The Darkness Within (17 page)

“What kind of twist?” I finally took a bite of Ethan’s sandwich.

“Well, you know how Ethan put up a spell to block us from finding him, but we did anyway?”

“Yeah.” It hadn’t been hard either with the three of us working the spell to find him.

“Well, multiply that times about ten.”

“She’s that powerful?”

“She’s wickedly powerful.” Shannon put her fork down and stared intently at me. “You have no idea what we’re dealing with. And if we do find her, and she gets pissed about it…”

“But this is our only option, right? There’s no other way to save Ethan.”

“It takes a seriously powerful witch to remove dark magic. Even Mirabella screwed up the spell somehow. That’s how she ended up taking the dark magic into her own body. That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“What if she’s…not the same person because of that dark magic? What if she’s evil?”

“Then we’re seriously screwed.”

Ethan and Dylan returned. Both looked more relaxed. Ethan had enough soft pretzels for all of us, but he only handed one to me, keeping the rest for himself. Shannon and I eyed him, but he shrugged. “What? Dylan said I have to keep my strength up if I’m going to keep control over my magic.”

I snuggled into him. Seeing him eat like this reminded me of the old Ethan, pre-magic Ethan. “Thanks.” I kissed his cheek and broke off a piece of pretzel. Of course it was unsalted.

The rest of lunch was pretty normal, which was heaven as far as I was concerned. Until Ms. Matthews came into the cafeteria. She looked around the room like she was trying to find someone. I knew we were protected by the bubble spell, but she seemed to look right at me. I shivered.

“Relax,” Ethan said, wrapping his arm around me. God, it felt good to be in his arms. I would’ve given anything to stay that way.

“Keep an eye on her,” Dylan said, his eyes like daggers on Ms. Matthews. “She’s not all that different from Beth. Way too observant, and sees things she shouldn’t be able to.”

My mind flashed with images of made-for-TV movies. “You don’t think they’re, like, witch hunters or something, do you?”

“No.” Dylan shook his head. “No one really hunts witches. I mean, a few have tried, sure, but they usually wind up dead.”

“Unless they’re Sam.” Shannon leaned forward, focused on Ms. Matthews.

“Thanks a lot for that,” I said. As much as I liked her, I still wanted to smack her about five times a day.

“What? It’s sort of a compliment if you think about it. You’re strong. Most people couldn’t have done what you did and lived to talk about it.”

The problem was, I didn’t want to talk about it. I wanted to forget about that part of my life.

Ms. Matthews removed a glass jar from her pocket. “The salt-shaker!” I blurted out without even meaning to. “She carries it around?”

“Hmm.” Shannon finished her soda, tipping it back to get the last drop. “Maybe you’re wrong, Dylan. Maybe this school does have a witch hunter lurking in the halls.” She said it like she wasn’t really worried, like this was a game.

I glared at her. “How can you be so calm about this? Ethan’s magic is out of control. Do you have any idea what this could mean for us? For all of us?” Ethan’s arm slipped off my shoulder. Crap. I shut my eyes, feeling the sting of tears. “I didn’t mean it like that.” I looked at him, but he was facing Ms. Matthews.

“No, you’re right. I’m a danger to all of us. I should probably drop
her class. Stay away from her.” He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m into art anyway. No big deal.”

I looped my arm through his. I needed to be close, to touch him. “It
is
a big deal. You shouldn’t have to change your schedule.”

“Why not?” He met my eyes. “Dylan changed his for me. If anyone is going to have to suffer because of the darkness inside me, it should be me.”

“Good man,” Shannon said.

I threw her a look that would’ve made any normal person cringe. But she wasn’t normal. She was Shannon.

She widened her eyes at me. “I mean it. He’s protecting the coven. That’s good. It says a lot about him.”

“I hate to agree with Shannon,” Dylan said, “but the fact that Ethan would rather be the one making sacrifices shows he hasn’t given in to the dark magic. That’s a good sign.”

Maybe, but my girlfriend claws were out. “If he changes classes, then you’ll have to, too.” Let Dylan argue with that. We’d already done the spell to change the minds of the entire staff and student body, and we’d almost gotten caught. I doubted Dylan or Shannon wanted to risk that again. Especially now that we thought Ms. Matthews might be a witch hunter.

“Let’s not panic.” It was odd for Shannon to be the voice of reason. “We don’t know anything for sure yet. Besides, for whatever reason, it’s not Ethan that Ms. Matthews is suspicious of. It’s Sam. Sam will keep her distance from Ms. Matthews as much as possible.”

“Ethan too,” Dylan said, “just to be safe.”

“Wait a minute.” My mind swam with thoughts, trying to piece everything together. “Ms. Matthews thinks I did something to make that clay explode. She thinks it was me, not Ethan. And when I mentioned Beth watching me, that made her all the more suspicious. I could lure her away from Ethan. Protect him.”

“No way.” Ethan turned in his seat and took me by the shoulders. “Sam, I’m not letting you risk exposing yourself to keep Ms. Matthews off my trail. It’s not happening. I’d rather go straight to her and confess.”

“You can’t do that!” we all yelled at him. Thank God for the privacy bubble.

“Then promise me you won’t do anything to make Ms. Matthews suspect you any more than she already does.”

I hated this, but I had to lie to him. The last time I tried to tell him the truth, he ran away. If keeping him here—safe with us—meant lying, then I had to do it. “Okay. I promise.”

Shannon’s eyes burned into the side of my face, but I refused to meet her gaze. It would give me away. I’d explain it to her later. Maybe she’d been right in assuming it would come down to us versus the guys in our coven. Ms. Matthews slipped the saltshaker back into her pocket. What had that been about anyway? I couldn’t help wondering if the saltshaker was meant to draw me out of the crowd.

After lunch we split up again. Ethan and Dylan headed to Mr. Ryan’s class. Shannon grabbed my arm before she headed to her class. “You need to fill me in on whatever plan you have in the works in that pretty little head of yours.”

“I will. Later.” Right now I had to get to trig and figure out what to tell Mr. Malinowsky. I went through the list of excuses in my head. I’d left my books in sculpture. I’d forgotten to turn in my test paper at the end of class. Yeah, I could pull that one off.

“We’ll talk in chem.” Shannon gave me a stern look and turned away.

More reason why I had to do this now. I had to figure out this Ms. Matthews thing before last period. Before anyone could stop me. It was stupid and dangerous, but I had to do it…for Ethan.

I grabbed my books out of my locker, along with an old art history test Ms. Matthews had given about a week ago. Then I mustered up some tears, which with all that had been going on was more than easy to do. I ran into the classroom and straight to Mr. Malinowsky’s desk. “Mr. Mal.” Only his top students called him that. I wasn’t one of them, but I thought it might make him more receptive to me.

He looked up from his desk, and immediately his face fell. “Sam, is everything all right?”

“No. I really screwed up. Ms. Matthews gave us a test before lunch. It was really hard, and I studied so much, too. It took me all period and when the bell rang, I didn’t realize that I accidentally put my test paper in my book and turned in my chem homework instead.” The words flew out of my mouth. I figured the faster, the better. Let him
think I was completely distraught. “I have to give her this test right now! If I wait any longer, she’ll think I switched the papers on purpose so I could look up the answers in lunch. I swear I didn’t.” A tear streaked my cheek. Perfect timing.

Mr. Malinowsky wrinkled his brow and pointed to the test paper in my hands. “Are you sure that’s the test? There are red marks on it like it’s already been graded.”

I’d been trying so hard to cover up the grade at the top, I’d forgotten about the red marks. “Yeah, I had a few questions during the test and she wrote on the paper so she didn’t interrupt the other students with her explanations.”

He nodded in understanding. “All right. Go see Ms. Matthews. But hurry back. We’re starting a new unit today.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mal.” I ran from the room. Good. This was going well. Now all I had to do was figure out what I was going to say to Ms. Matthews. Was scaring her the best way to go? Or did I try to put a spell on her, tamper with her memory so she didn’t remember anything that made me look like a witch? Scaring her would only confirm her suspicions. I had to do the spell. Even if I outed myself as a witch and cast the spell in front of her, she’d forget it once I was finished.

As I approached her classroom, I wished I had Shannon with me. She was better at the mind-altering spells. She’d had more practice. And I hated doing something that felt so close to dark magic. But I had good intentions—saving Ethan—and that had to count for something.

I was surprised to see the classroom empty again. When did she teach other than second period? Of course, the empty room made this a little easier for me. I wouldn’t have to worry about getting her alone.

“Ms. Matthews?” I said, entering the room.

“Ah, Sam.” She smiled up at me from her desk. “I’ve been expecting you.”

18

E
XPECTING
me? How? The only one who knew I was coming here was Mr. Malinowsky. Unless she really was a witch hunter and had been following me, anticipating my every move. I stepped toward her desk, my feet moving comically slow. “How did you know I’d come looking for you?”

Her smile widened. “After lunch, I knew you’d come looking for answers.”

Answers? No, I was coming to erase her memory. Stop her from being so nosy. “I don’t understand. What thing at lunch? What answers?”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the saltshaker, placing it on her desk. I froze. If I backed away, this could all get worse. If I moved closer, this would
definitely
get worse. “Go ahead. See for yourself.”

“I don’t like salt.” It was all I could think to say.

“What if I said it’s not salt?” She raised a brow and pushed the saltshaker closer to me. “Do you think I’d lie to you, Sam?”

Maybe. If she thought I was a witch, she’d probably do just about anything to keep me from using magic on her.

She reached down on the ground next to her. Everything inside me was screaming “run!” But curiosity—and maybe fear—was keeping me grounded. She pulled a small cooler bag onto her desk. “I have this thing for egg sandwiches. I know it’s not exactly healthy
to eat so many of them, but lately I’ve had this craving I can’t ignore.” She removed the top bun and shook some salt onto the eggs. “Want some? There’s more than enough to share.”

“No, thank you.” My voice didn’t sound like my own. I sounded like a terrified puppy.

She closed the sandwich and held it up to me. “Are you sure?”

“You were kind of heavy on the salt, don’t you think?”

“Was I?” She slid the saltshaker across the desk again. It stopped at the edge. My eyes locked on it.

“It’s funny how people make assumptions, isn’t it? They see something they think they know and their minds fill in the gaps.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you sure you don’t want at least a bite of the sandwich? It didn’t look like you ate much at lunch.”

“I don’t want the sand—” My heart raced, and the old test I was clutching fell to the floor. “You saw me in the cafeteria?”

“Barely. Those pretzels aren’t any better for you than these egg sandwiches are for me, you know.”

“How? How did you…?” The spell, had it failed? Was that why she was looking at my table? Had Dylan and Ethan somehow messed up the boundaries of the spell when they got up for food?

Ms. Matthews stood up, grabbing the saltshaker in her hands. “I told you, Sam. People see what they want to see. Although seeing you and your friends wasn’t easy with that spell you had up.”

No doubt about it anymore. She knew. And more than that, she knew I wasn’t the only witch. She knew about the others.

She held the saltshaker out to me. “Smell this. You don’t have to touch it. Just smell it. I’ll even hold it for you.”

“So you can throw the salt in my face? I don’t think so.”

“Smell it. I could make you, but I’d really rather not.” She held it out to me.

I could turn and run again, but where would I go now that she knew I was a witch? She could come after me or the others whenever she wanted. And she was a teacher, so no one would question her if she tried to take us out of class and corner us one at a time. I grabbed the saltshaker, careful not to spill any.

“Go on.”

I slowly brought it to my nose. What would smelling it do to me? Would it burn my nose? Would the salt travel up to my brain and kill me? So many things could go wrong. Ethan’s face flashed in my mind. I had to do this for him. I sniffed, barely getting a whiff of the salt at all. No wait…that wasn’t salt. What was it? I smelled it again, breathing more deeply this time. Sugar. Ms. Matthews had sugar in her saltshaker. “You put sugar on your eggs?”