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“How did the priestesses agree to letting you be our lawyer?” Nadine asked.
Verla sucked a breath. “Being that you’re students and I’m your headmistress, I legally have to represent you. Plus, once I told them Lucas stole my car, they were more than willing to assign me the case. The priestesses think I want revenge on you, but I believe we can get you off your charges without implicating all of us. The Coven’s Shield has already begun preparing your defense… but the priestesses have substantial evidence against you.”
“It has to be fabricated or…” It hit me, and my heart spiraled out of my chest. “Someone turned us in. If the priestesses found the Gravestone, that means someone betrayed us. But we trusted everyone who knew about it. Unless… Chloe.”
Nadine shook her head. “Chloe will do anything to get her way, but she wanted to go against the priestesses with us.”
“Unless she was a spy the whole time!” I said. “I know she helped us during the Burning, but her grandmother could be manipulating her. We’ve done spells with Chloe that didn’t work.”
The tracking spell we’d done to locate the demon contract had resisted our power. Could Chloe have influenced it to throw us off track?
“Chloe took the witch’s vow with us,” Nadine reminded me.
“Then it’s got to be someone who didn’t take the vow,” I realized. “Onyx?”
Nadine didn’t look convinced. “I trust Onyx.”
I frowned. “Perhaps you trust too easily. Whatever evidence they think they have on us is bullshit. We never tried to overthrow the council. We never used black magic to harm anyone. And seven murders? Where would they even get an idea like that?”
Nadine shot me a pointed expression. “Lucas…”
I started counting in my head. Professor Carlisle, along with Agnes, Betty, and Sandy, all died last year at Pinewood Manor. But Nadine had killed the three witches to save everyone. They had kidnapped and killed two boys, and they intended to do the same to Nadine and Chloe. If Nadine hadn’t killed them, we’d all be dead.
Professor Carlisle’s death, on the other hand, wasn’t our fault. He was alive when we walked out of Pinewood Manor. Then the explosion happened. We still didn’t know what had caused it, but it sure as hell wasn’t one of us. The coven would never believe that, though.
Then there was Priestess Stella. She’d died at Wicked Alchemy when we’d gone into the basement to retrieve the Crock of Death and the Alchemy Wand. I’d knocked her off her broom, and she’d fallen into the twisted vine.
Finally, Grant had killed two officers the night of the Burning. Miles, Talia, and I had been captured, and he’d come to save us.
Everything we’d done had been to save each other from certain death. We hadn’t any other choice. We would never kill in cold blood. There had to be laws protecting us in cases of self-defense… right?
“Dear Goddess,” I muttered, sagging down in my chair. “We really are going to hell.”
“No,” Nadine said firmly. “You know that’s not how this works.”
I sighed. “I want to believe that. I really do.”
“Maybe we have to start thinking differently about all this,” Nadine suggested. “There are moments when we have to decide which side we stand on, and forgive ourselves if we end up on the wrong side. We have to prepare for anything.”
Even death.
I heard it in her voice. She wasn’t sure we were going to survive this.
“So, what?” I asked. “We’re just okay with letting them hang us?”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Nadine insisted. “I’m saying that we can’t let them break us, because they will try, Lucas. They’ll put everything we’ve ever said or done on display. They will make us out to be villains.”
“We did kill seven people,” I pointed out flatly. “Maybe we’ve always done it for the right reasons, or maybe we’ve made mistakes, but the fact still stands. We can’t undo what we’ve done, and that already gives the priestesses the upper hand.”
“But we know everything we’ve done has been in the name of saving innocent lives,” Nadine said desperately. “Yes, we’ve made mistakes. Bad ones, I know that. But we are not heartless. Every day, we can do better. We have to be more confident in our story than in theirs, because if they convince us that we can’t be redeemed, they’ve won. The coven is already hanging on by a thread. This is our last chance to show what we stand for. If we crumble, the coven will forever live by the precedent that mistakes cannot be forgiven, and that is going to be the final breaking point for us all.”
Silence stretched through the car, and a shiver traveled down my spine. Nadine was right. We had one last chance to prove to the coven that we were here to save our people, protect their rights, and restore their magic.
I hoped to the Goddess this didn’t end with both of us hanging on the end of a noose.
CHAPTER 20
NADINE
