Tilly grabbed her wrist, pushing it away from her as Astra whispered,"Careful, Tilly." She leaned in. "You might actually grow a backbone standing up to someone this way. And then what would you do will all of that weak-minded anxiety? People like a woman who has no boundaries and doesn't know how to say no."
Tilly's hand tightened around Astra's wrist, her anger pulsing. And then something happened. She hadn't been wrong before that Astra was frustrated sitting up there as Rob lost his composure. She felt it now under her cold skin. But somethingelse flared there, deep and hot and then a flash in Tilly's mind, pictures. A dark room lit by licking flames of a bonfire. Not a room, a cave. Blood seeping from a long straight cut in a slender palm. Snow. The black of night sparking with a flash and then back to blackness, but more than before as the stars were snuffed out. A woman laughing as others chanted in the background. When the sudden wide-open jaw of a snake filled Tilly's vision, fangs bared and hissing filling her ears she dropped Astra's wrist and stepped back with a gasp. Jen pulled her into her side.
She stared at Astra who was looking at her with wide eyes that dipped into a deep and narrow look of calculation.
What had she just seen? What had Astra done to her, or had Tilly done something?
Astra quickly schooled her look of shock. "You and your pathetic excuse for a coven is going to pay."
Jen raised her chin."We've heard that one before."
"And while you might find us pathetic," Eloise jumped in sliding her arm through Tilly's, "we find you sad. Traveling around doing the bidding of a group of witches that have no real power and no one cares about anymore."
That landed and Tilly felt a flare of anger come from the woman. But she turned her shrewd eyes back to Tilly and with a cold smile said, "If he bites you, know that he's using you. A vampire who drinks from a witch uses her magic to strengthen his bloodline."
"Leave," Jen growled.
But she kept going. "Your blood is the reason he wants you. Your blood can ensure he continues his bloodline. Didn't you know?" She asked looking around at all the women standing with Tilly. "A vampire cannot sire another vampire without a witch's magical blood in their system. And siring is what they do for sport in their unnaturally long, miserable lives."
"What do you want?" Tilly's voice was low, her emotions were hovering at the surface and about to bubble over. Control right now was her only lifeline.
Astra lowered her voice to match Tilly's, her words only reaching tilly's ears. "I want you and your friends gone. Leave and we won't report your careless use of magic to The Grand Mother."
Tilly frowned. "Why us?"
"Because you are the reason witches have to hide. You are the reason dark magic is too often sought after. Go, and you won't be punished for your use of it. I can ensure a curse follows all of you for the remainder of your lives."
"We don't use dark magic."
Astra didn't respond with words. But her eyes said something else.
And something else in her spoke to Tilly; something darker. The soft body of an animal Astra forgot to feed reached across the small distance between the women and wedged itself between Tilly's ribs. It felt wild and raw. She swallowed and took a step back from its intensity.
"Go tighten your bun, Astra," Eloise said. "And you two," she pointed between Esther and Beatrice, "get personalities. Really starting to freak us out."
Then she and Jen turned Tilly in tandem, their backs now to the women as they ended the conversation. Once they were gone, Tilly let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "How much of our souls would be tainted if we dabbled in dark magic?" Jen asked as she watched over her shoulder as the trio descend on little groups like a malignant shadow.
"We'll go get Jessica," Ursula said nodding to Bess. They left the library, pushing out of the dark inside into the dark outside, the fresh air a balm to the stifling energy trapped there.
While Ursula and Bess were on a mission, the rest of them walked back to the house, clear uncertainty swirling around them. The confusion, the hopelessness was living, an animal interrupting their circle.
Tilly replayed the images she'd seen when she touched Astra. They were projections, snapshots from Astra's point of view. She'd known immediately, like the memories had the same imprint of the energy Astra left behind. She had started to notice that everyone had their own force field of energy, unique to them and packaged into a language Tilly understood asfeeling.
Eloise felt like ease and ideas forumalting. Like you were sitting in a cozy coffee shop creating something and you felt that rush of playful genius.
Ursula felt like being steady and sure. That feeling of soft relief after years of struggle or pain, the kind of relief that reminds you how small but important you are.
Being around Jen, she realized, had been her favorite, and maybe she never could pinpoint it before or define it, but Jen's emotional aura made Tilly feel like she was exactly where she was supposed to be. Strutting down the street with a fresh-baked cupcake in one hand, an iced coffee in the other and a book in your bag; that part of reading where you're exactly nineteen percent of the way through and got hooked on the first page-you're invested and still there's the excitement of much more to come. That was Jen. Her best friend had hooked her from page one at that blueberry festival, and she'd swept Tilly along as if they weren't beginning anything, like Tilly had always been there. The ease of being herself after such a traumatic end to part of her had been heart-saving. Or like a confirmation that the first half of her life she hadn't been shown love the way she was meant to. And now she got to look for it.
And Astra left her feeling like the voices in her head were right. That feeling of starting a friendship and the excitement souringto disappointment. Her aura was a woman in her thirties looking around wondering when making friends had become so difficult. It left behind a residue of lost hope and searching for meaning. It truly was a surprisingly emotional thing about the woman who acted cold as ice. But it was also all shadowed, like sunlight hadn't brushed against her in months.
Tilly shook her head. What had she seen and why was something niggling her brain?
"What do we do?" Kelsea asked. Her voice didn't carry.
No one could answer.
They walked through the dark house, the usual coziness sparse, a void-like feeling unfamiliar and unsettling. Lights and candles that usually lit their way remained dark. The rooms were filled with a stale air that gave the feeling of an ancient place undisturbed for too many years. Shadows in the corners seemed thicker and more menacing.
