“One day, you will owe me a favor for this. You will give me anything I ask of you,” he said softly.
A chill spread from where his finger touched me, and I reeled back to claw at my throat. Tendrils of darkness spread over my skin, moving down the front of my throat and chest. They curved, dancing over my flesh as they burned a sigil of black into my skin just below my collarbone. It was a pattern of crossed lines, impossible to make sense of while I looked at it upside down. The dark tendrils vanished once they’d marked me with the physical manifestation of my worst fear.
A deal with a demon.
“What of the Coven? They’ll be furious to hear you sent a male witch away,” the other male Vessel muttered, interrupting my horror as I knelt on the pavement.
“What the Coven doesn’t know won’t hurt them. Neither of you are to speak a word of this to anyone. As far as the Coven is concerned, Willow is the last of the Madizza line,” Thorne answered, and there was no hesitation as they nodded their assent. He held out a hand for me, and I swallowed as I studied it. As if it were a snake that might reach out and bite me.
He already had.
“Come, Witchling,” he said as the female Vessel disappeared in a burst of speed. “There are things we must discuss.” I ignored his proffered hand, pushing myself to my feet as he sighed in irritation. “Are you going to make this difficult every step of the way?”
“Most likely,” I said, trying not to think of how weak my voice sounded. I couldn’t muster the energy to give him the snark he deserved, not when everything within me felt raw.
The Coven had taken everything from me. I would make them regret it.
“Hollow’s Grove thrives on structure and order. It is very important that we find a way to maintain those things at all times, even with your rather unwilling addition to our school,” he explained.
A car sped into the parking lot, going far too fast as it skidded to a halt just in front of where we stood. Neither Vessel so much as flinched as Thorne moved toward the rear driver’s side door, grasping the handle and pulling it open.
“Are you going to be a problem for me, Miss Madizza?”
I moved toward the car, stepping close to him as I mustered all that remained of my energy and glared at him. “If it is order that you value, then I will bring you nothing but chaos.”
I smiled, then rolled my eyes at the grin he gave me in return.
I got in the car.
9
WILLOW
The woman driving turned off the main road that led into the town of Salem, Massachusetts, according to the signs. I’d never been there, obviously, having needed to stay as far away from Crystal Hollow as possible. My mom had told me the stories of what had become of the town that had once been the home to our ancestors, how the stories of the witches hanged there had become what the town was known for, and the way tourists flocked there during the entirety of October.
Somehow it felt like the perfect karma to me that the town was known for the people it had tried to rid itself of, the persecutors fading into history. It felt like something that would have brought me peace from beyond the grave.
The Headmaster of Hollow’s Grove sat beside me, typing frantically on his cell phone. His thumbs flew over the screen with speed that should have been impossible, a blur as I swallowed down the surge of unease in my gut.
His face was set into a stern expression, as if whoever waited on the other side of the conversation had annoyed him to no end. His inky, dark hair was subtly swept back from his face, revealing his square jaw and the well-trimmed facial hair that framed it. With a straight nose to fully define his profile, I knew just how difficult my father’s plan would be with him at the helm of the Vessels.
If he knew what I was or what I’d come to do, he’d close the distance between us and tear out my throat before I even had time to beg for my life. The fact that I wasn’t loyal to the Coven any more than I was the Vessels wouldn’t save me.
Not when he discovered I was the one who could Unmake him.
He glanced toward me, forcing me to turn my stare out the window. I swallowed down my irritation that I’d been caught studying him, staring at what I could only assume was a face he was used to using to get his way. Where he probably thought I was interested, I’d only been sizing up the task ahead of me.
Seduce the Vessel.
Find the bones.
Nausea churned in my gut at the thought, at the task my own father had laid out for me. There had to be another way to find them, because the thought of me being able to seduce an immortal creature who looked like that was laughable. Especially when all he really wanted was to eat me.