The Witch is Back

Chapter Fifteen




I wanted to tell all the others about Brooklyn right away. About her attack on me and about her special powers. But Abby made it pretty clear that this might not go over as well as I hoped it would.

“I get that you were totally freaked out back there, but Had—nobody locked you in that shower,” she said gently after I brought up filling the Cleri in. “I barely had to pull on it for it to open. And if you accuse Brooklyn when she wasn’t even in the vicinity, you’re just going to look jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” I said between clenched teeth, trying to sound convincing.

“I’m not saying you are. But that’s what it will look like,” Abby said. “And I told you about Brooklyn in confidence. We may not be all that close anymore, but I don’t usually go around telling other people’s business.”

As much as I didn’t want it to be true, she was right. On both accounts. I would need proof to show the others if I wanted their support in taking her down.

So I kept my mouth shut. For now.



The rest of the week went by in a blur. We filled our days with magic and casting, and our nights with research. But my mind just wasn’t in it. Instead, I spent every waking moment obsessing over what I’d learned about Brooklyn. Discovering that she could cast “lust” spells on top of the fact that she was gorgeous, manipulative, and interested in getting Asher back did nothing to ease my mind. In fact, it sort of drove me even crazier.

I found myself studying Brooklyn during magic sessions. I craned to overhear her conversations in case she was talking about breaking Asher and me up. There wasn’t a time I felt I could let down my guard, which meant that I was constantly on edge. It was wreaking havoc on both my personal life and my body, since stress was the leading cause of binge eating among teens. And girls. And especially teen girls.

It was also about to get worse.

“Omigod, I would die for that purse!”

Excited chatter broke through my thoughts, snapping me back to the present. Colette and I were lounging around in the sun during an unexpected break in our day; I was working on my tan and she was working on her witch history assignment. It had been relatively quiet for the past ten minutes, which had allowed me a few minutes of peace. But as things grew rowdy nearby, I found my eyes opening and zeroing in on a group of girls headed our way from the main cabin.

Then I did a double-take as my brain tried to process what it was seeing.

“Did I fall asleep?” I asked out loud. Because there, coming toward us, were Sascha, Jasmine, Jinx, Abby . . . and Brooklyn and Eve. “Seriously. Please tell me this is a nightmare and that it’s not really happening. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

I squeezed my eyes shut again, hoping that what I was seeing would disappear by the time I opened them. Unfortunately, all that happened was that the group was suddenly closer to us. And louder. I could fully hear everything they were saying now.

“One of my mom’s friends works at Dooney & Bourke and calls me whenever a new bag comes in,” Brooklyn said, gesturing to the hot dog-shaped purse. “I could probably get you one if you wanted.”

Sascha was practically salivating at this. I used to think her enthusiasm for pop culture and popularity was cute—when it was me she was following around. But now that she was applying to be Brooklyn’s personal shadow, it just seemed unattractive. The others didn’t seem nearly as impressed, but when Brooklyn handed them her bag to try on for themselves, their smiles didn’t lie. They were enjoying themselves. Even Jasmine, our resident goth-girl-who-hated-everything-and-everyone-that-wasn’t-her, didn’t seem all that put off by Supermodel Barbie.

“Nothing says fabulous like D&B.” Eve nodded. “If we all had matching ones, it could be like the official bag for twitches.”

“Well, the fabulous twitches, anyway.”

Brooklyn’s eyes met mine briefly as she said this, but it was so subtle that I was the only one who seemed to see it. I had to hand it to the girl: she was good. Making friends with my friends so it would piss me off? Smart plan. Too bad it wasn’t going to work.


It wasn’t going to work, was it?

They were nearing where Colette and I were sitting now, still chatting about the stupid bag.

I scowled. Then my scowl turned into a narrow-eyed death stare. As if on cue, they all seemed to see me at the same time and guilt immediately crept over their faces. Well, everyone’s but Jasmine’s, but she never felt bad about anything.

“Okay, well, let me know what colors you guys want and I’ll go ahead and order them. I bet we could get them here before the end of the session,” Brooklyn said, ignoring the fact that they’d stopped right in front of us. Then, with a wave that would put Miss America to shame, she turned and sashayed away, Eve right beside her.

Sascha, Jinx, Jasmine, and Abby all took their places on the grass beside me. Sascha lay back dramatically on the grass, closing her eyes to the sun. I knew that she was really just avoiding eye contact with me. Hello, it was obvious.

I observed each of them individually, waiting for some kind of explanation that would make sense of what I’d just seen.

“What’s with all the staring?” Jasmine asked abruptly.

“What’s with the new friends?” I responded.

Jasmine snorted and then leaned back so she was resting on her elbows. “Dude, you have got to put an end to the crazy,” she answered.

“What’s crazy is that it seems like you guys are making nice with her,” I said. “And she’s not a nice girl, trust me. You’ve seen how she acts toward me.”

“Yeah, how she acts toward you,” Jasmine pointed out.

“She’s always nice to me,” Sascha added, still refusing to open her eyes. “Maybe you’re wrong about her, Hadley.”

“I’m not. I’ve been watching her and everything she does is sneaky. . . . ,” I started.

“You might want to watch it, Had,” Jasmine warned, cutting me off. “You’re officially entering stalker territory.”

“You’re totally exaggerating,” I said, although I was spending an inordinate amount of time studying Brooklyn when she didn’t think I was watching her. “Tell her, guys.”

I turned to the others, expecting them to back me up. But Jinx and Abby were looking anywhere but at me, while Sascha pursed her lips like she was physically trying to keep them closed. My face dropped as I realized they all agreed with her.

“You’re losing your edge, Had,” Jasmine said, pulling the sunglasses that had been up on top of her head down and over her eyes. “You didn’t even let Parris rattle you like this when he was around. And this is just the witch next door.”

“That’s not true,” I said forcefully. “Brooklyn’s much more dangerous than any of you know. I didn’t want to have to tell you this, but she attacked me earlier this week. And she’s got some special . . . skills that could put all of us at risk.”

I didn’t tell them that she was actually a scary cupid. I was aware of how silly it sounded and I needed them to listen to me right now.

“She attacked you?” Jinx asked, worried.

Finally! Thank you.

“Yeah,” I answered. I hadn’t wanted to go there, but if they wanted the truth, I’d give it to them. We’d learned through the fight with the Parrishables that when one person was threatened it affected all of us. They deserved to know who Brooklyn really was.

“Well, what’d she do?” Jasmine asked, her eyebrow arched up above her dark glasses.

“She nearly drowned me in the bathroom.” I proceeded to tell them about the incident in the shower, including the message that had appeared on the inside of the door and the fact that my magic had been blocked.

“I don’t know, Hadley,” Sascha said slowly. “Sort of sounds like one big bathroom failure. How would she know you were even in there in the first place?”

“My towel was hanging over the door in clear view . . . and the glass is basically see-through,” I said, arguing my case. “Or she could have followed me in.”

“Not everyone follows you around everywhere,” Jasmine said sarcastically.

“What kind of superpowers does she have?” Sascha asked, suddenly interested in the topic.

“She’s like a modern-day Cupid. Abby said she can make people fall for each other. She can match anyone,” I said.

“I thought love spells didn’t exist,” Colette said thoughtfully, speaking up for the first time since we’d all started arguing. So far she was the only one who wasn’t giving me a hard time about everything.

“So that’s what this is really about,” Jasmine said, like it was all becoming clear to her.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re worried about Brooklyn using her powers to go after Asher.”

My mouth dropped open at what she was implying. “Not just Asher. She could do it to any of you. Do you really want her playing with your lives like that?”

Sascha closed her eyes again dreamily. “I wouldn’t mind if she put the love whammy on me and Dane,” she said. “In fact, I might just have to talk to her about that. . . .”

“It’s not right, Sascha,” I growled, annoyed that she wasn’t taking this seriously.

“Ugh. I take it back. You’re not losing your edge at all,” Jasmine said dramatically. “You’re still just as bossy as ever.”

I sighed, feeling like the conversation had completely gotten away from me. I needed to get them to work with me on this, be on my side. And I wasn’t going to instill this sort of loyalty by fighting with them.

No. A good leader knew how to get things done.

“Fine,” I said, conceding. “I’m hearing you. And you want the old Hadley back? Well, I’m all yours. In fact, it’s been a while since we went over the protection and location spells for Samuel and the Parrishables. Why don’t we scrounge the others up and make sure everything’s still quiet?”

Jasmine looked like she hadn’t exactly gotten what she’d wanted in the deal, but she kept her mouth shut for the time being.

“When do you want to meet?” Jinx asked.

“Tonight,” I said. “You wanted me back, so let’s get to work.”