Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Dafni
It was time.
My uniform was pressed and clean, my hair was as tame as I could manage, tucked behind my ears and rolling down my back.
The lights hadn’t turned on this morning when Brooke and I had woken up.
Probably another intimidation tactic by the Academy.
We’d found a few flashlights tucked deep in the drawers of the wardrobe, and they turned on after hitting them a few times on the brick wall, loosening the battery-acid corrosion inside.
She fretted about our room, popping in and out of the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. There was a knock at the door, but I had no idea who could be coming to see us.
“It’s for me!” Brooke rushed to the door. She smoothed her skirt and pinched her cheeks before opening the door.
Luke stood in the doorway, holding his own flashlight. “You guys okay?” he asked. “Something’s going on with the power.”
“We think it’s the Coven trying to scare us, what with the evaluations nearly over,” Brooke said.
He glanced up at the ceiling, a frown on his face. “That does sound like them.” He looked down at Brooke. “Are you ready?”
“This—this—what is this?” I stuttered, glancing between Brooke and Luke. Seeing the two of them together had short-circuited my brain.
“I invited Luke to sit with me to watch the task,” she said, looping her arm through Luke’s. “I wasn’t about to sit with Petunia.”
A pang of jealousy echoed in my chest. It wasn’t that Brooke was with Luke; it was that they had each other. It was what Gideon and I had once had.
I pushed that emotion away. That feeling wouldn’t help me today.
“I know you and Gideon aren’t getting along right now,” Brooke said, “but don’t let that distract you from the task. You’re a powerful witch, Dafni. Show the Academy what you’re made of.”
I couldn’t do anything but nod. It was time that I showed everyone what I could do. Even if Gideon didn’t pick me—I could show them the power I had.
“We have to go,” Brooke said, pulling Luke along with her. “Good luck! We’ll be rooting for you!”
I paced our room like a caged animal—waiting for Arcana to come and collect each of us from our rooms.
This was my chance to differentiate myself from the rest of the witches here.
I didn’t have to be Gideon’s choice—I could be the witches’ choice.
The Coven needed a new leader, and I could be that.
Everyone here was a victim of my mother’s tyranny, yet no one questioned her.
She’d been here unchecked for years, and everyone was so far under her spell that they no longer questioned anything.
It was time to create some doubt, some hesitation inside the Coven.
The witches living here should be suspicious of everything.
I could be the one to question the Coven’s leadership.
Gideon had told me what the task would be. Rage. I could create it—I already felt it bubbling in my blood, and I’d felt it bubbling off the witches here at the Academy during the last task. They were waiting for that spark that would ignite a rebellion.
My pacing was interrupted by a fist pounding on the door.
I opened it to find a line of witches standing behind the instructor who’d knocked.
I joined the end of the line, walking by the water magics, each holding their own flashlight.
Everyone walked down the two flights of stairs together, through the Academy to the cavern.
It was silent, no one speaking as we walked into the unknown.
The cavern was loud when we entered. Lanterns with billowing flames lined the walls, illuminating the space.
The sand had been removed, and the floors were once again dirt.
On the far end of the cavern, near the wall Brooke had tried to climb through, were long tables with burners on top.
There looked to be enough for each of us to have our own.
The witches on the bleachers were buzzing with excitement, their voices vibrating off the ceiling and walls.
I scanned the rows, looking for Brooke. She raised her hand, waving back and forth as soon as we made eye contact.
The line stopped moving, and I ran into the witch in front of me.
She turned around and hissed. I took a small step back.
The line disintegrated as we huddled into a group facing the stage. Robinson was standing there, scowling down at me. What did I do to him?
I looked back toward the chair Gideon usually occupied. It was empty. Where is he?
Robinson droned on and on, standing on the stage in front of the witches of the Academy and the members of the Coven who’d shown up for the final task.
They were getting restless, as was the crowd.
The whispers between witches became louder than Robinson’s voice on stage.
My feet were getting sore from standing, the room becoming stuffy with so many bodies.
A gust of wind rushed through the cavern. There were no windows, nowhere for the wind to be coming from except…
The flames blew out. The cavern plunged into darkness.
A gasp echoed throughout the cavern, now suddenly quiet with the lack of light.
The witches quickly became a mess of whispers and wheezes and some screams. No one could see anything as we shifted back and forth, our balance thrown off from our lack of sight, bumping into witches and stepping on their boots.
How long would they leave us in the dark?
Robinson yelled from the stage, asking everyone to “wait just a moment.”
It seemed the witches either weren’t listening or didn’t care because the panic continued to escalate.
The group of witches on the floor acted like waves, falling into one another, taking down the witch next to them, one after another.
I grabbed onto anything I could to make sure I didn’t fall to the ground.
It was hard to know how much time had passed. The adrenaline pumping around us made time seem to pass both slower and faster at the same time. I tried counting at first but lost track every time someone bumped into me or cried out.
“Robinson, light them up.” A familiar voice radiated through the arena, many of the witches gasping for a breath along with me when they’d heard it.
Heard her.
One by one, Robinson used his magic to relight the lanterns along the circular arena, returning the space to that spooky glow.
Everyone righted themselves, adjusting their dresses and hair now that they could see.
I’d somehow ended up in the back of the group, nearest to the bleachers and the door we’d entered.
“Welcome! I’m so glad to be back!” That voice. The one I’d heard in my dreams. The one that I’d dreaded hearing as a young girl at my grandmother’s cottage.
She was here.
The witches on the bleachers were a mix of screams and cheers. I looked into the crowd, finding some of the witches standing, clapping, and yelling in support while others had sunk down in their seats, a look of fear on their faces.
“Dafni!” The loud, pointed yell behind me had me turning around, searching the crowd for the source. My eyes zeroed in on light-red hair—Annabel, standing at the cavern’s entrance. What was she doing here?
She had Emily’s hand in hers, both of their eyes wide. Emily stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of green plaid in the room, standing there in her off-white, knee-length dress. I left the group and ran over to them.
“The freezer!” Annabel gulped in several shallow breaths. “The power went out at the trailer…” She took a few more breaths. “The electricity was out—it thawed!”
Annabel pointed a shaking finger to where Matilda was standing on the stage in front of me.
“I took the pail out of the freezer for just a bit, early this morning. We had vegetables from the garden, and I was organizing them in the freezer. I didn’t leave it out of the cold for too long.
” She grabbed ahold of my arms. “But I didn’t know the electricity was out.
” Her eyes were quivered as she spoke. “I closed the door, and it never got cold. I should’ve realized that the lights weren’t working, but I went right back outside to the garden.
” Her hand squeezed my arms again. “It’s all my fault. ”
“It’s not your fault.” I rubbed Annabel’s arms up and down, trying to soothe her. “I’m not afraid of her—not anymore.”
“Sister!” Her voice rose from the chatter, everyone surrounding the stage turning around to look at who she was addressing. Everyone’s eyes rested on Annabel. Although there was no spotlight, everyone’s eyes felt like one, Annabel’s eyes blinking as everyone stared.
Sister?
“I’m so glad you could join us!” Matilda stood on the stage. I finally got a good look at her. Dripping wet, her red hair pressed to the sides of her head, her curls flat.
Annabel shrank, although she tried to stand tall in front of Matilda.
“You’re not supposed to be here.” My mother clicked her tongue.
Annabel opened her mouth to speak, but Matilda interrupted her. “I see one of your sniveling offspring, but where is the other?” She scanned the crowd gathered around her.
A gasp waved through the crowd as everyone looked among themselves.
“I’m here.” Luke’s baritone voice vibrated through the crowd.
The witches moved, making way for him to come down from the bleachers, joining his mother and sister on the floor. Brooke followed him down, sticking close to his side.
I suddenly realized what this meant. If Annabel was my mother’s sister…
I took a step back. She was my aunt. Luke and Emily were my cousins.
“I’ll deal with you later, my dearest Dafni…” My mother’s voice rang in my ear as I backed away slowly. This was all too much.
“They’re sweet, but do we need your cousins, really?” Matilda pointed her index and middle fingers toward Luke and Emily.
Emily’s mouth quivered while Luke held his lips together tightly.
“You’ve gotten so close to them over the past year.” Matilda turned back to face me. “You forgot about me. Dafni, dear, I heard everything.”
“Don’t do it, Matilda!” Annabel’s voice was quiet, although her words resounded throughout the room.
Matilda turned, her face full of anger and spite. “You have broken our agreement, sister. You’re not in your trailer, and neither are your children. You know how dangerous that is.”
The witches surrounding Luke and Emily backed away slowly, leaving them out in the open, easy pickings for Matilda.
“I can’t have them here, among the Coven. They’re too much of a danger—”
“Matilda!” Annabel’s voice was louder, her arms and fists shaking as she spoke. “They pose no danger to you or your Coven.”
“They’ve been a danger since the day you conceived them with that dog, and they’ll be a danger until they’re dead in the ground.”
“I’ll take them back—right now.” Annabel grabbed ahold of Luke and Emily and pulled them back through the crowd and toward the door.
Emily’s eyes met mine, full of fear and confusion, before they bobbled around the cavern.
Brooke let go of Luke’s hand she’d been holding, their fingers sweeping against each other’s as he pulled away.
“Too late for that, sister. You didn’t think there’d be consequences for keeping me trapped for the past year?”
A hushed murmur went through the crowd, bodies moving out of the way of Annabel as she dragged her children through the multitudes of witches.
“Maybe I should make your heart just as cold as my body has been.” She was quick, the way she flicked her two fingers at Luke and Emily as they tripped through the crowd, following their mother.
But I was quicker.
Matilda had forgotten that I had known her my entire life, that her own mother had been the one to raise me.
She didn’t get to take away the people who had saved me after she’d left me in the woods to die.
The people who’d fed me what little food they had and taken the time to nurse me back to health.
The people who’d supported me on my mission to take the Coven away from her.
She’d killed my grandmother, and there was no way she was going to take anyone else from me.
Something burned down my arm, starting in my chest, blazing its way from my shoulder, down my arm and through my fingers—through the two fingers pointed directly at my mother.
Rage.
It was anger bubbling up in my blood, forcing its way out of me.
Flames shot out of my fingers, the crowd of witches diving out of the way.
My throat felt raw as my voice box vibrated, a scream climbing up my throat and out of my mouth.
She didn’t get to take this from me—the family I’d found. That was mine.
The smell of burnt hair met my nose before the smoke cleared, and I took several steps back, turning my hand to look back at my fingers. They were uninjured. There was no black char, and the skin wasn’t even red.
The cavern was silent. Not even the sound of breathing met my ears. Everyone froze in place, staring at me, their eyes wide and their mouths open even wider.
I’d just created fire magic. I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that.