The Witch Is Back (17 page)

I found myself studying Brooklyn during magic sessions. I craned to overhear her conversations in case she was talking about breaking Asher and me up. There wasn't a time I felt I could let down my guard, which meant that I was constantly on edge. It was wreaking havoc on both my personal life and my body, since stress was the leading cause of binge eating among teens. And girls. And especially teen girls.

It was also about to get worse.

“Omigod, I would
die
for that purse!”

Excited chatter broke through my thoughts, snapping me back to the present. Colette and I were lounging around in the sun during an unexpected break in our day; I was working on my tan and she was working on her witch history assignment. It had been relatively quiet for the past ten minutes, which had allowed me a few minutes of peace. But as things grew rowdy nearby, I found my eyes opening and zeroing in on a group of girls headed our way from the main cabin.

Then I did a double-take as my brain tried to process what it was seeing.

“Did I fall asleep?” I asked out loud. Because there, coming toward us, were Sascha, Jasmine, Jinx, Abby . . . and Brooklyn and Eve. “Seriously. Please tell me this is a nightmare and that it's not really happening. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

I squeezed my eyes shut again, hoping that what I was seeing would disappear by the time I opened them. Unfortunately, all that happened was that the group was suddenly closer to us. And louder. I could fully hear everything they were saying now.

“One of my mom's friends works at Dooney & Bourke and calls me whenever a new bag comes in,” Brooklyn said, gesturing to the hot dog-shaped purse. “I could probably get you one if you wanted.”

Sascha was practically salivating at this. I used to think her enthusiasm for pop culture and popularity was cute—when it was me she was following around. But now that she was applying to be Brooklyn's personal shadow, it just seemed unattractive. The others didn't seem nearly as impressed, but when Brooklyn handed them her bag to try on for themselves, their smiles didn't lie. They were enjoying themselves. Even Jasmine, our resident goth-girl-who-hated-everything-and-everyone-that-wasn't-her, didn't seem all that put off by Supermodel Barbie.

“Nothing says fabulous like D&B.” Eve nodded. “If we all had matching ones, it could be like the official bag for twitches.”

“Well, the
fabulous
twitches, anyway.”

Brooklyn's eyes met mine briefly as she said this, but it was so subtle that I was the only one who seemed to see it. I had to hand it to the girl: she was good. Making friends with my friends so it would piss me off? Smart plan. Too bad it wasn't going to work.

It wasn't going to work, was it?

They were nearing where Colette and I were sitting now, still chatting about the stupid bag.

I scowled. Then my scowl turned into a narrow-eyed death stare. As if on cue, they all seemed to see me at the same time and guilt immediately crept over their faces. Well, everyone's but Jasmine's, but she never felt bad about anything.

“Okay, well, let me know what colors you guys want and I'll go ahead and order them. I bet we could get them here before the end of the session,” Brooklyn said, ignoring the fact that they'd stopped right in front of us. Then, with a wave that would put Miss America to shame, she turned and sashayed away, Eve right beside her.

Sascha, Jinx, Jasmine, and Abby all took their places on the grass beside me. Sascha lay back dramatically on the grass, closing her eyes to the sun. I knew that she was really just avoiding eye contact with me. Hello, it was obvious.

I observed each of them individually, waiting for some kind of explanation that would make sense of what I'd just seen.

“What's with all the staring?” Jasmine asked abruptly.

“What's with the new friends?” I responded.

Jasmine snorted and then leaned back so she was resting on her elbows. “Dude, you have
got
to put an end to the crazy,” she answered.

“What's crazy is that it seems like you guys are making nice with her,” I said. “And she's not a nice girl, trust me. You've seen how she acts toward me.”

“Yeah, how she acts toward
you
,” Jasmine pointed out.

“She's always nice to me,” Sascha added, still refusing to open her eyes. “Maybe you're wrong about her, Hadley.”

“I'm not. I've been watching her and everything she does is sneaky. . . . ,” I started.

“You might want to watch it, Had,” Jasmine warned, cutting me off. “You're officially entering stalker territory.”

“You're totally exaggerating,” I said, although I
was
spending an inordinate amount of time studying Brooklyn when she didn't think I was watching her. “Tell her, guys.”

I turned to the others, expecting them to back me up. But Jinx and Abby were looking anywhere but at me, while Sascha pursed her lips like she was physically trying to keep them closed. My face dropped as I realized they all agreed with her.

“You're losing your edge, Had,” Jasmine said, pulling the sunglasses that had been up on top of her head down and over her eyes. “You didn't even let Parris rattle you like this when he was around. And this is just the witch next door.”

“That's not true,” I said forcefully. “Brooklyn's
much
more dangerous than any of you know. I didn't want to have to tell you this, but she attacked me earlier this week. And she's got some special . . . skills that could put all of us at risk.”

I didn't tell them that she was actually a scary cupid. I was aware of how silly it sounded and I needed them to listen to me right now.

“She attacked you?” Jinx asked, worried.

Finally! Thank you.

“Yeah,” I answered. I hadn't wanted to go there, but if they wanted the truth, I'd give it to them. We'd learned through the fight with the Parrishables that when one person was threatened it affected all of us. They deserved to know who Brooklyn really was.

“Well, what'd she do?” Jasmine asked, her eyebrow arched up above her dark glasses.

“She nearly drowned me in the bathroom.” I proceeded to tell them about the incident in the shower, including the message that had appeared on the inside of the door and the fact that my magic had been blocked.

“I don't know, Hadley,” Sascha said slowly. “Sort of sounds like one big bathroom failure. How would she know you were even in there in the first place?”

“My towel was hanging over the door in clear view . . . and the glass is basically see-through,” I said, arguing my case. “Or she could have followed me in.”

“Not everyone follows you around everywhere,” Jasmine said sarcastically.

“What kind of superpowers does she have?” Sascha asked, suddenly interested in the topic.

“She's like a modern-day Cupid. Abby said she can make people fall for each other. She can match
anyone
,” I said.

“I thought love spells didn't exist,” Colette said thoughtfully, speaking up for the first time since we'd all started arguing. So far she was the only one who wasn't giving me a hard time about everything.

“So
that's
what this is really about,” Jasmine said, like it was all becoming clear to her.

“What?” I asked.

“You're worried about Brooklyn using her powers to go after Asher.”

My mouth dropped open at what she was implying. “Not just Asher. She could do it to any of you. Do you really want her playing with your lives like that?”

Sascha closed her eyes again dreamily. “I wouldn't mind if she put the love whammy on me and Dane,” she said. “In fact, I might just have to talk to her about that. . . .”

“It's not right, Sascha,” I growled, annoyed that she wasn't taking this seriously.

“Ugh. I take it back. You're not losing your edge at all,” Jasmine said dramatically. “You're still just as bossy as ever.”

I sighed, feeling like the conversation had completely gotten away from me. I needed to get them to work with me on this, be on my side. And I wasn't going to instill this sort of loyalty by fighting with them.

No. A good leader knew how to get things done.

“Fine,” I said, conceding. “I'm hearing you. And you want the old Hadley back? Well, I'm all yours. In fact, it's been a while since we went over the protection and location spells for Samuel and the Parrishables. Why don't we scrounge the others up and make sure everything's still quiet?”

Jasmine looked like she hadn't exactly gotten what she'd wanted in the deal, but she kept her mouth shut for the time being.

“When do you want to meet?” Jinx asked.

“Tonight,” I said. “You wanted me back, so let's get to work.”

That night's meeting was smaller than usual. And not just because the rest of the Cleri was back at home enjoying their summers off. Tonight, we were minus two people: Asher and Jinx. To my disappointment, Asher had already made plans with Dane and Hudson, which he apparently couldn't get out of. Jinx, on the other hand, had gotten too much sun while we sat around during our break that afternoon and seemed to have a mild case of sun poisoning. I'd visited her before we left for the meeting, and despite the redness of her cheeks, I could tell she wasn't herself. I promised to look in on her when we got back.

So Jinx was off the hook, but I couldn't help but be annoyed that Asher was blowing off a Cleri meeting to hang out with his buddies. Of course, if I was being honest with myself, my first thought had been that he was actually going out to meet Brooklyn. But since these thoughts would block me from having a strong casting session—a witch needed total concentration while doing magic to achieve optimum results—I pushed my feelings to the back of my mind and focused on why we needed to be constantly improving our magicking skills: threats like the Parrishables.

And maybe even love spells or other charms by certain blond enemies.

But first, my focus had to be on Samuel and his deranged followers. They were leagues more dangerous than Brooklyn and whatever games she might be trying to play with me. Although both set off alarms in my head, it was more important to make sure Samuel wasn't coming back anytime soon.

And the only way to know whether this was true was to continue to cast protection spells on our coven, our relatives, and our loved ones. The Cleri also performed location spells to see if there was any of Samuel's residual energy left in this world, as well as incantations intended to keep our eyes open to the truth in all situations. True, we'd been doing this periodically since we'd come home from the cabin, but this wasn't a one-and-done deal. I'd probably always be looking over my shoulder for the next big bad. Whether it was a not-so-dead Samuel Parris, the Parrishables, or someone—or something—we hadn't even conceived of yet. We'd have to just wait and see.

At midnight, Abby and I quietly left our room and scooted down the hallway to the back stairwell, taking care not to make any noise as we locked things up behind us. When we got down to the ground floor, there were two doors to choose from: one that led into the cabin lobby, and the other that led outside. We enchanted the knob on the outside door to make sure it remained unlocked so we'd be able to get back in when we were done, and then performed a spell to shroud us in darkness as we ran across the grounds. We didn't want anyone who just “happened” to be looking outside their windows to spot us and tell the elders.

When we were sure it was clear, we snuck out the door and rushed down the walkway, not stopping until we'd made it around the corner of the amphitheater. We'd decided that the boys' outdoor class space would be the best option for a meeting spot, since it was completely blocked off from the view of the cabin, and was far enough away that we wouldn't have to worry about anyone hearing us. Just to make sure, though, I cast a noise-bubble spell that would make it so our voices wouldn't carry past where we were standing. The bubble was only about ten feet wide, but it would completely envelop our group of five.

“How can it be so cold at night when it's so hot during the day?” Sascha complained as she appeared out of the darkness, followed by Jasmine and Fallon.

I tried not to stare as Fallon walked right over to Abby and sat down beside her. They started to chat quietly and the change in Abby's attitude was obvious.

Is it possible she really likes him?

“You guys have any trouble getting away?” I asked the others.

“Nah. It was easy-peasy,” Jasmine said, plopping down in one of the dozens of empty seats around us. “It's not like this place is Fort Knox or anything.”

“Still, getting caught isn't an option,” I said. “And unfortunately, it'd be too much of a risk to do this indoors, with everyone around and all. So that leaves us out here in the woods.”

“We're not in the woods. We're in the
amphitheater
,” Sascha said and looked at her phone. “Can we hurry this up? I was sort of hoping to ‘accidentally' run into Dane tonight.”

“In his room?” I asked. “Because that's where Asher and the guys are.”

“I figured if I waited outside of it long enough, one of them would come out and invite me in,” she said, as if she had it all planned out. “Then, maybe we'd watch a movie—a romantic comedy or something—and he'd realize I was the witch of his dreams. . . .”

“Sounds like
you're
the one who's dreaming,” Fallon said under his breath. Sascha made a face at him and then went back to her fantasy.

“I wonder how I could get the other guys to leave for a few hours so we could be alone?” Sascha said thoughtfully. “Had, you think you could invite Asher over for a slumber party? Maybe Hudson can come, too? I'm sure Colette wouldn't mind. . . .”