‘A-Alice?’ she heard a weak voice stutter. It came from the darkened corner at the back of the room.

Locked in chains, slumped backwards against the wall with her arms outstretched awkwardly and her legs crumpled beneath her was Lily. Her Lily. The Lily she had left heartbroken but healthy, the Lily she thought would be fine without her. How could she possibly be here?

Panicked thoughts rushed through her brain faster than she could process them as she fought to get to her feet and run towards her friend. She barely covered three feet of ground before she felt herself dragged backwards by an invisible force. She landed on her back, the air forced out of her lungs with the violence of her fall. She lay there desperately trying to catch her breath when a shadow obscured her vision.

Not a shadow.

Hecate.

She stood above Alice, scowling. ‘The longer it takes for you to give me answers, the more pain your friend will have to endure. Do you understand?’ She didn’t wait for Alice to reply. She simply raised a hand and focused it on Alice’s chest, dragging her upwards with her magic until they were face to face, Alice’s feet barely scraping the floor. ‘How did you tell her where we were?’

‘I didn’t … I didn’t know she’d come here.’

‘Liar.’ Hecate nodded her head at one of the women who had brought Alice from her room. She stalked over to Lily and struck her across the face, but Lily bit her lip and didn’t cry out, even though her nose was bleeding profusely.

‘Leave her out of this, please.’ Alice struggled as an invisible python wrapped itself around her slender neck, constricting her throat and making it almost impossible to breathe. ‘Punish me, leave her.’

‘Oh, I will punish you, don’t worry, child. But first, I need the truth. The longer you waste my time, the more pain you inflict on your friend.’

The woman who had hit Lily was still beating her mercilessly, but she still wouldn’t cry out. Instead, she was attempting to splutter something through her blood-filled mouth. Hecate held up a hand and the woman stopped, allowing Lily to speak.

‘She didn’t send for me. You think I’d come all the way out here for her? She abandoned me.’ Lily sniffled. ‘I’m here because I want to be one of you. I want to learn magic. All of this, everything I’ve done to get here, has been a lie. I’m here because I want to stay.’

Hecate paused, intrigued. ‘How did you know we were here?’

‘I followed … I don’t know, a feeling? A sense? Like there was a string of lightning pulling me towards you. I’ve felt it for years but as soon as Alice disappeared I knew where she’d be so I followed the pull I’d been ignoring my whole life.’

‘You weren’t helped?’

‘No.’

‘Well, there’s one way to find out…’

Chapter Forty-Three

Thwack.

Blood ran in streams from Lily’s nose as her assailant once again struck her across the face. The pain and the rubbing chains on her wrists were making it increasingly difficult to think of new convincing lies. She didn’t even know if this woman believed her. All she cared about was clearing Alice of blame; she didn’t want her to have to suffer for Lily’s mistake.