Page 84 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

The High Witch would be here at sundown to apprehend the other half of his soul.

“Is there something else?” Cady asked gently.

Elle sighed. “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. The High Witch wasn’t the only reason for the lockdown. I remember being a little girl and…hearing something. Someone.”

Cadence and I exchanged glances and waited for Elle to continue.

“I don’t think I am necessarily what the High Witch wants,” the chimera said. “I think I’m a link to something else—something worse.”

“Something worse?” I prompted.

“I had dreams,” Elle explained. “A woman would whisper to me of all the great things we could accomplish. She sounded like me, butnot.She looked like me, butnot.”

A bloody grin flashed in my mind.

“My parents said shutting down my magic would silence her.” Elle swallowed. “I wanted the dreams to stop, so I agreed.”

I clenched my hands into fists, so Elle wouldn’t notice how they shook.

No one would be so foolish as to share that ominous secret andnotexpect to be handed over to the highest witch official on the planet.

Elle was a liar.

She had to be.

???

“There they are,” I said. “They’re heading toward the shore.”

We stood on a cliff on the edge of a forest, overlooking the rocky shores beneath. Movement caught my eye.

“What are they doing?” Cadence asked.

Ryder and Walker carefully climbed down the clusters of huge, black rocks, toward the raging water below. I eyed the waves and shook my head.

“Those will crush them against the rocks,” I said.

“We need to stop them,” Elle agreed.

I glared at her. “Aren’t we your kidnappers? Shouldn’t youwantus dead?”

Please do something unforgiveable,I thought.Do something to show me you’re really a monster.

“I have seen enough death,” Elle replied and faced me. “I do not wish to see more.”

Unable to bear the sorrow in her eyes, I turned back toward Ryder and Walker and cupped my hands around my mouth.

“Walker! Ryder!” I yelled. “Stop!”

Neither of them reacted.

“Walker!” Cady shouted. “Ryder!”

When both of them climbed farther, I muttered an amplification spell and tried again.

“Walker!” I boomed. “Ryder! Stop!”

As they got closer and closer to the crushing waves, fear spiked my heartrate.

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