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No one made a move to join me.

Time ticked by, only seconds remained before they’d forfeit. I was starting to think they were a no-show when people moved opposite me on the far side of the clearing.

Elmer Eldridge walked out, Isaac’s twin brother, joining me in the middle.

The edge of the clearing shimmered, locking everyone else out, and locking us in.

I heard Mom’s gasp behind me and I bit down my curse. My distant cousins would not tolerate losing this fight, especially not to me. I’d turned down Isaac’s proposal, and Sapphire would not have taken that well. Elmer’s dark eyes slid to me as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and rolled them up his forearms, vines similar to mine twisted and tangled around them.

I looked into the crowd and, sure enough, Sapphire Eldridge and Isaac stood close by. Sapphire’s eyes were hard, boiling with rage and hatred. I glanced back at my family. Clayton was there now. He stood beside Mags and gave me an encouraging nod. Warrick didn’t look pleased, but I was happy for another witch on our side. Especially if things didn’t go my way tonight.

I turned back to Elmer, and as I looked into his eyes, I knew that tonight I was fighting for my life. The Eldridges wanted me out of the way. They wanted what we had, and since I wouldn’t give it to them by becoming Isaac’s wife, they were going to come after it another way.

It all suddenly became clear.

Sapphire was a distant cousin. She had to know about Else’s past, what happened to Stan. It was them. The three of them, they were the cloaked figures in my dream. It had to be. They’d summoned those spirits to get in my way, sent obstacles to prevent me from completing my tasks, hurt Mags to throw me off my game. All in the hopes that if I was desperate, I’d accept Isaac as my husband. All for power, for a claim to our cemetery that didn’t fucking belong to them. They’d seen me with Clay at the ball and were more than likely watching me. They must have killed Olive as a warning or a way to scare Clay and get him to back away.

They’d hurt my sister. They’d hurt Ren.

Rage filled me as Elmer and I circled each other.

I dug my toes into the earth, bit down hard on my tongue, and spat blood on the ground to soak into the dirt. With the spilling of my blood, my magic flared.

Elmer struck first, firing a bolt of lightning at me, and I managed to duck it. His coven drew on fire, man-made and created by nature, and he was going to hit me with everything he had.

The ground shook as I called tree roots to the surface. Elmer cursed as one tangled around his leg. He blasted it with another bolt, and I ran as he aimed the lightning at me again. The ground shook as more roots exploded one after the other from the ground, blocking him, shooting up, twisting, creating a cage around him.

Forked lightning shot out of the sky, and I dove out of the way, the earth growing scorched behind me. Oh yeah, he was trying to kill me all right, and judging by the gasps and cries from the witches and their familiars surrounding us, they knew it as well. But there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

He couldn’t get closer, trapped in my cage of roots, but then he gripped the branches, exploding the ones right in front of him and sending flaming splinters of wood at me. I tried to avoid them, but several sunk into my thigh, another into my shoulder, burning me as it sunk deep.

I cried out, running as fire shot across the ground as if following a line of gasoline, coming right for me. He was going to burn me alive.

Someone screamed.

Mags.

No.

I would not let this fucker kill me in front of my family. I was stronger than him, stronger than the whole Eldridge coven put together.

Then Warrick’s voice filled my head, telling me the same. And I swallowed my panic and stopped in my tracks, braced, and sent a wave of power into the ground. The earth exploded in front of me as if a mini bomb had gone off, stopping his fire in its tracks.

Elmer lifted his hands and began muttering a spell. The sky cracked and clouds gathered. He was going to try to fry me by peppering the clearing with enough lightning that there would be no escape.

Not fucking happening. I could pummel him with rocks and boulders and knock the fucker out, but I decided to go one better. I slid out the needle I had threaded onto my bra strap and whispered my own spell as I poked my finger, coating the tip in blood. “Thread the needle, thread the needle, lip and tongue, lip and tongue.” I repeated the simple yet gruesome spell over and over, and Elmer screamed, his cries cut off as invisible thread began sewing his lips together, preventing him from finishing his spell.

Sapphire stood behind him, screaming something at him, Isaac at her side, fury dancing in his eyes.

Elmer turned red, and I lifted my arms and threw every ounce of power I had into calling the wind, and the trees and roots, the shrubs and vines. The wind grew more and more fierce, blowing out whatever fire he managed to summon, like a giant extinguishing a candle. The roots and vines continued to grow around Elmer more and more, locking him in deeper.

And when the invisible shield around the clearing dropped, I knew it was over.

A trial was over when the mother deemed it over. No, she wasn’t here in a physical sense, but she was here, all around us. And she’d deemed me the winner.

I’d won.

Iris ran at me, hugging me, jumping up and down. The rest of my family swarmed me as well, their joy filling me up.