Page 77 of The Coven

“A lot of things do,” he agreed, his words a soft caress despite the pain they brought me. “But never you, Witchling. You’re the key to everything. You’re exactly what I’ve been waiting for all these years.”

He touched the flat of his palm to the bones where they touched my chest. The edges sharpened by time pressed into my skin, drawing blood as they scraped me.

“Willow!” George protested, taking a single step toward me.

He froze in place, and Gray raised his other hand to face his palm toward the half of the Covenant. George fell to his knees beneath the weight of the pure, dark power Gray sent toward him.

“Only a Hecate can Unmake a Vessel, and only a child of Charlotte can end the corruption of the Covenant she trusted her people with,” Gray said, flinging his hand toward George.

The skeletal figure flew into the wall at his back, his bones clattering against the stone and remaining pinned there even after Gray released me.

“You touched my magic,” I whispered, raising a hand to touch the bones.

It was unheard of for anyone to be able to channel what wasn’t in their blood, leaving me to sputter as Gray found the center of the circle in the Tribunal. But my magic was in my blood—the same blood that filled his Vessel. He lifted a hatch in the tile, shoving the floor out of the way to reveal something beneath it.

“Where did you think Charlottegother magic?” he asked, squatting down to examine the mirror on the ground. It reflected the ceiling, curving in a circle with the head of a woman at the top. I recognized her immediately.

From the paperweight I’d thrown at Gray.

“What is that?” I asked, staring at the mirror and trying to decide my next move. I had the distinct impression running was in my best interest but knew I wouldn’t get far until there was something to distract Gray.

The Vessel Gray had sent to get Susannah came scurrying into the room, dragging the brittle, broken bones of the other half of the Covenant behind him. She groaned and whimpered, her skeletal form slowly working to repair itself.

I had a feeling she’d been better off buried alive.

I swallowed, stepping toward her. Gray’s hand grabbed my wrist, standing smoothly as he held my gaze. I watched from the corner of my eye as he used the darkness, twisting it into a mass of knots and using it to tie Susannah’s bones back together. He flung her toward the wall beside George, suspending her from the ceiling as the Vessel who’d brought her dropped two items onto the floor next to the mirror.

I stared at them, my heart beating wildly as I tried to determine what they were. Tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

A heart.

The deep bluish-purple flesh should have been rotted by now if it was what I suspected. I gagged, horror dawning along with my realization. The piece of flesh beside it was less identifiable, but I couldn’t stop my hand from trembling where Gray held me.

“It’s a liver,” he said, answering my silent question.

Two.

A heart and a liver.

I swallowed back bile, blood roaring in my ears. “What have you done?”

38

WILLOW

Ihadn’t thought to ask if something had been taken from the second victim. It hadn’t seemed relevant when he lay there dead and…

Hell.

I tore my eyes off the organs lying discarded upon the floor, wincing when Gray tucked his fingers beneath my chin and raised my stare to meet his.

“Why?” I asked, searching his gaze for any sign of remorse. “You—that night when you came to my bathroom. You seemed worried for me.”

“I have had centuries of practice lying to naïve little girls just like you,” he murmured, the words striking me in the chest and causing a deeper ache to bloom.

Juliet came into the room, another Vessel at her side as they shuffled the ten remaining new students into the space. Gray was quick to bend down, taking the discarded organs in hand and placing them on top of the mirror on the floor. The female Vessel compelled the new students into a circle surrounding us, raising goosebumps all over my flesh.

“What are you doing?” I asked, holding her stare.

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