Page 22 of The Cursed

"Now, what are you going to do about it?"

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"The houses are fighting for power," Della admitted when I'd subsided my crying. My face felt puffy, my eyes swollen and dry, yet I felt more grounded than I had since waking up after my death. I had a purpose again, a reason to keep going.

I was going to make himhurt.

I would make him feel every bit of pain he'd caused me.

"Let me guess, Headmaster Thorne is encouraging the infighting?" I asked, rolling my eyes. Occasionally, I wondered how he and the archdemons had survived this long if all they wanted to do was kill.

"No, actually," Nova explained, raising her brow at me. "He's trying to keep the witches from fighting themselves and the Vessels and demons. He claims that there is far more reason our kinds should be able to live together in harmony now than there has ever been. Do you know what he means by that?"

"He means that Lucifer has taken a witch for his bride," Juliet said, coming into the room and taking up residence in a chair on the other side of the coffee table. She lounged, propping her feet over one of the arms and draping her back over the other to stretch. Della tracked the movement for what it was.

A tease meant for her.

Juliet grinned, knowing she'd had the desired effect as she righted herself and leaned forward.

"But who would he have married? We both know he's been obsessing over Willow..." Della said, silencing when Juliet raised her brow in challenge.

"You?" Margot asked.

"It isn't like witch marriages. There's no ceremony. He marked me in adream. I didn't even know what it meant, at the time," I explained, trying to make them understand how the hell I'd let this happen.

"That didn't stop you from marking him back," Juliet said, smirking at my discomfort.

"I didn't know what I was doing. My magic has a mind of its own now," I said, shame heating my cheeks. I peeked at each and every one of my friends’ faces, expecting judgment, but only finding sympathy.

They all remembered what it was like when we turned sixteen and suddenly came into our powers, that overwhelming feeling that we were no longer alone in our bodies. I had more magic than any of them even before the Hecate bones locked around my neck, except after it, it was like drowning in an endless well I could never climb out of.

"That's fair," Juliet said, nodding her head in agreement. I sighed in relief, grateful that she'd decided to stop pressing me. "But when the magic wants something, the heartwillfollow."

"Enough, Juliet," Della said, giving her a stern look. Juliet raised her hands to say she was done, shocking me with her respect for my friend.

"Then he wants you to rule at his side," Nova said, shrugging her shoulders. "You have to do it, Willow."

"What? The Coven barely knows who I am. There's no way they'll agree to follow me," I said.

"Some will, just from the power they will know, especially after revealing yourself wearing those bones. Witches are dying in trying to kill the archdemons. You have the chance to bring peace between us all," she said, shaking her head. It was clear that she hated what had become of the Coven, the displays of violence for the sole purpose of gaining power. Turning on our own had been a crime once in our history, so maybe it was time to make it happen again.

"Weren't you just asking me what I was going to do to get even?"

"I didn't say not to fight. I just said bring peace to our people whileyouwork to take out the source of the issue. We need to get rid of the archdemons and do it as efficiently as possible," she said, glancing at Margot at my side.

Juliet raised her brow at Nova, seeming to challenge her openness in admitting she wanted a coup. Nova raised hers back, a silent reminder thateveryoneexpected us to fight. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Margot stiffened when I shifted to look at her, observing as she shrank back inside herself. "Is one of them bothering you?"

"He's been as kind as he can be, I think. Although he's made his intentions clear," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "If I were anyone else, he wouldn't have done anything wrong. Nova is just protective."

"As she should be," I said, pulling Margot's arms down to release her hold on herself. "You are in charge of who is allowed in your space. Not a fucking archdemon. Which one is it, anyway?"

"Beelzebub,” Nova said, crossing her arms over her chest. She seemed to be in the same camp as me as I shook my head at Margot.

“I think the fuck not,” I said, earning a startled, uncomfortable chuckle.

“I’m fully aware they’re all bad news, Willow,” she said, her voice going quieter with the uncertainty. “He’s respectful of my need for distance, even though I’ve never told him where it comes from.”

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