Our Fatal Failings (Twisted book two)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Six months, seven months, eight months. My due date creeps closer and so does the daunting truth; I’m going to be a mother. Will I raise this child well? Will I hide the truth in an attempt to protect him like my parents did? If I tell them the truth, will it hurt them more than hiding it?

“We have a prisoner!” The voice comes from outside my door as I look at my swollen stomach in the mirror. I tug my sweater down and look out my door. Witches file out of their rooms and towards the main hall. I follow the crowd to where it leads. In the middle of the room, obscured by the bodies of witches in dark robes is a woman on her knees on the floor. Her face is grimy and covered mostly by her matted blonde hair, but her aura, it’s familiar. I’ve seen this woman before, but not for sometime. Somewhere...

She flips her hair back and licks her dry lips. I freeze. It’s the witch from the castle. Her blonde hair is matted, tangled and dull but her eyes are still their same shock of blue. Their intensity pierces me, malicious and deep this time. 

I make my way to Nia and Iris. Their lips are pressed into thin lines, their eyes heavy set in their faces, dark bags marring their faces. This leadership is taking its toll on them. They’re younger than me, being nineteen to my twenty. “What’s going on?” I ask.

Iris wrings her hands and says nothing. It’s Nia who answers. “We have a traitor in our midsts and she’s just about to speak before we sentence her.”
 
“I...I know her.” Yes, I know her. She counseled me, advised me, told me what I should do to escape. She gave me the contraception….she sabotaged me. She botched that potion on purpose. But why would she turn on the rebellion like this? The witches have her best interest at hand. Who is she working for? Wolves?

Nia’s eyes are sad as she gives me a small smile. “We know. We trusted her more than we should have.”

The witch clears her throat. Her eyes bore right into mine. I shift, uncomfortable under her glare, but then I stare right back. I will not fold to a lying traitor. Her eyes drift down to my stomach and she gives me a sly smile. “So you’re pregnant.”

“Don’t look at her,” Iris says, pulling me back. She turns back to the girl on the floor, face grave. “Speak of your crimes.” The mood in the hall is tense, so tense. I rub my arms as goosebumps grow on my skin. I can feel the heat rising--it must be energy from amulets, rolling off into the air. 

I shake off her grasp. “I want to be here. I want to hear what she has to say to me.”

“Is it his? Of course it’s his.”

“Did you or did you now sabotage plans of the Witch Women United?”

She rolls her head back, her bright blue eyes shifting back and forth in their sockets. There’s something strangely avian about her movements and it’s deeply uncomfortable watching her as she rattles in her chains. “How did it happen? In heat?”

“Answer the question,” Iris booms. Her frame is growing tenser and tenser. She’ll explode soon.

The witch smiles, showing off all her teeth. “You were always eager to listen to my advice.” She still looks straight at me and my blood turns into ice. “When I told you to give into your hormones you did it all too willingly. Of course it happened in heat. You were panting, you were a bitch in heat who couldn’t keep her hands to herself and made the excuse of being scheming.” She snorts. “The greater good my ass.”

Tears prick at the corner of my eyes as Nia wraps her arms around me from the side, encircling my swollen stomach. Iris makes a huff of anger. “Were you sent by agents of Jonah Evans and his court of werewolves?”

“Everyone in that castle could hear your screaming.” She cackles, straining against her chains. “I only pity the maid who had to go in there to feed you because you were too busy getting pounded to get up and feed yourself. You probably would’ve starved to death if no food had been brought up.”