I stared up at the ceiling, willing myself back to sleep, but finally stopped trying when I heard a noise. It sounded like the scraping of a chair across the kitchen floor, followed by glass clanging against tile. Someone was in the kitchen.
I groaned. The banging continued and so I weighed my options. I could stay in bed and most likely run over the events of the night or I could head downstairs to see what was happening. Sighing, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and yawned as I pushed my feet into my slippers. The sooner I got them to cut out the noise the sooner I could get back to bed and try to forget that this whole sucky day had ever happened.
I walked quietly down the stairs and peeked around the corner into the kitchen, expecting to see Sascha or Peter, or even annoying Fallon. But when my eyes adjusted, I saw the back of a woman as she worked her way around the cabinets. I stood frozen as she pulled out a box of cookies and then moved over to a steaming mug that was waiting for her on the counter.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I watched her pull out a bag of chamomile-and-peppermint tea. My heart immediately started to race as recognition hit me.
It couldn’t be.
I lurched forward, stumbling over my own feet as I tried to close the space between us.
“Mom?”
She turned around at the sound of my voice and I couldn’t even describe the joy I felt at seeing her face. I fell into her arms and buried myself in her hair before starting to cry. As I blubbered, I thought about all the questions I had for her.
Where were you? What happened? Are you okay? What’s going on? What happened at the Elm? Where are the others?
But none of that came out of my mouth. “I’m sorry, Mom” was all I could manage before squeezing her even tighter. All my other questions could wait. The important thing was that she was there with me. What I’d thought had happened in that burned-down mess had just been a big misunderstanding. She was okay. We were okay.
“Aw, sweetie, I know,” she replied, rubbing my back soothingly. “Me too.”
“I love you and I’ll do whatever you want me to,” I told her. “I’ll train. I won’t argue with Jackson anymore. I promise. I’ll be better.”
“That’s good, baby,” she answered softly. “Because I’m going to need you to be strong. I need to know you’ll do whatever it takes. That you’ll fight.”
“I will,” I promised, pulling away from her and looking straight into her eyes. I still couldn’t quite believe she was standing there in the kitchen with me. “If anything happens, I’ll be ready.”
“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear that,” Mom said. But the look on her face was more like relief than happiness. I cocked my head to the side as I tried to read her mind. Unfortunately, my mom had had a lot more practice at reading my thoughts than vice versa and I couldn’t get anything from her.
“What’s going on, Mom?”
“Hadley, sweetie, something bad’s happened,” she said quietly.
“I know. Peter’s parents were kidnapped,” I responded. “And no one knows where their parents are. We went to the Elm and it was a mess. And then I found your necklace and I was so worried…”
My words trailed off as I saw her wince at this. I opened my mouth to keep talking, but then promptly closed it. Something was really wrong. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach again.
“You have to be strong. For me and for the others,” she said finally, reaching her hand out toward me.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my bottom lip starting to tremble.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I didn’t know this was going to happen. We were just trying to fix things, but they knew where we were. They surprised us,” she said, swallowing hard. “I tried to stop them, but we didn’t have a chance. There were too many of them and not enough of us.”
“Why are you saying all of this?” I asked, confused. My chest was feeling heavy and I was having trouble breathing. “You’re here. You’re fine.”
“I’m not,” she said bluntly.
I flinched as if I’d been slapped. “You are,” I whispered, my eyes tearing up again. “You’re fine! Stop lying!”
I was screaming now, and couldn’t care less if anyone heard. I was so confused and hurt and tired, I just wanted to figure out what was going on so we could go back to our regular lives.
“I’m telling you the truth, Hadley.” She said this sadly, a tear rolling down her cheek. “We were at the Elm and Parris’s coven knew we were there. I’m not sure how they knew, but they did. Our powers wouldn’t work for some reason, and before we could get out… the flames spread so quickly, we were gone before we even realized what was happening.”
“No,” I whimpered. “No, no, no, no, no!”
She took my face in her hands, kissing my wet cheeks. Even though I was upset, I let her do this, mostly because it was better than trying to make sense of what she was saying.
“Listen to me. I know this is going to be hard on you and I wish you didn’t have to go through this, but you’ve got to be strong. You’re going to be sad, and that’s okay, but I don’t want you to be sad forever,” my mom said gently. “Because all those kids in there? They need you.”
“What about what I need? I need you, Mom. I need you. Here. With me.”
“You have me, Hadley. I’m here, watching over you always. But I can’t do what needs to be done next,” she said. “You are stronger than anyone else I’ve ever known—more powerful as well. You’re the only one who can stop the Parrishables.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to call them that,” I said, sniffling.
She smiled at me. “That’s my girl. Always arguing,” she said. “That’s good. You’re going to need that fight in you for what’s ahead. They’re strong, and none of you are prepared for their darkness yet. It’s up to you to teach the coven. You’re the only hope of keeping the Cleri alive.”
“But I don’t know what to do,” I said, looking down at my hands, suddenly more unsure of myself than I’d ever been before.
“Yes you do. Trust your instincts, Hadley, and you’ll be just fine.”
“I can’t do this alone, Mom,” I said, hating to admit I wasn’t fully capable of handling any situation that came my way. But in this case, I was terrified at what she was suggesting. I wasn’t sure I could be the one everyone was counting on. Hell, if I could barely even get out of bed, how was I supposed to save anyone from an ancient, evil witch coven?
“You can do this, Hadley. In fact, you’re the only one who can do this. And you won’t be alone. You’ll have the power of your ancestors behind you,” she said.
It was hard for me to believe that I was our coven’s only hope. That I was somehow strong enough to do what our parents couldn’t. I mean, sure, I could convince my friends and classmates to do what I wanted, but when it came to outsmarting deranged witches and stopping their mission of total witch-world domination, how was I supposed to be anything but a well-dressed teenager who was uniquely skilled in the art of persuasion?
Could I be more than that? Was I more than that?
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, my voice shaky. I still wasn’t sure that what my mom was saying was true, but since this might be the last time I talked to her, I wasn’t going to argue. I’d done that enough when she was alive and look where it got me.
“First, you need to get the coven out of town. Somewhere the Parrishables won’t be able to find you. Our summer cabin, maybe? It’s plenty big for all of you and no one but us knows about it. Then you need to take over training. They’re going to be resistant at first, but you have to convince them that they need to get prepared. If not, you’ll all be in danger.”
I nodded, recognizing how surreal this conversation was, but agreeing nonetheless. “And then what?”