The Witch Is Back (31 page)

When Colette didn't move from her spot, I lifted an eyebrow at her.

“You sure you don't want to go?” I asked.

She snorted. “Into the woods by myself? No thank you. You saw what happened the last time I did that . . . I think I'll just take my chances with Darth Vader and the Funky Bunch here.”

I nodded and returned my focus to the silhouette in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I got myself ready for what I might find when I pulled back the hood. Reaching out my hand, I realized that it was shaking slightly. With nerves or adrenaline, I wasn't sure. Ignoring my better judgment, I grabbed ahold of the material and ripped it back.

And gasped.

My whole world began to implode as I recognized the eyes first. I'd never be able to forget those eyes. They'd stared straight into my soul and discovered all my secrets. The dark color swirled around like a stormy night, almost making me faint from the effect.

“Not again,” I said, before collapsing to the ground.

Colette caught me before I hit the ground and helped me back to my feet, gripping my arms until I was steady again. But I wasn't sure I'd ever feel steady again. Everything was wrong and so, so horrible.

I took a step forward and my breath caught as I spoke. “How could you
betray
me like this, Asher? Again.” It came out as a whisper.

Asher stood in front of me, still frozen in his spot. The cute, dimpled face that I'd grown to not only love, but trust, was scrunched up in a feral snarl. His eyes, which usually looked at me with such care and affection, were hostile. It was like looking at a stranger.

I wasn't prepared for the flood of emotions that torpedoed through me during those next few seconds. The sorrow and intense pain that hit my gut was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. It was so much worse than when I'd found out he was in cahoots with Samuel. I'd barely known him then. Now we had time behind us—over six months of constant contact—and experiences, and memories, and a bond that made this betrayal so much more devastating.

Sadness parlayed into anger, and before I knew it was coming, my hand was whipping out and slapping Asher hard across his face. My hand stung as I pulled it away. Colette took a step back, as surprised as I was that I'd just attacked the guy I loved. But as far as I was concerned, he'd gotten off easy.

Because what I wanted to do was
kill
him.

I started to plot ways that I could hurt him as badly as he'd hurt me. Teach him that you don't mess with the Bishop women. I could curse him so that he'd grow disgusting hair all over his body like a human werewolf. Make him talk as if he'd been sucking on helium balloons for the rest of his life. Turn Abby against him.

As much as I wanted to get my revenge, none of these things seemed quite appropriate. And deep down, I knew that I didn't have it in me to dip into my inner darkness.

But that didn't mean I wasn't going to kick his ass for breaking my heart.

I reached out to smack him again, but Colette stopped me. “Uh, Had, I think you need to see this,” she said. The seriousness in her voice made me turn to look at her.

“What?” I asked, slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

Colette didn't say anything, but reached out and threw off the hood of the figure closest to her. I gasped as Asher appeared next to her.

Whipping my head around to the figure beside me, I stared into Asher's beautiful face. Then, I looked at the person next to Colette and saw him again.

“Have I gone temporarily insane or are there
two
of him?” I asked Colette carefully.

“If you're crazy then so am I,” she affirmed.

It didn't make sense.

“Wait a hot second,” I said, an idea forming in my head. I walked over to another figure and ripped off his hood.

Asher.

Colette did the same, going around to two others and revealing who was underneath their cloaks.

Asher.

And Asher again.

When we'd finished unveiling them all, Colette and I found ourselves standing in the woods in the middle of a sea of people who all looked exactly like my boyfriend.

“What the hell . . . ,” I said, confused and upset.

“Why do they all look like Asher?” Colette asked, turning to me for answers.

“Because Brooklyn wants to destroy me,” I said, matter-of-factly. “And she knows this is the way to hurt me most.”

“It doesn't make sense. . . . ,” Colette said, shaking her head incredulously.

“Well, it's about to,” I said, taking a deep breath, a newfound anger building inside of me. Only, this time, it wasn't geared toward Asher.

“Colette, you might want to step back,” I said and then followed my own advice. Colette scurried to stand behind me as I fell into my casting stance. I could already feel the magic coursing through my body, like the universe knew what I was going to do next and it was welcoming the spell.

“Realto naturasa!” I called out. The words echoed into the night, loud enough to wake the dead. A breeze picked up around us, and the noise that the leaves and branches made as they swayed on the trees created a ghostly backdrop for the moment.

As we watched, the faces of all the Ashers began to melt like wax figures sitting in the hot sun. Their chins began to droop first and then eventually dripped off, making a sick slurping noise as clumps fell to the ground below. It was a horrifying sight and if I hadn't been ready for it, I might've run screaming for the cabin. But I knew the spell was working.

“What did you do?” Colette asked me, horrified.

“A spell to show their true selves,” I said. “They're shedding the masks they're wearing. Not exactly pretty, is it?”

“It's like watching a horror movie,” Colette said, turning her back so she wouldn't have to see anymore. I have to admit, I would've looked away, too, if I wasn't so hell-bent on finding out who was underneath it all.

Twenty seconds later, most of the Asher masks had disintegrated, revealing the truth. Seeing Abby's and Jasmine's faces hadn't been surprising, though I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. More shocking was finding Sascha and Jinx, as well as three other random girls who were attending the intensive with us. Two were giggly clones who followed Brooklyn around. One was practically a stranger.

What could they
possibly
have against me?

“Why are they doing this?” Colette asked as if reading my mind.

I just shook my head.

“That's what I want to know,” I said finally. “We need to unfreeze them to find out who's pulling their strings.”

“Are you sure we have to let them go? I mean, there's that whole pesky incident where they tried to
hang me
before. . . . ,” Colette said, letting her words trail off. She was trying to make a joke of it, but I could tell by the sound of her voice that she was still shaken. And why wouldn't she be? I knew firsthand how it felt to be the target in the middle of a bull's-eye.

“You can go back if you want, Colette. I'm not gonna judge you if you do,” I said, sincerely. “It's just that, I sort of have to figure this whole thing out. It's dangerous to have an enemy that you don't know, because it makes it almost impossible to fight them.”

Colette stood there and thought about it for a moment before deciding to stand her ground. Alongside me. I appreciated the gesture more than she knew and turned back to the others.

“Okay. Here goes,” I said, letting go of the freezing spell.

As the magic wore off and the others began to move again, I yelled out another spell and watched as big orbs of water appeared above each of their heads and then rained down on them like burst water balloons. The liquid soaked through their clothes within seconds, and some began to sputter, while others shrieked in response.

“O-M-freaking G!” Sascha screamed, her fists balled up by her sides angrily. “What the hell? This is
so
not funny!”

Jasmine wiped black eyeliner from underneath her eyes slowly as she searched for the person who'd just super soaked her. When her gaze fell on me, her eyes narrowed to slits.

“You nasty little witch—” she said and began to stalk toward me. But then she recognized where we were and hesitated, looking around for some sort of clue as to what was going on.

“Why are we in the woods?” she asked finally, her eyes moving across Abby, Sascha, and the others, who'd all stopped moving now and seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“That's what I was wondering,” I said, placing my hands on my hips, “when I followed you all out here.”

Technically we'd only followed Abby, but she'd led us to the others. It was pretty much the same thing.

“You followed us?” Jasmine asked with a snort. “You must be cracked, because I was asleep in my bed up until a few seconds ago.”

“Why would we come out here, anyway?” Abby asked, taking a daring step toward me.

“Apparently to cast against me,” I answered.

Even in the dark, I could see Jasmine roll her eyes at me. “I swear, you have an ego the size of a monster truck,” she said. “We don't
care
about you enough to cast against you. So, next theory . . .”

“Fine. Whatever,” I said, already tired of her attitude. “Just because you don't seem to remember doing it doesn't mean it didn't happen. The bottom line is, you've all been meeting here in the woods at night, and doing spells meant for
me
.” I didn't bother telling them I knew this because of a dream I'd had. “You did something to my ring, chanted like weirdo jungle-people, and danced around a fire. And now you're all hating on me like I've actually
done
something to you. So, either you're supremely jealous and plotting against me—in which case, I have no problem being your enemy—or someone's put the whammy on you so you'll do their bidding. I think it's the latter, but please, tell me if I'm wrong.”

Jasmine looked over at Abby, who shrugged, and then at Sascha and Jinx, who were just standing there like sad, drowned cats. After a few moments of silence, Jasmine's body relaxed slightly and she folded her arms across her chest.

“You're not making this up?” Jasmine asked, eying me suspiciously.

I crossed my heart and then pointed at the sky. “You can ask Colette. She's the one you guys magically strung up over there.”

Jasmine winced at the mention of this.

“Seriously? That really happened?” Sascha asked Colette. Colette nodded her head.

There was fear in their eyes now as they began to believe us. That they really were being controlled without their knowledge and had no idea what they'd been doing.

“Say we believe you,” Abby said pointedly. “Who's pulling the strings and why are they targeting
you
?”

“Why else?” I said. “Power.”

In this case, power over me and those that I loved.

“Okay, I'm officially creeped out right now,” Sascha said.

We were all back in my room, having headed there after successfully sneaking back into the cabin. I'd rounded up Asher and Fallon along the way. I called it an “emergency meeting,” and as far as I was concerned, that's exactly what it was.

The second I'd seen Asher, I'd fallen into his arms, kissing him long and hard. Dane and Hudson had watched while lounging on their beds inside the room and whistled at us as we had our moment. When I finally pulled away, we were both breathless and Asher had a dreamy look on his face.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“I'm sorry I slapped imposter you—twice—and thought of all those awful ways to curse you when I thought you'd screwed me over,” I said, the words pouring out like they were all stuck together.

Asher blinked at me, trying to process what I'd just said. Finally, he reached down and held my hand. “You're forgiven?” he said still confused, but guessing this was the right thing to say.

“Thank you,” I said, and then gave his hand a tug. “Now we've gotta go. Emergency Cleri stuff.”

Once we were all gathered inside the room, I called our meeting to order.

“Someone's out to get us. Again,” I informed them, diving right in.

“You mean
you
. Someone's out to get
you
again,” Jasmine said, sarcastically.

“Say it any way you want, but someone's been using you like a deranged puppet. The old Jasmine would've been furious to find out that she was being controlled by anyone. Maybe you've become more comfortable with blindly following others, but—”

“Nobody
controls
me,” Jasmine said forcefully. She paused as she thought about what I'd said and then continued. “But if someone
has
been doing spells on us, I'm going to seriously kick their asses. It won't even be funny.”

“Well, so far our mysterious enemy—or enemies—has gotten you to meet secretly in the woods at night to do spells. They almost made you all hate me, and they nearly got you to
kill
Colette tonight. And you don't remember
any
of it,” I said. “I'd say something weird is going on here, wouldn't you?”

I waited for them to say something, but Jasmine was clearly annoyed that she'd been put under a spell and was too proud to say so out loud. Abby hadn't said a word since we'd gotten back, except to claim she was fine when Asher had asked her how she was. Besides that, her lips were, as usual, sealed.

“This is so
freaky
!” Sascha said suddenly. “It's like . . . I feel so annoyed by everything you're saying, Hadley, but I have no idea why. I know this is all because of a spell, but I still sort of just want to yell at you. I have to literally
force
myself not to say the mean things I'm thinking about you in my head. How weird is that?”