This Coven Won't Break - Isabel Sterling Page 0,69
a small group on the other side of the yard. One of the kids shifts to the side and reveals a flash of pink hair. Of course. Alice.
The Blood-Witch-turned-illusionist has a large, shiny coin in her hands. She waves it before the crowd of small children, and in the next moment, it vanishes. The kids gasp.
“I don’t get how she’s the same Blood Witch we met in New York.” Veronica sidles up beside me and crosses her arms. “She looks harmless.”
I consider Alice. Her pink hair flows in soft curls past her shoulders today, and though she’s forgone the full three-piece suit, she’s still rocking a teal-and-white-striped blazer over a white button-down and dark-wash jeans. There’s something about her that draws my eye like a magnet. She’s so full of contradictions that I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.
She’s an orphan desperate for connection with her Clan.
An abrasive bully who refuses to call me by my name.
A girl on the edge of fame who still makes time to delight nervous children.
But then I remember her fingers closing around my throat, her Blood Magic scorching through my body, and I shudder. “She’s far from harmless, V. Be careful around her.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice. I have no intention of speaking to her.” Veronica nudges me with her shoulder. “Wanna help me harass Gabe? Mom let slip that he has a crush on a girl in his math class, and it’s my duty as the older sister to pester him until he dies of embarrassment.”
“I’m good. You go ahead.” I don’t have the energy to tease her brother tonight. “But go easy on him. He was always cool about us.”
“Only when you were around.” Veronica tosses her hair over one shoulder. “He was a little shit whenever you weren’t. It’s payback time.”
She gives my hand a squeeze, then weaves through the crowd of witches to her brother, slow and methodical like a lioness stalking her prey. I catch myself laughing, but when I notice Sarah at the edge of the yard, avoiding the rest of the coven, everything inside me goes cold. Not even the warm sun can dispel the deep-seated ice in my heart.
Delighted squeals startle at least half the adults—myself included—then children go scattering in a million directions, their unfocused magic rippling through the earth. The ground trembles until my grandmother shifts her attention and steals the element back from the kids, leaving them with only the air to play with. They shout for Alice to watch, but when I turn to look, her gaze is focused on me.
A sudden touch at my back sends me whirling around. Morgan raises her hands. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
“It’s okay.” I focus on her smile and let it erase all the worries in my head. “I may have to get you jewelry with thousands of tiny bells for the solstice though. You are way too quiet.”
Morgan laughs. “Any idea what Archer wants with all of us?”
Before I can answer, the ground ripples with power. I turn toward the source, and Lady Ariana stands beside Archer, calling us to order. “I think we’re about to find out.”
We gather close, and Archer goes over all the things I already know. That the barrier is coming down. That we’ll need to take extra precautions. That there will be extra security for Veronica and me, including needle-resistant potion on the clothes we’ll wear in court. When Archer mentions the added danger of testifying, Mom shoots me a concerned look from across the yard.
“Excuse me?” A voice interrupts Archer as he’s asking if anyone has questions. The assembled witches turn toward the sound. “Are we in the right place?”
Lexie, a petite Black girl, cautiously approaches from the side of the house. She’s changed her hair since I saw her last—she has long braids now, which she’s wearing in a bun on top of her head—but I’d recognize those sharp, inquisitive brown eyes anywhere. She’s traded the stud in her nose for a thin hoop, and she’s dressed in jeans, red sandals, and an NYU T-shirt.
“Lexie Scott?” Archer asks, crossing the yard to her.
“Yeah. And this is Coral.” She gestures behind her at Coral, a Latinx girl with shoulder-length curls and pink glasses. I hold my breath, waiting for the moment Tori appears behind them. She never comes.
Archer greets them both, and the three speak too quietly to hear. Coral scans the crowd, and her eyes grow wide when she recognizes