Page 68 of Magic in the Woods
“I saw this a few days ago…” He pressed play, and a recording of Petunia leaving my room, a smile on her face, appeared on the screen. She’d stopped for a moment, wiping the back of her hand across her lips. It looked suspicious, her leaving my room, wiping her mouth—like we’d been kissing…or worse. “I’ll gladly showDafnithis if you end up picking her to be your partner. I’m sure she won’t last long beside you when she sees that you’ve been playing the field.”
Something deep inside me snapped. I felt it break. The facade I’d tried to maintain, the way I’d been obedient all these years for the Coven.
“Keep her name out of your mouth!”
It felt like I was watching myself from the camera in the corner—watching myself hit the remote out of his hand, the device skittering across the floor, breaking into several pieces. The video paused, static lines running through the picture. The other TVs in the room continued to play recordings from around the Academy.
“Gideon!” Robinson bent down to gather the broken pieces of the remote. “We are supposed to be brothers! We’re the two male witches—the only two. I’m showing you the way!”
“The disgusting, depraved, wrong way,” I spat, spit flying from my mouth and landing with the broken pieces of the remote on the floor. There could be no more of this. No more of his secret recordings. They needed to be gone, disappear forever. Dafni could never see this. She’d never take me back—our trust had been broken by me just hours ago, and this video would be the final nail in the coffin.
I looked back up at one of the screens, narrowing my eyes as I sawher. The recording of her running back to her room after I’d kicked her out of mine. Those red curls caught my eye. I remembered the way they bounced, the way they’d curled just right around my finger the first time I’d felt them in my hands—that time we’d wound up in the closet together, with all the cords, brooms, and electrical boxes mounted to the wall.
“Gideon!” Robinson’s voice was quiet—far away by the time I’d heard it, already outside his room and through the doorthat led back to the Academy. Back tothatcloset. The one I’d got entangled in withher.
I had to be quick before Robinson caught me on the camera and saw where I was going.
The door to the closet wasn’t locked.Idiots.There were enough wires in here to take down the whole Academy.Perfect.
The amount of flashing lights and cords running in and out of the room made my fingers tingle. There were even boxes mounted to the wall that had stickers withMemorywritten on them. Those were my first victims. I grabbed on to them, tearing them from the wall, smashing them over my thigh before throwing them to the ground. When they hit the concrete, a deep chuckle rose from my chest. Fuck Robinson, fuck the Academy. It was therapeutic, the anger flowing through my arms from my chest, down through my fingers, releasing in the crash of metal and plastic on the floor.
They’d kept me here for so long.For so long.Keeping an eye on me—on all of us with the cameras they’d mounted. That was over. It was over. There’d be no more evidence—not of me or of Dafni or anyone.
The walls were empty, the electrical boxes gone. My muscles screamed at me as I looked at the mess of wires hanging and, in some places, knotted together. There was a thick black wire, one that was still plugged in to an outlet next to the floor.
That had to be the main power line.It had to be the electricity the Academy needed to sustain their operations. I grabbed on to the wire, the power that fortified the Coven buzzing beneath my hand. One yank, a pull, and everything would go dark. The evaluation would be ruined.
I yanked.
Sparks flew around my hand, singeing thehair on my wrist and upper arm. I reveled in the sting, in the smell of burnt hair. It was the smell of freedom.
The silence was loud. I heard nothing for the longest time. Just the beat of my heart in my ears. I sat on the floor in the dark breathing and shaking, trying to catch my breath from all the adrenaline flowing through my veins.
I didn’t know how long I sat there until I fully realized what I’d done. The opportunity I’d just created for myself. It was a dream. I was free.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Dafni
It was time.
My uniform was pressed and clean, my hair was as tame as I could manage, tucked behind my ears and rolling down my back.
The lights hadn’t turned on this morning when Brooke and I had woken up. Probably another intimidation tactic by the Academy. We’d found a few flashlights tucked deep in the drawers of the wardrobe, and they turned on after hitting them a few times on the brick wall, loosening the battery-acid corrosion inside.
She fretted about our room, popping in and out of the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. There was a knock at the door, but I had no idea who could be coming to see us.
“It’s for me!” Brooke rushed to the door. She smoothed her skirt and pinched her cheeks before opening the door.
Luke stood in the doorway, holding his own flashlight. “You guys okay?” he asked. “Something’s going on with the power.”
“We think it’s the Coven trying to scare us, what with the evaluations nearly over,” Brooke said.
He glanced up at the ceiling, a frown on his face. “That does sound like them.” He looked down at Brooke. “Are you ready?”
“This—this—what is this?” I stuttered, glancing between Brooke and Luke. Seeing the two of them together had short-circuited my brain.
“I invited Luke to sit with me to watch the task,” she said, looping her arm through Luke’s. “I wasn’t about to sit with Petunia.”
