The pressure would get to me if I let it. Instead, I tried to breathe through the stress. Being away from Luciana was a good thing. The first step to getting everything put right.

Thank God Teresa had shown up when she did. She’d been a little later than I would’ve liked, but that was better than not coming at all—which had been a real possibility after she got bitten and turned from our future coven leader to a full-time werewolf.

To be honest, I was a little jealous. She’d gotten to live a normal life until a few months ago, while I’d been struggling with the Wicked Witch. I didn’t begrudge her that…much. I wanted what she had. A life. Real friends—not coven members who were trying to suck me dry. A boyfriend who would do anything for me instead of Mathieu le Douche.

My shoulders were so tense that I could barely roll them back. So much for breathing through the stress.

The one thing I couldn’t forget—that I couldn’t let myself forget—was what I’d done to get here. Taking that stupid oath in the first place so that Mom could leave the coven. Doing Luciana’s bidding until my soul was blackened. Then, manipulating my cousin so that she’d be forced to stay at the compound. She’d been stripped of her powers—tortured—because of me. And getting Daniel killed…

I owed both of them. And no matter what—by the time this all ended—I would repay the debt. So help me God, I would settle it or die trying.

Chapter Two

As much as I’d hated being confined to the coven compound, I’d always felt at home there. It was my home. Everything I knew was there. Everyone I knew. And they all knew me. I’d never been an outsider before. I was from one of the oldest coven families and I had a secure place there.

At St. Ailbe’s, I definitely felt like an outsider.

No one would talk to any of us brujos except Teresa’s friends. The rest of them gave us a wide berth. We were unknowns. I understood that. But still, there were eight of us and loads of them. Which meant that we ended up going everywhere in a group. Raphael was half-convinced that if we separated, the wolves would attack. I didn’t think that was likely, but if I were being honest, we’d betrayed our own coven. The wolves knew that, and if it came down to a fight… They might not make the distinction between good witches and bad witches.

I’ve already lost one friend. I can’t lose anyone else.

I swallowed down my grief. I’d cried all day after Daniel died, but now I had to keep going. His death had stopped Luciana’s attack. For all her evilness, she still loved her son. As much as someone like Luciana could… But the quiet after the battle wasn’t going to last. The nightmares alone proved she wasn’t sitting still. She was going to come after us, and now she wasn’t just drunk on power, she was angry too. Her ally had killed her son, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she believed the wolves and those of us who’d left her were at fault.