This Coven Won't Break - Isabel Sterling Page 0,99
truth of it heavy and scary. I lean my forehead against the tree for support.
“I can’t imagine how hard it is to see him at all, let alone like that, but it worked, Hannah. Your plan worked. He doesn’t remember anything about the Clans, and he was raised to hate us. He saw you, and he apologized.” She gently turns me to face her and wipes away the tears I missed. “He’s telling Archer everything. He’ll testify against his parents. You did it.”
The sky rumbles with rolling thunder. Around us, the wind picks up and tosses leaves across the yard. They skitter past in flashes of yellow and red, a whirlwind of fallen sunset. “Then why does it feel so shitty?” I ask, leaning forward into her embrace. “Why can’t I be happier about this?”
“Because it still sucks,” she says, rubbing my back until goose bumps prickle up and down my arms. “And because we still have a long way to go before it’s really over.”
She’s right. Having a working potion is not the same as having a plan to make sure every single Hunter is exposed to it. If it were that simple, the Council would have done this years ago.
Lightning flashes across the sky, and the heavens open. Rain falls in heavy sheets, soaking me in a single breath.
“Come on,” Morgan says, “we should go in.”
But I’m stuck rooted to the now-muddy earth.
“Hannah, let’s go.”
“How were they going to do it?”
Morgan sighs, shivering in the rain. “Who? Do what?”
“The Hunters.” Lightning flashes above us. I flinch and follow Morgan back toward the house. “How were they going to make sure every single witch was exposed to their drug? We know they wanted to make it airborne, so they must have had a plan.”
“I don’t know. Maybe they were going to drop it from the sky?”
A thousand tiny threads unspool in my mind. “But nothing they’ve done makes any sense. Why did they attack Mom’s old coven first when they knew there was a coven in Salem? Why give us time to defend ourselves?” There’s no reason the Hunters wouldn’t try to take me out. I was already slated for death, so why avoid me? A sick feeling works through my gut. “What if this goes back further than David’s murder? What if someone has been helping the Hunters the whole time?”
“The Council already cleared Alice and the others. It wasn’t any of them.” Morgan catches me when I nearly slip and fall on my face in the mud. “Why would a witch help the Hunters destroy us? What could they possibly hope to gain by hurting the Clans?”
What is it going to take to convince you?
Dozens of your Elementals have lost their magic.
If there has ever been a time to change our laws, it’s now.
My hands tremble as the Caster’s words ring loudly in my ears. “Elder Keating.”
Morgan pauses beside me, halfway back to Archer’s house. “The Elder?”
With horrifying clarity, all the pieces click into place. “Think about it. The Hunters attacked the only family I have outside Salem the same day she showed up to recruit me. She acted shocked when Riley went after us in Brooklyn, but that’s because he wasn’t supposed to go. The Hunters went after the Chicago Casters, and that’s where David was from. She must have been trying to hit close to home for him just like she did for me.”
“And then what? When he still refused her, she had him killed?” Morgan sounds skeptical, but there’s a thread of fear in her voice as thunder rumbles again overhead.
“Maybe. It makes as much sense as anything else.”
Morgan glances nervously at the house. “I don’t know, Hannah. That seems so . . .”
“Evil?” I supply, fury rising. My magic joins the already howling wind, and it tears at my clothes. “When I dropped out of the raid, she must have broken Benton out of jail to make sure I’d go.” My breaths go shallow, and my heart beats too fast. Too hard. My knees go weak.
She wanted me captured.
She probably wanted me dead.
“Hannah, you have to breathe.” Morgan’s magic floods through me, settling my panic enough so I can grab hold of the threads we’ve started to weave.
“It was her, Morgan. All of it. She’s the reason Archer lost his magic. I’m supposed to be dead right now.”
“But why? What could she possibly gain from doing all this?”
“You heard her. She’s been fighting with the Council about going public. She’s trying to force