Page 63 of The Secret Life of a Witch

“On a path.”

“Eva, please,” she pleads, her body starting to fade. “I need you to think harder. Did you see anything that perhaps stood out? Like a sign, or a marker, or a mountain?”

“I was blacked out for most of the journey,” I admit, picking at the hole in the hem of my shorts. “When I woke up, I was in a bed, in a cave, and there were a bunch of burns in my clothing.”

“Burns in your clothes?” She pauses, deliberating. Then her eyes light up. “Oh, my God, you’re probably at Fire Mountain.”

“Fire Mountain? What the hell is that? And why have I never heard of it?”

“Because it’s demon territory, and people in Mystic Willow Bay rarely talk about demons.”

“Unless they’re in that society, right?” My tone carries bitterness. When she winces, I feel sort of bad. “Sorry.”

She shakes her head, her hair blowing into her eyes. “You have every right to be angry with us. I just hope, after some time, you can forgive us.”

I remain quiet, unsure of what to say, mostly because part of me is still skeptical she’s telling the truth now. Perhaps she’s pretending to care about me so I’ll help her figure out where I am.

What I really want to know is why they want to rescue me so badly? Is it because they care about me? Or is there more to it? And why did they go through all the trouble to protect me from the demons for all these years? Was it even about protecting me?

So many unanswered questions.

“I know you have questions,” Ryleigh says, as if reading my mind. “I promise we’ll talk more when I see you.”

Her words remind me that I still need to save her once I get back to Mystic Willow Bay, which I plan on doing. Mad at her or not, I’m not going to let her stay dead.

“But, Eva, I need you to do something for me, okay?” she asks in desperation.

“Okay,” I answer with wariness. “What?”

“I need you not to use your magic at all. Even if the demon tries to force you to, pretend you don’t know how.”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” I assure her. “I don’t have my wand.”

“Not your witch’s power,” she says in a rush as her body flickers in and out of focus. “Your demon power.”

“Demon power? I don’t have demon power.” My brows dip together. “Do I?”

“We don’t know for sure what you can do,” she explains. “But now that you’re around a demon, he could get your demon powers to manifest. And since we’re not positive what you are … Well, we don’t want the demons finding out first.”

“You think I can do something bad?” I massage my aching chest.

Oh, my God. What am I?

“We don’t really know,” she says quietly. “All we know is that the demons have been trying to get ahold of you for years, ever since the society took you from that lair. And now that one of them has you …” She gulps. “You need to be careful, okay?”

“Okay, I can do that.” At least, I think I can.

The truth is, I’ve never had much control over my powers. And honestly, whether it makes me evil or not, part of me is curious to find out what I can do.

No, I can’t do it. Whether I want to find out or not is beside the point. The point is, demons are evil and any power of theirs that I harbor has to be evil as well.

Wait, does that make me evil?

“I have to go,” Ryleigh whispers as her body fades back into a shadow. “I’ll try to visit you again when you’re asleep, but mypowers are weak now that I’m dead, and I don’t know if I can get back?—”

The wind picks up and gusts her body away like pieces of dirt and sand, leaving me standing alone in the field.

Part of me wishes I could stay here forever. That I will never have to return to Max; will never have to return to Ryleigh, Hunter, and my family; will never have to deal with the truth.

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