Charissa Weaks

But the Witch Collector will not come for me. Of this, I’m certain. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for twenty-four years he has passed me by.

His mistake.

Lately, her memory is everywhere.

Finn has been my first everything. My first friend. My first fight. My first kiss. My first lover. My first heartbreak.

“Like the wind, Mannus. Let’s find Raina Bloodgood.”

“I love you, Raina,” Finn says out of nowhere.

My thudding heart all but stops. I snap my head around, searching his boyishly handsome face. Why is he saying this to me now?

The second that thought hits me, I realize that I know why.

“I felt you needed to hear that before doing something rash,” he says. He takes my hand and presses a tender kiss to my fingertips. “I love you, Raina Bloodgood. Forever.”

Ophelia Bloodgood did the impossible. She hid her family’s power.

Ophelia Bloodgood did the impossible. She hid her family’s power.

For a heartbeat, I’m certain Raina Bloodgood might help me. It’s a false hope, because a moment later, she rises and turns to leave.

She’s not only a Seer. She’s a Resurrectionist.

And she’s going to let me die.

My breasts fall, and my lungs and ribs expand on a blissful inhale. At my back, however, he leans close. When he speaks, his warm breath grazes the curve of my neck, and it’s all I can do not to shiver.

“My name is Alexus. Alexus Thibault. Not Witch Collector.” He comes to face me and says it again, this time with his hands.

I hand the Witch—no, Alexus—his cloak, which he accepts, but he whips the garment around my shoulders instead of his own.

“It suits you.