anything.” Alice’s voice is muffled but close. So close.
A tremor of fear covers my skin in goose bumps. I remember her strength, her grip tight around my throat. The bloody runes she sketched along the Casters’ walls.
I gesture for Morgan to say something. Anything.
“It’s a gift,” she says, scrambling. “A fan . . . from your show . . . he, um, he asked us to send it to your room.”
One beat of silence. Two.
The chain lock glides free and the door swings open. Alice stands there, still in her suit, though she’s discarded her tie and braided her pink hair so that it falls over one shoulder. “You can put it on the desk.”
Morgan casts me a worried look, and Alice follows her gaze. Confusion creases her brow, but I see the moment she places my face, her hands curling into fists. “You.”
“Don’t freak out.” I lift my arms in surrender. “We just want to talk.”
“Eat shit, fire bitch.” Alice slams the door.
I rush forward and shove my foot into the frame as it’s closing. Pain shoots up my leg, and I try to push my way inside. “I can’t leave until you hear me out.”
The door swings open, and Alice moves faster than I can track. She hauls me inside and closes her fingers around my throat. She squeezes tight, lifting me up the wall until my toes barely scrape the ground. “I have nothing to say to you.”
The worst kind of déjà vu consumes me. Alice’s grip cuts off my air, stealing my reply with no care for the consequences of using her magic against another witch.
“What are you doing?” Morgan drops the bucket of ice, and pieces slide over the wood floor. She slams the door closed behind her. “Put her down.”
“Back the hell up, earth princess. Or your friend gets a broken neck.” Alice’s Blood Magic seizes control of my body, forcing bone and muscle to move under her direction. Pain screams through my body, and I lose contact with the floor. Lose the ability to breathe.
Morgan rushes us, twisting Alice’s wrist until the pressure around my neck releases. I drop to the floor, coughing as air rushes back into my lungs.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Morgan shoves Alice back a few steps and positions herself between the two of us. “But I won’t let you touch her.”
“Who says I have to touch her?” Alice’s expression shifts, a feral flash of teeth masquerading as a grin. Then my whole body trembles as my muscles contract tighter and tighter and tighter. A scream gets trapped at the back of my throat. I shut my eyes against the pain, tiny shooting stars flying behind closed lids.
Her power is an invasion, foreign and grating against each cell of my body. I reach for the elements, trying to steal the air from her lungs. To freeze the water in her blood. Anything. But I can’t find them through the agony, can’t concentrate on anything, not even my own breath.
There’s a scuffle above me. The crunch of bone and a sharp intake of breath. Then the pain in my body fades, replaced by the thrum of Morgan’s magic. It spreads like a gentle stream, soothing the ache in my muscles, but it doesn’t do anything to help with the headache already pounding at the base of my skull. When I manage to open my eyes, Alice is glaring down at me, wiping blood from beneath her nose.
“You brought a Blood Witch this time.” Derision drips off her words. “Smart.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Morgan asks before I can launch into the speech I’ve been practicing all week. “How can you use your magic like that? That’s not what our Clan is supposed to be. Not anymore.”
Alice glares at Morgan and perches on the edge of her mattress. There are two large trunks beside the bed, presumably filled with supplies for her show. I can’t imagine it’s all clothes. “And you’re not supposed to turn on another Blood Witch in favor of some . . .” Alice waves dismissively in my direction. “Some hotheaded flower child.”
“I’m—”
“Hannah is not a hothead. You’re the one who attacked her when all we wanted was to ask for your help.” Morgan crosses her arms. She’s a little scary when she’s furious, but it’s also kind of cute.
“My help?” Alice laughs, yet somehow even that sounds cruel. “That’s perfect. Of course she wants my help. Do you have any idea what she tried to do to