Alice sinks her teeth into her lower lip, and when I see her hesitating, I continue, desperate to get my point across.
“I thought I was protecting you, Alice. What I didn’t know at the time was that Willow was making her own deal with the white witches behind my back. They were never supposed to come to the ballroom. The sealing spell was supposed to take place in a private setting, with healers present to keep you safe and to numb the pain. But Willow had staged everything, and by the time I found out, it was too late. You’ve held me responsible for what happened to you, and in a way, I am. But what was done to you was through Willow’s manipulations, and if I had stepped in, Alice, the coven would have taken you away and done God knows what to you. It would have been a fate worse than de
