Page 17 of Witch Undecided
“We’ll retest in a week or so once we’ve upped the training for the more promising candidates,” Anna replied.
“What promising candidates?” Jessie scoffed. “You can either channel the negation chant or you can’t. It’s not a learned skill. You either have it or you don’t, and none of them do.”
“We’re so fucked.”
I recognized this voice as Poppy’s.
“There’ve always been witches to take over.” Anna sounded perplexed. “Always. I don’t understand…We must have missed someone.”
I pushed open the door and entered. Sunlight lanced through the glass panes above, lighting up the space with pleasant warmth.
All eyes turned to me, but my attention zeroed in on Sloane. She sat perched on the rim of a fountain, one boot planted on the ledge, arm braced on her cocked knee.
Her chin was tucked in, flexing as if she was holding back a tide of words.
I walked further into the building. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Jessie snorted and turned away, but Poppy smiled kindly. She looked tired, her bubble-gum hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, her skin so pale it was almost translucent.
“Hey, Cora,” she said. “We weren’t expecting to see you.”
“It’s fine,” Anna said. “We’ll be fine.” But it sounded more like a prayer than a fact.
“How?” Sloane said softly. “How can we be fine with only three Elites?” She finally looked up and her electric-blue eyes focused on me. “Jessie’s right. We’re fucked. Pretty certain news of Brie’s death has made its way to the outlier community, to the fucking Order, which means revenants are gonna come out to play in force and there’ll be nothing we can do to stop them.”
“There’s always been a replacement,” Anna said again. “Hecate has always taken care of us…” She frowned.
Jessie’s head came up slowly to lock gazes with me. “You… We haven’t tested you.”
“Me?” Was she serious?
“The anchor can’t be an Elite,” Poppy said.
“Why not?” Jessie retorted. “She’s a witch.”
“The anchor has never been tested,” Anna said. “Elite status is too dangerous, and we’ve never had to put our anchor in that position. The Elites have always been found in our general population of Grimswood witches—”
“But that doesn’t mean an anchorcan’tbe an Elite…” Sloane swung her leg down and stood. “You’re right, Anna, there’s always been a replacement, and if we’ve tested everyone else then there’s only the anchor left.” She approached me and stopped a foot away, looking down her nose at me, reminding me how petite I was. “You up for the challenge, cupcake?”
Not like I had much choice. “Sure.”
“We can’t put her in danger like that,” Anna said.
“We don’t have a fucking choice,” Sloane said. “Besides, didn’t you just say that Hecate has always taken care of this shit? So if she can do the negation spell when no one else can, then it’s Hecate’s will.”
Anna pressed her lips together and nodded. “Do it.”
Sloane’s lips curved in a cool smile. “Time to see what you’ve got, cupcake. But I got to warn you, this might hurt.”
I arched a brow. “I’m not afraid of a little pain, Sloane.”
“Who said it would be a little?”
“Oh for fucksake,” Jessie snapped. “Can we get on with it?”
“It’ll be fine,” Poppy said, shooting Sloane a glare. “You’ll be fine. The pain varies for each witch. Some feel nothing, and others a little more.”
“But if you have what we need, you’ll be in agony,” Jessie said.
