The Aether Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 6)

by Chandelle LaVaun

  “They were nervous,” Saffie whispered and spun around to face us. Her pale skin glowed like a pearl, like it had when we did the ceremony for our fallen friends. She looked around at the darkness around us, and her lavender eyes sparkled. “Althea and Aurelia...this is where they did all their dark magic. The forest thought we were them, so I had to reassure them before we go any farther.”

  “Why here?” Cooper asked.

  Royce scoffed, but it sounded more like a whimper. “Why any farther?”

  “The veil is thinner here. Or should I say there,” Tennessee said in his soft, velvety voice and pointed straight ahead. “Dark magic is strongest where the veil is thinnest.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Royce grumbled under his breath.

  Saffie smiled, but it was a sad smile. “Before we move into place, I want to give you a chance to change your mind.”

  “No, we have to.” Royce moved forward to stand beside her, then he looked to the rest of us. “For Deacon.”

  “For Deacon,” we all said at the same time.

  “Saffie, please guide us.” Tennessee gestured ahead. “We follow your lead here.”

  “Okay, come with me.”

  With that, Saffie turned and stepped between the two trees she’d touched...and vanished.

  I gasped. My pulse skipped a beat then skyrocketed. The darkness was too much. Henley’s arm was ice cold against mine.

  Tennessee tightened his hold on my hand then tugged me forward. “Let’s get this over with.”

  He led us into the darkness, following Saffie’s path. Each step she took, the dirt sparkled with golden glitter. A few feet in, there was a soft buzz in the air, and then little balls of light flickered over our heads. Fairyflies! There had to be thousands of them, so much more than last time. They hovered around us in a circle like a protective force field. I craned my neck and looked up. The trees looked like skyscrapers, so tall and densely leaved that I couldn’t see the sky or stars. Not even the moon was visible. The fairyflies flew above. Thanks to Saffie’s little lightning bug friends, I could actually see everyone and everything going on.

  “Thank you, but stay around the sides so you don’t get hurt,” Saffie whispered, and the fairyflies above us all flew down to join the circle. Then Saffie turned to us. “I just need you to stay right where you are.”

  “Everyone got that?” Tennessee glanced at each of us. “Let Saffie handle this.”

  I pictured the note Elizabeth had left me in the Book of Shadows, the one that warned us about the item from the land and personal belongings. Part of me knew I should’ve shown them, but I was trying to not hurt Tennessee or distract him.

  I cleared my throat. “Guys, don’t offer anything, and don’t accept anything. In fact, don’t speak. Let’s let Tennessee do the talking here.”

  Everyone nodded and voiced their agreement.

  Tennessee sighed. “Okay. Saffie, you let me know when to start, all right?”

  “Yes.” She pushed us into a tighter group then spun around. “No one move.”

  She walked straight out from us about ten feet then reached into her leather satchel bag. When she pulled her hand out, the smell of lavender washed over me and swept into my lungs. She crouched down and set a pile of little lavender petals on the dark ground.

  “Rouse the spirits of the North,” Saffie yelled with her arms raised high. “We call your power to come forth.”

  My heart fluttered. This is it. We’re intentionally summoning a demon.

  Saffie walked to our right and knelt down. She set a pile of sage on the dirt. “Rouse the spirits of the East. We call your strength to be released.”

  We watched, riveted and nervous as Saffie moved to kneel behind us where she set a pile of thick, ivory-colored sea salt.

  She raised her hands in the air a third time. “Rouse the spirits of the South. We call your harmony from Mother’s mouth.”

  Her glowing golden steps were the coolest thing I’d ever seen, and I kept getting really distracted by them.

  “Rouse the spirits of the West. We call your wisdom to see problems rest,” Saffie yelled to the sky, standing off to our left in front of a pile of white rice. Then she turned and walked to the center of the square, her pink wings fluttering. When she stopped, she looked to the sky again. “Hear us, quadrants of our realm’s great plain. Protect us within your power’s domain.”

  All at once, the four piles lit up in a single white flame. It stood straight and a foot tall off the ground, neither flickering or swaying. The five of us stood huddled close together in the corner by South’s white flame, watching Saffie work.

  She reached inside her satchel and pulled out a little stick that kind of resembled a wand. Words poured out of her lips like a song, but it wasn’t in any language I’d ever heard. The wand-stick in her pale hand glistened like a diamond under a spotlight, then there was a crack and glitter exploded around it. The stick shimmered and grew to be at least four feet tall.

  Saffie slammed the tip of her new staff in the dirt then dragged it along in straight lines until she’d made a perfect pentagram. No wait...that’s an inverted pentagram. Two points of the star were on top, facing north, like horns. Dark magic. The second she finished the upside-down star, the lines glowed bright red like fresh lava.

  Royce grumbled under his breath, and this time I didn’t blame him. The mark of dark magic was unsettling to the mind but also to the magic in our veins. We didn’t want to use it, but we had no choice.

  Saffie dropped to her knees and pressed her palms to the dirt. She craned her neck back and chanted, “Hear my blood of Court and Coven. Cruel and kind my magic is woven. We seek your power of time and space. I summon thee, Cronos, to this place.”

  The lava-red lines changed to bright neon blue. The glowing grew in intensity until little blue flames popped up from the ground. Runes and ancient symbols appeared in the dirt in that same neon blue. I had no idea where they came from. Saffie hadn’t written them. The blue flames flickered and grew a little taller until the tips turned orange. The air around us cracked and popped, pulling my attention away from the flames. Purple lightning shot out of the ground up to the sky. It fanned out like a spiderweb then spread over our heads and down to the ground in a protective dome, trapping us in place.

  I was about to ask if something had gone wrong when thick black smoke billowed out of the ground in front of Saffie. A dark shadowy figure appeared right in the middle of it. I blinked my eyes rapidly, sure I wasn’t seeing things right. The smoke changed to dark red and then finally a dark orange color. But that figure remained black. It moved forward, walking on air without touching the ground until it stood before us with long, long white hair and big antlers on her head. The woman was completely nude but wrapped in thorned vines that pierced her skin enough to make her bleed. She cocked her head to the side and narrowed her big, bright red demon eyes. A dark shadow wrapped around her, blocking her from sight. When it vanished, the woman in front of us wore a jet-black three-piece suit and stiletto heels.

  She arched one eyebrow and grinned. “I am Cronos. Who dared summon me?”

  My body turned to ice. The hairs on my arms stood tall. This demon was nothing like I expected, and that terrified me down to my soul. She was breathtakingly gorgeous but carried an aura of pure menace and pain.

  Cronos is a woman? Why does everyone think it’s a man?

  “I summoned thee,” Saffie yelled.

  Cronos pursed her lips. “You drew the lines and proclaimed the words, but it is not you who seeks me.”

  Tennessee stepped forward. “We seek you.”

  “Hello there,” Cronos purred. She looked my boyfriend up and down and licked her lips. Her red eyes flared with light. “Tell me, gorgeous. Speak to me your problems.”

  His shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. “We were tricked by the Seelie Court and sent back in time. We seek your assistance to send us home, to Salem, Massachusetts, on October 27, 2018.�
��

  Cronos narrowed her red eyes then looked us all over. She sauntered around the square Saffie had drawn, moving from one corner to the next without stopping. Just when I thought we were about to be roadkill, she stepped back in front of us and smiled. It was the kind of smile that made my stomach curl up and my heart skip beats.

  “I can send you and your friends home, Emperor, but you shall have to pay a price.”

  Emperor. She knows who we are.

  Tennessee inclined his head. “What do you require of us?”

  Her grin widened. “One animal.”

  I gasped. Elizabeth’s note. Item of the land—animal. She’d been spot-on. I knew she was the Hierophant, and I knew they had psychic abilities...but I never realized it was like that. It made me wonder if Bentley had known what would happen to us.

  “That is what you require of us? One animal sacrifice?” Tennessee’s face was pale, like the idea sickened him.

  Cronos chuckled and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. “One living, breathing animal I get to take with me. I wish to have a pet from Earth.”

  “That is all?”

  “I like your courage, as foolish as it may be when dealing with me.” Cronos strolled over to Tennessee then ran her thin, pale finger down his chest. “The choice is yours, Coven. Gather your dying friend and his soulmate, with my price. I will return at midnight. If you reject this offer, I will not come back. And I am your only way to get home. Choose wisely.”

  Chapter Nine

  TEGAN

  “An animal?” Emersyn shrieked. Her golden eyes were red and puffy. “She…This Time Demon wants an animal?”

  “A living, breathing animal.” Royce sighed and plopped down beside Deacon’s bed.

  “A pet from Earth,” Cooper growled and shook his head. He stared out the window at the black sky. “Like a damn souvenir.”

  Emersyn’s face paled. “To do what with?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Henley said, though her voice was muffled. She sat on the nearby wooden chair hugging her knees to her forehead. “It’s what Cronos wants.”

  “I always thought Cronos was a guy,” Royce grumbled.

  “Demons can take many forms,” Saffie said so softly I almost didn’t hear her.

  It doesn’t matter. We can’t give either to her. I looked over at Tennessee to gauge his reaction.

  He stared at the wooden floor with his arms crossed over his chest. He knew what I did. I saw it in the straight line of his mouth and the way his jaw muscle flexed. We couldn’t give her an animal. I couldn’t have said why I was so certain of this, but I was. And not only because of that note in the Book.

  “You cannot give her an animal, regardless of kind,” Myrtle said, matching the thoughts in my head. She stood at the fireplace watching the flames flicker. “It is a bad, bad idea.”

  Emersyn looked down at her dying soulmate and frowned. “Why exactly is it a bad idea?”

  Show them, Tegan. Show them what Elizabeth wrote you. I sighed. “I have to show you something.”

  Everyone’s gazes snapped to me.

  I pulled the crystal necklace out from under my dress and squeezed it in my palm. It warmed and glowed bright for a second before it turned back into the ancient leather-bound Book of Shadows I knew so well. In my peripheral vision, I saw everyone focus on me. Tennessee moved closer. I flipped the Book open, pressed my palm to the page, then thought Elizabeth Bishop. The pages flipped on their own until they found the right one. I scanned the bottom to make sure it was there. It was.

  “I found this earlier when we were trying to summon the Fae.” I licked my lips and peeked up at Tennessee. “It’s a note from Elizabeth Bishop, who is the Hierophant here in 1692.”

  Myrtle gasped. “She left you another note?”

  “What did she say?” Emersyn leaned forward and eyed the Book. “Will it help us get home?”

  “She said after I spoke with her that she had a vision of me summoning something. Then she said not to give them the item from the land because it would be catastrophic.”

  Royce whistled. “That’s comforting.”

  “That’s not something to ignore.” Cooper turned toward Myrtle. “You said the same.”

  Myrtle shook her head. Her eyes were hooded and sad.

  For a moment, everyone was silent.

  Tennessee cursed and scrubbed his face with his hands.

  “I don’t understand. How did Elizabeth know?” Emersyn asked. “What exactly did she know?”

  Leyka, who’d been silent for a while, chuckled. He looked to Em with a smile. “Hierophants know more than they let on. They can see the future, at least parts of it.”

  Royce groaned and rested his head on Deacon’s bed. “But she says we can’t give an animal, so what the hell are we supposed to do?”

  Emersyn shook her head. “But why can’t we give an animal? She wants it alive.”

  Myrtle shook her head and dropped into the rocking chair in the corner. “Giving her an animal gives her a line to Earth, a type of portal to be able to get back here on her own. Cronos is a greater demon of sorts, and you mustn’t give her that ability.”

  “So then what do we do?” Royce asked. “Deacon…Deacon needs to get home.”

  “Tenn?” Cooper turned toward him with expectant eyes. “You have any ideas here?”

  He sighed, but it was half a growl. “I’m thinking.”

  We have to trick Cronos. But how? She knew about Deacon’s deteriorating health and the fact that he had a soulmate who wasn’t with us. I didn’t know if that meant she somehow could see us. Or if she read minds…or… I had no idea how she knew that. It made me nervous to suggest anything out loud.

  “Let me see that?” Tenn held his hand out for the Book. When I handed it over, he frowned and scanned over the note. He licked his lips. “Elizabeth said we need to trick Cronos, but I’m at a loss here.” Tenn looked to me. “She seems to think Tegan will come up with an idea, and after the stunts she pulled off this month, I have to agree.”

  I groaned and hugged the Book of Shadows to my chest. “No pressure, right?”

  “You are the High Priestess for a reason,” Saffie said with a chipper voice and a wink.

  Tennessee arched one eyebrow at me. He tried to hide the little smirk on his face by scratching his jaw, but I saw it. I knew what he was thinking. Sucks to be the leader. I finally understood exactly why he didn’t want to be Coven Leader—the pressure. Being a leader was a heavy role, and not one you got to play only when you wanted to. Everyone was looking to me now to figure this out, to get us home, and I’d never felt more helpless in my life.

  Around me my friends were brainstorming, but I knew none of their alternatives would work. Cronos had even said as much. She was our only way back, and this was our one shot to get her help. Which meant we had until sunset to devise a plan. I’d never thought twelve hours was so short before. I looked over to our gracious hosts, our friends from the future. We’d only been in the past a short time, but I already felt so close to them. I couldn’t wait to get back to the future so I could see them, so I could talk to them about all the things we were experiencing now.

  And yes, I couldn’t wait to yell at them for being so shady. All those years, Saffie had watched Tenn, Cooper, Royce, and Henley at Hidden Kingdom, yet she’d never said a thing. Myrtle meeting us on Crone Island and not warning us. Leyka pretending like he didn’t even know us, only to then play with us by making a comment about my relationship with Tenn. Not to mention that whole ordeal with Leyka sending Keltie to— Oh my Goddess.

  KELTIE.

  Keltie. How could I forget? I had absolutely no idea who or what Keltie was. Not really. I knew she’d been a mermaid that one time we’d met, but she didn’t always live there. I had even less idea if Keltie was somehow alive in 1692. But she’d given me the golden wave ring on my finger, and the cuff earrings. She’d said if I needed her to call her. And I knew the instructions. I knew how to call her. There was no k
nowing if she’d even know how to help us, but it was worth a shot. Besides…Leyka was the one who’d sent Keltie to me. And Leyka knew damn well what we were going to go through when he sent her to me. She had to be our answer.

  I raised my hand and pressed the golden wave ring to the cuff earrings on my ear, like I was told. Warm energy tingled into my ear and down my spine. My magic rushed to the surface. I focused my thoughts and my magic into the ring. Keltie.

  The room fell silent. Everyone turned to watch me. Apparently I’d said her name into everyone’s minds. Leyka jumped and looked around like he wasn’t sure where the voice had come from. Saffie frowned and her wings fluttered. Myrtle closed her eyes and sighed.

  Keltie, if you can hear me, I need your help.

  The wind rumbled and roared outside. It slammed against the wooden panels of the house. The windows rattled and fogged over. A gust of wind swept through the room, cool and crisp and maybe even a little bit wet. My hair whipped around. The room filled with salty ocean air like I was standing on the beach.

  “I hear you, High Priestess,” Keltie’s voice sang through our minds. “Come to the shore.”

  Chapter Ten

  TEGAN

  I left everyone at the house.

  Not intentionally. I just kind of panicked. I was afraid she’d leave if I didn’t get there quick enough. Fortunately, Leyka’s house was close to the shore, so I hadn’t had to run far.

  When my skirt dragged through wet sand, I glanced down and spotted my Coven-mates in my peripheral vision, standing right behind me. It was only then that I realized the nervous, hectic energy tingling down my spine wasn’t mine.

  Tennessee moved to stand beside me. He looked up and down the shoreline with a deep frown. “We left Em at the house with them. They’re working on Deacon.”

  Deacon. What if this doesn’t work? What if Keltie can’t help us? I didn’t want to voice my concerns, not even to Tenn, so I simply nodded. My heart was lodged in my throat, and I barely squeaked out, “Good.”