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Chapter

I was still distracted by my conversation with Hannah when I returned to the cottage.

Hannah’s words were hitting me a lot harder than I thought they should. The walk back to the cottage let my head fill up with a lot of stuff — mostly the feeling that someone had just taken something from me. Something that should be mine.

It bothered me, because I didn’t have any sort of hold on Hannah or Brittany — I just liked them and wanted us to stay together and see what might develop from that.

And strangle anyone who tried to keep us apart.

Perfectly reasonable.

Sam and Rachel started a movie everyone but Rachel had seen, but it was comforting to just sit and cuddle with the two of them. Cassandra was working on her laptop off to the side and seemed to be in one of the periodic funks she’d been having — both Sam and I had tried to get her to talk to us, both alone and together, with no success.

The movie ended well before lights out, and Rachel grabbed her own laptop.

“Can we watch this one next?” Rachel asked, spinning her laptop around to show us a trailer. “It’s got dragons, but they wouldn’t let any of us watch it until we were bound into a coven.”

Cassandra glanced up from her own laptop.

“Yeah, that’s a good one,” she said, “too bad they had the wolf-guy kill the dragon-chick for burning down the city they were all fighting over.”

Rachel stared at the other witch, open-mouthed, and Sam and I turned our gazes on her as well.

“Oh, shit,” Cassandra said, looking up from her laptop. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to —”

I might have accepted that it was an accident — that it was a verbal habit and she hadn’t meant to ruin that part of the show for Rachel — if I hadn’t been watching Rachel’s mana, because it was so much fun when she got excited about something. Rachel’s body turned into a little fireworks show when that happened.

That let me see Cassandra’s mana production, though, and the sickly-green of her Malice resonant was still filling even as the rest of her spun off Regret.

Malice worked a lot like Sam’s Love — there were requirements. While Sam needed to love and feel loved in return, Malice required intent and effect, as well. It’s why Cassandra couldn’t fill it by just being mean to people on the internet or something — nobody on the internet really cared what other people said, so being mean didn’t hurt them. Cassandra had known exactly what she was doing when she said the words and she’d meant them.

Rachel wasn’t that hurt by it — this was one show out of dozens she had on her list to watch — but Cassandra had still meant to do it.

“Cassandra,” I said in my stern-warlock voice.

“It was an accident!”

“I don’t think it was.”

“It wa —” Cassandra broke off and averted her eyes from mine, nostrils flaring. “Fucking coven bond,” she muttered. “I still get urges, okay? And I was distracted by all this —” She gestured at her laptop. “— crap we have to do for the Council recognition!”

I thought it had to be something else. Yeah, the recognition process was a pain in the ass. Apparently, the last time it had happened was in a time when things were still handwritten and the forms hadn’t been updated, so we had a stack of scanned, eighteenth-century documents we had to print and fill out.

I shot a glance at the other two.

Sam shook her head. “If it wasn’t an accident, why did you do it? Cassandra, we need to talk about what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong! And stop using fucking Harmony on me! I don’t want to feel better!”

“It’s okay,” Rachel said, “it’s just one show.”

“Cassandra —” I tried.

“I’m sorry!”

She was — I could see her shedding Regret, Frustration, and some darker things that I didn’t recognize, but didn’t think were directed at Rachel, because the Malice generation had stopped and they weren’t binding with that. Still, there was a lot more green pooled in her resonant than there had been for weeks.

“It’s okay,” Rachel whispered. “Please don’t fight — we can watch something else.”

“See? It’s not that —”

“No,” I said, cutting Cassandra off and shaking my head. I had a feeling Cassandra filling Malice without any oversight was the edge of a slippery slope we didn’t want to slip a toe over. “Rachel would forgive just about anything — this is about what you did and why Something’s wrong and we need to talk about it.”

“This isn’t fair!” Cassandra yelled, standing up and tossing her laptop to the side. “I fuck up one time and that’s it?”

“There’s no ‘it,’” I told her. “We’re all figuring out how we’re going to live together, and being mean to each other isn’t part of that.”

“I know that!”

“Then why were you deliberately mean to your sister?” I asked, calmly. “What’s wrong?”

“I —” Cassandra’s shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes. “Why bother — you all hate me anyway.”

“Cassandra, we don’t —”

“You do!” Cassandra yelled, turning from us and bolting for the door. “Everybody does!”

“Well,” Sam said after the cottage door slammed shut. “That escalated quickly.”

I sighed. “Couldn’t you do anything with your Harmony?”

“You heard her — she really doesn’t like it when I actively hit her with Harmony. I have to be subtle and that’s not exactly easy for me.”

“Yeah, I guess. Were you able to talk to her at all since the weekend?”

I’d tried, but Cassandra kept changing the subject.

Sam shook her head. “Whenever I try she either blows it off or gets angry. It’s … Noah, she’s hurting so much about something that Harmony can barely touch it., and it’s getting worse I can’t even tell what she’s feeling from her mana, because, whatever it is, she stomps on her feelings so much.” She sighed. “I thought I was messed up, but Cassandra? There’s like fifty things going on in her head, I think.”

“Is it the sex thing? I mean she keeps calling you a pervert and stuff.”

Sam shook her head. “I don’t think so — that seems like her calling you ‘feral’ now. It’s almost a nickname — pervert and prude, it’s just something we do.”

“We should go after her,” Rachel said.

“Maybe she needs to stew in it for a while,” Sam said. “None of us can really help her until she gets it straight in her own head and sometimes that takes time. It’s only been a month — with a lot going on and a lot of changes for her.”

“We can’t let her keep thinking we hate her,” Rachel said. “I mean, yeah, I’d like the shows to be a surprise, but it’s not that big a deal.”

“It’s about more than the show,” I said. “We’re finally settling down after everything with the Patriarchy and the Council and everything, and I don’t want Cassandra becoming comfortable doing that sort of thing. But, more than that, we have to know what the hell’s going on. I don’t want her being mean to you guys, but I don’t want her hurting, either.”

“It’s more than some backslide on using Malice,” Sam said. “It’s more than just the fights we see — not even fights, really. Last weekend after your date with Priscilla? Rachel and I weren’t upset or even really arguing with her — she just went off.” Sam bit her lip. “It happens all the time — I mean all the time — she just tries not to show it. When we’re all having fun, or just hanging out, you know how she goes quiet sometimes?”

I nodded.

“I’ve watched the bond and her mana then — it’s like these horrible flashes of darkness that she clamps down on.”

I sat up, sliding Sam to one side and ignoring her little whine of protest.

“I’ll go after her,” I said, not really knowing what I was going to do, but Cassandra’s words explained some of the darker mana I’d seen her shedding — maybe she really did think we hated her.

*

Our coven bond gave me a direction to Cassandra and a feel for the distance.

As I left the cottage I could sense her — toward the main campus, but more toward one side. Had she run off into the forest?

I’d expected her to be in the dorms, either our room or her old one, maybe talking things over with her former roommate — not running around alone in the night. That made me start to worry about her and how upset she might be — and worry more that it might have something to do with her other issues.

I rounded the residence building and cut the corner on the quad to take the path that led between it and the administrative building and back into the forest. This was the path that led to the school’s Grove and then behind that the State Park and the Cove where the mundane college held parties on the lake’s shore.

That concerned me, because if she was leaving campus it brought up a whole other set of issues if Prima Rosethorn found out — the Prima and the school’s rules might look the other way for the first-years sneaking off campus for the Cove party in the first semester, but I didn’t think that tolerance would extend to anyone, even a senior like Cassandra, leaving on a weeknight, especially sneaking through the woods instead of using the front gate, and even more especially in the middle of Willowmere’s tensions with the Council.

I didn’t know what the school wards might do to someone sneaking off campus, but coming back was probably a problem with the enhanced wards. We’d probably have to get a car to the front gate to get back in — and explain ourselves to the staff members who were watching the gates now.

I hurried my pace, but then slowed again as our coven bond told me the distance to Cassandra was decreasing and she’d stopped — probably at the Grove, which made me feel better.

I shivered, realizing I’d forgotten my jacket, and the nights were still pretty cold even if the days were warming a little. A touch of mana helped keep me comfortable, and I hoped Cassandra was doing the same, because she’d run off in her nightgown and barefoot — at least I’d taken the time to slip my shoes on.

I caught sight of someone ahead of me and slowed because it wasn’t Cassandra — this was a girl in pajamas, not a nightgown, and her hair was light, but not Cassandra’s unnatural blonde. Was Cassandra meeting someone? And how did they know to meet — so far as I knew, Cassandra didn’t have any of the telepathy Felicity and Mel shared.

Slowing more as we approached the Grove, I dropped back behind the other figure and tried to move quietly. I wasn’t even sure why — it just felt right to wait and see what was happening.

Closer to the clearing at the center of the school’s Grove, I stayed in the shadows, slipping behind one of the trees at the clearing’s edge, while the other figure entered.

“Cassie?” the other girl called out.

I could see Cassandra now — she was sitting on the ground, back against the Grove’s stone altar, with her knees drawn up to her chest.

“Liza?” she asked, looking up.

“Hey. I saw you running out of the trees behind the dorms — are you okay?”

“You saw me?”

“Yeah — you know I have my desk facing the window. I like looking out at the trees while I do classwork.” Liza laughed. “You’re kind of hard to miss at night — white nightgown, skin, hair. The moon makes you glow like some kind of spirit stalking the campus.”

“I wish,” Cassandra muttered, lowering her head again.

“Hey, don’t say that,” Liza said, approaching the altar.

“Why not?” Cassandra asked. “It would be better if I was some sort of ghost. Then they could have someone they wanted and I…”

“What do you mean?” Liza asked as Cassandra’s words trailed off.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Of course I would, we’re friends — aren’t we?”

Cassandra raised her head and looked at the other witch.

“Our group was never friends.”

Liza shrugged. “Whatever we are, then. We still talked to each other more … before you got bound.”

Cassandra looked away again.

“What’s wrong?” Liza prompted.

I really hoped Cassandra would tell the other witch to go away. They might have been whatever they were instead of friends before, but that group, with Liza leading it now, was still some of the meanest girls on campus.

“They all hate me,” Cassandra said softly.

“Of course they do,” Liza snorted. Cassandra looked up, shocked, and she snorted again. “You’ve been the meanest girl on campus for four years — you expect the stupid onesies and a feral to like you?”

“It’s not like that.”

“I bet it is. They’re still mad at you for making fun of them and probably jealous because you’re so much more powerful than they are.”

“They’re not that weak.”

Liza shook her head. “I’m sure you have to tell yourself that after getting marked by a feral, but I get it — you were probably tired and low on mana from being chased by a vampire and everything. Plus I heard you were set up by the feral anyway, so it was some kind of trick that got you marked, right?”

“It wasn’t some setup; it was the Patriarchy.”

“Whatever. I heard maybe it wasn’t, no matter what the Council’s ‘official’ position is now.” Liza sat down beside Cassandra. “You can still fix it, you know?”

“How?”

“By making sure you get a high priestess who recognizes how valuable you are and can make sure the rest of the coven respects that.”

“A high priestess?”

Liza nodded. “Yeah — look, we both know how this is going to play out, right? Recognized Family or not, somebody’s going to mark that feral. Fine, he tricked you and got a couple worthless onesies, but you can still make sure that whoever does mark him is the right kind of witch.”

“Like you, I suppose?”

Liza shrugged. “You could do worse, couldn’t you? Sounds like you’ve got worse now, with the feral in charge.”

“Stop calling him that.”

“You used to call him that all the time.”

“I was wrong.”

I almost laughed — Cassandra still called me that pretty often, but it did feel different now. If it wasn’t so often preceded by “ignorant” or “dumbass”, I’d almost think she’d made it a term of endearment.

“Or he’s making you feel that way. Probably on purpose.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re clearly not happy.”

Cassandra shook her head. “Sometimes — when I think they … sometimes I’m happy.”

“Yeah, sure, you can get used to anything, I guess — even convince yourself you like it. But most of the time?”

Cassandra was silent, then whispered, “Maybe I don’t deserve to be happy.”

“How’s your mana these days?” Liza asked, then when Cassandra said nothing more: “That’s what I thought. So the feral and onesies won’t let you be mean — don’t look at me all surprised, you’ve hardly been mean to anyone since you got kidnapped. Yeah, you gave out some dirt on me — good call, that — but other than that?” She nodded. “I thought so — which leaves you what? Despair?”

“I never told you my other resonant, how did you —”

Liza laughed. “My mom and your mom are tight — you think your mom doesn’t complain about all your whining?” She laughed again as Cassandra glared at her. “So, yeah, I know — half the reason I let you lead the group was because my mom asked me to help you out. I made sure you got first dibs on fucking with the worthless little witches so you could grow that Malice-thing — now all that work’s wasted.” She shrugged. “So he won’t let you fill Malice, which means he’s either keeping you dependent on refined mana from the other two to control you, and there can’t be much of that from those runts, or he’s grooming you.”

“Grooming?”

I wanted to ask too — Cassandra was part of my coven, it wasn’t like I had to groom her to get sex, the coven-thing sort of came with that. At least it would once the suggestion of it didn’t terrify her anymore.

“Grooming you for Despair — you said yourself that they hate you, right? What better revenge than to forbid you to fill Malice and leave you with Despair as your only option?”

Liza, obviously, didn’t know about my ability to activate dormant resonants, so her suggestion made a certain sick sense, even if it was disgusting. I suppose it was the sort of thing she’d think of doing, so she assumed others would as well.

Cassandra shook her head. “It’s not like that.”

“Sure it isn’t.” Liza looked around. “Barely a month in and you’re sitting in the woods at night crying — it’s not like that at all. Despair takes time to build up and it looks like you’re pretty far down the path.”

“It’s not,” Cassandra insisted, sniffing. “I … did something bad.”

Liza laughed. “Girl — they’ve really got you confused, don’t they. Or maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones fucking you up — get a handle on them, why don’t you?”

“Nobody has me confused.”

“Really, Cassie? Really? What did you do that’s so bad?”

“Don’t call me that — I hate that name.”

Liza frowned. “There’s another change — we’ve called you that for years.”

“Yeah,” Cassandra said. “You have.”

“So all of a sudden you don’t like it?” When Cassandra didn’t answer, Liza went on. “Fine, so, Cassandra, what’d you do that was so, so bad?”

Cassandra shook her head. “It’s not what I did … it’s who I did it to. And why.”

“Oh, Goddess, he’s got you twisted up, doesn’t he?” Liza shifted her back away from the altar so she could face Cassandra directly. “Let me guess — you were mean to that Winthrop brat, the one you had it in for all year? So what? It’s a coven — the witches fight all the time. She needs to put her big-girl panties on and deal with it.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s in a coven and that happens in covens. There’s always in-fighting and cliques and shit.”

“No, I mean, why does it have to be that way?”

“Cassie … sorry, Cassandra, now you sound like Priscilla. ‘Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t we pick our own coven? I don’t like that warlock.’ Whine, whine, whine — all the time. I’ve never seen a girl so worried about boogers — make him wash his hands or something.” Liza sighed heavily. “Yeah, you need me more than ever now.”

“Need you?”

“Yeah, as your high priestess. Look, I have a plan already. You get the feral someplace — someplace alone, just you and him. I show up ‘coincidentally’ and you make some excuse to leave for a minute. Say you have to change a tampon or something — he won’t ask any questions about that.” Liza grinned confidently. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Cassandra snorted. “You have no idea what Noah’s like — he’ll just ignore you. Assuming he even notices what you’re doing.”

Or call Sam, I thought, and have her stare at Liza’s boobs until she goes away.

“Oh, he’ll notice.” Liza laughed. “He was raised as a mundane, right? I’ve watched a lot of mundane shows. That sexy-city show? That girl from the office-show’s new one? The one who gets all the dates in Paris?” She nodded. “I know exactly how to get a mundane guy.”

Cassandra was silent for a moment. “It’d almost be worth it to see you try that,” she muttered.

“I know, right? He won’t know what hit him. Then, once I’m high priestess, I’ll make sure that you’re the first one to bind a subsidiary coven. Then things will be like any other decent Family — you can’t head a Family now anyway, so what does it matter if you’re in my Family or yours? At least you won’t be running around poor, because I doubt that feral has any money.”

Cassandra chuckled. “You have no idea.”

“Right,” Liza said. “I bet he’s already lectured you about not spending money the coven doesn’t have. No more shopping trips, right?”

I decided that was enough and it was time for me to intervene. I already felt a little bad about spying on them — on Cassandra at least. Not so much about Liza, she could suck my left hemorrhoid.

I stood up from my crouch behind a tree and moved forward, but walked right into a branch. Something hard and round poked me in the gut — a lot harder than I thought it should, given I was barely moving, but it knocked the breath out of me and doubled me over.

I fell to my hands and knees, then waved a hand in front of me to knock the shit out of that fucking branch, but it must have broken off, because my swipe hit nothing but air.

“What was that?” Liza asked, turning around.

I froze as she seemed to stare directly at me, but after a moment she turned back to Cassandra.

“Deal?”

Cassandra took a deep breath and I tried to recover mine. I didn’t want Cassandra to have to answer that question — not when she was already feeling so isolated and alone — but apparently that damn branch had broken off and fallen under me, because it jabbed me in the gut again and I gasped, breathing in the rich scent of the earth the stick’s other end must be digging up.

I couldn’t draw enough breath to interrupt the two witches, but I could glance up and watch Cassandra’s mana generation enough to know what she was feeling as she answered.

Threads of sickly green mana streamed into her resonant, which glowed brightly with that same color.

I had time to wonder if she might really hate us before she answered Liza and I realized who it was directed at.

“Elizabeth,” Cassandra said evenly. “Noah wouldn’t fuck you with a were-pig’s dick.”

Chapter

“You can come out now,” Cassandra called after Liza sputtered and stormed out of the Grove.

Aaanndd … she knew I was there.

Figures — and I should have expected it. Fucking coven bond.

I stood up, kicked at where that fucking branch must be sticking up, and nearly fell on my ass when my foot hit nothing but air.

I moved out of the trees and walked over to the altar. Cassandra stayed sitting and didn’t even look up — just kept staring at the ground over her drawn-up knees.

“We don’t hate you,” I said, sitting beside her. “You can see what all of us are feeling, so you should know that.”

“Maybe you should.”

It wasn’t the first time we’d had this conversation. Back when we were trapped in the Patriarchy’s basement, Cassandra had said much the same thing, and I realized it wasn’t me or Rachel or even Sam she was talking about — it was herself.

She’d even said it when we were talking about her resonants back in the basement before I marked her — that the bigger and fuller Malice became, the more it took over. And the more she regretted it when she was finally balanced again — even hated herself for what she did.

No wonder, no matter how much reassurance we gave her, she couldn’t fully accept that the rest of her coven didn’t hate her — and no matter how minor her slip-up with Rachel tonight had been, doing it had clearly brought up all those feelings yet again.

“I deserve it,” Cassandra whispered.

“Why?”

“Don’t be stupid — you know why.”

“The thing with the show? Come on, we know that was just a slip, so —”

“It wasn’t. I knew what I was doing and did it anyway.”

“Why?”

“To … I just wanted to … oh, Goddess, this is almost worse than before.”

“Before what?” I asked.

“Before I had something other than Malice to work with. Yeah, I felt bad about the stuff I did, but not when the resonant took over.” She slammed her fists into the grass. “I just wanted a little fucking break.”

“A break from what?” Did she want a break from the rest of us? Yeah, we spent all our time together, but that wasn’t a rule or something.

“From hating myself, you dumbass! Don’t you get it? That’s all the time now!” Cassandra hugged her knees to her chest. “I was mean to Rachel because I wanted Malice to fill. I wanted it to take over — so I could have just a few minutes where I didn’t hate myself. Every time I feel happy, every time I think you — all of you — might be okay with having me in the coven, it’s like … why would you?”

“Cassandra —”

“Don’t say it again!”

“Say what?”

“‘It’s okay. We understand. We don’t blame you. We forgive you.’ That’s all I fucking get from you — you, Samantha, even Rachel. Hannah and Brittany? They tried to fucking hug me.”

I didn’t say anything, I was too busy thinking. Had we been too easy on Cassandra? I’d wanted her to feel welcome, that her new coven was hers every bit as much as anyone else’s — but part of that was telling her that the past didn’t matter anymore, when clearly it did.

There wasn’t really any point in rehashing everything she’d done, though — and probably less in trying to reassure her that we didn’t hate her. We didn’t — but, just like I’d been wary of her reaction to Liza’s offer, none of us were entirely comfortable. Maybe we were waiting for the old Cassandra to pop up like she had tonight.

And how could we get past that when Cassandra couldn’t herself?

I almost put my arm around her, but reassurance and acceptance clearly hadn’t worked.

Cassandra had clenched her fingers in the moss that covered the lower part of the altar and the ground around it, digging into the rich, black soil beneath. I had an idea — I’d just have to be very careful about it — and maybe a little lucky.

“Stand up and bend over the altar,” I said.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

Cassandra sighed. “I don’t think things are going to make sex any easier right now.”

I shook my head. “Not sex.”

“Then what?”

I shrugged. “You were mean to another girl in the coven. On purpose. I told you what would happen if you did that.”

“What do you … are you fucking serious?”

I nodded, still looking straight ahead.

“That’s —”

“What you agreed to going in,” I said, cutting her off.

“But —”

“Did I tell you what the rules were in my coven before I bound you?”

“Yes, but —”

“Did you agree to them?”

“I didn’t think it would matter, because I didn’t know you were some ridiculously powerful freak no witch in the school would have a chance at marking.”

“But you agreed — just like I agreed to follow your rules if you marked me. Yeah?”

“Yes,” Cassandra whispered.

“Were you just deliberately mean to Rachel?”

“Yes, I admit that, but —”

“Did she deserve it?”

I heard Cassandra swallow. “No,” she whispered.

“Okay, then.”

She started to get up, then sat back down again and crossed her arms.

“This is stupid.”

I shrugged. “Do you want to go back to the cottage and tell Rachel you don’t think there should be any consequences for what you did?”

“That’s not what I said!”

“Then what should the consequences be?”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Is that enough?” I asked. “If you think it is, we can go back to the cottage right now. I’ll ignore it this time. And next time. And you can be as mean to your sisters as you want from now on — and keep stewing thinking we hate you. Who knows — if that’s what you want, maybe you’ll manage to get it. But right now, you’re the only one who hates you.”

Cassandra was silent for a long time, then stood up and looked down at me.

“You don’t want to do this,” she whispered. I glanced up at her and she shook her head. “I mean what you’re feeling — it’s something you don’t want to do.”

I nodded. She was right — I didn’t want to. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was mostly sad and a little angry at a universe that would put her in this position — where everyone around her honestly forgave her, but she couldn’t forgive herself.

“This is stupid,” she said, bending over and resting her forearms on the stone top.

I stood up and my hip pressed against hers while I grasped her nightgown and pulled it up.

“Seriously?” Cassandra asked, craning her head around to look.

I put one hand on the small of her back to keep her in place — I wasn’t using a lot of pressure, and she could easily move away or stand up if she really wanted to, but it was a reminder of my presence and what I wanted from her.

She turned her head back and huffed again. “Get it over with, for all the good it will do.”

I thought it would do a lot of good — set the tone going forward and hopefully avoid any more slip-ups on her part, as well as, more hoping, bring some closure to everything that had come before.

I’d talked to Sam about this — not about spanking Cassandra … okay, Sam had talked a little about me spanking Cassandra, but the context was very different.

Anyway, just like if I walked up behind Sam and smacked her ass as hard as I could in the middle of class, it wouldn’t feel the same for her as it did at other times, there wasn’t anything sensual or arousing in this.

I pulled the edges of Cassandra’s panties together, exposing the bare cheeks of her ass, which drew another “Seriously?” from her.

Okay, there wasn’t anything sensual or arousing in it for Cassandra.

Me? Goddess, but she had a nice butt.

Don’t get me wrong, Sam and Rachel had great butts, but Sam’s was proportional to her height — which meant small — and Rachel was so toned that you could probably bounce a quarter off her ass. You could probably set a quarter on one cheek and Rachel would be able to flip it to the other just by flexing.

Cassandra’s hips were wide and her butt was full and generous, not fat at all, but something that made you want to grab and squeeze, get behind her and feel those globes nestle right up against you — Cassandra’s butt was luxurious.

I swallowed around a suddenly tight throat and tried to get my mind back to what I was doing.

I was using something of the same strategy I’d used with Sam — without the sexual element, though. Treat Cassandra calmly, deliberately, and sternly, trying to drive her thoughts where I wanted them — farther into regret over the things she’d done, then, hopefully, out the other side.

I rested my palm on her bare butt cheek and took in a deep breath.

Cassandra sighed. “You can feel me up without all the drama, you kno —”

Crack!

“Fuck!”

Crack!

“Owfuck! What are you hitting me with?”

“My hand.”

“There’s no fucking way that’s your —”

Crack!

I flexed my fingers, trying to ease the sting in my palm.

I thought longingly about the paddle I had in a drawer back in the dorm room, not even moved to the cottage yet, but even if it had been I wouldn’t be using it for this first time.

Crack!

“You really hurt Rachel, you know,” I said after Cassandra finished swearing again.

“It’s just a stupid TV show!”

Crack!

I couldn’t see more than the glow of Cassandra’s ass in the moonlight, but if the heat radiating from it was any indication, then the witch’s pale skin now had more color to it than it had for maybe her whole life.

“I wasn’t talking about today.”

I felt Cassandra still and stop breathing. I gave her a moment to think about that, then resumed things.

Crack!

When she didn’t yell or argue with me, I thought things might be going the right way.

“Spellstick was about the only thing she ever let herself get excited about,” I said.

Crack!

“She’d spend time in a workroom before every game, trying to drain her resonant enough so she could watch an entire game without it starting to hurt her.”

Now she just climbed on top of me before the game — and during intermissions — and giggled “take it” into my ear. It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen and watching her be able to really let loose was incredibly satisfying.

Crack!

To be honest … making Cassandra’s ass burn for almost taking that from Rachel was pretty satisfying, as well. I didn’t know what that said about me. Rachel would probably be telling me to stop right now, while Sam would be staring at Cassandra’s ass so closely she’d have to watch out for my swings.

“She almost gave up on it,” I said. “She didn’t want to play — didn’t even want to watch a game.”

“I didn’t mean that,” the witch under my hands whispered.

Crack!

Cassandra was silent and a glance at her face showed tears glistening in the moonlight.

“Of course not,” I said. “You just wanted to humiliate her.”

Crack!

“Laugh at her as she ran away crying.”

Crack!

“I’m sorry,” Cassandra whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

Chapter

By the time I was done, Cassandra was openly sobbing, but her mana generation had changed dramatically — she wasn’t crying because her ass hurt, that was pretty minor.

At first she was shedding mostly Regret and Guilt along with other dark emotions. The spanking added some Pain and others — it was embarrassing, humiliating, even, for her to be bent over like that with her nightgown bunched at her waist and her butt exposed.

I was actually trying to avoid absorbing much of what she shed, because those types of mana were different — they had an oily, greasy feel to them, quite unlike the bright tingle of other, more positive ones.

Then there were the steely grey threads of Control she was shedding.

I guess we didn’t need a dynamic of that sort in order for her to generate that when she was doing what I told her to, and absorbing Cassandra’s Control mana was every bit as enjoyable as when I absorbed it from Sam.

But as the spanking went on, the darker mana lessened and was gradually replaced by something else. Nothing bright or happy, but more calm acceptance — maybe even relief — as though the darkness really had been driven out.

I let my fingertips trail along Cassandra’s butt cheeks, feeling the heat and roughness, then let her nightgown fall down and sat, pulling her off the alter and sitting again with her cradled in my lap.

After silently crying into my chest for a while, Cassandra eventually took a deep breath and sniffed.

“You okay?” I asked.

Cassandra sniffed again, but nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much.”

“Feel better?”

I could tell she did, since her mana was the cleanest I thought I’d ever seen it.

“Fuck you.”

I chuckled.

“I’m still not a freak — I didn’t like that.”

“I didn’t expect you to,” I said.

“I don’t understand how Samantha does.”

“That’s nothing, you should —”

“No! I shouldn’t. Whatever it is, there are no possible circumstances where I should anything with it.”

“You never watch any of that? Just the schloop-schloop?”

“You are not allowed to make that sound. Ever.”

This was the Cassandra I loved — playful, at peace with herself, able to call me a dumbass feral and kiss me at the same time.

Loved?

Maybe? A little? It was definitely getting there. Or maybe it already was and I was just as reluctant to accept that could come in so little time — as Cassandra had been reluctant to believe we’d really forgiven her so quickly.

I was tempted to tell her I did, thinking maybe saying it would somehow clarify what was now confusing me, but I couldn’t do that if Cassandra wouldn’t see it was true.

Cassandra groaned. “She’s going to give me so much shit about this.”

“We don’t have to tell anyone.”

She didn’t look up at me, but I could feel her eyes roll.

“Coven bond?” I asked after a second.

“Yeah. They’re going to know something intense happened.” She sighed. “Do you really think this was enough for them to really forgive me?”

I didn’t think she was asking about Rachel and Sam, or even Hannah and Brittany — I was certain they already really had.

I shrugged. “I can give you another ten or twenty if you think you need it.”

Cassandra quickly shook her head, rubbing her face against my chest.

“No!”

“Cassandra, you’re a beautiful person who thought she had to do shitty things, but that’s over now. You’re not the same person you were and you’ll never have to be like that again, so nothing she did matters anymore. Okay?”

“Just like that?”

I thought about it for a minute, then nodded. “I think it’s a lot more than ‘just like that,’ but, yeah, just like that. We’re a family now — forever. We can’t start holding grudges. But you have to start talking to us when you’re feeling bad.”

“That’s hard — I never had anyone to talk to before.”

I had to swallow a lump from that. Even I’d had Morgan and Felicity to talk to.

“You do now, so talk to us.”

“I’ll try.”

The Crone

“Oof!”

“Up, boy — no time for layabouts.”

I opened my eyes and swatted my hand at the cane-tip hovering a few inches from my chest, ready to jab me again.

Viera, The Crone aspect of the Goddess, was looking down at me along the length of her cane, eyes narrowed as though she was just waiting for an excuse to poke me again.

I worried about that look, because maybe she was pissed at me for what I’d done with Cassandra.

“Um, about Cassandra —” I started, maybe hoping to get ahead of it.

“Come along, lad,” Viera said, turning toward the path to the Grove and gesturing for me to follow. “Don’t look so worried — it was a fair offering.”

“Offering?” I asked, catching up with her, but trying to walk where I’d be out of range of that cane.

Viera turned her head to look at me. “If you put it on an altar, lad, it’s an offering — sort of how altars work, that.”

“Oh.”

“Not as good a one as the other — a virgin’s binding always has the most potential — but repentance and redemption are nothing to turn your nose up at.” Viera shook her cane at me, grasping it by one end and making a slow swing at buttock level. “I advise you get yourself something to spare your hand for next time, though.”

I eyed the cane dubiously — the thing was nearly an inch across and I thought it was a little brutal looking to think about using on the girls.

“Not something like this, you dolt,” Viera shook her head. “You live on a campus called Willowmere, have them go cut a switch for you to use — the anticipation of the walk back will do them good. Little hooligans.”

That actually sounded like a good idea — even spanking Cassandra had been more about making her think about things than the actual act.

Maybe I’d even have Sam go get one just for fun.

“So you’re not mad?”

“Did you think we expected you to get them in line without blistering a few bottoms?” The Crone laughed. “I don’t think even we have enough strength to power a geas with requirements like that. No, a good hiding is exactly what that girl needed. She’s harder on herself than any of you were, and that’s not always a good thing. She won’t be the last, I’d wager — nor will she soon forget it.”

“I don’t know.” I’d been thinking about that myself, and whether the spanking would have any really lasting effect on Cassandra. I hoped so, because I honestly didn’t want to have to do it again. “I’m pretty sure Cassandra knows enough body magic to fix her butt overnight — she probably won’t think of it the next time she gets the urge to be mean.”

“We’ll see, lad. We’ll see.” Viera chuckled. “In any case, that’s not why you’re here.”

“Why, then?”

“To see you’re prepared — what else?”

“Prepared? What? No!” I put my hands up and backed away from her, wondering what would happen if I just turned around and ran into the forest around the Grove. Would I eventually get back to the waking world or would I just be stuck here running through the trees forever.

“I was prepared! I found out who killed Katrina! I saved Cassandra! I fought the Patriarchy! I threw a vampire into a wall!”

“All well done, lad. Well done.”

“So now I’m done!”

Viera shook her head. “You’re young, lad, you’re nowhere near done. I’d just not see you let your guard down.”

“Yeah, right — more ‘I can’t say that I know anything, but you should totally think I know something’ bullshit.”

“I like you, lad. You’ve spunk to you.”

I closed my mouth and gulped, realizing who I’d just been snapping at.

But, still, really?

I just wanted to go to school and fuck my three beautiful witches in peace — okay, maybe a few more than three soon, but, still, was that too much to ask?

“Why me? And what about my whole coven being born in June? What’s up with that?”

Viera shrugged. “Coincidence.”

“Really? That’s the best you can come up with?”

Viera sighed. “Lad, in nineteen fifty-nine, a roulette wheel in Puerto Rico landed on ten six times in a row. No more improbable than it counting one to six in order, or any other six numbers you’d like to think of.”

“So it was coincidence?”

“No, a rather intoxicated witch was on holiday — but my point stands, lad, many unlikely events are really no more unlikely than others.”

“But why me?” Yes, I was whining, but … I threw a vampire into a wall, and now there was going to be more?

I expected some comment about my whining, or even a swat with her cane, but The Crone pursed her lips and furrowed her brow as though really thinking about it.

“We don’t know,” she said, finally.

“How can you not know? Aren’t you … you know, Goddessy?”

“I have a friend,” Viera said. “Three, actually — weavers. They do truly fine work — you should see the tapestry they gave me for my rooms last Lammas-tide.” She shrugged. “Not what you’re interested in, I’m sure, but the point is, they’re quite handy with threads.”

“Thread?”

“Yes, and yours is … tangled.”

“Tangled?”

Viera nodded. “Knotted.”

“I’m tangled and knotted?”

Another nod. “It’s causing them no end of trouble, I’ll tell you.”

“My thread is tangled trouble?”

“Indeed. It’s as though someone balled you up and threw you on the loom.”

“So, what? I’m some kind of Chosen One?”

Viera’s face became serious and she stared at me for a moment.

“Are you just now realizing that, lad?” She gestured around the Grove. “Were you thinking your visits here were for our entertainment and not something larger? Lad, the fate of the very world depends on you.”

I gulped, staring at The Crone’s impassive face — which quickly broke into a wide grin.

Viera cackled. “‘Chosen One.’ Oh, that’s rich.”

“It’s not that stupid a question.”

The Crone continued to laugh, actually using her cane to support herself.

“Lad,” she said, “there are no ‘Chosen Ones’ — there are, however, opportunities. Opportunities we try to make the most of. It’s only that you appear to be a rather unusual number of opportunities. Quite an aberration, in fact.”

“Aberration?”

Viera nodded. “Now, the question is, are you such an opportunity because you’re an aberration? Or are you an aberration because you touch so many opportunities?” She shrugged. “Who’s to say?”

“Great — so I’m an ‘aberration’ who got balled up and tossed on a loom? By who?”

“That, lad, is what we’d all like to know.”

“How can you not know? You’re a goddess!”

Viera sighed. “There are … layers to our knowledge.”

“Layers?” I was probably as tired of questioning every word I heard as Viera was of hearing me do it.

Viera sighed. “I’ll try to explain it in a way you’ll understand.”

That was the Viera I was used to — telling me I was an idiot.

The Crone pursed her lips.

“You understand what I am?”

“An aspect of the Goddess,” I answered, grateful that I’d understood all the words in that question and even more grateful when Viera nodded that I was right.

“Right, then, so you’ve heard how I sometimes say ‘I’ and mean me, and sometimes I say ‘we’ and mean all of us?”

“Yeah, four aspects, right?”

Viera nodded. “Yes … but there’s also the ‘I’ that’s all of us.”

I nodded back. I’d caught that sometimes, a sort of super-I the Goddess’ aspects used when they were talking about all of them together — as one, I guess, instead of individually together as ‘we’.

“Right, so, sometimes, I do things that we don’t know about or even understand.”

I frowned. “Um, do you mean there’s an actual You that’s all four of you combined? Like … another person?”

Viera shook her head. “No, we’re all Me, but when we’re us, we’re only a part of Me. So, sometimes, when I do something, maybe only one of us understands it — or maybe none of us understand it, because I did something that’s beyond the parts that are us.”

I stared at her blankly.

“Being a Goddess is rather a lot of work. I split Myself so that each of us could look after some very specific things for our girls, but there are bigger things that need My full attention — and unless those things relate to one of My aspects, there’s really no need for us to know about it.” She grinned. “Even My aspects have too many responsibilities for us to handle as one — all of us have that problem, so we have helpers — Euphrosyne, Rusalka, Brigid? They’re all aspects of us, just as we’re Mine — they’re not as powerful as me, because they’re part of us instead of part of Me, but that doesn’t mean they’re not parts of all of us.”

I know I must have looked as confused as I felt, because Viera’s smile was almost sympathetic and she patted my cheek.

“It’s quite all right, lad. Sometimes I don’t even understand Me, so it’s not as though I expect you to.” She frowned. “Honestly, for all I know, I could be part of some bigger Me that I don’t even know about.”

Chapter

“What did you do to my ass?”

I jumped back, startled into not paying attention to the coffee I was pouring and dumped half a pot onto our kitchen’s floor. We might not have renovated the place enough to have power everywhere, but we ran a couple extension cords from the one power outlet Peter and the Willowmere staff had installed under the new breaker box on the cottage’s outside wall. One went to the kitchen where we had a coffee maker set up and a second to the living room so we could have a full TV — another went to the bathroom Cassandra had just come out of to power the lights around the girls’ new mirror.

We didn’t have hot water yet, but we did have a well-lit mirror where the girls could ensure they’d gotten their makeup glamours right.

I’d suggested they just not bother, since they were all gorgeous anyway and didn’t need it.

That got me three things: smiles, kisses, and adamant “noes”.

“Stop staring at your mess —” Cassandra said, voice tight. Her fists were clenched at her sides and she was actually trembling a bit. “— and tell me what you did to my ass last night!”

“I … spanked it?”

I was reasonably sure I’d remember it if I’d done anything else with Cassandra’s ass — and there were a lot of things I’d like to do with Cassandra’s ass.

“Crone sharts!” Cassandra turned her back to me, grasped her nightgown, and yanked it up to expose her butt. “Look at it!”

“What am I missing?” Sam asked, appearing in the tiny kitchen area as if by … well, magic.

“Cassandra’s showing her ass,” I said.

“Nice.” Sam cocked her head to one side. “Very nice.”

“Shut up, pervert.” Cassandra glared at Sam while taking a few steps backward toward me until Sam couldn’t see her butt anymore.

“What happened?” Rachel asked, joining us in the kitchen.

“This!” Cassandra spun around, briefly showing Rachel her butt before spinning it back to face me.

“What happened?” Sam asked quickly, then in answer to Cassandra’s glare. “It worked for Rachel.”

I may have mentioned that Cassandra’s ass was spectacular. I’d even venture to call it perfect, if it wasn’t covered in several dark bruises, some of them purple around the edges. I did feel a twinge of guilt about that, but Sam had informed me, more than once, that butt-bruises were no big deal, they’d fade in a few days, and if she thought it was a problem, she’d just use some body-magic to heal them quicker. Those on Cassandra’s butt did look a bit odd, though. There actually seemed to be a lot more, and bigger, bruises than there should be. I hadn’t really spanked her that much.

“Why didn’t you use body-magic to fix them overnight?” I asked Cassandra.

The angry witch’s head turned ever so slowly to stare at me over her shoulder.

“What did you just say?”

Code Red! Close the bunkers! my lizard-brain screamed.

“Body magic? Healing?” I suggested, not getting what the problem was.

“I’ve been pouring mana into my ass all night and all morning,” Cassandra said, jaw tight. “It’s done nothing — what did you do to me?”

“I … don’t know,” I admitted.

“What were you thinking?” Rachel asked.

“That I was spanking Cassandra?”

“No,” Sam put in. “What were you thinking? What was your intent?”

“When I was spanking her? I … wanted to make Cassandra stop thinking we hated her, and stop being angry at herself for things she did before … and, I guess, I wanted to give her something she’d remember the next time she thought about being mean to you or Rachel.”

“Oh, no.”

“Shit.”

“Fuck!”

“What?”

Cassandra dropped her nightgown and spun around to face me. I kind of would have preferred she kept her nightgown raised — not because I wanted to look at her butt, but because then her clenched fists would be busy doing something other than possibly swinging for my nose.

I do admit I wanted to look at her butt, too.

“You wanted me to remember the spanking,” Cassandra said tightly, “the next time I was going to be mean to Samantha or Rachel?”

“Um, yeah, what’s the big —”

“You told the coven bond you wanted me to remember the spanking the next time I thought about being mean to Samantha or Rachel?”

I blinked. I hadn’t really considered the coven bond, but I guess it was listening? “I … guess?”

“You put me on the altar, in a Grove, and you told the coven bond you wanted me to remember?”

Sam and Rachel sighed.

“This is going to take some work to unravel,” Sam said.

“I’ll stop by the library before lunch and get some books,” Rachel said.

“You ignorant, feral asshole!” was Cassandra’s contribution.

“I don’t get it,” I admitted.

Cassandra snarled and stalked toward the cottage door — then she stalked back to me, kissed me on the cheek, muttered “asshole” again, and headed for the door.

“I’m going to get dressed in my old room,” Cassandra called over her shoulder. “All my skirts are still there and I certainly can’t wear tight jeans thanks to you!” She paused and felt at her butt. “Ah, fuck, I’m going to have to wear a thong until you fix this.”

“Silver linings,” Sam muttered.

“I fucking swear you’re spending all summer with a tutor! Two of them!”

The cottage door slammed and left me with Sam and Rachel both shaking their heads at me.

“You’re really going to have to kiss her ass, you know?” Sam said.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll have to figure out some way to make this up to her, I guess.”

Sam shook her head. “No, I mean whatever rite we find to fix this, you’re almost certainly going to have to literally kiss her ass. Probably every bruise, maybe more than once.” She pursed her lips. “Maybe I can find a potion, but otherwise we’ll have to hope it’s just a really minor rite and we have enough power for it — I don’t think you want to fix this in front of the whole school coven, or even ask the teachers to help at all.”

Yeah … I was pretty sure I didn’t want to face three more years at Willowmere with all the teachers knowing I’d both spanked Cassandra and hadn’t learned enough from them to avoid this — whatever it was.

“I’ll let Prima Rosethorn know we’ll probably need the Grove again,” Rachel said. “I hope we can find something before school’s done.”

Sam sighed. “I’ll text you some potions books if you’ll pick them up for me when you go to the library?”

“Sure.”

“Can one of you explain to me what’s going on?”

“I’ll go to the library this morning so we don’t waste any time,” Rachel said, hoisting her backpack, then kissing me and heading for the door, too.

I looked at Sam and spread my hands.

Sam sighed. “Do you remember when I told you the coven bond can’t control what we think and feel, it’s a physical compulsion?”

I nodded.

“You asked the bond to — no, don’t say you didn’t. You might not have meant to, but you did. You asked the bond to make her remember, but the bond can’t make her remember something, because that’s mental … but it can keep something physical around that will remind her.”

A chill ran through me. “You mean the bruises? They’re not going to go away until she thinks about being mean?”

Sam nodded.

“Well … that’s easy, isn’t it? It’s not like she’d have trouble coming up with something to think about.”

Sam shook her head. “Remember how some resonants work? They have to be reciprocal? Like my Love resonant won’t fill unless I love someone and feel loved in return? And how her Malice won’t fill unless she both intends to hurt someone and they’re at least likely to feel hurt by it?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “That’s why she can’t just troll the internet or something — because nobody on there really gives a shit when someone says something mean.”

“And because Cassandra’s a lightweight compared to them — now, Felicity? That girl is vicious online. Some dude in a game gave her shit about being a girl last weekend and I think she made him cry.” She shrugged. “Anyway, unless Cassandra really intends to follow through, the bond won’t care — and we don’t want her really intending to hurt one of us. Fantasizing won’t do it. And even intending might not … fuck.”

“What?”

Sam rubbed her temples. “Was your intent next time, or ever?”

“I … don’t want her to be mean to you guys … ever? Is that bad?”

Sam stared at me, waiting.

“Oh … shit,” I said, getting it.

Sam nodded. “Yeah, oh, shit.”

“You mean they might never go away?”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to fix it, but it’ll take a while.”

“And meanwhile…”

“Yeah, meanwhile.”

I groaned.

“Yeah,” Sam said. “And another thing…”

“What?”

“Why’d she get those instead of me?”