Page 83 of The Witch's Pet

The worst part wasn’t even the killing. It was how good it felt, and how utterly out of control my magic—Julia’smagic—became as she drank in Charlotte’s essence. It took over. It wouldn’t let me stop feeding. The power had its own hunger, its own will, and Julia was the vessel it poured through.

Charlotte’s pleasure amplified Julia’s power, which in turn intensified Charlotte’s ecstasy. Round and round until there was nothing left.

I meet Julia’s eyes. They’re glossy, wide, and vulnerable. I’ve never seen her look so ashamedand afraid.

My heart cracks. I try to speak, but my throat is too tight. I swallow hard and try again.

“Was it truly a mistake?”

23

Julia

Myheartskipsabeat as Hannah voices the question I’ve been unsure how to answer since it happened.

But as she looks at me with those devastating eyes, I know what I desperately want to believe. So I let myself nod. “I never meant for our feedings to…to end in her death.”

Hannah dips her chin, studying me closely. “Did you love her?”

The question catches me off guard. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

Was what I felt for Charlotte love? Or was it lust and obsession?

I cared for her, certainly. I enjoyed her devotion and the way she made me feel needed, wanted, and less alone. But was I truly in love? Am I capable of such a thing?

“I thought I did,” I admit. “But perhaps I loved what she gave me more than who she was.”

Hannah flinches like I’ve struck her. “And am I another Charlotte to you?”

The question hits me like a stake through the ribs.

She is nothing like Charlotte. Charlotte was pliant and eager to give me everything I wanted. Hannah fights me at every turn and sees through every lie I tell. She threatens something far more dangerous than obsession.

But how can I possibly voice all this? Will it be enough?

I shake my head and step closer, but she steps back, keeping distance between us. And for once, watching her back away from me doesn’t put a thrill in my chest, but something a little painful.

“You still don’t trust me?” My voice comes out sharp and angry. “After I’ve spent all night keeping you alive?”

“Only because you have to. Our lives are bound by a spell. If it weren’t for that, you would have killed me the moment you saw me. Because that’s what you do best.”

I clench my teeth. She’s not wrong. Without the binding spell to constrain me, I would have drained her in her backyard and left her corpse among the ashes of her fire.

“Rebecca only told you about Charlotte to poison your mind against me,” I say.

“She told me information I deserve to know. And it all fits. Did you not try to abandon me in the forest as soon as you thought you were free?”

I open my mouth to argue, then close it. I can’t deny it.

I step closer again, backing Hannah into the shelves so she’s forced to meet my eyes. “Rebecca told you all this because she is setting us up to be trapped forever. We’re both her victims, and we cannot let her win.”

“Whatever Rebecca is doing to us doesn’t change what you did to Charlotte.”

I flex my fingers, fighting a constricting sensation around my ribs. She’s right, but I won’t admit it.

Hannah leans against the shelves and closes her eyes. The green light from the veins in the ceiling shifts over her exhausted, pale face. The darkcircles under her eyes are more pronounced, evidence of how long a night it’s been and how much energy I took from her.

An awful certainty settles into my gut: if we don’t break this spell, being bound to me is going to kill her.