The Coven (Coven of Bones, #1)(38)

But Willow just stared in silence, her gaze remaining fixated when others were driven to look away from the blood and gore. As if she couldn’t take her gaze off it. “There’s no sign of her heart anywhere,” she said, rocking back onto her heels as she finally turned that inquisitive stare away. “What happened to it?”

She touched a gentle, probing finger to the slash marks across the witch’s chest, the grooves far too deep to have been made by anything human.

“We haven’t found it,” Susannah answered, snapping out of her trance and stepping forward. She grasped Willow by the forearm, attempting to drag her to her feet as I fought against the urge to tear her bones off the Witchling.

“Why don’t you tell us what you did with it, girl?” Bray asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You think I did this?” Willow asked, her voice rising as if she couldn’t stop the ripple of shock that stole through her body.

“You made an offering and days later, a witch is dead in the same spot. I do not think that a coincidence,” Bray said, glaring at Willow.

She quirked her brow as she rose to her feet, tipping her head to the side in a way that was far more primal than any witch I’d ever seen. Something about the angle made my spine tingle with awareness, with the knowledge that Bray had made a grave mistake.

“If I wanted to kill someone, it wouldn’t be a witch I didn’t even know,” she said, and I watched as she clenched her jaw. “If I kill, I won’t be stupid enough to leave the body lying around.”

“Enough,” Susannah said, sighing as she glared at Iban’s uncle.

The elder Bray didn’t hesitate to clamp his mouth shut, silencing whatever retort he’d been prepared to deliver. It entertained me greatly that Willow was destined to sit on the Tribunal with him upon completion of her studies at Hollow’s Grove, that as the only remaining Madizza witch, she would become his equal immediately upon graduation.

It would serve him right.

“Willow has no motivation for killing one of the Thirteen,” Susannah said.

“Perhaps she’s killing off those she is in direct competition with, getting rid of anyone who may pose a threat to her interests,” Itar Bray said, and the smirk that came over his voice was nothing short of cruel. “Iban was quite cozy with Miss Sanders before you arrived at Hollow’s Grove.”

He watched Willow, waiting for the moment when her hurt showed, where she crumpled like the jealous schoolgirl he clearly thought her to be. Instead, she jerked her arm away from the Covenant, stepping toward Itar until she stopped directly before him and glared up into his smug face. He had the common sense to falter in that look, his mouth twitching as she smiled.

“What on earth makes you think I give a single fuck who Iban spent time with before he knew me?” She pressed up onto her toes, leaning closer as I fought back the rumble of laughter that fought to break free from my chest.

I didn’t know what I’d expected when the Covenant sent me to retrieve the sole remaining Madizza witch, but it definitely hadn’t been Willow with earth in her heart but fire in her blood.

“Are you not jealous that your prospective mate was cozy with another woman so recently?” Bray asked.

“I think I’m far more concerned with your preoccupation with my love life,” Willow said, backing away with a grimace. She turned away, leaving his question unanswered for a moment as she moved to pass Susannah and George. “But to answer your question, no. I am not bothered. Unlike some here, I know it’s far more fun when you’re willing to share.”

I choked. The look on Bray’s face as she strode past me was nothing short of incredulous, and Willow left us behind without a second thought.

“Follow her,” Susannah ordered, and it took me gathering myself for a moment to remember to swallow before my sharp laughter followed after the Witchling. “The school is no longer safe for Willow. Maintaining her safety is now our greatest priority.”

“Shouldn’t you be concerned about the other eleven students remaining who may be slaughtered and harvested for organs at any given time?” I asked, but I’d already turned to follow after Willow. The Covenant didn’t need to know of the bargain we’d struck, or that I had a very vested interest in keeping Willow safe from harm because of it.

“The other eleven students are not the last of an entire bloodline. You know what happens with each one that is lost.” Susannah’s voice followed after me. It was not lost on me that Willow would not welcome my presence in her room.

It also wasn’t lost on me that Willow could do whatever she wanted. She could commit nearly any crime within the walls of Hollow’s Grove, and she would survive the aftermath.

The Coven’s desperation to restore her blood had created the perfect weapon to bring about the downfall of everything they’d created—corrupted. She would either be their undoing or our salvation, and the most satisfying part of it all was that they wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop her when she took everything from them.

She wouldn’t settle for anything less.





19





WILLOW





I shuddered. The voice that surrounded me was so unfamiliar. It took me moments to realize it wasn’t mine, though it came from me. The husky, feminine sound that clawed its way up my throat wasn’t mine. I pressed a hand to my throat, attempting to trap the foreign sound there; to keep it from making the air around me feel as if it burned with the fires of Hell itself.