“You’ll thank me,” the witch promised. “And I believe you’ll join this coven. Don’t you understand? You belong with your own kind. Not a vampire and his creatures. They aren’t like us.” She gripped my chin in her hand as I shook with rage. “Calm down, dear. Is there really cause to get this upset over them?” Her eyes swam with misplaced pity.
“You don’t understand–you don’t know them!” I argued. “If you do this, I will never forgive you. I will never forget it.”
“This is a very severe overreaction for their wellbeing,” the grey-haired woman observed. “You’ve known them less than two weeks; anything you think you feel for them is transient, at best. You’ll forget them, when you open yourself up to those in the coven.”
Was she suggesting I replace them with witches? Did she think they were interchangeable? The thought made me burn with rage.
“You can’t keep me here for a week,” I promised. “I will find a way out. My magic won’t stay bound that long, and as long as I can fight, I will.”
“You’ve overlooked something important, it seems,” the witch said. “You won’t be awake for any of this.”
My eyes widened and my heart stuttered. “Wh..what?”
“I will put you to sleep, and in a week or so, I will wake you up. You will be free to leave.”
“No.”
“You don’t have much of a choice,” the witch pointed out, swiping something from a jar across my forehead. It tingled sharply, and I tried to pull out of her grip.
The other witch was suddenly behind me, hands on my face. She grabbed my chin as Colette took a vial from her that she held in front of my lips.
“Don’t make this harder,” she said, her words too kind for her actions.
I clamped my mouth shut, teeth pressed together, and shook my head from side to side in an attempt to get the witch to let go.
Instead, she pinched my nose shut, still gripping my chin.
I fought her, unwilling to open my mouth even as black spots danced in front of my eyes. I would not let them do this. Panic made my heart race and my lungs screamed for oxygen.
The witch’s fingers dug into my jaws and I screamed in my throat, protests weakening.
Finally, it was too much. My body’s need for oxygen won out and my mouth opened in a gasp. The witch was quick, her hand keeping my mouth open and head tilted back as Colette poured the liquid over my tongue.
Immediately I was trying to heave, shaking my head again even as the woman behind me clamped a hand over my nose and mouth, pulling me upright so I couldn’t thrash.
“Swallow,” she ordered.
I shook my head. She didn’t let go, predictably, and tears streamed down my face as finally I was forced to swallow Colette’s potion.
“I won’t let you,“ I panted through clenched teeth as the witch untied my hands and Colette sympathetically wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“It’s out of your hands now,” the coven leader said kindly. “Just let fate run its course, my dear. Everything will work out.
Her words slurred together and her shape blurred. My head spun harder and harder as I tried to stay awake, whispering my own promises.
I won’t let you. I’ll never forgive you.
I won’t let you hurt them.
Chapter 24
Dreams overtook me immediately.
Blurred-at-the-edges memories, at first. Akiva’s smile, Indra’s touch. Then, Cian’s kisses against my throat. Merric’s grin and Yuna’s light touch on my arm.
Aveline came next, memories of the past few days mixing with those from our childhood.
“Pick a card,” her tongue poked out from her lips as she spoke, holding the tarot cards in a spread. The Aveline in my dream looked twenty-four, but this had happened when we were only seven or eight.
I gazed at her, eyes wide. “That’s not how it works, Avi.”
But my cousin only grinned. “Just pick. It’ll work.”
So I did. Just as I remembered I had back then.
As a child, when this had happened, I had picked the Four of Cups. Aveline had grabbed our ‘tarot for beginners’ book and immediately read the definition out loud to me while I giggled.
Now, the card in my hand was the Ten of Swords. An omen of misfortune.
I looked up, but Aveline was gone.
I sat in Cian’s house, on the floor in front of his sofa. Cards were spread around the floor at my knees, though my fingers still gripped the Ten of Swords.
“Cian?” I called, getting slowly to my feet. “Akiva? Indra?” I stepped over the cards, barefoot, and walked along the hardwood.
The kitchen was empty, and the door on the other side was locked. I turned, figuring I’d find them upstairs.
Indra stood in the doorway, clenching his stomach around a wound that bled sluggishly.
“What are you doing here?” the hellhound whispered.
My heart raced. I dropped the tarot card and sprinted forward, hands going to his. “Don’t talk!” I gasped. “Let me help you-“
“Help us?” he drew back, pushing me away as he did. “You abandoned us. You chose the witches, and now Cian is dead because of you.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t…I wouldn’t-“
“I thought you cared.” His eyes were wide and he continued to back up, scattering tarot cards as he did.
“I do-“ the moment I stepped forward, he was gone.
Everything was gone.
Now I was in Aveline’s house, standing in front of the television. Some dumb reality show played, though when I turned, I found that no one was here to watch it.
“Come join us, George!” Aveline beckoned from the table.
“Us?” I walked towards them, confused, and saw our kitchen table jam packed with people in masks and hoods. “Aveline, what the hell?”
She smiled at me, tears running down her face. Her wrists were wrapped in thin, glimmering chains and one of the figures beside her held the line connected to them.
She held tarot cards in
