Page 48 of These Witches Don't Burn
My words hover in the air between us, but I don’t realize their impact until Veronica’s eyes narrow. She grabs her purse and throws her phone inside. “You weren’t at work when I called, were you? You were on adatewith some goddamnReg.” She swipes her keys from the nightstand, the metal scraping across the wooden top. “Did it even occur to you that this Morgan could be the Blood Witch? She shows up in Salem and then all of a sudden we’re under attack? I bet she’s an only child, too. Isn’t she?”
“That doesn’t mean she’s the Blood Witch. She clearly wasn’tthe one at your house. She was with me when I got your call.” I roll my eyes, but Veronica rips open the guest room door. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Anywhere but here.” Veronica glares at me over her shoulder then disappears out the door.
“Dammit, Veronica!” I chase her down the stairs. “You’re safe here. Where else will you go?”
Veronica doesn’t look back as she heads for the front door. She shoves her feet in her sandals and unbolts the lock. “I’ll take my chances with Savannah. I can’t spend another second here.”
“Stop acting like I abandoned you. I stopped the Blood Witch. So what if I’ve moved on?” I follow her out onto the porch. “Don’t be stupid, Veronica. You know you’re safer here than at Savannah’s house. For all you know,shecould be a Blood Witch.”
“Don’t. Just don’t.” Veronica storms down the driveway and stops beside her car. The streetlights at her back cast her face in shadows. She glances at the front window, the one still boarded up after a brick shattered it. “The Blood Witch already knows where you live, Hannah. Maybe you’re the one who should be scared.”
•••
I wake to thunder.
Lightning flashes, turning my eyelids red as the fog of unconsciousness fades. Another rumble crashes above me, shaking me in my bed. Pictures rattle on the walls. My jar of paintbrushes crashes to the floor. I bolt upright. The shaking isn’t the storm outside.
It’s a pissed-off Elemental.
Mom stands in the doorway with Dad a pace behind. There’s a mixture of exhaustion and panic in her eyes, a combination that sets me on edge. She glares at me. “Where’s Veronica?”
I wipe sleep from my eyes as I sit up. “She left. Spent the night at Savannah’s house.”
Dad follows Mom into the room. He rubs a hand over the stubble along his jaw. “What do you mean ‘she left’? Your grandmother was very clear about where she wanted Veronica to stay last night.”
“I’m sorry, Dad,” I say, not sorry at all. “We fought. She got pissed and ran out. It’s not like I could tie her to the bed to keep her here.” I glance at the clock. It’s barely after four in the morning. “Why are you up so early?”
Mom perches on the edge of my bed. “Lady Ariana called a coven meeting. You need to get ready.”
“The sun isn’t even up yet.” I groan and flop back onto my pillows.
“She said it was urgent.” Mom looks to Dad, and something passes between them, some unspoken worry they won’t share with me. “Come on. We don’t want to be late.”
My parents leave the room, and I reluctantly drag myself out of bed. My body still aches from the run-in with the Blood Witch last night. My limbs are heavy and numb, my head stuffed full of cotton.
Outside, the wind rages on. At least the rain is a sign of good luck. When humanity was young, Three Sister Goddesses gifted humans with magic, each creating one of the Clans. The Middle Sister covered the world with storms, and those who felt no fear and danced in the rain earned the power to control the elements.They became the Elementals.
I stand beside my window, the glass cool against my warm skin. Lightning flashes in the sky and droplets of rain streak past like celestial tears. I can’t see how Lady Ariana would have good news for us already. Unless—
Has she found the Blood Witch?
“Hannah?” Dad knocks on my door. “We have to leave in fifteen minutes. We can’t make Lady Ariana wait.”
“Just a sec.” I dress quickly, brush my teeth, and grab a hair tie. When I fling open the bathroom door, Dad is standing there with circles under his eyes, like he slept as poorly as I did. I follow him downstairs, putting my hair into a messy bun as I go.
Mom ushers us out the front door without even giving me a second to grab a soda from the fridge. The drive to my grandmother’s takes less than ten minutes since there’s precisely zero traffic at this absurd hour. Her home is on the edge of town, tucked inside the Salem Woods, along forgotten roads few locals travel. Her driveway is packed, and we pull in behind Veronica’s empty car.
Mom cuts the engine, and for a moment, we pause. The storms have passed, leaving only a light drizzle as the sky lightens on the horizon. I don’t want to leave the safety of the car. Once we do, whatever news my grandmother thought was urgent enough to get the coven out of bed before five will be real. Dad mars the silence first, opening his door and leading us around the house and into the backyard.
Dozens of worried faces turn to greet us, but before we can join our coven, we pause at the altar where a trio of pillar candles burns before a statue of the Mother Goddess. As always, themiddle candle stands a bit taller and burns a bit brighter than the others, a small sign of gratitude to the Sister Goddess who chose us.
My parents work quickly, passing a hand over the center candle, adding a thin stream of their magic to the flickering flame. I linger at the altar. I’m not ready to face the rest of my coven, not ready to see their worry and wonder if I’m the one who brought danger to our home. I reach out, brushing the tips of my fingers against the flame. A dozen threads of power keep the small fire alive despite the drizzling rain. I wish, not for the first time, that the Sister Goddesses hadn’t been banished from our world. It would be nice to know they were out there, watching over us. Keeping us safe.
I shake the thought away and add my strength to the center candle.
When I turn to follow my parents into the thicket of conversation, I spot Veronica out of the corner of my eye. She’s the sole member of the Matthews family in attendance, but she’s not alone. Sarah and Rachel Gillow stand beside her, whispering something I can’t hear. Sarah rubs Veronica’s back, while Rachel rests a hand on her small but growing baby bump. The couple announced their pregnancy to the coven last month, after struggling for over a year to find a suitable Elemental donor.
