THE INTERNAL TIP-TAPPING OF NAILS AGAINST bone echoed quietly as a single thumb flitted between her teeth. Corey paced back and forth, an added anxious bounce to every step. She wasn't fond of the outcome of her meeting with Cordelia. The rest of the girls voices were a stagnant hum compared to her own nagging voice in her head as the group bickered back and forth within the four walls of the Headmistress' office.
"What good will come from killing her?" Corey pulled her hand away from her mouth to speak; the arm she kept pressed against her chest gave way slightly with the small movement. "I get the sentiment, but revenge and vengeance are two very different things, you need to understand that." Cordelia rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that afternoon. She took in a deep breath, her shoulders rising gradually as she collected her thoughts.
"Corinna," she sighed, a single hand wiping across her face in frustration. They had been having the same argument since she pulled the redhead into her office. The sun had begun to set behind her; the pinks and oranges that reflected against the white walls told the blonde how long they had been in the small room together, arguing over semantics and what-ifs. "She will carve through every member of this coven until she feels that she has eliminated the next Supreme." Cordelia leaned forward, her elbows adjusting to rest against her desk as they supported her weight.
"And then she'll use our recruiting system to find the next witch, and the witch after that, and the one after that." Her eyes were locked on the redhead who continued to move about the room frantically. She couldn't understand the girl's refusal to give Fiona a taste of her own medicine, especially after the woman had snuffed out the only light that Corey had in New Orleans. "Ending Fiona's reign of terror will save the future of the coven as we know it."
"Am I not just like her if I kill her to protect the rest of us?" Corey scoffed, her hands falling to her sides. The rest of the coven turned to face her; Nan, Queenie, Madison, Zoe. Their eyes locked on her, the majority filled with anger over the redhead's inability to fully handle the situation. "I don't want to play god."
"You already did when you brought miss thing back," Queenie spat. She folded her arms over her chest. The scowl, full of the attitude that radiated from her, embedded itself into her forehead. "The rest of us were fine with Madison being dead." She shrugged, unfazed by the gasp that left the actress' lips. Zoe muttered something inaudible under her breath and Nan's head snapped in her direction, her eyes wide. "Just say that you only care about yourself and move on." Corey closed her eyes, letting her jaw roll and fall open slightly at the girl's words. Cordelia chimed in before the redhead could defend herself.
"Losing Madison was a terrible failure, but it was my failure. I trusted my mother which, looking back, I should have never done." She leaned away from her desk, her shoulders squared as she sat up taller. Her focus shifted from Corey to Queenie, the silent threat in her eyes all that she needed in order to keep the young witch quiet.
"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Zoe chirped. The sarcasm oozed from her small frame almost as effortlessly as if the words had come from Madison herself. It was shocking, how close the three witches had become in the time that the blonde had been back.
The actress side-eyed the brunette, though it was more in fondness than distaste, as she gave the girl a small smirk of approval. She was enjoying how quickly Zoe was speaking without thinking instead of keeping her words to herself. It made for entertaining banter between the trio and an occasional euphoric thrill for the brunette; she wasn't one to speak her mind and had generally kept to herself before her introduction to the coven.
"Madison is back thanks to Corinna. If it hadn't been for her persistence, we'd still be missing a member of our family, whether you girls would like to admit it or not." Cordelia's attention returned to Corey, having chosen to ignore the comment from the other witch in order to further the topic of the previous conversation. "Which brings us back to our battle plan, starting with killing Fiona. We can't afford to wait."
A light knock echoed through the hallway; it grabbed the redhead's attention for a moment, pulling her from the tunnel-vision that the nagging voice in the back of her head had created. She thought about stepping away and finding the source of the noise but decided against it. She needed to be with the girls, to figure out how to end Fiona's tyranny once and for all. Spalding would take care of whoever was at the door; he always did.
"I should be the one. I want to slit her throat." Madison's voice was filled with an unusual venom. There was a glossy, dark anger in her eyes that the rest of the coven hadn't seen in the other girl before. Corey knew the look in Madison's eyes very well, however. She'd seen it time and time again when the actress felt like she had been wronged, or that there was something that she should have been able to handle on her own that she couldn't, or when information spilled that they just couldn't cover up.
The blonde had channeled all of her emotions over the news that had leaked across social-media into her distaste for the reigning Supreme. She wanted Fiona dead, and she wanted to be the one to make sure it was done the right way. She would love nothing more than to eliminate the embodiment of her hatred and fears, though she would never voice the true reason for wanting to do so. Instead, she would let the others assume she only wanted revenge for her own death and not the death of the persona she once thought she had so much control over.
"No, Maddie." The redhead's shoulders fell as she watched the anger bubble up in the small blonde. It was almost second nature, for the girl to hold in her emotions and redirect them to something that would seem more important to her in the heat of the moment. "She can't know that you're back. We need to do this the right way and call the council. It's the only way we can be above her in the end." Corey leaned against the small tea caddy that stood in the corner of Cordelia's office. The glasses clattered behind her with the shift in weight. She crossed her arms over her chest, a defensive stature taking over as all eyes fixated on her once more.
"But they didn't help us last time!" Nan leaned forward in her chair as her words squeaked out. The melodic chime of the doorbell echoed through the halls; it caused a wave of frustration to wash over the Headmistress as she watched the situation in front of her unfold.
"Yes, but now we have more proof than just my own word against hers. There are three witches in this room who can attest to Madison's death." Corey's eyes flicked between Zoe and Madison briefly as she spoke. "Zoe helped me find her. She also helped me bring her back. If we work together, Fiona doesn't stand a chance. There are more of us than there are of her. All we have to do is find out how we can get Spalding to talk."
"He's fucking mute, how do you expect to do that?" Queenie's head tilted upward as she let out a laugh. She knew that the musician was slowly uncoiling but she hadn't ever thought that the girl had completely lost her mind until now. Again, Cordelia interrupted the group before it could devolve into chaos.
"We have one shot at this. This plan has to be flawless, otherwise it's a suicide mission." She stood from her chair, her palms planted firmly against her desk. She leaned forward, all of her focus on Corey as she raised a single brow. "How do you want to do this?"
Like the incessant chime of a cuckoo clock, the pounding on the front door returned. Corey furrowed her brow, her head snapping in the direction of the open office door. Where the fuck is Spalding? she thought, her curiosity getting the best of her as her feet slowly led her to the open door. She leaned against the doorframe, hearing the doorbell ring out once again.
"Fucking hell, will someone answer the door already?" Madison threw her head back in a groan, vocalizing her frustrations over both the meeting with the coven and the never ending interruption down the hall.
"I'll get it," Corey mumbled. Her focus was already pulling her out of the room as she spoke. The further she moved away, the more that the noise from the small office became background droning that eventually transitioned into silence; the symphonic eruption of battling voices grew distant as the witches argued over what should be done about Fiona.
With each step she took, Corey felt a familiar pull; an invisible rope tugging her to her destination in silence. Usually she moved with an air of confidence, or endearment, or determination, or— dare she say— longing. This time, however, every step she took rippled out of her with a sense of dread, or fear, or unease as the suspense continued to build up exponentially with each shaky inch forward.
Corey's hand hovered over the doorknob for a moment as she slowed to a stop. Her eyes shifted in and out of focus as she stared at the shadow that swayed back and forth on the other side of the door. She couldn't get the best glimpse of the figure— it moved too briskly, as though whoever was waiting on the other side was anxious themselves— before the doorbell rang once more. The sudden loud, echoing chime caused her to jump slightly, the involuntary movement accompanied by a light gasp. She cleared her throat, shaking off the uneasy feeling that plagued her, as she pulled the door open.
"Misty?" She was taken aback, seemingly frozen in time, as she stared at the woman that had grown impatient on the other side of the door. Corey's eyes focused on the bare mud-covered feet that shifted back and forth before her. She blinked back her confusion as the witch pushed herself inside the doorway, a loud thump-thump-thump following each step that she took.
"Can I still take that offer?" The blonde let a hand fly up into her wild hair. She gripped a handful of her straw locks briefly before returning both hands to her waist. Corey thought, for only a moment, that her copper curls would look just as large and unkempt if she was in the other girl's shoes. "The one bout stay'n here?" Misty's hands took turns wringing around her wrists anxiously as she shifted her weight back and forth. Her eyes scanned the inner walls of the academy. When she had last walked through, everything had been dark and dim. She hadn't had a chance to take in all the little details that now caught her attention.
"Wh— yeah. Yeah, of course," Corey's brow furrowed as she closed the door behind her. Her head tilted slightly as she tried to understand what was going on. "Is everything alright? The last time you were here you seemed pretty adamant about being out on your own."
"I had some time to be think'n bout it," she nodded, the backwoods cajun drawl seeping from the corners of her lips. "And maybe it is safer here." Misty shrugged, her head bobbing up and down in a nod. "Safer than the hunters stomp'n through my gard'n, set'n those painful traps cross my lil' haven'n the swamp." The clicking of heels caught her attention mid-sentence. She turned her head, her eyes landing on the group that had migrated towards the front door.
"Who's there?" Cordelia's voice carried itself across the hallway, her tone authoritative and confident and she stood tall. She held her hands in front of her as the rest of the girls collected themselves behind her. Corey looked between Misty and Cordelia for a moment. Something in their eyes shifted as they focused on each other and Misty seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Cordelia," she started. The redhead stepped forward, placing a reassuring hand against the small of Misty's back. "This is Misty Day." The realization washed over the Headmistress in an instant. Her shoulders relaxed as she hurried towards the two witches who continued to hover near the front door. "I offered her a clean bed and a warm meal when she helped us bring Madison back." Cordelia seemed to shut out the other girl's words, her focus fixated on the swamp witch that stood before her.
"You were set on fire and left for dead," her eyes scanned the blonde, taking in every little detail. Corey took a step back, feeling uncomfortable as though she was interrupting a moment that was more intimate than a first meeting. Her eyes landed on Madison as the two witches continued to hover around each other.
'What the fuck,' the blonde mouthed, her eyes wide.
'I have no idea,' Corey responded, her brows raised in a mixture of shock and confusion. She shuffled away from the Headmistress and the swamp witch, finding that a spot near the rest of the coven was a more comfortable viewing point for the situation that unfolded before them.
"Whatever troubles you had, they're ours now," Cordelia's voice was once again loud enough for the rest of the group to hear as she found herself lightly taking both of Misty's wrists in her hands. "You're under the protection of this coven. This is your home."
"They're kinda cute," Madison whispered, leaning into Corey's side as she shuffled back amongst the rest of the group. The redhead held in her laugh, instead choosing to wrap her arm around the actress' waist. The group stood together feeling whole for the first time, as though this was where they had belonged all along.