Page 38 of How to Charm a Coven (How to Flirt with a Witch #2)

Irreversible Decisions

T he vial tips against Hazel’s lips, and my heart grinds to a stop as the purple liquid disappears down her throat.

For a suspended moment, the world goes silent. Time freezes. Everyone pauses, the forest itself seeming to hold its breath.

Then—

“No!” I yell, my voice drowned beneath Sophia and Oaklyn’s furious shrieks.

Hazel doubles over, coughing violently. The empty vial slips from her fingers and shatters on the rocks, glass fragments catching the light like diamonds.

“What did you do?” Oaklyn cries. She runs to Hazel and drops to her knees.

I get to my feet, gasping, pain stabbing my side where Oaklyn punched me. Each breath sends a jolt through my ribs, but I force myself upright.

Hazel is convulsing on all fours. The air around her shimmers like heat waves rising from pavement. Her fingers dig into the earth, and the stone beneath her cracks, fissures spreading out like a spiderweb. The sound of splitting rock echoes across the cove.

“Hazel!” I shout, limping forward.

No, no… I tried so hard to keep her safe from this world. Now she’s submerged in it. Drowning.

The stone fractures further under her palms. What if her body can’t handle the magic, like what happened to Millie? I can’t lose her.

Before I get to her, movement catches my eye.

Sophia forces Wyatt back with a wave of earth.

The dog snarls as he tumbles away from the golden net.

With a triumphant cry, Sophia snatches up the trapped chimera, which is limp and unconscious, its form flickering weakly between a rabbit and something indiscernible.

“Oaklyn, let’s go!” she shouts, backing away, strands of her white-blonde hair whipping in the wind.

Oaklyn stays crouched, wiping away the blood her mother left on Hazel’s neck. She whips her head around, her eyes wild.

“Now!” Sophia barks.

Oaklyn hesitates. I’ve seen this expression on her once before, when she landed on me with her dagger after she found out I killed her brother. And for the briefest moment, I have to wonder what she really feels for Hazel. How real it is—or was.

She gives Hazel one last look, then gets up and sprints after Sophia, her decision made.

Wyatt shakes himself off, sending droplets of seawater flying. He bounds after them, his loyalty to Oaklyn unwavering despite everything.

I’m torn, my heart splitting in two directions. Hazel is on the ground, magic coursing through her body. But Sophia is escaping with a captured chimera, and if she consumes its power…

A few chimeras break away to follow Sophia and Oaklyn, but they’re quickly intercepted by Shadows.

Enchantment or not, the witches are still determined to destroy them, and the chimeras are fighting for their lives.

A cacophony of emotions shoots through me so intensely that a sharp pain stabs my temples.

“Katie. Help.” It’s Hazel, her voice all but lost beneath the clamor. Her eyes flash between their normal brown and an eerie purple as she looks at me, pleading. Sweat beads on her forehead, and her entire body trembles.

I race closer and kneel beside her, taking the place where Oaklyn was a moment ago. I hold both her hands tightly. “I’m here.”

Unnatural heat radiates from her skin, almost painful to touch.

She convulses again, and a prickling sensation ripples over me as a burst of magic erupts from her palms. Rocks lift from the ground around us, hovering before shooting in all directions like bullets.

I duck, covering Hazel with my body as best I can, feeling their wind as they narrowly miss us.

“What’s happening to me?” she whimpers, her voice small and afraid.

“You drank earth magic. I think it’s trying to find its place in you,” I say, though I’m guessing. I’ve never seen someone become a witch before. “Try to breathe through it.”

The chimeras’ pain hits me as they’re struck by the Shadows’ magic. Each strike is like a blow to my own body, making my breath hitch. They’re falling, breaking down like wood splintering under crashing waves, trapped within the circle of witches.

I can’t help them. I can’t help anyone. The realization burns in my chest.

“Katie!” Natalie’s voice punctures my thoughts. “What happened? Where’d the Madsens go?”

She staggers toward us with Sky supporting her. I don’t know how she’s on her feet at all. But her gaze is locked onto me, like nothing in the world can stop her from fighting.

“Don’t tell me we lost them,” Sky says, going pale .

“With a chimera,” I say, my voice broken. “Natalie, you shouldn’t be here. Sky—”

“I know,” Sky says. “I’m trying. She’s stubborn as hell.”

I hold Natalie’s gaze, and she tilts her head. This is how it’s going to be, then. Each of us refusing to leave the other until one of us takes her last breath.

Hazel grunts as another wave of magic pulses through her, the ground beneath her palms cracking and rumbling. “Katie, I can’t control it,” she whimpers.

I grip her shoulders. “Focus on your breathing. Try to center yourself.”

“Wait—” Natalie says, looking down at Hazel with wide eyes, finally seeming to realize she’s not just injured.

Sky gasps. “Did she consume—”

“What’s happening here?” Fiona’s sharp voice cuts through our conversation. She strides over, her cloak torn and dirty. Her gaze sweeps over Hazel, narrowing when she sees Hazel’s eyes blazing purple. “Who is this? Why is she manifesting magic?”

“Her name is Hazel, and she just stopped Oaklyn from becoming a witch,” I say firmly, standing between them. For all the shitty treatment she’s given me, I refuse to let her unleash that on my best friend.

Fiona’s nostrils flare, her face hardening into the same expression I’ve seen countless times. “Tell me it isn’t bio magic.”

“It’s earth magic. And you should be thanking Hazel,” I snap, my patience thin after all this time spent trying to prove myself to her.

Fiona turns to Sky, who’s still supporting Natalie. “Don’t let her go. She’s property of C.S.A.M.M. now. Bring her in.”

Sky dips her chin.

“And you’re supposed to be leading the Shadows, Skylar,” Fiona adds harshly, “not playing nursemaid while everything falls apart.”

Sky grits her teeth. “My sister is injured! ”

“Fiona,” I interrupt, stepping closer. “The Madsens have a chimera. Sophia is about to do the ritual while the coven is over here fighting the wrong fight. We need to work together or we all lose.”

Fiona turns her sharp gaze onto me. “What we need is to destroy these chimeras!”

Around us, chimeras and Shadows clash in violent bursts of magic. A bull with massive horns sends a witch flying into the rocks. Amir hurls a volley of stones that knocks a coyote off its feet. Blood stains the shore, and wisps of shimmering black magic fill the air.

“Destroy them to what end? This isn’t solving anything!” I cry, desperate for her to understand. “Sophia’s gaining power while you order your coven to wage war on magic!”

“Quiet!” Fiona roars.

Before I can argue back, a groan from Natalie pulls my attention. Her knees give out, and her body folds like a marionette with cut strings.

“Nat, get up,” Sky says urgently, her voice cracking as she stumbles under the sudden dead weight.

“Natalie!” My heart plummets as I lunge closer.

Her clothes are saturated in dark red. Her face has gone ashen, the warm tone of her skin fading to a lifeless gray.

“We need to get her out of here,” Sky says. “She needs medical attention. Now.”

Her voice swims, coming from far away.

“She’s lost too much blood,” Fiona says.

“Don’t say that,” I say, my lips numb. “We still have time. We can…”

I choke into silence as the world narrows to Natalie’s face. I search for any sign of the fierce determination that always burns in her eyes, but her eyelids are fluttering, consciousness slipping away.

I wait for her to protest, to straighten up and say she’s fine, but her eyes are rolling back in her head. Her breaths are weak and shallow, and her lips have taken on a bluish tinge that terrifies me more than any chimera ever could.

“Help!” I cry, not sure who I’m yelling to. The witches are scattered, dealing with their own injuries or following orders to try and destroy the chimeras. No one is coming.

“Oh my God,” Sky says, and for the first time since I’ve known her, she seems completely lost. Her shoulders shake as she dissolves into tears, her fingers pressed uselessly against the gushing wound in her sister’s side. “We’re losing her.”

The words hit me so hard that I gasp like I’ve been punched.

Panic constricts my chest until I can’t breathe.

This can’t be happening. We haven’t had enough time together.

She only just told me about her dream home, and I actually thought it might happen—that we could get through all this and spend the rest of our lives together.

Was that naive? Was our relationship always doomed to end at the hands of the Madsens?

“Natalie, please don’t leave me,” I say, the words barely audible as our whole future disintegrates in a pool of blood on the rocks.

Something stirs deep inside me, like my utter terror pushed so hard against it that it had no choice but to come alive. An urge I’ve never felt before overtakes me. The chimeras sense it too; I feel their attention turning toward me without looking up. They inch closer, their forms rippling.

I inhale deeply, letting the sensation wash over me.

It’s like a door opening in my mind, one that’s always been there but I never knew how to unlock.

Strength flows into my limbs, not my own but borrowed from something ancient and powerful.

The chimeras’ consciousness merges with mine, their memories becoming accessible—centuries of existence, of watching humans evolve, of maintaining the natural balance of the world.