“It’s so good to be free,” the girl to Avery’s left said.
Their heads all turned toward the girl, but Avery didn’t move.
“And it’s only a matter of time before you’re mine,” another girl said as she ran her fingers down Avery’s cheek before kissing her.
By the time Avery cringed away from the touch, it was gone. She hunched up her shoulders as if bracing for a blow, but when the bell rang and all the students rushed into their classrooms, she found herself alone in the hall with Landon, Sandra, and Reid. They were all paler than usual as they gazed at her.
None of them spoke; they didn’t have to. They already knew they were too late. There was nothing more they could do.
Regan was free.
CHAPTER 34
Avery inhaled the scents of pine, myrrh, and sandalwood as Landon lit the incense. In the center of the circle they formed were twenty white candles forming the star of a pentagram. To create the circle of the pentagram, they’d used angelica, bay, hawthorn, rue, ash, blueberry, lavender, and vetiver.
Mixed in with the herbs were amethyst, malachite, pyrite, aquamarine, bloodstone, jasper, chalcedony, onyx, lapis lazuli, moonstone, and tiger’s eye. Ringing all the protective stones and herbs was the colorful dust the coven created from their stones, sand from the beach, and bowls of water at each of the pentagram points.
When Landon finished lighting the incense in Avery’s living room, she returned to the circle and gazed at the faces surrounding her. Not only had the coven come together for this spell, but so had their parents, grandparents, Tina, Karen, and Lila.
“Is this going to work?” Karen asked nervously.
“It should,” Shawn said.
“It will,” Avery insisted. “Once this protection spell is cast, Regan won’t be able to enter any of us.”
“I hope so,” Eric muttered.
“I can’t imagine anything worse,” Tina said.
“Let’s get this done,” Lila said.
“What about the person who has the skull?” Isla asked. “Can they mess this spell up somehow?”
“No,” Landon said. “They’re not stronger than Avery. Her powers will override all of ours to cast this spell.”
“Good,” Isla said and glared at each of the coven members.
Gazing at all of them, Avery couldn’t believe any of them had it. They’d been as upset to learn about Regan’s return as she was, but after Talia, Avery realized she wasn’t the best judge of character and some people were outstanding actors. She couldn’t think about whoever had the skull now; it would only flare her rage, and she needed to be calm to cast this spell.
“Go on, Avery,” Landon urged.
Avery held Reid and Sandra’s hands as she stepped forward and took a deep breath before beginning. “The powers of earth and air, I call on thee to protect me. The powers of water and fire, I call on thee to keep me free from the evil walking amongst us. Earth, air, fire, and water, shield and protect me from harm.”
A breeze blew through the open windows, but unlike with the truth spell, this wind did not become out of control as it circled them. The breeze rustled the herbs before rattling the stones and rippling the water as the candle flames sputtered.
When the breeze caressed her skin, she felt the strength of it, and she opened her mouth to let it in. Though she felt as if she should be choking, she didn’t gag as the power of the air infused her. The others opened their mouths too, and their eyes widened, but none of them gagged as the air weaved a powerful barricade within them that would keep Regan out.
• • •
Avery sat and sipped her tea as she stared at the ocean. Storm clouds had rolled in to obscure the full moon and stars. Her room was eerily quiet and empty after the noise and cluster of the past week.
There were so many times she’d yearned for privacy recently, now all she craved was company, but everyone had gone home where they would hopefully get some uninterrupted sleep. With Regan roaming the Earth, there was no reason to stay awake anymore.
She shuddered at the reminder Regan was free. She knew what he’d been capable of doing when he was weakened and on his plane. She couldn’t think about what he would be like now that he could be anyone and anywhere.
A knock on her door pulled her from her morose thoughts. “Come in!”
Reid opened the door and stepped inside before turning to close the door behind him. “Hey,” he greeted.
“Hey.”
“Want some company?”
“You read my mind.”
He grinned as he walked toward her. “I think you’re the mind reader.”
“I don’t think I could do that.”
He shrugged as he stopped before her. “You probably could, if you tried. You can connect to the minds of others, after all.”
“No,” she said. “I can touch them, but I can’t tell what they’re thinking.”
He nodded and held his hand out to her. She took it, and when he helped her rise to her feet, her heart hammered with excitement. They hadn’t had a second alone all week, but now they were alone again, and she so badly wanted this time with him.
Placing her hand against his cheek, she rose onto her toes to kiss him and sighed when their lips met and his arms locked around her waist. She melted against him as he held her close while he deepened the kiss and led her to her bed.
Regan was here, but in Reid’s arms, she could forget about that for a little bit.
• • •
“Come now, Avery, angelica is beneath you.”
Avery didn’t look at the boy behind her as he whispered these words. Her hands tingled with the impulse to hit him, but she’d only be punching the innocent person Regan now occupied. The rest of the class went silent in that eerie way it did yesterday.
How did Regan know she had angelica, a powerful herb used for protection and to ward off evil, on her?
“You are beneath me,” she murmured.
He laughed as his finger brushed aside her hair to touch her ear. Avery forced herself not to cringe away from him, but nausea rolled through her. He may be stronger now and back on Earth, but he didn’t pull her to him as he had before. She knew what a monster he was; she would never be drawn to him again.
“I am perfect for you,” he murmured.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed.
“I thought I’d take a history class; the ancient Greeks fascinate me.”
“Didn’t you live through the ancient Greeks?”
When he laughed, Avery found herself turning to look at the boy, except it wasn’t the boy. Regan had used a glamour to morph the boy into himself. His signet ring with a large blue stone and two snakes devouring the rock flashed when he tapped his finger on the desk.
Power oozed from him. He’d been strong in his realm, but it was nothing compared to what was emanating from him now. It electrified her skin and made something inside of her tremble. The power he possessed was a mixture of his and what he’d absorbed from the coven.
Seeing Regan in place of the boy should have been disconcerting, but after yesterday, not much fazed her when it came to him. She wished she knew the boy’s name, but she didn’t know many people outside the coven.
“Well, yes,” he drawled, “I did. It was a most delightful time; although, not as good as the Romans. They were a little more brutal.”
She refused to engage him in idle conversation. “What happens to the boy when you take over his body?”
“Oh, he’s still in here. I can hear him screaming to break free, but he won’t remember anything.”
Okay, that fazed her. She pictured the boy trapped inside and clawing at his chest in a desperate attempt to break free. The boy would have no idea why it was happening to him, only that it was.
“Let him go,” she said.
“Not yet.” Regan yawned and patted his hand over his mouth as he leaned back in the chair.
Avery tried to keep her temper on a leash as she glowered at
him. “How do you know I have angelica on me?”
He grinned at her as he leaned forward again. His husky whisper sent shivers down her back as he spoke. “I sensed it. I’m a very sensual person. I bet you’re curious about how sensual I am.”
Avery leaned closer and rested her lips against his ear. She paused when she felt the tension racing through his taut muscles. “I would rather be beaten again,” she whispered.
Take that. She sat back in her desk and smiled at him.
“You are the best adversary I’ve ever encountered. I love watching you fight, no matter how futile it is; I suppose that’s why I’ve dragged this out for so long. This last game is going to be fun.”
Her smile slid away as she stared at him with an impending sense of dread. “Game?”
“Yes, and I’m going to win.”
“I’m not playing any more games.”
“But you’re already playing it, Avery. You’ve been playing it since Halloween.”
He smiled as he stroked her cheek with an elegant finger. She wanted to cringe away from his touch, but she couldn’t move.
“How clever of you to realize I’ve been absorbing your powers,” he murmured as his fingertip dipped toward her lip. “Maybe, if you’d realized it sooner, you might have a chance, but you don’t.”
Avery gulped, but she still couldn’t move away from him. “You can’t do anything to us; you don’t even have a body.”
Regan chuckled as he pulled her lower lip down. “No, I don’t have one body; I have many now. And if I decided to keep this one, I could.”
Avery recoiled at the awful prospect. “You couldn’t. His parents—”
“Oh, darling,” he said with a chuckle, “do you honestly think I care about parents or the laws governing the human world? This boy’s skin makes a nice suit.” Regan ran a hand down his chest and smiled at her. “A very nice suit indeed.”
“Leave him alone.”
“No. I’m not giving you any more gifts until you’re with me.”
She couldn’t find the words to respond.
“Dream Walker,” he murmured. “There is so much more you could do with your power and so much more inside you. I can awaken your full potential and show you all the worlds beyond the earth and the wonders of the infinite universes.”
She couldn’t sit here and listen to this anymore. Grasping her bag, she rose from her seat and walked past the motionless students and teacher.
“The game is cat and mouse,” Regan said. “I’m the cat who loves to devour the mice it catches.”
Avery knew it was a promise as much as a threat.
CHAPTER 35
Avery paced her room as she tried to puzzle out a way to stop Regan before he killed more people. Like so many times since leaving the maze, she couldn’t come up with a solution. And now, not only had he absorbed their powers to strengthen him, but he could also be almost anyone else in the world.
While he roamed the earth, they would never be safe; they could never trust another living soul outside the coven, family, and friends because any of them could be Regan looking to stab them in the back—literally.
The idea of it was enough to make her never want to leave her house again. She didn’t know how to protect herself; how could she protect all her friends and their families from him too?
This was it; he’d won.
Avery slumped onto the edge of her bed and gazed down at her clasped hands. She’d tried to think of some way to defeat him, but she kept hitting a brick wall. Closing her eyes, Avery whispered an incantation for strength and guidance more to fortify herself for the upcoming battle than out of any real hope of help.
When a gentle breeze wafted into the room, she looked up in surprise. She’d closed her windows against the frigid night. However, the breeze was warm as it flowed around her and blew her hair away from her face. She should be upset by this strange wind; instead, she felt oddly comforted by it.
Avery almost reached up her hand to press it against the wind caressing her cheek, but she wouldn’t be able to touch it. Then a rustling of pages filled the room. She turned to her trunk at the end of the bed. Some of her Books of Shadows were sitting on top of it; one of them had fallen open, and the pages were turning beneath the guidance of a ghost hand.
The pages stopped turning, and Avery found herself unable to move as she stared at the Book. She had the crushing sense there would be no going back from this. That if she rose and went to the Book, everything she knew would change.
Circling her, the wind brushed more incessantly against her back as it coaxed her to her feet. She stood and glanced around the room. For all she knew, this could be another trick of Regan’s, but there was nothing sinister about the wind as it urged her forward.
She arrived at the Book and ran her fingers across the worn pages the wind revealed. The small, intricate writing on the page was difficult to decipher, but she eventually started to understand the words on the page.
TO ENTER A TRANCE TO CONTACT A SPIRIT
Prepare a circle with incense and call upon the power of air.
Sit within the circle and light a white candle.
Concentrate on the flame and recite these words:
Power of air, draw me there.
Take me to another place.
Let me travel through time and space,
To find the spirit, I wish to embrace.
Avery’s mouth went dry, and she gulped as she reread the words. She couldn’t enter another trance, not after what had happened with the truth spell.
Staring at the words, she suddenly recalled the voice that called to her when she fell into a trance after the truth spell. The voice had counseled her to find it. Was the wind the same voice? Was it trying to reach her?
“It doesn’t matter,” she muttered.
She had nothing to lose by trying this spell. Regan wasn’t torturing them in their sleep anymore, and she was out of options.
Turning away from the Book, she went to gather the things she required for the spell and prepared the circle.
• • •
A white light enveloped Avery in its warm embrace. She turned as she took in her surroundings, but everywhere around her was a wall of white. “Where am I?” she whispered.
“You’re on my plane.”
The same voice that called to her during the truth spell spoke to her again, and Avery realized it was a spirit and a woman. The light pulsed with the spirit’s musical tones and a soft, golden glow glided toward her. The spirit’s voice reminded Avery of wind chimes blowing on a summer breeze.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m an ancestor of yours, Avery. Your first ancestor to be exact. My name is Tlachtga, and I’ve been waiting for you to find me.”
“Where am I?”
“The witch plane,” Tlachtga answered. “This is our plane. You’ll come here one day soon. We have little time together, so you must listen to me, Avery. You have to stop him.”
“I don’t know how. We’ve tried everything.”
“Not everything, not yet. There’s a spell in the Book of Shadows you will need to defeat him. It’s dangerous, but you must use it.” As Tlachtga’s voice came faster, the golden glow pulsed faster. “Then you must locate the skull and his bones. With those things, you will have a chance to defeat him. I have to go; if he finds out we’re talking, he’ll stop you.”
The voice faded away. “Wait!” Avery cried. “Where is the skull? Who has it?”
“They’re connected to you… deep inside…” The voice broke up as it drifted further away, and Avery had to concentrate to hear snatches of words. “You know what it is… listen… you know it… the coven….”
Avery broke free of the trance with a jolt. She’d been out for longer than she realized as her candle had become a blob of wax, the flame had gone out, and the sun had nearly set. She clenched and unclenched her hands as she pondered what Tlachtga told her.
“A connection,” she muttered.
“A spell.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the rustling of paper sounded again. She looked up as the same Book of Shadows flipped through the pages. The breeze danced around the room and died away when the pages stopped turning.
She had to look at the Book, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Tlachtga’s warning that the spell was dangerous floated back to her. Whatever the spell was, there was a chance it would destroy her. Avery’s legs and back ached when she rose to stare warily at the Book.
Even if it did destroy her, she had to cast it. It might be the only way to protect her friends and family. She’d always known there was a good chance she and Regan would destroy each other, and that time had come.
She crept toward the Book as if afraid it might come alive and bite her. When she stopped before it, she stroked the worn pages and saw it was the same spell she’d seen the night of Reid’s nightmare. She peeled Landon’s Post-it off, and her heart fluttered as she read the small, cramped writing so different than the handwriting of the last spell.
Warning
If this spell is invoked, take heed with it. It will increase your powers tenfold, but it can destroy whatever good is in you. If there is any evil in the heart of the invoker, then the invoker will be corrupted and ultimately have to be destroyed.
Avery read how to destroy the person who invoked the spell. Tlachtga couldn’t have meant for her to do this. This couldn’t be the spell she meant.
But she knew this was precisely what Tlachtga meant. This spell would make her strong enough to find the skull and fight Regan. However, if the spell went wrong, she would die. Tlachtga’s words about soon finding out about the witch’s plane floated back to her. Had she meant tonight?
She wasn’t ready to die. She didn’t want to die. Tears filled her eyes and clogged her throat. She gulped as she reread the words that terrified her most.
If there is any evil in the heart of the invoker, then the invoker will be corrupted and ultimately have to be destroyed.
Maybe there wasn’t evil in her, but there was undoubtedly a wickedness she couldn’t deny. She thrived on the strength of her powers, and there had been more than a few times she had to fight the temptation Regan offered. This spell would give her more power, and she knew she would have a difficult time letting it go.
Dream Walker (The Coven, Book 3) Page 17
