the power building up inside my body, I focused on what I was trying to do. It was only for a few seconds, but it was enough to channel my gifts toward my enemies. Opening my eyes again, I concentrated on the middle of the flock flying toward me.

  “Immobius totarium!”

  I yelled it with as much force as I could, my arms raised as if to physically stop them. All seven of them immediately froze mid-run. It was like hitting the pause button on the DVD player. They were immobile.

  For now.

  My hands fixed on the dark figures, I peeked back at Colette, who still hadn’t moved. Taking a careful step backward, and then another, I made my way to where she lay. Her glasses were on the ground a few feet away and her clothes were just as dirty as mine.

  “Colette!” I yelled, trying to get her attention.

  Nothing.

  “CO-LETTE!” My cheer voice somehow broke through and her eyes fluttered open and looked up at me groggily.

  “What?” she asked. Her voice was hoarse and she immediately brought her hands to her throat, rubbing it gingerly. Then, realizing where we were, she started to panic. Colette rushed to her feet as she spotted the group of caped bad-guys behind me, and then tripped over a fallen branch, ending up back on the ground.

  “Chill out. They’re frozen,” I assured her.

  She squinted to try to see for herself that what I was saying was true. I used a spell to send her glasses through the air and back onto her face where they belonged.

  Colette didn’t seem any happier being able to see now that she could accurately count how many people were in front of us. But at least she was awake. That was certainly a plus.

  “We need to get out of here,” Colette said, inching toward me as she spoke.

  “I’m right behind you,” I answered.

  We began to make our way around the motley crew of hooded shadows and at first I was just happy to be getting away from them. But then it hit me. I still had no idea who they were.

  And I needed to know my enemy.

  “I don’t feel you right behind me,” Colette said, reaching back for my hand and only getting air.

  “Sorry, Cole. There’s something I have to do first,” I said, slowing down next to one of the shrouded figures. “You can go on ahead if you want. But I have to find out who these guys are.”

  When Colette didn’t move from her spot, I lifted an eyebrow at her.

  “You sure you don’t want to go?” I asked.

  She snorted. “Into the woods by myself? No thank you. You saw what happened the last time I did that . . . I think I’ll just take my chances with Darth Vader and the Funky Bunch here.”

  I nodded and returned my focus to the silhouette in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I got myself ready for what I might find when I pulled back the hood. Reaching out my hand, I realized that it was shaking slightly. With nerves or adrenaline, I wasn’t sure. Ignoring my better judgment, I grabbed ahold of the material and ripped it back.

  And gasped.

  My whole world began to implode as I recognized the eyes first. I’d never be able to forget those eyes. They’d stared straight into my soul and discovered all my secrets. The dark color swirled around like a stormy night, almost making me faint from the effect.

  “Not again,” I said, before collapsing to the ground.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Colette caught me before I hit the ground and helped me back to my feet, gripping my arms until I was steady again. But I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel steady again. Everything was wrong and so, so horrible.

  I took a step forward and my breath caught as I spoke. “How could you betray me like this, Asher? Again.” It came out as a whisper.

  Asher stood in front of me, still frozen in his spot. The cute, dimpled face that I’d grown to not only love, but trust, was scrunched up in a feral snarl. His eyes, which usually looked at me with such care and affection, were hostile. It was like looking at a stranger.

  I wasn’t prepared for the flood of emotions that torpedoed through me during those next few seconds. The sorrow and intense pain that hit my gut was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It was so much worse than when I’d found out he was in cahoots with Samuel. I’d barely known him then. Now we had time behind us—over six months of constant contact—and experiences, and memories, and a bond that made this betrayal so much more devastating.

  Sadness parlayed into anger, and before I knew it was coming, my hand was whipping out and slapping Asher hard across his face. My hand stung as I pulled it away. Colette took a step back, as surprised as I was that I’d just attacked the guy I loved. But as far as I was concerned, he’d gotten off easy.

  Because what I wanted to do was kill him.

  I started to plot ways that I could hurt him as badly as he’d hurt me. Tea
ch him that you don’t mess with the Bishop women. I could curse him so that he’d grow disgusting hair all over his body like a human werewolf. Make him talk as if he’d been sucking on helium balloons for the rest of his life. Turn Abby against him.

  As much as I wanted to get my revenge, none of these things seemed quite appropriate. And deep down, I knew that I didn’t have it in me to dip into my inner darkness.

  But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to kick his ass for breaking my heart.

  I reached out to smack him again, but Colette stopped me. “Uh, Had, I think you need to see this,” she said. The seriousness in her voice made me turn to look at her.

  “What?” I asked, slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

  Colette didn’t say anything, but reached out and threw off the hood of the figure closest to her. I gasped as Asher appeared next to her.

  Whipping my head around to the figure beside me, I stared into Asher’s beautiful face. Then, I looked at the person next to Colette and saw him again.

  “Have I gone temporarily insane or are there two of him?” I asked Colette carefully.

  “If you’re crazy then so am I,” she affirmed.

  It didn’t make sense.

  “Wait a hot second,” I said, an idea forming in my head. I walked over to another figure and ripped off his hood.

  Asher.

  Colette did the same, going around to two others and revealing who was underneath their cloaks.

  Asher.

  And Asher again.

  When we’d finished unveiling them all, Colette and I found ourselves standing in the woods in the middle of a sea of people who all looked exactly like my boyfriend.

  “What the hell . . . ,” I said, confused and upset.

  “Why do they all look like Asher?” Colette asked, turning to me for answers.

  “Because Brooklyn wants to destroy me,” I said, matter-of-factly. “And she knows this is the way to hurt me most.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. . . . ,” Colette said, shaking her head incredulously.

  “Well, it’s about to,” I said, taking a deep breath, a newfound anger building inside of me. Only, this time, it wasn’t geared toward Asher.

  “Colette, you might want to step back,” I said and then followed my own advice. Colette scurried to stand behind me as I fell into my casting stance. I could already feel the magic coursing through my body, like the universe knew what I was going to do next and it was welcoming the spell.

  “Realto naturasa!” I called out. The words echoed into the night, loud enough to wake the dead. A breeze picked up around us, and the noise that the leaves and branches made as they swayed on the trees created a ghostly backdrop for the moment.

  As we watched, the faces of all the Ashers began to melt like wax figures sitting in the hot sun. Their chins began to droop first and then eventually dripped off, making a sick slurping noise as clumps fell to the ground below. It was a horrifying sight and if I hadn’t been ready for it, I might’ve run screaming for the cabin. But I knew the spell was working.

  “What did you do?” Colette asked me, horrified.

  “A spell to show their true selves,” I said. “They’re shedding the masks they’re wearing. Not exactly pretty, is it?”

  “It’s like watching a horror movie,” Colette said, turning her back so she wouldn’t have to see anymore. I have to admit, I would’ve looked away, too, if I wasn’t so hell-bent on finding out who was underneath it all.

  Twenty seconds later, most of the Asher masks had disintegrated, revealing the truth. Seeing Abby’s and Jasmine’s faces hadn’t been surprising, though I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. More shocking was finding Sascha and Jinx, as well as three other random girls who were attending the intensive with us. Two were giggly clones who followed Brooklyn around. One was practically a stranger.

  What could they possibly have against me?

  “Why are they doing this?” Colette asked as if reading my mind.

  I just shook my head.

  “That’s what I want to know,” I said finally. “We need to unfreeze them to find out who’s pulling their strings.”

  “Are you sure we have to let them go? I mean, there’s that whole pesky incident where they tried to hang me before. . . . ,” Colette said, letting her words trail off. She was trying to make a joke of it, but I could tell by the sound of her voice that she was still shaken. And why wouldn’t she be? I knew firsthand how it felt to be the target in the middle of a bull’s-eye.

  “You can go back if you want, Colette. I’m not gonna judge you if you do,” I said, sincerely. “It’s just that, I sort of have to figure this whole thing out. It’s dangerous to have an enemy that you don’t know, because it makes it almost impossible to fight them.”

  Colette stood there and thought about it for a moment before deciding to stand her ground. Alongside me. I appreciated the gesture more than she knew and turned back to the others.

  “Okay. Here goes,” I said, letting go of the freezing spell.

  As the magic wore off and the others began to move again, I yelled out another spell and watched as big orbs of water appeared above each of their heads and then rained down on them like burst water balloons. The liquid soaked through their clothes within seconds, and some began to sputter, while others shrieked in response.

  “O-M-freaking G!” Sascha screamed, her fists balled up by her sides angrily. “What the hell? This is so not funny!”

  Jasmine wiped black eyeliner from underneath her eyes slowly as she searched for the person who’d just super soaked her. When her gaze fell on me, her eyes narrowed to slits.

  “You nasty little witch—” she said and began to stalk toward me. But then she recognized where we were and hesitated, looking around for some sort of clue as to what was going on.

  “Why are we in the woods?” she asked finally, her eyes moving across Abby, Sascha, and the others, who’d all stopped moving now and seemed to be thinking the same thing.

  “That’s what I was wondering,” I said, placing my hands on my hips, “when I followed you all out here.”

  Technically we’d only followed Abby, but she’d led us to the others. It was pretty much the same thing.

  “You followed us?” Jasmine asked with a snort. “You must be cracked, because I was asleep in my bed up until a few seconds ago.”

  “Why would we come out here, anyway?” Abby asked, taking a daring step toward me.

  “Apparently to cast against me,” I answered.

  Even in the dark, I could see Jasmine roll her eyes at me. “I swear, you have an ego the size of a monster truck,” she said. “We don’t care about you enough to cast against you. So, next theory . . .”

  “Fine. Whatever,” I said, already tired of her attitude. “Just because you don’t seem to remember doing it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The bottom line is, you’ve all been meeting here in the woods at night, and doing spells meant for me.” I didn’t bother telling them I knew this because of a dream I’d had. “You did something to my ring, chanted like weirdo jungle-people, and danced around a fire. And now you’re all hating on me like I’ve actually done something to you. So, either you’re supremely jealous and plotting against me—in which case, I have no problem being your enemy—or someone’s put the whammy on you so you’ll do their bidding. I think it’s the latter, but please, tell me if I’m wrong.”

  Jasmine looked over at Abby, who shrugged, and then at Sascha and Jinx, who were just standing there like sad, drowned cats. After a few moments of silence, Jasmine’s body relaxed slightly and she folded her arms across her chest.

  “You’re not making this up?” Jasmine asked, eying me suspiciously.

  I crossed my heart and then pointed at the sky. “You can ask Colette. She’s the one you guys magically strung up over there.”

  Jasmine winced at the mention of this.

  “Seriously? That really happened?” Sascha asked Colette. Colette nodded her head. />
  There was fear in their eyes now as they began to believe us. That they really were being controlled without their knowledge and had no idea what they’d been doing.

  “Say we believe you,” Abby said pointedly. “Who’s pulling the strings and why are they targeting you?”

  “Why else?” I said. “Power.”

  In this case, power over me and those that I loved.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Okay, I’m officially creeped out right now,” Sascha said.

  We were all back in my room, having headed there after successfully sneaking back into the cabin. I’d rounded up Asher and Fallon along the way. I called it an “emergency meeting,” and as far as I was concerned, that’s exactly what it was.

  The second I’d seen Asher, I’d fallen into his arms, kissing him long and hard. Dane and Hudson had watched while lounging on their beds inside the room and whistled at us as we had our moment. When I finally pulled away, we were both breathless and Asher had a dreamy look on his face.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry I slapped imposter you—twice—and thought of all those awful ways to curse you when I thought you’d screwed me over,” I said, the words pouring out like they were all stuck together.

  Asher blinked at me, trying to process what I’d just said. Finally, he reached down and held my hand. “You’re forgiven?” he said still confused, but guessing this was the right thing to say.

  “Thank you,” I said, and then gave his hand a tug. “Now we’ve gotta go. Emergency Cleri stuff.”

  Once we were all gathered inside the room, I called our meeting to order.

  “Someone’s out to get us. Again,” I informed them, diving right in.

  “You mean you. Someone’s out to get you again,” Jasmine said, sarcastically.

  “Say it any way you want, but someone’s been using you like a deranged puppet. The old Jasmine would’ve been furious to find out that she was being controlled by anyone. Maybe you’ve become more comfortable with blindly following others, but—”