The Darkness Within (18 page)

“I know it sounds a little weird, but if you think about it, French toast is bread, egg, sugar, and cinnamon, right? I’m only missing a few ingredients.” She smiled. “Besides, it makes it look as though I’m like everyone else.”

Like everyone else? Wasn’t she? Oh God! “You’re a witch?”

“Why do you look so surprised? Really, I thought I’d be the obvious guess.”

Sure, Ms. Matthews was a little different. Not your typical teacher at all. But I didn’t think any of my teachers would turn out to be witches. “Are there any others?”

“Yes.” She kept eye contact with me, challenging me to figure this out on my own. Who did she hang out with? I’d never really paid much attention to the teachers before. They usually holed themselves up in the teachers lounge when they weren’t in their classrooms. “Sam, if you’re going to survive as a witch, you need to be able to recognize other witches around you. You’ve certainly spent enough time with one of these people. You should know he’s—”

“He?” My mind raced. No way. She couldn’t mean… “Mr. Ryan?” My voice cracked.

Ms. Matthews nodded. “Why else would that popularity spell Shannon cast not have worked on him?”

He’d been immune to Shannon’s spell. Could it be that he recognized she was a witch and somehow blocked any spells she might try to use on him? “I think I’m getting a headache.”

“Maybe you should sit down.”

“No. I’m fine.” Despite my words, my legs bent and I found myself sitting in the nearest chair.

“Trust me, I think it’s better this way.” Ms. Matthews smiled at me.

“Did you just…use a spell to make me sit?” It wasn’t the first time
she’d used magic on me, either. “The other day, when you got me to talk about Beth…that was a spell, too. You keep using magic on me.”

“Is that what you really want to talk about? We’re running out of time.”

“What do you mean?” Did she know about Ethan? Did she know something was happening to him?

“Look, we need to join our covens if we’re going to figure this out.”

Join covens? Great, Dylan and Shannon were going to love the idea of bringing teachers into the group. Then it hit me. “Who else is in your coven? It can’t only be you and Mr. Ryan. You need more witches, don’t you?”

“Yes. There are five of us.”

“Five?” My mind raced, trying to come up with three more teachers who might be witches in disguise.

“I don’t think you’ll guess these three. Well, maybe one. He did tell me you were on your way here.”

“Mr. Malinowsky?” He knew I was lying about the test, and he’d told Ms. Matthews I was on my way.

“Jason thinks you don’t apply yourself in his class, by the way.”

“I don’t care about trigonometry right now!” How could she mention grades at a time like this?

“Sorry, Sam. I
am
a teacher, after all. It’s kind of my job to care about your academic achievement.”

“Well, all I care about is figuring out what’s going on with Ethan and how your coven can possibly help him.”

Ms. Matthews laced her hands in front of her, and I saw the blue moons she’d painted on her black nails shimmer. Her nervous energy was creating magic in her fingertips. But why was she so nervous? What was she hiding?

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” I motioned to her nails.

She laughed. “Thomas is always telling me I should stop painting designs on my nails. They give me away every time.”

“Thomas?”

“Mr. Snyder.”

“
Principal
Snyder? He’s a witch?” Now I felt faint. We had a witch running the school. With all the spells my coven had cast, this was definitely not good news.

“Relax, Sam. Yes, he knows about your spells, as does the rest of the coven. But you aren’t in any trouble.”

I took a deep breath, wondering how much worse this could get. “Who’s the fourth witch in your coven?”

“Eileen.” I stared at her for a moment before she realized I didn’t know any teachers by their first names. “Oh, sorry. I mean, Mrs. Melrose.”

“The guidance secretary?” I shook my head. “Now I know you’re messing with me. She’s old enough to be my grandma, maybe even great-grandma.”

“She’s what we call a crone. She’s very wise and very powerful.”

Now that I thought about it, it really did make sense. When we were in the guidance office doing that spell, Shannon had said she picked up on a weird vibe from Mrs. Melrose. She said it felt like she sensed us somehow. The only way that would be possible was if she was overly perceptive like Beth, or she was a witch. “Does this mean she knows Ethan and I lied about—?” I caught myself. We hadn’t told anyone we were using fake names. Not even Dylan and Shannon.

“We all know, Sam. You and Ethan have fake IDs and are using the school records of two very real students. All very illegal. But…” She stopped fidgeting with her hands. “We understand why you are doing all of this. I can’t say I blame you after what happened. You were dealt an unfair hand with the cancer, and then with what Nora did to you on top of that.”

“Wait. Does this mean you know about Trevor, too?” Trevor, Shannon’s boyfriend, who I accidentally killed during one of my episodes?

Ms. Matthews nodded. “We know. We helped cover it up for you.”

No way. I swallowed hard, feeling like my tongue was swelling up to the size of an anaconda. This couldn’t be happening. I’d had a coven of witches covering my tracks for me. But they were adults, teachers. Why would they dismiss a dead teenager so easily? They should have busted me. Something wasn’t right. “But then, why didn’t you help me? Stop me? Stop Nora? I was a monster. I was—”

“Sam.” Ms. Matthews sat down across from me and placed her hand on mine. “It wasn’t that simple. Your actions left traces. It took
us a little while to piece it all together. Witchcraft isn’t an exact science. By the time we found out it was you—”

“But you said I needed to be able to recognize other witches. Why couldn’t you recognize me? I had Ben’s and Rebecca’s magic inside me.”

“That was after you killed Trevor. And even then, your magic came in a very different way. Most witches are born with it. It’s part of who we are. Your magic is—for lack of a better word—stolen. It was harder to detect.”

My stomach lurched. She was right. The magic inside me wasn’t really mine at all. And neither was Ethan’s. “Is that why Ethan’s having such a difficult time controlling his magic? Because it’s not really his?”

She nodded, and I could tell she was biting the inside of her lower lip. Something was bothering her. Something she’d assumed I’d figured out. What was I missing? Okay, Ethan’s magic didn’t really belong to him, so it was sort of acting out in a way, like a disobedient child that only wanted to listen to its mother.

Mother.

No. No, no, no! “Oh my God!”

“Sam, try to stay calm.” Ms. Matthews reached for my hands, but I pushed the chair back from the table and stood up.

“Ethan can’t control his magic because it’s not his to control. It’s Nora’s! She’s dead, but her magic is still messing with us, with Ethan. It’s trying to make him into what she was. Evil.”

19

M
S
. Matthews stood up and walked around the table to me. “I know this all seems really bad to you right now, and I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it isn’t. But you need to stay calm and listen to me.”

Calm? That wasn’t an option. Nora’s dark magic was crawling around inside Ethan. I had to get to him, to the coven. We had to do something now. Maybe these teachers had covered for me, but they hadn’t tried to fix the monster inside me. Most likely because they didn’t know how, which meant there was no way they could help Ethan now. Only one witch had the power to do that. Only one witch had done it before. Forget about trying to track down Mirabella and calling her. We had to go to her
right now
. We had to make her help Ethan. “I have to go.” I ran from the room with Ms. Matthews calling after me. I knew she’d alert her coven immediately, which meant we needed to get out of the building as soon as possible or they’d try to stop us. I ducked into the boys’ bathroom, thinking Ms. Matthews wouldn’t look for me there—unless she was already doing a locator spell on me. I whipped my phone out and texted the others.

Get out of the school now! Meet at Ethan’s car. I’ll explain later. Go!

I checked the hallway. It looked clear, but I used a bubble spell anyway. I couldn’t be too careful. I walked right out the front doors, undetected. So far so good. I hoped the others were as lucky. I ran to
Ethan’s car. It was locked, but he kept a spare key inside the wheel well. I grabbed it and got in. Even with the bubble spell, I ducked down, keeping out of sight. Who knew how often the school cop patrolled the parking lot looking for ditchers?

I sensed the others before they got there. Their spells were making the air shimmer. Not good. If I could sense them, so could Ms. Matthews and her coven. I appreciated that they wanted to help. Really, I did. But I was done taking this slowly. If Nora’s magic was the problem—the thing corrupting Ethan—I wasn’t losing another second thinking about the best plan of action.

Ethan opened the driver’s-side door, and I jumped over the middle console into the passenger seat. Dylan and Shannon hopped in the back. “What’s going on?” Ethan asked, following my lead and clicking his seat belt.

“Drive. I’ll explain on the way. We have to get away from this place.”

Ethan pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the highway. I didn’t know where we were going yet, but the highway seemed like a good starting point.

Dylan leaned forward, his head between my seat and Ethan’s. “Sam, spill. What’s this all about?”

They weren’t going to be happy about me seeing Ms. Matthews on my own, but I didn’t have time to worry about the backlash. “I found out why Ms. Matthews was acting weird.”

Shannon shoved the back of my seat. “You were supposed to wait for me. We were going to handle her together.”

“There’s no time for apologies. Ms. Matthews is a witch.”

Ethan swerved, most likely because he jerked his head toward me and wasn’t watching the road. “She’s a witch?”

“Yes, and she’s not the only one.” I told them about Mr. Ryan, Mr. Malinowsky, Mr. Snyder, and Mrs. Melrose. “They’ve all been covering for us—well, mostly for me. They figured out what happened to me a month ago. They tried to help, but apparently the magic inside me wasn’t easy for them to trace. Ms. Matthews said that’s because the magic I have isn’t really mine.”

“It’s Ben’s and Rebecca’s,” Dylan said, slumping back into his seat. Yeah, I didn’t believe for a second that he was glad his brother was
dead. They’d had their problems and were completely dysfunctional as far as family goes, but Dylan missed Ben.

“Whoa.” Shannon leaned forward this time. “Does this mean…?”

I turned and nodded to her.

“Mean what?” Ethan nearly drove off the road again. “Someone get me up to speed here.”

“How about you ease off the speed?” Dylan said. “Either that or pull over and I’ll drive.”

“I’m fine. I just need to know what Sam and Shannon aren’t saying.” His hands gripped the steering wheel. I stared at his right hand, the one that usually held mine while he drove. I reached for it. He resisted at first, but I wouldn’t give in. I laced my fingers through his.

“Ethan, the reason your magic is fighting you is because it’s not yours. It’s Nora’s.”

His fingers tightened around mine. He was scared. “What does that mean for me? Will I become the way she was?”

“I won’t let that happen.” I met Dylan and Shannon’s gazes, needing to confirm my suspicion. “Only a truly powerful witch can remove dark magic, right?”

“There’s only one we know of,” Shannon said. “No offense to Mr. Ryan or the others, but they’re teachers. How badass can they really be? We need powerful witches who aren’t afraid of dark magic.”

“We need to find Mirabella,” Dylan said. “We have to go to her and make her help Ethan.”

“My thoughts exactly.” It was good that we were all back on the same page, working together instead of fighting over everything.

“Locator spell. That’s what we need.” Shannon fumbled inside her shoulder bag. “I thought I had some herbs in here.”

Dylan tapped Ethan on the shoulder. “Find a place to pull over. We can’t do the spell in the car. We need everyone’s magic for this to work. Mirabella isn’t going to want to be found, especially by me and Shannon.”

“What if she’s…?” Ethan couldn’t say the words, but we all knew what he meant. What if she was a dark witch now? Our problems would be multiplied by about a million and two.

I squeezed his hand tighter. “There are four of us and only one of her. We’ll
make
her save you if we have to.”

“And then what?” Ethan turned his head and met my eyes. He looked so lost, so helpless. I’d never seen him like this. He was my Ethan, my protector, my strength. At least, that was what he used to be. “Will we have to kill her to keep her from coming after us? Is that what this is going to come down to?”

Maybe. I didn’t want to be responsible for killing anyone else, not even a crazy dark witch. But for Ethan…there was nothing I wouldn’t do.