The Secret Life of a Witch (Mystic Willow Bay, Witches 1)

I think about everything he said, and a cold chill slithers up my back.

I don’t want to believe a demon, but at the same time, with all the charms me and Hunter put all over the basement, there’s no way anything or anyone should’ve been able to find my sister. Yet someone definitely went through a buttload of trouble to get past those charms to get to her. Why? Why go through all the trouble?

“Why would they even want my sister’s body?” I ask quietly. “I mean, why go through all that trouble when the morgues and graveyards are filled with bodies?”

He casually shrugs. “Maybe they weren’t really trying to get her body so much as get ahold of the person who cared about her body. I think it was only an added bonus that they got to add her to the collection of bodies they’re going to sell. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the whole point. Then again, it never is. Demons always have multiple purposes in everything they do.”

I think about the demon in the park and how he warned me not to go near The Illuminating Horror House of Truth. But that wouldn’t make any sense. If hybrid demons were trying to get ahold of me, then why would he warn me to stay away from the entrance to the underground tunnel? Why not just take me then?

“What you’re saying doesn’t make any sense,” I say. “If hybrids wanted me, then they could just take me.”

“Could they?” His tone and look insinuates something, but I have no idea what.

Before I can delve into the subject, he darts his hand out toward me. His knuckles crash into the invisible wall, sending a powerful wave of ripples throughout the room.

The ground quivers as the walls and floor bow back and forth, causing me to lose my balance and stumble forward. Hunter starts to haul me back, but my shoulder connects with the cage wall.

Cold fingers grab me, and I’m yanked forward. I try to throw my weight back, but the demon holds on tightly, dragging me all the way into the cage.

Oh, witches. Oh, witches. Oh, witches!

Panicking, I stab my fingers into his hand while kicking him in the shin. When he stumbles back, I move for my wand. But he lunges forward and snatches it out of my hand. Then he snaps my wand in half, laughing at me.

“Not so cocky now, huh?”

“Shit.” I spin around and run toward Hunter, but my body slams into the invisible wall and I bounce back, landing on my ass.

Hunter’s face pales as he starts to run for me. But Evan grabs him by the arm and yanks him back.

“You won’t be any help getting yourself stuck in there, too,” he tells Hunter firmly. “We need to coax him into letting her go.”

Hunter shoves him off with a furious growl. “This is all your fault.”

Evan gapes at him. “How do you figure?”

“Because …” Hunter reaches up to rake his fingers through his hair, but the strands are too short now and he ends up clawing at his head. “You should’ve put up a better cage!”

While the two of them continue to bicker like old ladies, I guardedly twist toward the demon. “What’re you going to do to me?”

“Turn you over to the hybrids who are trying to get to you,” he answers simply. “They’re going to pay a lot for you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re weirdly different.”

The muscle in my jaw ticks. Weirdly. There’s that word again.

He smirks. “You hate that word, don’t you?”

I bite down on my tongue, refusing to talk to him.

He shrugs, unbothered. “That’s okay. We’re going to be in here for a while, and you’ll eventually get bored enough to talk to me.”

I elevate my chin. “No, I won’t. Hunter will get me out of here.”

A dark laugh echoes from his lips. “Tell me, Evalee, who is the one person who knew where your sister’s body was kept?”

“Evan didn’t do this,” I reply without missing a beat. “Besides, his magic doesn’t leave silvery residue.”

His brow meticulously rises to his hairline. “So, he hasn’t been hanging out at The Illuminating Horror House of Truth?”

“I …” My arms hang limply at my side as I realize that both my sister and Hunter have been to The Illuminating Horror House of Truth, and Hunter never told me why.

“Trust no one,” the demon singsongs as he plops down on the floor.

I try not to listen to him, but my gaze roams over my shoulder to where Hunter stands, watching me.

“We’re going to get you out of there,” he promises, his intense gaze boring into mine.

I nod, wanting to believe him, yet a speck of doubt weighs on the back of my mind.

No, Evalee, don’t go there! You know Hunter better than anyone.

Don’t you?

I start to nod to answer my own thoughts when every single one of my muscles lock up, and I fall to the floor like a bag of bricks.

The demon bursts into a fit of laughter, clutching his side. “Oh, this is classic. Not only are you stuck in here with me, but it looks like you may have gotten hit with a petrifying curse.”

Fear pulsates through me as the demon from the park’s words echo through my head. Although, the delayed effects can be petrifyingly intense.

Petrified to death, just like my sister.

The demon collects himself, resting back on his hands. “Don’t worry; a hybrid can’t die from a demon curse.”

I want to argue with him that I can’t be a hybrid—that I’m too powerless to have demon blood inside me—but the longer I lie on the floor, motionless yet alive, the more I’m forced to face the truth.

I could quite possibly have demon blood in me.

No wonder I’m such a freak.

If that’s true, if I am a hybrid, then my parents lied to me since neither of them are demons. Or maybe they lied to me and they aren’t even my parents! They’ve never seemed like liars, though. Yet, this does make me wonder.

I swallow hard as the brutal truth throat punches me.

My entire life may be a lie.

And I’m even more different than I ever could have imagined.