Her hand finds mine, squeezing firmly. “I promise I’m okay. Fully healed. I just…”
“Have a magic hangover?” Sky supplies.
Natalie makes a finger gun. “Exactly.”
“Let’s move,” Sky says, turning to Fiona. “Before we’re too late.”
A terrible, heavy silence falls over the cove.
Fiona nods.
It’s as close to an alliance as I’m going to get right now, and I’m happy to accept it. Because if Sophia is about to gain the ability to do mind control and God-knows-what-else…we’ve got a much bigger problem to worry about.
From the Journal of Hazel Okada
The world came back to me in fragments—the hard, gritty soil beneath my hands and knees, Katie and Fiona’s raised voices, the chaos coming to an abrupt stop.
Catching my breath, I looked up to find the witches gathering around Fiona. Katie turned to me once more, and I tried to focus on her face, but everything seemed to be vibrating. My insides felt like they’d been scrambled and put back in the wrong order. Something new and wild stirred inside me that hadn’t been there before.
“How are you feeling?” Katie asked.
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to loosen the tension. “Like I got hit by a griffin. Then the griffin flew back and picked me up and dropped me a few times.”
The words came out sounding like me, but I didn’t feel like me anymore. Something fundamental had changed, and it was terrifying to think what that meant.
Katie laughed shakily, relief washing over her face. “I don’t doubt it.”
I stared at my hands. They looked the same—same lines, same freckle near my thumb—but it felt like I’d gained a whole extra sense beneath my skin. As I focused on this new sensation, several pebbles rose from the ground around me, hovering in the air before falling back down with soft thuds.
“Am…am I a witch?” I asked, my face strangely numb and tingly.
“Yeah,” Katie said softly. “You are.”
My heart did a backflip. A witch. Me. The girl who’d spent all this time being a normal, boring sidekick.
An excited flutter sweptthrough me, followed by nausea. Good lord, I didn’t think through what I did at all. I made a life-changing decision without weighing the consequences. I didn’t even come close to making a pro-and-con list!
What must Katie think? Am I as greedy as Sophia in her eyes, lunging for magic like that? Is she angry I’m a witch when she’s the one who discovered this world? It should be her with magic in her veins, not me.
“I didn’t intend…” I struggled to justify myself. “I just reacted. I couldn’t let Oaklyn have it…”
Oaklyn. The memory of her face when I grabbed the vial sent a surge of satisfaction through me. She’d used me, manipulated my feelings, all to get to Katie and the magic. And it backfired. Ha.
Katie squeezed my shoulder, and I realized I was trembling. “I know,” she said. “And it was brave as hell.”
I let out a breath, thankful she wasn’t mad. The strange new energy inside me settled a little, and the world came into sharper focus. I took in Katie’s familiar features—her gentle eyes, her small frame, the little relieved smile on her lips.
“Katie, I’m so sorry,” I said, the words tumbling out in a rush. “For Oaklyn, for the net, for the things I said to you. I thought I was doing the right thing, but…”
I’d been such an idiot. I’d fallen for Oaklyn’s act completely, convinced she was misunderstood and the witches were the real criminals. I betrayed the friend who had always been there for me, all for someone who saw me as a tool to get what she wanted.
“It’s okay,” Katie said, pulling me into a hug. “I’ve made mistakes when it comes to magic and the Madsens too. But we’ll talk aboutit later. Right now, we need to get you somewhere safe where you can learn to control your new powers.”
I clung to her for a moment, grateful for her forgiveness even though I didn’t deserve it. When I pulled back, I shook my head. “I want to help.”
No way would I hide away while everyone else hunted down Oaklyn and Sophia. A searing, unfamiliar anger smoldered in my chest—not just from Oaklyn’s betrayal, but from how she’d tried to use me to hurt Katie. I wanted to look her in the eyes again, to show her I wasn’t the naive, easily manipulated girl she thought I was. I wanted her to see what I’d become because of her.
My fingers burned, and I looked down to see rocks and sticks tremble on the ground beneath me.
