Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Dafni
Luke’s plan was risky. That was what Annabel called it when he’d finished explaining.
“The human-born witches are arriving to the Academy tomorrow,” Luke said.
“Tomorrow? Already?” She stumbled over her words. “I thought we’d have at least a full day or two to prepare…” She looked at me. “To say goodbye.”
Luke ran his hand over his face. “The only information I get from the Academy is what I can overhear. Luckily, I heard about the human-born arrival as I was leaving today.” He looked at the clock on the kitchen counter. “Well, yesterday.”
“So, we have less than a day.” Annabel took a sip of her potion.
“The truck’s arrival is happening today.
Those girls are in the truck right now, probably scared out of their minds.
Those lying witches at the Coven promised their parents that they’d receive intensive college prep courses…
” She looked down at her lap, the bottom lids of her eyes keeping the tears that welled up there from falling.
“And the only thing they’ll get at the Academy is forgotten. ”
Luke reached out, putting his hand over the top of hers. “There’s nothing you can do right now, Mom. I know you’re staying quiet to protect Emily and me.”
It took a moment before Annabel gave a slight shake with her head. “Still…I should be doing something. Every year they trick more witches into coming, and what they go through down there…” Her hand tensed beneath Luke’s.
“You can’t do anything, Mom,” he said. “I know you want to, but Emily is still so young. We can’t give them any reason to lash out, to make our lives more difficult.”
“I know.” Annabel shook her head, looking down at where their hands still touched.
A wave of jealously, or maybe just longing, rushed through me. What would it have been like to have a mother like Annabel, a brother like Luke—someone to protect me?
“We’re going to have to make this work somehow.” Luke tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “If I’d overheard about the freshening earlier, we could’ve forged a registration…I could’ve slipped her information in with the rest of the human-born witch’s paperwork.”
“But that’s no longer an option,” Annabel said.
“If”—Luke talked louder, the words tumbling out of his mouth faster—“we can intercept the transport, Dafni can sneak in the back of the truck with them.” He paused, looking over at me.
“They’ll have a set number of witches in the truck.
The Academy hires outside contractors for transportation, and the Academy will be counting the girls as they arrive to make sure everyone’s accounted for. ”
I nodded.
“You’re going to have to push one of the witches out of the truck,” Luke said.
My head snapped back. “I’m not going to push someone…”
“If you don’t, there’s going to be one too many witches when you get dropped at the Academy. There’ll be questions.”
Luke was right; there had to be one less witch in the truck so I could join. I looked down at my lap, at my small hands. I’d gained strength and muscle since I’d arrived, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to push another witch my size.
“The girls will probably be so scared.” Annabel looked down at her cup. “I know it’s not in your nature to hurt, but you shouldn’t have to push hard. She’ll likely land on her feet.”
“What will happen once they’re out of the truck?” I asked, remembering my time spent alone in the woods, how it’d almost killed me—how it would’ve killed me if Luke hadn’t found me.
“I’ll be there,” Luke said. “I’ll grab her as soon as the truck pulls away and bring her into town. There, she can make some phone calls and hopefully be reunited with her family.”
“Before the Coven’s disremember potion takes full effect…” Annabel mumbled.
I tilted my head, looking at Annabel.
She sighed. “When the scouts pick up the witches, they administer a disremember potion to their families. It’s slow acting—they don’t forget their daughters all at once.
The first couple of days they might forget where their daughter is for a moment before remembering, laughing the forgetfulness off.
A week later, they’ll be pausing as they walk by their daughter’s room, trying to remember whose stuff is inside.
Two weeks later, they’ll be packing up their daughter’s things, driving them to a donation center… and then they’re just…forgotten.”
That was terrible. No wonder Annabel had started tearing up as she talked about the girls in the back of the truck. She was probably imagining Emily being taken from her, then someone coming and taking all her memories of Emily away too.
Annabel waved her hand in front of her face, composing herself.
“If we’re quick enough, we can get the girl back to her family before any of that happens.
The potion’s effects are negated if the person who was supposed to be forgotten is around.
” She cleared her throat. “It’s worth the risk to get you in, hopefully unnoticed. ”
They were right. This was the kindest way to lessen the number of the witches in the truck so I could join.
“Right. She’d be one of the new witches. They’re just as inexperienced as she is.”
I shot daggers with my eyes at Luke, and he tilted his head at me in apology.
“You’re an inexperienced witch, Dafni,” Annabel said, standing. “There’s no way around it. You need more training.”
I opened my mouth to argue. I was training outside with clouds and dew—at the stove, making potions with her.
She lowered her eyes as if she read my mind. “Actual training.”
I sighed, leaning back in my seat.
“If you want to be Prime, you need to learn to act like a witch. Down in the Academy, they’re cutthroat and vicious.” Annabel paused, looking at me, her eyes softening. “You are none of those things.”
I looked down at the off-white shirt I was wearing. It was simple—how my grandmother had raised me.
This was all happening quickly…much quicker than I thought it would.
I thought I’d have time to prepare myself at least mentally for entering the Academy.
I didn’t know how to act like a witch, like my mother had.
She’d cared for only herself and her position at the Coven.
That wasn’t who I wanted to be. I slumped back in my seat.
I didn’t want to turn out like her. Would I have to be like her, act like her, in the Academy? I didn’t know if I could do that.
“You can do it, Dafni.” Annabel returned to the table, her palms resting on the tabletop.
I swore she could read my thoughts sometimes.
“I’ve been watching you this past year…I’ve seen how much you’ve grown.
We didn’t think everything would happen so quickly, so soon, but maybe this is for the best. Sometimes the less time we have to think, the less we can overthink. ”
I raised my head to look at her.
“No matter what anyone says, this is your birthright.” Her voice lowered. “Play the part. Play the game. Get what you came for.”
I nodded. I could do this. Prime was mine. It’d always been mine. Yet my grandmother had raised me to be kind, virtuous—everything a witch wasn’t. She’d known that one day, I’d be Prime, yet she’d taught me differently.
So different from my mother, who had been a mean and cruel Prime. But it had cost her. I looked down at my lap. I knew the cost. It was me. She’d forfeited a relationship with her daughter to be the Prime. And where was she now? Trapped in the freezer of an employee of her own Academy.
I wouldn’t follow in her footsteps. I wouldn’t make my mother’s mistakes. I would have to make my own set of footsteps—parallel to hers, but a different trail.
“Okay.” It was the only thing I could say that wouldn’t upset my stomach further.
Emily brought me the thread-worn green plaid dress I’d arrived in. After wearing the clothes the Velkans had provided me with for the past year, the material felt rough against my skin. The dress fit tighter around my body too—I’d grown stronger living here.
I stood in the kitchen wearing the dress and shoes I’d shown up in almost a year ago. The shoes’ soles were thin, and the material above my toes threadlike. How had I walked for days in these?
Annabel fretted over every aspect of my appearance, wanting me to look the part of a human-born witch taken from her family and thrown into a truck.
“They pick up the girls in fancy black town cars to keep up appearances…to keep the parents believing their daughters are headed to a fancy college prep school.” She smeared a bit of mud on my face, rubbing it into my skin.
“Once they’re far enough away, a cargo truck intercepts the town car, and the girls are thrown into the back of the truck after being injected with a tonic to suppress their magic.
The ones who’ve already learned some about using their magic fight back for a bit before the injection takes effect.
” She nodded down to the mud still on her fingers.
“Why throw them in a truck together? Why suppress their magic?” I asked.
Annabel ran her muddy fingers through my hair until it looked like I’d rolled down a hill.
“So they can’t fight. So they feel helpless.
The Coven wants complete submission from their witches, and this is the first step in getting it.
” She took a step back, placing her hands on my shoulders.
“Just pretend you recently left your family. You don’t know where you’re going and you’re completely disoriented.
” Annabel waited for my response before she tilted her head to the side.
“Oh dear, you probably already know what that feels like.”
She looked at the freezer before looking back at me.
I was leaving my mother here, with the Velkans.
I trusted them, but it still made me nervous to leave her.
They didn’t have water magic like me—they couldn’t refreeze her with a flick of their fingers like I could.
If Mother got a single paw loose from the ice, she could use her magic.