He was right. If the choice was between Nora and Ethan, I had to choose Ethan. And killing her would mean freeing both of us for good.

“Okay,” I said. “Bring her here.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

DYLAN and Shannon used their magic to bring Nora to Ethan. I could barely look at her. Her face was twisted with torment. Her eyes never left me. She didn’t even glance at Ethan.

“Don’t feel guilty,” Shannon said. “She brought this on herself.”

Dylan crossed his arms. “Believe me, she didn’t feel guilty about you killing Ben and Rebecca.”

Still it was hard. I wasn’t even the one who was going to be doing the killing this time, yet it was awful. Ethan looked at me, confused.

“It’s okay,” I told him. “I’ll show you what to do, and afterward you’ll be you again. I promise.” I reached for his hands and placed one of his palms against Nora’s neck. Instantly, I saw Ethan’s eyes widen at the warmth he felt from Nora’s body. The worst part of this curse Nora had placed on us was how good it felt when we were killing someone. We were powerless to resist it.

Nora let out a nervous laugh. “So this is it, Sam? I teach you how to survive and you betray me?”

I knew Ethan was starting to feel better already, so I hesitated long enough to say what I needed to. “You used me. You made me a killer, and I’ll never forgive you for that. Any ‘kindness’ you pretended to show me was fake. It was all designed to get me to do exactly what you wanted. To make me a monster. Shannon’s right. You’re getting what you deserve.”

Tears filled my eyes as I took Ethan’s other palm and placed it over Nora’s heart. She gasped for air, and her skin began to wrinkle with age. She withered and shrank into herself, until the light in her eyes went out, and she slumped forward onto Ethan.

“Get her off,” I said, choking on tears.

Dylan pulled Nora off Ethan. “It’s over. For good.”

Shannon sighed. “I felt the curse release. Ethan isn’t using any more of my time.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“His existence was taking time off my life, but it stopped when Nora died. I only lost a few years.”

I stared at her, and this time I didn’t see the girl who bossed everyone around. I saw the insecure witch who just wanted people to like her. “I’m glad you aren’t going to die, and I’m sorry Nora hurt you to save Ethan.” I couldn’t say I was sorry I let Nora do it though. Shannon’s life energy had saved Ethan. As awful as it sounded, I would’ve done it all over if I had to. He was too important for me to lose.

Shannon nodded. She understood how I felt. We might never be friends, but we certainly didn’t hate each other anymore, either.

Ethan got out of the booth, looking dazed. “Did I just…”

“Yes,” I said, not wanting to make him say it out loud. “But you had to. It’s over now. You’ll never feel like that again. You’ll never have to take another person’s life again. Neither of us will.”

He wrapped me in a hug and kissed the top of my head. We could finally live normal lives now.

“So,” Dylan said, “there’s something we have to figure out.”

I pulled away from Ethan. “What to do with Nora’s body?”

“No. I’ll take care of it. There’s a spell we can do to burn the body. No one will know what happened to her.”

“What about her family?” I asked.

“She didn’t have any.” He motioned to Shannon and himself. “We were her family before she decided black magic was better than us.”

“Oh.” She must have been so lonely. Lonely enough to go completely evil. “She should’ve done the same spell Shannon did to make everyone like her.”

Shannon gave me a look, but before I could apologize for insulting her she said, “I’m removing the spell. It was stupid of me to cast it. Having people do what you say isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I know they really hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” I said. “Not anymore. And maybe they don’t all hate you.”

Shannon smirked. “Trust me, they do.” She exchanged a look with Dylan. “What do you think? We could have a new coven. Would be nice to have that power again.”

He shook his head. “I know Nora cast a spell on her, but Sam killed Ben and Rebecca.”

“I didn’t want to.” Tears welled up in my eyes. “Please, I’m so sorry. You don’t know what it was like. That monster she turned me into was so much stronger than me. I couldn’t fight it.”

“He was my brother.” Dylan’s pain was etched in his face.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You two could bind your powers with ours so we could be stronger,” Shannon said. Everything was about power with her. She was willing to forgive me if she got something out of it in return. She’d probably only hung out with Dylan, Rebecca, and Ben for the same reason. She hadn’t really cared about any of them. It was sad, but I guessed her issues at school made her not want to open up to people for real.

“So Rebecca’s and Ben’s magic, it’s mine now? For good? I have twice the magic of a normal witch?”

Shannon smiled. “Pretty awesome, right? Normally you have to be born a witch, but there are some ways to take a witch’s power, like you and Ethan did.”

I still felt awful about how I’d gotten the magic. Rebecca had begged for her life, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized Ben had only been defending himself and his coven against Nora. I couldn’t blame him for that.

I looked down at Nora’s shriveled body on the floor. I wanted to hate her more than I hated myself, but I couldn’t.

“Sam, believe me, if I thought you were anything like Nora, I wouldn’t invite you to join our coven,” Shannon said. “The spell she put on you to make you trust her was powerful. You didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

“Wait a minute.” Ethan put his hands up in front of him. “Are you telling me that I have Nora’s powers? I can do magic?”

Dylan nodded. “That’s exactly how it works. You drained Nora’s powers, and now they’re inside you. They’re yours.”

Ethan shrugged. “I can live with that.”

A thought struck me. An awful thought. “Nora’s magic was evil. Does that mean Ethan will be—?”

Shannon shook her head. “Nora’s magic wasn’t evil. She used it for evil. That was all her doing. She made that choice. As long as Ethan doesn’t decide to be evil, he’ll be fine. Just like the rest of us.”

I looked at Dylan. This decision was his. I wouldn’t force him. “I understand if you don’t want us to join your coven.”

“Ben’s power is inside her,” Shannon said. “Rebecca’s, too. In a way, it would be like having them around.”

Dylan hesitated, but finally he said, “All right. But I’m doing it for Ben.”

I nodded. I hadn’t expected him to do me any favors. “So, do we bind our powers now?”

“No.” Shannon spread her arms out, motioning to the brokendown diner. “We clean up.”

I looked at the clock, hanging crookedly on the wall. “Gloria and Jackson will be here in an hour. We’ll never fix this place up by then.”

“Rookie,” Shannon said. She waved her hand, and the coffee maker floated from the floor, where it had fallen on Nora, back onto the counter. The broken pieces of glass fixed themselves, and it looked as good as new.

I stared in disbelief. “That was incredible!”

“Glad you think so,” Shannon said, “because we have a lot to fix. We’ll need your help.”

Dylan took Ethan to the kitchen, most likely to avoid me, and Shannon led me to the counter. They showed us how to focus our own minds and our energy on making the broken things return to the way they had been. The tingling sensation was the most amazing thing I’d ever felt. It took us almost the entire hour, but we put the diner back to normal.

Shannon pointed to the clock. “Time to jet.”

Five minutes. That was all we had. We’d fought all night long, and I wasn’t even tired. I was so high on my new power and the fact that I was me again. Really truly me, only better. More powerful.