Page 85 of Heart of a Witch
I grabbed the jewelry and cleaned up the mess, then rubbed out the chalk so no one could make out what had happened here.
I took the blade from the rat and cleaned it with an old rag. When I finished, I placed it along with the candles back into the bag. I took the rat outside with me, feeling the eyes of the dead watching me leave. Only they knew what I had done here, and their judging stares bore into my soul.
I placed the dead rat on the ground and covered it in snow once I was far enough away, then I wiped my hands with the snow, melting it to get rid of the blood. I couldn’t be seen with my dress like this. I had planned on wrapping the thing before killing it, but it had to have remained asleep for that to happen.
I pulled off my ring and placed it among the trees. A pulse of magic reached through my veins, unyielding and deadly. When I put the necklace on, the magic drained my energy. Each time I spelled the jewelry, I came closer to the edge of madness. I couldn’t let it drag me over the edge, but I was so tired.
I rushed back home, my eyelids heavy when I reached the black door and heavy knocker. Alex threw the door open. Elijah was at the shop with Cas, I remembered, and she’d stayed to look after Corbin.
“Sister.” Her eyes widened. “What happened?”
“Nothing.” I tried to act normal, but my brain felt as if it might explode at any moment. “I just need to lie down.”
“It’s the dark magic, isn’t it?” she whispered, her chest heaving. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“It is done.” I pulled out her necklace and Cas’s ring. “Give this to your brother. I’m going upstairs.”
“I’ll bring you some food.”
“No.” I stepped onto the stairs, my knees feeling as if they would buckle under my weight. “Leave me to recover in peace.”
I barely made it to my room when I dropped onto the bed, and the room warped in my vision. I imagined my snakes talking to me, the furniture moving as I gripped the sheets, trying to hold onto reality.
“It’s just the magic,” I said repeatedly, until a screaming started in my head—Ember’s screams.
When I opened my eyes again, a man I recognized stood over my bed, his dark eyes fixated on mine. “Amberwood,” he spat.
My heart hammered. Richard Blackwood, owner of The Black Card, was in my room, unless I was imagining it. “You.”
“My family is dead because of you.”
“Because of me? My sister is dead because of your family, not mine.” I stood, steadying myself against the wall by my bed. “It doesn’t matter, because you’re about to join them.”
Twenty-Four
Elijah
It was late when I left the apothecary. I hadn’t expected working there to be so tiring. Ambrose had really had me climbing up to the top shelves all day, but I owed him. I wasn’t sure how long we could stay at their house, or how we would make dramair, as we didn’t have my father’s wealth to reply upon.
I saw him before he could call out to me, sporting a bruise around his nose and a winging blackout under his eyes. The wound stretching down his cheek to the corner of his lip had begun to scab.
“Son,” he said when I reached him.
I should have kept walking, but something kept me rooted to the spot. I wanted to ignore it and turn my back on him for good, but the sentiments of a lifetime of memories meant I couldn’t quite let go, even after all the darkness and abuse.
I rolled my shoulders back when he approached me on the street.
“Can we talk?”
I hesitated. I really should get back to Corbin, the brother he beat until near death. The thought made my fingers curl my hand into a fist. “I have somewhere to be.”
He placed his hand on my shoulder, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Please.”
“Why should I?”
“Because it’s important.” He looked to our left, then right and pulled me down an emptying street that led off to nowhere important.
I blinked away snowflakes, admiring a wreath of leaves, berries, and fruits on someone’s door. “What do you want?” I stopped walking. “There’s no one around, so spit it out.”
