The Darkness Within (5 page)

“Ms. Matthews said the pottery wheel is broken.”

“Oh no! Does she think Ethan and I broke it?” I had no idea how much one cost, but Ethan and I weren’t exactly rolling in money these days.

“No. She said she found a part that was loose. She wrote up a report and everything. She said the school is lucky you and Ethan didn’t get hurt or they’d have a lawsuit on their hands.”

“Really?”

Beth shrugged. “That’s what she said.”

Was it possible the explosion
hadn’t
been Ethan’s fault? That the spinning wheel was broken? But if that was true, then did I imagine the green, swirling magic? Maybe my paranoia was messing with my eyes, making me imagine something that wasn’t really there. I never thought I’d wish I was going crazy, but for Ethan’s sake, I was kind of hoping just that.

We stepped into the cafeteria, which was already buzzing, no doubt with stories of the explosive clay. A few people clapped and pointed to me as I walked to my table. “Well, thanks, Beth. I guess I’ll see you later.” I sat down next to Ethan and gave Beth a small wave.

“Would it be okay if I sat here today?” She looked hopefully at the empty seat next to me.

“Hey, isn’t that Mark Wilson?” Shannon asked, motioning behind Beth. “You two are dating, right?”

Beth turned around, already smiling. “Yeah.”

“Oh, well I guess you probably want to sit with him.” Shannon waved her fingers discreetly, passing it off as untangling her hair. Mark looked up and motioned for Beth to join him. “Have fun!”

If I wasn’t so desperate to get rid of Beth, I would’ve been upset with Shannon for using magic on Beth and Mark like that. But my shoulders relaxed, and I leaned into Ethan. “You left me with her.”

“Sorry. I didn’t know how to get rid of her.”

“No worries.” Shannon wiggled her fingers and smiled. “I took care of that.”

“Are you ever going to learn?” Dylan scoffed.

“Whatever. I didn’t see you doing anything to help poor Sam.” Shannon reached across the table and patted my hand. “Don’t worry, sister. I’ve got your back.”

“Thanks, I think.”

Ethan slid his tray of fries over so they were in front of us both. “Peace offering?”

I took one and smiled at him. “If you had a vanilla shake to go with these, we’d be good.”

“I can handle that, too.” Shannon raised her hand over Ethan’s bottle of water.

“Are you crazy?” Dylan snatched the water bottle away. “Why don’t you just stand on the table and announce that you’re a witch?”

“Sorry,
Dad
.” Shannon’s voice was laced with annoyance. I’d never seen her and Dylan fight like this. I couldn’t help wondering if our joining the coven had been a bad idea after all.

I leaned forward, eyeing Dylan and Shannon. “Look, things have been kind of tense lately. Can we please lay off each other?”

Ethan nodded. “Sam’s right. We’re supposed to be helping each other. We’ve got enough to worry about right now.”

“Like your little stunt in sculpture?” Dylan asked.

Yeah, of course he’d heard about that. I squeezed Ethan’s hand, which only made Dylan’s eyes narrow more. Damn it. I was definitely right about him having feelings for me. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, when Dylan stopped looking at me as anything other than the witch who’d killed his brother, but I was in major trouble.

5

W
E
barely talked for the rest of the day. With the exception of Ethan and me, we all sort of went our separate ways, not meeting between classes—something we hadn’t done since forming our coven. It felt odd, like part of me was missing. I guessed the spell we used to bind our powers was the cause of that emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

Ethan kissed my forehead as we stood outside my last-period science class. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

I squeezed his hands. “What are you talking about? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You don’t have to defend me, Sam. I know I’m messing up lately. I just wish I knew why.” He shook his head and sighed. “But Dylan better lay off. I don’t like that he’s taking this out on you, too. It’s my problem.”

“It’s all our problem.” I leaned closer, wrapping my arms around his neck. To everyone else, it looked like I was leaning in for a kiss before class—which I was definitely planning on doing—but I also had to make sure no one overheard me. “We’re a coven. When something is wrong with one of us, we all have to come together to fix it. That’s how it works.”

“When did you become the expert on coven behavior? You’re as new at this as I am.”

“Just trust me, okay? I know what I’m talking about.” I kissed him, my lips lingering on his.

“Okay, you two. Enough of that.” Mrs. Stevens glared at us with her arms crossed.

I let go of Ethan and gave him a small wave before stepping past Mrs. Stevens and into class. She had an experiment all set up for us. We did more experiments than the honors class, which really struck me as odd since the name of the class was Chemistry for the Non-Science Major. Thank God the real Samantha Smith wasn’t good at science. It was never my best subject, and since I was pretending to be Samantha Smith, it worked out well.

Instead of going to her desk, Mrs. Stevens followed me to mine. “Miss Smith, you know the school’s policy on public displays of affection in the halls. I’d hate to have to write you up, but I won’t allow a repeat of the little stunt you pulled in the hallway last month.”

The little stunt she was referring to was the kiss I gave Ethan that got the attention of the entire school, teachers included. But who could’ve blamed me? I’d just found out Ethan was dying. Every moment I had with him had been precious. Not that I could even begin to explain that to Mrs. Stevens. She might be married, but the woman definitely didn’t understand what love was. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out her marriage had been arranged.

I nodded without saying a word and took my seat. Mrs. Stevens explained the experiment we were conducting today, but not much registered. My mind was still on Ethan. He’d admitted he was messing up. That was a start. If he was willing to admit he needed help, the coven should be able to fix the problem. That is, if I could get the coven to work together again.

My cell vibrated in my pocket. I looked around, making sure Mrs. Stevens was too busy to notice me texting in class. She was helping Ricky Molson, whose beaker of chemicals was bubbling over. Knowing that would keep her busy for a few minutes, I slid my phone out.

We need to finish our talk
. Dylan. I should’ve expected it. After lunch and the way we’d left things, of course Dylan would want to talk. He didn’t trust Ethan to begin with, and after the exploding clay in sculpture, Dylan was going to want to put a stop to Ethan’s spells. I
didn’t doubt Dylan had every intention of binding Ethan’s magic. And not the kind of binding that made us a coven. The kind that made it so Ethan couldn’t do magic when he wasn’t with the rest of us.

I wasn’t ready to have this talk, but if I didn’t do something before Dylan brought up the subject to Ethan, things were going to get really out of control.

I checked on Mrs. Stevens again before typing,
When and where?

Dylan must have been right on top of his phone waiting for my reply because almost instantly my cell shook with his response.
Diner. 4:30
.

Fine
. I shut the phone and put it back in my pocket. It was good I was getting this conversation out of the way. I needed to do this for Ethan. For the coven, too.

“You can take two substances that are completely calm on their own, but when you combine them, the effects can be explosive,” Mrs. Stevens said, addressing the entire class. When had she started lecturing? “When Ricky added the wrong chemical to his beaker solution, nothing appeared to happen at first. But after a while, the chemicals began reacting to one another.”

“Yeah, and my experiment blew up all over my cell phone.” Ricky held up his phone, which was covered in some green goo. “My dad’s going to kill me. I just got this last week.”

Mrs. Stevens nodded. “This is why cell phones aren’t allowed in class, Mr. Molson.”

As I stared at Ricky’s phone, I couldn’t help thinking about what Mrs. Steven had said. The chemical in the solution—it was calm at first. But then something happened, and the mixture exploded. Was this what was happening with Ethan? The magic in him was calm at first, and now it was bubbling up inside him, threatening to explode?

As soon as the final bell rang, I jumped up and ran to my locker. I couldn’t pretend to care about school for one second longer, not that I thought I’d done a convincing job of pretending in the first place. Ethan was already leaning against my locker with a smile on his face.

“I missed you.” His voice was airy, like a sigh. His hands found my waist and pulled me to him.

“Didn’t we get in trouble for this once already today?” I playfully
smacked his hands away, but I couldn’t resist lightly pecking him on the mouth. “Excuse me. I need to swap some books before we head to the diner.”

Ethan reluctantly stepped aside. “Think we have time for a quick drive before work?”

I shoved my books inside my locker and shut it. “Why? Do you have somewhere you need to go?”

He stepped into me again. “Yes. Somewhere we can have a little alone time.”

We lived alone. What other high-school couple could say that? “What’s gotten into you today?” I laced my fingers through his and tugged him down the hall before he did anything to land us in detention. We couldn’t afford to be late for work.

Ethan shrugged. “Can’t I just want to be with you?”

“Of course.” There was more to it, but I could tell he wasn’t up for talking. I squeezed his hand, and we walked to the car without another word. I felt like I was spending so much time in silence lately, afraid to say the wrong thing around the wrong person. Here I was, a witch with incredible powers, and I couldn’t even say two words without worrying about who I’d offend or hurt. It didn’t seem fair.

Ethan held my hand the whole way to the diner. I loved that he drove with one hand on the wheel and one on me. He’d always been this way, even before the cancer and the witch thing. It was just how Ethan was. He loved to be touching me, and I loved it just as much.

The diner was pretty empty when we pulled up. The after-school crowd wouldn’t show up for about another fifteen minutes. Ethan cut the engine and turned in his seat, making no move to get out of the car.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked, mimicking his pose.

“This is going to sound crazy, but I have to ask.” He paused, and I knew I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

“Go on.” The silence was killing me.

“It’s about Dylan.”

Had Dylan said something to Ethan already? He was supposed to meet me here and talk it through with me first.

“Does he have a thing for you?” Ethan swallowed hard, like the words were painful to say.

“Why do you think that?” My voice shook, giving me away. I didn’t want to answer that, but I didn’t want to lie to Ethan, either. Still, if I told him I thought Dylan might have feelings for me, it would destroy our coven. Ethan would freak out, and he and Dylan would never be friends.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Ethan slammed his palm against the steering wheel. “I knew it. Right from the start, I knew it. The way he followed you around, left notes for you. I’m seriously going to kill that guy.”

I reached for Ethan’s arm. “No, you’re not. It’s a stupid crush. He’ll get over it. Besides, I’m sure it’s really nothing. I mean, how can he like me? He should hate me after what I did to Ben.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “I forgot Ben was his brother.”

“Yeah. So you see, there’s no way this will last. All I have to do is mention Ben’s name and Dylan will go back to tolerating me for the sake of the coven. That will be the end of it.”

Ethan shook his head. “I’m not so sure, Sam. He knows that was Nora’s fault. He doesn’t blame you. At least, not anymore. Just promise me you won’t wear that necklace he gave you ever again. Something like that would give him the wrong impression, you know?”

The impression that I liked him back. Yeah, I couldn’t wear it, even if Shannon thought it was a good idea. “Come on. Gloria and Jackson are expecting us.”

Ethan didn’t move. He wasn’t letting this go so easily.

I moved forward and kissed him. Not a small peck. I kissed him the way I knew he wanted to kiss me at my locker. Ethan’s hands were in my hair one minute and then wrapped around my waist the next, pulling me into his seat with him.

“Ethan,” I managed to say between kisses.

He pulled back, breathing heavily. “Sorry.” He looked kind of dazed, like his mind was somewhere else.

“Are you okay?”

“I wish everyone would stop asking me that.” His face contorted, and his mouth tightened.

I took his face in my hands and made him look at me. “Don’t ask me not to worry about you. I love you. You’d do the same for me.”

His eyes softened. “I know. It’s just been a rough day. I’ll be fine.”

I was afraid to ask what had made it a rough day. Sure, there was the incident in sculpture and the argument with the coven at lunch, but I had a bad feeling there was more to it. I kissed him softly on the lips. “How about right after work we drive to our favorite lookout spot on the mountain? We’ll stay there until your day gets better.”