Her eyes are pink when she glances back at me, and I can’t hold back my smile when I look at her. “I used to come to this tree with Stevie when we were little. It was our fortress. We didn’t let any of the other girls come in here. I know I seem like the tough one now, but back then, Stevie would protect me from the other young witches.”

My hand rests on her thigh as my back pushes against the strong bark. “Why did they cast you out?”

“I’m not sure. It was always like that. And at first I tried. I tried so fucking hard to fit in, Dax. I held back how strong I was. I was polite and kind, and I tried to get into the potions and the earth side of magic. It didn’t matter what I did, so eventually I just leaned into what they thought about me. They thought I was weird and different and I became bitter. If they were going to call me a bitch, I was going to be the biggest bitch they ever met.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being different.”

“No, it’s just hard when you don’t feel like you have anyone.”

“You have Stevie, and now you have me.”

Her head rests on my shoulder, and she sighs. “I wish it were that easy.”

“We’re going to talk more about that when you’re conscious.”

“Ugh, fine.” She picks her head off of my shoulder and looks at me. She’s so beautiful like this, I want more time with her at ease and relaxed.

Her dark hair blows in the breeze, and I tuck it behind her ear.

“Promise me one thing?” she says.

“Anything.”

She looks at me, her eyes an odd shade of yellow, close to her snake’s.

“That you’ll never stop looking at me the way you do,” she says, and I smile.

“How exactly is that, little witch?”

“Like I’m something precious, someone worth caring about.”

I go to open my mouth to respond when I’m ripped from her dream. I open my eyes to a red eyed Blair lying next to me. They quickly change to pink as she catches her breath and realizes it’s me and Fez slithers around her arm tighter. She looks down at her forearms before she looks at my face. She lightly pets the top of the snake’s head, calming him.

“Were you in my dream?”

“Yes,” I say honestly, and she nods her head.

“I’m okay?” she asks, her eyes blinking in confusion. I stroke her hair off her face and the snake hisses at me.

“Yes, your wounds are healed, and Stevie gave you some potions. The golem is dead. Did you see the name before the scroll was destroyed?”

“Mara,” she whispers, and my heart stops.

16. Blair

Chapter 16