by R. L. Weeks
Nicholas sat on the other side of the bed, almost like he was afraid to get too close to me. He opened the bookmarked page and dragged his finger down the parchment. The text was all handwritten, cursive in beautiful penmanship. I admired the writing before I started to read.
I was a tad aggravated why he would invite Vanessa over so I could get some “normal time,” then pull me away to read about witch stuff, but I figured he and Joshua had an unspoken rule with girls.
He stopped when he reached a sketch of a man and a woman holding each other. “Here it is.” He let out a long exhale and read aloud the text below it. “Twin souls,” he announced as if I had any clue what he was talking about.
“Context?”
“They are two halves of one powerful soul, separated by the human body and placed on Earth. They find each other through dreams and have a bond with each other more powerful than any other. She, born in nature, and he, born under the moon, would be the rulers of both dark and light covens. Together, they would be more powerful than anything else and cannot exist together for long. Together, their powers could destroy the world.”
“That can’t be us,” I said.
He examined the sketch. “The warlock who wrote this book was a powerful seer. He could see things far into the future, and I hate to admit it, but this sketch bears an uncanny resemblance to us both.”
I dragged my finger along the sketch. “You wish you looked that good,” I teased because humor was my coping mechanism. Although the woman did look like me, she also looked like the ancestor I had seen in my head when I was in the forest.
“This is serious, Kate. We need to confer with the elders of the Black Lily Coven.”
“What about the Dark Rose Coven? Don’t we have to acknowledge both if this is true?”
He nodded. “I guess we do, but their members are so scarce.”
“Jerimiah is one.”
“I’ve already spoken to him,” explained Nicholas. “He knows less than we do. He joined them for the same reasons I did. We didn’t know any better.”
I pondered for a second. “Who branded you?”
He shrugged. “No one. That’s the thing. The mark just appeared like the Black Lily’s did once I agreed to join with Jerimiah.”
That’s what the conversation they’d had was about. Jerimiah was grooming him to join the coven. “Shouldn’t we talk to him about this all? Perhaps he can shed some light.”
“Stay away from him,” he warned. “I mean it.”
***
Joshua walked Vanessa home, then returned with a six-pack of beer. He must’ve had a fake ID. He placed them on the table and sidled up next to me. “I have something for you.” His voice was a whisper.
I listened to check if Nicholas was still in the shower. “Do you hate me?” The childish question escaped my lips before I had a chance to think about it.
He looked bewildered. “Why would you think that?”
“Since we met, you have said some things here and there about me being dangerous…”
“I have,” he said earnestly. “So is Nicki, but it doesn’t mean I hate him. My coven comes first. I don’t really know you—only what he’s told me about you—but I can tell you’re not a bad egg. It’s not your fault that my cousin’s hiding something from you.”
“What is it?” I pleaded with him. “I won’t tell him I know.”
He looked conflicted. “He was right in saying it would destroy you. I guess you’ll just have to trust him. I’m learning too.”
I felt more agitated than ever. What did they think I couldn’t handle? “What did you want to show me?” I asked, trying to be more upbeat.
He reached down into his backpack and pulled out a leather-bound book. He rested it on my lap and opened the cover. It was filled with empty pages. He pointed at the first page. “It’s common practice for every witch and warlock to have their own book of shadows, especially in our coven. However, the Black Rose Coven,” he said venomously, “is traditional. They only allow the high priest or priestess to own a book of shadows.”
I looked at the empty page. “What exactly do I put in here?”
“Spells. Rituals. Experimental practices. It’s a record of your magic, anything you want to remember.”
I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face. “I know I shouldn’t find it funny, but I just thought it would be filled with religious text and blood-sacrifice rituals.”
He laughed, making his face light up. “We’re not stuck in the fifteenth century, Kate. We use modern alters, and we can use almost any object to channel. It doesn’t have to be some sacred, two-hundred-year-old chalice or something to get a spell going.”
I pressed my lips together. “I’m so ignorant.”
“No. You just have the idea that most people do about witchcraft, that’s all. It used to be the way you described, but the coven changed with the times.”
I examined the cover of the book. “The book looks cool though.”
He winked at me. “I thought you’d like it. You are still part of our coven. Even if you are split between the two, you’re a Black Lily Witch. You should be given one.”
“I appreciate it,” I said, feeling a sense of family. “Will you give Nicholas one too?”
“He already has one. I gave it to him when I arrived.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure why I felt annoyed about that. I couldn’t expect Nicholas to tell me everything.
Chapter Eight
I checked the time on my phone: 11:11 p.m. My eyelids were getting heavier. I scribbled some notes about what happened when I was out in the forest in my book of shadows. I was treating it more like a journal rather than a book filled with spells. I didn’t have much luck with spells or summoning. The biggest pattern I noticed was that my abilities strengthened when I was connecting to nature. My thoughts drifted to the passage in the book Joshua had shown us. “She, born in nature.” My mom did say she had gone into labor when they were by the woods having a picnic. I was a winter child, born on November tenth.
If the foretelling was about Nicholas and me, then we had to find a loophole. I refused to believe either of us could kill the other. He may have been blowing hot and cold, but I could see with each look, every protective movement, the change in his heart rate when he was close to me, that he still wanted me. He just didn’t want to want me.
Nicholas had placed his jacket around me before he walked me home that evening. I buried my nose into the jacket, inhaling Nicholas’s scent, lay back on the bed, and drifted into a deep sleep.
***
I was standing at the edge of a cliff gazing intensely into the horizon, trying to see where the sea started and the sky stopped. The waves crashed against the rocks, and smell of sea salt lingered. I felt a warm body behind me. I turned around, looked into those brown eyes I’d grown to adore, and was lured instantaneously into a false sense of security.
There were others close by, but not close enough to help. I heard their distant laughing. Every instinct in my body screamed danger as Nicholas stepped forward. With each step, I was forced closer to the edge. Rocks crumbled under my heel. His dark hair moved gently in the breeze, and his gaze turned as icy cold as the chilling depths below.
Only one of us can live. His voice echoed through our bond, except something was different about him. I reached forward to hold him and steady myself, but he pushed me away. A regretful pang shot through the iciness of our bond, and with one quick push, I tumbled over the edge. Desperately I reached out, but there was nothing but air to hold onto. Nicholas’s silhouette got smaller as I neared the unforgiving waves licking the edge of the cliff.
A scream escaped my lips before I crashed into the water. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs, cruelly ripping away any reserve I had.
Surprise was the first emotion I noticed. The sudden realization that I couldn’t breathe sent shockwaves up and down my body.
The ocean was devoid of light. I couldn’t tell which way was up or
down. I reached out, but my fingers didn’t break the surface I’d hoped was close. Panicked, I swam what felt like was toward the surface with strong, long strokes, but the salty air did not greet me.
The pressure on my ears and head was crushing. My body screamed to inhale the delicious oxygen I had taken for granted for so long.
I bargained with God in my head to help me, promising I would never do a bad thing again if I could just make it out of this alive. I don’t know what I expected to happen, but nothing wasn’t it. Weightlessness was what I felt before I accepted that I was going to die. My mouth opened, and water poured into my lungs.
I floated down into my water grave, no longer struggling. I felt warm and fuzzy. Death was peaceful, the panic from a second ago being unimportant now. I thought of my mom and how lonely she would be. I felt the betrayal from Nicholas but also the regret that he would have to live with what he had done. My last thought was of my dad. I’d be seeing him again soon, and that gave me the last bit of comfort I needed as I died.
I woke unable to breathe. I gripped my sheets and bolted upright. Breathe. Breathe. I internally screamed until finally… relief.
I looked around the room. I wasn’t alone. Damn that boy was everywhere I turned.
“Kate, it's okay. You were dreaming. I'm here, don't worry," Nicholas said maniacally.
My breathing eased. I was aware that I was no longer in danger, but I couldn’t shake the unsettling uneasiness rising through me.
“How…” I gasped, trying to ask him why he was sitting in my room.
Fortunately, he understood my unfinished question. “Your mom said to come up. I texted you last night about walking you to school.”
I had forgotten about that. “I drowned in my dream and died,” I said, explaining my panic.
"You weren’t breathing when I came up,” he told me. His face was as pale a sheet. “Don't worry, I’m here. I won't let anything happen to you.”
I wanted to tell him that he was the new focus of my nightmares, but it seemed cruel. I worried his distancing himself with me emotionally would end up with us breaking our ultimate promise; prophecy or not, we would not harm the other.
I tempted fate. “I have to ask, are we friends now, or what? I don’t know where I stand with you and you’re so distant.”
He spotted his jacket, which was lying next to me in the bed. He didn’t say anything about it, saving me the embarrassment. It was obvious I had slept holding his clothing, but instead of mentioning it, he stood and walked to the door.
“Coffee?” he asked and ran his fingers through his hair. I noticed he’d stopped shaving and developed a five-o’-clock shadow.
"Please,” I answered gratefully. I didn’t bother bringing up my unanswered question again. I didn’t want to badger him like some desperate little girl.
While he was downstairs, I spent an extra few minutes sitting in bed, wondering if my dream held any truth. Would Nicholas—if given the ultimatum to—kill me? I dismissed my dark thoughts and chose to focus on school. Being back and surrounded by Amara’s recent death would be depressing enough without adding dangerous assumptions.
***
I finished my chemistry exam. I presumed it went well, although it was a little harder than I expected. I was just thankful to have it over and done with. I felt Jayde’s gaze on me as I opened my locker. I didn’t look at her. She had just lost her best friend, and I wasn’t insensitive. Even if it was Jayde Merriweather. When I’d put my books away, I heard the clicking on the floor from Jayde’s shoes. I sighed and closed my locker. If looks could kill, I would be lying on the floor bleeding out. I waited for her to say something. It was unlike her to hold her tongue. It was rather unnerving, actually.
“Jayde,” I said softly.
Her eye twitched in the corner. “I know what you did.” She hissed. “No one else might, but I know.”
Without an explanation, she shoved past me and hurried down the hall, alone. That was weird. Why did she and Nicholas assume I had done something?
I scanned the hall for Nicholas, but the man my gaze landed on was Joshua. “What is he doing here?” I groaned and hurried toward him, interrupting his flirtation with a group of seniors.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said with a grin.
“Why are you here?”
He smirked. “To see you. I missed your sunny personality.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “You’re a funny one. Good to know.”
He winked. “Humor triumphs brooding with attractiveness—Oh, hold on. Here comes a perfect example.”
Nicholas walked to us, and he looked pissed. “I told you not to come to my school.”
“Relax.” Joshua patted his shoulder. “I wanted to tell you that the trip is still on for tonight. The forest.”
My eyes widened. I had forgotten all about their suicide mission. “That’s so soon.”
“Good to know you care,” said Joshua. “I’ll meet you at seven, cuz.”
He left without so much as a good-bye. I saw him bump into Vanessa, who giggled as he whispered something into her ear.
“Ugh.” I groaned, not attempting to conceal my disgust. “Why does he have to go after my best friend?”
Nicholas shook his head. “He could have texted me. He wanted to come here to see her.”
“Good to know,” I said. “Look, please can you just postpone going to the forest?”
“No can do, Bathory,” he said nonchalantly.
I raised my eyebrows. He had never referred to me by my last name.
I met Vanessa outside of the exam room. She was practically bouncing on the spot. “Stop,” I chastised. “You’re acting like the overexcited squirrel from that commercial.”
She rolled her honey-brown eyes. “I’m just happy.” She was beaming. “Joshua asked me for my number.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that. The lecturer has become the lectured,” I said, warning her with a half smile. “Seriously though, stay away from him. He’s a player. He left the house the other night with some big-boobed girl with pink hair and then he was onto you.”
She waved her hand. “He told me about her. He’s actually really transparent.”
“I never thought I’d see you won over by a player.”
“He’s not a player.”
I shook my head. “Because you know him so well.”
“What and you do?” she snapped back.
“I’m just looking out for you.”
She took a moment to think before coming back with a reply. “I’m being hard on you. I judged you. I deserve this.”
“I’m not doing this because you were like that with me. I’m doing it because I give a shit what happens to you.”
Maria waved at us from a distance.
“Whoa. I haven’t seen her in forever.”
“She’s been so busy preparing for college,” Vanessa explained. “Her mom’s been hard on her because she got a B on one test.”
“Damn.”
Maria would be out of Crimson Leaf before any of us. What separated her from the rest of us was her incredible intellect. She was the first to read and write in kindergarten. She had an almost photographic memory and remembered everything we told her. Maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t around as much with all the witchy stuff going on.
She greeted us with a tired smile. “Hey, ladies.”
Vanessa quickly scolded her. “We haven’t seen you in ages. You’re turning into Kate.” She gave me a look.
I guess I deserved that. “Can you hang out soon?”
Maria looked conflicted and glanced at the pile of books she was holding. “I need to study, but I swear we will soon.”
“Okay,” I said, knowing that our friendship was coming to an end with Maria.
“Wait,” I called out as Maria started walking away. “Screw this. This is senior year. We all could do with a day to let loose.” A fire raged in my stomach. I was so tired of being surrounded by uncertainty and sadness. W
e should have been enjoying ourselves. We’re only a senior once.
Maria eyed me suspiciously. “What were you thinking?”
I scanned the courtyard and spotted Grayson. He was standing with a group of guys and two cheerleaders in their green-and-white uniforms. I bit my bottom lip. “I’m thinking we go to a party.”
Vanessa furrowed her thin eyebrows. “I thought party-girl Kate was gone.”
I stood up straight. No more slouching. No more losing anyone else close to me. No more chasing after a guy who kept secrets from me. “I guess she’s back.” I grinned. “Let’s go and get new outfits. No excuses.”
Maria relented. “I could do with one break.”
Vanessa grinned. “That’s the spirit. Hey, I can invite Joshua.”
“Who?” Maria implored.
“Nicholas’s cousin,” I explained. “I think it’s a bad idea.”
She shrugged. “The old Kate wouldn’t have cared.”
She had a point, and I was jumping to assumptions. Maybe he wasn’t all he seemed on the surface.
Maria balanced her books when they almost fell and looked at me. “What party?”
I looked at Grayson. “I know someone who is always up for throwing or knows of a good party.”
Vanessa groaned when she saw who I was staring at. “Your ex? Douchebag Grayson?”
I poked her side. “He’s not that bad, and besides, we used to be friends before we went out. I’m not going to get back with him.”
Vanessa gave me an unsure look, but Maria agreed to go. Two against one. “Good. I’ll be right back.”
I strutted toward Grayson and his friends. The two cheerleaders, Denise and Lola, didn’t look happy to see me. “Well, if it isn’t the girl who dropped out of the squad without so much as a good-bye.”
I began to apologize but stopped myself. The old Kate wouldn’t have taken that shit. “I’m sure it was a huge loss for you,” I snapped, remembering how unkind they were to me when I was on the squad. I turned toward Grayson. “I’m looking for a party. Know of any?”
