Page 85 of Her Dreadful Will
“You like him.”
“Not the way you’re thinking,” snapped Delaney. “Anyone else, I’d say welcome to the club—but you—youI don’t trust. We don’t need you. Don’t want you.”
The sharp-nailed thing dozing inside Soleil reared its head, licking its lips. She wanted to fight Delaney, to show this leather-strapped, steel-studded girl who the real witch was. She backed against the counter, her fingers curling around its edge and tightening. “You seem to be the only one who doesn’t want me around,” she said. “You can’t deny I made a difference at the moonlight circle.”
Delaney’s eyes darted aside for a moment. “Doesn’t mean you’re good for us. Or for him.”
Soleil’s radiance swelled inside her, testing the boundaries of her restraint. She let tendrils of it slip out, snaking toward Delaney, wriggling into her volisphere. Inside, Delaney’s love for Achan thumped like a drumbeat, a heartbeat, wound and woven with her loyalty to the coven, her concern for her friends, her distrust of everyone outside that tight circle. A shrill chord of intertwined jealousy and curiosity punctuated the beat. Delaney’s suspicious nature had been birthed long ago, when she was a child, when her mother—
“What’s wrong with you?” Delaney snapped her fingers in front of Soleil’s face. “You space out or something?”
Soleil sucked the magic back into herself. Over Delaney’s shoulder, her eyes locked with Angelou’s wide, disappointed ones.
“I didn’t—” Soleil said breathlessly. “I wasn’t—”
But she had. She’d entered Delaney’s volisphere and read her will, without permission. It was a line she’d told herself she wouldn’t cross, not with these people. Not with her new coven.
Angelou had sensed the activation of Soleil’s magic. The hurt and betrayal in her eyes made that clear.
“I think we should go,” said Angelou softly.
“Finally, someone has a good idea.” Delaney sneered in Soleil’s direction and turned away.
“Wait.” Soleil lurched forward, blood thrumming urgently in her throat, in her head. “Angelou, I didn’t interfere with Delaney at all. I read her, a little—but I didn’t touch. And listen—just listen—if you could tell that I was using my magic, you can keep me accountable, right? You can reassure everyone that I’m not interfering with their minds.”
“Wait,what?” Delaney gasped.
Soleil ignored her. “Right, Angelou?” She stared desperately into the other girl’s eyes.
“I guess,” Angelou said. “But what’s to stop you from messing with my head, and ordering me to lie to them?”
“You’d sense it in time,” said Soleil. “You’d be able to warn them. And I won’t, I promise. I can’t anyway, because of my vow to the Convocation. I’m not allowed to mind-flex for selfish purposes.” She lifted her hand to show the tiny ring embedded in her flesh.
“If somebody doesn’t start explaining right fucking now, I’m out of here.” Delaney’s voice was strained, almost frantic.
“You’re right,” said Soleil. “If I want you to trust me, and to accept me, I owe you a full explanation.”
While Angelou decorated Florence’s nails, Soleil told them everything. She stripped her soul and her magic naked before the four women in her living room, from the mind-flexing she’d done as a child, all the way to her introduction to Tarek. Angelou gave an occasional encouraging nod or a word of reassurance to the others.
Soleil wasn’t sure when she started crying—but when Sharee passed her the box of tissues she realized her cheeks were wet and her nose was running. She paused to wipe her face.
“I won’t use my power on any of you,” she said. “I vow it. Angelou can keep me accountable.”
“Achan trusts her,” Angelou said. “He wouldn’t let her into our coven if he thought she would harm us.”
Delaney scoffed, shaking her head. “Of coursehe’snot worried. She can’t affecthiswill. All this soul-baring, the tears—it’s just manipulation. I don’t buy it. Not for a second.”
“Hush.” Sharee rose, seeming even taller in her pinstriped jumpsuit. She walked straight to Soleil and cupped her hand under Soleil’s chin, looking into her eyes.
“I’ve known Achan longer than any of you,” she said, turning Soleil’s head slightly to one side, then the other. “And I also know how it feels to be unfairly judged for who you are, what you were born into.”
“You’re going to bring race into this?” Delaney rolled her eyes.
Sharee fixed her with a look, and Delaney growled, “Sorry. I just don’t see how it applies.”
“There’s beauty and danger in what she is,” said Sharee, her dark eyes penetrating Soleil’s again. “That’s true of all women, but with witches, the risk and reward of existence is so much higher. Living alone with this power, keeping it in check all by herself—it’s made her strong. But even the strong need friends.”
Soleil’s face crumpled, and another sob escaped her, along with a fresh flood of tears.
