Hiding from the Coven (Daughters of the Warlock Book 2)

by Amelia Shaw

  “Not so bad?” I asked. I lifted my hand to gesture at him. “Coming from a man who’s spent his life travelling to every known realm. You have no idea what it’s like to be isolated, locked up. I want so much more than this, Tavlor. I want a job, friends, a husband, children. I want someone I can count on, who didn’t have to be put in a position to choose between two different duties. How is that meant to happen from inside this bubble?”

  Tavlor’s jaw tightened and I wondered if it had something to do with the husband and kids comment, or the duties dig. I didn’t mean for him to be hurt, but I couldn’t keep things bottled up to make him feel better.

  Of course, if it was my choice, he would be the one fathering my babies and making me his forever partner. But now didn’t seem like the ideal time to talk about that.

  “You’re not safe anywhere else, Ava,” he said. “None of you are.”

  I set my jaw and met his iron gaze. “I am coming back with you,” I said, flaring my nostrils. “You can take me in as your bounty. Tell them to call everyone else off, and then we will convince them to give me a proper trial.”

  Tavlor sat back. He blinked, as though surprised by the ease of my plan.

  “I’m listening,” he said.

  I gave him my full attention. “We all know that charging me with treason is utter rubbish,” I said. “If I can get them to agree to give me a proper trial, in front of a larger audience of my peers, then we have a chance to get all this craziness to stop.”

  “And for you to be able to move freely within the magical realms,” Tavlor finished for me. “So, you aren’t stuck in one place, be it the magic realm or this one.”

  And that was what I wanted. To be able to have a normal life.

  “Yes.” I nodded, then quickly added, “For me and my sisters.”

  Tavlor’s lips twisted. “We haven’t found anything to help us yet,” he said, throwing out his arms almost helplessly. But helpless and Tavlor were two words I couldn’t pair together in a sentence. “There is nothing in the scriptures... or the ancient books...” He shook his head.

  “Well, actually, there is...” Bella said quietly.

  We all turned towards her.

  “Have you found something?” I asked her, surprised she hadn’t said anything yet. All thoughts of Tavlor and feelings for him vanished. I would get back to those later.

  “Well... yes. I think I have. Let me go get it.” Bella pushed to her feet and hurried off to her room.

  Tavlor turned to look at me. “Did you know about this?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not at all. Bella tends to be quite secretive, but she’s incredibly intelligent and has an incredible memory for books and knowledge. If she says something’s there, I believe her.”

  What had my incredible sister found, or come up with?

  She rushed back in holding a book that looked ancient.

  “What is it, Bella?” I asked, my gut tightening with worry at the look of concern on my sister’s face.

  She stepped forward and sat back in the chair, holding the book in her lap.

  “This is a book on the history of the Witches and Warlocks in our family,” she said, carefully opening the cover. “They go into a lot of detail on the Council as well and why they were formed in the first place.”

  “Really?” Tavlor’s voice held nothing but surprise.

  I glanced at him. “Aren’t there history books about the Council?”

  He shook his head. “No. That’s why we’ve been struggling so hard to find information for you to go forward. So, little is known about the Council and their origins, their rules. They don’t give anyone any knowledge that could be used against them, and they keep most of the archives in their own private realm.”

  I pursed my lips together and snorted out my nose.

  Not surprised. Bloody hypocrites.

  I turned my attention back to my sister. “Go on, Bella.”

  “Well, it seems that the Council was initially voted in every ten years,” she said. Now that she was talking about information, facts, she grew more confident. “Like any normal sort of government.” Her gaze slid towards Tavlor. “They were also a mixture of Fae, shifters, and warlocks,” she added.

  Tavlor’s breath hissed between his teeth. “That’s... interesting.”

  “Hmm...” I said, sliding my hand onto his knee.

  An abomination, my ass.

  Bella continued. “But they fought too much, and often didn’t pass a lot of new laws or rules,” she said, looking between the three of us. “They elected a warlock to be the High Warlock, as a president of sorts, to help push through new legislation. But he soon began to change too much of the tradition that had already been set forth and agreed upon. Wars broke out, the factions split, and within a hundred years the Council was suddenly made up of only witches and warlocks, with a warlock still in a position of seemingly presidential power.”

  “And the High Warlock became an inherited position woven deeply into the power of the Council,” I finished for her. “No wonder they don’t want things to change. They’d lose everything.”

  Bella grimaced out a smile. “Yep.”

  “Those bastards...” I said as I collapsed back onto the couch. “They stole all that power and kept it for themselves.”

  Bella nodded. “Yes, and from what I gather, the Council has created more and more rules over the years, rules that ensured their power couldn’t be questioned or threatened. That was why they brought in arranged marriages for the High Warlock and controlled breeding and succession. They could have complete control over the person who was supposed to be in charge. That never used to be a thing.” She put her hands out. Her gaze darted excitedly between me, Courtney, and Tavlor. “Think of the magic realm’s government like certain parts of the human realm. There’s one person in power with a small body of elected officials to ensure that one person doesn’t get too-power hungry and use his position to his advantage. With the Council, it’s the opposite. The body is filled with people who are controlling the main person, so the people think their government is balanced when it’s not.”

  I sat up and looked at Tavlor.

  “She is correct,” he said. “Though no one knows this. At least, the people do not.”

  “Do you think it’s enough?” I asked. “To appeal to laws and rules that go back a thousand years?”

  Looking at the history was one thing; implementing action was a different ballgame, and I wasn’t sure we were ready to play just yet.

  Tavlor’s jaw tightened and his eyes darkened.

  “It’s more than we have, though I’ll need to study the texts,” he admitted.

  I glanced up at Bella and she didn’t move.

  “Can he look at the book, Bella?” I asked, surprised by her reticence.

  “Um...” She glanced from Tavlor to me. There was something she was keeping from us, something I couldn’t figure out. “I’d rather show you, if that’s okay?”

  I furrowed my brow. “Why would—"

  Tavlor inclined his head, placing his hand over mine. “Of course, I would be honored at your assistance,” he said. “But tell me, where did you find this incredible book?”

  Bella stood up and said with a smile. “Our Mother.”

  Chapter 14.

  Tavlor blinked. He turned his head, shooting his brows up so high they nearly disappeared behind his thick hair. “Your mother?”

  I laughed. It amazed me how adorable he looked when he was confused about something. I knew it was because he wasn’t expecting half the things that came out of my mouth. Or my sisters’, for that matter.

  “Well, sort of,” I said. “Bella, the sneak, found Mother’s hidden stash of books when she was unwell. Mother was always reading and studying and learning, like Bella, even though she was trapped here with us.” I took a breath as he waited. “But she also had a set of books that she said weren’t for us to read. So, of course, Bella wanted to read them. The thought that someone could preven
t her from reading books was unheard of, so she did the uncharacteristic thing of sneaking them when Mother was sick.”

  “Apparently, they were filled with spells that were too powerful,” Courtney chimed in, rolling her eyes. “Too much for youngin’s like us. Too dangerous.”

  I giggled at Courtney’s imitation of our mother. She wasn’t half-bad. I wondered if it was because she had nothing better to do than to sit in this realm, all alone, practicing.

  “And in this... secret collection, she had this book?” Tavlor asked, tilting his head to the side.

  I shrugged. “I didn’t know that she did,” I said. “I never bothered trying to read them.” I glanced over to Bella. “You explain.”

  Bella’s cheeks went a pretty shade of pink as she blushed. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat.

  “I found the secret library a year before she died and I... couldn’t help myself from reading some of them,” she admitted. Her voice was small, like our mother was the one who caught her, and not us. “They were amazing. Such advanced spells and history. I didn’t take any from their library to begin with, but as Mother got sicker, I started to borrow them to read. To learn. To try and stop whatever illness was claiming her life.” She stopped, her throat working as emotions caught her. “I, uh, I wanted to save her.”

  I continued. “Well, lucky she did, because pretty much all of our belongings vanished when Mother’s magic did,” I said, turning my eyes back to Bella. A swell of pride filled my chest. “But Bella had created a hidden... pocket in her skirts to hide things, and luckily for all of us it seems, she had a couple of Mother’s books on her when our house and lives were destroyed.”

  Bella gripped the book to her chest.

  “Yes, these are irreplaceable,” she said.

  Tavlor stood up and walked over to Bella. “I agree with you,” he said, his voice gentle. “I haven’t heard of any such history books existing, anywhere. And if we can prove that the High Warlock was once only a member of Council, with no such restrictions as marriage or succession plan... we may have a way for Ava to be accepted as the High Warlock’s heir.” He turned to me, his eyes burning into mine. “That is what you want?”

  My stomach twisted. Was that what I wanted?

  No. I didn’t think I would be fit to be High Warlock, not when I had Bella as a sister.

  “Yes,” I said. I gave Bella an encouraging smile so she understood I wanted this for her. “There’s no going back to a normal life now.”

  It’s all or nothing.

  They would either accept me as the heir and give me all the rights that went with it, or they would kill me. I couldn’t slip back into the realm as a simple teacher, and I wasn’t hiding in my mother’s realm for the rest of my life. I had to accept who I was now and who I was destined to become.

  “And your sisters?” he asked, glancing at Courtney and Bella.

  “What about us?” Courtney asked. She sounded defensive, but in a way that suggested she was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Are we going to the Council to ask for their pardons also?”

  I shook my head. “No, no, no,” I said, turning to Tavlor. “The Council don’t know about them yet, and I don’t want them to. When the time is right, maybe. I just can’t risk anything happening to them.”

  Courtney inhaled sharply as though to object. I knew what she was thinking because I would have been thinking the same thing if I was in her position.

  “Not always,” I told her, wanting to reassure her. “I mean, just for now. What if we go to them, ask for a fair trial, and I’m executed on the spot?”

  Bella gasped, her hands covering her lips. “Ava!” she exclaimed. “Don’t say that!”

  I stifled a sigh. Courtney was generally the dramatic one, but every now and then, Bella did a decent job too. If she was going to start this, I needed to put a handle on it right away. There was a good chance Courtney and Bella’s emotions might feed off each other, and that was the last thing I wanted. Not when we all needed to focus, come together, and figure out what to do next.

  “But it’s true.” I gestured to Tavlor. “Tell them.”

  Both of my sisters turned to him, and his spine stiffened.

  “Ava’s right,” he said. He shifted his weight. He still looked every inch the deadly Fae, but the way his eyes kept flicking between my sisters, made him seem uncertain as to what to expect. “The sentence has been determined. So, if they want to, they have the power to execute Ava the moment she is spotted in the magical realm. Or any realm, for that matter. She’d have to be taken back to the magic realm for them to enact her sentence, but she could be found by any bounty hunter in any realm.”

  Courtney sagged against her armchair and Bella looked away as though she was hiding tears.

  I rubbed my hands together. The last thing I wanted was them to be worried about me. And yet, I knew they were and they were trying to be strong.

  I stood up and addressed my sisters. “I’m not trying to hide you,” I began. I had no idea what I wanted to say. I wished I could reach up and clutch my locket and hear my mother’s voice. For all of her faults, I knew without a doubt, she would know what to say to make everything better. “I’m trying to keep you safe. If I fail... then you can choose when you come into the magic realm and learn from my mistakes. Never tell anyone of your parentage. You think you’ll be safe. You think that might warrant you protection, but it won’t. It just means you’re a threat to everything they stand for and they’ll do anything they can to take you down.”

  Bella wiped at her cheeks, I assumed to dispel the tears.

  “And if you succeed?” Courtney asked, her voice cracking.

  I looked at my sister, her blue eyes so hopeful. I couldn’t tell her that there was a good chance I wasn’t going to win this. But I couldn’t lie to her, either.

  Instead, I forced a smile. “Then we will assess how safe it is to bring you into the realm and launch you on the world.”

  “Promise?” she asked. Her voice was small, like she didn’t believe me. Like I was Mother. Except instead of slamming the door directly in her face, I was dangling a carrot in front of her.

  I nodded. “I promise to do right by you,” I said, looking between my sisters. “Both of you.”

  We shared a moment where my heart swelled and the magic of us whirled and gathered and strengthened, as it had done when we were kids. I closed my eyes, trying to memorize this moment, trying to hold onto it.

  I knew that by making this decision, to go back and fight to be recognized, our lives would change. There was a good chance we wouldn’t be able to have this time of solitude, where it was just the three of us, together. Ever again.

  Tavlor cleared his throat and my gaze slid to him. I blinked. I didn’t want to be rude, but I had forgotten he was there for a moment. I offered him what I hoped was a polite smile.

  He wasn’t jealous, but I think he wanted closeness with something. We were on our way to have that but it was different being a lover and being a sibling.

  I shook myself. “You haven’t said how long you are staying for,” I said to him.

  His eyes darkened. “I didn’t have a specific time frame, but staying longer than a day would not be safe in the current climate.”

  I nodded, my stomach tightening. Of course. I wasn’t sure why I expected any differently. “So, you’ll stay tonight?” I asked. I hoped my voice didn’t sound too eager. “And tomorrow we’ll work out what we’re going to do?”

  There was no way I was letting him leave without me. I loved my sisters, but I couldn’t wait around for someone to get me, to get my sisters. I needed to be proactive.

  His gaze bored deep inside me, and I let him. Let him see my desire, my vulnerability, the beginnings of love and the deep respect I had for him. Let him know, without a doubt, how I really felt.

  Then he looked away and the connection was broken, but not before lust had swirled through my body, tightening my nipples and making my belly melt.
I didn’t realize how badly I needed him until just then. I thought I could be satisfied with what happened between us last time, but that was a lie.

  “Bella,” he said, addressing my sister. I blinked. Focus. It was difficult to do so, trying to shake his desire for me away from my memory. “Where is it best to study the texts, you have found?”

  “Ah... probably my bedroom,” she said.

  She glanced at me as though for permission and I smiled. She thought I didn’t trust her, when that was the furthest thing from the truth. I wasn’t worried about either one of them.

  “Lead the way,” Tavlor said, and they disappeared from the room.

  I shook my head to myself.

  Courtney came over and whacked me in the arm.

  “Could you be more obvious?” she asked in a low voice.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “In what way?”

  “You guys practically devoured each other with a look,” she said. “He wants you so bad.”

  I groaned, slapping my forehead with my hand. “Courtney!”

  I did not want to talk about this with her.

  She cackled with laughter. “You don’t realize how obvious you make yourself,” she said, and then poked me in the arm. “And I mean it. Don’t leave me out of the fight, Ava. I’m not weak. I can help.”

  I grabbed both of her hands and focused all my attention on her. “Court. You are stronger than me and Bella put together.”

  Courtney’s eye brows rose and she suddenly looked uncomfortable, as though she didn’t believe me. But I was telling the truth.

  I continued. “If I can, I will have you fighting beside me straight away. But please... all I ask is that you trust me. If I tell you to hang back and wait, you have to. Please. You know I’ll only do what is right for you.”

  She stared at me for a long time as though assessing my honesty.

  I didn’t look away. I didn’t dare. She needed to believe me. Because if she didn’t, she was going to be combative, and that was a battle I didn’t want to fight on top of everything else.

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “But just know I feel the same way you do, Ava. I’m not going to sit back and hide forever like Mother did. I’m not built that way.”