The Darkness Within by Kelly Hashway

her eyes. “Rebecca and I recognized the magic in Ben and Dylan right away. And Nora recognized the magic in Dylan, too. She saw the darkness in him. She was attracted to it.”
    “Don’t tell me they dated.” That would just be too weird.
    “No. Nothing like that. She was only after his magic—well, more like finding out how he’d tapped into dark magic. Once she got what she wanted, by totally tricking him, she backed off. Lost interest. Dylan was a little hurt at first, but then…”
    “What?” She couldn’t get the words out quickly enough for me. I wanted all the information, like, yesterday.
    “He started talking about Mindy a lot.”
    “Mindy? Was that Ben’s girlfriend?”
    “Yup. She was a redhead with long legs and boobs I would’ve killed for.”
    I gave her a look. This wasn’t the time for jealousy. Besides, the girl was dead.
    “Dylan obviously had a thing for her, but Ben never caught on. He was oblivious. I had my suspicions that Dylan used a spell on Ben to make sure he didn’t notice. I never proved it, though, so I can’t be sure. Still, everyone seemed to know. And Mindy led Dylan on. She liked his attention. Ben was running the coven. It had been his idea to form it in the first place. He was busy a lot, and that left plenty of time for Dylan and Mindy to get close.”
    “How close?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear this, but if it helped me understand what Dylan had done and why, then I had to force myself to listen.
    “I’m pretty sure they were sleeping together.”
    Oh, yuck! Dylan had sex with the same girl his brother was sleeping with? “That’s so messed up!”
    “I know. I wanted to tell Ben, mostly so he’d dump Mindy and pay more attention to me.” That was Shannon, totally not shy about her intentions, even when they were completely selfish.
    “But you didn’t?”
    “No.” She looked away again. “I should’ve. Maybe it would’ve stopped Dylan. But knowing him, it probably would’ve made things worse. And it might have been me he came after instead.”
    “Came after? What are you talking about? Did he kill Mindy on purpose?” My stomach lurched again.
    Shannon shrugged. “I can’t say for sure, but I do know Mindy told Dylan she wasn’t breaking up with Ben. She said the thing between her and Dylan was just for fun, nothing more. He pretended to be okay with it at first, but he was falling for her pretty hard. Finally, he told her to choose between them. So she did.”
    “And he killed her for it?”
    “I don’t know. I guess that’s what happened.”
    “What do you mean, you guess ? I thought you knew this story!” Had she really put me through this without knowing what had happened?
    “I know the next day Ben found Mindy’s body. She was in her apartment, in the bathtub.”
    “How did she die?”
    “Her heart stopped, or something stopped her heart.”
    “Was it magic? Was it Dylan? He told me he killed her, but maybeshe had heart problems. Maybe she had a heart attack. We can’t be sure.”
    “I can.” The curtain opened. Dylan stared down at us. My eyes immediately flew to Nurse Wentworth. She was oblivious to Dylan, too. He’d put a bubble spell on himself. The only reason why we could see and hear him was because we were witches, too.
    “Did you do a locator spell to find us?” Shannon looked pissed.
    “Oh what, you’re the only one who can use spells to sneak up on people and spy on their conversations?”
    He had a point there. I couldn’t believe our happy little coven had been reduced to this. Lies, secrets, and snooping. What happened to the group spells and the good times?
    “I knew you’d run right to Shannon.” Dylan glared at me. “I shouldn’t have run out on you like that. I should’ve explained things myself, but you were getting under my skin with all your questions and the way you stuck up for Ethan.”
    “Of course she’s going to stick up for Ethan.” Shannon stood up, getting in Dylan’s face. “She