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

by Chandelle LaVaun

  “Empress?” Katherine whispered from close by. When I looked at her, she smiled and nodded her head toward Deacon. “Go sit beside him. Soulmates heal faster when their other half is close.”

  Heal faster? I ran over and reclaimed my spot on his bed. My back pressed against the wall. I took his hand in mine and held it in my lap. If me sitting by his side was what it would take to heal him faster, then that was what I was going to do.

  The room door swung open again, and this time Larissa slipped inside carrying a vial and a big bowl. She carried them both straight over and set them on the end table right beside me. “Eat. Drink. They’ll help with the nerves and anxiety.”

  “Thank you,” I said, even though I didn’t believe her. The only thing that would ease my nerves and anxiety was Deacon waking up.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  TEGAN

  Waking up in Tennessee’s arms was quickly becoming my favorite thing. I wasn’t sure how I’d ever go back to sleeping apart. Don’t think about that yet.

  I sighed and snuggled in closer. His chest was the hottest furnace I’d ever felt, and it was heaven against my back. It may have been a crispy, cool fifty degrees outside, but I was perfectly warm.

  The sun shined through the windows and drapes we hadn’t closed. Outside our room, people moved around, showers ran, and smells of bacon wafted up the stairs. I heard voices from different spots in the house. The Coven was up, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t leaving my Tennessee-cocoon until someone came in here and made me.

  There was a soft knock on the door, and before I could answer it or pretend I was still asleep, it swung open. My father stood in the doorway, dressed in his standard jeans and flannel. He didn’t try to hide the way he looked us up and down, like he was trying to decide if we were dressed under our blanket. I sighed and threw the blanket off our bottom half. I kicked my leg out for him to see my black skinny jeans, and Tenn’s black jeans.

  My father smiled. A soft pink blush covered his cheeks, and he cleared his throat. “We’re having a meeting downstairs. Cooper has some things to share, too. So…come on down. We’ll wait for you.” Then he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

  Damn it. I’d jinxed myself. Someone had come in here and made me get up.

  I rolled over to face Tennessee then brushed my fingers over his face. “Babe,” I whispered.

  “If we pretend I’m still asleep, they can’t start yet,” he grumbled with his eyes still closed.

  I chuckled and pressed my lips to his for a quick kiss. When I pulled back, he followed, taking my mouth with his. I sighed and leaned into him. His lips were warm and soft, but his kiss was hot and hungry. He cupped my jaw and angled my chin up with his thumb to deepen our kiss. My body ignited under his touch. I just wanted to lay in his arms all day. His tongue brushed against mine. I arched my back and pulled him in closer. He rolled me onto my back. His hand slid down my side then gripped my thigh.

  Then he was gone.

  I gasped at the sudden loss of heat. When I sat up, he was all the way across the room at the door. He pulled his hair up into a messy knot on top of his head, then turned to look at me.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he said with a chuckle. “Your father will come back to check on us.”

  “Fine.” I climbed out of bed and walked over to him. I tangled my hands in his and stood up on my tiptoes to kiss his lips. “But I’m not putting any more clothes on yet.”

  He threw his head back and laughed as he tugged me out of the room. He still had a smile on his face as we walked into the living room and found everyone waiting for us. Well, almost everyone. Emersyn and Deacon were missing, but that was expected.

  Lily held her palm out in front of Easton.

  Easton cursed and hung his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash then dropped it into her waiting hand. “Just take all of it, woman.”

  “Remember that, lover boy. I don’t do prenups.” Lily smirked and gave him a wink.

  Tennessee frowned and glanced over at me.

  I shrugged. I think they made a bet on us.

  Timothy chuckled. “Boy, if that ain’t a warnin’, I don’t know what is.”

  Uncle Kessler just shook his head and looked at us. He was lounged on the sofa with an empty bowl in his lap. “We have a few things to discuss here this morning. The first is where we think we might find the last Elemental Stone, the Spirit Stone.”

  Tennessee sat on the couch beside his father and pulled me down beside him, half in his lap. “Bentley and Kenneth, did you find anything in the books while we were gone?”

  “We found lots of things in the books,” Bentley said with a wide smile and a milk mustache. He sat on the floor by the coffee table in between our parents’ feet. “None of it relevant to our current predicament.”

  “Predicament?” Cooper shook his head and laughed. “This kid.”

  I frowned. “Remind me what the lines from the prophecy were for that Stone?” Usually I remembered these types of details, but I’d read so many spells in the last few days, they were all running together.

  “Last, summon thy magic to Power’s hand, unleash Spirit’s stone upon command.” Henley groaned. “Obviously, it’s the most logical clue we’ve ever seen.”

  “Maybe we need to go where there are a lot of spirits?” Paulina said then shrugged. “Or ask spirits?”

  Tennessee nodded. “Not a bad idea. We can definitely check that out. Paulina, can you write down all the places you think we should look?”

  She pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side. “Yes, but maybe I should go there and check them out myself? I mean, I am the only one who can see them or speak to them. And they get shy, so it would be best if I was alone.”

  “No one goes anywhere alone,” Henley snapped. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sorry, just…no. No going alone.”

  Timothy narrowed his eyes and stared at her, then he nodded. “She’s right. Paulina, take Braison with you. Then you’re not alone, but not gonna scare them off. That work?”

  She nodded and curled into Braison’s lap. Braison looked up from the large bite of cereal he was shoveling in his mouth like he’d missed the entire conversation. He gave one thumbs-up.

  Timothy leaned against the sofa across from Tennessee and looked to me. “You have any idea where it may be?”

  I shook my head.

  “Which brings me to our second topic: finding the Gap itself.” Uncle Kessler leaned his elbows on his knees. “The Coven cloaked it, hiding it from everyone. We have to find the location before we can unveil it.”

  “Oh, great, a catch twenty-two,” Royce grumbled from over in the bay window.

  “Except we don’t know where that is, or where to start looking,” my mother added.

  “Well, I think we divide and conquer.” Tennessee rubbed his hands together. “We go in groups and search the town. It’s here somewhere. Anything could be a clue.”

  “And now we’re on our third topic: Cooper’s dream invasion.” Uncle Kessler laughed at his own joke. “Nephew, what did you find?”

  Cooper groaned and threw his head back against the sofa. “Nothing. Lots of random stuff.”

  “Can you elaborate, please, son?”

  Cooper cursed. “I saw Royce in a garden with a dragon. Henley...well, I’m not really sure what I saw there. I’ll relay to her in private and see what she thinks. Then I also saw Emersyn burning the hell out of stuff, which terrifies me.”

  “Not me,” I mumbled. When everyone looked to me, I shrugged. “We’re gonna need that. You’ll see.”

  “I also saw Paulina on what I think was a cliff by the ocean surrounded by spirits, so maybe she’s onto something with her idea?” Cooper sat forward and snapped his fingers. “Oh, I also saw Constance at Edenburg surrounded by fire and demons, and she said there was too many. Maybe one of us can check in on her?”

  “I’ll do that once we’re done,” Timothy assured him.
/>
  “I saw…a bunch of things from Bentley—”

  “Yeah, don’t bother trying to cipher through those.” Bentley cut up a stack of pancakes. “You don’t have the vision I do, so mine won’t make sense to you.”

  “That makes sense.” Then Cooper frowned and glanced over to me. “There was only one other dream. I’m not sure whose it was, but Tegan and Tennessee were in it. We were at The Gathering.”

  Tennessee groaned. “Yeah, that was mine.”

  I gasped and sat up. “I had that dream, too.”

  Everyone froze. The three of us looked back and forth at each other.

  “All three of you were in the same dream at the same time?” Royce whistled and shook his head.

  “Talk about a—”

  “Easton.” Lily smacked him in the arm.

  Kenneth tapped his finger on the couch. “If you were all there, then there was something you needed to see.”

  “We need to see,” Timothy corrected him.

  “Except I can’t think of what that could be. I lived through it, and I dreamed it.” Tennessee scratched his head. “I’ve been going over it in my head all morning.”

  “Man, no fair,” Easton grumbled. “I like to watch, too.”

  Lily rolled her purple eyes. “Good, you’ll be doing a lot of it.”

  “Wait.” I leaned forward and stared at Cooper. “Maybe he can watch. Maybe everyone can. Coop, I think you should make us all see that dream together right now.”

  “Oh, I like that idea.” Bentley pointed to me. “Let’s try that, then the second round of pancakes will be done.”

  Cooper’s face paled a little but he nodded. “Okay. All right, yeah, let’s do this. Let’s all go watch Tegan and Tennessee at The Gathering.”

  Wait. What? What did I just suggest? I’d said the idea before I thought it through at all. The Gathering was where Tennessee and I met, where I met Emersyn. Where I made a fool of myself with Tennessee. And now…everyone was going to watch.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  TEGAN

  One second I was sitting beside Tennessee on the couch in Coven Headquarters, the next I was drenched in darkness. I recognized the forest in an instant, the dim moonlight barely trickling through the towering pine trees. The thick fog hovering around our feet seemed to pulse with energy. I frowned and cocked my head to the side. It was the same, but I wasn’t. Now that I knew I was a witch, I felt the eerie edge in the breeze, and the eyes of the dead on my back.

  My heart skipped a beat and my palms grew sweaty. Oh God. Okay, all right. We’re doing this. Why did I suggest this? I had no interest in seeing this again. I’d already lived through it, then dreamt it last night. Third time was overkill.

  But it was too late to turn back now. Cooper had sucked the entire Coven into his dream. The only part of that night I wanted to see again was meeting Tennessee, though I didn’t want to watch everyone else see it. My stomach did flips like an Olympic gymnast.

  “Where are we?” Braison asked. He frowned and kicked at the fog.

  “Deep in the Smoky Mountains,” Tennessee said softly from my side. His eyes stared ahead, but his fingers tightened on mine.

  Easton cursed and shook his head. “This is The Gathering?”

  “Yes.” Cooper stepped ahead of the group then turned to face us. “This is just where my vision started, so that’s all I can show you.”

  My father groaned. “Tegan, you were here by yourself?”

  “Bettina was here.” When he growled, I shrugged. “Would it help to know I found Emersyn in the woods just like this?”

  His face paled. He placed his hands on his head. “Oh my God. That’s right. You were both here.”

  My mother smiled and wrapped her arm around his. “Everyone needs to remember that this night already happened. We’re just watching a replay. So let’s let Cooper show us what he saw.”

  “Follow me.” Cooper turned and waved for us to follow him.

  Up ahead, an orange glow flickered through the trees from the dozen raging bonfires in the clearing. I took a deep breath and inhaled the smell of burning wood. If I concentrated hard enough, there was a low rumble of voices nearby. We were close. I bit my lip and tried to stay calm. My whole body tingled and buzzed with wild, anxious energy. It was just like last time, except now I knew what was going to happen.

  You’ve done this before. You survived it. You can do this.

  When we stepped into the clearing, my heart did somersaults in my chest. There it was. The Gathering. A clearing tucked within the Smoky Mountains that hid a horror of our past. I tried to imagine Elizabeth Bishop coming here, helping The Coven set up shop here, only to find themselves in a bloodbath.

  Royce whistled and leaned back on his heels, with a small smirk on his face like he wished he could’ve been here for real.

  “Whoaaa…” Willow pushed to the front of the group. Her eyes were wide.

  “Incredible, isn’t it?” Timothy chuckled. “I’ve been every year except for this one.”

  “Lucky me,” Tennessee grumbled.

  “How did we not hear this from the woods?” Bentley scratched his head and glanced behind us. “We were just a few feet in.”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “That was the exact question Emersyn had.”

  Kenneth sighed. “Yeah, that’s me. I placed a spell around the clearing so that no one would hear from outside it.”

  My eyes widened. I glanced over my shoulder at him and he winked. “Wicked.”

  “All right, let’s get in there before we miss anything.” Cooper charged into the clearing.

  While walking between these bonfires, it felt like I was there all over again. It was different with Cooper’s magic than when I dreamed it on my own. I had free thoughts and I was awake. I still didn’t want to relive it, but my feet carried me forward anyway. Just like that actual night, I felt some kind of force pulling me in. My body moved on its own volition.

  Tennessee squeezed my hand. My heartbeat slowed a little, but I glanced around with it still in my throat. The fog surrounding the clearing looked like some force field hovering on the edges, waiting to attack. Lightning cracked across the night sky. The sky twinkled with little diamonds, but over the trees were thick, thunderous clouds. It looked like the fog was seeping upwards and pouring into the sky. It was creepy as hell. Last time I loved it. Last time, I was too naïve to feel the danger approaching.

  I looked left to right, right to left as I tried to soak in every detail at once. There was something here we needed to see. I needed to focus, or otherwise reliving this with an audience was torture for nothing.

  “Look!” Chutney shouted. “There’s Tennessee.”

  The glyph on my chest pounded like a jackhammer. It was Tennessee’s pulse. Heat poured out of his body. I looked up, and my breath left me in a rush. There he was. I sighed.

  God, you’re beautiful, I whispered into his mind. It was exactly like I remembered. His long, wavy black hair was a little wild and disheveled. Even now, my fingers itched with the need to push those strands out of his face. His tan skin looked like honey under the fire’s flickering glow and his all-black attire. He was tall and lean but with chiseled muscles stretching his shirt. But mostly, I remembered seeing his eyes for the first time. The green one like fresh spring grass. The blue one vibrant like the ocean. Just like that night, goose bumps spread over my skin. I chewed on my thumbnail to try and hide the smile on my face.

  “Dude, why the murderous face?” Easton shook his head and laughed.

  “I was trying to concentrate,” Tennessee grumbled. There was an edge to his voice that I recognized: he was nervous.

  “Which part of the night are we at?” I whispered.

  Just then a dark object crashed right into dream-Tennessee, and a girl cursed. Dream-Tenn caught her and pulled her up to her feet. The girl with long dark hair looked up at him— I gasped. OH GOD. It was me. My stomach turned. Butterflies bounced around like a pinball machine. My heart
fluttered. I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t look away.

  “Holy shit, holy shit.” Easton turned to look at me and pointed at the dream version of us. “Is this how you two met?”

  I bit my lip and nodded.

  “Wait, is there no sound? Why can’t we hear them?” Lily took a few steps closer.

  “Because they’re not speaking,” Cooper said and shook his head.

  “They’re just staring into each other’s eyes!” Easton threw his head back and pressed his hands to his chest. “It’s just so romantic!”

  I groaned and buried my face in Tennessee’s shoulder. “Okay, is there a fast-forward button? We don’t need to see this.”

  “Does anything happen in this dream that I don’t want to see?” my father asked. “Tell me now, and I’ll close my eyes. Plug my ears, I don’t know.”

  I gasped and tore my gaze away from Tenn to stare at my father as everyone else laughed. “Dad.”

  He shrugged. “Just tell me now.”

  I looked up to Tennessee and found his cheeks flushed a deep pink. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “No, but we can still fast-forward.”

  “Hi…” dream-Tennessee said softly, with that low and rough voice like velvet.

  We all spun back around to the dream.

  “Nice pick-up line, boss,” Royce teased.

  Dream-me stared up at him with wide, twinkling green eyes like he was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. “Hi…”

  I sighed and wrapped my arms around the real Tennessee beside me. Warmth spread through my chest. He’d taken my breath away that night. It was strange to think back to that time, when I didn’t know I was a witch. When I didn’t know that I’d just met my soulmate. He’d stuck in my mind after this night. I hadn’t been able to rid my thoughts of him even days later. It would’ve been nice to understand why back then.

  Henley sighed so loud all of us turned to look at her. She shrugged and smiled. “I’ve never witnessed two soulmates meeting before. It really is beautiful.”