This Coven Won't Break - Isabel Sterling Page 0,42

what anyone says, it’s my fault. I’m the one who posted the picture that led Riley right to us. And if I wasn’t so reliant on Morgan’s power to access the elements, I might have stopped them faster. I might have saved Sarah’s magic.

I don’t know how I’ll explain any of this to Mom.

Fresh worry forces me to slip out of Morgan’s bed. I need to get home before Archer or Sarah call my mom and she freaks out that I’m not back yet. I leave Morgan a note on her desk so she doesn’t worry and try to use air magic to see if her parents are awake. The ease I felt last night is gone, and I give up when my hands start to shake. The frustration is almost enough to make me scream, and as soon as I’m in Alice’s rental van, I text Cal and ask if he can meet up later.

I can’t keep fighting this on my own. I can’t fail anyone else the way I failed Sarah.

He doesn’t answer right away, so I drive the rental back to my house. Mom wasn’t expecting me home until this afternoon, so I cross everything that she’s still asleep. With any luck, I can slip in, grab a quick shower, and head to Cal’s before Mom wakes up.

The lock clicks, I ease open the door, and—

“Hannah? Is that you?”

Shit. “Hey, Mom.” I try to inject cheer into my voice, but I don’t think I succeed.

Mom appears from the kitchen with a cup of coffee. She’s still in a matching set of red plaid pajamas with gray slippers on her feet. “You’re home early,” she says carefully, glancing out the front window. “Whose car is that? Where’s Sarah?”

“Umm . . .” I glance out the window and wish, not for the first time, that I was good at lying. But since I’m not—and Mom has perfected her bullshit meter from working with college students—I sigh and settle on the truth. “There were a few complications.”

“Complications,” Mom echoes, raising an unamused brow. “Care to explain?”

I fidget under her attention, tracing the edge of the house key still clutched in my hand. “Not really.”

Mom pulls out one of her signature glares, an expression I haven’t seen leveled at me since before Dad died. “Sit,” she says, pointing at the lumpy couch that came with this rental. “Explain.”

So I do. I try to downplay everything that happened in Brooklyn, but it’s hard to minimize a covenmate losing her magic and Hunters planning to create an airborne drug that will wipe out the entirety of the North American Witch Clans.

To her credit, Mom sits beside me on the couch and listens without interrupting. When I’m done, she’s quiet for a long time. She sips her coffee and rubs her eyes like this is all a bad dream, and if she tries hard enough, it’ll fade back into mist. “I think I missed something, Han. Why didn’t Sarah or Ryan bring you home? Why do you have the van?”

I cringe. I was trying to avoid this part. “One of the Hunters is Morgan’s ex. Seeing him really upset her, so I drove her home.”

Mom nearly chokes on her coffee. She sets her cup on the side table and crosses her arms. Her expression should look ridiculous in her plaid pajamas and sleep-mussed hair, but is actually terrifying. “Why was Morgan there? That was never part of the plan.”

“She went with me to New York?” I don’t mean to, but my voice raises at the end, turning my words into a question. “We thought having another Blood Witch would help get Alice to agree. Which worked, by the way. Alice is going to help us.”

“I really wish you had called me. I shouldn’t have to wait hours to find out my daughter was attacked by Witch Hunters. Or that a covenmate lost her magic.” Mom glances at the clock on the adjacent wall. Her brow furrows. “What time did you drop off Morgan?”

I swallow, glancing at my phone. It’s still really early, but I spent hours with Morgan. “I don’t know exactly.”

Mom’s glare sharpens. “Guess.”

“Four?”

“Four?!” Mom lets out a slow breath, and I can feel how hard she’s trying not to yell. How much effort it’s taking to stay calm as she massages her temples. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

My blush answers for me, and Mom sighs. “Please tell me you at least used protection.”

“Mom!”

“I know you girls can’t accidentally get pregnant,