The Witch Is Back (38 page)

“No. They attacked me because some wackadoodle who fancied himself a reverend told them to,” I countered.

My eyes darted over at Brooklyn who was just seconds away from closing in on Eve.

“He's
not
crazy,” Eve said, her eyes wild. “He's our leader and he's teaching us the way—”

It was at that moment that Brooklyn chose to cast her spell. Only, somehow Eve knew she was there and spun around just in time to deflect her spell. Then, with a flick of the wrist, she tossed Brooklyn up into the air before sending her soaring through one of the tunnels and into the darkness.

There was something about the action that felt scarily familiar. I'd seen that exact move done before. To someone else.

To me.

I yelled out Brooklyn's name, but there was no response from the dark passageway. Despite my mixed feelings for Brooklyn, I didn't want her hurt. Trying to save my life from a deranged witch was enough to earn a little concern from me.

“Parris taught you to be an
assassin
,” I shouted, seething.

Eve nodded as she started pacing again in front of me. “I suppose you could put it that way. I like to look at it as teaching me how to survive and thrive. But potato, pot
ah
to.”

Now I was getting mad. This was like talking to a crazy person. We were going around and around in circles and accomplishing nothing. It was all a waste of time. And I wanted to get out of there, find my friends, and put the whole sucky day behind me. Stop the cycle of insanity once and for all.

“There's one thing you're forgetting, Eve,” I said, letting go of my shoulder and taking a bold step toward her. “Your mentor? The one who's
really
responsible for your parents' deaths?”

I paused for dramatic effect as I got right up in her face.

“I
beat
him.”

Eve growled in response, the sound coming from deep down in her gut. As if from her soul—or the place where her soul used to be. Before she could react, I swung my good arm around and made contact with the side of her face. She hadn't been expecting it, so the hit was clean, and clipped her so hard that my hand vibrated with pain.

Not a smart move considering that now both my arms stung.

Luckily, I still had my legs and I began to use them, too. I placed my foot against her stomach, which was unobstructed now that her face was in her hands. Pushing her back as hard as I could, I watched her tumble backward and hit the ground hard. Then I sent a stunning spell her way, but she'd already scrambled back to her feet.

“Enough!” Eve screamed at me.

The force of her voice stopped me before I could get off another round. Was it possible I'd underestimated just how powerful Eve was? After all, she'd managed to get us here and had already busted a hole in my shoulder.

“You think you have all the answers, but here's where you're wrong,” Eve said. “Reverend Parris isn't dead.”

My blood ran cold and for a moment I thought I might pass out.

“You're lying,” I said, mostly trying to convince myself of the fact.

“Who do you think gave me the powers I needed to fight you? Think about it. I've nearly killed you, what, three times now? I'm the vessel that evil flows through.”

Eve laughed maniacally. The sound bounced off the walls around us and echoed down the individual tunnels. But once the cackle faded, there was something else I could hear, too. It was faint, but there. A scratching. Footsteps. Dragging.

I had no idea what it was or where it was coming from, but it was getting closer. And now Eve had noticed it, too.

“Ahhhh, yes,” she said, still smiling at me. “Right on time.”

The sounds were coming from one of the tunnels behind Eve and we both turned toward the noise.

“I have to admit, I was sort of annoyed when you realized what we'd been up to in the forest,” Eve said, back to pacing around. “And I'd hoped that seeing Asher as your betrayer would send you over the edge. But then that know-it-all Colette had to stick her nose where it didn't belong. I didn't think you'd be able to come up with a protection spell so quickly, but somehow you managed. You were
lucky
. Again.”

“I was
good
,” I responded, even though at this point I knew arguing was useless.

“Never mind though. Because as strong as your spells were . . . mine are stronger,” Eve said. This time we both looked back at one of the cave entrances and watched as all the girls from camp, including my entire coven, appeared. They were clearly bewitched, with eyes that were glazed over and a sort of stomp-walk-slide you'd expect from a sleepwalker. Or a zombie. A few girls dragged an unconscious Brooklyn between them, while someone else struggled to get away from the grabby hands of a few others.

“Hadley!” Colette shouted, trying to fight her captors, but failing.

“Colette,” I answered, but forced myself to stay put, so as not to start a war prematurely. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I think so,” she answered uneasily. “They just won't let me go and I don't know what's going on and . . .”

“Quiet, Teletubby,” Eve snapped, sending a spell at Colette that immediately zipped up her lips. Literally. “You've done enough talking.”

“Why are they here?” I asked her, nervous now that I was up against over two dozen jacked-up twitches instead of just one deranged one.

“Oh, well, this is sort of my gift to you,” she said, faking sincerity. “I know you're close to your coven, so I thought I'd bring them here to help share in your last moments. At least until they tear you apart.”

A lightbulb came on in my head. She was going to manipulate them into killing me. I was going to die at the hands of my own coven members. Just like Bridget had.

History has an effed-up way of repeating itself.

“Unless you want to fight them off, which works for me, too,” Eve said. “A little collateral damage never hurt anyone. Oh, wait . . .”

She let the sentence trickle off as she made it clear that no one would be free from pain today. We would all be punished in one way or another. Either by being attacked ourselves or by having to live with what we'd done to stay alive.

“I'm not going to hurt my friends just because you've messed with their programming,” I said, refusing to play into her game. “Deep down, they're still good people and they care about me. I can't hurt them.”

“Well, we'll just see about that,” Eve said and then stepped aside. “Go get her, girls.”

And without hesitation, they all came at me at once.

I turned around to survey my options. I could leave. Take off down one of the many tunnels, but where would it lead? If the others were anything like the one I'd come from, my back would be against water pretty quickly. That's if there wasn't something else waiting for me in the dark.

And besides, I couldn't leave Brooklyn or Colette behind. Not in the state they were in. Helpless and captured, because of me.

But I wasn't going to hurt my friends or the other twitches, either. They were just innocent bystanders caught in the middle of a centuries-old feud. It wasn't their fault. They couldn't help themselves.

My options were limited and I had no idea what to do. The others had just about reached me now and I contemplated letting them have me. Do their worst and hope I survived. But deep down, I knew that wasn't my thing.

I was a fighter.

And I was going to go down fighting. Just as I raised my hand to cast my first spell, a bright white light filled the cavern, causing everyone to stop in their place. It was so blinding I had to put my arms up in front of my face to shield my eyes. It was like looking directly into the sun.

And then everything went black.

I came to, still inside the dark and dirty cavern, only to find I was now propped up on my feet with my back against the wall. Invisible straps held me in place; I could feel the pressure of them across my chest, hips, thighs, and shins. They were so tight that I could barely move, and my arms were strapped down firmly by my sides, making escape impossible.

My chin had been resting on my chest while I slept, but now I forced my head up until I could see what was going on.

“Finally,” a voice said from my left. “You drool when you sleep, you know?”

“Do not,” I answered, bending my head to one side so my neck would crack and then doing the same on the other. I was sore all over, but nothing seemed to be broken. The blood had even begun to dry around the gash in my shoulder.

Turning to Brooklyn, I saw that she was in the same situation that I was. Suspended in the air by unseen chains, unable to move.

“How's it hanging?” I asked, cracking a joke, because we both could use it.

She rolled her eyes at me and then laughed. Then her face grew more serious. “I've tried casting to break free, but I can't even move my fingers. And my magic won't work without it.”

I nodded, knowing what she meant. I'd already tried moving my hands to no avail, too. Twisting my head to the right, I noticed for the first time that we weren't the only ones shackled to the wall. Eve was there, too. So were the rest of the Cleri and the other campers. Everyone was lined up in a row, like human-size decorations hanging on the wall. Most were still out cold, but a few had begun to stir and appeared to be just as confused as we were to be held in place.

So who, then, had put us there? Things were getting weirder, and weirder, and panic was beginning to grow in my chest.

The time had come to take drastic measures.

“Look, Brooklyn, I know we're not really friends . . . ,” I started.

“That's the understatement of the century,” she responded.

“But . . . ,” I said, continuing. “I think we're gonna have to work together to get out of this.”

I tipped my head toward the invisible chains.

Brooklyn sighed and let the back of her head rest against the wall as she took in what I was proposing. “Fine. But it doesn't mean we're friends now.”

“Of course not,” I said.

“And I still don't really like you,” she said.

“The feeling's mutual.”

“And I reserve the right to go back to ignoring you after we get out of this.”

“Okay, I get it. We're
frenemies
. Can we move on now please? Maybe get the hell out of here?”

She gave me a tiny nod.

“Okay, any chance you saw who did this?” I asked Brooklyn, hopefully.

“Nope. Woke up a few minutes before you did,” she answered. Her hair was a bit messed up and there was a goose egg growing on her forehead, but for someone who'd just been knocked around by her former best-friend-turned-psycho-witch after nearly completing a full obstacle course, she looked pretty darn good.

Bitch
.

“In fact, I don't remember anything after trying to get Eve away from you—you're welcome by the way,” she continued. Then her forehead wrinkled up in confusion. “What are they doing here?”

I looked over at the others, who, for the most part, were all awake by now, murmuring and groaning and probably wondering the same thing.

“Eve brought them here hoping they'd turn all angry mob on us,” I said, trying not to hold it against any of them.

“Well, it looks like it sort of worked,” Brooklyn said, sounding calm, but her face giving her away. She was just as freaked to be here as I was. She was also just as
proud
, and her ego wouldn't allow her to reveal just how scared she was. To me or to anybody else.

“Not totally,” I said. “Whoever did this got Eve, too. So, at least there's that.”

“Does that mean we're looking for someone even crazier then her?” Colette chimed in.

I hadn't even noticed her on the other side of Brooklyn, but there she was, awake and alert, her lips zipper-free. Considering the circumstances, I was really happy to see her.

“I don't think I can take any more surprises,” Colette added.

“Surprises, surprises. Oh what fun!” a high-pitched voice said from somewhere in the room. “Let's look in my purse and find us one.”

To our horror, a girl bound out from the shadows and scurried over to us unnaturally.

Almost right away, I knew she wasn't one of the girls at camp. First off, she was wearing a white nightgown that just skimmed her ankles. The style was plain and the fabric cheap and scratchy, resembling a burlap sack. There were stains along the bottom and muddy prints on the front of her frock, like she'd wiped her hands off on it dozens of times.

Her voice sounded incredibly young, but when she finally got close enough, I could see that she was actually around our age. Her hair rose up like a wild rosebush around her face, leaving shadows in places so it was difficult to make out her features.

What I
could
tell was that she was skittish. Even when she peered up at me, her eyes flitted from side to side like at any moment she expected to be attacked. She moved around erratically, talking mostly to herself and not making much sense.

Great. So we'd traded in one crazy for another.

“Who are you?” I asked her as she grabbed at my clothes and studied me from different angles.

“Oh yes, yes. I had a name once long ago,” she said, rushing down the line of girls along the wall. “But they took it away and now nobody knows.”

“Who's
this
crackpot?” Eve asked, apparently awake.

“Well isn't that the teapot calling the kettle crazy,” I said, watching the stranger make her way back to us. Once she'd ended up in front of me again, I asked gently, “What do you
want
us to call you?”

“Call me the forest or a pretty set of pearls. Call me the justice for all forgotten girls.” Then she giggled uncontrollably.