The Witch Is Back (37 page)

This time, I was distracted by what Brooklyn was saying and didn't get out of the way of her counterspell. As a burst of light hit me, I was enveloped in a sort of bubble that began to fill up immediately with water.

Again with the water!

Just as it reached the space near my neck, I busted through it with a particularly powerful explosion spell, spraying droplets of water everywhere. Including on Brooklyn, who didn't seem to notice
or
care. This made me even more annoyed.

“What is it with you trying to drown me?” I asked angrily.

Instead of drying off, I instantly sent an orb of magic her way, which forced her backward through the air. She hit the opposite wall with a thud and then struggled to get air back into her lungs.

How's that for a witch fit?

I rushed over to her and placed my foot on her chest, pinning her up against the wall.

“Hey! Watch it. You're getting dirt all over my Siriano,” Brooklyn said and then sent me flying with her own spell.

I landed with a thud nearly ten feet away. We both sat there on the ground, studying each other and breathing heavily from the fight, waiting for the other to make the next move.

“You really
are
out of your mind, aren't you?” Brooklyn asked, trying to get to her feet.

“What are you talking about?” I asked annoyed.

Brooklyn gave me a look. “Witch, please. I haven't even
tried
to kill you yet. You're the one who's been messing with me.”

This time it was my turn to be confused. “I haven't done
anything
to you,” I said, relaxing a little. “Except come to Brighton. You're the one who's trying to steal my boyfriend, brainwashing my friends, and setting all these traps to try to get me killed.”

“You're cracked. I haven't done
any
of those things,” Brooklyn said. Then she paused. “Okay, so I'm not exactly thrilled about you and Asher, but he's a loyal guy. If he's chosen to be with you, nothing's gonna change his mind. I get that. And I'm moving on.”

“Then why did you trick me into coming down here?” I asked.

Silence. “This wasn't me,” Brooklyn said, shaking her head emphatically. “I thought this was part of the challenge.”

I was beginning to wonder if she could be right. Had I so totally misread the situation in assuming Brooklyn was here to fight me? But if this was a challenge, then what was the obstacle? All the rest of them had been pretty clear on what we were supposed to do. This one, however . . . there were no clues. Just two enemies wandering around a hole in the earth where it was unlikely that people would find them.

Brooklyn must have come to the same conclusion that I did, because her eyes grew big before turning to meet mine. “This
is
an obstacle, right?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Wow. You're smarter than you look.”

Brooklyn scowled and stepped toward me. “That smackdown can still be arranged,” she said walking toward me, trying to look as menacing as she could.

“Hold on there, Beach Barbie,” I said, placing my hand in the air as I tried to work things out in my head. We'd both been brought here, because someone had secretly hoped we'd destroy each other, or at least be injured trying. So, either someone was after Brooklyn or they were after me. . . .

“We've been set up,” I said finally, looking over at Brooklyn.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“We were tricked into coming down here.”

“By whom? And why? What do they want with
us
?” she asked. All good questions and ones I was eager to find the answers to as well.

“When I learn how to read minds, I'll be sure to let you know,” I said, looking around the room we were in with a fresh set of eyes. It was round and had multiple passageways coming and going from where we stood. It made me wonder what the other corridors held.

“Why don't you leave that kind of magic up to the pros?” another voice said sinisterly. As someone else stepped out from one of the doorways and into the light, Brooklyn and I took a step forward before turning to face our attacker together.

“For the love of everything witchy, can't you two do anything right?” Eve asked, slowly sauntering forward as she looked us over critically. “I give you two the
perfect
opportunity to destroy each other and this is what you do? Have a catfight? Call each other names? Talk about a
major
disappointment.”

She looked like Eve, even talked like her, but this person in front of us was a different girl entirely. The feisty brunette had always been a drag, but before, she'd been Brooklyn's backup. Her sidekick. Her no-mind-of-her-own drone. Now, here she was exuding a confidence I'd never seen. She stood taller, made uninterrupted eye contact, and walked with purpose. And as she got closer to us, I began to notice something else that was different about her.

Her eyes.

They were
black
.

I'd only seen eyes like that one other time, and death and destruction had followed.

It can't be. . . .

I looked over to see if Brooklyn had been expecting Eve's grand entrance, but she looked just as shocked as I was to see her there. Maybe even more so. Which meant that Brooklyn had been played, too. Betrayed by her friend.

Looks like we had something else in common, besides Asher.

Eve continued to walk around us. “I mean,
come on
! Aren't you supposed to be some überwitch or something, Hadley? You walk around camp all cocky about having ‘gotten rid of Samuel Parris' and how you eliminated his loyal followers, but you can't even kill a bratty wannabe who's trying to go after your boyfriend? It's just pitiful,” Eve said, pacing in front of us. She was getting worked up and I watched as her fists opened and closed threateningly.

“And Brooklyn. Jesus. You are an awful excuse for a witch. You screwed over everyone who cared about you last year just so you could be popular—and then you
didn't even use it
. Who does that? Who gets everything they want and then squanders it? You must've gotten lucky when you destroyed The Elite, because let me tell you . . . you are
so
not fit to be a leader.” Eve was seething now.

I could see Brooklyn stiffen beside me as her former lackey verbally bashed her. She may not have been reacting on the outside, but no doubt that anger was building on the inside. I prayed she'd hang on to it until we needed it. Because from the looks of it, we would.

“When I caught you using magic at school, and watched you obliterate Gigi and her crew, I thought I'd found my
soul mate
. That we were kindred spirits. That maybe we were meant to rule this world
together
.”

“I don't think she swings that way, Eve,” I said, trying to alleviate some of the tension that was being directed at Brooklyn. Not that I liked the blonde now or anything, but it would be easier to get away if both of us were still conscious. But this did nothing to stop the runaway train Eve was on. Not one bit.

“After selling out your so-called ‘friends' that day in Ms. Zia's office, I held on to that tape of you doing magic at school, thinking that maybe I could use it to blackmail you into handing over your throne,” Eve said. When Brooklyn heard this, she gasped, her eyes growing big. It was the first real reaction I'd seen her give since Eve had shown up and I had no idea what they were talking about. “But then I saw how you were planning to use your popularity and I figured you'd hang yourself eventually. And you pretty much have.”

By now, Brooklyn was back to wearing a stony expression, her arms folded over her chest and giving Eve a calculated look. This didn't derail Eve though. “You didn't even use your status at school to your
advantage
, Brooklyn! You treat everyone like they're equal, when they aren't.
We
are better than them. It's called a
hierarchy
for a reason, you idiot,” she said, her chest heaving with exertion. She closed her eyes then and took in a few deep breaths. I considered ducking into the closest passageway, but felt bad about leaving Brooklyn behind with Eve. “So, when I found out that Hadley was heading to camp—the same camp you went to last summer—I figured I'd let you two extinguish each other. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Because, let's be honest. The most powerful witches don't actually have to do the dirty work themselves. They have people do it for them. But then you just
watched
this bitch make out with your man all summer and didn't even want any of us to go after her. You're pathetic.”

“Did you really think I'd
kill
her just for dating my ex-boyfriend?” Brooklyn cut in. Her voice was steady and strong. “I mean, yeah, I may have
daydreamed
about it, but actually doing it? Just because he found someone new? And after I hurt him like that? No way. That's crazy, Eve.”

“Crazy?” Eve asked, taking a few more steps toward Brooklyn. I took a small step in between them without thinking. “I'll tell you what's crazy. That people think they won't get what's coming to them.”

“What happened to you to make you so angry, Eve?” Brooklyn asked, sounding sad for the girl. At first I didn't understand why she felt anything for her, but then remembered that at one point the two had been friends. Well, Brooklyn had thought so.

“Why am I so angry? Maybe it's because people like you don't stand up for yourselves and those around you suffer because of it.”

Brooklyn winced at the words as if she'd been hit.

“You let people like
her
”—Eve nodded at me—“step all over you. You put people like
her
up on pedestals instead of tearing them down where they belong. You don't even try to stop her when
she
destroys other people's lives.”

The focus had somehow changed to me with no warning and we all knew it. I watched as Eve turned to advance on me now. Her eyes were like two black onyx bullets aimed right at me and the sight was terrifying.

“You let people like her get away with
murder
, instead of helping to avenge the deaths of your best friend's
parents
, who were just following the commands of their coven leader, and trying to do what they thought was right!” Eve shouted, a tear slipping down her cheek.

Whoa, what was Eve talking about? I'd
never
killed anyone. Well, except for maybe Samuel, but I wasn't even sure of that . . .

“You should get your stories straight, Eve because—” I tried to get the rest of my sentence out, but she was already moving on.

“Nobody seems to have the balls to punish you for the lives you've destroyed, Hadley. I'm here to change that,” Eve said, her face just inches from mine now.

I could see Brooklyn standing just beyond her, not sure what to do. She began to take a step forward like she was going to do something to try to stop Eve, but I gave my head a tiny shake that I hoped would make her stay. Brooklyn wasn't ready for this fight and if she got involved, she'd just get hurt. Or get in the way. At least at this stage, anyway.

“Well, payback's a witch, Hadley,” Eve said menacingly. “And so am I.”

And with that, she threw a spell at me that ripped into my skin.

“Why is everyone always trying to kill me?!” I shouted as I clamped my hand down tightly on the fresh wound. Blood poured out of my left shoulder where Eve's spell had made contact and seeped through the spaces between my fingers. It felt like a chunk of flesh was gone, but I was too busy—and admittedly, freaked out—to check the damage. I'd seen what a spell like this had done to Jinx and didn't need to witness it up close and personal on myself. Besides, I had a more immediate crisis to worry about.

Like a really pissed-off, trigger-happy, overly-emotional twitch.

“Maybe you should take the hint,” Eve spat, her hand raised and ready for another round.

“Listen, Eve. I get that you're upset,” I started, trying to hold her off until I could figure out a way to get us out of there. “But I'm telling you—I didn't kill your parents. I don't even know who your parents are.”

Behind Eve, I could see Brooklyn turning and looking down one of the entrances of the tunnels. Turning her attention back to me, she made a face that I couldn't quite read, before glancing again at the exit behind her.

Was she seriously considering leaving me here? If she did, I swear I'd hunt her down and . . .

“Of course you don't remember them, Hadley. Why would anyone expect Little Miss Popular to remember something like that? Someone as self-absorbed as you? No, you probably had more important things to occupy your time with. Like makeup and prancing around in front of your dimple-faced boyfriend,” Eve said.

“Hey!” I cut in. “I do
not
prance.”

“Whatever! You've proven my point anyway. You're so involved with your own charmed life that you don't recognize when you've ruined another,” Eve said.

Now, Brooklyn was moving toward Eve again, sneaking up on her from behind. I pursed my lips, wanting to warn her back, but also not wanting to draw attention to her.

“My parents were there that night at your cabin. They came after you in your stupid shed and they both died at
your
hands,” Eve said.

“They were trying to
kill
me, Eve,” I said, getting annoyed now. How could she blame me for this? “I was just defending myself. I didn't want to hurt anyone, but like you said . . . they attacked
me
.”

“Because
you
were messing with our futures,” she said. “You wanted to stand in the way of witches coming into our birthrights. Of becoming the rulers of this world.”