Witch Undecided by Debbie Cassidy

Chapter Five

“She likes you.” Leif beamed at me before focusing on the road ahead.

“I like her too. I think we’ll get on well.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to meet my sisters. Mother thought it might be overwhelming on your first visit—teenage girls with a ton of questions, you know?”

I’d never been a teen, and honestly, I hadn’t had much contact with them. “You make them sound like a breed unto their own.”

“Oh, they’re pretty full on.”

Our cabin came into view and Leif pulled up into the garage. “I have patrol in half an hour. What will you do to pass the time?”

Yeah, I needed to talk to him about that. “I don’t know what Charlotte did, or what the other anchors did, but it seems to me it involved a lot of dinners, lunches, social events, and basically no kick-assery?”

He sucked on his cheeks, a twinkle in his eyes. “And I assume that won’t be enough for you?”

“You assume correctly. I can’t be that person. I want to help against the varga, against the revenants and the outlier threats in Leyton. I’m going to speak to Anna about joining patrols, and I’ve told your mother I want in on the monthly hunts. I might not have fangs and claws, but I have other abilities.”

I allowed my hands to spark.

The female shifters hunted feywarg, menacing weasel-like creatures that fed on livestock and terrorized the local farmers. They bred like rabbits and the female shifters had taken responsibility to cull the numbers.

“You’ll need more than your power against the feywarg,” Leif said. “You’ll need stamina and speed. You’ll be running with wolves. Will you be able to keep up?”

Fuck, I hadn’t thought of that. I’d relied on my ability to jump all my life. But with the amulet, even as anchor, my jumping ability wasn’t inexhaustive. I couldn’t allow myself to rely on it. Luckily stamina could be built.

“I’ll train. I’ll run every day.”

He exhaled softly. “Determination. I like it. You’re something else, you know that, Cora?”

“Well, I haven’t heard that one before.” I injected sarcasm into my tone because the way he was looking at me, all intense, made my body do strange things. “And the varga patrols? Can I come?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Even if you get your stamina up, the varga patrols are too dangerous. One scratch, one bite, and you’d be infected. The infection kills humans, but it also kills witches, driving them feral and insane first. We can’t risk your life.”

I wanted to argue, but I could feel his resolution in my chest as if it were my own. There’d be no changing his mind on this. Not now anyway.

God, this mate bond was weird. “Hey, Leif, can you feel my emotions?”

“Flashes. Sometimes.” He touched my bottom lip with his index finger and pressed down slightly. My pulse surged and my breath hitched. “Like that. I felt that.” He looked down at his crotch, and I followed his gaze to see his erection outlined beneath denim. “Damn.” He blew out a breath. “I’ll need to sort that out before patrol.”

I was tempted to offer to do it for him but bit back the words. Unfortunately, the friend zone could only be stretched so far.

“I’ll walk you to the mansion,” he said.

“No, it’s fine. I can make it myself.”

He looked like he might argue, but I needed some time alone, away from the emotions his presence evoked. “It’s daytime, I’m safe.”

He nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you later. Make sure you’re back a couple of hours before sunset and we can go for a run. Start your training.”

“Yay, running before supper; sounds like fun.”

He chuckled low and sexy and I unlocked the door to get away from him before I was tempted to crawl onto his lap and snog his face off.

I closed the door and leaned in toward the window. “Have fun on patrol.”

“Always.”

I set off down the dirt track toward the mansion, aware of his gaze on my back, warm and inviting and hungry.

Yeah, alone time was a must.

Anna wasn’tin her office and Wren was no longer in the infirmary. Neither was Pippa. In fact, I couldn’t find anyone I wanted to speak to. I was tempted to call on Jasper but decided against it.

The last thing I needed was his electric presence driving my already dizzy hormones wild, and I wasn’t ready to lie to him again, to tell him I didn’t want or need him.

I popped my head into the dining hall on the off chance I’d spot a friendly face. It was the lull between lunch and supper, and the place was practically deserted aside for one table where the pouty redhead I’d seen on my first day here and her dark-haired friend sat eating fries.

They stopped talking as soon as they saw me and stared at me with deer-in-headlight looks.

“Hey.” I approached. “Any idea where everyone is?” I looked about. “It’s kinda dead around here.”

They exchanged glances, then the redhead spoke. “They’re in the atrium, testing for a new witch to join The Elites and take…take Brie’s spot.” Her eyes welled and she sniffed.

“It’s okay, Justine. You did good.”

“Not good enough,” Justine said. “Brie would be so pissed at me.”

The dark-haired woman looked up at me. “Justine is Brie’s cousin.”

Shit. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“You tested?”

“Yeah, they took me first—bloodline and all that—but I wasn’t good enough.”

“You did everything,” the dark-haired woman said.

“Not the negation chant, Kel. I couldn’t get the negation chant right.”

More witches filtered into the room, some looking downcast, others relieved. I guess not everyone wanted to be an Elite, in the firing line when it came to revenants.

“They’re replacing her already?” It seemed a little harsh.

Kel gave me a flat look. “The Elites are our first line of defense against the revenants. There needs to be four of them for the spell to be effective, even with the amplification crystal.”

Yes, I’d seen them use a crystal on the four revenants. The elders had stepped in after Brie died, but they’d had to channel power through me to do that, and that wasn’t a viable option for regular patrols.

Shit.

More witches filled the dining room, and the spectral staff set to work offering hot chocolate and brownies—comfort foods for these witches who’d failed the test.

“Shit,” Justine said, her gaze on the door as another group of witches trooped in. “This is bad.”

How many more witches were there to be tested? “What happens if no one can do the spell?”

Both women looked up at me with grim expressions. “Then we’re fucked.”

I passeda small group of witches headed back to the mansion on my way to the atrium. One was sobbing while the others consoled her. They barely looked up at me as they skirted me on the path.

More witches who had failed the test.

The atrium doors were ajar when I got there, and the sound of agitated voices drifted out to greet me.

“That’s the lot of them, then,” Jessie said.

“We’ll retest in a week or so once we’ve upped the training for the more promising candidates,” Anna replied.

“What promising candidates?” Jessie scoffed. “You can either channel the negation chant or you can’t. It’s not a learned skill. You either have it or you don’t, and none of them do.”

“We’re so fucked.”

I recognized this voice as Poppy’s.

“There’ve always been witches to take over.” Anna sounded perplexed. “Always. I don’t understand…We must have missed someone.”

I pushed open the door and entered. Sunlight lanced through the glass panes above, lighting up the space with pleasant warmth.

All eyes turned to me, but my attention zeroed in on Sloane. She sat perched on the rim of a fountain, one boot planted on the ledge, arm braced on her cocked knee.

Her chin was tucked in, flexing as if she was holding back a tide of words.

I walked further into the building. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Jessie snorted and turned away, but Poppy smiled kindly. She looked tired, her bubble-gum hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, her skin so pale it was almost translucent.

“Hey, Cora,” she said. “We weren’t expecting to see you.”

“It’s fine,” Anna said. “We’ll be fine.” But it sounded more like a prayer than a fact.

“How?” Sloane said softly. “How can we be fine with only three Elites?” She finally looked up and her electric-blue eyes focused on me. “Jessie’s right. We’re fucked. Pretty certain news of Brie’s death has made its way to the outlier community, to the fucking Order, which means revenants are gonna come out to play in force and there’ll be nothing we can do to stop them.”

“There’s always been a replacement,” Anna said again. “Hecate has always taken care of us…” She frowned.

Jessie’s head came up slowly to lock gazes with me. “You… We haven’t tested you.”

“Me?” Was she serious?

“The anchor can’t be an Elite,” Poppy said.

“Why not?” Jessie retorted. “She’s a witch.”

“The anchor has never been tested,” Anna said. “Elite status is too dangerous, and we’ve never had to put our anchor in that position. The Elites have always been found in our general population of Grimswood witches—”

“But that doesn’t mean an anchor can’t be an Elite…” Sloane swung her leg down and stood. “You’re right, Anna, there’s always been a replacement, and if we’ve tested everyone else then there’s only the anchor left.” She approached me and stopped a foot away, looking down her nose at me, reminding me how petite I was. “You up for the challenge, cupcake?”

Not like I had much choice. “Sure.”

“We can’t put her in danger like that,” Anna said.

“We don’t have a fucking choice,” Sloane said. “Besides, didn’t you just say that Hecate has always taken care of this shit? So if she can do the negation spell when no one else can, then it’s Hecate’s will.”

Anna pressed her lips together and nodded. “Do it.”

Sloane’s lips curved in a cool smile. “Time to see what you’ve got, cupcake. But I got to warn you, this might hurt.”

I arched a brow. “I’m not afraid of a little pain, Sloane.”

“Who said it would be a little?”

“Oh for fucksake,” Jessie snapped. “Can we get on with it?”

“It’ll be fine,” Poppy said, shooting Sloane a glare. “You’ll be fine. The pain varies for each witch. Some feel nothing, and others a little more.”

“But if you have what we need, you’ll be in agony,” Jessie said.

Oh whoop-de-do. “What do I have to do?”

It was Anna who explained. “The Elites will stand around you and cast The Call. It’s a chant that penetrates your psyche and calls to the deep recesses of your subconscious, the part able to cast a spell such as a negation spell. This part of your subconscious will attempt to protect itself. It will make you want to flee, but you’ll be held in place by The Elites.”

“It feels as if someone’s tearing at your limbs, at your brain,” Jessie said with a little too much glee.

“Shut up, Jess,” Poppy snapped. Then to me, “It hurts, yes, but the key is not to fight. To let us in, to open to us. If you have the gene to carry the negation spell, then this will activate it.”

“Okay, then I have to learn the spell?”

“No and yes,” Sloane said. “The reason only a handful of witches can carry the negation spell is because only a handful carry the gene to memorize and verbalize the spell. If you have what it takes, then all I’ll have to do is whisper the chant to you and that deep part of you, the part locked away now, will claim it, and like a limb or a heartbeat, it’ll become a part of you.”

Sounded creepy and ominous, but heck, if this was the only way to keep humans safe, then so be it.

“Fine, let’s do this.”

Bring on the pain.