Awakening: The Last Coven Series

by KT Webb

  Lucy swallowed against her fear. The first coven had turned Carman into a tree. Not just any tree, but the very tree etched into the front of their grimoire.

  Grace

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Stealing Souls

  The Vate took them from the field and back to their own time. Grace fell to the floor, choking back the bile rising in her throat. The first coven had destroyed Carman’s body without batting an eye. They were fierce and fearless. Grace wasn’t a killer. A hand rubbed her back softly to soothe the sobs that racked her body.

  “Now you know why we’re willing to make sacrifices to win this war,” Caderyn said quietly.

  Grace couldn’t bring herself to say anything; so many things were going through her mind. She knew it was illogical to feel sorry for Carman after everything she had done to the innocent people of Ireland, but the way she was killed was impossible to forget. Her heart ached for the first coven. They were only doing what they’d been told; Lughnasadh had only just been created that day. At only a few hours old, she had committed murder with limited knowledge of the enemy she faced.

  “So, Carman’s body was destroyed but her soul is in the Otherworld?” Sutton asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But, her sons thought she was dead?”

  The Druids looked at each other before answering Harper’s question. “We don’t know how they discovered she was still alive, but we think that is why they’re here now.”

  “I think I know how they found out,” Lucy shared.

  All eyes were on the brunette girl. Grace looked up to see Lucy bite her lip as though she was reluctant to share the information. Harper, who had been the one rubbing Grace’s back, helped her to her feet.

  “Before Sutton and Dee came to my house, I had a different visitor. At first, I thought she was a weird substitute teacher. But, Odessa came to me in the middle of the night. She said she was my great-great aunt and told me about her friends who needed help getting their mother. I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. Of course, I know now, but I hadn’t thought about it until now.”

  “You think Odessa told them about Carman?”

  Lucy nodded. “She said she saw it.”

  “Tell us about Odessa.”

  Grace hadn’t seen Odessa in person. She didn’t know much about her other than her involvement with the sons of Carman. From what she’d gathered, the woman was strange and dangerous.

  “What about her eyes? You told us something about her eyes, right?” Grace suggested.

  “Oh yeah, her eyes don’t match. One is green like ours, the other is solid black.”

  The Druids shared a look. Something she’d said had piqued their interest.

  “Only true witches have eyes like yours.”

  “But, I thought there weren’t any true witches between the first coven and us.” Sutton said cautiously.

  No response. The room was silent for an uncomfortable length of time. There was something they weren’t being told. Grace looked at the other girls and waited for someone to say something. . . anything. When no one did, she decided it was her turn.

  “Was there another coven?”

  Blodwen sighed, but seemed to the only one willing to offer an explanation. “There was another Awakening. It began, but ended before it could be completed. A threat was looming, and the witches began to awaken. It was later than it should have been, they weren’t teenagers. They were wives and mothers when they came into their powers. Sutton’s great-great grandmother was first. She shared your birthday. Lucy’s great-great grandmother was murdered by her twin sister on their twenty-second birthday.”

  Lucy took a step back. It was obvious she had no idea.

  “No one ever told me that. What was her name?”

  “Delphine. Her husband remarried only a few years later, your great-grandmother was only a baby at the time. This wasn’t just a murder, it was a ritual. Her eyes were removed.”

  “You’re telling me Odessa replaced her own eyes with my great-great grandmothers? But, why?”

  “Many cultures believe that the eyes are the windows to the soul. There is an ancient ritual once used by the Fomorians that would enable souls to cross the divide and inhabit a different body.”

  “What does that have to do with taking her eyes?” Sutton asked.

  Blodwen closed her eyes as though she didn’t want to share what the significance was. When she opened them again, she glanced at her siblings. When they didn’t offer any help, she pressed on.

  “We dealt with the threat before we found out about the coven last time. We had no idea they would be awakened.”

  “Stop making excuses. Tell us what the eyes have to do with this,” Grace demanded.

  “Odessa must have been trying to get a fragment of Delphine’s soul by replacing her own eyes with her sister’s.”

  “Well that’s some next level Criminal Minds crap if you ask me,” Harper spat.

  Goosebumps covered Grace’s body. “So, why are her eyes two different colors?”

  “Her soul is fragmented. Murdering someone does something to your soul, it darkens it. If she absorbed part of her sisters soul, she would have some of her magic,” Cerys told them.

  “You’re telling me that this lady killed her own sister and stole her eyes? Then, what? Did some voodoo magic crap to replace her own with them? What are we getting into here?” Lucy asked.

  “You’re witches. Did you think everything was going to be sunshine and butterflies?” Brennus asked.

  Lucy whipped around to face him. “You know, Merlin, I’ve about had enough of you.”

  Brennus laughed. “Now, that’s a name of someone I know.”

  “You think this is a joke?” Sutton stormed off in the direction of their room.

  Grace was tempted to follow, but something inside her insisted that she stay put. They still had to finish their quest to collect all the ingredients to perform the Awakening. Grace didn’t want to be what the first coven had been, but she wasn’t about to let the world become the wasteland she saw in their trip through time.

  “We obviously don’t know much about Odessa, but I get the feeling we’re going to have the opportunity to learn more about her as we go. The only way we’re going to be ready to face her is if we finish the Awakening. What’s next?”

  “Are you ready to become the coven we need?” Caderyn asked.

  Grace glanced at the two remaining girls. It was obvious they felt the same way. There was no way they were going to be the same as the first coven. They were human. They weren’t killing machines conjured from a magical spring. Grace shook her head sternly.

  “No, we’re ready to become the coven we are. You have to accept that we’re not the girls you created. We’re humans, and we won’t just kill the enemy because you say so.”

  The Druids looked stricken. “Then we will all die,” Cerys whispered.

  “You may think so, but we don’t. Now, tell us where to find the God of Wind and the Stone of Destiny. If we’re going to do this, we’re doing it our way.”

  No one said anything, so Grace turned on her heel and stalked off in the direction Sutton went. It didn’t take long before the other two girls followed her and they made it back to their bedroom.

  “Shower up girls. We’re heading out. It’s obvious we’re not going to get anywhere with these guys,” Sutton said as she threw some clothes into a backpack.

  “You read my mind,” Harper replied, making a beeline for the bathroom. “I’ve got to wash the loch mess out of my hair, then I’ll be ready.”

  Grace looked around; there was nothing for her to grab. She knew they could conjure anything they needed, and the Grimoire was already secured in her back pack along with the mortar and pestle they used for their ingredients. As soon as Harper was done, it was her turn to shower. She made it quick and was relieved to find fresh clothing waiting for her. Once she was done, Lucy took her turn.

  Blodwen and Genovefa came in the room
while they waited for her to finish.

  “What do you want?”

  “You’re going to need this to find Borrum. The Stone of Destiny can be found on the Hill of Tara, though it hasn’t been seen in years.”

  Genovefa handed Grace a weathered scroll tied neatly with a leather string. She took the mysterious paper and stuffed it into the side pocket of her pack.

  “Why are you helping us?” Sutton questioned.

  “Not all of us think there is only one way to achieve our goal. Do not be afraid to call out to us should the need arise,” Blodwen told them.

  They left the witches alone again. When Lucy finished in the bathroom, they headed straight for the exit. Ooghna was still comfortably secured in Harper’s hair despite their adventures through time. Grace took a deep breath as she walked through the wall of the sidhe. She had no idea how long it would be before she was back again, but she knew what lay ahead would be quite the adventure.

  Harper

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Winds of Change

  Borrum hadn’t been seen in over one hundred years. Harper couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened at the idea of tromping around Ireland without any clue what they were doing. They were tired, crabby, and frustrated. Harper decided it was the perfect opportunity to call home.

  The other end of the line only completed half a ring before her mom picked up. “Harper? Is that you?”

  “Yeah, mom. It’s me. How are things?”

  Silence. Her heart skipped a beat. “Seriously? You call me after jumping into a natural spring to reach a holy well in Ireland and all you can think to say is, ‘how are things’?”

  Harper grinned at the pitch her voice reached by the end of the sentence. “Well, yeah. I mean. Since then I’ve gone into a hill that is actually a castle, befriended a fairy queen, become a mermaid and swam to the bottom of Loch Ness to remove the heart from a water dragon. Oh, and traveled through time to see the first coven.”

  “Huh. So, things are good here.”

  “Good.”

  “Honey, is there someone there helping you girls or are you all alone?”

  Harper wasn’t sure how much to tell her mom. She didn’t want her to be worried about them, but that was sort of her job. From her experience, full disclosure was the best option.

  “Well, we were working with the Druids, but they want us to be something we’re not. They want us to be the first coven. Those girls were created to kill Carman, but we’re not killers.”

  “I see. Where are you now?”

  “We have to do a ritual called an Awakening to give me my powers before my birthday. We’re out searching for the ingredients now.”

  “What do you need?”

  “The breath of Borrum, God of Winds and the Stone of Destiny. We already got the other ingredient, it’s what opened our eyes to the harsh reality of working with the Druids.”

  “Oh, sweetheart! It sounds like you girls made the right decision. Stay together and stay strong. Be safe. You know where to find me if you need any help.”

  “I love you, Mom.”

  “I love you too, Harper.”

  As she hung up the phone, a lump formed in her throat. No matter how much she wanted adventure, she really wanted to be home with her mom and dad. A gentle pressure ran the length of her face. Ooghna could sense her melancholy and was trying to soothe her. The little fairy may not be able to speak to her, but she was saying volumes with her solemn face. She could feel her pain and wanted to make it go away.

  Sutton waved her hand, opening a crackling blue portal. “Get in, witches. We’re going on a quest.”

  Harper couldn’t help but chuckle at that. She followed the others through the portal and found themselves standing on the edge of a cliff. The wind whipped around them, the ocean crashed below them, and the grass bent gracefully as the breeze rippled across the open field behind them. She sniffed deeply, taking in the salty scent that wafted up from the ocean spray.

  “The Cliffs of Moher.” Sutton replied.

  “What are we doing here?” Grace asked.

  “It’s a place where the wind is unhindered. I thought it would be a good place to start looking for Borrum.”

  “Ugh, we need more to go on than just that! There could be a million places where the wind seems unhindered, but they could all be wrong.” Lucy flopped down on the ground.

  Harper silently agreed with the other girl. They weren’t exactly “hot on his trail,” and they were searching for a god. A god that no one had seen in at least a century. Grace wandered off to admire the view from the cliffs, Sutton was studying the scroll they’d been given. Harper didn’t know what she was looking for; it’s not like anything had changed in the past few minutes. Ooghna pulled gently on the hair by her ear, when she didn’t respond, the fairy pulled again only harder.

  “Ouch! What do you want?”

  The fairy made a triangle with her hands then pointed up to the sky. Her excited gestures made no sense to Harper, but she repeated them nonetheless. Triangle, sky, triangle, sky. It was clear that Ooghna was getting frustrated as she began to change color from white to red. Harper had always hated charades. Ooghna stamped her foot and pointed insistently at Grace.

  “Hey, Grace! Tiny is trying to tell me something.”

  The fairy flew to straight to Grace, squeaking and pointing, before crossing her arms and flitting back to Harper and burrowing into her hair.

  “Well?”

  “She said we should check the mountain.”

  “Of course!” Sutton said as she slapped a hand against her forehead.

  Harper wasn’t familiar enough with the Irish landscape to know there was a mountain. Pretty much all she knew is that everything was green. Another portal later and they were standing at the top of a mountain called Carrauntoohil, the highest point in Ireland. She couldn’t help but wonder what was next. They knew to look for him here, but that didn’t mean this was where they would find him. The view from the peak was hazy with low-hanging clouds. Goosebumps covered her exposed skin, bringing a shiver down her spine. A soft breeze rippled across the tall grass surrounding each rocky precipice she could see from her vantage point. Everything looked so miniscule, even the other mountain peaks. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once. Harper tried not to move too much; she didn’t want the other girls to know how freaked out she was about heights.

  “Well, this is fun and all, but I’m not seeing any other living thing, let alone Borrum,” Lucy’s voice sounded far away.

  Deep breaths. That’s all she had to do, take deep breaths and not freak out. It wasn’t working. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Nope, not working at all. In fact, things were getting fuzzy, color swam at the edge of her vision and the ground seemed to be rising. Breathe in. Breathe ou—too late. Blackness.

  “I daresay that was rather entertaining.”

  A booming voice startled her from her spot on the ground. Harper looked up to find a cloud hovering near the ground. She blinked a few times to ensure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. Yep, the cloud had a face. Bushy cloud eyebrows surrounded colorless raindrop eyes. His features seemed to morph and twist with the gentle breeze so he never looked exactly the same.

  “You know, no one has come looking for me in a long time.” His voice was clear but breathy, and he accented each “s."

  “Borrum?” Harper questioned.

  He nodded, or she assumed he was nodding as the wisps of cloud bobbed up and down as they changed. Borrum narrowed his eyes and looked closely at Harper.

  “You have natural magic, but you aren’t a goddess. What are you?”

  The only thing that remained constant was his voice. She decided that if she closed her eyes, it would sound like the whistling wind. Harper knew he hadn’t been seen in years, but did he really not know what a witch was? Everyone else seemed to know.

  “I am Harper, descendant of Imbolc, final member of the last coven of true witches.”

/>   “How fascinating!”

  Harper wasn’t sure what to do with that response. Was he being sarcastic? Was she being picked on by a god? She chose to stay silent and let him lead the conversation.

  “Why do you seek me?”