Broken (The Immortal Coven Book 1)

by April Gutierrez

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, pushing me off his chest to sit up facing him.

  I couldn’t say anything, the female emotional rollercoaster was in full force and I’d been holding in so many emotions that I couldn’t even imagine the crying could stop at this point.

  “Celia…” he started, pulling me into his arms, my head buried into his chest, the sob only loud in my ears.

  “I’m sorry you’ve lost them.” He tried, but his words only caused me to shake my head.

  “Don’t…apologize.” I whimpered softly.

  “You will never be alone, do you understand me. I will never give up on you, on us.”

  I pulled away, knowing what he meant, and it made me feel completely worse for one reason.

  “Loving you is going to be the most difficult thing for me. Don’t you understand that eventually you will have to leave me? There is going to come a time I won’t be able to trust that you love me the same way.”

  “Love, Celia, is not the way you think it to be. There is no place for vanity. Fine, you change, you grow older, but the way you feel now, grows with you. It doesn’t stay frozen like my physical self.”

  “You don’t get it. I want the forever kind of love, to live like you, and grow through the ages as you have.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Celia.” He huffed, and softly removed my arms from his shoulders. Taking one swift movement to remove himself from my bed.

  “I know enough, Dmitri.” I started, staying in my same spot. “I’ve read a lot of that book of my mothers.”

  “Words are meaningless. They carry the extent of imagination the reader wields.”

  “I can’t do this, I can’t fight with you.” I sighed. “I feel so broken inside, so utterly alone.”

  “You’re not alone, you never have been.” His voice was deep and dark, as if he were upset.

  Turning to face him, I found my body lying down. The weight of the day was finally hitting me. I saw him, staring at me from the other side of the room. He was upset, it was written all over his face, but in truth it’s me who should be upset. I’m the orphaned witch who doesn’t know what she needs to know to make everything right. What is he? He is a protector who will live eternity, no matter what.

  Resignation. I know that’s what it’s going to boil down to. The necessary evil of my having to resign myself to the situation I’ve placed myself in. My eyes shot straight up to the ceiling and I mentally started counting to ten.

  “You don’t have to do that, you know.” He said softly.

  My eyes shot in his direction, by now his features had softened. His forehead free of creases and his lips were no longer pierced. He seemed free of feeling what so ever.

  Had he resigned himself to let me be?

  “I want you to be happy.” He admitted, getting off the chair and walking back to my bed.

  “I want you to feel at peace with the past.” His knee went up to the bed, his body following it towards me.

  As his body resumed pre-argument position, with my head on his chest, “I want us to be together, no matter what happens.”

  I couldn’t reply to his words. The truth remains in my heart, there will always be at least one thing that prevents that together forever….he has forever, and I don’t. I closed my eyes and begged for sleep to take me.

  CHAPTER Ten

  You can Wikipedia the history of aviation and be told that its life span is over 2,000 years, all the way to the first flight of a kite….seriously. That helped nothing in getting prepared for my flight to the United Kingdom.

  Dmitri says I’m being a little ridiculous, but he just doesn’t get the point of being mortal and knowing the limitations of the human body.

  We are not meant to fly, plain and simple.

  Olivia assured me that I would be fine, but she couldn’t know that. Especially, since she isn’t coming with me. I’m flying with Dmitri, Kyle, Lisa, and Valerie.

  Anabel would be taking a later flight with her mother and Toren. Anabel had been told this morning, and her reaction was nothing short of problematic.

  “She got up and smacked Toren across the face, yelling at him for being a liar. Their flight should be interesting, to say the least.” Dmitri filled me in as we waited at the airport.

  By the looks of it, Valerie is our supposed chaperone, but the truth is more amusing.

  Boarding the plane made me wary enough, but looking at all the passengers forced me to place my nerves in a mental box.

  “I can give you a pill that will make you more comfortable.” Dmitri sighed as I looked back at the crowd again. This time I watched as a woman shoved her hand bag up above her seat.

  “Were you like this as a little girl?” Dmitri asked, grasping my attention.

  “I was like this, yes. My mother never made a big deal about it. She held my hand and I knew everything would be fine.

  “Do you want me to hold your hand?” he teased.

  “Not now, I don’t” I sassed back equally.

  Lisa leaned forward in her seat in the aisle. “Can I borrow one of those books you brought?”

  I nodded at the same time I went down to pick up my bag. That was when I noticed it, my mother’s book. My head shot up at Dmitri.

  Did you put that there?

  His eyes wandered down to my bag, checking out the book whose corners were exposed in his eye sight.

  I didn’t bring it, no.

  My head tilted, more privately towards him, “So how did it get there?” I whispered, almost inaudibly.

  A mischievous smile crept across his face. “You have no clue how all this works do you?” he leaned in. “Your magic is subconscious. So you can tell yourself to do things out of necessity and your magic will find a way to make it so.”

  He leaned back in his chair and faced forward closing his eyes. “A part of you must have thought it necessary.”

  I turned to Lisa, who had still been waiting, only to open her eyes wider when she realized I hadn’t gotten the book for her yet.

  “I’m sorry.” I said, digging deeper in the bag to remove my copy of Sense and Sensibility.

  Handing it across the aisle, Kyle took it from me without saying anything and handed it to Lisa.

  I caught the smile she sent his way as she took the book from his grasp. It was very familiar, like the kind of smile I would give Dmitri. The innocence was the most interesting factor. There was no reserve emotion tied to their reaction.

  Turning to face Dmitri again I found him looking at me.

  I’m not reserved on how I feel for you, Celia.

  But you also don’t understand my conflict. I countered.

  He took my hand and placed it to his lips. ‘My soul is yours, completely.’

  ‘But the question isn’t about completely. I want more.’

  His eyelids shut, ‘You will always want more.’ He placed my hand back on my lap and he resumed his previous stature, shutting me out.

  Something caught the corner of my eye. A figure at the far front of the plane sat down just as I caught sight of it. Shifting my position, to see if I could get a better view of it proved unsuccessful.

  The flight attendant came on over the intercom and the prefight instructions were given. Dmitri stayed immobile, Kyle tended to Lisa and Valerie, and I was left to find my own distraction once the plane was in flight.

  With nothing better to do, I followed Dmitri’s lead and tried to rest.

  8 hours later, plane having landed, and docked, I was being shrugged awake and rushed to gather my things to keep up with the others.

  I wondered how I had managed to sleep the entire flight with not a single issue, being that I can’t sleep through an entire night in my own bed.

  ‘I gave you something to relax.’ Dmitri admitted, sending me a rushed sideways glance as he waited for me to retrieve my bag from the upper compartment.

  Bag in hand, I threw him a nasty glare. ‘I didn’t ask to relax.’

  “Of c
ourse you wouldn’t, but you needed something. 8 hours of being tense can become exhausting. You don’t need that right now.” He actually said, as we walked off the plane.

  I noticed all the passengers had gotten off before us, “Wait, there was a person, sitting up front. I felt something when they sat down.”

  Dmitri stopped and put his arm on my shoulder, “What do you mean you felt something?”

  I shook my head, not really articulating what I wanted to say, “You know, I felt some sort of magical magnet towards them. I felt it before I saw them and then I didn’t really see them because of what you gave me. I fell asleep right after I saw them take their seats.”

  Dmitri called out to Kyle, who was a few people ahead of us. I heard him tell Kyle what I said, Lisa walking to stand next to me.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, they never talk to me.” I complained quietly.

  Dmitri turned back towards me, “Let’s go.” He said, taking my wrist in his grasp and briskly walking out of the airplane tunnel.

  Entering into the airport main area was intimidating. You could see just how big the airport was, and instantly realize you’re in a foreign place.

  ‘What are you not telling me?’

  We turned a corner, the others passing us and heading to the exit doors. ‘You shouldn’t have felt any other magical entities on that flight. Anabel, Jezabel, and Toren were catching the next flight.

  “So who was on that plane?” I asked, my voice louder than I had expected.

  He didn’t answer me, which drove me more insane. He took my wrist again and we caught up to the rest who were waiting for a cab.

  Lisa and I stood side by side taking in the view in the distance. Rolling hills of green lined the furthest region. I felt like I was living a dream I’d had not too long ago.

  “Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” she sighed.

  “You don’t feel like you’ve seen this before?” I asked her, hoping I wasn’t the only one.

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Valerie caught my attention. “You have been here before. Your mother brought you as a little girl. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you behind with her sister.”

  Relief washed over me, “It’s nice to know I’m not losing my mind.”

  “That is always a nice confirmation.” She smiled, waving down the cab-van about to pass us.

  As if having known what to do, I placed my forefinger and thumb slightly in my mouth, just inside my lips, and blew. The outcome echoed down the 20 or so lanes of people waiting for a cab, only to realize one was stopping for us.

  “That’s one way of doing it.” Kyle laughed at us.

  Dmitri shook his head, ‘Show off.’

  ‘Subconscious baby!’

  “Indeed it would be.” He replied, taking my hand and helping me into the back seat as Kyle put our few bags into the trunk.

  “So where to?” the cabby asked, his accent causing Lisa and I to giggle in its response.

  “Oxford Square please.” Valerie ordered.

  “Where are we staying?” Lisa asked her mother.

  Valerie pierced her lips and looked from me to her and back to me, “Pricilla lives near the meeting spot. She is housing us all for the next few days.”

  “All of us?” the question came out before I had time to think it over.

  “She married well. She has enough room.” Her disdain for the situation left me wondering who Pricilla had married.

  ‘The Duke, Victor, and it is not a pretty story. Valerie had her heart bruised because of it, they hardly speak to each other.’ Dmitri informed, but his information only caused me to look over to Valerie who was staring at me now.

  “He told you, didn’t he? I hate it that we can’t hear what others are saying in their private thoughts.” She bantered.

  I refuse to play dumb on this, especially when she gets upset over it. “It was bound to come out. I’m sure I would have eventually asked why you can’t stand the sight of her.”

  “At least you have honesty, Celia. Don’t change that about yourself. It’s refreshing to know a witch who says what she thinks and means what she says.”

  Dmitri took my hand in his and I looked up to him. The smile he gave worried me. It was sadness and concern all wrapped in to one.

  There is more, isn’t there. I asked, my eyes clearly peering into his. I’d noticed the dark change in the hue of his eyes when he’d become serious….they were as dark as I’d ever seen them.

  There is more, but I can’t risk your reaction right now. I promise to explain everything when we reach our location.

  “Where is it, exactly, that Pricilla lives?”

  Valerie huffed, looking over to Kyle as if she wanted to scream.

  He patted her leg and answered for her, “Blenheim Castle. Their residence has been kept quiet as a courtesy to Victor. His Brother is the recognized Duke of the family.”

  “Oh my goodness, so we will be staying with royalty.”

  Apparently it was the final drop in the glass already too full. Valerie’s face turned red and she snapped towards me. “He is not a Duke; he is a fake that does nothing but lie and deceive. Pricilla defied the craft and married her protector.”

  “Wait, so he isn’t a Duke?” I was now more confused than ever, but Lisa shook her head.

  “He is….but he isn’t the current Duke of Oxfordshire. He is Pricilla’s protector, so basically he was once the Duke and ended up aging out of his position through the years.”

  Bingo. Immortality forced him to give up his title. What a bummer!

  “Wow, but the coven was created such a long time ago, how did a royal come into the mix?” looking now to Dmitri for answers.

  “Ciara had a far reach with her quest to create the most powerful coven imaginable.” His eyebrow rose. “The bigger picture is something that not many people have grasped.”

  What is the bigger picture?

  He looked straight forward, past the rest of the members in the van. Like I said, I will go into it when we are alone.

  Staring at him, staring out into the distance forced me to realize Dmitri was very much a mystery, and filled with far too many secrets.

  The statement came to mind, ‘never judge a book by its cover.’

  23 generations of witches must do something to a man. But what exactly that is remains to be seen.

  The cab pulled down a dirt path, the trees covering all around making it seem like we were driving into the wilderness, when all of a sudden we entered a huge clearing with this enormous castle in the far distance.

  “Wow” as a sigh was all that escaped my mouth.

  The closer we drove to this magical place, the more I felt I’d been here before, seen this sight, and lived in this fairytale.

  “Has the coven always met in this place?”

  Dmitri nodded his head, squeezing my hand while still keeping his sight out into the distance.

  Are you okay? I asked him, worried something was wrong.

  I need you by my side, Celia. He turned to look at me, This place brings back far too many memories.

  I didn’t say another word, or ask unspoken questions. Something was plaguing him, and the longer it took for him to confide in me, the more it weighed on my nerves.

  The van circled around a giant water fountain at the front of the entrance and came to a stop.

  “This place is amazing.” I sighed, smiling at Lisa who had hardly said a word since we got into the cab.

  “Just wait until you see the inside.” Valerie interrupted, taking her large Gucci bag out of the trunk.

  “More like wait until you see your guest quarters. They are all mini apartments.” Kyle added, helping Lisa with her bags.

  A statuesque figure walked down the steps from the front opening and greeted us as we walked up.

  “Good evening, my name is Claudino; I will be your private butler for your stay. Let me show you to your guest chambers.” He greeted
us so professionally. His stance stiff but his demeanor seemed very pleasant.

  I hurried ahead of the rest, curious about our stay and the castle’s history.

  “How long have you worked here?” I asked him, following merely 2 steps behind him.