Page 28 of This Coven Won't Break
PEOPLE ARE MUCH MOREagreeable when there are unconscious bodies on their floor.
Alice doesn’t try to stop us from dragging the bodies into her room—though she doesn’t help carry them, either. While I bind their wrists with rope from Alice’s show, Morgan shakily explains that the Hunters weren’t shooting tranquilizers at us. That those darts carry a drug that will take away our magic forever.
The pink-haired illusionist turns exceptionally pale as reality sinks in.
I almost ask for Morgan’s help to gather enough strength to send an air message to Sarah, but then I remember the dart in her chest. My heart breaks all over again, and I pull out my phone. She answers on the first ring, her grief covered with worry. “Are you all right? Where are you?”
“We’re in Alice’s room. We’re okay.” I squeeze my eyes shut against the guilt that wants to drown me. “What about you? Are you—”
“I’m on my way.”
When Sarah arrives a few minutes later, she tries to put on a brave face, but I can see the cracks in her emotional armor. As much as she may want to, she can’t hide the sheen of sweat that shines on her brow. I can only sense the tiniest bit of her Elemental magic, and it’s fading with each breath.
“I’m so sorry,” I say when she closes the door behind her. “This is all my fault.”
Sarah winces and clutches at her side. “I knew the risks when I volunteered.” She focuses on the bound and unconscious team of Hunters. “Goddess, they’re so young,” she says, more to herself than us. “Are you sure none of you are hurt? No one else was drugged?”
“No oneelse?” Alice’s voice is pitched high.
“We’re fine,” I say, ignoring the panicking Blood Witch. I scrub at my eyes to stop the constant prickle of tears. “But you’re not. I can feel your magic disappearing. Maybe if I’d been faster—”
“This isn’t your fault, Hannah. I—” Sarah gasps and presses a hand to her chest. She stumbles and barely makes it to the edge of Alice’s unmade bed before her legs give out beneath her and the last of her magic winks out of existence.
Forever.
Sarah breathes slowly, like she’s trying to fight back nausea, and finally looks up at the three worried young witches before her. “We need to get them out of here before they wake up. It’s Alice, right?”
Alice nods, tugging on the end of her braid.
“What kind of transportation do you have?”
Twenty minutes later, we have the Hunters locked into Alice’s prop trunks and loaded in her rental. Alice refused to share a vehicle with them, leaving Sarah to drive the van. I offered to ride with Sarah, but she wanted to be alone. Said she had plenty of phone calls to make to keep her company. So, Alice, Morgan, and I piled into Sarah’s car. None of us speak the entire drive to Salem. I try not to think about the night’s horrors, but all I see are my failures playing over and over on an endless loop.
Once we make it back to Salem, I offer to drop Alice at ahotel before taking Morgan home, but they both insist on coming with me to Archer’s place. Lights shine in the front windows, Archer waiting for us, just like he promised when he called.
“Well, wind witch?” Alice says from the back seat, watching Archer’s house with poorly masked fear. “Aren’t you going in?”
I glare at her in the rearview, then cut the engine.
Archer answers the door before I even make it to the steps. “Thank the Sisters,” he says in a rush, like he wasn’t sure we’d make it all the way here. “Where are the others?”
“Morgan and Alice are in the car.” I wave for them to join us. The doors open and slam shut again. “Sarah is on her way with the... cargo.”
“Come in. All of you.” Archer leads us into his home. “Elder Keating is in the kitchen. She’s making tea.”
Alice stops dead on the front porch. “There’s anElderhere? You didn’t think that was something you should tell me?” Her expression telegraphs worry, and I can understand why.
If I told Elder Keating what Alice did to me in the hotel, if I told her the way Alice contorted my body with her magic, Keating could strip Alice of her power.
“I won’t tell her what happened tonight,” I whisper back. “Whether or not you agree to help with the raid. Though I really,reallyhope you will.” I motion for her to follow and trail after Archer through his home. As much as I want to say I’d do anything to recruit Alice, I won’t threaten to have her magic bound. I won’t resort to blackmail.
In the kitchen, Elder Keating stands beside the stove, pouring hot water into half a dozen mugs. She glances over her shoulder at us, giving me an approving nod when she notices Alice. “Explain everything.”
I’m not sure how much of our story Archer already told her—enough for Keating to temporarily lower the protective barrier around the town so Sarah could get in with the three Hunters—but I start at the beginning anyway. I tell them about Riley coming to the Cauldron but not knowing who he was. Even though I don’t want to, I admit that the photos I posted online led Riley to us.
“But why?” Elder Keating muses, looking more concerned than I’ve ever seen her. “Why was he so fixated on Morgan that he broke protocol?”
“Protocol?” I ask.
