CHAPTER 26

Bzzzzzzz.

The sound of my phone has me rising from my computer chair. I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but it’s not on my nightstand, where it should be.

Bzzzzzzz.

I follow the sound, pawing through the remains of my outfit from last night.

Bzzzzzzz.

I snatch up one of my boots and flip it over. My phone tumbles out before hitting my floor with a thunk.

I have time to see the caller is Sybil, but as soon as I snatch it up, the call ends.

I’m about to call her back—half dreading all I’m going to have to tell her—when I realize there’s a nauseating number of texts and missed calls on my phone that I must’ve slept through.

Oh Goddess, is Sybil all right?

I panic scroll through them.

Did you have a fun night last night?

Was Kane everything you ever dreamed of?

Okay, I’m assuming you’re asleep from a night of raging sex, but please text me.

Holy fuck, WHAT HAPPENED?

WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING?

IF YOU DON’T TEXT ME BACK NOW I’M COMING TO YOUR ROOM.

Okay, I was totally a stalker and I peeked into your room and you’re passed out and snuggling your familiar like he’s a body pillow and it’s so damn cute.

Beneath the text is a picture my creep of a best friend took of me asleep with Nero.

It is kind of a cute picture.

Okay, I’m going to let you sleep, babe. Find me when you wake up.

PS I’m going to let you sleep *a little*. Might start calling you if I get impatient.

Now that I know my friend is okay—despite the fact I freaking left her behind last night to go bang a werewolf (come on, Selene, do better)—my whole body relaxes, the tension seeping out of me.

She’s good. No murderer is keeping her hostage. She’s just worried about me.

As I hold the phone, another text pops up.

PPS I passed on your number to Sawyer who’s passing it along to Kane. Whatever happened last night, he’s still super into you.

I groan. There’s no way in hell Kane is still into me. As for me, setting aside Memnon’s threat, in the harsh light of day, after all the booze and bad decisions, I’m not actually sure how into Kane I am.

A worry for another time.

I text Sybil back that I am alive and okay and that I will find her and fill her in about what happened as soon as I can.

After I finish typing out my response, I notice another text from last night, one from another unknown number.

I stare down at the text message on my phone, trying to make sense of what I’m reading.

Hey, this is Kasey. Can’t wait to see you at the circle tomorrow. 10 P.M. Library.

Wait, I agreed to do a spell circle, didn’t I?

Shit. Is that tonight?

I grab my notebook and flip to the notes I have written down for this day. Sure enough, I’ve written Spell Circle in red and circled it several times.

I groan.

Goddess, I hope I don’t regret agreeing to this.

At 10:00 p.m., after most of my coven sisters have either made their way back to their rooms or headed out to another party this weekend, I sit in the house’s library, flipping through a book on Indigenous witchcraft in Peru, jiggling my leg a little.

There are no windows in here, but even without looking, I know the new moon is all but invisible out in the night sky, and I try not to let that spook me too much.

In spellwork, a new moon is good for illusion, hiding the truth, and cloaking enchantments. It also happens to be good for dark magic, when the goddess’s third eye has wandered away from the earth.

I hear the soft pad of footfalls, and I set my book down just as Kasey enters the library.

“Hey, good to see you,” she says, nodding to me. “Ready to go?”

Nope. Not one bit.

“Yeah,” I lie, getting up and crossing over to her. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” Kasey says cryptically, giving me a wink, as though this is all in good fun and not at all unnerving.

She leads us out of the library and walks down the hall opposite the kitchen. I haven’t gone this way much, though on the left is a small attached greenhouse, where even now a witch is watering plants.

We pass it, then continue. I feel the sharp absence of Nero, who is out gallivanting in the woods, too busy being a fluffy forest creature’s nightmare to attend some spell circle. That cat, as moody as he is, is my rock. Without him by my side, my nerves are just a pinch more frayed.

At the end of the hall is a door to the Ritual Room. It’s where house meetings and official ceremonies are held. We had a brief welcome-back meeting here during my first week and another one about a week ago, so I’m not totally unfamiliar with the space.

Kasey enters the room ahead of me, walking confidently down the makeshift aisle, brushing her hands along the chairbacks nearest her.

I hesitate, looking beyond her at the dark room. The walls and ceiling are painted black, and there are no windows; even the wall sconces and the iron chandelier barely give off light. It’s not exactly the room I want to be hanging out in at night.

Not that I’m doing any of this for the fun of it.

Reluctantly, I follow Kasey in, our footsteps echoing around us. Like the rest of the house, various wards and enchantments cloak this space. But in here, with the dark walls that feel like they’re closing in on you, the magic feels a bit suffocating.

“Are we meeting other people here?” I ask, eyeing the rows of empty chairs that have been left out after the room’s last meeting.

“Not exactly,” she says, offering nothing else.

Her cryptic response sets my frazzled nerves further on edge.

Kasey doesn’t stop walking until she reaches the back wall of the room.

She pulls out a vial from her pocket and pours a powdered concoction of herbs and who knows what else into the palm of her hand.

She lifts it to her face. “Reveal yourself,” she whispers, then blows the powder at the wall.

Where a moment ago there was solid, unbroken wall, now there is a simple black door.

I’m speechless at the hidden door.

Kasey turns to me with a mischievous grin. “Pretty neat, huh? This coven is full of secret stuff.” She grabs the doorknob. “Ready to see more?”

I nod, struck by the sight—and the realization that there’s more.

Kasey opens the door, and on the other side of it is a small white room. The only thing remotely interesting about this room is that it houses what looks like a spiral staircase, one that twists below my line of sight.

Once the breathtaking nature of the illusory magic has worn off, my unease returns. But now it’s not just this situation that isn’t sitting right; it’s the fact there’s a hidden door that leads to a hidden staircase that leads to another hidden chamber, and all this is connected to the house I sleep in.

Going to have to ward my room biweekly, just to feel safe.

Kasey steps across the threshold, then turns to face me. Before I cross into the room, I stare carefully at the wall, looking for the spells that hid this room. The magic that covers the walls is complicated and made by many separate hands. It only puts out the faintest shimmer—and I know there must be even more spells that are themselves cloaked from even witchy eyes.

It’s honestly beautiful and fascinating, and I wish I had a notebook to jot down all that I see.

Kasey shares none of my wonder. The moment she sees I’m getting distracted, she heads for the staircase.

“C’mon,” she says, “they’re waiting for us.”

Right. The rest of the spell circle.

“How did the rest of them get here?” I ask, entering the room and shutting the door behind me. “Are they also coven sisters?”