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  “You're probably right.” Sadie sighed, long-suffering and drawn out. Adam looked confused for a moment, as he retraced their conversation.

  “I'm pretty sure you laid the groundwork for that, so technically you're the one who's right.” Adam answered.

  “Not this again.” she rolled her eyes. “I swear, if I told you about this premise I had for putting meat on bread, you'd credit me with the invention of the sandwich.”

  “A sandwich? What's th- ow!” Adam yelped as she punched him in the arm, none-too-gently. “Abuse. That is a definite con in this relationship. You do not hit like a girl.”

  “I'm going to whack you again for that generalised sexist statement.” Sadie warned.

  “In my defence, I'm countering my words by cowering in fear. It's an atypical gender stereotype movement.” Adam tried to sound sage, but only sounded vaguely pitiful, rubbing his arm.

  “Stop it, you know you're going to make me feel really bad. I don't want to be a boyfriend beater.” Sadie, for her part, looked slightly confused, unsure as to whether or not she had actually crossed the line.

  “You're not a boyfriend beater.” he was quick to change his composure to reassure her. “I promise, we'd be having a very different conversation if I actually felt threatened.”

  Sadie frowned, petting at his arm where she'd punched it, exhaling softly as if letting out tension.

  “It's so hard to know what to do these days, I think. Gender stereotypes suck and should definitely be abolished, but there's all this confusion about being a strong woman and about how men can be beaten and stuff, that when you do something like punch someone in the arm, something that would never be taken so seriously way back when, it's hard to know when enough is enough.” Sadie mused, sliding her hand into Adam's.

  “I think a general rule of thumb is keeping control and the intention behind it, really. Everyone screws up sometimes – even if it's emotionally rather than physically. For example, if you're in a relationship but wind up kissing someone else without really thinking about it – that's a loss of control, and kissing them intentionally is hurtful. On the other side of the coin, if someone kisses you and you shove them away, that's not you actively participating in it. With the punch, you know me, you've seen me take a punch way harder than that, and you weren't doing it to do lasting damage. I mean, my arm's a little dead, but it's not going to ache for more than an hour when it comes back to life.” Adam answered.

  “You know, it's amazing how rational you can be about all of this, but you can't keep your cool at the hunters.” Sadie chuckled. “I think you're capable of even more than you think you are.”

  “Well, some of it could be conditioning.” he shrugged. “Earth witches have always been told how important it is to keep our tempers because of the nature of our powers, so you either get control freaks, or people who give into it because they don't believe they can be any better.”

  “I think you can be anything you want to be.” she answered with a soft smile.

  Before Adam could answer, Rose burst into the room, and almost comically back-pedalled.

  “Ew, no kissing!” she yelped, her hands flying up to cover her eyes.

  “We're not kissing, Rose, just talking.” Adam sighed, exasperated. Sadie, on the other hand, looked ready to lapse into complete fits of laughter.

  “Oh, well, you two are officially boring in that case. A whole room to yourselves and you're not taking advantage of it? I mean, privacy is pretty scarce around here.” Rose scoffed. Sadie's mirth dried up somewhat, but she was still smirking, head bowed and eyes fixed on her lap.

  “Rose, what do you want?” Adam sounded less patient by the second.

  “I mean, if you're not grabbing every chance to snog each other's brains out, I fear for your future, I really do...”

  “Rose!” Adam's voice projected the mental face palming he was doing.

  “Oh.” she caught herself, looking up at her brother and his girlfriend, who were staring up at her with matching expressions of utter confusion and impatience. “Oh, right. I came in here for a reason. Getting back to that. Should I go out and come back in? You know, for dramatic effect.”

  “Rose.”

  “Right, right. The phone lines are back up.” Rose beamed.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lila's talk with Gloria had barely skirted around the issues Noah had brought up already when Rose had run through the room like a hurricane, yelling something about blown limes, which had been later deciphered as phone lines, and the witches in the community erupted into action which startled even the hunters who were usually the most unflappable. Lila leapt up and hugged Gloria, which was the most effective icebreaker they could have been granted, and they both darted for the door, no doubt to grab their respective cell phones. It was hard in that moment to figure out which was the teenager and which was the woman almost in her sixties (though she would insist she wasn't even forty yet). Both moved with equal speed, moving around each other seamlessly as they headed in opposite directions, with Lila ducking under Gloria's arm and Gloria lifting her arm to the perfect height, practised after years of exciting news in a small town.

  Lila found herself moving as well as she had before she'd been in her coma, and would later realise that a good portion of what was holding her back was psychosomatic, tied with her unwillingness to deal with everything which had almost killed her and had – temporarily though it was – killed most of her immediate friends.

  Dropping down into the medical wing, she fetched her phone from where it had been stashed, scrolling through her contacts until she found someone who probably wouldn't be receiving calls from Gloria – the last thing she wanted was for her aunt to be incapable of reaching someone because of her.

  The person she chose was her second cousin, Kara, who could talk anyone's ear off at the best of times. To Lila, this sounded like heaven at the moment. If anyone would have all of the coven's gossip, it would be Kara.

  The phone rang twice before being picked up in a hurry.

  “Lila! You're still alive, thank the Goddess. So is my phone apparently. It's so good to hear from you!” came a peppy voice from the other end of the line before Lila had even had a chance to speak. She smiled; she'd missed Kara and her interjected tangents in almost every conversation she had.

  “Yep. Still alive.” No need to worry anyone, not at this point. “How about over there, is everyone okay?” Lila asked, trying to keep the worry from being evident in her voice

  “Here? We're all fine, I think. At last check, anyway. The minute we sensed them, we put out the call and everyone started implementing the emergency measures we put in place after the last time. Good job on that, by the way. I don't know about the other covens, but Jake was speaking to one of them the last time I looked in. Then you called, and I ducked out because it's rude to pretty much everyone to have another conversation when someone's trying to concentrate.” Kara clucked her tongue as if scolding an imaginary person for carrying out this heinous act, and Lila could imagine the slightly older girl shaking her head, brown curls shaking wildly out of control.

  “Well, you're going to be my go-to for everything, so if you could try to keep on top of all the news over there and text me when anything changes, I'd really appreciate it.” Lila added, and could practically hear Kara puffing up with self-importance. Lila wished that she'd had more time to spend back home with the coven; she missed so many of them, especially with how much danger they were all in. She was glad that the emergency procedures, which consisted of everyone heading to the town hall and locking themselves in, were in place. Markdale had the advantage of being almost entirely a community of witches, and the few civilians who had shown up in later years would also be looked after; they were lead by witches who would make the whole plan sound perfectly reasonable.

  “They're saying everything happening outside is down to some kind of toxic gas leak.” Kara added, obviously trying to fulfil her duties as quickly as possible.
/>   “I know, I think that's what got sent out from here. They have crazy reach.” she answered, switching the phone from one ear to the other so that she could press it there with her shoulder and peer around the side of the cubicle and make sure they weren't being listened into. Apparently, she was entirely on her own down here – the nurses must be up with the witch hunters who had been brought in. “Wait, so you're not missing anyone?” she added, remembering that there had been witches brought in too.

  “No one that was here when it started anyway. A few people were out of town, or went out to help sort out the cell towers, plus the people that were sent as backup.”

  “Oh, well, we've got a few people here – I think some of the people who were away must've tried to come back to help and gotten caught in the crossfire. I don't think there's anything more than minor injuries, at least. The witch hunters seem to have been hurt the worst.” Lila sighed lightly; it was more ammo against their kind.

  “What's it like? Living with witch hunters? Aren't they supposed to kill people like us on sight?” Kara asked, and Lila heard voices in the background, no doubt people gathering round to get word from their coven leader. They hushed quickly, and Lila knew Kara had put her finger to her lips.

  “It depends, actually.” Lila answered, moving back over to her bed, which had been made up to military standards, tucked so tightly that she'd have to wrestle the covers off of the mattress later that night. She sat on top of it, crossing her legs lotus style, before continuing. “The older hunters seem to be the most prejudiced against us. I guess they've seen more of the bad before being introduced to us, but the younger ones are the most willing to talk to us and find out our side of the story. They get that when covens go rogue, like the Keres -”

  “Is that what they're calling themselves?” Kara interrupted, and there was a frown in her voice. “Talk about on the nose, but so disrespectful.” She wasn't wrong – the Keres were Greek spirits of violent death, but most witches knew that this was merely the stage before rebirth, and would never think that they were any kind of agent of the Fates, nor would they affect the wheel so directly. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

  Lila, who had anticipated many interruptions during the call, had made a point of remembering exactly where she was in her explanation, for when Kara realised she'd interrupted.

  “That's okay. I was saying that they know that we're not the same as the covens which go rogue. They get that we want to be part of the solution, not the problem – if we can keep that front and foremost in their minds, we might be able to broker some kind of truce with this branch of the hunters. They should pass it on to their other charters, too. It probably wont take hold everywhere, but there's a chance it could affect most places.” Lila gave a faint smile; she could hope. There were so many threats out there that it could be useful to have an ally, especially one who had such an incredible reach that they could affect the news and even politics. If they could work together, they could help to keep the civilians safe.

  “That's... pretty incredible.” Kara's response was somewhat muted for her, so Lila knew she was truly impressed.

  “There's a lot to get through before that's an option, though.” Lila continued. “We're working on some stuff to help us destroy the coven. Gloria and I are going to go into Spirit together and create a spiritual prison for the spirits who are too strong to just contain over there. I've been having problems with Beth again, too. I'm pretty useless if I'm scared to go over there because she's waiting on me.”

  “Lila Raegan, scared of something? Pfft, I don't believe it.” Kara soothed, and Lila loved the other girl for her faith, even if it was blind. “You and Gloria are a great team, though. If anyone can make a prison over there, it's you two.”

  It hit home a little, and Lila vowed to forgive Gloria as soon as she got off of the phone, and really have that conversation.

  “Thanks, Kar.” Lila answered, then sighed softly.

  “Do you need anything from us? You know we can come and join you, right?” Kara was insistent, and Lila remembered the way they had all shown up to help defeat Beth and the spirits. It warmed her inside, knowing that she had a family in her coven who would always come to her aid.

  “No, it's okay. I want you guys to stay away from this one, just in case, okay? If something happens to us, the covens are going to have to work together to end them.” Lila murmured.

  “You can do this.” Kara insisted. “But we've got your back, no matter what.” Lila knew she didn't have to check up on the coven's feelings to answer on their behalf. “What can we do in the meantime?”

  Lila thought about what must be going out there, and the first thing which came to mind was the doubtless grey landscape of dead and dying greenery.

  “Well... I found out that we have the capacity to boost the powers of other witches.” Lila began; it wasn't something which would be obvious, since the covens had been separated for a long time. “If you could join up with the Earth coven, they could use the amplification to fix how it looks out there. The death only feeds the Keres coven, so if we can produce enough life to counteract that, then...” she trailed off.

  “Then we could weaken them. Consider it done.” Kara finished for her.

  “Thanks. I knew I could count on you.” Lila complimented the other girl.

  “I'm just happy to be doing something.” Kara answered, and gave a sigh which matched Lila's earlier ones. “Honestly, most of what we've been doing here is getting down to the food stores in the records room and keeping the civilians calm. The kids have been putting on little shows. I think they're handling this better than a lot of the adults, honestly.”

  Lila had no doubt that her coven had carried out the emergency plans efficiently and had put enough aside for around six months, but the place they'd chosen wasn't great for entertainment. It had a great library built in, but not everyone would be kept entertained by books and the games brought in. Having been there for around three weeks, they were probably feeling the strain.

  “Just be careful, okay?” Lila spoke softly, trying not to imagine the danger they were going up against. “This isn't going to be an easy task, I don't want you in any unreasonable danger.”

  “Lila, you're all risking your life every single day out there – this is the least we can do.” Kara insisted. “You wouldn't believe the number of people who are grumbling about making you do it all, hiding out here while our homes fall apart. This will do them good, it'll sate their need to help, and really it's not that dangerous. We've been able to track the witches through scrying, and they're nowhere near here. If we can keep track of them, we'll be able to stay out of their way.”

  “Haven't they tried to go up against you? That's what I don't understand. They claim to want to kill as many people as possible, but they've breezed through there without coming in – they have to have seen the wards, so why?” Lila asked, only realising in that moment how strange it was.

  “Well... when they got here, they were going on about killing civilians, not witches.” Kara admitted. “They said we weren't a threat to them, so we weren't worth wiping out.”

  “Oh... Oh, wow. It's a genocide.” Lila felt her stomach twist sickeningly. “They're killing civilians because of the witch hunters, and they came after us because we've got powers which can rival theirs.”

  “It sounds that way. I've never felt so glad to be average.” Kara agreed. “We think our auras shielded the civilians we've got here.”

  “Either that, or they decided it was too many witches to wipe out.” Lila answered.

  “Wow, that's a cheery thought.”

  “Sorry, it's just hard to believe they didn't know the civilians were there. They're so powerful. I hope we've got enough tech under our belts to actually defeat them, but I think my biggest problem is the pessimistic attitude I've developed after last time.” Lila felt her hand shaking, and clenched it into a fist.

  “You can do this, Lila. The Goddess put you and the others on this p
lanet for a reason, gave you crazy strong powers for a reason. You just need to work together, and you're unstoppable.” Kara's voice was firm, and its strength settled around Lila's heart. People believed in her, and she would give it everything she had to prove their faith in her right.

  “Thank you.” she answered softly. “You have no idea how badly I needed to hear that. Send my love to everyone, okay? I have to go.”

  “We love you, too. Now go and kick some ass.”

  Lila smiled, saying a final goodbye, then hung up the phone.

  She was ready.

  Chapter Twenty-Four