Page 24 of Magic in the Woods
Reaching up, I pulled down the door, the woods slowly disappearing inch by inch until there was nothing left but a slice of daylight. A click of the handle let me know the door was closed.
The life I knew was over. I slowly turned and faced my future.
I couldn’t see the girls—the human-born witches—but I could hear trembling before me. Their gulps for air and shudders against the metal frame of the truck made my insides quiver. The muscles in my legs gave out slowly, causing me to sink into the unsound wood flooring beneath me. I was in the dark. Alone. Well, not alone. I was with several other witches who breathed shallow and sharp enough that I could hear their gasps for air.
The truck rocked back and forth before the engine rumbled beneath my knees. They must’ve already cleared the tree. I hoped that Luke had grabbed the girl and was hidden deep within the brush by now. He’d return to Annabel and Emily and let them know that I’d made it, that I was on my way to the Academy. They’d help the girl reunite with her family.
The truck lurched forward, my body tumbling toward the group of witches along the back of the cargo box. One of them grabbed onto me, pulling me close, my body flush with theirs.
“What happened to that girl by the door?” A quiet wobbling voice met my ears. “I couldn’t see.”
A tremor ran through my body as my mind raced to think of an answer. “She panicked and fell,” I lied.
“I wish I’d fallen out,” the voice said, her body trembling against me.
I trembled along with her, my body acclimating to the rhythm of her fear.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dafni
The witches huddled around me,all of us holding on to each other in support to keep us individually from being bounced around like rag dolls in the back of the truck. I wasn’t sure how far we were from the Academy, how long we’d be back here, or if we had any more stops to make.
“They got you too?” a voice whispered. They were close enough to me that I could feel their breath on my cheek.
I nodded before I realized they couldn’t see me in the dark. I cleared my throat. “Yeah, they got me.”
“I got picked up in a black town car…I was just about to listen to my podcast when I got pulled out of the car and shoved in here,” a voice said.
I looked around the ill-lighted truck trying, unsuccessfully, to see faces.
“They took all my things—my phone, my luggage,” another voice said.
Annabel was right: The Coven had deceived the human-born witches.
“I feel so weak. They stuck me with something…and I can’t feel my magic anymore…” a higher-pitched witch said.
Another girl whispered, “They stuck me with something too! I saw it—it was a purple liquid in a syringe.”
Lobelia. It had to be the same purple concoction that Annabel sipped each day.
“My parents signed me up for an exclusive summer prep program, but this…isn’t it,” the girl next to me whispered. “I’m Brooke,” she whispered again.
I nodded again before remembering that I needed to speak. “Dafni,” I said aloud.
A chorus of “Hi’s” filled the space.
The truck stayed quiet as we traveled, except for the witches’ muffled sobs and yelps every time the truck’s tires bounced over a rock.
The sound of the engine became softer, telling me we were moving slower. Getting closer to the Academy.
“Stop!” A muffled voice met my ears. The truck stopped. Several of the surrounding witches gasped, then paused, waiting.
It struck me when I realized what they were waiting for—their fate. They’d already succumbed to their outcome. Did they not have any fight? Were they just giving up?
Inhaling, I took in a deep breath. I’d remain strong even if no one else would. That was what a leader did.
The witches were packed in around me. From the sound of their whimpers and heavy breathing, there had to be more than six or seven. More witches than the two men who were managing the truck. Everyone around me had been lied to,brought here under false pretenses. If they used their fear and anger together as a group, they could overwhelm the men transporting us—fight and escape.
