Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Gideon
This suit was tight in all the wrong places.
The tie squeezed my neck, making it hard to breathe—as if I wasn’t already suffocating enough.
This was the day I’d been dreading since Robinson began preparing me for it—the day I’d be forced to choose a partner.
It was early, everyone else was still sleeping, but I couldn’t stay in my room, not after what happened between Dafni and me.
Of all the witches at the Academy, of course I’d be attracted to a Sarracenia.
It was natural selection or some of that Darwinian crap Robinson had made me read during our meetings.
Dafni was the strongest witch at the Academy, and I was the youngest male.
How had I not seen it? The way she knew so many potions even though she’d claimed to be human-born.
That’d all been a lie. She’d obviously been trained her whole life to be Prime, a leader, the strongest witch in the Coven.
I’d found another word—a Latin word—on the wall in one of the mostly abandoned hallways I’d been casually pacing as I waited for the water task to begin. It was a short word, only three letters: I-R-A. Too bad I’d pushed Dafni away and she wasn’t here to translate it for me.
Finding out she was Matilda’s daughter had shocked me, and I hadn’t reacted well.
The Sarracenias’ lineage was legendary and intimidating.
Their family produced witches with at least two powers.
I knew Matilda. She’d kept an eye on me growing up at the Academy.
She’d been frightening, flexing her multiple powers, snuffing out lanterns with her air magic and making students’ potions boil over with her water magic during class for her own amusement.
The worst was when she’d used her earth magic, causing a student’s body parts to grow or a vine to come up from the earth, wrapping around their ankles, leaving them in tears and with red welts on their skin.
She’d made sure everyone at the Academy knew who she was.
That was how she kept her place as Prime—by threatening everyone with her powers.
Still, I couldn’t get Dafni out of my head. The way she’d looked at me after I’d told her to leave. The sadness that’d come over her face, only to be replaced with anger.
I’d put on this terrible suit that the Coven was making me wear and come out here to pace, to work through my thoughts.
Finding another word etched into the brick had only reminded me of her, brought back those feelings I’d had when she’d first read what was on my papers.
I was in awe of Dafni. Her power, her naivety, her need to help others.
I’d pushed her away. With every scratch of the chalk on the paper, I realized I needed to get her back.
“It’s almost time.” His voice interrupted the back-and-forth movement of my chalk.
I quickly rubbed on the last half of the A before shoving the paper and chalk into my pocket.
“Let’s have a chat while it’s still quiet, before the excitement of the upcoming evaluation begins.”
Excitement? I could argue he might be the only one excited about today.
I followed Robinson down the hall outside the Academy and into the Coven. It was noticeably quieter in the Coven. It didn’t have the same buzz of excitement as the Academy did.
Robinson held open the door to his room and followed me inside, latching the door behind him. “Have you given any thought to what we’d talked about?” He motioned to a chair with pilled gray fabric covering the seat.
“I’ve thought about it,” I said.
“It’s good, Gideon. It’ll strengthen the bloodline to have new genes introduced. Maybe she’ll give birth to another male witch.”
I rubbed my palms on my black pants.
Robinson stood and began pacing in front of me, rubbing his chin with his hand. His word choice always felt wrong, too sanitary. Like we were talking about animals instead of witches, people. “Tonight you’ll make Petunia the happiest witch in the Academy.”
“And what if I didn’t choose tonight?” I didn’t know where I stood with Dafni, and there was no way I was picking Petunia.
Robinson’s silence spoke volumes before he even opened his mouth. “You will choose, Gideon. You will choose Petunia Fox.” He grabbed ahold of his remote, turning on the televisions. “Are you having cold feet?”
I shook my head. Not my feet. My heart. It’d only felt warm when I’d been with Dafni. There wasn’t another witch who’d make me feel that way—I was sure of it.
“Don’t tell me another witch has caught your eye.”
I stared at Robinson.
“If you don’t pick Petunia, I’ll make sure Matilda knows you didn’t listen to me. She won’t be happy with your defiance.”
There it was again. The pressure, my life being planned for me—right in front of me.
Expectations. The complete loss of control.
Beads of sweat popped up along my hairline.
I wiped them with my hand, pulling them into my hairline as I ran my fingers through my hair.
I couldn’t let Robinson see me sweat. He’d take advantage of my nerves, see them as a weakness he needed to correct.
Robinson used his thumb and index finger to smooth his mustache as he looked at me. “She’ll find out who you pick.”
Is Matilda back? A cold sweat broke out on my upper lip.
“She’s not here yet, but Matilda will be here. We’ve been planning for this for years—since you were born.”
Would Matilda know that less than a day ago I’d had my fingers between her daughter’s legs?
That her daughter had made me come through my briefs?
Maybe that was some witchcraft she’d been taught.
It had to have been. No other witch had made me stoop to that level.
Coming in my briefs. Get a grip, Gideon.
“Here…” Robinson pointed the remote at the TV, his thumb pressing buttons, the screen illuminating with a familiar scene.
The outside of my room.
“I saw this a few days ago…” He pressed play, and a recording of Petunia leaving my room, a smile on her face, appeared on the screen.
She’d stopped for a moment, wiping the back of her hand across her lips.
It looked suspicious, her leaving my room, wiping her mouth—like we’d been kissing…
or worse. “I’ll gladly show Dafni this if you end up picking her to be your partner.
I’m sure she won’t last long beside you when she sees that you’ve been playing the field. ”
Something deep inside me snapped. I felt it break. The facade I’d tried to maintain, the way I’d been obedient all these years for the Coven.
“Keep her name out of your mouth!”
It felt like I was watching myself from the camera in the corner—watching myself hit the remote out of his hand, the device skittering across the floor, breaking into several pieces.
The video paused, static lines running through the picture.
The other TVs in the room continued to play recordings from around the Academy.
“Gideon!” Robinson bent down to gather the broken pieces of the remote. “We are supposed to be brothers! We’re the two male witches—the only two. I’m showing you the way!”
“The disgusting, depraved, wrong way,” I spat, spit flying from my mouth and landing with the broken pieces of the remote on the floor.
There could be no more of this. No more of his secret recordings.
They needed to be gone, disappear forever.
Dafni could never see this. She’d never take me back—our trust had been broken by me just hours ago, and this video would be the final nail in the coffin.
I looked back up at one of the screens, narrowing my eyes as I saw her.
The recording of her running back to her room after I’d kicked her out of mine.
Those red curls caught my eye. I remembered the way they bounced, the way they’d curled just right around my finger the first time I’d felt them in my hands—that time we’d wound up in the closet together, with all the cords, brooms, and electrical boxes mounted to the wall.
“Gideon!” Robinson’s voice was quiet—far away by the time I’d heard it, already outside his room and through the door that led back to the Academy. Back to that closet. The one I’d got entangled in with her.
I had to be quick before Robinson caught me on the camera and saw where I was going.
The door to the closet wasn’t locked. Idiots. There were enough wires in here to take down the whole Academy. Perfect.
The amount of flashing lights and cords running in and out of the room made my fingers tingle.
There were even boxes mounted to the wall that had stickers with Memory written on them.
Those were my first victims. I grabbed on to them, tearing them from the wall, smashing them over my thigh before throwing them to the ground.
When they hit the concrete, a deep chuckle rose from my chest. Fuck Robinson, fuck the Academy.
It was therapeutic, the anger flowing through my arms from my chest, down through my fingers, releasing in the crash of metal and plastic on the floor.
They’d kept me here for so long. For so long. Keeping an eye on me—on all of us with the cameras they’d mounted. That was over. It was over. There’d be no more evidence—not of me or of Dafni or anyone.
The walls were empty, the electrical boxes gone. My muscles screamed at me as I looked at the mess of wires hanging and, in some places, knotted together. There was a thick black wire, one that was still plugged in to an outlet next to the floor.
That had to be the main power line. It had to be the electricity the Academy needed to sustain their operations. I grabbed on to the wire, the power that fortified the Coven buzzing beneath my hand. One yank, a pull, and everything would go dark. The evaluation would be ruined.
I yanked.
Sparks flew around my hand, singeing the hair on my wrist and upper arm. I reveled in the sting, in the smell of burnt hair. It was the smell of freedom.
The silence was loud. I heard nothing for the longest time. Just the beat of my heart in my ears. I sat on the floor in the dark breathing and shaking, trying to catch my breath from all the adrenaline flowing through my veins.
I didn’t know how long I sat there until I fully realized what I’d done. The opportunity I’d just created for myself. It was a dream. I was free.