Chapter 1
WATCHER
I don’t have a name to most, but I do have a purpose: Protect the world from witches.
Some would call me an angel, but I am known as a Watcher.
I’ve lived my entire life on the fringes of society, raised to do one thing and one thing only. Watch over a family of witches and ensure that if they ever do regain their powers, stop them by any means necessary. I don’t know who cursed them, or why they lost their powers, but I do know they are dangerous.
All witches are.
The trouble is when you watch someone for so long learning their weaknesses, you also learn their strengths.
Their values.
Their souls.
Winifred Weaver is fearless — and I don’t stereotypically mean this. She will hide from spiders, squealing as she jumps atop a table, but she will also pull you into a fierce hug if she sees you crying. Even if everyone hates you. Even if you’re crying because you were wrong and did something bad.
When I noticed she continued to possess her powers after her thirteenth birthday, I was anxious. I couldn’t kill Winifred, but if I didn’t, my leaders would. I would be punished, too. I had decided on her fourteenth birthday that if her powers didn’t fade, I would have no choice but to do it.
Thankfully, Fate — or whatever curse that plagued her family — intervened.
It’s been 11 years since that day. In all that time, I’ve never stopped watching her.