Page 32 of How to Charm a Coven (How to Flirt with a Witch #2)

Never a Witch

I hiss as my tea burns my tongue, setting it down with a grimace.

Steam rises from the mug, fogging the air between Natalie and me.

Even surrounded by greenery, warm lights, and a crackling fireplace, the lounge feels like a funeral home.

Most of the Shadows are either in the infirmary or recovering in their rooms. Only a few remain in the booths, refueling with midnight snacks.

No laughter, no chatter, just silence and exhaustion.

Neil’s body has been recovered. His family will be notified.

The thought sits like a stone in my stomach. Another witch, killed. Is it my fault? I couldn’t balance the two halves of my life—Hazel and Natalie, friendship and love, loyalty and responsibility. I tried to be everything to everyone and somehow managed to fail everyone at once.

What if I’d talked to Hazel like she asked before sharing Sophia’s location? What if I hadn’t gotten caught up trying to prove myself to a coven that I obviously don’t belong in?

My eyes sting, and I blink fast. I feel like the willow tree in the corner, broken and barely standing, held up with wooden splints and twine since the Madsen attack in February. Its leaves dangle like they’ve given up .

I’m still trying to understand where I went wrong with Hazel. The memory of her face before they drove away keeps replaying in my mind. Not only did she choose the Madsens over me, but she stole the enchanted net for them.

What if they manage to catch a chimera with it? If Sophia gains access to bio magic, we’re all completely screwed.

“We need to talk about what happened,” Natalie says quietly.

I meet her dark eyes, finding defeat reflected back at me. Her cuts are still bleeding, and her tangled hair is full of dust and debris. She’s clutching her mug tightly, straining the raw scrapes on her knuckles.

“Which part?” I ask. “The part where my best friend betrayed us, or the part where you didn’t tell me we were on our way to murder a bunch of chimeras?”

“And you didn’t tell me Millie and Sebastian were there,” she says coldly. “I’m not the only one who withheld information.”

Her icy tone stings, and I glower in response.

She exhales, dragging her fingers through her tangled hair. “And we weren’t on our way to murder anything, Katie. Chimeras are magic, which means they can be neutralized like a curse, and that’s what we were planning to do.”

“If they’re not sentient, then how do you explain how I spoke to Lucy?” My words come out sharp. I’m sick of arguing with her about this. “She showed me memories—”

“That’s bio magic manipulating you,” she cuts in, just as sharp and impatient. “It can influence minds, and that’s exactly why it’s so dangerous.”

I bang my fist on the table, my self-control fracturing.

The tea sloshes, spilling over the rim of the mug.

“I’m not the first person who can talk to chimeras.

My ability means something. I need to—” I hesitate, her constant doubts seizing hold of me.

But I push on, determined to be heard. “I need to protect them like the people before me did. ”

Natalie blinks, her expression going blank with surprise. “Who else can speak to them?”

Her icy tone is gone. Was that a slight tremor in her voice?

I shift in my seat. “I read about it in the library here. Ancient Guardians once communicated with them.”

Natalie searches my face, a crease between her eyebrows. I can’t tell if that’s a look of curiosity, like I might have a hope of getting through to her, or if she thinks I’ve totally lost it and is too tired to keep arguing.

Footsteps approach, and we both turn. Fiona sweeps up to our table, her red cloak torn and dusty but her spine as straight as ever. Sky trails behind her, looking as battered as I feel. There’s a bruise blooming across her cheekbone, and she’s limping heavily.

“At dawn, we move in on the chimera nest,” Fiona announces. “Every available Shadow. We’re not letting this slip away—especially now that the Madsens have the net.”

I stand so fast that I bump the table, and more tea sloshes everywhere. “You can’t!”

“Sit down, Miss Alexander,” Fiona snarls. “This isn’t your decision to make.”

I stay on my feet, balling my fists. The familiar feeling of being dismissed, of being treated like I don’t belong, burns through me. I’m done with this.

“You’re making a mistake,” I say, determined not to let my voice waver. “They aren’t weapons or mindless forces. They’re ancient magic, and they maintained balance in nature before the coven existed.”

“Balance?” Fiona scoffs. “Tell that to the families of the people they’ve hurt.”

“They lashed out because you caged them!” My voice rises, drawing the attention of the few Shadows scattered across the lounge. “Because the coven decided it knew better than centuries of Guardians who came before you. You created this problem, and now you’re going to make it worse.”

Fiona’s face hardens. “This is exactly why you’re not a witch. You have no loyalty to the coven and no devotion to protecting humanity from dark magic.”

The words slice through me, but I glare at her, unwilling to shrink back. “Or I understand better than any of you. Maybe that’s why I can hear them when you can’t.”

Silence falls over our corner of the lounge. Even Fiona seems taken aback.

“Katie,” Natalie says softly, “you’re upset about Hazel. I’m concerned for her too. But we can’t let that cloud our judgment about what needs to be done. The Madsens have the net, and we need to harness all traces of bio magic before they can get a hold of it.”

Her gentle dismissal hurts worse than Fiona’s cruel one. I step away from the table, my chest tight. “You really think I’m wrong here.”

Natalie looks down, a flash of guilt in her expression. But she doesn’t contradict me.

Part of me wants to reach for her hand across this gap, but my arms stay firmly at my sides. And she doesn’t reach for me, either.

It feels like the world is spinning away from me. I’ve lost my best friend, Troy’s net, and any hope of convincing these witches to see reason. Even Natalie, the one person I thought saw me for who I truly am, thinks I’m delusional.

“Fine,” I say, my voice rough. “Go ahead with your ambush. But there’s more to the chimeras than you think, and I want you to remember I warned you.”

I walk away, leaving them to their plans. Like always, I’m just an outsider who can’t do magic, whose opinion means nothing .

Natalie doesn’t follow me, and to be honest, I’m not sure what I would do if she tried. I might tell her to go away. I might break down in tears.

But I don’t need to worry about that because she stays rooted with her coven.

My eyes prickle as I head for the Chambers wing. I couldn’t protect the chimeras, I couldn’t keep Hazel safe, and I couldn’t even convince the woman I love to believe me.

I hesitate in the corridor, unsure where to go. I don’t belong in the coven, where I’ll always be an outsider. Nor do I belong with Hazel, who’s chosen a new path. I can’t even turn to my family, who have no idea what I’m going through.

I’m completely alone.

I walk toward Natalie’s room anyway, wiping my damp cheeks. Maybe Ethel will be there, waiting to be let in. She’s my one constant through all this.

I tried so hard to be useful, to fit in, to be a part of the coven.

I thought if I followed the rules and proved myself valuable, they would eventually see me as one of them—and secretly, I hoped that if I proved worthy enough, they might let me become a witch.

But that was never going to happen. I was always going to be an outsider, no matter how many curses I found or chimeras I helped catch.

I’ve been so desperate to belong that I’ve doubted myself, even when I feel deep in my gut that what they’re doing is wrong. All along, I should have been questioning whether this is where I belong at all. Whether I even need to belong here.

So where does that leave me? If I’m not on the coven’s side and I’m not on the Madsens’ side…

I stop outside Natalie’s door and pick up Ethel, who was indeed waiting for me.

“We’ll create our own side,” I tell her, kissing her head .

The thought of standing apart from Natalie makes my heart feel like it’s being wrung out like a dishrag.

I guess several things can be true: I love her, and I’m furious with her, and we both feel like we’ve let the other down.

I don’t know where this leaves us. All I know is that I can’t keep pretending to be someone I’m not, even for her.

I’m not a witch, but I’m not normal either. I’m something in between…and it’s time to figure out exactly what that is.

I can’t sleep, especially with Natalie lying as stiff and silent as a corpse beside me, so I rise before the sun and get dressed in the first outfit I pull out of my suitcase—jeans and a white T-shirt that says ‘no thank you’ in small letters across the front.

Ethel trots at my heels as I slip out the door.

In the courtyard, we curl up in a hammock together, her watching the koi fish undulate in the pond, me replaying the same few seconds incessantly: Hazel shooting me that last glare before climbing into the car with Oaklyn, choosing the Madsens over me.

I don’t understand. In her shoes, I don’t think I could ever choose a girl I’d just met over my best friend.

Then again, I suppose part of me understands what it’s like to fall hard and fast. I fell for Natalie fast enough to break the sound barrier. Is Hazel going through the same feelings with Oaklyn, and should I be more empathetic?

Empathy would be easier to summon if she weren’t dating an unhinged criminal.

Ethel purrs as I stroke her back, and far above, birds have started their morning songs, oblivious to the fact that today, witches will go slaughter dozens of ancient beings they don’t understand. And I’ll probably be thrown in jail anyway for refusing to help them .