Page 70 of Magic in the Woods
“It’s not your fault.” I rubbed Annabel’s arms up and down, trying to soothe her. “I’m not afraid of her—not anymore.”
“Sister!”Hervoice rose from the chatter, everyone surrounding the stage turning around to look at who shewas addressing. Everyone’s eyes rested on Annabel. Although there was no spotlight, everyone’s eyes felt like one, Annabel’s eyes blinking as everyone stared.
Sister?
“I’m so glad you could join us!” Matilda stood on the stage. I finally got a good look at her. Dripping wet, her red hair pressed to the sides of her head, her curls flat.
Annabel shrank, although she tried to stand tall in front of Matilda.
“You’re not supposed to be here.” My mother clicked her tongue.
Annabel opened her mouth to speak, but Matilda interrupted her. “I see one of your sniveling offspring, but where is the other?” She scanned the crowd gathered around her.
A gasp waved through the crowd as everyone looked among themselves.
“I’m here.” Luke’s baritone voice vibrated through the crowd.
The witches moved, making way for him to come down from the bleachers, joining his mother and sister on the floor. Brooke followed him down, sticking close to his side.
I suddenly realized what this meant. If Annabel was my mother’s sister…
I took a step back. She was my aunt. Luke and Emily were my cousins.
“I’ll deal with you later, my dearest Dafni…” My mother’s voice rang in my ear as I backed away slowly. This was all too much.
“They’re sweet, but do we need your cousins, really?” Matilda pointed her index and middle fingers toward Luke and Emily.
Emily’s mouth quivered while Luke held his lips together tightly.
“You’ve gotten so close to them over the past year.” Matilda turned back to face me. “You forgot about me. Dafni,dear, I heard everything.”
“Don’t do it, Matilda!” Annabel’s voice was quiet, although her words resounded throughout the room.
Matilda turned, her face full of anger and spite. “You have broken our agreement, sister. You’re not in your trailer, and neither are your children. You know how dangerous that is.”
The witches surrounding Luke and Emily backed away slowly, leaving them out in the open, easy pickings for Matilda.
“I can’t have them here, among the Coven. They’re too much of a danger?—”
“Matilda!” Annabel’s voice was louder, her arms and fists shaking as she spoke. “They pose no danger to you or your Coven.”
“They’ve been a danger since the day you conceived them with that dog, and they’ll be a danger until they’re dead in the ground.”
“I’ll take them back—right now.” Annabel grabbed ahold of Luke and Emily and pulled them back through the crowd and toward the door. Emily’s eyes met mine, full of fear and confusion, before they bobbled around the cavern. Brooke let go of Luke’s hand she’d been holding, their fingers sweeping against each other’s as he pulled away.
“Too late for that, sister. You didn’t think there’d be consequences for keeping me trapped for the past year?”
A hushed murmur went through the crowd, bodies moving out of the way of Annabel as she dragged her children through the multitudes of witches.
“Maybe I should make your heart just as cold as my body has been.” She was quick, the way she flicked her two fingers at Luke and Emily as they tripped through the crowd, following their mother.
But I was quicker.
Matilda had forgotten that I had known her my entire life, that her own mother had been the one to raise me. She didn’t get to take away the people who had saved me after she’d left me in the woods to die. The people who’d fed me what little food they had and taken the time to nurse me back to health. The people who’d supported me on my mission to take the Coven away from her. She’d killed my grandmother, and there was no way she was going to take anyone else from me.
Something burned down my arm, starting in my chest, blazing its way from my shoulder, down my arm and through my fingers—through the two fingers pointed directly at my mother.
Rage.
