Page 72 of Her Dreadful Will
“That first night, when we had our date—when my car wouldn’t start—that was you?”
“Yeah.”
“What about everything that happened in the restaurant? Zillah tripping, and the water stain exploding, and the alarm?”
“Guilty as charged.”
She spun, her smile gone. “You want me to think chaos is beautiful, but it isn’t—at least not the kind you do. You’re destructive, and dangerous. You cause rot and ruin and pain. And you keep secrets.”
“What secrets do you think I’m keeping?”
Soleil sucked in a bracing breath. “Are you some kind of rogue Witchlord?”
The moths and fireflies scattered into the dark. “What?”
“Are you a Witchlord? A Highwitch? Someone powerful who got kicked out of the Convocation for being irrepressibly evil?”
“No, I’m not a Witchlord, or a Highwitch.”
“You can stop staring at me like I’m out of my mind,” snapped Soleil. “It’s just a theory a friend of mine had.”
She couldn’t see his eyes clearly in the gloom, but she saw his shoulders tense. “You’ve been telling your friends about me?”
“Just two friends, and not in detail. That’s not the point. The point is that there’s something weird about you, and I’m not convinced that you’re here by chance.”
He stalked past her to his car. “I know you think I’m weird. I’m used to people thinking that about me. At leastIhave a circle of friends who know about my power and don’t judge me for it.”
“I have friends.” Soleil batted away a mosquito, and then another. “I’m having lunch, or coffee, with a few of them this coming week.”
“They’re not your friends.” He leaned against the car, flipping the keys from hand to hand. “You know that, right? They are humans. If they knew what you were doing to them, they’d hate you. They’d run you out of town, Sol.”
The words bit into her heart. Of course he was right. If Landon’s mother knew what Soleil had done to her son—that she’d entered his mind, messed with his will—
And if Mya knew how Soleil had invaded her mind—
They’d be terrified of her. They’d call her a witch, chase her away from town at best. At worst, they might try to kill her.
How could she ever truly be friends with the people she controlled? People from whom she had to keep such deep, dark secrets?
Her shoulders slumped. “No, you’re right. They aren’t my friends.”
“Hey.” Achan’s voice softened. He pushed away from the car and reached out, as if to touch her cheek, but she shied away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad, I just—I don’t want you to be disappointed when these people aren’t everything you want them to be. You believe in them so hard.”
She couldn’t reconcile the admiration and sorrow in his eyes with the ferocious gleam they’d held few short hours ago, when he turned Zillah into a living, rotting corpse.
Florence’s voice echoed in her thoughts.That boy is dangerous.
Soleil curled her right hand, running her index finger over the ring on her thumb. She hardened her heart and her nerves.
“Let’s just get this over with.” She rounded the car to the passenger side. “Is the moonlight thing even going to work, with just the two of us?”
“I think it will.” He slid into the car as she climbed in. “Mind you I have nothing to corroborate that, except a feeling. Call it instinct.”
“Who’s gonna DJ?”
“I’ve got a playlist, and speakers.”
He started the engine, but he didn’t back out of the driveway. His hand hovered over the shifter, and Soleil felt him looking at her, looking and looking until she finally brought her eyes up to meet his.
