Ana Mourns (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 2)

by Alina Banks

  That wasn’t something I agreed with, but then I could see why Dad might think that was the case. But now, at least, I knew what I needed to do in order to help him, which wouldn’t be too hard. I slipped out of Sasha’s mind, leaving her with Dad, and turned to the things I’d been working on. Talking to Dad wasn’t necessarily going to be easy. I just knew it was better for both of us if he knew more of what was going on, just in case.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Dinner was quiet. Dad didn’t seem to be willing to break the silence, and I had no idea where to start with what I wanted to tell him. Instead, I ate, trying to work out what to say, how to say it, whether it was the right time to really be having that kind of conversation, and in the end, it took me until we were finished with our meal for me to speak up.

  “Dad, I think we need to talk.” He turned to look at me from where he’d been putting the plates into the dishwasher. “With Mom gone, things aren’t going to get any easier. I’m not going to say they’re going to get any harder either, because I don’t know for certain how things are going to work out, but it’s likely they will.”

  “You don’t need to talk to me about any of this.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s something I want to talk to you about.” I ran my tongue over my dry lips. “It’s just the two of us now. Mom might have made the decision to keep certain things from you, but I’m not Mom. I’m not going to make the same choices she did. If there’s anything you don’t want to know, you can tell me, and I’ll try to avoid the subject. Just…this is important to me. You are a part of this, even though you might not want to be, purely because you made the choice to marry Mom. I’m not going to say I think that was the best decision you could have made, but you loved her.” I shrugged. “Mom and I would have always dealt with things differently, and I don’t agree with the fact that she wasn’t open with you. Learning more about what it means to be a witch can only be a good thing for you, considering the fact that I am one, and the time will come when you need to decide if you want to stay in Clermont or not. I don’t have a choice right now. I need to be here. I need to stay in this house, and learn everything Mom never taught me.”

  “She always did what she thought was best for you.”

  “I know you didn’t agree with that. You wanted to tell me the truth long before she did. I wish she’d listened.”

  “Her experiences colored the choices she made. I could understand her, even if I wasn’t at all happy with the situation. She…Lilah talked to me a little more during the last couple of days about her time as a witch and how much she hated coming back here. I didn’t realize she did it because she truly believed she had no other options. She thought the demon was just going to keep following us, so she came here to bring an end to it all, even though she had no idea if that was even possible.” His eyes met with mine. “Yet you gave her hope. Something about your skills made her think you might be able to do something none of the other witches could.”

  “I have a stronger connection to the afterlife than most of the other witches. She talked about it at the hospital. Work has been done to find a way to banish the demon from Earth for good, and it seems that it can only be done by someone like me, as three witches need to take part in the spell. One needs to be in the physical realm, and be in a physical form. The second needs to be a dead witch in the physical realm. The third needs to be a dead witch in the spiritual realm, or the afterlife. Someone like me is probably the only person who can make it happen. There’s no way we can know until we try, though.”

  “Which means you won’t be trapped here any longer.”

  “No, I won’t, but I don’t know if I would want to leave. It really does depend on how things work out.” I thought about Alex, knowing he was one of the things that could convince me to stay in Clermont. “For now, I need to focus on dealing with the vampires, which needs to happen quickly. They might have assured me Mom’s attack on them won’t be held against us, but I can’t trust that, as there is a chance they might make their move right when we aren’t expecting it.”

  Jessie was waiting for me when I went out later that night to think things through. I’d almost expected it. My eyes met hers for a moment. “I heard Delilah died.”

  “Mom passed on this afternoon.” I studied her. “I’m sure you know how it happened.”

  “I was there at the time. It was hard not to know.” She shrugged. “I know Madeline was needling her. Delilah should never have tried to cast that spell. All of us knew there was an issue with it, and I’m sure you told her too. Her decision…I could see the emotions in her eyes, and I know it wasn’t entirely anger. She never wanted this life.”

  “Very few of us want the lives we’re born into. Mom never came to terms with what it meant to be a Conway, which I’m sure is why she made the decision to change her name when she got married, but it didn’t change anything. She was still one of us. She was still a witch who had to fight the demon.”

  “The witch in my family was my older sister.” Jessie stared into the distance. “She was already married, to a man Father chose for her, and she seemed happy. I wanted what she had, but I knew I was never going to be able to walk the same path she did. I loved someone Father didn’t approve of. The demon…he promised me he would give me the one thing I wanted. He’d give me the freedom to marry the man I loved. I believed him because I was an idiot, and it wasn’t until afterwards that I realized how terrible of a choice I had made. A choice I could never undo. When Mary realized what I’d done, she was devastated. I know she worked with Damien’s cousin to work on a way to save both of us. Only that was never going to work.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Oh, I do. The demon wanted us to kill all the witches he’d created because he was so angry with them for abandoning him, and Joseph was the only one who even seemed willing to do that. He hated the witches for very different reasons. The demon said it would be possible for Joseph to take over the hospital if he killed all the witches, and he would have done it, had it not been for the fact they knew we existed. Had we been able to hide, this would already be over.”

  “What happened?”

  “Unlike my sister and Damien’s cousin, the witches believed it would be better if we weren’t able to live in Clermont. They managed to cast a spell that banished us, using all their power, with the Cane at the time leading it. For nearly three hundred years, it was impossible for us to return. Then, when we could, the witches were ready for us, which wasn’t something Joseph had expected. He thought we would have been entirely forgotten, but that never happened. I’m sure that you also remembered us when we recently came into town, even if you didn’t know as much as they did, and I know you’re going to be the one to change things.”

  Morning brought with it a day when I should have been going to school, and I knew I could have easily convinced Dad I should go, but I didn’t really want to spend the day listening to people telling me how sorry they were about Mom. I also didn’t want to see Joseph Eason. At least, not until I had a better idea of how I was going to deal with the vampires, because he was the one I knew I needed to worry about the most. The one who could stop me from fulfilling the plans I had to make sure that everything worked out the way I wanted them to. When he looked at me, he saw someone who was in his way, according to Jessie. He cared more about the hospital than he did about anything else.

  Alex had left everything he’d found out about the Easons with me, but I knew the person I really needed to talk to was Rebecca. She was the one who had all the information about the hospital. I knew she’d have already looked into what I’d told her about, because we needed more information on the vampires, and eventually, we would understand the reason they existed. All of them. To me, it seemed like it would have been easier if the demon had simply created one vampire, and he’d instead chosen to create four. There had to be a reason for that, one we didn’t yet understand, which I was almost certain had to do with Joseph. Not knowing much about hi
m complicated everything. If I knew who he was, I might be able to understand the choices that were made before. Not that I was sure understanding why really mattered all that much. What I really needed to focus on was making sure they’d never be able to return to Clermont again, and the easiest way to do that was by killing them.

  Miss Cane was behind her desk when I stepped into her office, a number of books out in front of her, and I knew from the moment I saw them, that she had been looking into the history of the hospital. As she looked up, her eyes met with mine. “You were right. The Easons donated a lot of money when this hospital was first built. I’ve found documentation, signed by an Edward Eason, stating that the donations didn’t mean they had any ownership of the hospital, but I can understand why Joseph might have believed he deserved more. At the time it happened, he was the eldest son and fought with his father on the choice. Gretchen Eason was close friends with Francesca Cane, so the two of them wanted to build the hospital up together, with help from other members of the coven. It was Gretchen who shared the arguments the two Easons were having. Joseph said it was unfair of his father to use any part of their inheritance for something like the hospital, and Edward said it was entirely up to him what he did with the money he’d earned, because he wasn’t yet dead.

  “Three months later, Edward, Gretchen, and all of their children were dead, including Joseph. At least, that was what people believed. Joseph was the first to be buried, and it wasn’t until one of the other witches saw him that they knew something was wrong. Knowing he was still alive changed everything, and Francesca asked for help from the other witches to work out what to do next. That was when two of them, including the younger of the Conway witches, admitted that they knew of the vampires, due to family members having become them. They were working on a spell they hoped would fix the curse the demon had put on the vampires, but that wasn’t good enough for the majority of the coven. They wanted to make sure the vampires couldn’t harm anyone else, as Joseph had already killed Gretchen. They crafted a spell that would keep the vampires from returning to Clermont for as long as possible. Then, as they were always going to do, they worked on finding a way to send the demon back to his realm. Only that was never going to work out exactly the way they wanted it to, because due to the demon’s connections with this realm, including the vampires, they couldn’t possibly get rid of him for good.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “I’m not seeing anything that tells us exactly how these links work.” Miss Cane looked up at me from the journal she’d been studying. “Have you had any luck?”

  “Not so far. All it seems we can be certain of is the fact that having people working for him here makes it easier for the demon to stay connected, and even if we do remove the curse, it would make sense that there was still a link.”

  “We can’t assume that, though.” She raked a hand through her hair. “That’s the problem with this. It’s always been a case of trial and error, but I don’t want anyone else to ever have to deal with the demon, so if we can send him back to his world for good, then that’s what I want to do. Our grandchildren shouldn’t have to be the ones to take on this job.”

  “Then we keep looking. I might have a chat with Alice, we’ll see if she has any ideas about where we might be able to find the answers we need, because they have to exist. If they knew that the connections meant they couldn’t get rid of the demon for good, then there has to be a reason they knew it.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “Mom did mention a witch with a link to the afterlife who ended up going insane. At least, I think that was what Mom was getting at when she told me I had to stay connected to this world.”

  “You might be right.” Miss Cane stood and stepped over to the journals. “We need a timeline if we’re ever going to be able to get to the bottom of this. For now, we believe that the vampires were created to deal with the coven after they turned on the demon. All this was around the time the Easons put money into the hospital, and not long after that, the vampires were banished. We don’t yet understand why the vampires were created, barring the fact that Joseph Eason wanted to claim the hospital, and in order to do that, he was willing to kill all the witches, which…well, he is who he is.” She pulled a couple of the journals off the shelf. “I believe the demon would have been banished not long after that, but that doesn’t mean that would have been the point when they realized there was an issue. I think that would have happened later, when the demon returned. After they banished him the first time, I’m sure they believed he was gone for good. At least, that’s what I remember reading.”

  “Banishing him the first time would have been done the same way as you did it before. There had to be a point later when the witches realized they needed to do something more, and that they needed a witch like me, who was connected to the spiritual realm. Only with all those pieces would they be able to cast the full banishment spell.”

  “Only, it wouldn’t have worked the first time, because the demon would have still been linked, which might have been what caused the issue, rather than a lack of a link to the physical realm. Lilah wouldn’t have spent a lot of time looking into what happened in the past, due to her lack of interest, but there has to be something we can find here that will point us in the right direction. We need to understand how to deal with this.”

  “Unless…” I thought for a moment. “I’ve never tried it before, but it’s possible I might be able to ask to speak with someone in the spiritual realm. Last time I connected with someone who wasn’t my grandmother was at the cemetery, so maybe I should go there and see if I can find out anything that might help. If you stay here with the books, then if I don’t find something, we at least have a chance that you will.”

  “Just promise me you’ll be careful out there.”

  “After what happened to Mom, I’m going to keep an eye out for any vampires. I know I saw Madeline at the hospital, and Damien and Joseph should be at the school, so the only one I’m likely to run into is Jessie. She’s been okay the last few times I met her, so I’m not too worried. At the same time, I know I can’t truly trust any of them.”

  Stepping into the cemetery felt right, which was strange. As I walked through the gravestones, I wondered if someone was going to be there to talk to me, or if I was going to have to call them. Then I found myself face to face with Violet again. “You weren’t exactly who I was hoping to see.”

  “Yes, I know, but the damage that was done isn’t something that could be fixed easily. Emilia is better than she was, yet coming to this world is still hard for her. It’s a reminder of what happened. I promised I would come through first to make certain it was you, and then let her know it was safe, because there’s one person she doesn’t want to talk to right now.”

  “Miss Cane?”

  “The Canes have not always been easy to get along with. The Cane during Emilia’s time was the one who pushed her to try the spell, even when she said it wasn’t going to work the way they wanted it to, and so any Cane being here would make it harder for her. Rebecca not being here is going to make things a little easier.”

  “It is.” Another spirit stepped into the cemetery. “Yes, I can see that you are one of us, Ana.” She smiled. “It is a hard path to walk, but a rewarding one, and I am glad I’ll have this chance to speak with you. Understanding what you must do is simply the first step. After what happened to me…well, I have to admit I was the one who destroyed the spell I created, not wanting anyone else to go through the pain I did.”

  “What happened?”

  “As I’m sure you already know, the Conways have been lucky enough to be very skilled at creating spells. I was the one who worked out how we could banish the demon from this realm for good, but I didn’t have all the details, because at that time, there was no way I could know.” She raked a hand through her hair. “The demon had been working to come back through to this world for a couple of months, using minions to build a door, and I had to wait until he came through for the spell to work corre
ctly, because there was no chance of it working if he was still in the other realm. So, he stepped through. I remember feeling his presence. We weren’t where we needed to be when it happened, so we rushed to find him. The Cane at the time was very pushy, she wanted to make sure there was no chance of anyone else having to deal with the demon again, and I can understand why she felt the way she did. None of us wanted to fail.

  “Upon reaching him, I could feel something was wrong. Until we closed the distance, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was, but then, I was able to see the links. I knew, somehow, that those links were part of the reason he was able to return to this world, and there was nothing I could do to break them. Casting the spell wasn’t going to work. I told the Cane. I explained to her why it wouldn’t work, and she told me I had a choice - I could either cast the spell or I’d be banished. Not wanting to be banished, I cast the spell. There was nothing else I could do. I remember the others trying to break the connections, but they couldn’t, and in the end, the demon took my sanity with him when they managed to banish him, using the normal spell. It was…I don’t even know how to put it into words. He could take it because of the link I’d created in trying to banish him for good. The Cane wasn’t willing to take any responsibility for what happened. No one trusted her after that, and the rest of the coven…they were there for me. They did everything they could to help me.”

  “Do you know how I can break the connections?”

  “Break the curses.” She studied me. “I’m sure you know about Damien, and how he has said he wants to be mortal once more. From what I know, breaking that curse should be enough. There are still those who were once chosen by the demon to be his minions, and you need to find a way to break their curses too, if they aren’t dead.”