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The humorous woman I’d met in the car on the way back from my mother’s house was gone, her mouth set into a stern line as she went about her business and maintained her compulsion.

Gray stepped away from me, approaching the first of the witches. The girl cowered, flinching back even though her feet wouldn’t allow her to move as Gray held out his hand. Juliet happily slipped a knife into his hand, and he turned to hold my gaze as he dragged it slowly across the young witch’s throat.

“No!” I screamed, running forward.

Gray raised a hand, catching me around the front of the throat and holding me pinned there even as I struggled against his grip. The strength he possessed, the sheer power in that hold… He’d allowed me to think I stood a chance.

My feet left the ground as he lifted me, stepping to the side as the witch fell to the floor with a thump.

“Brain,” he said callously, and to my horror, Juliet nodded, bending down beside the felled witch to gather the body part.

“Why?” I rasped, clawing at Gray’s hand where he held me still. I watched in horror as he dragged his blade across another throat, uncaring for the life he ended. Ifeltthe soul leave,feltthe life end and death claim it.

My fingers tingled, magic that I didn’t know how to use yet coursing through them. Gray felt it spark against his skin, smirking at me as he stepped to the side and moved onto the next witch.

“Are you going to come out and play with me, Little Necromancer?” he murmured, smiling cruelly.

His expert cuts across throats ceased to matter. They stopped existing as I focused in on that heated stare and felt nothing but hatred for the man who had deceived me. For the murderer who would kill my own kind.

“Your aunt was one of the few who couldn’t be compelled, not with those bones attached to her hip. The way she screamed lives on in my dreams.”

Silence roared in my head, deafening and drowning out the subtle whimpers of the few witches he hadn’t killed. Another throat, another slit.

“What did you just say?” I asked, the emptiness in my chest spreading ever wider.

“Your aunt screamed when I cut her throat before she could ever lay a hand on me to Unmake me,” he repeated. He watched his knife cut across the next throat, allowing it to move much more slowly. Letting the witch feel every piece of skin sever before death finally claimed him.

I recognized him as one of the ones who had attacked me that night, and the fact that he seemed to get extra attention from Gray should have come as a shock.

“Why? She was a Hecate witch. Why would you kill her?” I asked, the breath rushing out of me. None of it made any sense. None of it added up.

Gray cut the last witch’s throat, walking me backward toward the mirror at the center. He stopped just beside it as Juliet continued to gather the organs from the bodies that littered the Tribunal room floor in a circle.

He released me, letting me fall to my knees in a heap as I stared up at him.

“Every moment Loralei spent with the Coven was a threat to her brother’s existence. I couldn’t risk the Covenant learning the truth of his birth. Not before he met your mother and contributed to you.”

He reached down, grabbing me and pulling me to my feet in front of him. “Bleed them,” he said, raising a single hand to point at where the Covenant hung suspended. They’d not spoken a single word, watching in unnatural silence that led me to believe they couldn’t speak.

“They’re nothing but bones. They cannot be bled,” I answered, shaking my head.

“Then I guess you will just have to give them flesh first,” he said, touching a pinky finger to the edge of one of the bones on my neck. That inky, dark magic snapped out, lashing forward toward Susannah like a whip. It wrapped around her bones, drawing her closer to us as Gray slid his fingers into mine and entwined them. “Take what you are owed, Witchling.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head in protest. “I won’t be like you. I won’t be like them.”

Gray tucked my hair behind my ear, leaning in to whisper against my skin. “I think you’ll find you will, whether you like it or not. Please do not make me force your hand. We both know you will hate me for it, and neither of us want that.”

“Speak for yourself, Headmaster,” I snapped, jerking away from his touch.

He sighed into the side of my neck. “You disappoint me, Willow. Remember this moment when you cannot bear to look at me come morning. I didn’t want to have to do this.” He touched his mouth to my temple in something that seemed close to pity. “Bring him,” he said, turning to look at one of the other Vessels.

He hadn’t been able to compel Lorelai because of the bones. He couldn’t compel me any longer either, I realized.

“Bring who?” I asked, glancing around the room. I tried to think of who he might have to hurt me, who he might think he could use to force me to become a monster like him.

Iban.

I stared at the door that led to the halls, watching for any sign of the male witch who had become one of the closest things I had to a friend. In spite of the fact that I suspected he didn’t approve of what he assumed was happening between Gray and me, he hadn’t judged me for it.