Page 109 of Haunting the Deep

“Hold on, you’re not saying…you’rethe one responsible for all this?”

He stands a little straighter.

Oh holy hell. What have I done? I said I would marry him? Ikissedhim. I scan the room. The door is behind me. “How did no one know you could do magic? How did the Descendants not know?”

He scoffs. “That’s the thing about the Descendants. They don’t want to believe that anyone besides themselvescando magic. Hence the accent.”

Well, that’s true.“So youpretendedto be an exchange student to come to Salem.”

“I knew you were related to Myra. I had been looking for her for a long time.”

Elijah was right; he couldn’t find her himself. “You sent Ada, didn’t you?”

“And you liked her.”

I do. I do like Ada.“She’s a person.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“Well, you keep her here like a prisoner.”

Annoyance flashes in his eyes. “I give her and all the rest of them the most beautiful ship in the world. Everyone here ishappy.That’s what everyone wants—you said it yourself.”

My shoulders tense. “Fake happy. Entitlement and luxury arenotthe same thing. Just because you’re alive and they’re dead gives you no right to take away their choice. You’re like the people who loaded the wealthy passengers first, as if they were more deserving of those lifeboats.”

“Frame it however you want. Happiness is happiness. Tell me this isn’t better than your world of Nikis and Blairs, where your father won’t let you do magic, where your stepmother tried to hang you.”

My mouth opens. I will punch him in his neatly combed head. “You don’t get to judge the value of my life—or anyone else’s, for that matter!”

“Oh yeah? I was with you the first time you came to the ship. You barely even tried to remember your life in Salem. And how long did it take before you gave up on trying at all? One night, maybe two?”

My cheeks burn. “Because you put me under aspell.”

“Admit what we both know, Samantha.”

“How do you explain this, then? How do you explain me remembering myself in the midst of your proposal?” I almost choke on the word.

“I suspect the Descendants had something to do with that, although I don’t know what. You wouldn’t have done it by yourself,” he says.

I study him. Could he be right that I wanted to be happy so badly that I didn’t resist? “But Blair and Niki? Mr. Wardwell?”

He shrugs. “If I could put a spell on you, do you really think it was much trouble manipulatingthem?”

He had access to everyone. He lives with Blair. He’s on the dance committee. He’s been pulling the strings right in front of us. Susannah was right when she likened him to a serial killer who sends letters to the police. “You put Jaxon under a spell.”

“You weren’t focusing,” he says.

“But you were working with spirits….How did you…” It dawns on me. I’m as bad as the girls, thinking I’m the only one with special abilities. “You see spirits, don’t you? You’retheCollector that Redd was sensing?”

His prideful look returns.

The image of Redd bleeding on the floor fills my mind. “And now Redd’s dead….How could you!”

He breaks eye contact for a split second. “You know that is as much your fault as it is mine. You wouldn’t let it go.Yougot Redd involved, not me—”

“Bullshit!” The word explodes from me. “Own what you did, Matt! You killed an old woman. You’re trapping spirits against their will—”

“I said my name is Alexander here. I won’t tell you again.” He takes a fast step toward me.