Read To Make A Witch for Free Online

are where he goes to look for prey at night. Maybe we were just unlucky enough to attract his attention. He must have discovered a long time ago that the cover of the cemetery allowed him the privacy to do more than just feed.” I thought of how Ethan had lifted me down in that courtly, old-fashioned way. “A very long time ago, I think.”
    The natural magic of my genetics was calming Ava down. She even looked like she actually believed me.
    “Are we safe here?”
    One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. I counted off my steps until I was sure I could reply in a steady voice. “Yes, we’re safe from vampires here.” I had no idea if it was true. The Crone had little interest in anything outside of witchcraft and saw all the other beings that lurked in the shadows on this side of the Wall as vermin. Vampires were supposedly not able to enter a home without permission, but what about a public building like a school?
    But I was more worried about the man called Bel whose touch burned, and a girl who knew my name.
    Less wobbly now, Ava pulled away. “OK then. Let’s go home. I just want to get into my bed and pretend the whole thing was a bad dream.”
    We went to the back of the residence where Ava produced a key that opened a metal door—another Westover Academy Senior Class secret. It was the door to a utility room that collected the garbage bags thrown down the chute on each floor. Up a small flight of stairs and through another door, and we were in the hall that led to our room.
    Once inside, Ava began brushing her teeth and gargling as if removing the last traces of vomit could bring the world back into order again. I couldn’t judge. I was scrubbing my hands in my own sink under water almost as hot as Bel’s touch. An itch in the back of my mind urged me to make the water hotter and hotter until I lost myself in pain. Worse than that, I couldn’t stop thinking about the small surgical knife at the bottom of my makeup bag.
     
     
    “Again,” the Crone demanded.
    I tried not to whimper. The Crone didn’t like it when I complained. I’d promised to obey under oaths that made me shudder to think of them, and I knew she would punish me and those I loved if I failed her.
    But that wasn’t the only reason I was whimpering. Every time the Crone commanded me to slice the knife across my skin and spill my blood into the cup, she made me stop at two cuts. The pressure to complete my ritual was almost unbearable, but she wouldn’t allow me release. The very nature of my compulsions made me the ideal candidate to master certain types of magic, but the Crone demanded that I be that master, not a slave.
    I wondered if she knew that when I was alone, I completed the third cut, deeper and longer than the others.
     
     
    Turning off the tap, I dried my red, throbbing hands. I hadn’t cut myself since the night the Crone died, but I hadn’t got rid of the knife yet either. Folding the hand towel neatly into a small square, I forced myself to turn around.
    Ava was sitting on her bed staring at me, her face shiny and her hair wet and spiky. “Explain,” she demanded.
    Sighing, I sat down on my bed facing her and began. “To understand, you need to know about a girl I grew up with. Her name was Rhiannon Lynne, but everyone who could see her called her Rhi. The thing was, not everyone could see her, not really . . .”
    When I finished the story of how I’d ended up on the wrong side of a fight between King Arthur awakened, Merlin who was also the Lord of the Grey Lands of Avalon, and Taliesin the warrior-bard who had sworn to protect mankind, Ava seemed to pass out more than fall asleep. I followed almost immediately after, but by the next morning, the girl had bounced back to normal and had acquired an insatiable curiosity about all things magical.
    I was awakened by a hand shaking my shoulder. “So this Rhiannon you hate so much, she’s Merlin’s and Guinevere’s daughter brought through Time? And she