“After selling out your so-called ‘friends’ that day in Ms. Zia’s office, I held on to that tape of you doing magic at school, thinking that maybe I could use it to blackmail you into handing over your throne,” Eve said. When Brooklyn heard this, she gasped, her eyes growing big. It was the first real reaction I’d seen her give since Eve had shown up and I had no idea what they were talking about. “But then I saw how you were planning to use your popularity and I figured you’d hang yourself eventually. And you pretty much have.”
By now, Brooklyn was back to wearing a stony expression, her arms folded over her chest and giving Eve a calculated look. This didn’t derail Eve though. “You didn’t even use your status at school to your advantage, Brooklyn! You treat everyone like they’re equal, when they aren’t. We are better than them. It’s called a hierarchy for a reason, you idiot,” she said, her chest heaving with exertion. She closed her eyes then and took in a few deep breaths. I considered ducking into the closest passageway, but felt bad about leaving Brooklyn behind with Eve. “So, when I found out that Hadley was heading to camp—the same camp you went to last summer—I figured I’d let you two extinguish each other. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Because, let’s be honest. The most powerful witches don’t actually have to do the dirty work themselves. They have people do it for them. But then you just watched this bitch make out with your man all summer and didn’t even want any of us to go after her. You’re pathetic.”
“Did you really think I’d kill her just for dating my ex-boyfriend?” Brooklyn cut in. Her voice was steady and strong. “I mean, yeah, I may have daydreamed about it, but actually doing it? Just because he found someone new? And after I hurt him like that? No way. That’s crazy, Eve.”
“Crazy?” Eve asked, taking a few more steps toward Brooklyn. I took a small step in between them without thinking. “I’ll tell you what’s crazy. That people think they won’t get what’s coming to them.”
“What happened to you to make you so angry, Eve?” Brooklyn asked, sounding sad for the girl. At first I didn’t understand why she felt anything for her, but then remembered that at one point the two had been friends. Well, Brooklyn had thought so.
“Why am I so angry? Maybe it’s because people like you don’t stand up for yourselves and those around you suffer because of it.”
Brooklyn winced at the words as if she’d been hit.
“You let people like her”—Eve nodded at me—“step all over you. You put people like her up on pedestals instead of tearing them down where they belong. You don’t even try to stop her when she destroys other people’s lives.”
The focus had somehow changed to me with no warning and we all knew it. I watched as Eve turned to advance on me now. Her eyes were like two black onyx bullets aimed right at me and the sight was terrifying.
“You let people like her get away with murder, instead of helping to avenge the deaths of your best friend’s parents, who were just following the commands of their coven leader, and trying to do what they thought was right!” Eve shouted, a tear slipping down her cheek.
Whoa, what was Eve talking about? I’d never killed anyone. Well, except for maybe Samuel, but I wasn’t even sure of that . . .
“You should get your stories straight, Eve because—” I tried to get the rest of my sentence out, but she was already moving on.
“Nobody seems to have the balls to punish you for the lives you’ve destroyed, Hadley. I’m here to change that,” Eve said, her face just inches from mine now.
I could see Brooklyn standing just beyond her, not sure what to do. She began to take a step forward like she was going to do something to try to stop Eve, but I gave my head a tiny shake that I hoped would make her stay. Brooklyn wasn’t ready for this fight and if she got involved, she’d just get hurt. Or get in the way. At least at this stage, anyway.
“Well, payback’s a witch, Hadley,” Eve said menacingly. “And so am I.”
And with that, she threw a spell at me that ripped into my skin.
“Why is everyone always trying to kill me?!” I shouted as I clamped my hand down tightly on the fresh wound. Blood poured out of my left shoulder where Eve’s spell had made contact and seeped through the spaces between my fingers. It felt like a chunk of flesh was gone, but I was too busy—and admittedly, freaked out—to check the damage. I’d seen what a spell like this had done to Jinx and didn’t need to witness it up close and personal on myself. Besides, I had a more immediate crisis to worry about.
Like a really pissed-off, trigger-happy, overly-emotional twitch.
“Maybe you should take the hint,” Eve spat, her hand raised and ready for another round.
“Listen, Eve. I get that you’re upset,” I started, trying to hold her off until I could figure out a way to get us out of there. “But I’m telling you—I didn’t kill your parents. I don’t even know who your parents are.”
Behind Eve, I could see Brooklyn turning and looking down one of the entrances of the tunnels. Turning her attention back to me, she made a face that I couldn’t quite read, before glancing again at the exit behind her.
Was she seriously considering leaving me here? If she did, I swear I’d hunt her down and . . .
“Of course you don’t remember them, Hadley. Why would anyone expect Little Miss Popular to remember something like that? Someone as self-absorbed as you? No, you probably had more important things to occupy your time with. Like makeup and prancing around in front of your dimple-faced boyfriend,” Eve said.
“Hey!” I cut in. “I do not prance.”
“Whatever! You’ve proven my point anyway. You’re so involved with your own charmed life that you don’t recognize when you’ve ruined another,” Eve said.
Now, Brooklyn was moving toward Eve again, sneaking up on her from behind. I pursed my lips, wanting to warn her back, but also not wanting to draw attention to her.
“My parents were there that night at your cabin. They came after you in your stupid shed and they both died at your hands,” Eve said.
“They were trying to kill me, Eve,” I said, getting annoyed now. How could she blame me for this? “I was just defending myself. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but like you said . . . they attacked me.”
“Because you were messing with our futures,” she said. “You wanted to stand in the way of witches coming into our birthrights. Of becoming the rulers of this world.”
“No. They attacked me because some wackadoodle who fancied himself a reverend told them to,” I countered.
My eyes darted over at Brooklyn who was just seconds away from closing in on Eve.
“He’s not crazy,” Eve said, her eyes wild. “He’s our leader and he’s teaching us the way—”
It was at that moment that Brooklyn chose to cast her spell. Only, somehow Eve knew she was there and spun around just in time to deflect her spell. Then, with a flick of the wrist, she tossed Brooklyn up into the air before sending her soaring through one of the tunnels and into the darkness.
There was something about the action that felt scarily familiar. I’d seen that exact move done before. To someone else.
To me.
I yelled out Brooklyn’s name, but there was no response from the dark passageway. Despite my mixed feelings for Brooklyn, I didn’t want her hurt. Trying to save my life from a deranged witch was enough to earn a little concern from me.
“Parris taught you to be an assassin,” I shouted, seething.
Eve nodded as she started pacing again in front of me. “I suppose you could put it that way. I like to look at it as teaching me how to survive and thrive. But potato, potahto.”
Now I was getting mad. This was like talking to a crazy person. We were going around and around in circles and accomplishing nothing. It was all a waste of time. And I wanted to get out of there, find my friends, and put the whole sucky day behind me. Stop the cycle of insanity once and for all.
“There’s one thing you’re forgetting, Eve,” I said, letting
go of my shoulder and taking a bold step toward her. “Your mentor? The one who’s really responsible for your parents’ deaths?”
I paused for dramatic effect as I got right up in her face.
“I beat him.”
Eve growled in response, the sound coming from deep down in her gut. As if from her soul—or the place where her soul used to be. Before she could react, I swung my good arm around and made contact with the side of her face. She hadn’t been expecting it, so the hit was clean, and clipped her so hard that my hand vibrated with pain.
Not a smart move considering that now both my arms stung.
Luckily, I still had my legs and I began to use them, too. I placed my foot against her stomach, which was unobstructed now that her face was in her hands. Pushing her back as hard as I could, I watched her tumble backward and hit the ground hard. Then I sent a stunning spell her way, but she’d already scrambled back to her feet.
“Enough!” Eve screamed at me.
The force of her voice stopped me before I could get off another round. Was it possible I’d underestimated just how powerful Eve was? After all, she’d managed to get us here and had already busted a hole in my shoulder.
“You think you have all the answers, but here’s where you’re wrong,” Eve said. “Reverend Parris isn’t dead.”
My blood ran cold and for a moment I thought I might pass out.
“You’re lying,” I said, mostly trying to convince myself of the fact.
“Who do you think gave me the powers I needed to fight you? Think about it. I’ve nearly killed you, what, three times now? I’m the vessel that evil flows through.”
Eve laughed maniacally. The sound bounced off the walls around us and echoed down the individual tunnels. But once the cackle faded, there was something else I could hear, too. It was faint, but there. A scratching. Footsteps. Dragging.
I had no idea what it was or where it was coming from, but it was getting closer. And now Eve had noticed it, too.
“Ahhhh, yes,” she said, still smiling at me. “Right on time.”
The sounds were coming from one of the tunnels behind Eve and we both turned toward the noise.
“I have to admit, I was sort of annoyed when you realized what we’d been up to in the forest,” Eve said, back to pacing around. “And I’d hoped that seeing Asher as your betrayer would send you over the edge. But then that know-it-all Colette had to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. I didn’t think you’d be able to come up with a protection spell so quickly, but somehow you managed. You were lucky. Again.”
“I was good,” I responded, even though at this point I knew arguing was useless.
“Never mind though. Because as strong as your spells were . . . mine are stronger,” Eve said. This time we both looked back at one of the cave entrances and watched as all the girls from camp, including my entire coven, appeared. They were clearly bewitched, with eyes that were glazed over and a sort of stomp-walk-slide you’d expect from a sleepwalker. Or a zombie. A few girls dragged an unconscious Brooklyn between them, while someone else struggled to get away from the grabby hands of a few others.
“Hadley!” Colette shouted, trying to fight her captors, but failing.
“Colette,” I answered, but forced myself to stay put, so as not to start a war prematurely. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I think so,” she answered uneasily. “They just won’t let me go and I don’t know what’s going on and . . .”
“Quiet, Teletubby,” Eve snapped, sending a spell at Colette that immediately zipped up her lips. Literally. “You’ve done enough talking.”
“Why are they here?” I asked her, nervous now that I was up against over two dozen jacked-up twitches instead of just one deranged one.
“Oh, well, this is sort of my gift to you,” she said, faking sincerity. “I know you’re close to your coven, so I thought I’d bring them here to help share in your last moments. At least until they tear you apart.”
A lightbulb came on in my head. She was going to manipulate them into killing me. I was going to die at the hands of my own coven members. Just like Bridget had.
History has an effed-up way of repeating itself.
“Unless you want to fight them off, which works for me, too,” Eve said. “A little collateral damage never hurt anyone. Oh, wait . . .”
She let the sentence trickle off as she made it clear that no one would be free from pain today. We would all be punished in one way or another. Either by being attacked ourselves or by having to live with what we’d done to stay alive.
“I’m not going to hurt my friends just because you’ve messed with their programming,” I said, refusing to play into her game. “Deep down, they’re still good people and they care about me. I can’t hurt them.”
“Well, we’ll just see about that,” Eve said and then stepped aside. “Go get her, girls.”
And without hesitation, they all came at me at once.
I turned around to survey my options. I could leave. Take off down one of the many tunnels, but where would it lead? If the others were anything like the one I’d come from, my back would be against water pretty quickly. That’s if there wasn’t something else waiting for me in the dark.
And besides, I couldn’t leave Brooklyn or Colette behind. Not in the state they were in. Helpless and captured, because of me.
But I wasn’t going to hurt my friends or the other twitches, either. They were just innocent bystanders caught in the middle of a centuries-old feud. It wasn’t their fault. They couldn’t help themselves.
My options were limited and I had no idea what to do. The others had just about reached me now and I contemplated letting them have me. Do their worst and hope I survived. But deep down, I knew that wasn’t my thing.
I was a fighter.
And I was going to go down fighting. Just as I raised my hand to cast my first spell, a bright white light filled the cavern, causing everyone to stop in their place. It was so blinding I had to put my arms up in front of my face to shield my eyes. It was like looking directly into the sun.
And then everything went black.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I came to, still inside the dark and dirty cavern, only to find I was now propped up on my feet with my back against the wall. Invisible straps held me in place; I could feel the pressure of them across my chest, hips, thighs, and shins. They were so tight that I could barely move, and my arms were strapped down firmly by my sides, making escape impossible.
My chin had been resting on my chest while I slept, but now I forced my head up until I could see what was going on.
“Finally,” a voice said from my left. “You drool when you sleep, you know?”
“Do not,” I answered, bending my head to one side so my neck would crack and then doing the same on the other. I was sore all over, but nothing seemed to be broken. The blood had even begun to dry around the gash in my shoulder.
Turning to Brooklyn, I saw that she was in the same situation that I was. Suspended in the air by unseen chains, unable to move.
“How’s it hanging?” I asked, cracking a joke, because we both could use it.
She rolled her eyes at me and then laughed. Then her face grew more serious. “I’ve tried casting to break free, but I can’t even move my fingers. And my magic won’t work without it.”
I nodded, knowing what she meant. I’d already tried moving my hands to no avail, too. Twisting my head to the right, I noticed for the first time that we weren’t the only ones shackled to the wall. Eve was there, too. So were the rest of the Cleri and the other campers. Everyone was lined up in a row, like human-size decorations hanging on the wall. Most were still out cold, but a few had begun to stir and appeared to be just as confused as we were to be held in place.
So who, then, had put us there? Things were getting weirder, and weirder, and panic was beginning to grow in my chest.
The time had come to take drastic measures.
“Look, Brooklyn, I
know we’re not really friends . . . ,” I started.
“That’s the understatement of the century,” she responded.
“But . . . ,” I said, continuing. “I think we’re gonna have to work together to get out of this.”
I tipped my head toward the invisible chains.
Brooklyn sighed and let the back of her head rest against the wall as she took in what I was proposing. “Fine. But it doesn’t mean we’re friends now.”
“Of course not,” I said.
“And I still don’t really like you,” she said.
“The feeling’s mutual.”
“And I reserve the right to go back to ignoring you after we get out of this.”
“Okay, I get it. We’re frenemies. Can we move on now please? Maybe get the hell out of here?”
She gave me a tiny nod.
“Okay, any chance you saw who did this?” I asked Brooklyn, hopefully.
“Nope. Woke up a few minutes before you did,” she answered. Her hair was a bit messed up and there was a goose egg growing on her forehead, but for someone who’d just been knocked around by her former best-friend-turned-psycho-witch after nearly completing a full obstacle course, she looked pretty darn good.
Bitch.
“In fact, I don’t remember anything after trying to get Eve away from you—you’re welcome by the way,” she continued. Then her forehead wrinkled up in confusion. “What are they doing here?”
I looked over at the others, who, for the most part, were all awake by now, murmuring and groaning and probably wondering the same thing.
“Eve brought them here hoping they’d turn all angry mob on us,” I said, trying not to hold it against any of them.
“Well, it looks like it sort of worked,” Brooklyn said, sounding calm, but her face giving her away. She was just as freaked to be here as I was. She was also just as proud, and her ego wouldn’t allow her to reveal just how scared she was. To me or to anybody else.
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