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“I haven’t agreed to it,” I say quietly and they all look at me like they aren’t sure they hear me right. I shift uncomfortably, but raise my chin a notch or two. “Look, I know this is life and death. I understand that. But I’m frankly not sure I want to be a part of a coven that would put a hit out on an innocent girl.”
“That is exactly why we need you to be in the coven, so they won’t be able to put hits out on you anymore,” Fielder says. Is he really that naïve? Really?
“You know that if they don’t want me to be a part of the coven, I won’t be, right? Even if I do get accepted by some miracle, they’re all powerful enough to still put a hit on me outside of the coven. Or just get rid of me, anyway. It’s not hard to kill someone and make it look like an accident.”
“Speaking from experience, love?” I know he’s just trying to ease some of the tension in the group, but now is not the time to joke. I ignore him.
“But if they do that, they’d have to deal with the consequences of that action from the coven,” Gideon says. Despite his initial reaction, I can tell he’s coming around to Fielder’s way of thinking.
“And at that point I’d be dead already, so it wouldn’t fucking matter.” I snap back.
Feilder’s jaw ticks. “Once you pass the trials, they’ll know you won’t be easy to kill.”
Trials? No one said anything about a freaking trial. The last thing I need is someone testing my lack of knowledge and magical ability. “How many trials would I need to complete?”
“Seven. One for each of the sects.”
“Each elder sets up a trial for each initiate. It’s a way to test magical abilities and knowledge, helps figure out what sect the witch belongs to.” Exactly what I thought.
I pick at my skirt and don’t meet their eyes. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You won’t have to,” Ezra says, lacing his fingers through mine and squeezing gently. “The trials aren’t focused on offensive magic. It’s not to get you to hurt anyone.”
“Except blade and tether,” Hardin adds from by my feet. “That will definitely have offensive and defensive magics.”
I frown. “But I don’t know how to do any of that. I’m going to die during the trials.” I lift my hands up in frustration. “And what aboutafter? What about if, by some ungodly miracle, I end up a member of the coven and then one of the elders demands that I hurt someone? What then?”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, sweetheart.”
“They forced you to torture me, even when you didn’t want to,” I point out.
Fielder scowls. I can tell he doesn’t like the holes I’m poking into his plan. “This is the best plan that we have,” he says, eyes narrowing slightly. “You’re overthinking it.”
“And you aren’t thinking about itenough, Fielder.” We glare at each other. “I don’t want to do to someone else what you did to me. It’s not worth it.”
Gideon’s arm tightens around me, while Ezra squeezes my fingers. Hardin looks up from my toes to pierce me with his blue eyes. But they seem content to let Fielder have this argument with me. “Your life isn’tworth it? How can you say that?”
I’m not entirely sure what to say to that. I can see his point. And I don’t want to die. I don’t want to have someone hunting me for the rest of my life. But I can’t quite reconcile the idea of my life being any more important than anyone else’s. I can’t imagine bullying someone, digging into their past to find something to blackmail them with, to destroy them with, hexing them, trying to drown them. It’s wrong on so many levels.
“Trouble in paradise?” My gaze pulls away from the green-eyed boy glowering at me and up at Morgan, who is glaring daggers.At mespecifically. This must be hard for her, seeing the girl she hates surrounded by the men she wants.
I know it was hard for me to see her in this position at the beginning of the school year.
Fielder leans forward and presses a kiss to my lips, long and lingering that would curl my toes if Hardin wasn’t still painting them, before he turns to the girl standing over us. “Not even remotely.”
Her face changes when she looks at him, softens, her lips parting slightly, like she’s trying to get him to imagine what she’d taste like. As if he doesn’t already know she tastes like desperation and poison. I roll my eyes and settle against Gideon. His arm around my waist tightens, reassuring me.
“Fielder,” Morgan’s tone has turned wheedling, pleading. “We need to talk.”
Fielder’s gaze hardens as he looks up at her. “I think we talked enough a week ago, don’t you?”
Morgan stamps her foot. Actually stamps her foot in frustration. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to go, and you know it. You can’t just- There is a plan.We end up together.That’s the plan, Fielder.” My stomach drops as the words leave her mouth. It’s something I’ve known, ever since I overheard Gideon and Julie in the tunnels back in January, but having it just blurted out in front of me makes it even more real. Morgan’s eyes flick to me. “Your dad isn’t going to let you replace me with a gutter slut nobody.”
All four of them growl at her angrily. “Oh, this should be good,” Hardin murmurs, capping the nail polish and giving his undivided attention to the situation at hand.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Morgan.” Fielder says, picking up my hand almost languidly and raising it to his lips. He places gentle kisses on my fingertips as he continues. “I don’t give a fuck what my dad wants from me, and Rosalind is so much fucking more than you give her credit for. Once she’s formally accepted as a member of our coven and named the heir to Shadow and Veil, I will be fully within my rights to claim her, to make her mine in the same way that I am already hers.”
“All of us will be within our rights to do that, Morgan,” Ezra adds, tightening his fingers on my other hand.
