Coveted

by Grace White

“So, you wanted to talk?”

  I chew my lip unsure of how to say this but then blurt out, “Cael said you were an ally?”

  “He did, did he?” Her eyes flash with disapproval and… jealousy? My stomach twists. Cael told me nothing happened between them and maybe, for him, that’s true, but every time I mention his name, Violet’s reaction betrays her.

  If something didn’t happen, she wanted it to.

  “Do you...” I peer at her over my coffee. “Know about me?”

  Her stone mask gives nothing away as she studies me. Violet is beautiful. Shoulder-length raven hair with bangs framing a heart-shaped face and glittering blue eyes. But there’s a hardness to her.

  Finally, she breaks the silence; leaning in she whispers, “I’m a green witch, Terra. We’re on the same side.” Her expression makes me wonder if that’s true.

  “What exactly did you do the other night? When we called the quarters?”

  “I channeled the four elements into you. I thought it might help unlock those parts of you still hidden.”

  “And did it?”

  “You tell me.”

  I shift to the edge of the chair, glancing around to make sure no one is within earshot. “I’ve been having dreams.”

  “They’re not dreams, Terra,” she says around the slightest smile. “They’re memories, which means it worked.” The confusion pinching my brows makes her add, “You have a direct connection to the elements. I figured that if we called the quarters and channeled the energy directly into you, it might reset you so to speak.”

  “That sounds... weird,” I say.

  She chuckles, and I don’t know who is more surprised. Me or her. “There is no instruction manual here. When you fell, no one could predict what would happen.”

  “Are you...” I lower my voice. “Really old like the guys?”

  “No. I’m twenty. I’m also human. I just have the inside scoop thanks to my bloodline. The women in my family were all green witches.”

  “But you know Cael?”

  She flinches again, her eyes lowering from mine.

  “Violet?”

  She grabs her satchel and stands. “I really should be going. I’ll see you around, Terra.”

  She’s gone before I can blink but I grab my own backpack and run after her. “Violet, wait,” I call as she hurries down the path toward her dorm. “Violet.”

  She freezes and spins around with a heavy sigh. “What, Terra?”

  “Did something happen with you and Cael?”

  “No, nothing happened.” Bitterness clings to her every word and she grinds out, “You have no idea of the power you hold over them, do you?” Her lip curves in a sad smile.

  “I...” the words die on my tongue because she’s right, I don’t. But she obviously does.

  I open my mouth, but she cuts me off. “I really need to go. Whatever is coming, it’s bad, Terra. Really bad.” Her eyes narrow as if she’s about to say more but she doesn’t. She just leaves the unspoken word hanging between us.

  And then she’s gone.

  “Was that Violet?” A voice says from behind me and I jump, startled.

  I spin around, my eyes growing wide as Endo steps out from behind a cluster of bushes. “You’re following me?”

  “Following is such a negative word. I prefer protecting.” He scratches his face and when I frown, adds, “or admiring from afar.”

  “Stalking more like.” I shoot back and it’s his turn to frown.

  “It’s hardly stalking, Terra. I’ve been doing this for…”

  “Forever,” I grumble.

  But that’s just it. He hasn’t been doing it forever—not like this. He’s been on Earth maintaining the balance. Fighting evil and preventing catastrophic disasters while Gaia has been tucked away safely in Elysia.

  His smile slips as he no doubt senses my thoughts. “I know this is overwhelming for you.” He steps closer, staring down at me with those emerald eyes of his. “But you’ve got to work with us a little bit, okay? Let us do our thing and we’ll try to give you some space to deal.”

  “Like you were giving me space Friday night?” I clap a hand over my mouth, my cheeks flushing.

  Endo scratches the back of his head, clearly as taken aback as me. “I, hmm…” He clears his throat. “That was… unusual circumstances.”

  “Is that what we’re calling it?” I hold his fiery gaze, lost in the way his eyes feel as they dance over my face.

  “Are you okay with what happened?” he whispers and my lips part, but nothing comes out. A flash of something passes over his face and Endo adds, “At the party, I mean.”

  “Oh, that. Yeah, I’m okay, I think.”

  “We won’t let anything hurt you; you know that, right?”

  “I…” I press my lips together.

  Deep down, I know he’s right, I do. Even when I decided to spend the weekend holed up in my room, the guys were never far away. Ross stopped by with Endo in tow, and Cael texted me plenty.

  “Terra.” Endo closes the slither of space between us until I can feel his warm breath dancing over my face. “Tell me you know that.”

  “I know,” I breathe out.

  He nods tightly, his jaw tense. “Now back to my original question, what were you talking to Violet about?”

  I hitch my backpack up and shrug. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

  “Hey, what’s up?” Amalia looks up from her notebook.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure.” She packs away her work and sits on the middle of her bed crossed-legged. “Are you okay? I was worried about you.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” I slip into her room and close the door behind me and pull out her desk chair. “You said you sensed me, my power, when you first met me. Can you sense other things?”

  “Other things? Like other witches? Sometimes. Everyone gives off energy, Terra. Good, bad, indifferent. It’s just most people can’t sense that energy.”

  “Can you sense bad energy?”

  Her eyes narrow. “Did something happen, Terra? At the party?”

  “I- I’m not sure. I felt something, and I’ve felt it before too. Lurking, brushing up against me.” Worry pinches her face, but I continue, “I was wondering, is there a spell for that?”

  “A protection spell?”

  “Or an unveiling spell or something? To help me find out where it’s coming from?”

  “Terra, I’m not sure—”

  “Please, Amalia. I know I sound like a crazy person, but I know what I saw. What I felt.”

  She swings her legs over the edge of the bed and shuffles forward. “Tell me.”

  “It reeked of evil. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. It made my stomach ache and my lungs burn.”

  “And you felt it last night, at the party?”

  I nod. “It was different then, though. One minute the party was raging on around us and the next minute…”

  “Terra, what is it? You can tell me. I want to help.”

  I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be telling Amalia any of this, but I need to try to figure out what’s happening to me.

  Inhaling a deep breath, I continue, “You disappeared, Amalia. You all did. Canfield-Fisher was empty.”

  “But that’s…”

  “Impossible.”

  She offers me a sad smile but then a flicker of realization widens her eyes. “Wait a second.” Amalia leaps off the bed and goes over to her bookshelf, pulling out a thick leather-bound book. “I read something once…”

  The book lands on her desk with a thud and she starts fingering the pages. “You’ve heard of a glamour, right?” She glances at me.

  “What, like off The Craft?” I ask, and Amalia rolls her eyes. “Yeah, like The Craft. A glamour can alter a person or object’s appearance temporarily. It takes a lot of energy and concentration. The closest I’ve ever come is changing my eye color, but it gave me a nosebleed for hours. I read somewhere
once that it’s possible to glamour someone’s perception.”

  “Change what they see?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But I can’t even begin to imagine how powerful you’d have to be to do—” She jabs her finger at a passage in the book. “Here it is.”

  I scan the text. Altered state of consciousness. Visual projection. Perception illusion. The words jump off the page at me as I try to make sense of what Amalia is suggesting.

  “You think someone…” I gulp back the fear clawing up my throat. Because while it makes sense, while deep down part of me knew someone—or something—was to blame for last night, it makes everything all the more real.

  “There are very few people who could wield this kind of power, Terra.” She closes the book and perches on the edge of her desk.

  “So the coven couldn’t—”

  “You think someone in the coven did this? No way, we’re not about that. Besides, you’re one of us now.”

  “I don’t think anyone in the coven did this, Amalia, that’s not what I’m saying. But hypothetically, is anyone strong enough?”

  “Violet, maybe. Her mental concentration is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And Harry has…” she hesitates and then backtracks. “He’s powerful, but not that powerful.”

  “But Violet is strong enough?”

  “Maybe, but Terra, she wouldn’t do this.”

  “I know she wouldn’t.”

  I don’t doubt Violet had nothing to do with last night, but maybe she can help me figure out who did.

  “Terra?” Violet’s eyes go wide as I push off the wall and move toward her. “This is… unexpected.”

  “I need your help.”

  “I…” she hesitates. “I don’t think so, I’m busy.” She tries to dart around me, but I step in front her.

  “Please? I don’t know who else to ask.”

  She lets out a heavy sigh and meets my pleading gaze. “You can’t ask the guys?”

  “I—” I swallow the words.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t spill your secret.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Of course you don’t.” Violet rolls her eyes, but I don’t miss the slight curve of amusement on her lips. “I’ll help but only because… it doesn’t matter, come on.”

  I want to ask if she’s doing it for Cael, but part of me doesn’t want to know the answer to that, so I say thanks and fall in step behind her as she takes the path away from the student center leading to the old drama building.

  “You know, it wasn’t my intention to get muddled up in this,” she says as we approach the abandoned building.

  “You and me both,” I muse as we slip inside. It’s dark, the air thick with dust.

  “I don’t think you had a choice, Terra.” Violet doesn’t use a flashlight like Amalia. Instead, she conjures a ball of light into her palm.

  “Neat trick.”

  “I’m sure you can go one better.”

  “You think?” I did the cool trick before with the flame and with the twine in Ross’ room, but this is different.

  “Try it.” The hall plunges into darkness as the ball of light vanishes.

  “Okay.” I brush my hands down my jeans and then bring them in front of me palms up.

  “All you have to do is imag—”

  A ball of luminescent energy appears out of nowhere.

  “Do you know how long it took me to do that? Let me guess,” she says with a hint of jealousy. “This is the first time you tried it?”

  “It’s coming more easily.”

  “You’re learning to control your power.”

  “Gaia’s power,” I correct her.

  “To-mate-oh, tom-art-toe.” I cast her a quick glance, and she continues, “You’re the conduit, Terra. I don’t know how much they’ve told you but soon, Gaia’s power will all be yours.”

  “To fight the darkness.”

  “That’s the hope.”

  “You don’t think I can do it?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I think, it’s what you think.” The light in my hand shimmers, stretching and growing until the whole hallway is bathed in a silvery glow. We walk toward the auditorium. It’s the first time I’ve conjured anything and not had to put all my concentration into it.

  “Whatever is coming, it’s bad. We all feel it. Even if most don’t understand it. Something is shifting.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’re heading for something, Terra. Something unprecedented. It’s a time of great change. A rise in natural disasters. The mass migration of people out of the Middle East to Western Europe. The global socio-economic crisis.”

  “You think all of those things are because of whatever is coming?”

  “I’d bet my last dollar on it. Everything requires balance. Dark and light. Good and bad. The scales are tipping and if we don’t do something soon, Earth as we know it will cease to be.” When we reach the pentagram, Violet takes a run and jump at the stage, twisting herself and dropping down on the ledge. Hands stretched behind her, she narrows her eyes right on me. “The question we should all be asking though, is are you ready, Terra Materson? Are you ready to do whatever it takes to save your beloved planet?”

  A beat passes.

  Barely a second.

  And then I say, “I am.”

  My voice rings loud and true, echoing off the high-ceiling. It doesn’t sound like me; the shy quiet girl who started at Atchison College a month ago. This girl sounds like a woman. A woman ready to protect her own. To fight with everything she has.

  Even though I don’t know what’s coming. Even though I still don’t know what Gaia’s plan is, I feel her conviction in my soul. I feel her power roar through me, vibrating in my chest, igniting a fire in my belly.

  And for the first time since this madness began, I feel my purpose.

  “You feel her, don’t you?” Violet stares at me with reverie as if she’s seeing me through new eyes.

  I nod not daring myself to speak, and Violet slides off the stage and walks slowly toward me. All of a sudden, I feel hot, the vibrations rattling my bones, the flames inside me licking higher.

  “Terra look at yourself.” There’s a quiver to her voice.

  “W-what?” I say as I slowly lift my hands up in front of me and gasp.

  I’m glowing.

  Not me exactly, but the air around me.

  “Violet,” I croak. “What’s happening to me?”

  “Don’t be afraid.” The softness in her voice does little to ease the panic sweeping through me. “I can see her in you. I can see Gaia.”

  “You can?”

  Violet bows her head and then drops to her knees.

  “Violet, what are you doing?”

  “I am at your service,” she murmurs, refusing to meet my confused gaze, and I let out an exasperated breath.

  “Violet, will you please—"

  The last thing I hear is Violet shouting my name before the world goes black.

  “Step forward Cael, descendant of Aether.” The fair-haired warrior approaches Eros, head bowed, hands clasped behind his back. “Kneel,” the older man says.

  Gaia watches on as her first Chosen is anointed. First with the water of the Elysian oceans and then with the breath of Eros, a representation of air. Next with soil of the Elysian mountains, and finally, branded with a hot poker on his right pectoral to represent fire. She flinches, unlike the warrior who remains perfectly still, unwavering in his strength and fealty.

  “Do you renounce your free will and commit to serving only the Goddess Gaia and her will?”

  “I do.”

  Gaia leans forward, her hand curling around the arm of the gold-plated chair as the words ring loud throughout the high-chamber.

  “Repeat after me,” Eros proclaims. “Blood of thy blood.”

  “Blood of thy blood.”

  “Bone of thy bone.”

  Cael repeats the words with such conviction
she feels them all the way down to her very essence. Eros hands the sterile blade to the fair-haired warrior who moves not as he draws it across his palm, spilling red into the chalice.

  With a stern nod, Eros addresses the three figures waiting to be called upon. “Ross, descendant of Pontus, come forth.”

  He kneels immediately, awaiting Eros to begin the anointing. And then it is done, the vow complete with him spilling his blood the way Cael had before him. The two of them watch on as the remaining warriors, Endo, descendant of Erebus; and Sol, descendant of Ourea, complete their vows.

  “Rise,” Eros commands. “Let it be cast in fire and stone that these four men have accepted the honor bestowed upon them to serve and protect under Our Lady’s rule.” He holds the chalice high. “Blood of thy blood. Bone of thy bone. It is done.”

  Gaia rises from her chair and receives a long thin brush from a young woman with hair the color of sand. Eros places the chalice back on the pedestal and steps aside. “Sister, it is for you to bind the vow.” He hands her the blade and without hesitation, eyes firmly on the four men in front of her, she makes a clean cut, clenching her bloody palm over the cup.

  “Blood of thy blood. Bone of thy bone.” She dips the brush into the chalice and approaches Cael, painting a blood-red five-pointed star encased in a circle on his forehead; then the same with Ross and Endo. Finally, she brands Sol, steps back and surveys the four men, unable to hide the curve of her mouth.

  “It is done,” she breathes out, feeling lighter.

  For now, Earth will always be protected.

  “Welcome back,” Violet says as my eyes flicker open.

  “W- what happened?”

  “Think of it as a power cut.”

  “I fainted, didn’t I?”

  Her lips quirk up. “Yeah, but you’re fine. What do you remember?”

  With Violet’s help, I sit up and rub my head. “We came here to talk. I wanted to ask you about—” I pause and gape at her. “Did you kneel before me?”

  “I did.”

  “Because you saw Gaia?” The memories are hazy but the image of Violet bowing before me and then dropping to her knees is one I won’t forget in a hurry.

  “I did.”

  “And was I really glowing?”