I tried for a playful smile, but it wavered. “What do you mean?”
“To start, you’ve mentioned names and places I’ve never told you about. Slips out sometimes. You usually don’t notice.”
My mouth went so dry I couldn’t speak. My heart pounded faster. Run, run, run.
“You also know more about magic than we’ve talked about,” she continued. “Earth magic. Bio magic.”
“I do a lot of resear—”
“Bullshit.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
My heartslammed into my ribs. “I don’t know what you’re—”
She stepped closer to the bed, looming over me. “Your journal had some pretty interesting entries, sweetheart.”
I froze, staring up at her. “You did read it!”
She tilted her head. “Parts of it.”
Oh God. How far did she get?
“Spying for witches?” she added. “I never would have thought you’d be capable of something like that, sweet girl.”
Ice shot through my veins. The room shifted beneath me.
“Now what I need to figure out is…” She rested her hands on the bed, inches from my knees, one fist still around her dagger. “How dangerous are you?”
I forced a laugh and leaned sideways on my hand so my shoulder stuck out, trying to look small and harmless. “Oaklyn, come on. If you read it then you know how I feel about you.”
“Show me your phone,” she snapped, not falling for it.
My chest tightened. “What? Why?”
“If you’ve got nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t have a problem showing it to me.”
“Then—you should show me your phone, too! Make it even.”
“Fine. Here.” She snatched hers off the bedside table and unlocked it, then held it out to me.
Shit, shit, shit. If I gave her mine, she would see that the last thing I sent Katie was the location of Sophia’s apartment!
“Okay, look.” I raised my hands in surrender. “I know Katie. But I swear, I had no idea the two of you were…um…”
“You didn’t know she’s the one who killed my brother?” she snarled. “You didn’t know she’s part of the organization that’s been hunting my family over the cause we believe in?”
I shook my head. “We only realized the connection recently.”
“And you didn’t tellme? Why is she aware of this fucked-up triangle but not me?”
“I didn’t want… I thought if you knew, you might…”
“Open—your—phone,” she said, her voice low and dangerous.
“Oaklyn, please listen—”
She cracked her dagger like a whip, and in a blink, the roots had me by the throat and wrists, holding me down on the bed. I gasped, struggling, as it creaked and hissed across the duvet.
Wyatt started barking, his nails scraping the floor as his dark shape appeared in the doorway. Absurdly, I thought he might come to my rescue, like maybe we’d formed a bond after all the time I spent scratching his ears. But—
