by A. N. Sage
“Wilhemina, why is it you think we’ve placed you here?”
“Because I was bad and I messed up and I had to be punished?”
She nodded. “Partially, yes. But also because we believe in you. We know the good you can accomplish in this world and we need you to know that too.”
Tears flooded my vision and I swatted them away with the back of my hand. Sebyl had never said such words to me. Her only act of encouragement was to push me further; her saying that she believed in me meant everything. It meant that I wasn’t like Beatrix—I was good.
“What do you need me to do?” I choked between tears.
“Well, that is quite obvious, is it not?” Sebyl grimaced. “We need you to stay and find out if any hunters are operating in Shadowhurst.”
“So there are hunters out there? I thought you told me there haven’t been one in years? Like the fae.”
“There are some left, here and there. We didn’t want to worry you or the other witches,” Sebyl answered. “We have to be careful and gauge the situation as it unfolds.”
“And if I find them,” I said fearfully, “what should I do?”
Sebyl squeezed my shoulder, pulling me into the black leather of her suit until I was almost suffocating on her musky scent. “You play the part, child. You infiltrate their group and report back. Can you do that for us?”
I nodded. I would do anything they wanted as long as they took me back.
Evening air filled the guesthouse as I toweled off my hair before falling back to lie on the soft covers of my bed. Thanks to Luna’s magic work, the Chandlers had no clue what hit them. As far as they were concerned, the visit with my so-called caseworkers went over smoothly and everyone parted on acceptable terms. I, however, knew better. There was even more at stake now that the high priestess barreled into town with instructions. There were witch hunters in the world! Real-life hunters that wanted my kind dead and no one bothered to tell me! I wondered what else they’ve been hiding in their placid attempt to keep me safe. But what could I do? I had to follow their direction, they were my high priestesses for Goddess’ sake. Their word was law.
My body ached and I idly played with the pendant Ms. Broussard gifted me when my phone vibrated. I caught it just in time before it plummeted from the edge of the bed and tapped a key to unlock the screen. The light from the screen filled my unlit room and I had to blink a few times to focus on the message that popped up.
It was from Peyton.
Meet me tomorrow after school in the parking lot.
I tapped the keys to respond. Why?
Three dots flashed on the screen before Peyton’s answer came through.
I have an idea on how we can find out more about this hunter business.
I rolled my eyes so hard they almost got stuck in the back of my head. This girl was way too into solving mysteries but luckily, this was one mystery I needed her help to solve. I’m in, I typed. What’s the plan?
Those incessant dots filled the screen again then disappeared. A few moments later, Peyton’s message showed up.
We need the trust-funders.
My fingers entered the keys angrily. What? Why?
There was another pause before her text appeared. They know everyone in the school. We can use them to dig up info on the students to find out who might have a special interest in a certain secret library room.
“Ugh, great.” I sighed and started typing. What makes you think they’ll tell us anything? Savannah isn’t exactly a fan of mine…
They will if they think we’re their friends, her message read, followed by a second text bubble. Ready to go undercover?
I groaned and rolled over on the bed. Why did everyone in my life think I’m some kind of secret spy? Is this what James Bond felt like all the time? It annoyed me, to say the least, but mostly, it left me tired. My head was clouded from the day and I couldn’t wait to get a good night's sleep. I was already under the covers when my phone vibrated again with another message from Peyton.
Just a heads up, it spelled, River’s coming too. Nite!
A Witch With a Mission
I hightailed it to school first thing in the morning and sped down the hills of the residential streets of Shadowhurst like a maniac. My loose braid wove behind me in the breeze and I was sure that when I reached the campus, I’d look like a disheveled mess. You don’t care; I convinced myself. So what if the hot guy will be there?
The wind hit my face, flushing my cheeks with its icy fingers, and by the time I parked my bike in the lot, I was out of breath and full of energy.
Scanning the parking lot, I found Peyton leaning against her newly washed Jeep, her hands tucked into the pockets of a brand new denim jumper I haven’t seen her wear before. Her hair was shiny and shampooed and I swear I could see lip liner from where I was standing. Next to her, River leaned with his elbow on the side window and whispered something I couldn’t hear. Peyton threw her head back and laughed so loud I thought my eardrums would burst.
Wow, she’s taking the whole make friends with your enemies thing to heart...
They hadn’t noticed me roll in, so I took the chance to straighten out my braid and reapply a thin coat of lip balm to my wind-chapped lips before marching toward them. My breath hitched when I approached at the sight of River in yet another hotter than the sun ensemble of white jeans and a red, v-neck tee that did all the right things for his body. My eyes rolled over his pecs and down, down, down.
“Hey!” He waved when he saw me and I shot my eyes up before he could see me drool over the dangerously low cut of his waistband.
“Morning.” I brought my hand up to my forehead in a salute.
Did you seriously just salute him? What is he? Your army general? Idiot.
I chuckled nervously before turning to Peyton. “So what’s going on?”
“Well,” my friend said in a sultry tone I wasn’t used to, “I was just telling River, here, about the weird little chamber in the library.”
My eyes snapped to Peytons and I gave her the death glare of a lifetime. What was she thinking of telling him about the witch-hunting room? Was she crazy? I was beginning to think Peyton was not as good a detective as I thought she might be. She’s going to spill all our secrets before we even fool the hyenas into being friends with us!
Peyton nudged her head toward my hand where my knuckles turned white around my phone case. I looked down, noticing a new message alert on my screen. As I flipped my phone over to check, she turned her body to block River’s view of me. “So what were you saying about the quarry this weekend?” She sang.
“We’re having a party there Saturday,” he answered, “you guys should definitely come.”
His eyes peered over Peyton’s shoulder and burnt into me. Blood rushed to my face and I licked my lips, wondering what that perfect mouth of his would taste like. Before I could make a fool of myself and blurt out something stupid again, Peyton shifted her weight, hiding me from River’s attention once more. “Tell me more,” she purred.
I shook my head, focusing my mind back to my phone and the text message my friend wanted me to read.
I’m telling him only what he needs to know to pique his interest.
Okay, maybe I was wrong and Peyton was a better detective than I thought. She clearly had some plan concocted in that odd brain of hers and I had to admit, I didn’t even see her type the message. The girl was slicker than tanning oil.
And great, now I’m thinking about River tanning.
I rolled my eyes and stepped around Peyton’s aggressive stance to fit myself into their conversation. My gaze locked on River and when he looked back at me, I choked on the spit I hadn’t realized collected in my mouth.
“Peyton told me you’re kind of a witchcraft expert,” River noted, his eyes never leaving mine. “Didn’t take you for an occult junkie.”
“Uh, yeah. Got it from my mom, I guess.”
“Your mom?” He asked arching one perfect eyebrow my way. “I thought you
were, you know…”
“An orphan?” I laughed. “No. Well, sort of I suppose. I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
“How come?”
I blushed and looked down at my boots. How come? Because she’s in a magical jail for the rest of her life. Cool story. “I’d rather not get into it,” I said bluntly. “So you like witchy things too, I take it?”
“Not really.” He shrugged. “But can’t get away from it in this town.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to realize that.”
At my side, Peyton coughed then giggled like a schoolgirl with a crush before nudging me with her elbow. I followed her gaze to River’s chest, realizing that the V of his tee has rolled down far enough for me to make out every curve of his chest muscles. I nudged her back, shooting her a side glance. We were here for a reason for Goddess’ sake.
“So what did Peyton tell you about this room so far?” I asked, “And why are you even interested?”
River raised his arms. “Whoa, officer! She said it’s for some history project you guys are working on. My family has been in Shadowhurst for generations so when she asked for help, I figured there was no harm in it. I can leave if you’d prefer…”
“No!” I yelled out a little too eagerly. “I mean, thanks for helping. Anything you can tell us about the town’s history would be great.”
River took a step toward me, his green eyes brightening in the rising sun of the early morning. He licked his lower lip and my stomach turned. He was so close I could smell the woodsy scent of his cologne and it sent shivers down my thighs. Beneath the surface of my skin, magic stood at attention as I caught it at a crossroads. The heat off River’s tanned skin rushed toward me and my mouth dried up when he took another step in. For a second, I forgot Peyton was even there. It was as if everything around me dispersed, leaving only me and him in the empty school parking lot.
“Wanna show me this room?” He whispered, his lips just inches from my ear.
My body froze and I turned my moonstone ring around my finger so many times that it ripped into my skin. I nodded, swallowing hard. “Sure…”
“Great!”
I exhaled the breath I’ve been holding and cast a side glance at Peyton whose eyes were so wide I thought they might pop out of their sockets. She snickered and turned to reach for her backpack in the passenger seat, her jumper riding up as she bent over. My eyes turned to River’s and it surprised me to see him looking at me despite my friend’s ass almost hanging out a foot away from us. What kind of guy didn’t drool over a girl’s exposed behind when he had a chance?
“Ready!” Peyton yelled out, pushing past us to run up the path leading to the school. “You guys coming or are you just gonna stare at each other all day?”
River shrugged and we turned to follow her, my legs shaking with each step we took. As we strolled, I noticed that River hung back to keep pace with me, his arm brushing against mine every so often and sending my inappropriate thoughts into overdrive. He didn’t seem so bad, for a trust-funder, that is. His hand swayed and knocked into mine and my eyes widened. Whatever I felt when this guy was next to me wasn’t normal, it was different somehow, dark.
“What about Savannah and the rest of your friends?” I asked when we turned into the quad.
“What about them?”
I glanced his way, choosing my next words carefully so as not to sound too desperate. “Are they from a long line of Shadowhurst families too?”
“Savannah and Abigail are. But Tyler, Jayden, and Morgan are fairly new here. Jayden is actually from Stamwick too, maybe you guys knew each other.”
“I doubt it. It’s a pretty big city.”
“Yeah,” he blushed, “that was stupid. I guess growing up here where everyone knows each other you just assume it’s like that everywhere else. It must have been fun living in the city.”
An image of me slicing off the head of a snake shifter in a dark alley flashed before my eyes. “That’s one way of looking at it,” I replied with a grimace.
“What’s another way?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered.“… Lonely.”
River slowed down and turned to look at me. “I won’t ask about why you’re here,” he said, “but do you at least like living with the Chandlers?”
“They’re cool and thanks for not butting in.”
He brought his hand to his forehead and saluted me in the same, awkward way I had done earlier. “Anytime, soldier!”
A laugh burst from me and I punched him on the shoulder before rolling my eyes.
“So tell me more about this room,” River said.
“I don’t know,” I answered in the best nonchalant voice I could manage. “It’s a room of books but Peyton seems excited about it. Has a bunch of weird tomes about witch-hunting so that’s cool.”
“Huh,” River whispered.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Oh, nothing. Just a secret room in a library that no one knew about. Sounds like something out of a movie.”
“I wouldn’t get too excited. It’s literally just books.”
“Whatever you say, soldier.” He winked and pulled me forward. “Come on! Let’s go check it out!”
When we caught up with Peyton, she already had a million questions for River. Knowing her, she likely stayed up all night memorizing them so she could suck as much information out of this poor, clueless boy as she could. I couldn’t help but laugh every time she fired another one but to my surprise, River was more than eager to play along. We marched through the quiet hallways of the academy in unison, laughing and joking like we were old friends that knew each other for a lifetime, and with every minute, I could feel the tension in my body ease away. Even if we couldn’t get what we needed from River and his friends, I was glad he was here. It was nice to have another normal friend in this town.
For a second, I even forgot about why we were there. It wasn’t until Peyton burst through the library doors that reality crashed down on me like a heavy wave of agony. As soon as we walked into the library, every sense of comfort I felt before disappeared and I was back to my old self and the girl I knew I had to be no matter how much I wished for something different. You’re not normal, I had to tell myself. And I wasn’t, not really.
I was a witch. A witch with a mission and a town to protect. A witch that had a murder to solve before anyone else got hurt.
The Founding Families
Peyton and River bent over one of the library’s tables, their fingers flipping through book pages, while I took notes on the opposite side. We only had a half-hour left before first period and so far, could not find anything in the books of interest. At least not anything that could help me figure out who the hunters in the town might be. My friends shouted off new bits of information as they came upon it and I tried my best not to let the bile in my throat make an appearance. Each time we turned a page, we came across detailed accounts of witch killings from the last hundred years and it made me want to scream. How could anyone be so close-minded and brutal? Witches weren’t the problem and whoever put these books together had no actual clue what was going on in the world.
From everything we’ve read, there was no mention of the shadowers, which wasn’t all that surprising to me. The High Coven was adamant about covering our tracks and as much as we wanted to keep the existence of witches out of the public eye, we were just as concerned with the shadowers. Humans had enough to be afraid of without worrying about soulless creatures hunting them in the night. Back home, if a shadower attack got out of hand and a human got hurt or killed, there was always a witch nearby to erase all evidence pointing to anything supernatural. I had to admit; the coven has gotten so good at covering our tracks that sometimes I wondered if even I existed. Keeping secrets had become such an enormous part of me it was easier to lie than tell the truth. Though I was sure I’d inherited a lot of that trait from Beatrix who couldn’t tell the truth to save her life.
I was growing frustrated by the sec
ond as we scoured the pages of the books. Everything we’ve read was nothing but propaganda against my kind. It was such a joke! As far as the hunters—if they even still existed in Shadowhurst—were concerned, witches were evil and deserved the worst kind of death. The kind of death that apparently required a lot of sharp weapons and a good burning. My stomach twisted into knots and my lungs felt like lumps of coal in my chest. These books were leading us nowhere.
“There’s nothing in this one.” I sighed and tossed the volume I was going over to the side. “I don’t think we’ll get anything here, you guys.”
“What are you two looking for?” River asked, still confused about our fake project. His eyes scanned over the book in front of him and a smile flashed over his face. He looked up, noticing me staring and crashed his lips into a thin line before jerking his gaze away from me. Was I imagining this or did I just make Mr. Varsity League nervous? Interesting.
Peyton smiled. “Pretty much anything on this town’s obsession with the occult. We want to put together a timeline to see where it all started,” she lied without missing a beat.
I, of course, knew better. We didn’t need a timeline at all. Any fool could see it all started with the witch burnings in the bell tower that perched not too far above our heads. What we needed was to find some connection between the two murdered students but that was looking like a lost cause. Aside from the obvious misinformation about what witchcraft was, the books had no information on the town’s background. As far as I could tell, Lacey and Grady had nothing in common.
This was a dead end.
River shut the heavy tome in front of him. “Have you checked the town’s archives?”
“I’ve basically lived in the archives,” Peyton noted, “nothing there.”
“You sure?”
“… Why?” I asked, my eyes locking on his.
“Just that if you’re looking to see how it all started, it would make sense to check the genealogy of the founding members. At least, that would have been my first guess.”