Page 29 of A Touch of Madness

“Lara’s been pretending to be me,” I snap, pacing back and forth. “She broke into the admin office, tried to steal records, or tamper with them, or something, and now I’m the one getting suspended for it!”

Nicole closes the door quietly. “We were going to tell you.”

I stop in my tracks. “Tell me what?” I demand, spinning around to face her. “How does everyone always know shit before I do?”

They look at each other and sigh, and it feels vaguely like when we first met, when they were keeping the fact that they are witches from me.

“Lara tried to pretend to be you with us, too,” Rebecca says, standing up. “We have no idea what her end game was, but we sensed it immediately. We could tell it wasn’t you.”

Nicole shrugs. “We wanted to tell you but not like this. You’ve been through hell, Sylvie. We didn’t want to make things worse.”

“Worse?” I laugh bitterly. “I just got kicked out of school—indefinitely. How much worse could it possibly get?”

Nicole steps forward, placing a hand on my shoulder. Her touch was meant to be grounding, but I shrug her off, too wound up to be consoled.

“We didn’t think she’d go this far,” Nicole says quietly.

“But she did,” I snap. “And now I’m the one paying for it. What the hell was she trying to do? Why would she risk everything like that?”

Rebecca and Nicole exchange a glance, one of those silent conversations that I’m not a part of. It only makes my anger burn hotter.

“Don’t do that,” I say, pointing at them. “Don’t talk around me. If you know something, just say it.”

Rebecca sighs, crossing her arms. “We didn’t want to worry you, but it wasn’t just once. It was twice.”

My stomach drops. “When did it happen?”

“About a week ago and then again yesterday,” Nicole says. “She stopped by here first. Said she needed supplies for?—”

“‘A memory enhancement spell,’” Rebecca says flatly. “She said she assumed we had a way of getting it.”

I blink, confused. “What would she need that for?”

“No idea,” Rebecca says. “But we didn’t give her anything. We knew it wasn’t you. Her energy was… wrong.”

I sink into the nearest chair, my knees suddenly too weak to hold me up. “She’s losing it,” I whisper. “I thought maybe… I don’t know, maybe there was still a part of her that could be saved, but…”

Nicole kneels in front of me, her face soft with concern. “She can still be saved. But you can’t start giving up now. You’ve done so much and this isn’t your fault.”

“Isn’t it?” I ask, my voice cracking. “She’s my sister. My twin. We used to be inseparable, and now she’s—” I cut myself off, shaking my head. “I should have seen this coming. I should have stopped her.”

“There’s no stopping someone like Lara,” Rebecca says, her voice sharper than Nicole’s. “Not when she’s made up her mind about something and she’s being controlled by Solstice.”

I slump against the wall, my head spinning as I recount what happened in Fallon’s office. “She was pretending to be me to get a spell. A memory enhancement spell. Why?” I ask, my voice trembling. “What would she need that for?”

Rebecca and Nicole exchange a glance, their expressions grave. This time, I don’t bother snapping at them for their silent communication. I’m too drained to care.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Nicole says, pacing the room. “Unless she was trying to piece something together for herself… Maybe something she’s forgotten?”

“She’s working with the Solstice Society,” Rebecca points out, sitting cross-legged on the couch. “If they’re involved, it’s more than likely part of a larger plan.”

“But why me?” I ask, pushing off the wall and pacing the small space. “Why go out of her way to impersonate me instead of just asking for what she needed as herself? She knows you two would’ve seen through it eventually.”

Nicole chews on her lip, her brows furrowed in thought. “Maybe it’s not just about the spell. Maybe it’s about you. About keeping you off-balance, distracted—keeping you from digging too deep. Keep you looking in the wrong places.”

“Or,” Rebecca interjects, “it’s because of her lost humanity. If she’s still trying to hold on to whatever’s left of it, maybe she thought pretending to be you would make it easier to manipulate us.”

Rebecca looks at me, clearly as disheartened as I am. “Has Ravenna set up the meeting with the Guild yet?”

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