“Delilah,” Norah warned.
“No,” Delilah said. “It’s not right. Gray thinks she can stomp in here with her demon pet, insult us, get whatever she wants from us, when all she's ever done is pretend we don't exist. She thinks she's too good for us. She thinks she's the only one who has a right to grieve for Sophie.”
“It’s not like that! Sophie was my best friend,” I said. “She's all the family I had.”
“Yeah? Who's fault is that?” Delilah asked. “You could've been part of this, Gray. Part ofus. That was the only thing Sophie ever really asked you for, and you let her down.”
Her words hit their mark, slicing through me like a hot blade.
I was out of my chair in an instant, teacup crashing to the floor as I lunged for her.
Before I got within striking distance, the air around me shimmered with magic.
I was flat on my back before I took my next breath.
“I willnothave you attacking the sisters in my home.” Norah loomed over me, hand outstretched as her magic pinned me in place, glaring down at me in a steely warning that made my blood run cold.
Her hold spell was terrifyingly strong. She’d barely left me enough room to breathe, and when she finally released me, I sucked in air like I’d been starved of it for days.
Haley crouched over me and held out a hand, helping me up off the floor. A strange look crossed her face, almost like she felt bad about what Norah had done, but it was gone before I could get a true read on her.
“I think it's time for you to go," Norah said. Her tone had softened slightly, but the ice in her eyes had not. “I’ll walk you out.”
Outside the door, I tried to apologize for going after Delilah and making a mess of the living room, but Norah cut me off, grabbing my arm and dragging me to the other side of the wraparound porch.
Away from the front windows and the prying eyes of the others, she said, “You involved the police. That’s why they don’t trust you.”
“I came home to find my best friend dead in her bed. What should I have done instead?”
“You should have contacted us first, Gray. There are things we might have tried—other avenues. But it's too late. We risk too much exposure as it is.”
“What avenues?”
“Delilah wasn't wrong in what she said.”
“What, that I'm not one of you? Or that I'm not a witch at all?” I couldn't bring myself to repeat what she’d said about Sophie. About how disappointing I was.
“As I understand it, you turned your back on your powers a long time ago,” Norah said. “What, then, makes you a witch?”
My eyes widened.
I didn't like people knowing my secrets, and Sophie knew that. Anger flared briefly in my chest, then died.
I couldn’t be mad at her for trying to bring us together. She thought the witches could help me.
Oh, sweet Sophie.
“You can't have it both ways.” Norah folded her arms across her chest. “You're afraid of your magic, and that's a dangerous place to be. For all of us.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but she was right. Iwasafraid of magic. I hated magic. It was the reason I’d lived most of my life on the run. The reason I wanted nothing to do with the coven.
“You react out of fear,” Norah went on, “and that's how people get hurt. That's how witches get exposed.”
“Using magic is how witches get exposed. For all you know that little spell you cast on me just sent out a beacon.”
“One spell is hardly enough to send out anything. And my home is warded, Gray.”
“Are you sure?”
