Chapter 25 #2
“What? Are you going to beat me? Use your hypnosis on me?” she said with a savage smile, revealing glistening, crooked teeth.
“By all means, go ahead! You’ll only speed up the inevitable.
Another witch, gone mad. Just like that opera singer last winter.
Imagine two deranged witches in prison. Maybe that’ll be enough to convince King Maximus that letting your kind back into the kingdom was an idiotic idea after all. ”
Anger coursed through me, hot and intense and threatening to explode. I pushed her away. “Leave! You’re not welcome here!”
Prilla Lewis straightened the sleeves of her jacket. “Gladly.”
I drew in a breath, then exhaled hard, watching her disappear into the darkness.
Prilla Lewis, a mere human, had managed to completely wreck an emissary’s experience and plunge Witch Village into darkness.
But I shouldn’t have been surprised. Humans had always ruled this kingdom, had always been in the position of power, even if they didn’t possess magic.
I didn’t know how long I stood there before pattering footsteps sounded from the path behind me.
Maddox held a witchlight lantern, bathing our surroundings in golden light. “You were gone for a while,” he said. “Nasha told us to check on you.”
“Gigi, who were you talking to?” Christabella asked from behind him. A shawl fluttered around her shoulders and she drew it tighter when she came toward me.
I looked away, clenching and unclenching my hands. “An unwelcome human,” I said bitterly. “She’s been meddling in our affairs. She caused the blackout.”
Christabella shrunk back into Maddox. He reached out to steady her.
“A human!” she exclaimed. “How did she manage to do that?”
With some difficulty, I told them everything I’d just learned in stilted words, from Prilla’s association with Mrs. Lewis, the anti-witch organization called The Crown, and finally what she had done in the village.
I could barely wrap my head around it myself.
“She’s to blame for everything,” I said in a choked voice.
“My dress shop, the blackout, this tour. All of this is her fault.”
Underneath my righteous rage was another, smaller voice.
Maybe Prilla wasn’t to blame for all of it.
Manuel and Maude had already been on the verge of giving up their roles as weather witches.
Edmund’s stay at Beatrice’s shack had probably been the worst accommodations he’d ever experienced.
I hadn’t even been alarmed by the third human rumor in the village when that should’ve caused more concern.
I should’ve done something. Should’ve looked into it.
Instead, I’d been absorbed in my own petty problems.
Maddox frowned. “This Prilla Lewis. Does she have any accomplices?”
“She must have,” I muttered. “Who knows how many people are in that organization?” I couldn’t bring myself to say The Crown. It wasn’t right. Crown Prince Bennett and Narcissa’s efforts didn’t deserve to be lumped under the same name as whatever hateful group Prilla Lewis was in.
“The news about an emissary visit hasn’t been made public yet. For her to time her infiltration so accurately, she must have high connections,” Maddox said.
Christabella shuddered. “I’m scared.”
Maddox nodded. “It’ll be fine. Go inside for now—we’ll tell everyone else a little later. Your cottage locks, I presume?”
Christabella nodded, managing a shaky smile. “We can cast jinxes too.”
We watched Chrissy slip inside. When the door shut, I turned to Maddox.
“What now?” I asked. “There are still days left in the tour. Should we go back early?”
“Maybe we should stay and investigate.” Maddox ran a hand through his hair, which had gotten loose from its tie and hung about his shoulders in roguish disarray.
“Prilla Lewis must be hiding out somewhere in the village. If we can find where she’s staying, it may lead to evidence against her, then we can report back to the crown prince.
Ideally we would arrest her...” He paused and looked at me strangely.
“Why didn’t you stop her when you had the chance? ”
My hands shook, so I hid them behind my back. “I didn’t have any means to,” I whispered.
We both knew that was a lie—my coercion magic had been itching to be used, but I hadn’t touched it. I just couldn’t. I’d gotten so used to hiding it here that it didn’t feel like an option anymore.
Maddox nodded, as if he understood. “We’ll find her eventually.” He turned, stepping toward the house. “We should check on your sister.”
“Stay away from Christabella.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was the last thing I should be thinking about now, but Chrissy’s manner toward him was the one thing I had any power to control right now.
Maddox furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“I see how you treat her and how she looks at you,” I said. “I can tell when she’s having an infatuation.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“Look, I know she’s pretty and sweet and fun to be around, but she’s too young for you—”
“I know she’s too young for me!”
“Chrissy doesn’t know what’s good for her,” I said. “And she’s engaged to Alexander, so back off.”
Maddox dragged a hand over his face, which had grown rather red. “I was not trying to flirt with her. Why would you even think that?”
“Because!” I said. It was an immature response, but I couldn’t put into words how I felt about the odd intimacy between Maddox and Christabella.
“I don’t like Christabella like that. She’s just a little sister to me.” Maddox stepped forward suddenly, so close that the toes of our shoes touched, close enough for me to count the lashes on his eyelids. Close enough to kiss.
I held my breath, my eyes wide. What in the blazing fires was he doing?
“Do you want me to prove it?” he whispered, his voice low.
No.
He angled his face closer.
Yes.
I shoved Maddox away with more force than necessary. “Don’t do something we’ll both regret.”
His brows furrowed. “You’d regret it?”
“You would.”
Maddox shook his head in disbelief, as if he hadn’t been the one to pretend our first kiss didn’t happen. For once, he didn’t argue back. He merely frowned, his brows pinched and his jaw clenched.
“We should leave early,” I said, unable to look at him. “I don’t know what Prilla Lewis plans to do with Edmund. We need to get him somewhere safe.”
“Of course,” Maddox said flatly. “Edmund de Clare always comes first.”
Before I could wonder at his tone, he was already walking away. “I’m going back down to the square,” he said without turning.
I braced my hand against the trunk of the First Oak, shaking and exhausted, watching Maddox disappear behind the incline. I wanted nothing more than to bury myself in bed and never emerge.
But the flatbread. Ma said I had to bring the flatbread.
I went to the door numbly. Just when I reached for the knob, it swung open, and Christabella stood at the threshold, her shawl wrapped tight around her shoulders.
“Where’s Maddox?” she asked.
“He went back to the square,” I said. Christabella made a move to exit, but I blocked her path. “Don’t follow him, Chrissy.”
She crossed her arms, her shoulders stiff. “Why? Is it because I don’t know what’s good for me?”
My face heated. Had she overheard everything? “Think of Alexander. You’re engaged. You shouldn’t be clinging to anyone else, even if you two are fighting.”
Christabella scoffed. “You know Gigi, just because you’re back doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do.”
“I’m just looking out for you.”
“Are you? Really?” She marched back into the parlor, her skirts flaring out behind her. “Because I seem to remember you abandoning me nine months ago.”
I followed her in. “Chrissy...I didn’t mean to abandon you. I just needed to leave Ma.”
Christabella whirled around and scrunched her nose, a tell-tale sign she was holding back tears.
“You’re so wrapped up in your dislike for Ma you never think about anyone else!
I was so angry with you,” she said in a wavering voice.
“All you left was that stupid letter. You didn’t breathe a word to me before you were gone. It was so selfish.”
My face and eyes burned. There was that descriptor Ma loved to throw at me, but I’d never thought I’d hear it from my sister. She might as well have slapped me across the face. “I thought you of all people would understand why I did it. You know how I felt in this house, Chrissy!”
“I know! I was there!”
“Then why are you calling me selfish?” I cried, unable to keep my tears from falling. I wiped them away angrily. “I did what I had to. I left because I had to. This place was suffocating me. You like it here. You have it easy—”
“Just because I’m Ma’s favorite doesn’t mean I have it easy!” Christabella screamed. “She expects so much from me, from all of us. But you were the only one who had the guts to go against her. I didn’t. I don’t.”
I stared at her, stunned. “Chrissy, I said you could come aboveground to visit me.”
Christabella shook her head vehemently. She was crying now too, despite her efforts otherwise. “The world has always been too big for me, Gigi. I’m scared of everything. I’m scared of what Ma would say if I tried to leave. I don’t have your courage. The only thing I had was you! And you just left.”
I blinked away my tears, but they kept coming. “I-I didn’t know...”
“Forget it!” She turned and ran upstairs to her room, her door slamming hard enough that I felt it in my bones.
My feet took me to the kitchen counter where a covered basket sat. I wrapped my fingers around the handle as I wiped my face and fought to control my breathing.
There was still flatbread to deliver.