He chuckled as he touched her arm again. “I know you better than anyone, and I knew I couldn’t make you accept something before you were ready. You had to come around to it in your own time and your own way; I had faith you would.”
Avery moved her arm away from him as she turned to look at the ocean again. “You should have warned me about Regan.”
“Yes, I realize that now, but I was hoping we were wrong and it wouldn’t be you and your coven that he came for. None of us knew what to do about him.”
“So you left us at his mercy with no warning? That was better?”
“Avery, I’m sorry.”
Rage and frustration boiled through her as her hands clamped on the chair. “We were completely unprepared for him. I didn’t know how to use my powers, or how much I possessed. Not only did he almost kill us, but he almost turned me evil. He used my ignorance against me, and all along you could have told me about his existence!” She thrust a finger at the house. “Their parents could have told them. You’re all cowards!”
Looking as if she’d slapped him, he recoiled in the chair. “You never would have gone with him; you are not Celia.”
Avery rose to her feet. “Regan made sure her powers lived within me, and he connected me to him when he did so. I hate him, yet there is an undeniable bond between us.”
“Avery—”
“Did you know that, unlike the others, I don’t drain and my power only becomes stronger?”
“That’s not possible,” he whispered.
“It is possible,” Reid said.
Avery hadn’t heard the glass doors slide open, but she turned to discover that everyone had come outside to stand on the porch. “How long have you been there?” she asked.
“Long enough to know the truth,” Landon answered.
“You all knew about Regan?” Alex asked Avery’s dad.
“Yes,” he answered tiredly. “We all knew.”
Rosie planted her hands on her hips as she glowered at him. “How could you not tell us?”
“We made a mistake,” her dad whispered. “We thought we had more time. We never expected him to come for you while you were still so young, but we were starting to prepare you for him; that’s part of the reason your mother was taking you for the summer, Avery. We planned to give you the missing pages once you were all eighteen, but we wanted all of you to enjoy as much of your childhood as you could before having to shoulder this burden.”
“That’s not good enough!” Reid spat. “He could have killed us.”
Her dad lowered his head into his hands as he slumped forward. A flicker of sympathy went through Avery before she buried it; he, along with the rest of their parents, had betrayed them all.
“How do we stop him?” Avery didn’t recognize the steely tone of her voice.
“I don’t know,” her dad said.
“Do you know anything?” Sandra asked.
“Not much, not about Regan.”
“There’s the binding spell,” Rosie said. “We saw how it’s done, and we can perform it again if we can draw his spirit forth.”
“Then we lose our powers too,” Mario said.
“It’s worth it.”
“No, it’s not,” Avery interjected. “The spell would only last another hundred years, and he would come back. What if he wins next time?”
“He could still win now,” Karen murmured.
“No, he can’t,” Sandra stated. “There are ten of us against him. Plus, we have Avery who’s like ten witches in one. We’re much stronger than that coven was; we can beat him.”
Avery had never expected Sandra to side with her, but Sandra’s emerald eyes shone with resolve when they met Avery’s. “Thank you,” Avery said.
Sandra tossed back her hair. “I am not going to lose my powers because of that creep.”
Avery grinned at her before turning to the others. They already looked beaten, and they still had a big battle ahead of them.
“So, what do we do?” Isla asked.
“There has to be a way to bind his powers without losing ours,” Shawn said.
“We’ve got the Books of Shadows at our houses. Something in one of them could help us. Although, it would have been nice if someone had given us the pages about Regan.” Landon’s pointed gaze landed on Avery’s dad.
“I have the missing pages from Avery’s Books here; your parents will have the rest,” he said.
“We’ll start with those pages,” Reid said. “And we’ll go get the rest from our parents.”
“We’re coming with you,” Tina said.
Tina’s eyes shone with determination when they met Avery’s. Avery had kept her promise and informed her of everything. Tina wasn’t surprised by the revelation, but after everything she’d witnessed, Avery didn’t think anything could surprise her anymore.
“I think it would be better if you stayed here,” Avery told her.
Tina’s hands fisted. “You made me leave that nightmare place, but I’m not leaving you again.”
Lila and Karen looked just as determined. “Fine,” Avery relented, “but we should leave soon.”
CHAPTER 40
Sitting on Landon’s window seat, Avery stared at the pages before her. Her vision was blurry, and her head ached from hours of reading, but she refused to give in until they found something useful.
They’d retrieved all the missing pages from their parents, and though they’d all been as sorry as her father, there had been more angry words than forgiving ones. Forgiveness would come with time, she knew, but their wounds, terror, and sense of betrayal were still too fresh for it to happen now.
She lifted her head from the small, cramped writing and rubbed her eyes while she gazed at the others. Rosie, Eric, Mario, Shawn, Tina, Lila, Karen, Isla, and Alex were sound asleep on the blankets and sleeping bags scattered across the floor. Tina and Mario’s soft snores and the turning of the pages were the only sounds in the room.
If anything good had come from their encounter with Regan, it was that he’d made them all closer and she no longer had to keep any secrets from her friends. There were no lines between the coven members anymore; it was them versus him now.
Avery turned her attention back to the missing pages from the Books of Shadows laid out before her. Yellowed with age, the pungent odor of mildew rose from the paper. Every page mentioned Regan or a man who could only have been Regan.
Over the centuries recorded in the Books, Regan had shown up at least every fifty to seventy-five years to wreak havoc on their ancestors. After what he told her about knowing all her ancestors, Avery was sure he’d been around more often too and from the very beginning.
Every time he arrived, he managed to turn at least one member of the coven, if not more, to his side; the majority of them came from her side of the family. However, every member of the coven could count at least five relatives that Regan turned.
“Our powers are passed through our blood?” Avery asked as she traced a line on her family tree.
“Yeah,” Landon answered around a yawn.
“It’s like Regan was manipulating the others over the years into creating Celia and that coven.”
“I think he was,” Reid said, “and we’ve become their duplicates—except we’re stronger than they were.”
“Which means he’ll want us even more,” Sandra said.
They were both right, and the more they went through the missing pages, the clearer it became there might be nothing they could do to stop him. The notations about Regan revealed little; even the ones from Celia’s coven told them almost nothing. They hadn’t known what he was, or where he came from. He simply appeared on the night of Celia’s eighteenth birthday.
It wasn’t until a week later, when she joined him, that the coven realized he was evil. They had no time to research who or what he was before Marjorie went with him too. At that point, they became more concerned about stopping him than trying to uncover where he came from or what he was.
None of their other ancestors knew much about him either. Those earlier covens had done nothing to get rid of Regan; he’d just vanished, and Avery assumed it was after he accomplished his mission with them. And she suspected that mission was to turn them to black magic, make them stronger, and have them pass that strength on to their children until he created Celia… and now her.
“He’s mentioned here,” Landon said.
“What does it say?” Reid asked from where he sat beside Avery.
Landon’s gaze locked on Avery. “It’s about another one of your ancestors.”
A knot formed in Avery’s stomach. It usually is. “Let’s hear it.”
“It says Brenna has joined the man who came from the night.”
“That’s all it says?” Avery demanded.
Landon’s eyes scanned the pages as she flipped through them. “No. Five months later, Brenna had a son with her husband Peter, who was another member of the coven. Peter wasn’t turned, and shortly after their child’s birth, they both died from influenza. Brenna’s sister raised the child. There is no mention of Regan after he turned Brenna.”
“Why would he do all of this?” Avery asked.
“I don’t know,” Landon said. “Only Regan would know the answer to that, but I think he planned to use Celia’s coven and now ours to help him take over this world. He’s not happy with his Nightmare realm and wants more.”
The room became so quiet that the tick of the clock on the wall sounded like gunshots.
“He did it to my family the most,” Avery said after a few minutes and glanced at Sandra. Although they were cousins, the taint of Regan was mostly on Avery’s dad’s side of the family. Swallowing nervously, Avery asked the question she’d been dreading. “Does this mean I’m evil?”
“No,” Landon said. “From what we’ve read, your family line has always been the strongest, and it seems Regan wanted the extra power they would possess when he turned them.”
“Whatever happened to turn them was Regan’s doing, not theirs,” Sandra said.
Avery gave them a grateful smile, but she wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t the same as the others, and they all knew it. No matter what reassurances they offered, they had to harbor doubts about her. How could they not?
“Regan used his power to try to get me to join him, why didn’t he do it to other members of the coven while he had us in that place?” Avery asked.
“Because he needs you the most,” Reid said. “As powerful as he is, he’s not all-powerful. Otherwise he wouldn’t need you to help him return to Earth. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, he’s probably weakening himself every time he uses his power on you. If he started using it on other members of the coven too, it would only weaken him further, and it still wouldn’t get him what he wanted.”
“Me,” Avery said.
“Exactly. Regan threatened to keep you there so you would play the game, but he’d never allow you to die.”
“If we don’t find a way to stop him, things are going to get so much worse,” Avery said.
“While he remains a spirit, we’ll be safe on our plane,” Landon said.
“No more séances,” Sandra said, “or anything else that could allow him to cross over to our world or us into his.”
“If he’s a spirit now, and trapped in his realm, how could I possibly help him to have a mortal form again?” Avery asked.
“There are many… mysteries in this world,” Landon said around a yawn, “but I’m sure Regan knows a way. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let his mortal form perish in that cave-in. He would have despised living powerless on Earth, but he would have done it if he hadn’t known there was a way for him to reclaim his corporeal form.”
Avery dropped her head into her hands and rubbed at her temples. He may not have been able to get her to join him as he’d anticipated, but if he started maiming or killing her friends, she would have no choice—unless they found another way to stop him, which wasn’t happening.
“This is useless,” Sandra said as she set some of the torn pages aside.
“No, it’s not,” Landon said.
“Can we make a spell to stop him?” Avery inquired.
Landon sighed. “We can try, but we’ll have to do more research to figure out everything we’ll need. We can’t risk anything going wrong.”
Avery rubbed at her blurry eyes before she looked at the ornate wooden clock on Landon’s wall; it was five thirty in the morning. She hadn’t slept in over a day, and she was too tired to do this anymore.
“We should get some sleep,” she said.
“I agree,” Reid said.
He stood and stretched his back before turning to face her with his hand extended. When she clasped it, he helped her rise. Sitting for so long had stiffened her muscles, and she stifled a groan as she leaned against Reid’s side. He supported her with an arm around her waist.
“Good night, ladies,” Reid said before leading her around the sleepers.
Mario snorted and rolled over. Avery stifled a laugh as he mumbled something and buried his head beneath his blanket.
“Have fun,” Sandra purred.
Avery paused at the door and turned to look at her cousin. “Sandra—”
“You’re not Celia, and I’m not Marjorie,” Sandra said.
Avery smiled; her cousin had read her mind. “No, we’re not,” she agreed before following Reid down the hall to his room.
He opened the door and waited for her to enter before stepping inside, closing the door, and clicking on the light switch. Avery gazed at the gray walls covered in photos of the ocean, lighthouses, birds, the beach, Reid’s family, and the coven. Stunning, most of the images were in black and white, which made the colored ones mixed in with them stand out even more.
Against the far wall was an oak dresser, and a small gray chair sat beside the large bed. To her left, an open doorway revealed a small bathroom. Three cameras hung from a coat rack next to the door, and two more sat on top of Reid’s dresser.
“Did you take all these pictures?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said as he tossed clothes from the bed to the chair.
“They’re amazing,” she said as she walked around the room, feeling completely out of place. She’d never been alone in a boy’s room before, never mind Reid’s room.
“Thank you.”
“What about your parents?” she asked as she continued to examine the photos. “I’m sure they wouldn’t want me in here.”
“I’ll deal with them if it becomes an issue, but they’re sleeping now.”
She turned to find him staring at her with a look that made her toes curl. “Reid—”
“I just want to hold you,” he said as he walked toward her. “I almost lost you today, and I need to know you’re here, with me.”
A lump formed in her throat as tears burned her eyes. “Oh, Reid, you say that now, but you don’t know everything I did.”
He froze when he was only a few feet away from her. Before he could speak, Avery blurted out the whole horrible incident in the blue room with Regan. Shame colored her face, and she ducked her head.
“I don’t understand his hold over me, but I can’t deny he has this way of getting in my head…” Her voice trailed off as she recalled Regan’s hideous effect on her. “It doesn’t matter because I did those things; I reacted to him and allowed him to get close to me even after I swore I wouldn’t.”
She wanted to look at him, but she couldn’t. She hadn’t realized he moved until his hand cupped her cheek and he lifted her head. His silver eyes swirled with doubt when they met hers, but the understanding in them caused her tears to fall.
“What I did was horrible. I forgot about you, the coven, my friends, and—”
“Avery, stop,” he said as his thumb traced her bottom lip and his eyes held hers. “If Regan hadn’t been using his powers on you, would you have done those things?”
“No!” she cried. “I hate him and the way he manipulates me. I hate that he’s
able to wield so much power over me. I want to be with you; I care about you, yet he makes me forget that.”
Reid smiled at her before kissing her forehead. “I care about you too,” he whispered. “You’re blaming yourself, but it’s Regan who’s creating this uncertainty in you and making you do things you normally wouldn’t.”
“Can you…” Her voice broke, and it took her a few seconds to speak again. “Can you forgive me?”
“I already have; you need to forgive yourself.”
She lifted her head to gaze at him. His image wavered through the tears in her eyes, but her heart swelled with what she realized was love for him. Even with all of Regan’s manipulations, he could never make her feel the way Reid did, and he could never compete with the goodness inside this man.
Though she’d taken a shower and changed before leaving her house, she still felt dirty from Regan’s touch, but she didn’t stop Reid from drawing her into his arms.
“We’re going to beat him, Avery,” he promised as his lips ran over her temple.
She turned her face into his neck and inhaled his intoxicating scent. Lifting her head, she rested her palm against his stubble-roughened cheek before bringing his mouth down to hers. When their lips touched, his kiss sent waves of heat and love crashing through her.
However, this heat was different than what Regan aroused in her. Regan’s was a burning flash that threatened to scorch her bones and burn away her soul. Being with Reid was so right that his touch lit her from the inside, strengthened her, and made her whole.
A mesmerizing voice and hypnotic eyes didn’t coerce this kiss; love and a desperation to be closer to him fueled this one. Reid didn’t want to destroy, possess, or use her for his twisted purposes. In his arms, she didn’t feel any confusion as she knew where she belonged.
When his tongue teased her lips, her mouth opened to his, and he kissed her until her knees went weak. Power built within her and slipped out to encase them in a warm cocoon. When his power melded with hers, flashes of his life filled her mind. She saw him as a boy, holding a small kitten. Saw him and Landon as children with their hands locked together as they laughed and danced in circles. Then he was a young teen with the coven surrounding him and their hands entwined as they performed the initiation ritual.
Nightmares (The Coven, Book 1) Page 23
