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For a brief moment, I thought about confessing, just to make them stop hurting Nadine—just to take her pain away. Then her eyes connected with mine, and between the straps of her witch’s bridle, I could see the pleading expression on her face. Don’t do it, Lucas.
“I will not confess,” Nadine said in the strongest tone she could muster.
I knew at that moment, we were in this together, until the very end. We would die to keep the others fighting.
“Nor will I,” I stated confidently.
I barely finished speaking before Leroy shoved my head underwater again. I held my breath and kicked against the river bottom, trying to save my life by sheer instinct. I knew how this went. It was another torture technique we’d learned about in Miriamic History, one that had been performed during the witch hunts hundreds of years ago. It was called dunking, and it only ended one of two ways. Either the accused confessed to the crimes, whether they were truly guilty or not… or they drowned.
It was sick and twisted, but all I could think was that if I had to go out by one means of a witch hunt, at least it was this. It was far less painful than being burned on a pyre, and perhaps less shameful than walking to the gallows. If they killed us before they reached a verdict, then perhaps they’d spare Talia, Grant, and Miles. Professor Warren and Headmistress Verla would go free. The coven would have reason to continue fighting.
It was odd how calm the river was in the midst of what was happening. I barely felt the current. It was like the river didn’t care either way if it took a life.
This was our prophecy. Nadine and I were meant to unite the coven. Nowhere in our prophecy did it state that we would survive to see it through. If our death motivated the coven to heal after this, as stated in our prophecy, then it was worth it. I didn’t wish to live long enough to witness the alternative.
Nadine and I were good people. We had followed Mother Miriam’s teachings to protect the coven. Every day, we fought tooth and nail to do just that. This was our final chance to show that everything we’d done had a purpose. That purpose would live on in our people.
Leroy yanked my head out of the water, and I inhaled a deep breath. The world spun around me, and I could barely make out the screams from shore as my head spun. It was like my head was still underwater.
“Are you ready to confess now!?” Leroy screamed in my ear. He yanked on my hair, forcing me to look at Nadine. James held her head underwater, and she thrashed as she fought against him. It wouldn’t be long until she drowned. All I wanted was to save her life.
Fuck the coven. Fuck them all.
I had to confess, or she would die. I opened my mouth the best I could with the witch’s bridle on, but before I could say anything, splashes sounded all around me. I looked up to see a group had formed on the bridge. They were tossing stones at our assailants. It was hard to make out who it was in the darkness, but I noticed Chloe and Onyx among the silhouettes.
“Stop!” Chloe shouted. “You’re going to kill them. Is this what we want? More bloodshed?”
My eyes scanned the shore. So many coven members had backed away. Their uncertainty had turned to horror. Half of the coven wanted our torture to continue. The other half couldn’t stomach it.
Someone threw a rock at the back of James’s head. He cursed loudly and dropped Nadine. She finally came up for air, gasping loudly. She tried to stand, but she was so deprived of oxygen that she was ready to pass out. She stumbled and fell to her knees. Ryan went to dunk me under again.
“Stop!” Priestess Margaret shouted.
All eyes turned to the priestesses. The crowd parted as the priestesses came down the hill, their heads held high like this was nothing more than a minor spat.
Leroy and Ryan dragged me through the water and tossed me into the mud along the shore. I landed on my face, gasping for breath. Nadine landed beside me, and she sputtered water out of her mouth. She must’ve been moments away from drowning before James dropped her. Weakly, she turned her face toward mine, and I saw the heartache in her eyes, mixed with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on—courage or determination, perhaps. I didn’t think I had any of that left. Every inch of my body ached, and I didn’t have the strength to move anymore. I just lay there, awaiting my reaper.
The priestesses reached us. I felt one of them digging in my pocket. It took me a moment to realize they’d taken my wand. Nadine’s, too, by the looks of it. They held both wands up to the coven.
“This matter is in the hands of the Goddess now,” Priestess Lilian said. “It is she who will determine their verdict, for no member of the coven can defy the Goddess. It is a tradition of old. We will place their wands in the river. If their wands sink, the Goddess has determined them innocent. If they float, they are undoubtedly guilty.”
It was a modified version of the swimming test used during the witch trials. Accused witches were brought to the nearest body of water and thrown in. People believed that witches had rejected the sacrament of baptism, and so the water would reject them, too. According to lore, a witch would float, while an innocent would sink. But we were all witches here, and the original test didn’t work on us. The priestesses had to modify it for their own gain.
I wasn’t fooled. We all knew a wooden wand would float. Nadine and I would be deemed guilty for sure. It’s why the coven hadn’t used the test in so long—because it wasn’t a real determination of guilt. It was just a story the priestesses told when they had no other options.
The coven didn’t seem to care. They believed the Goddess would intervene. People on both sides began cheering.
“Yes, leave it up to the Goddess!”
“No one is above the Goddess. She will reveal the truth!”
The priestesses approached the water. I barely had the strength to lift my head, but I managed to roll myself onto my side to watch. The priestesses carefully set our wands in the river. It was no surprise that they floated, yet my stomach seemed to shrivel into a stone that somehow weighed six tons.
“Mother Miriam deems them both guilty!” Priestess Margaret announced, turning back toward the coven. “Nadine Evers and Lucas Taylor have been sentenced to—”
“Wait!” Chloe shouted.
The whole world seemed to tilt as every coven member in attendance watched the river. A white, magical glow shimmered beneath the surface of the water. Magical tendrils drifted upward and curled around our wands. Slowly, the magic dragged the wands beneath the surface, sinking them to the bottom of the river.
