“Magdalena,” my grandmother fretted. I turned sapphire blue eyes on her and watched as she exhaled deeply, releasing the fear she’d held. I dismissed her as I moved away from Lucian and Synthia, towards Kat and Dexter and the others from my coven who had awaited certain death at the hands of the dark witches we’d allowed to get close to them.
Their darkness called to mine and I smiled, holding my arms out as they rushed into them. They were my people. I’d given up my secret to save them, and I wouldn’t change it. I was born bad, with a sickness that not many could contain, but it didn’t change that I was good, too. Had I known who my father was, I could have handled it before it had driven me from town.
I was born into darkness, but so, too, was Benjamin. Unlike him, the moment it had surfaced, I’d been old enough to hide it from others, even the High Priestess. I’d stayed away from them until I knew I wasn’t a risk or danger to my coven, but I’d needed my powers awakened. I laughed as I considered what it entailed. I’d awakened to my powers on Lucian’s cock, because I hadn’t needed to be blessed by anyone; darkness doesn’t need the light. The light needed the darkness so it could see the stars and the beauty that the night held secret.
“Magdalena, not a word,” my grandmother urged as I released Kat and Dexter to be freed from the circle.
“I know the rules,” I said. I spun on my heel, facing the witches that Falcon had brought with him, the dark witches of my own coven at my back. “You can stay and fight the demons with me, or you can run and I will hunt you down and kill you. That choice is yours, only you can make it. Your leader is dead, and he was of weak bloodlines, but I am not. I am Magdalena Fitzgerald, dark witch of the Haven Crest coven, and my coven is ours to protect. Vow you will not harm them and I will allow you to live.”
“Falcon promised us power, we’re not from strong bloodlines,” one announced.
“You don’t need to be from strong bloodlines if you are dark witches. You just have to be smart enough to survive. Power comes with time, but the white witches of this coven will keep theirs. No harm is to become of them; vow it, or die.”
“You will kill us anyways,” another shouted. The others agreed.
“It is possible, but I will make you a promise that I won’t do it today. If you decide to leave, you will leave this town and never come back. If you stay, you will promise to protect the coven and in exchange, you will have food and shelter, and you won’t have to face or worry about demons as you sleep. Decide.”
I waited, not knowing if they would choose to follow me, or if the coven would even allow it. However, we’d only gained a handful of witches who could protect the coven and we needed them all.
“You won’t kill us if we remain with you?” one of the younger boys asked. He couldn’t have been any older than sixteen. He trembled and I frowned.
“I do not relish the kills, but if the need arises to protect my coven, I will not hesitate. Our laws state that we protect our own, and if that need arises,” I moved my eyes to hold my grandmother’s, “then we will do whatever it takes to protect them, no matter the cost to ourselves.”
They huddled together and we waited; once they’d decided, I exhaled and nodded. I hadn’t wanted to release the magic again. Each time I used it, it became harder and harder to push it away. It was why I’d placed the shards into my skin and tongue, blocking every point on my body that could release magic. Then I’d erased my own memories, which was probably why, when Lucian had erased it again, it had taken so long for them to come back.
I turned and faced my grandmother, bending down until I was on my knees, the others following my lead. I lifted my gaze to hold hers.
“I am yours, you are mine. I give this vow through the blood of mine. You are mine to protect, and I am yours to control. The coven shall accept us, one and all, for this darkness inside should not fight the light. In your darkest hour of need, we will arise, to fight with you by our side. I am given to you in this time of need, do you accept me as yours, to use as you need?” I waited, praying she would accept us.
“I accept, granddaughter mine. Rise darkness, and come to the light, for we have need of you at this time.”
I rose and frowned.
“What?” she asked softly.
“That was corny as shit,” I laughed nervously.
She laughed and the crowd released its breath, joining in. We’d survived the darkness, and as I searched the crowd for my mother, I paused. Tears streamed down her cheeks as Kendra glowered beside her. Her gaze remained locked on Falcon’s remains. I swallowed down the suspicions for tonight and almost jumped out of my skin as my grandmother touched my arm.
“You were not supposed to intervene,” she announced. “I am glad you disobeyed this time, but it could have turned out differently for you, granddaughter.”
“I vowed to protect the coven at all costs when I agreed to allow the ancestors to awaken my powers. We all did; I made a choice. It’s one I will have to live with.”
“You didn’t make a choice here; you revealed that dark witches can be saved. You used crystals to keep it hidden, to contain it. You have done the unthinkable, but you have also given the coven hope on this day, in our darkest hour.”
Chapter 32
Life seemed to be placed on pause as everyone scrambled for what would happen next. Days had passed since we’d embraced the darkness, and while only one person hadn’t been able to endure or contain it, the rest of us seemed to be managing it rather well. Unless you counted going insane from being locked up in Club Chaos, but that had changed yesterday. We were now patrolling our town, slowly removing the demons who lingered. It was a learning curve we were adapting to rather quickly.
We’d only encountered a few, but one pack had been at least three generations of a family who’d been turned into vile creatures, which attacked us. The blessing of dark magic was the numbness it offered, the blind rage that allowed you to kill without feeling it. That too faded with the power as it subsided. We’d buried the Grangers beside the road in shallow graves, unable to give them more as we made our way deeper into the woods.
I knew the others felt it as deeply as I had. The loss of the family, as if they’d been human. They had been inhabited, and to those of us who knew them, it felt wrong to end their lives. I slowed as the cabin came into view through the woods. My grandmother had requested we check in on the seer, but from this vantage point on the hill, the cabin looked rundown. The runes were outdated, unkempt, and broken. It looked all wrong, and even though my gut told me to leave, I couldn’t.
“She’s probably dead,” Kat pointed out as her hair blew in the wind howling through the valley. I hated to admit it, but she was probably right.
“We still have to be sure,” I mused as I continued to survey the decrepit cabin. Parts of the roof were missing, along with the windows that now littered the ground in glittering shards of glass. The door was cracked open, and no sound flowed from within. I frowned as I turned and nodded to the others as we started forward. “I want five of you outside on each side of the cabin. Every entry point gets two guards. If you see anything out of the ordinary, turn dark. My gut says there’s something wrong with this place.”
“It’s all fucking wrong,” Dexter agreed as he shivered and slipped his fingers through Kat’s before letting them drop. I smirked, knowing they’d shacked up finally. Of course, they were trying to keep it hidden, all things considered.
I stopped at the door, and let the magic from within slither over my skin. Dark magic slinked and crawled in, warming over the uppermost layers of my skin. I gazed inside the darkened cabin and then at the yellowed, discolored grass that held the rune stones. Bending over, I picked up one and touched the red substance used to draw the enhanced protection spell.
“It’s not for protection,” I announced. The others followed my lead, picking up the stones and ex
amining them as I toed the salt line that should have been whole, but was broken. “They kept something inside, not anyone from getting inside,” I mused as I dropped the stone and pushed the door open.
I could make out a corpse placed atop a table. Chains held limbs in place, as if they hadn’t wanted her to escape. I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I stepped over the threshold and into the falling down cabin.
Light from outside flooded the room, exposing the skeletal remains that sat in the middle of the room. She’d been dead for a while, according to the yellowing of the bones and the thick layer of dust that covered her. I knew the coven had stopped visiting her a long time ago, soon after they’d brought me here to her.
“That’s disturbing,” Kat’s voice trailed off as she followed me in.
Around the body were dried flowers, enchanted chains, and thin silver lines that went from the body to the wall, where hooks held them in place. The air inside the cabin was stale, as if even with the broken windows no fresh air could get inside. The ropes held charms on them, which were musical as the gentle breeze jingled them. The wind touched them, and yet the air in the cabin was stagnant. I closed my eyes as I mentally flipped the pages inside my head until I found what I was looking for.
“She’s spelled, and those charms are as well. Don’t touch them or anything else in here,” I warned as I walked around the cabin, opening the only other door inside it. The entire house had one closet? I looked around, noting the old cooking stove that sat off in the corner. I walked to the window, peering out and frowning as I saw the old moon-shaped door of an outhouse. “This house is old, really old,” I mumbled as I went back to the closet and pulled out the leather-bound journals.
I set them down beside the corpse and opened the first one. “Meet Brenna MacTavish, first wife of Drake Vanderbilt. It says here she was waiting for him to return to her.” I swallowed hard. “Ninety-three years ago, Brenna had been shunned by her coven for catching the eye of a dark witch, who poisoned her mind with tales of the coming of Lucifer,” I exhaled as I stared down at the corpse. “The charms are used to control the dead,” I explained. “The chords are controlled by someone who could be anywhere using them with magic. Which means everything she’s ever told the coven was a lie. She was never here. Her last entry states she waited for Drake for days before she lost their child, and then feared she would die of starvation before he returned. Their horses perished in a storm, and she had no way to leave here.”
“Isn’t she the one who told your mother you were pure of soul?” Kat asked, and I nodded slowly.
“Also the same one who said Benjamin was dark and forced my mother to send him to Drake, Drake Vanderbilt. My father,” I snorted.
“That can’t be good.”
“No, it means that someone has been feeding the coven information from God-knows-where for a very long time. All he had to do was call on her soul, which is trapped here in this cabin. To anyone else, she’d appear alive and well, taking the form of whomever he projected to them. The coven came for a seer, a renowned one who was old. That’s exactly what they saw when they arrived here. To activate her, the runes outside the cabin would alert whoever controlled her to the presence of others. They’d use a pattern with the chords to wake her. The charms on her body match to those on the chords, much like those we use to awaken the ancestors for the ceremonies. Only, these ones are controlled with ancient magic, dark magic that controls the soul of the dead it is attached to.”
“But why would anyone want to control someone like this? Even for dark magic, this is fucking morbid. And why her?”
“Because she decided who was dark and light from the coven, and also who is thrown out when they are unable to be controlled. When I was a child, they brought me here to her. She told them I was pure of soul, and that Benjamin was dark and tainted, and couldn’t be saved. She told my mother if Joshua was to live, Benjamin had to die. Whoever is controlling her had Benjamin removed from the coven,” I growled as anger pulsed through me. Someone had fucked with my family; they’d used this poor soul to dispel my brother before he was old enough to defend himself.
“That’s not good,” Dexter announced as he entered, running into the silver chord before we could warn him. His arm reached up and his hand jingled several charms. The air inside the cabin intensified, growing thick with darkness.
All eyes moved to the corpse as a cackling sound erupted and an arm lifted, then slowly lowered as it went still once more. It hadn’t been enough to reanimate her, but it would have alerted whoever controlled her to our presence. I shuffled off my bag and slipped the journals inside before pulling it back up over my shoulders. I looked down at the corpse as her face turned towards me slowly.
I could see her soul and I winced as the evil of an unknown presence shuddered through me.
“You’re free, Brenna MacTavish,” I muttered before I started ripping the flowers from the table. “Help me free her soul,” I demanded, and Kat and Dexter jolted into action. I removed the flowers, and the chains, and then I stepped back as dust erupted into the air and her soul escaped. I exhaled and then jumped as a hand touched my shoulder.
I spun around, gasping as the ghostly figure of a young woman stood beside me. Her hair was jet-black, and she had upturned eyes that told me she had once been part Native American, and utterly beautiful.
“Lucifer comes,” she hissed before she began to evaporate. “Thank you, Magdalena. Now run, child,” she whimpered as she turned her head, revealing half of it had been caved in.
“Go, Brenna.” I said firmly as I nodded. “Find peace.”
“Your father…” she tried to explain, but her head lifted and she turned her broken head to the side before a horrified scream tore through her and she vanished.
“My father is an evil bastard,” I snorted after she’d vanished. If I was right, Drake was an evil bastard who had lured Brenna to her death with promises of his undying love. He was a dark witch, which was why I’d felt it the moment tragedy had struck. It was the reason I’d fled from the coven, protecting them from me while learning to live with the pain of my loss, but I’d resorted to pretty drastic measures to beat it. Judging by the journal entries, my father had broken more than coven laws; he’d broken the laws of humanity and was somehow immortal.
I withdrew the thin slender blades Zahruk had given to me, along with the smaller daggers Synthia had donated to our weaponry once she’d seen the lacking supplies we had. I pushed the smaller knives into the thin slits in the sheaths of my waistband and retrieved the swords from the table as I stepped towards the door.
“Stay together. No one says anything unless I say otherwise. He wants me, so if it comes to it, you guys run one way, I’ll go the other,” I grumbled as we emerged from the cabin.
“How does he even know we are here?” Kat demanded.
“My guess? He is the one controlling Brenna, or was. She’s free from him now, which I’m sure he isn’t going to be happy with.” I frowned and then shouted for the others. “Everyone to the front, now, we got company coming.”
“If it was him controlling her and meddling with the coven…”
The air grew thick around us, cutting Kat’s words off as she stalled as the temperature dropped around us. Demons materializing, power pulsed around us, and then Lucifer was there, standing mere feet away from me.
I let the darkness out, ignoring the others as they followed my lead. His piercing blue gaze slowly slid over my face before his lips lifted with a seductive grin. I stepped forward without fear, without hesitation. He wanted me to cower, to fear him, and I wasn’t giving him what he wanted.
“Lena, Lena, Lena,” he repeated my name as his finger came up to trace slowly down my cheek. “So beautiful,” he murmured as he let his hand drop.
“If you came to rip me to pieces, get it over with,” I challenged. “But if
you think he will care, I assure you, he won’t. You could rip my heart out and send it to him and he’d probably eat it.”
“Is that what you think? That I am here to hurt you? I have much planned for you, sweet Magdalena, and it includes you being alive for it. When I start to use you against him, you’ll know it,” he laughed. He pulled me closer and placed his mouth against my ear. “Have you told him you carry his child yet?” His lips tugged at my earlobe as a shiver raced down my spine.
“I’m not pregnant,” I whimpered as desire pulsed through me. “Turn that shit off, asshole.”
“Turn what off? Your desire for me? It has little to do with me,” he smirked impishly as he pulled away. “I can control a lot of things, Witch, but your reaction to me isn’t one of them. Darkness does call to darkness… Maybe yours craves a real taste of it for once. You’re toeing the line,” he pointed out as he watched me. “You have no idea what you’re up against, do you? You’re just part of our game, a piece that has yet to be played. We started this game eons ago, he and I. He took away what I wanted most, and now, now I will show him what it feels like. You, you have your part to play in this, but I don’t benefit from your death. No, I need you alive for my plan to see its end.”
“Then call off your demons,” I stated coldly. My body trembled with fear, real fear as his words replayed in my mind. I could feel the fear oozing off those behind me, feeding the monster’s ego as he smirked at my pretend bravado. Even with the darkness running through my veins, I feared this creature. He was the Prince of Hell, and he wanted to use me in some sick, twisted game. There was also what he’d said, which I couldn’t say if he was right or wrong, or just fucking with me. “They seem hell-bent on bringing me with you, and if that isn’t your intention, why the show of force?” I asked with my chin lifted and my shoulders squared. I wouldn’t allow him to see how much he’d shaken me.
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