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“That’s not true!” I tried to shout, but it came out muffled against the witch’s bridle.
Mira stepped forward. “They’re both possessed! I was there the night of The Hearse Tragedy. I saw them cast the spell that killed all those people!”
What a fucking liar. She’d lied about Monica, and now she was going to use her lies to get us killed, too.
“Nadine infiltrated the Alchemy Cast and tried to kill us all!” Gwen claimed. “She brewed potions meant to kill. They were so powerful her cauldron exploded!”
“You’re lying!” Onyx insisted.
Chloe tried to rush forward, but Gwen and Camille grabbed her and held her back. These three girls used to be best friends, and now they were fighting over whether we should live or die. Chloe conjured battle magic, but Camille was faster than her, and she slammed a stunning spell into the side of the head. Helena wailed as people yanked her backward, keeping her from getting to her granddaughter.
A blood-curdling scream tore through the night, and all protests ceased as everyone turned to look. Stacey lay on the ground at Nadine’s feet, convulsing like she was having a seizure. Valerie stood above her, her hands thrown over her mouth as she backed away in horror.
Valerie pointed a finger at Nadine. “See!? It’s true! All of it! Nadine has cast a curse!”
Two guys managed to push their way to the front of the crowd. It was Talia’s brother Tyler, along with a guy named Alex from school.
“You have to stop this!” Tyler shouted.
“Stacey’s putting on an act!” Alex insisted. The coven wasn’t interested in listening. Hands landed on both of them, and the crowd dragged them backward.
Two members of the Tarantulas walked up behind Nadine—Declan and Nolan. Horror filled her eyes as they forced her to her knees in front of Stacey.
“Touch her again!” Nolan demanded. “Heal her!”
Nadine trembled.
James stepped up to Nadine and grabbed her by the hair. “Break the curse!” he roared, before throwing Nadine to the ground beside Stacey. I winced, but no amount of struggling against my captors would allow me to break free and get to her. Nadine landed close enough to Stacey that their shoulders touched. Stacey immediately stilled, and she sat up and shook her head, like she’d just come to. She looked over at Nadine, like she was noticing her for the first time. She quickly scrambled away, like she was terrified of her.
“She cursed me!” Stacey insisted in a trembling voice.
I had to hand it to her, that girl put on one hell of a show.
James yanked Nadine upward and spat, “One way or another, we’ll get an answer out of you!”
The crowd began cheering, and I realized they were looking at something behind me. I turned my head as far as I could to see a group of men carrying a heavy chair down the stairs. My stomach hollowed at the sight of hundreds of iron spikes protruding from all over it. It also came with shackles to restrain the torture subject.
The chair went by many names. Some called it the Iron Chair, others the Iron Maiden. The coven knew it as a witch’s chair. A heavy thud sounded as the men dropped the chair beside me.
“No!” Nadine screamed. Her voice cut through all the others, slicing straight through my heart. I struggled against the men dragging me toward the chair, but there were so many of them. I tried to find Nadine in the crowd, but I couldn’t see her.
Complete terror rocked my body as the men shoved me into the witch’s chair. Hundreds of spikes connected with my skin, and when I struggled, the spikes stabbed in even harder. Several broke the skin, and I was forced to stop struggling as the men shackled my hands and legs to the chair. If I sat still, the spikes didn’t hurt as much. Any slight movement, though—any misdirection of my weight—would send the spikes straight through my skin.
I couldn’t understand why the coven would have these torture devices. These were items used on us hundreds of years ago by humans who feared our magic. The coven must’ve kept them as historical relics. That they couldn’t see the irony in the witch hunt was beyond me.
People surrounded me, closing in so tightly that I couldn’t even see the stars above me. “Confess!” Finn spat, and spittle flew into my face. Protests grew around me, until my ears began to ring.
“Nadine!” I screamed, but I couldn’t hear her protests any longer. I didn’t know what they’d done with her.
The crowd parted, and my heart hammered even harder when I saw Cody coming forward with several logs in his arms, followed by Ryan, who carried a lighted torch. Cody laughed maniacally as he arranged the logs beneath my chair. “You’re going to burn until you confess.”
Ryan joined in on the laughter. “Burn, baby, burn!”
The warmth of the fire touched my legs as Ryan lit the logs.
“You’re a liar!”
“He’s deceived the coven!”
