“Why Caleb, though?” Jamius asked. “Like, is this just a wrong time, wrong place kind of thing?”
“No, because The True Witch sent Katherine back,” Carter added. “Wouldn’t she have just sent Caleb, too?”
“Why does she want Caleb?” Kenzo asked, eyes locked onto me.
I hesitated. There was so much I’d divulged about my secrets to prepare them…I hadn’t realized how many of Caleb’s secrets I’d have to reveal, too.
“She needs Caleb to open Hell,” Katherine said quite plainly, letting the secret pour out like poison that’d kept her paralyzed for weeks.
“Whoa, what?” both Gaels blurted with wide eyes.
“It’s all part of her plan to help Tara ascend to godhood,” Milo elaborated.
“What?” everyone asked in shock, except for Gael and King Clucks, who were apparently in the know since Tara shared everything with them.
“There’s a Gate to Hell?” Jennifer asked. “Like a real one or metaphoric?”
“Who cares?” Layla replied. “The bitch is psychotic. Fanatics don’t care about facts.”
“It is real,” Katherine said. “I’ve seen it, through Moire’s eyes.”
“The witch possessing you?” Jennifer asked.
“Sort of,” Katherine said, not explaining she didn’t mean sort of like possession, when she meant sort of like a witch. After all, Moire was sentient magic.
“She wants to sacrifice Caleb to help Tara ascend?” Kenzo clamped his jaw. “So, how do we stop her?”
“The True Witch doesn’t just want to open the Gate of Hell to sacrifice Caleb,” Katherine said with a shaky stance. It took everything she had to breathe, to think, to speak. “She wants to unleash an army of demons big enough to slaughter everyone she deems unworthy of living in the new world order she’s planning.”
I trembled, drawn into Katherine’s fear, and realized with Theodore, she could control hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of demons.
“Okay, I get why Tara was taken,” Carter said, mind puzzling together the jigsaw pieces of information much like the others did. “She’s, like, special because of all her branches.”
“She’s not special because of her branches,” Gael said, ready to explain in thorough detail how Tara was so much more than her magics.
“Anyway,” Carter continued. “What I don’t get is why Caleb’s been taken.”
That was a difficult thing to explain. They had a right to know, to understand, especially if they had a role to play in rescuing him. That said, Caleb and Tara had only recentlylearned the truth. Who even knew how they processed this family secret?
“Caleb’s related to Tara,” Katherine said.
“What?”
“They’re siblings,” Katherine continued.
“But they’re like the same age,” Gael said. “Aren’t they? So, how are they siblings?”
“Twins.”
“Oooooh, duh.” Gael slapped his forehead. “But, like, not the identical kind.”
“Who cares about the why?” Kenzo snapped, burying the confusion he had for this revelation. “When is The True Witch planning this deranged sacrifice?”
Katherine shrugged, still trying to piece together many of the memories left behind from Moire.
“I don’t know when Amara will attempt to sacrifice Caleb,” I chimed in, “but I believe it’ll involve a celestial event.”
“What’s that?” Gael quirked a brow while King Clucks bawked at him. “Oh, those silly little star alignments.”
