I took a deep breath so the words would come out right. “Bentley Bishop, The Coven presents to you the Hierophant’s locket in hopes that it’s magic and power has selected you.”
Chapter Seventeen
Tegan
00:28:16
My fingers trembled. The world around me went still and quiet. No birds chirping, no waves crashing onto the shore…just the heavy pounding of my heart and my unsteady breath. In the last week, I’d had many difficult moments, but this one hurt deep down. How could a person pray for both outcomes at the same time? I wanted it to be Bentley so we’d finally guess correctly, and also so I wouldn’t be the reason we failed. Yet at the same time, I desperately didn’t want it to be him. This life as a Card, the life of The Coven…was treacherous and terrifying.
I looked at the timer on my arm. 00:28:16. I didn’t know if the clock stopped when I said the words, or if the world had stopped moving.
And then…Bentley smiled. His grin crinkled his eyes and spread from ear to ear. He sighed. “You guys scared me for a second there.” He raised his right arm and pushed up the long sleeve of his shirt all the way up to his elbow, revealing a massive black V Marked into his thin little arm. With the arm carrying the symbol of the Hierophant, he reached out and plucked the ancient locket from my hands. His locket.
The second the golden metal touched his skin, his back arched and his feet lifted off the ground. He shot into the air like a firework. White shimmering dust swirled in the air around him. Gold and silver light erupted from his Mark.
I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I just stared. When Bentley’s feet finally hit the sand again, his smile grew softer and warmer, like he’d found peace inside himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then reopened them.
Oh my God. I was right. Tears filled my eyes.
“I told the Goddess you’d figure it out, Tey-tey. I told her you were brilliant.” Bentley smiled at me like I’d just saved the world. His amber eyes held a new kind of sparkle inside them, and a depth that gave me chills. He looped the golden chain around his neck, and the locket hung over his stomach. A tear slid down my cheek, and he cocked his head to the side. “Don’t cry, Teg—” He gasped.
“Bentley!” I cried.
His eyes glazed over, like a film of pure stardust. I reached for his arms and squeezed. My father and Devon appeared beside me in a flash. They, too, gripped onto his arms. Emersyn and Cooper crouched down beside him with similar frowns and misty eyes.
“Oh no,” Tennessee whispered from directly behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder. “What? What’s happening? Is something wrong? We guessed right!”
Tennessee didn’t answer; he didn’t even meet my eyes. His stare was locked on Bentley with intense concentration. Uncle Kessler stood next to him with his blond eyebrows raised to the clouds. He ran a hand over the back of his neck, his eyes unmoving.
“Uncle Kessler? Tennessee?”
“This is how it works,” Uncle Kessler said with a low voice.
“Already?” Tennessee blinked and shook his head. “I didn’t expect it so soon.”
“Expect what?” I snapped. What did they know that I didn’t?
“A new prophecy,” Bentley whispered.
I gasped and spun back around to face him. He raised his thin, lightly freckled arm in the air. There on his pale skin, just beneath his V Mark, were four lines of words written in a beautiful script.
I licked my lips, then read the words out loud. “Your crucial quest for the Book must wait, Because your charms were a step too late. To save the soul of not just one, The string of lies must come undone.”
The ground shook under my knees, and the world spun. I reached out and grabbed ahold of the first thing I touched. Heat soared through my hand and up my arm. A gust of wind blew from behind, carrying Tennessee’s signature fresh rain scent. I clenched my teeth and soaked in his strength and energy. My thoughts spiraled out of control, bouncing from one thing to another without resolving any of them.
“What does it mean?” Emersyn leaned closer to his arm. She tucked her blonde hair behind her ears. “I don’t get it. What book?”
Cooper sighed and hung his head. “I don’t like the sound of this.”
“Another prophecy? Already? We just did three in one week!”
“Every single line of this one…” Henley shuddered and closed her eyes. “They unsettle me.”
“Not just one more, guys. It says there’s another quest after this one,” Royce said, his voice on the edge of crazed. He walked up to Bentley and pointed at the prophecy line in question. His faux-hawk was uncharacteristically disheveled. “Look. LOOK.”
“Royce is right,” Easton said from somewhere nearby, though out of my sight. “Why can’t we get a break?”
“Because Samhain is around the corner.” Bentley raised both palms in the air to stop the stream of questions and concerns from my Coven-mates. “If things keep going the way they have been, we might not succeed in time.”
I frowned. It was odd to see my baby brother with a significant role in The Coven. The second he spoke, the others silenced. He didn’t even sound like himself. His choice of words sounded older and wiser. Was that a side effect of being the Hierophant?
With the hand not clinging to Tennessee, I rubbed sand out of my eyes. “Bentley, what are you saying? The way things have been going?”
Bentley sighed then shrugged. “Because your charms were a step too late.”
“All right, that’s enough, everyone.” Uncle Kessler pushed through the crowd. When he got up to my brother, he wrapped his arm around Bentley’s shoulders. “Welcome to The Coven, Bentley. For now, we need to go home and be with our families. Tonight, we let ourselves grieve for the ones we’ve lost, and cherish the ones still with us. Tomorrow, our new quest can reign our thoughts.”
Chapter Eighteen
Tennessee
My brain seemed to be in a heavy fog, and I wasn’t sure how to shake it. A week ago, I’d avoided telling Cassandra about my recurring dreams fearing she’d make me discuss my feelings. A week ago, the idea had filled me with dread. A week ago, I would’ve done anything to avoid looking too closely at the chaos roaming free deep down inside me. If I had only known. If she would’ve told me her days were limited, I would’ve told her every doubt, fear, and insecurity.
Not for the first time, I wished Cassandra had gotten to meet Tegan.
Tears I didn’t approve of pooled in my eyes. They rained down my cheeks in little rivers. It’s too much. I sighed and leaned against the wall of the house. Keep it together, Tennessee. You can’t fall apart now. I wiggled my fingers, and the water on my face dried. My heart pounded so hard in my chest it sent earthquake-like tremors through my body. I slid my back down the wall until my butt hit the cold, hard ground. Breathe, dude.
I took a deep breath of warm, wet air and groaned. With every passing day, summer in Florida got a little hotter and stickier. Even after the sun went down, the heat lingered. Sweat rolled down the back of my neck and onto my spine. I reached up and pushed my long hair off my face and neck, pulling it up into a knot on top of my head.
It was almost midnight, and like Cinderella, I felt the pressure to return home. Glass slipper or not. I had no business being here…sitting under Tegan’s bedroom window. But I wanted to see her. No, I needed to see her. I’d tried to go home and spend time with Kessler, and for a few hours, I’d managed to keep my emotions in check. Until my adoptive father went to bed and left me to my own devices. That was when I found myself here, in the one place I shouldn’t be. It was just… Just being near her calmed the raging storm inside me. All the chaos. All my fears. All the pain. When I was near her, I only felt safe and at peace. I felt strong and invincible, ready to save the world.
Tegan needed me, too. After she presented the locket to Bentley and the prophecy appeared on his arm, it wasn’t her twin she reached out for. It wasn’t her parents, Cooper, or even Henley. No, she�
��d reached out for me. It was subtle and quiet. She hadn’t said a word while doing it. It was that moment when it hit me. I’d fallen for her. Hard. In a few short days, she’d become the one thing I couldn’t live without. While the pain got to be too much, too deep, she’d be the only thing keeping me going.
I didn’t know why everyone thought I was so strong, when all I felt was weakness. I didn’t know why everyone wanted me to be their leader. Couldn’t they see what it did to me? I wished I had someone who understood.
You do. And you’re right inside that window. I sighed and the heat from my glyph spread into my shoulder.
In my mind, I heard Libby’s words to me. “You’re not going to break her heart because it would break yours too. She’s your soulmate. She’s your forever, your eternity. She’s the other half of your soul…”
“You really are the Queen of Temptation,” I whispered.
“I’m not tempting you, Emperor,” she whispered back. “I’m warning you.”
“Damn it, Libby.” She was right. Pushing Tegan away could be as dangerous as breaking her heart. It was a cruel, sick joke that the only person who knew the truth was the one I’d lost. Libby had always been a good friend, one of my favorites in the group. In the last couple weeks, I’d gotten the sense she’d wanted more from me, and I hated that I couldn’t return it. Yet even still, despite her own feelings, she’d supported me. She gave me the advice I needed to hear.
I climbed to my feet and stared at Tegan’s closed window. In the back of my mind, I knew there was a chance Emersyn was in there, too, but it was a risk I was stupid enough to take. My magic responded to my will, raising the glass window up without me touching it. I grabbed the windowsill and hoisted myself through the open space.
I landed on the balls of my feet, my entrance silenced by a dark rug. The lights in the room were off, so I willed my body to glow. Bright white radiated from my body in a small radius, just enough to see a few feet around me. The only other time I’d been in their bedroom was the night I’d returned a sleepwalking Emersyn. I looked over to the bed on my right, in the corner by the front windows, but it was empty. Part of me knew I should be concerned of the whereabouts of our Empress, but my mind had its horse blinders on.
“Tennessee?”
I spun on my toes at the sound of her voice. In the glow from my body, her pale green eyes sparkled. The tears running down her cheeks glistened like broken glass. My heart sank and my stomach twisted into knots. I’d never seen her cry, and it broke a piece of me. She sat on the floor, leaning against her bed in the same exact position I’d just been in outside her window. I closed the distance between us and dropped to the ground beside her. I willed my magic to subside until we were drenched in darkness, with only the moonlight streaming in through the windows. I didn’t want anyone to know I was in here.
“Hi,” I whispered.
I expected her to say hi back, since that was kind of our thing now. Instead, she stared at me in silence for a long moment, like she was fighting some internal battle. I waited, wanting her to take the lead here. If she asked me to leave, I would. It would hurt like hell, but I would do it. In the distance, Peyton Manning talked about insurance and singing that famous jingle. I figured her family must be in there watching television.
“Hi.” Tegan sniffed and leaned against my shoulder, wrapping her arms around mine. “How did you know I needed you?” she whispered against my shirt.
I closed my eyes and buried my face in her hair. “Maybe I needed you.”
“You don’t need me. You barely even notice me.”
The pain in my chest mounted, like I’d been ripped wide open. I swallowed through the lump in my throat. The distance was supposed to be for her own good, for everyone’s good. It was supposed to protect us from these feelings we couldn’t control. It wasn’t meant to hurt her, or to make her think I didn’t care about her. How had I not realized I’d pushed her too far, too fast?
“I notice the way it takes you four attempts to get your hair to stay in a messy bun when you’re nervous or anxious. I notice the way you fidget with the pentagram charm on your choker when you’re deep in thought. I notice the way you carry that black hoodie around with you everywhere, and how you hold on to it like a security blanket. I notice the way you smile when the wind blows your hair around. I notice the way the purple tips get lighter every day.”
She pulled back enough to look up at me, our eyes mere inches apart.
“I notice the grin on your face and the sparkle in your eyes when you use your magic. I notice the way you smirk moments before Emersyn does something badass, like you knew it was coming. I notice the way you watch Easton and Lily openly display their affection for one another, and then how you immediately look to me. I notice the way your eyes get a little wider when I walk up, and how you scan me up and down until you prove to yourself that I’m unharmed. I notice the way you look down to hide the flush in your cheeks.”
“You see all that?”
“I see everything about you.”
New tears poured over her eyelashes and down her face. “Then why do you stay so far away from me? Like you can’t stand to be near me.”
“Because I can’t stand to be near you. Sometimes. Because it’s too hard to act like…like…” I sighed and pressed my forehead to hers. “Like there’s nothing here at all.”
“Because we can’t?” Her minty breath brushed over my face.
“Strictly forbidden.”
She groaned. “It doesn’t make any sense, Tenn.”
“It will, Kitten. It will.” One day, when this is all over. And you won’t forgive me for lying, will you? Even in the dark, I saw her cheeks darken. I felt the warmth in her skin against mine.
She slid her hands down my arm then took my hand in both of hers. “Then why are you here?”
“Because I just lost two people I cared deeply about, in one week, and I needed to…to…see you.” I shrugged. “My feet carried me here all on their own.”
“I’m glad they did,” she whispered and moved to rest her head on my shoulder, directly above the glyph that marked her as mine.
“I am too.” My shoulder seared with heat, and I knew the glyph was growing, spreading all the way over my shoulder. It seemed to thrive in her presence. “Why are you sitting in here, alone in the dark, crying? What’s wrong?”
She groaned and turned into me further, her legs tangling with mine. “I’m scared.”
I squeezed her hands tighter to show that I was here for her. “Of what?” When she didn’t respond, I used my free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.
Some of the tension in her shoulders relaxed. “Everything…but mostly…Bentley.”
I suspected that. “Which part scares you?”
“He’s only a little kid. He’s only nine. He’s not ready for this. He’s not ready to fight demons and be in constant danger.”
“The Hierophant rarely fights. They’re too important to The Coven. They’re our connection to the Goddess, to the guidance we need to survive.” I cupped her jaw and tipped her face up to mine. Her green eyes widened and bored into me. I ignored the rush of heat inside me, the need to put my lips to hers. “And in case you forgot, they’re rather difficult to replace.”
Kiss me.
I inhaled, trying to ignore her inner plea. I couldn’t kiss her. Not while we were alone, in the darkness of her bedroom. I wasn’t strong enough for that. I was barely holding on to my sanity. If I kissed her right now, there would be nothing to stop me from giving in to my feelings for her. I would be lost afterward. I wasn’t going to push her away anymore, but I had to maintain a barrier around my heart. I licked my lips then pressed a soft kiss to her skin, right between her eyebrows.
She sighed and more of the tension left her body. “How can you say that after…”
“After our last Hierophant just died?” I finished for her. “Cassandra was an adult. She was thirty years old. As you said, Bentley is nine and new to our wo
rld. We will train him, prepare him in every way we can, but he will never be required or asked to fight in battle. I know it seems terrifying. I get it. I was only five when I was Marked—”
“Five?” she interrupted. “I thought you were a toddler when it happened, like most of the others?”
“After The Great Loss here in Tampa fifteen years ago, we’d lost more than half of The Coven, but The Emperor was not one of them. Nor were the High Priestess and Empress, by the way. They died a year before, which was how you two were born with your Marks.”
“Is that normal? To be born with Marks?”
“No, not at all,” I answered before I realized we were verging too closely on dangerous truths. “No one was too surprised when the Goddess refilled The Coven with locals because the Gap here is the largest in the world. That’s why we’re still here, and not in Eden.”
“So how did the last Emperor die?”
“No one knows. He went out one night and never returned home. The only reason they knew he died was because of the Mark appearing on my arm.” I closed my eyes and shuddered through the memories threatening to replay in my mind.
“You know, I don’t know anything about your life back then.”
I chuckled, though it wasn’t funny. “No one does.”
She frowned and rested her chin on my shoulder. “Tell me?”
“I wish I could.”
“Why can’t you?” She arched one black eyebrow. “Another strictly forbidden?”
“Because I can’t remember.” I smiled and brushed the back of my fingers down her cheek. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “I have no recollection of anything before the day I was Marked Emperor, the day Kessler found me. I only have one memory from that night, with my mother. And I’m not even sure how accurate it is.”
“Tell me about it?”
I nodded and leaned back against her bed as the images flooded my mind. In the beat of a second, I wasn’t in a dark bedroom with a girl, but in the dark wilderness of the Smoky Mountains. “We were running through the mountains late at night. I was terrified. I wanted my mother to carry me, but she was carrying something else. I can’t remember what that was though. When I visualize it, it’s just a dark blob. Anyway, we ran down to this river, and my mom put the thing she was carrying into the water and let go. I cried and tried to chase after it, but she stopped me.”
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