by Bailey Dark
“What did you do for Evie that she owed you a debt?” I asked.
“We performed a spell to cloak the abilities of the four of you, so that the council would believe that you were not as strong as they thought. Because of that spell, they didn’t pursue you as they had planned. You were able to live mostly normal lives until recently.”
“You did that?” I asked stunned.
“We did,” she said motioning around the room.
“How did they start up then?”
She smiled widely. “We uncloaked you. We felt it was time for you to see the council for what it was. We also had a bit to do with throwing you into the dream walk.”
My mouth dropped open. “You did that to me?” I stood, stepping toward her menacingly. “Do you have any idea how tormented I’ve been after seeing the Knights like that? How could you have done that to me?” I seethed.
“You’re not a child anymore, Gwen. Reality isn’t always pretty, in fact, it can be downright scary. Keeping you blind to the truth isn’t helping you, it’s hurting you,” Clara said not at all sounding sympathetic. “Your abilities are needed in the fight against the council and in order to make that happen, it was necessary.”
“It was necessary to kill three innocent Knights?” I yelled ready to slap her across the face. Holly stepped in my way, pushing me lightly by the shoulders.
“Hear her out,” she pleaded. “You don’t have all the facts.”
I laughed humorlessly. “Let me guess, you do?”
“I’ve been informed of the details while we allowed you to rest,” she said with a hard edge. “Listen to what she has to say.”
I took three calming breaths and nodded. She stepped out of the way so that I could see Clara once more.
“The three Knights were already dying before Evie got there. The council had poisoned them because they had refused to kidnap you and the others.
“What? How could they do that?” Lance asked stunned.
“That’s what they do. Either you’re with them or against them and those three men had made it clear that they didn’t agree with the new direction. Evie simply attempted to put them out of their misery.”
“Why did they want to kidnap them?” Mallory asked.
“The members weren’t convinced that they were without powers.”
“You had bound our powers. Why would they question that?” I asked.
“Evie had lowered the binding on Tristan because she wanted him to be prepared. She hoped that since you two were separated, he’d be under their radar. You were their most promising target. Being away from you, Tristan was out of the spotlight.”
“She was trying to protect us,” I said to nobody in particular. My head was swimming with information overload.
“What do we do now?” Mallory asked. “We can’t let them sit out there. What if the council finds them?”
“You might trust Evie,” Lance said, “but I don’t trust Tristan. He’s done too many things for the council to make it otherwise.”
“Let me talk to them,” I said standing. “We need to figure out what they know that could help. We have to bring down the council.”
Clara nodded. “We’ll bind his powers and bring them in. When they’re situated, I’ll come for you. For the time being, go clean up. You look a mess.”
With that, Clara strode from the room, headed to get Tristan and his mother. Soon I’d come face to face with him again. My nerves were shot, and I was weary. Could I handle seeing him? We’d soon find out.
I sat at the ornate vanity, looking at my pale reflection in the mirror. My eyes were gaunt and puffy, underlined with black circles. I ran a brush through my unruly hair absently. No amount of time would prepare me to come face-to-face with Tristan. Meeting him in dreamscape was painful enough, but knowing that in mere minutes, I’d be confronted with him again, had my stomach bottoming out.
I internally chastised myself for caring even a little bit about what I looked like. So, what if my hair was a mess. Who the hell cared if I hadn’t worn makeup in over a week? Too many horrible things had happened to care about such trivial things. He didn’t deserve any part of me good or bad, put together or not, he was one of the very causes for my current state, and he deserved to see the torment he put me through.
If he even cared. Heartless monsters rarely did.
The door creaked open, and through the mirror, I watched as Lance walked in. His back was straight, and his head was held high. He showed no signs of weariness for the impending meeting. In fact, he looked determined.
“Are you ready, Gwen?” He asked in a strong, deep voice.
One of my brows arched at this side of Lance. He’s always been here for me, but now, he seemed ready to do battle by my side. That wasn’t my carefree, fun-loving Lance. He was always the peacekeeper, not the warrior. Even when Tristan had given me every reason to doubt him, Lance had been the one to make me ask more questions before jumping to conclusions and condemning him.
“I think the better question is are you ready?” I said frowning.
“We have a big task ahead of us.”
I bit the side of my lip, trying to decipher his words. Which task was he referring to? The way I saw it, we had a laundry list of them. Interrogating Tristan and his mother? Planning to take on the council? Finding the two books? All of it? I needed to compartmentalize and focus on one thing at a time.
“This could go one of two ways. We can talk to them and decide they haven’t really betrayed us, are on our side and could be useful. Or, they’re traitors,” he explained. “Are you prepared for what the latter would mean?”
“If they’re traitors, we’ll simply send them back to the council. They’ll be their problem.”
“No,” he said resolutely. “They made it here to the coven’s secret space. They won’t leave here alive if they’re not with us.”
“No,” I said sounding small and scared. The reality was that if they aren’t of use to the coven, they can’t leave here with their lives. The security of this place depended on it.
“How did they even find this place to begin with?” I asked, horrified by the thought that we could possibly witness two more deaths today.
“It’s not of concern to me. You are,” he stated emphatically. “What I’m concerned with is whether you can handle this.”
Could I sit back and watch them kill Tristan and his mom? After everything he’d done, some would be able to, but I knew down in my soul I couldn’t.
“If you can’t, stay here. I’ll make an excuse to Clara. You don’t have to witness this, Gwen,” Lance said clearly seeing the panic all over my face.
“No,” I said sternly. “I won’t be a coward and hide out in here. Whatever’s to come, I’ll face it.”
“We’ll face it,” he stressed. “I’m here, Gwen. I won’t let you carry this burden alone.”
“I won’t let the coven kill them without a fight,” I said. “No matter their intentions, they don’t deserve to die because the council has convinced them to be their puppets. We don’t know what strings are being pulled on the other end.”
Lance appeared to mull over what I said, before finally nodding. “We’ll appeal to the coven to hold them until this is all over. Or maybe they can spell them to forget this location. Either way, I’m with you. We won’t allow them to die.”
I stood jumping into his arms. “Thank you, Lance,” I said giving him one more squeeze.
“Let’s do this.”
Chapter Twelve
Nothing could’ve prepared me for what I walked into. In a large sitting room down the hall from the ballroom, Evie Locke was practically being held up by Clara and another witch. She had been beaten so badly; she was almost unrecognizable.
Blood was caked to her face and both of her eyes were so bloodshot and swollen that you couldn’t even tell the color of her irises. Her lip was cracked open and if I had to guess, her nose was broken.
“Oh God,” I cried. “Who did this
to her?”
“The council,” Clara spit. “The name of the actual people we’ve yet to uncover. She can’t talk.”
“Where’s Tristan?” I asked, looking around and finding him absent.
“He’s down below. We felt it best to separate them so that they could be interrogated alone.”
“In her condition, we won’t be able to interrogate,” Tamara said gravelly. “She’s lucky to be alive.”
“Isn’t there anything you can do for her?” I asked.
“You’re insinuating that we help her before we know we can trust her?” Tamara asked baffled.
“Do you have another suggestion?” I spit back. “At the very least, you should have some kind of spell that can uncover whether or not this,” I said gesturing to Evie’s crumpled and maimed body, “is a sham.”
“Indeed, I do,” Clara said. “Stand back, Tam.”
“She’ll slump over if I let her go,” Tamara said in a pitched voice.
Clara groaned. “Move her to the floor then.” Tamara did as she was told with the help of Lance.
When they were both out of the way, Clara pulled a wooden wand from the deep pocket of her dress and lifted it into the air as though she were about to conduct a choir. With a few whispered words that I couldn’t make out, nothing happened. Evie remained in a heap on the ground.
“It’s not glamour,” Clara said. “Dear God. What have they done to you, Evie,” she whispered, sounding on the brink of crying.
I pushed down a sob that threatened to burst from my chest at the news that this was no hoax. The council had actually done this to her. It was unthinkable. Lance’s arms came around my shoulders, hugging me into his side.
“Help me,” Clara commanded her coven members. “We need to get her to a room and clean her up.”
Several witches rushed forward offering their help. Clara barked out orders and they all scattered to do their jobs.
“I’m going to help carry her to the room,” Lance said into my ear. I smiled up at him.
Once Lance had her in his arms and was making his way toward the door, I headed toward Clara. “How do I get to Tristan?”
“Do you think it’s a good idea? He is behind bars, but are you sure he won’t manage to sway you to him? His mother may not be a traitor, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t,” she cautioned.
I hadn’t forgotten his trespasses, but considering the shape his mom was in, I wanted to speak with him. No matter what he had done to me, I knew he was hurting about what they’d done to his mom. She’d always been the one person that meant most to Tristan. He may have been cruel to me, but it didn’t change the fact that I had a heart and right now it was breaking for Evie. The only reason they would’ve beaten her to within an inch of her life is if she defied them, and if she did, she was no enemy of mine.
“I’ll be fine,” I responded, and she nodded.
“Follow the hallway until the dead end. Go right and at the end, you’ll come upon a door leading below. He’s down there.”
“Could you please not mention this to anyone for a little while? I’d like a moment alone with him.”
She pursed her lips. “I’ll keep quiet. I think we will all be preoccupied with Evangeline for a while,” Clara frowned.
“Thank you,” I said, gaining a nod and a dismissive hand gesture.
I followed her directions until I came to the door to the basement. It may as well have been a seventeenth-century dungeon as the path was lit by torches hanging from the stone walls. A large iron gate was opened to a row of cells, eight in all. The place was quiet, not even the scurrying of a mouse was to be heard. Where was Tristan?
As soon as I thought it, a cough gave away his location. I walked to the third cell on the left and found him sitting on the ground one leg propped up with his arm resting atop it. He shot to his feet when he realized I was there.
“Gwen. Where is she?” he asked sounding deeply worried.
“She’s fine. They’re cleaning her up in one of the rooms.”
He sighed heavily and dropped his head back in relief. “They won’t hurt her?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think they’ll hurt either of you.”
“I was so worried when she told me to bring her here. Sorcerers and witches have never gotten on together,” he harrumphed. “She has more secrets than I can keep up with, it would appear.”
The entire time he spoke, I watched him. The relief mixed with astonishment made me believe that he was mostly in the dark where his mother was concerned. That left the question, was he still the council’s bitch? Could we trust him not to divulge the coven’s location?
“Would you please stop looking at me like that,” Tristan pleaded. “It’s like you have me on trial before I’ve even done anything wrong.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, ready to spring forward and knock him out. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You’ve done nothing wrong?” I bellowed, grabbing the iron bars with both hands. “You’ve done everything wrong,” my voice boomed through the cells.
He didn’t say a word, just looked on wearily. I should’ve stalked off at that point, but I’ve always been a glutton for punishment where he was concerned. Instead, I forged on, determined to build my case against him.
“How about waltzing back in and inserting yourself into my life?” I raised a brow and still he said nothing. “No? Not enough? Okay, try this one…you took my virginity all while relaying my every move to the council. A council—might I add—that would probably kill me, if they got their hands on me.”
He winced at the mention of my death. Good, I thought. It was about time the severity sunk in.
“It wasn’t like that,” he said sounding bone-tired, but I didn’t stop. I wouldn’t until everything was on the table.
“Wasn’t it?” I quizzed. “I read the note, Tristan. I know what they asked you to do.”
He stepped to the bars so that we were so close our breath mingled. “I did just enough to not make them suspicious,” he said, eyes boring into mine. “I didn’t do anything to compromise you. I would never do that,” he said emphatically, and a piece of my armor chipped away.
No matter the alarm bells going off in my head, a part of me believed him.
“If that’s the case, then why did you run off as soon as shit got bad?”
“My mom,” his eyes lowered. “I didn’t know until that dream walk that she was behind the Knights and Excalibur missing. I was horrified and needed answers,” he explained. “I never considered what might happen to you in that auditorium. You were with Chancellor Andrews. I thought you’d be safe,” he stopped and took a deep breath. “Can you imagine finding out in the middle of the shitshow we were in, that your mother was involved?”
I couldn’t imagine and, in that moment, I realized how hard it had to have been on him.
He had nobody to confide in. Nobody he could trust.
He didn’t trust me.
“When I saw it was her, my entire world crumbled, Gwen. I’d expect something like that from my dad, but my mom? Never.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered through the bars. I meant it.
“If we were able to uncover it, I figured it was only a matter of time before the council found out. I needed answers and I needed to protect her,” he said standing straighter. “Regardless of what she did, she’s my mom. I won’t let anything happen to her. I had to find her and protect her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped,” I said, a stray tear falling down my face. I wasn’t sure if it was for Evie, myself or Tristan. He had shouldered so much, but I couldn’t deny that a very large part of me was crushed that he had ghosted me. If what he says is true, and he didn’t truly sell me out to the council, then why not confide in me? Isn’t that what you do when you love someone?
“I did what I had to do,” he sighed. “I know you might not understand that now, but if you could only trust me,” his eyes bored into mine, begging, pleading to have f
aith in him.
Every ounce of me wanted to cave. I wanted to bend to his words, but my head screamed to proceed with caution. To remember all that he had done and the words that my father had spoken.
Be careful who you trust.
“I’ll prove it,” he said as though reading my mind and seeing the indecision.
I leaned my forehead against the bars and decided on honesty. “I don’t know how to trust you,” I admitted barely audible. “I don’t know how to trust anybody,” I choked on the words, hating the feeling of loneliness. “I feel like it’s me against the world, Tristan, and I’m scared.”
“You don’t have to be scared, Gwen. Despite your concerns you have a lot of people on your side,” he said sounding sincere. “Lance, Mallory, and Holly. You have an entire coven behind you, and back at the school you have Chancellor Andrews.”
My head popped up eyes wide in disbelief. Had he seriously brought up our Chancellor as though he didn’t already know his fate? I searched his face for any signs of deception, but I only found confusion at my reaction.
“You don’t know,” I said, shocked.
His head tilted to the side, “know what?” he asked looking concerned.
“Chancellor Andrews is dead.”
Tristan stumbled back a couple of steps, horrified. “How? When?” he asked with a pained expression.
He truly didn’t know, and that knowledge lifted a brick off my chest. Despite everything else, knowing he had nothing to do with Chancellor Andrew’s death meant everything. Perhaps he could be trusted?
“How did it happen,” he asked drawing my attention back to him.
“The council,” I replied. “It was awful, Tristan.”
“You saw it happen?” he asked before launching into a stream of additional questions.
“Was it the same day as a dream walk? Who was the council member behind it?”
I held up my hand to stop his onslaught of questioning. “Yes, I did see it. It wasn’t anyone I knew, but someone who worked with the council. Lance and I went back...for some things,” I said vaguely, not ready to put my trust in him.
