Page 139

THE WITCH

Iwent numb from shock, a sick feeling rising within me. Fear quivered through my body, and my blood felt like ice in my veins.

“No,” I said at last, shaking my head. “No. That—that can’t be true. We weren’t anywhere near the cottage when it happened.”

I remembered being in the woods that day. I’d gotten lost, and my magic had been out of control. If Sasha had been the one to kill her, then why hadn’t I woken up inside the cottage right after? Why had I been so far away?

“I went to the cottage and saw what Elvira and Geraldine were doing,” said Sasha. “My rage took over, and I attacked. Geraldine got away, but Elvira did not. When it was done, I went back into the forest, trying to get as far from that place as possible. It wasn’t long before you took control, and there was nothing I could do after that.”

“You’re mistaken,” I said, my voice sharp. “I don’t know why you’re telling me this, but it’s not true.”

“This is what I was hiding from you,” Sasha went on. “This is what I was afraid to tell you.”

“No!” I shouted at her. “Stop it! It can’t be.”

“You need to know the truth, Cerise. And I can give it to you. But only if you’ll listen.”

My hands were shaking. Storms, it couldn’t possibly be true…

I closed my eyes, my chest rising and falling with my panicked breaths. Knots formed in my stomach, and the dread in my chest was so potent I wanted to fall to my knees and sob.

Sasha was right—I had to know the truth.

So I forced myself to say, “Tell me everything.”

“I overheard Elvira and Geraldine arguing. They were trying to break the enchantment on the amulet using a vial of blood from their experiments in the bunker. Your father’s blood. But it didn’t work. Geraldine thought maybe they needed something stronger. Your Wolven magic—my Wolven magic.”

Horror washed over me, but I said nothing as Sasha continued, “Geraldine reminded Elvira that she had a deal to uphold with the witch clan. She was supposed to turn you over to them so they could extract my Wolven magic. In exchange, she would be pardoned for her crimes and be able to join their ranks again. She had originally been exiled because she was hiding you from the clan.

“Elvira didn’t want to fulfill her end of the bargain, but Geraldine convinced her. I was so angry that I burst in and attacked. Geraldine escaped, but I killed Elvira. I meant to track down Geraldine and the rest of the witches, to kill them all before they could take you, but my strength gave out, and you started to awaken. I stumbled out of the cottage, trying to get as far away as I could before you took over. I wanted to speak to you, to tell you everything, but my mind was too weak from the attack and the years of suppression. All I could manage to say was, Kill them. Kill them all.”

My thoughts were spiraling, anger and grief and shock rippling through me. I couldn’t process them all. It was too much.

My pulse roared in my ears. Chaotic thoughts swirled in my head so violently I thought I would retch.

Sasha had killed Elvira. The wolf inside me had killed the only family I’d ever had.

“I was just trying to protect you,” Sasha said softly.

My mind throbbed, my thoughts a turmoil of anguish. So much pain. So much darkness.

I thought of when I’d woken up in the forest wearing those strange clothes. Alaric had said our wolves could knit magic together to form clothing during the shift. Had Sasha managed to do that before her consciousness faded? I’d been covered in dirt and leaves, and the cottage had been much closer than earlier that day. My thoughts were confused and foggy, and when I’d fumbled my way to the cottage⁠—

Elvira’s body. My grandmother’s body. Torn open, exposing her organs.

My world had ended. The grief, the torment…

“No!” I roared, slamming against the mental walls between us. “All this time… All this time, and it was me. I was the one who killed her.”

“No, Cerise,” Sasha said urgently. “It was not you.”

“But it was! You are a part of me, Sasha. We are united. I killed my own grandmother. I killed her!”

“That’s not how it works. We are separate entities! You are innocent!”

“I share a soul with a murderer,” I whispered, rage burning through my thoughts, blotting out all logic and reason. The eruption of emotion swept through me so intensely I thought I would burst into flames. “You killed her in cold blood. We killed her. The only family I had. That day, my world ended. Everything broke. Everything shattered.”

“Cerise, she was a monster! She had to die!”