Page 19 of How to Charm a Coven (How to Flirt with a Witch #2)

The Turtle Pond

S tanding at the edge of a pond that shouldn’t exist, I put my hands on my hips, the enchanted net dangling from my fingers. Lily pads float on the surface, reeds sway despite the lack of wind, and the water shimmers like a mirage in the morning sun.

Pretty. I get why the public assumed it was art.

Weird place for an installation, though.

The dead-end street feels forgotten by the city, cracked pavement giving way to gravel and weeds, while a rusty dumpster overflows with bits of plastic that skitter over the ground like tumbleweeds. The pond is an improvement.

My skin prickles with the familiar sensation of nearby magic.

“These streets were wild before your stones claimed them,” a voice hisses in my mind. “We remember when this was ours.”

Okay, no need to panic, it’s just a vaguely threatening disembodied voice.

I shift in my fake Animal Control shirt, which is stiff and doesn’t sit right across my shoulders. “It’s definitely in there. I hear it.”

“Voices?” Natalie asks .

I nod once. My palm is sweating on the net. All that practice in the Alchemy lab, and it still feels foreign in my hands.

She steps closer and lays a hand on the small of my back, looking around vigilantly as if to find an explanation.

But I know exactly where it’s coming from, and she can deny it all she wants. At our feet, the pond shimmers and swirls like a potion, something alive waiting beneath the surface.

Sky strides over from down the street, her black traveling cloak billowing. “I’ve cleared the area and put up barricades. No witnesses.”

“Thanks for coming,” I say. Having backup feels good after what happened last time, though part of me wishes I was alone so no one has to see me floundering. “No Madsens?”

“Not yet, anyway. Let loose, Nat.”

Natalie looks at me, checking in, and I nod and step back, gesturing to the pond.

Wasting no time, she raises her hands, her elegant fingers manipulating the earth beneath us. The ground quakes, making me widen my stance for balance, and the water churns as she uses magic to force the creature up.

My stomach roils like the pond. I tighten my grip on the net, trying to remember everything Troy taught me.

Something breaks the surface—a turtle, but not like any I’ve seen. Iridescent patterns shift and swirl on its shell like oil on water. My breath catches, and for a moment, it feels like I’m looking at an endangered species.

“Now, Katie,” Natalie whispers urgently.

Blinking out of my thoughts, I lift my arms, which feel impossibly heavy despite the net’s weightlessness—and a voice rings clear in my head: “Your ancestors knew better.”

I freeze. Wait, is it talking about my ancestors specifically? The ancestors of witches? Does the chimera know something I don’t ?

The turtle dives, and Natalie swears. She meets my eyes with a look of concern. “What did it say?”

“Again!” Sky shouts, sparing me from answering. She raises her hands to help her sister, and with a deep crrrack , the earth splits. The water swirls like someone’s pulled a plug.

My heart races as they destroy the pond, its beauty shattering in an instant as murky water sloshes over the pavement. The sight of it being demolished sends a pang through my chest that I don’t fully understand.

Catching a glimpse of the turtle’s shell, I splash in after it, my boots sinking into thick mud. The water is shockingly cold, seizing my legs and sending a jolt of pain through my temples.

Before I can throw, the turtle bursts from the water, mud spraying everywhere. It hits my cheeks, cold and gritty, and I swipe my forearm across my eyes to clear them.

The chimera is already changing. Wings sprout from its shell as it becomes a massive eagle, its wingspan casting a shadow over the muddy ground.

I throw the net. It fans out like it’s supposed to, the golden threads gleaming in the dim morning sun—but the eagle transforms into a snake that drops fast.

In another life, I would be awed and amazed by how this creature can transform. But my inner voice is screaming at me to hurry and catch it before it’s gone.

Fifty-six chimeras. A chimera a day. Five years in prison.

My head swims. I can’t breathe.

“Nearly had it!” Natalie shouts. She and Sky move their hands, manipulating rocks and dirt to block the snake’s escape. Bits of earth hit my skin, adding more grit to my arms and face.

I lunge, slipping in the mud as I grab the net for another try.

The snake becomes a fish that flops in the draining water, its silvery-purple scales shimmering .

I throw again. My technique is better than before. I’m almost there, the net grazing it each time it shifts.

Mud speckles the gold filaments as I grip it tightly. Another toss.

It transforms into a raccoon that scrambles up the bank, trying to get away from us. Shifting rapidly like Troy said it would.

Natalie and Sky break up the earth, forcing the raccoon back. They’re so sure and focused, ignoring the splatters of mud and pond water reaching past their knees.

Then, panic closes around me like a blanket over my mouth, and it’s not only my own—the panic of another being fills the air, thick and smothering. It mingles with mine until I don’t know which emotions are my own anymore.

“Please… See what we are… Feel our fear…”

“This isn’t—I can’t—” I don’t know what I’m saying or who I’m saying it to. My head is foggy with too many thoughts and emotions.

The chimera transforms into a spotted deer with fuzzy antlers, only thigh-high, like the ones that bow to you in Japan. It trembles in the mud, looking at me with wide, terrified eyes that are far too intelligent—like it knows exactly how to break me.

Tears prickle my eyes as I gather the net, something inside me splintering.

They’re dangerous , I tell myself. They level cities.

“Think of your freedom, Katie!” Natalie barks.

The word hits me like a bucket of ice water. My freedom. Five years of my life are at stake—five years I’ll spend in prison instead of building a life with Natalie, laughing with Hazel, hugging my parents and sisters and Ethel, starting my career and my adult life…

Everything I want, everything I am, is on the other side of whatever doubts are holding me back.

I grit my teeth. This chimera is bio magic, which means it could be manipulating the cells in my brain, making me feel all these confusing emotions. I need to push past it. I refuse to let this chimera go free and spend years in prison for it.

Natalie holds my gaze, her brown eyes pleading. Mud and pond water soak her uniform, and sweat beads on her face as she uses all her strength to help me.

My heart cracks. Sometimes, survival means making impossible choices, and this is one of those times.

With a roar, I hurl the net, putting everything I have into the perfect throw.

It soars, fanning out like a golden web, the weak sun glinting off its threads.

It lands on the fleeing deer, whose knees buckle as if it weighs a ton. Magic pulses, raising the hairs on my arms as it cinches around the deer’s hooves.

A terrible sound fills the world—the wail of an animal caught in a trap. It pierces straight through me, making me gasp.

I cover my mouth, gulping down air, my throat too tight to function. Bitter grit coats my lips.

“Yes!” Sky cries, letting her hands drop.

“Y-you did it!” Natalie exclaims, breathing hard.

The net fastens shut like an invisible hand is stitching it, trapping the deer—and a vision of myself behind iron bars flashes through my mind’s eye. Both of us caught, both of us caged. By fighting to stay out, I’m forcing others in.

“Please…” the voice grows louder, begging me.

Nausea fills me, and I keep covering my mouth, frozen in place.

The deer thrashes, its hooves tangling in the golden threads that glow brighter with each desperate movement. After several long, horrible seconds, its struggle slows. Its eyelids droop as it loses consciousness, and then it goes limp .

Just like all the others will, I realize with a shiver that wracks my body. Fifty-five more times, I’ll have to make the same choice.

Natalie grabs my shoulders, a smile breaking across her face. “Nice work, Katie!”

I can’t respond. I don’t know what to say. A hollowness fills me like nothing I’ve ever felt.

There’s a thump down the street, and the three of us turn.

“The barricades,” Sky says, raising her palms once more.

An engine roars. A silver FJ Cruiser tears toward us—the Madsens are here to steal what I’ve caught.

Natalie’s palm presses against my back. “Go!”

She picks up the net, grunting under the weight. Maybe she can’t use magic to levitate it with a chimera inside.

The sight of her struggling and covered in mud reminds me that I’m not just doing this for myself. This is for us, and for the future we could have. A lump forms in my throat as Natalie pours every drop of energy into this fight.

We sprint to her car, our boots squelching with each step, while Sky plants her feet and raises her palms. The street buckles and cracks beneath the approaching vehicle, jolting it off-course.

The driver’s side doors of Natalie’s car fly open.

I dive across the back seat, and Natalie gets behind the wheel, stuffing the trapped chimera in beside her.

She turns the car on and slams her foot down, steering us over to Sky, who hurtles into the back seat and squashes me.

Elbows bump faces as we disentangle our limbs, grunting apologies.

We peel away, and my heart pounds as we put distance between us and the pond. We did it. We caught one. So why do I feel like throwing up?

“Buckle up,” Natalie says, glancing at the rearview mirror. “They’re on our tail.”

I reach for the seatbelt with trembling hands, my gaze locking onto the deer in the passenger seat.

It’s lying unconscious with the golden net tangled around it.

Its long eyelashes rest against its cheeks, and its ribcage rises and falls in shallow breaths.

Its form flickers, like it’s starting to revert to the pure, formless state I saw back when I entered the room with all those cages.

Its desperate pleas echo in my mind, making me want to rip away the golden net and set it free. But the image of prison bars flashes across my mind’s eye, stopping me. Five years. Five years in a cell while Natalie faces the Madsens alone, while everyone I love continues life without me in it.

No. I made my choice.

I force my gaze out the window, where the outside world blurs in a mess of muted colors. I hate this. No matter what I do, I’m hurting someone or something.

I’m sorry, I think, though the apology only makes me feel worse.

“Hey, one down,” Natalie says, meeting my eye in the mirror. “We’re making progress.”

I nod and try to smile. I’m freezing, filthy, in pain…and a step closer to securing my freedom. I should be cheering.

But my chest aches. And I can’t help wondering who I’ll have to become if I want to save my own life.