Page 3 of This Witch Is Not Wicked

Maybe there was a mudslide coming from Kiln Mountain. That had happened once, long ago, and I’d had to use an enormous amount of magic to keep my bog safe. I’d called on all my plants and commanded them to create an impenetrable wall that would keep the mud from burying us all.

I’d had to sleep an entire week to recover.

What had been trembles turned into quakes, and I lost my footing, lurching forward onto the lily pad.

The reeds around us shrank into the water, and my flowers closed their petals. Lily pads around us disappeared under the water’s surface.

Vine slithered in front of me, pointing upward toward the sky, and my blood ran cold. Something was barreling toward us, creating a storm of wind and smoke, causing enough of a disturbance to shake the whole Cragh.

“Godwitches be,” I murmured, attempting to stand on trembling legs. “What is that?”

The object came closer, and I squinted, recognizing stone walls, peaks, towers, windows, and balconies.

“It’s a castle,” I murmured in awe. How was a castle falling from the sky?

Vine coiled around my waist, trembling. This castle would crash into us and destroy everything, and there was nothing I could do about it. My magic couldn’t save us from this.

I swallowed thickly, and Vine tugged me toward the water. I supposed that was the only thing I could do. Jump and swim deep enough that I hoped I survived. If I could hold my breath for that long.

I stood, frozen by indecision as the roaring got louder, the shaking grew more intense, and the castle got ever closer.

Vine tugged me harder, but I resisted, part of me feeling like I should stay here with the bog as the castle destroyed it. This was my creation, and I should stand tall like a captain with its ship going down.

“No,” I started, but was cut off as Vine yanked me off the lily pad.

My body hit the frigid, murky water hard, and I was instantly plunged into darkness as Vine dragged me down, down, down.

I struggled against its viselike grip, but there would be no escaping. How many times had I seen it wrap around its victims as they fought fruitlessly? One only escaped Vine when it wanted them to.

It dragged me deeper, my lungs burning. Because of my immortal lineage, it would take much longer to drown than a mortal, but it still hurt. Water swirled around me in every direction, and fire spread through my chest as my lungs screamed for air.

Above, a horrible crash hit the earth, the shockwaves pushing me this way and that with violence, Vine finally letting go of my arm. A vortex sucked me in, and I spun so quickly I couldn’t make sense of anything. My head pounded, my vision growing blurry.

The castle. It must’ve landed. Shite.

And that was the last thought I had before everything went dark.

CHAPTER 1

Enid, Two Years Later

I stalked through the streets of Fairwitch Isle, Vine slithering by my side. Townspeople jumped out of the way as I walked toward the bright white castle that sat in the middle of the town. A blight on my bog ever since it arrived. Ever since this entire town arrived. I almost wished I’d died two years ago, that I hadn’t survived and suddenly been forced to be part of this stupid community.

Not that I was part of it.

“Hey!” the butcher yelled as Vine snatched a chicken foot from a table where the butcher was chopping bones and meat with his cleaver. Vine threw the clawed foot up in the air, its mouth opening big as it swallowed it whole.

“You feed those feet to the pigs anyway,” I said. “Why can’t Vine have it?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Because my pigs aren’t an abomination!”

And there it was. The reason everyone hated me. The reason everyone had always hated me. I hissed at the man, and he shrank back.

I continued on my way, chin raised.

“Enid.” Ceri appeared by my side, her curly blond hair brushing her shoulders, bouncing with vibrance. She set her bright green eyes on me. “Could you maybe ask your bog to stop splashing on my dresses?” She gestured to her bright yellow dress that molded to her wide hips and large bust. White buttons went up the middle. It reminded me of sunshine. I hated sunshine.

Green splotches covered the bottom of the skirt.