“I know, Benton. I know.” But then he’s crying, and I can’t breathe. I can’t evenlookat him. I didn’t think it’d be like this. I didn’t think winning would feel so hollow. Behind me everyone is celebrating. Morgan reaches for me, her fingers brushing along my back.
And I. Just. Can’t.
So I run.
When Morgan finds me at the edge of Archer’s property, where the neatly trimmed lawn gives way to wild grasses and the beginnings of a patch of woods, I’m clinging to a low branch for support. I grasp at every element I can touch, begging for their solace, their support. The sky above us is stormy and gray, the air heavy with the promise of rain.
“Hannah?” Morgan approaches cautiously, like she’s worried I might take off again. It wouldn’t matter if I did. With her speed, she’d catch up in an instant.
I stare into the quiet woods, hating myself. It’s stupid to be this miserable. We finally have a way to eliminate the Hunters, a plan that doesn’t lower us to their level of violence. I should be glad. Instead, I’m hiding outside, wiping tears from my face.
Morgan places a gentle hand on the small of my back. “What’s wrong?”
“Besides everything?” I laugh, and it’s a bitter, broken sound. Goddess, I hate this so much. I don’t want to snap at her. She’s done nothing but love me.
The word catches in my mind, the truth of it heavy and scary. I lean my forehead against the tree for support.
“I can’t imagine how hard it is to see him at all, let alone like that, but it worked, Hannah. Your plan worked. He doesn’t remember anything about the Clans, and he wasraisedto hate us. He saw you, and heapologized.” She gently turns me to face her and wipes away the tears I missed. “He’s telling Archer everything. He’ll testify against his parents. You did it.”
The sky rumbles with rolling thunder. Around us, the wind picks up and tosses leaves across the yard. They skitter past in flashes of yellow and red, a whirlwind of fallen sunset. “Then whydoes it feel so shitty?” I ask, leaning forward into her embrace. “Why can’t I be happier about this?”
“Because it still sucks,” she says, rubbing my back until goose bumps prickle up and down my arms. “And because we still have a long way to go before it’s really over.”
She’s right. Having a working potion is not the same as having a plan to make sureevery single Hunteris exposed to it. If it were that simple, the Council would have done this years ago.
Lightning flashes across the sky, and the heavens open. Rain falls in heavy sheets, soaking me in a single breath.
“Come on,” Morgan says, “we should go in.”
But I’m stuck rooted to the now-muddy earth.
“Hannah, let’s go.”
“How were they going to do it?”
Morgan sighs, shivering in the rain. “Who? Do what?”
“The Hunters.” Lightning flashes above us. I flinch and follow Morgan back toward the house. “How were they going to make sure every single witch was exposed to their drug? We know they wanted to make it airborne, so they must have had a plan.”
“I don’t know. Maybe they were going to drop it from the sky?”
A thousand tiny threads unspool in my mind. “But nothing they’ve done makes any sense. Why did they attack Mom’s old coven first when theyknewthere was a coven in Salem? Why give us time to defend ourselves?” There’s no reason the Hunters wouldn’t try to take me out. I was already slated for death, so why avoid me? A sick feeling works through my gut. “What if this goes back further than David’s murder? What if someone has been helping the Hunters the whole time?”
“The Council already cleared Alice and the others. It wasn’tany of them.” Morgan catches me when I nearly slip and fall on my face in the mud. “Why would a witch help the Hunters destroy us? What could they possibly hope to gain by hurting the Clans?”
What is it going to take to convince you?
Dozens of your Elementals have lost their magic.
If there has ever been a time to change our laws, it’s now.
My hands tremble as the Caster’s words ring loudly in my ears. “Elder Keating.”
Morgan pauses beside me, halfway back to Archer’s house. “The Elder?”
With horrifying clarity, all the pieces click into place. “Think about it. The Hunters attacked the only family I have outside Salem the same day she showed up to recruit me. She acted shocked when Riley went after us in Brooklyn, but that’s because he wasn’tsupposedto go. The Hunters went after the Chicago Casters, and that’s where David was from. She must have been trying to hit close to home for him just like she did for me.”
“And then what? When he still refused her, she had him killed?” Morgan sounds skeptical, but there’s a thread of fear in her voice as thunder rumbles again overhead.
