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She glared. “You’re right. It’s all my fault. I didn’t remember to take the potion as I should’ve. You were always too—”
“Tempting?”
“Enough, but yes.” Harlow rolled her eyes. “What are we to do now? With you and me both being witches, he or she would certainly be destined to be one.”
“Do you want to have the child, then? There’s still time…”
This child was barely a month old, but with as many wretched things as she’d done, to drink the potion now … to have the tiny heart stop beating. She couldn’t. And she wouldn’t want anyone else to have their child either. “I want to keep it.”
“Do you want to relocate?” he asked.
The thought hadn’t crossed her mind… They had time to figure out what step they should take next. “Perhaps when the child is born. I want to stay here to continue watching over my sister and Eben to make sure they remain safe. But for now, take me to the bed, my vicious dream.”
Sadie brushed away the memory, now believing she should’ve gone with Jasper, started over, taught their child about spells but also how to hide them. To not let fear control oneself—the way she had.
Skyler stood beside her, and she could feel a slight tension there. Not only that, though—the comfortable bond they’d always shared also lingered.
“Did you know what Ada was planning to do?” Sadie asked. Ada discovered that they hadn’t truly left Salem when she’d become suspicious and used a location spell to find her.
Skyler sighed, gripping the back of his neck. “I helped her with the spell. I’m not a witch, but I gathered and mixed the ingredients she needed. Ada had told me not to come, yet I couldn’t listen, not when I had this gut instinct that something was going to go wrong—it was a spell she’d never cast before. When I arrived in the woods, Ada was holding your body, screaming and crying uncontrollably. Instead of wanting to go to her and help, all I could feel was a taste of something demanding, urging me to kill Ada, the spicy smell of the magic begging me to. Not because I yearned to, but because her spell had gone awry.”
“So you knew she was plotting to kill us?” Sadie narrowed her eyes, pinning him with icy daggers.
“Even after all you’d done, she wasn’t plotting to kill you, Sadie,” Skyler said slowly. “She was always there to protect you, and she was only trying to strip you both of your magic. You threatened us—to murder my family.”
“Because she shouldn’t have used the location spell to find me. You kept hounding me to stop what I was doing.” Sadie’s voice rose. “And it wasn’t only for me or Jasper, I was protecting her!”
“You knew she wouldn’t want to be protected that way.” Skyler blew out a breath. “I understand now why you were asking about redemption. You’re feeling remorse, aren’t you?”
“I want to rip out her throat, Skyler,” Sadie whispered, taking slow and even breaths to calm herself. “Because of that spell, my baby died. She’s the reason I’ve had miscarriages in every life, and not with a different child, but the same one.”
He frowned. “Baby? What are you talking about? You had a baby in Salem?”
“I was pregnant with a child in Salem. They had yet to be born, and I was almost five months along.”
Skyler’s face paled. “I swear on my life, she wasn’t ever planning to kill you. Not once did she speak those words.”
“People do a lot of things they don’t mean to in life, but does it make them any less guilty?” Sadie spat. “I know I deserved what was coming to me. Do you think I’m that foolish? But an innocent child does not deserve to die over and over again. My child.” She peered up at him, tears raining down her cheeks. “I never should’ve threatened you or my sister. I couldn’t admit it back then, and it’s no excuse, but I let fear rule me, shape me into what I was. However, I will never be sorry about trying to protect the ones I loved. And that included you. The world back then could’ve rotted for all I cared as long as I kept those I loved safe.”
“But that’s the thing—you were driving fear into others. The one thing you didn’t want to have,” he said softly.
Sadie took in his words, her chest tightening, the room feeling as if it was spinning around her. Even though he was right, she hated hearing it. “I know now I should’ve run away and started fresh with Jasper, but I didn’t.”
“After what the coven did to you, that was why Charlie was relieved that you weren’t in Salem when the trials were going on. But then she found out you’d been there this whole time, the cause of it. And you know what? You saw how we only tried to get you to stop. That was all.”
“I know,” Sadie said softly.
“Anyway, do you recall when we were children and I found out you were a witch? You told me you would let me remember as long as I didn’t tell anyone, but then you threatened to spell me into a rabbit if I did.”
“It wouldn’t have been for eternity, though.” Her lips tilted up at the edges for a moment, then dropped. “If Charlie does remember, do you think she can break the spell? Even when she has died, the spell has continued, not broken.”
Skyler peered down at Charlie. “Over the years, not once have I seen her use magic. Not since Salem. I don’t even know if it’s been stripped from her too.”
Her sister had never feared magic in Salem—she’d always embraced it. But in the other lives, she shied away from the mention of supernatural things… Was it, deep down, because of what she’d done?
Sadie shifted closer to Skyler as she studied River’s sleeping form. “Do you feel the urge to hurt Charlie yet? River feels it with me. Somehow, he had felt it before, and that’s why he hung himself. To protect me.”
Skyler shook his head. “It doesn’t come until after he takes your life, I think. It’s like lightning striking my heart, flipping a switch, and no matter where I am, I go to your sister.”
