When I woke up, I felt like I was floating.

The sensation didn't last very long, though. As soon as I felt the rope burning my wrists and the pain shooting through my head, it was more like I was falling. The feeling only became intensified as I saw Calum with his hands on the steering wheel next to me and I remembered everything that had happened.

Infinite amounts of trees shot past me, but I couldn't distinguish where one ended and another began. We were going too fast for that.

"You know, knocking me out wasn't necessary. I was going to give myself over to Matt anyway," I croaked, pressing my head to the cold glass of the window in the hopes it would dull my aching head. All it did was send another jolt of fear through my body, awaking me from a numbness that I didn't know I had.

"I know." Calum glanced at me from the corner of his eye, a crooked smirk painted on his lips. And to think that those were the same lips that I had trusted when words had slipped through them so effortlessly before. "But it was fun."

I tried to scoff, but the noise got stuck in my throat and it sounded more like I was being strangled. "You're a better actor than Ashton. You would deserve an award if you weren't such a two-faced liar."

"Ashton and I aren't the same. He was naïve. I know exactly what I'm doing."

I wasn't particularly upset anymore, even after the almost friendship I had shared with Calum. I just wanted it to be over, and soon it would be. Even if I was about to die, at least the others would be safe.

"So why did you need Ashton to do your dirty work if you knew exactly what you was doing?" I could taste something metallic on the tip of my tongue, and I wondered if I had been biting my cheek subconsciously.

"He was just a distraction for you and the others. Plus, we knew he would tell you about us anyway, so we thought he'd distract you from the truth." He almost sounded proud of himself for outwitting us, and I found it sad. People like him were bound to end up alone, even more so than people like me. It was funny how similar I had thought I was to Calum. Now, it seemed laughable that the thought had ever crossed my mind.

"Very clever," I praised, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "You really do have it all figured out, don't you?"

"You haven't even heard the best part yet."

Something about the way his eyes glinted told me that I didn't want to. Still, I couldn't regret my decision to sneak out in the middle of the night. I wondered how Ashton would react once he realised I had gone, but picturing him running his hands through his floppy hair in panic sent my heart plummeting into my stomach, so I forced myself to focus on the green and brown colours fusing together as if they belonged to one another instead.

I was still staring out of the window when we arrived back in Heatherly.

*

I was back in the basement of the old warehouse, only this time I had no plans to escape. Still, the tight rope bound my wrists together and they had shoved me in the darkest corner of the concrete room.

Matt, Josh and Calum were discussing something in front of the fire, and I shuddered as I remembered the first time I had been here, replacing the image of Calum with Ashton. I could still remember the feeling of betrayal as his silhouette had faded and his green eyes had seared through me.

Josh's piercing blue eyes suddenly landed on me, and automatically his smirk grew.

"Tell me, Lilah. How is mother dearest?" He sounded as if he was mocking me, but beneath his dark humour I could hear something more: something that sounded an awful lot like a bitter kind of anger.

His words did not make sense in my head and I frowned. What did my mother have to do with this?

He chuckled at my confusion, inching closer to me each second, until he was crouched in front of me. His angular face was threatening, and I could tell that he was the leader of this coven. My heart hammered against my chest at his close proximity. "Let me guess. She didn't tell you that you have a brother, did she?"

"What are you talking about?" I stammered, forcing myself to look at the boy in front of me.

"Your innocence melts my heart, it really does." He ran a long finger along my jaw. I imagined it cutting through my skin as he did so, blood oozing from the wound. It wouldn't have surprised me if this was really the case. His fingers were sharp and ice cold. "It's such a shame I'm going to have to take that away from you. You see, your—or rather, our—mother hasn't been very honest with either of us."

"What?" My voice was hoarse with fear. I couldn't tell if this was some sort of game or if it was real. The word 'our' echoed in my brain over and over again, causing another sharp pain to sear through my head.

"It seems that she has been hiding a very deep, very dark, secret from us: one that affects us both."

"Will you just tell me what the hell you're talking about? I'm not playing your stupid games," I spat in frustration.

"You were right," he shouted to the others behind him. "She is a feisty one."

Calum chuckled while Matt simply stared attentively. He was just as interested as I was to find out whatever it was that Josh was trying to tell me.

"Alright, you want the truth?"

I nodded hesitantly, raising my eyebrows.

"Your mother is a dark and powerful witch, and it just so happens that the two of us are too."

I would have laughed, but the skin from my wrists felt as if it was tearing off piece by piece, and my head was still pounding from whatever it was that Calum had hit me with. "And how did you figure that?"

"Have you never wondered why she shut herself off from you for so many years?" His eyes widened as if in sympathy, but of course it was all just a part of his act. "Of course you did. The question must have tortured you every day. A child with withdrawn parents always wonders the reason behind their indifference."

"And what would you know about that?" My throat was heavy, filled with an uncomfortable lump that couldn't be swallowed.

"A lot more than you think," he responded. "At least she kept you, though. She shipped me off to the first person she could find."

"Is that why you're doing this? Because you have mummy problems?"

His fist flew to the wall beside me, the crack of the plaster loud in my sensitive ears. "I'm doing this because our mother lied to us both. You have a lot more power than you think, and I want every last drop of it."

I shook my head in despair. "You're crazy."

"And you're completely ignorant to anything that you don't want to hear. I was born three years before you. Your mother gave me away. She knew as soon as she gave birth to me that I had inherited her dark magic and wanted to get rid of me. And she did."

"That's not possible," I rejected instantly. "We look nothing alike."

It was true; his hair was blonde, almost white, while mine was as dark as the night sky. Surely two siblings couldn't look the complete opposite.

"We have the same eyes, don't we?"

I looked again at his eyes, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach as I realised that he was right. Our eyes, though filled with two completely different emotions, were almost identical. They were the colour of an iced over lake in the winter; a mixture between blue and grey, though where mine were surrounded by dark eye-liner, his were surrounded by white eyelashes. If someone was to compare only our eyes, they would think they were exactly the same pair, just adjusted slightly.

But that didn't mean anything. Luke also had blue eyes; that didn't mean we were siblings.

"You may not want to believe me, but we share the same blood. Whether you like it or not, I'm your brother," he continued. "And I am going to take every bit of your power."

I shivered as his fingers wrapped around my arm without warning, a coldness spreading through my veins. I was vaguely aware of someone—Calum or Matt—holding my shoulders down to stop me from escaping, but there was no need. As soon as Josh's skin had come into contact with mine, every bit of energy seemed to drain away from me.

"What are you doing?" My voice was barely comprehensible, distorted by the lack of strength in my body. "What's happening to me?"

Josh seemed far away now, though his hands were still on my arm. I was shivering uncontrollably.

If death had a face, it would be his; sinewy, angular, evil, but still beautiful.

"Get off her!" His voice was a million miles away, but it was his, and I would walk through fire to get to it, if only my lifeless body could move. Even hovering on the edge of unconsciousness, and maybe even death, I felt safer knowing he was here. I wondered if it was a trick of my imagination, but I could hear other shouts too, and I was no longer being held down by anybody but myself.

Flames were flying through the air like fireworks, and I wondered if I was hallucinating, but I could just make out that they were coming from Ashton's hands. There was more screaming.

"Lilah, I've got you." He was suddenly right in front of me, his hazel eyes clear against the chaos around him.

"Ashton," I whimpered in terror, thankful when he scooped me up into his arms carefully.

"You're safe," he whispered over and over, his hot breath falling heavily against my freezing cold skin. I remembered my teeth chattering as a sudden wave of fresh air hit me, and assumed that Ashton had gotten me out of the basement.

That was the last thing I remembered before the familiar darkness devoured my body once again. 

AN: I JUST REACHED 1K READS SHDURFU I'M SO HAPPY THANK YOU SO MUCH

DID YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER I FEEL LIKE YOU ALL HATE ME BCOS CALUM IS A TAD EVIL BUT IDK I JUST WANTED TO SHOCK YOU ALL AND I LEFT LITTLE CLUES IN THE CHAPTERS BEFORE

EJRUG I'M SCARED IDK HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS CHAPTER TELL ME PLS

WKHERUE4HRU

HDUERH

IM HYPER OKAY THANKS LOVE YOU BYE !!!