Page 63 of Fallen Angel

Hannah knew she couldn’t say that to Callan. “Of course not. I’m just making sure you’re truly on our side.” Hannah winced.

“If anyone should be wary, ’tis me of you. You are Raven Harlowe reborn, after all. Pious witch.” He spat out these last words with disdain.

“Mara sent me here with you,” Hannah said. “She trusts me. Does that mean you’re questioning her judgement?” This shut Callan up. She tensed her jaw and focused on the gravel—one foot in front of the other. One step at a time.

Callan was gone. Until she could find a way to free him from Mara’s chains, he was her enemy.

“Let us get to the highest peak and be done with it,” he said.

“Why must it be the highest point of the cliffs?”

“The hope is that your song will blanket over as much of Cape Cove as possible from there. Should Mara desire to expand her hunt, we may eventually travel farther afield.”

“You won’t be…helping?”

“You are the one with prodigy magic,” Callan said. “And you did tell Mara you could reach all the awakened witches with your almighty power.”

“I saidI thinkI’d be able to do it. It’s not like I’ve done this before. What if it doesn’t work?” Hannah felt her magic within her. It was intense and a force to be reckoned with. That, along with her new Siren ability, she did believe she could gather all the witches under her influence. If she did this, then they would all be at Mara’s mercy. She couldn’t let that happen.

“Then you shall have to answer to a disappointed Mara Eden.”

Hannah would be dead in a few days, anyway. What was the worst she could do?

They walked farther along the cliff’s edge than Hannah had before. The campus was merely a backdrop to the wild cliffs. The ocean was so far below that the crashing waves only hummed in comparison to the whistling wind. Her stomach growled, and she realized that she hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday.

“Just up here.” Callan pointed to an elevation in the cliff that hung out beyond its surroundings over the ocean.

Hannah considered jumping. It would keep her from having to call all the witches and absolve her from any responsibility before her expiration date. Six days. That was how much time she had left before she inevitably was killed off.

Hannah wanted to crumble and cry, but she knew she had to remain stoic if she planned to keep up her charade. While Hannah had broken down, she never fully absorbed the fact that she was going to die…and soon. She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to waste what little time she had left feeling devastated, lost, and hopeless. Instead, her and Callan threw themselves into finding a way to break Mara’s curse. How arrogant. As if one impressionable witch susceptible to darkness and a newbie could outsmart the darkest, most powerful witch of all time. Somehow, that quest ended in both of them offering themselves up to save the other. It had clearly worked out well.

But flinging herself off the edge would be the easy way out. If she were to end it all now, Callan would still compel the re-awakened witches. It may take longer, but he and Mara wouldn’t have anyone standing in their way.If the balance between light and darkness is corrupted, then the world may never recover. Hannah held Raven’s words close to her heart. Though Callan had told her a hundred times that her and Raven were one and the same, it had taken Hannah a long time to warm to the idea. Now, she felt Raven within herself, weaving her knowledge and power through her magic. Raven’s cause now consumed Hannah, and she would do whatever she could to fulfill it.

“You are quite silent,” Callan said.

“Just focused on what needs to be done.”

“Good,” he said. Hannah eyed him and reminded herself that his distance and stony demeanor were only temporary.

They strayed off the dirt path as they reached the highest point in the cliffs. Hannah breathed heavily from the steep climb as she hiked through the yellowing grass to the stony overhang. Patches of drying moss were scattered within the dirt and rock. She and Callan stepped onto the ledge that jutted out over the ocean—like a plank leading to impending doom. Hannah’s brain scrambled. She knew it was time for her to use her Siren song to call the witches to Mara. How was she going to get out of this?

“So, what do I do? Just yell for the witches to meet us all back at the library?” Hannah laughed, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

“You cannot be serious.” Callan cocked his head to the side.

Below, waves crashed against the sharp rocks, frothing as they broke.

“I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Callan sighed. “When you are compelling one-on-one, you must simply touch your target and they shall do as you say.”

“Yeah…that’s the part I do know.”

“When your aim is to compel the masses, you must transmit your song from your head,” he said.

When Hannah broke free of Mara’s chains, she banished that song to the deepest depths of her brain, hoping she would never be able to reach it again. But now, Hannah could hear its enticing tone in the back of her mind. It was like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

“Go on,” Callan said, waving her to the edge of the cliff.

---