Page 131 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

“That’s okay,” she said in a high, tight voice. It wasnotokay—none of this was—and we both knew it. “Think it over. Worse comes to worse, they’ll have to let us out sometime. As soon as the wards are open, we strike.”

I nodded. “There was a witch who came by when we first got here. She said the High Witch would be glad we finally arrived. Cordelia wants us for something.”

Freya’s face fell. “This was all a trap. And we don’t even have my coven or Ryder’s pack to back us.”

I grabbed her hand through the bars. “We have each other.”

She nodded halfheartedly.

“We survived Josephine,” I reminded her. “We’ll survive this.”

“I just wish I knew whatthisis,” Freya said. “I feel like we have half the pieces of a huge puzzle.”

“Maybe we have all the pieces,” I suggested. “Or, at least most of them. Maybe we just need to figure out how they all fit together.”

Freya nodded, this time with more exuberance.

“The High Witch wanted the chimera,” Freya said. “Apparently, all the Leaders do.”

“Elle’s power is on lockdown,” I added, “to help her hide and to keep her from being influenced by the sorceress.”

“Yes.” Freya gasped. “I think I saw her—in the dream I shared with Cadence. I thought it was Elle, but…not.”

“A doppelganger,” Cady suggested. She ran her fingers through her bedhead hair and sat up.

“Hmm,” Freya mused. “I thought they’d been outlawed, but apparently warlocks are something that exists, so anything’s on the table.”

“Wait,” I said, “isn’t a doppelganger a twin?”

“Kind of,” Cady answered. “We just read about them inFantastical Creatures of the Sixteenth Century.They’re reincarnations of powerful beings.”

As we spoke across his cell, Ryder stirred and rubbed his eyes.

“Some creatures possess such great magic,” Freya added, “that their power lives on even when that creature dies, so they’re reborn.”

“Like, if it has kids?” I asked.

Cady shook her head. “No. They can crop up in any family. No one knows how their new existence is chosen. It’s why they’re so dangerous.”

“They never really die,” Freya said. “When one falls, another is born.”

“So,” I said, “Elle could be a doppelganger.”

“It fits with the limited information we have,” Freya agreed.

“Elle’s not just a doppelganger,” Ryder argued. “She’s a wolf.”

“She’s a chimera,” Freya argued, “and she’s the only one of her kind, yet Marie and Madame LaLaurie spoke ofthechimera as a problem that has plagued the High Witch for far longer than the past few years.”

"Right," I said. "Madame Creepy told you the chimera has been a problem for longer than you could comprehend."

“Surely if Elle's power was that of a doppleganger's,” Cady argued, “no spell would be able to contain it.”

“None of this even matters,” Ryder grumbled. “What matters is getting out of here. Why don’t we talk about that?”

“It matters what she is,” Freya said. “It matters what we unleash upon the world—”

“Great,” Ryder snarled. “We’ve had a hiccup in the plan, and you’re ready to ditch my mate again. You’re a shitty friend, Freya—”

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