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“What spell was that?”

“No one can listen in now,” Raphael said. “Most of La Aquelarre is meeting in the schoolhouse today, so we should be fine either way, but always better safe than sorry.”Advertisement

Maybe I should’ve been annoyed that I wasn’t told about the meeting, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. “Why aren’t any of you there?”

“Because we know talking to you is more important that hearing whatever Luciana has to say,” Shane said.

Oh, no. This couldn’t be what I thought it was. “I thought you said that the coven was split?”

“It is,” Raphael said.

“This isn’t in half. There are like forty—”

“Sixty-two,” Shane said. “We don’t all live here on the compound, but if everyone is called in…”

Shit. There were more members than I’d thought. “Fine, sixty-two, and what, five others plus another half-witch visitor? That’s not split. That’s not enough.”

“It’ll have to be enough,” Claudia said. “We need to make this work. If we don’t, the coven is going to go fully dark and a lot of lives could be lost.”

I sat down in one of the wingback chairs and closed my eyes. My pulse was pounding in my ears, and the wolf was rising. Something brushed against my hand, and I opened my eyes.

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“Eat it,” Raphael said.

I glanced down to see the PowerBar. My cousins were starting to get used to my eating habits. I gnawed my way through the tough, tasteless bar as I thought. With every new thing I learned here, defeating Luciana seemed more and more helpless. The deck was stacked and I didn’t—couldn’t—see a way around it. It would’ve been better for these people if they left the coven and joined the pack. They could defect and stay on St. Ailbe’s land.

Were there consequences to leaving? The only way to find out would be to ask. “Can you leave the coven? You could stay at St. Ailbe’s. There’s enough room. And you’d be safe until we figured out what to do next.”

“No. That’s impossible,” Claudia said.

“Why?”

“We all take a blood oath to formally join the coven.” Shane crossed his arms, staring down at me while I gnawed on my snack. “Once you’re in, it’s hard to leave. Especially for people like us whose families have been members for generations. The blood oath grows exponentially in strength with each generation.”

“And you all took this oath?” I waved the bar around the room at them. “Even though you disagreed with Luciana?”

Claudia nodded. “With the exception of Cosette. Where else were we supposed to go?”

“I don’t know, anywhere. The world is a big place.” Was it better to live here than to venture out into the unknown? I didn’t think so, but then I couldn’t make their choices for them.

Although, I did have to figure out a way to save them. The urge to beat my head against the wall was strong, but I could only do this one step at a time.

With introductions finished, we sat down to dinner. Claudia had cooked two pans of lasagna—one for me, and one for everyone else to share. I shoveled salad and garlic bread onto my plate and let the conversation flow around me as I ate.

“Other supernaturals won’t stand for Luciana’s behavior. The witches might have numbers, but if all of us in opposition join with the pack, it’ll be an even match,” Cosette said.

“And just which side would you be on?” Shane asked.

“I’m on the side that isn’t dealing in dark magic. This might not be my coven, but there’s a reason I’m in Texas instead of Colorado.”

Elsa cleared her throat and everyone looked to her—I had yet to hear her say a word. “The fight is coming, no matter what we do. I think trying to break up La Aquelarre is also a waste of time. We should break our covenant, as it’s already cracking. Then, when the rest stand up, we’ll be on the side of the victors.”

“That’s assuming that we’ll be the victors,” I said.

“If we’re not, then a dark time is ahead for the world.”

Right. Like I needed one more person to tell me this was all really fucking serious. I got it.

“So, why isn’t anyone listening in on the meeting?”

“Sam is. But the talk will be more of the same. Witches are the most powerful blah-blah-blah. Wolves are evil monsters, blah-blah-blah. Let’s takeover the humans and rule the world.” Cosette shrugged. “It’s Luciana’s usual Pinky and the Brain routine.” pqdm.com