“You failed!” shrilled Ronin, leaning forward on my mother’s old bedroom chair in what was now my bedroom.
“Shhh!” I ran to my bedroom door and slammed it shut. I recognized the muffled voices that came from the kitchen downstairs as Dolores and Beverly.
Keeping my back to my door, I spun around. “I don’t want my aunts to hear. Especially not Ruth.”
My thoughts flicked to Ruth, and my heart seemed to fall to my gut. After the trials, the first thing I did when I got home was to check up on Ruth. Her bedroom door was closed, and no matter how many times I knocked and called out, she wouldn’t come to the door.
Ronin had showed up moments later, all excited and jittery about my trials. He’d brought a bottle of champagne to celebrate. An actual bottle and three glasses.
I’d taken the bottle from him. “Are you mad? It’s eleven in the morning.”
Ronin had flashed me one of his infamous, lazy, sexy smiles that had the females unlocking their knees for him. Though now all his attention was focused on Iris since she arrived in Hollow Cove.
“But somewhere it’s past noon,” he’d said. “Everyone knows noon’s the acceptable time to get wasted.”
He’d been all smiles then. Now, well, I didn’t like the shock on his face. Nor the pity. Pity? Pity was for losers. I wasn’t a loser.
Depression had replaced my embarrassment at the thought that I could be found out, that somehow Marina or Greta would have sent word of my failure to my aunts. So far they hadn’t, but it didn’t mean they wouldn’t.
I’d been so certain, so sure I would ace these trials, and my overconfidence had bitten me in the ass—hard.
I was a fool, an overly self-assured jackass, and I’d paid dearly for it.
“Tessa’s right.” Iris shifted on my bed, her straight black hair grazing her jaw. Her eyes were sad as she fixed on a spot on the floor. “Ruth’s in a dark place. I know. I’ve been there. I know it well.”
I knew Iris was talking about the curse Adan had put on her, how scary it must have been for her to be trapped in a goat’s body, alone and frightened, and not being able to communicate with anybody to help her. Not until she found me.
“How do I get her out?” The idea that Ruth was slowly being pulled down into this darkness didn’t settle well with me. Depression was real, and I had no idea how to help.
“You don’t,” answered Iris. “Be there for her, but she needs to pull herself out. Out of the darkness. She needs to want to. Because anything you or we do won’t help if she’s not responsive. If she’s not ready. And right now, she’s not.”
I didn’t know if Iris was referring to when she’d been cursed as a goat, or if this was something else entirely. But I didn’t press it.
We all knew Ruth was blaming herself for Bernard’s death. She was taking it hard, too far, and it scared the crap out of me. My Aunt Ruth had always been the cheery one, the one with all the smiles, without a care in the world. Her love of animals and nature had always touched me deeply. Seeing her so broken and lost was terrifying. I was afraid I’d lose her forever if we didn’t do something fast.
“Tess,” declared Ronin, and I lifted my eyes to find him staring at me with a frown.
“What?” I shot back.
The half-vampire let out a sigh. “What do you mean you…” he said and then whispered, “… failed the trial? What the hell happened? You were really prepared. You prepared for an entire month. We barely saw you. You were either hitting the books or practicing your witchy things.”
I raised a brow. “My witchy things? Why does that sound dirty coming out of your mouth?” I laughed.
Ronin gave me a hard stare. “Can’t be right. You’re a magic champ. You’re the Muhammad Ali of witches. I’ve seen you do amazing witchy things. Hell, I was there when you did them.”
“She’s just messing with us. Right, Tessa?” added Iris with a pleading smile. “There’s no way you didn’t pass.” She laughed softly. “You of all people. A badass witch could pass these old trials. Right? Right, Tessa?”
My gaze shifted between them, my only two friends in this town, if you left out my aunts. The fact that neither could believe I’d failed made me feel a hundred times worse—as though I’d failed them too.
My gut tightened as another wave of embarrassment hit. “Yeah, well. I didn’t. I failed the first trial.”
“No shit,” answered Ronin. “So, what the hell happened over there?” I fixed my gaze on him with a threatening sharpness.
My humiliation was physical. I felt it everywhere, in my bones, my aches and pains. I had real-life experience. I’d battled demons. Evil sorceresses… and I still failed. I was a freaking Shadow witch.
And I failed.
I gave a mock laugh. “Well, you’re not going to believe it, but Marina—the one with half her head shaved I told you about—made sure I failed the written test.” I quickly told them about the email I never got and finally battling fake-me and losing.
“Basically,” I let out a long breath as I pushed off the door and made my way to the middle of the room, “I got my assed kicked by me.”
Ronin and Iris were silent for a long time.
Ronin finally broke the silence. “They can’t fail you. She cheated. That Marina made sure you never got that email. She orchestrated the whole thing.”
“You should report her,” added Iris, her pale face dark with emotion.
“To who?” I shook my head, my anger flaring as I tried to rein it in.
“To the one in charge,” replied Iris.
“Greta?” I laughed bitterly. “Greta is the trials’ training division director. And it so happens that she hates my guts. She wanted me to fail. This is her payback for my aunts making me a Merlin. Trust me when I say she’ll never believe my word over Marina’s.” My voice was low and controlled, but inside, I was seething.
I’m not going to pretend I’m perfect, or that I never cheated on a test or lied about stuff. Because that would be a lie. But having someone else cheat at my expense was just plain evil. That wasn’t cheating. It was sabotage.
“It’s done,” I said, after a moment. “I failed the first test. And there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Iris’s eyes flashed brightly, looking cross. “It’s not fair. You never stood a chance.”
I shrugged. “Life’s not fair. Yada-yada-yada. But it’s not over. I still have two trials left. And I’m not planning on failing them.”
Marina might have sabotaged my first trial, but I was going to make damn sure I’d be on time for the next one. Hell, I might even sleep over, just to be sure I was there in the early morning.
Iris sat straight. “You think she’ll try again? She’d be mad to try.”
“I know she will.” I knew it in my gut, my core. “That evil bitch is going to try to sabotage my other trials too. I just… I just don’t know what she’s going to pull next time.”
“It won’t be the same thing again,” informed Ronin. “Unless she’s really stupid.”
I pressed my hands to my hips. “She’s not stupid. It’ll be something else.”
The thought of the next trial had my intestines doing jump rope. A shudder in the middle of my gut started, a hollow ache. And it was getting worse.
“What a mess.” I rubbed my eyes with my fingers, still feeling at odds with what happened this morning at the witch trials. “I can’t think about the second trial right now. I need to be focusing on Ruth. She needs me. She needs us. The only way Ruth will ever get better is if we can find out what really happened to Bernard. Find out how he died. Then she can stop blaming herself, at least.”
“I thought you said they weren’t releasing that information until the trial,” commented Ronin, real concern showing on his handsome face.
My lips pressed together in thought. “I did. Doesn’t mean I can’t find it by other means.”
Ronin beamed as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I like where you’re going with this. This is you going all witchy again. Isn’t it?”
“Ooh! Are we going after Adira?” Iris’s dark eyes glinted in amusement in the light from the window. “You know… I’ve got a mean yeast infection curse with her name on it.”
I laughed, feeling some of my tension letting go. “It does. Ruth’s court date is on Monday, December seventh. Dolores told me. Which gives us six days to do our own investigation and find out what really happened to Bernard.”
“And how do you suppose we do that?” asked Ronin.
“Easy,” I shrugged, smiling. “We’ve done it before.”
Ronin shot to his feet, his hand in the air. “Please tell me you’re joking. Please tell me you’re not planning on going in there. Trust me. You don’t want to mess with Adira.”
“You,” I barked, pointing a finger at Ronin. “Why didn’t you tell me Adira was a vampire in the first place? Could have saved me lots of embarrassment.” I had never told Ronin or Iris about Adira handcuffing me. I thought it was best to leave that part out.
Ronin raised his hands. “I gave you her name,” he answered, like that was explanation enough.
“I can help.” From her jean pocket, Iris pulled a small leather bag. She dipped her fingers in it and pinched a long red hair. “I’ve cursed vampires before. Pretty simple when you have what you need.”
I raised my brows, impressed. “I seriously don’t know how and when you managed to get that,” I said. “But you are one awesome Dark witch, Iris.”
She beamed at me. “I know.”
Ronin pulled his hair. “Have you two gone mental in the past hour? We’re talking about vampires now. Full-fledged bloodsuckers. Predators. Not your neighborhood cuddly, shifter monkey. Vamps don’t play by the rules. They play by their rules.”
I shrugged. “Your point being?”
Ronin made a harsh bark of laughter. “They’re vampires. You know… super strength, speed, and stealth. They drink blood. Have freakishly large teeth. Ring any bells?”
“I drank blood one time,” said Iris, her eyes a little unfocused. “I was experimenting with a blood curse.” She giggled. “It really didn’t taste like I had imagined. I realized only after that I wasn’t supposed to ingest the blood.”
I looked at Iris, not knowing what to say to that. I chose to remain silent.
Ronin paced the room, rubbing the back of his neck. He stopped and looked at me. “Have you ever faced a clan of vampires before?”
“No. And I don’t plan to.” A plan was formulating in my mind. I knew what I had to do. “There are other ways to get that information,” I met Ronin’s eyes, “that doesn’t include messing with Adira.”
Ronin gave me a pointed look and crossed his arms over his chest. “How? How are you going to do that?”
“With Marcus,” I answered, and Iris clapped excitedly, bounding on the edge of the bed.
Marcus might have ghosted me, but he loved my aunts—especially Ruth, who’d been supplying him with some blue liquid. It was important, whatever it was. I’m sure he wouldn’t want that to go away. He would help.
“Marcus?” questioned Ronin. “But we don’t know where he is.” His tension eased, seemingly grateful that I wasn’t planning on snooping around Adira’s things.
I moved past Ronin to my desk and picked up the blue ballpoint pen I’d forgotten to return after Adira had cuffed me. “With this,” I said, a smile curving my mouth.
The half-vampire laughed. “You’re going to write him a love letter?”
My jaw clenched. “No, dumbass. This… this is his pen.” I looked at my friends, my pulse thrashing with excitement at the notion of what I was about to do. “And I’m going to do a location spell to find him with it. Then,” I added, my heart pounding, “I’m bringing his ass home.”