Page 93 of An Oath at Midnight

“I promise, we’re not here to hurt you,” I said a third time, because she still looked terrified. “I’m trying to clear my sister’s name. She didn’t do the things people are saying. Someone’s hurting your friends, and I know it’s not her. The real killer is out there, and I want to find them and stop them.” I kept my hands out at my sides. “Will you answer my questions?”

She took several shaky steps away from Bram, and her expression changed from fear to disbelief. “This is so weird, and intrusive…you know that, right?”

I did. “I’m sorry we scared you, but this is important.”

Maria crossed her arms. “You really are just like her, aren’t you? Just as self-righteous and self-important as your sister. You think you can just come here like this? That even if it isn’t your sister butchering my friends, which it is, that you have the skills to find the killer when the witches council hasn’t been able to? The arrogance of your family is astounding.”

She seemed to have gotten over her fear quickly. I bit back what I wanted to say because that wouldn’t help right then. “Has Chase’s condition improved?”

“That’s none of your business,” she bit out.

“Do you have any enemies? Can you think of anyone who’d want to hurt you or your friends?”

The outrage left her eyes and was replaced with a look that sent a shiver down my spine. “Yes, your psycho sister.”

My fingers curled into a fist, and I had to work really hard at controlling my anger. “Why would Willow want to hurt you, Maria? You’ve had literally nothing to do with each other.”

“There’s no one else. And your sister has had it in for us since high school. She’s hell-bent on sabotaging all of us.”

I was starting to think this was a complete waste of time. “You went away to school. She doesn’t know you. And why on earth would she risk everything to go on a killing spree targeting your friends?”

Maria planted her hands on her thin hips. “She wrote that awful piece for the high school newspaper her senior year, showing everyone how spiteful and jealous of us she was, and no, I wasn’t at the same high school as her, but her attack on my friends was spiteful and cruel. She’s held on to that grudge all these years, going out of her way to mess with them. I mean, she set her attack mutt on Isaac’s brother! She got her mate to kill for her. How can you be so blind?”

“That was self-defense. Elmer tried to kill her. I was there, Warrick did what he had to.”

Maria shrugged. “That’s what she wanted you to see. What she wanted everyone to see. Maybe she made him attack her? Did you ever think of that? Maybe she hexed him somehow so her mate would kill him? All I know is your sister hates us, and she’s made it her life’s mission to hurt us at every turn.”

She was delusional. “She never talks about any of you, Maria. She doesn’t waste time thinking about you, any of you. You said she was holding on to a grudge? Are you saying the article she wrote was some kind of retaliation?”

She colored. “There was this…harmless prank, and she got all bent out of shape.”

“What prank?”

She jerked her chin up. “Just kids’ stuff. Peroxide in her shampoo.”

I remembered that. Willow’s hair had ended up with green streaks through it. She’d been allergic to peroxide as well, and she’d been covered in an awful rash. She’d never said what happened, and I assumed she’d tried to dye it herself. I was still pretty young, so no one filled me in on the facts. No wonder Wills wanted revenge back then.

“What your friends did was shitty, but I know my sister and she wouldn’t go on a killing spree over something like that, something that happened so long ago. And why now? Why all of a sudden would she come after you and your friends? You have to see how insane that is.”

“If she doesn’t care about us or what we do, then why did she stop us from buying the property we wanted? She could move her store anywhere, but no. Instead, she rejected our generous offer, then made sure everyone else on the street rejected our offers as well.”

“She was protecting her store and the others around her.” Wills knew everyone on that street. We all did. The other stores were mainly owned by witches or shifters, and they knew what happened during Willow’s trial. One look at Isaac’s name and they would have shut him down even without her saying a thing. “She has friends there. Loyal ones. They wouldn’t want Isaac there any more than Willow would.”

“You think you know your sister, the Keeper, the big deal, but you don’t. Isaac was kicked out of an…an exclusive club because of your sister, without explanation, I might add.” Her hands shook, her eyes filling with fury. “That was Willow’s doing as well.”

She was talking about Red, it had to be. “I’d say that probably had more to do with Isaac being a dick than Willow stepping in.” I was seriously starting to lose my patience with this nonsense.

“Wrong, Isaac did some digging. Your sister is a friend of the owner—”

“That doesn’t mean she had anything to do with him being kicked out.”

Her face colored again, with anger this time. “Isaac just wants your awful family to leave him alone, but Willow won’t stop. And then there was all the stuff during Iris’s task as well. We just want her to leave us alone.” A tear streaked down her face. “No, she killed our friends, and she won’t stop until we’re all dead.”

I ground my molars. Maybe I was just a horrible person, but I was struggling to find sympathy for her. “You’re wrong.”

Her eyes flashed. “She has all this power, and she lords it over everyone. She’s selfish and conceited.”

What the actual hell was she talking about? “You don’t even know her.”