Everything grinds to a halt, the chimera forgotten. Natalie, Sky, and Sophia stand with their palms up, Oaklyn grips her dagger, and Wyatt crouches beside her.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Oaklyn hisses, but her tone lacks its usual venom.
“Neither should you!” Hazel snaps back. “When I showed you the map, I didn’t mean for you to come here and—”
A shriek cuts through the air, making us all flinch. Lucy’s shadow passes over us before disappearing beyond the treetops—leaving me with that final image whirring through my head.
Lighthouse Park.
Do I go, or is it a trap?
Something deep inside me knows that Lucy doesn’t want to kill me—the same pull that led me to adopt a cursed kitten in the first place, and the same certainty that drew me to Natalie. This is the way to get the truth.
Oaklyn and Hazel are in a physical struggle, Hazel trying to break free as Oaklyn grips her upper arm. I shake my head and force my attention back to them. I can decipher Lucy’s words later.
“Go home,” Oaklyn murmurs, her eyes darting between her mother and Hazel.
“I took the bus.” Hazel’s gaze drops to the enchanted dagger in Oaklyn’s fist—and the hungry gleam in her eyes is definitely not acting. “I’ll leave with you, and you can explain what’s going on.”
“Oaklyn,” Sophia snaps, “who the hell is—”
Sky strikes. Despite the blood oozing from the bite on her leg and the obvious pain on her face, her movements are as quick and precise as ever. A wave rolls through the earth toward the Madsens, knocking all three women and the dog off their feet.
I gasp, clapping a hand over my mouth before I can shout Hazel’s name.
Everything erupts. The Madsens, now with Hazel in their midst, retaliate viciously. Natalie rushes to help her sister, shouting over her shoulder at me. “Where’s the chimera?”
“Gone. We need to go.” Anyway, how can we keep fighting when Hazel is on the opposing side? She’s crouched between Wyatt and Oaklyn, inches from danger as Sophia retaliates against the Zacharias sisters.
The sooner we get out of here, the less likely Hazel is to get hurt. Though Wyatt is standing protectively in front of her while Oaklyn fights. Which…okay, what the hell? I got a mangled ankle, and she gets a guard dog?
“Okay,” Natalie says, backing up. “Sky, let’s go.”
Sky hobbles closer, hissing through clenched teeth with every step, and Natalie puts an arm around her to help her move faster.
Through the chaos of magic and flying debris, I lock eyes with Hazel. She gives a tiny nod as if to tell me this is what she wants. She knows what she’s doing, and I need to trust her plan.
Fighting my instincts, I back toward the car, drawing Natalie and Sky with me—leaving my best friend in the hands of the Madsens.
From the Journal of Hazel Okada
Driving away from Katie, Natalie, and Sky felt like being kidnapped, especially with Sophia white-knuckling the wheel and smoke practically billowing out her ears. Oaklyn climbed into the back seat with me, and Sophia kept glancing at us in the rearview mirror like she was deciding whether to pull over and dump my body in a ditch. Her nostrils flared, her still-purple eyes flashed dangerously, and a muscle ticked in her jaw. Both of them were sweaty and covered in mud.
It didn’t escape me that this was the same woman who tortured Natalie’s dad, and I had just put myself at her mercy. But I wasn’t scared—just determined. Angry, even, over being duped. The coven needs a spy, and I’m going to be the best damn spy those witches have ever seen.
I opened my mouth to introduce myself and diffuse some tension, but Oaklyn reached a subtle hand toward me, stopping me before I could make a sound.
“Mom?” she said quietly. To my surprise, she lost her suave confidence in the presence of her mother, like the woman had the power to suck the life out of her with a single look.
“We could’ve had that chimera,” Sophia snarled, and the car vibrated, the radio turning staticky as if she could barely contain a magical outburst. “If this girl hadn’t—”
“Hazel created an algorithm that can predict where the chimeras will appear,” Oaklyn said quickly, cutting off her mother’s rising tone. “That’s how I knew where to find this one.”
Sophia’s eyebrows shot up, her expression changing from murderous to calculating in an instant. “Are you a witch?” she asked, meeting my eyes inthe mirror.
I swallowed hard, feeling like a mouse being sized up by a snake.
Okay, maybe I was a little afraid.
