by Terra Wolf
The Electi members quickly dispersed, though I could hear the crying as it echoed across the cave walls. Joy stood with my assistance as Ultan lifted my grandmother's lifeless body and carried it back to his car.
“I don't even know how she got here, I made her promise to stay in the house and protect the book.” He continued to mumble to himself all the way back to my home, my grandmother's home. We had to call my mom and make arrangements for the funeral, but first we had to come up with a story.
Joy held ice on her cheek as she came up with a plan. She looked drowsy and kept shaking her head, like her vision wasn’t clear. Apparently her gift was mind manipulation, it's what made it so easy for all of the gallery folks to fall in love with her paintings. She promised she never used it on anyone who wasn't already open to her ideas, but this time she would have to falsify a story and convince complete strangers of it. She suggested that we take Gran to the hospital and she would persuade one of the doctors the Gran had been in a car accident and had died. The doctor would write up a report and then we could call my mother and make funeral arrangements. I sat numbly at the kitchen table as she and Ultan discussed their plan. I wanted no part of it. My whole body hurt inside and I felt as though the world would never have any light in it again. I didn't want to go to the hospital with them, but Ultan didn't feel comfortable leaving me alone. Joy suggested that she could handle the procedure herself and asked if I wanted to say goodbye to Gran.
“No,” I said simply and coldly. “And one of you has to call Mom, I can’t… I can’t tell her.” Joy looked at me with sympathy but nodded and left the room.
I hadn’t spoken to my mother since our fight. I couldn’t explain my guilt to her. That the one thing she had attempted to protect me from was what killed Gran. Magic was dangerous, she had been right.
Ultan sat down next to me at the table and attempted to hold my hands but I pulled them away and put them in my lap. I didn't want to be touched.
“It's not your fault you know,” he said kindly.
I looked at him, my eyes puffy and swollen from crying. “It is my fault. I shouldn’t have left the house like that. It was how they found me, isn't it?”
He shook his head. “They can track me since I'm one of them. I should have never gone to the coven house. I unknowingly let them know where it was. I'm sure they've been circling it for weeks, trying to get you coming out one night alone.”
“What do they want from me?”
He shrugged. “Your Gran and I have been trying to figure that out all summer. They wanted you dead we know that, but I don't know why. Your Gran was still the leader, there was no reason to kill you.”
“What do you mean she was still the leader? Who will be the leader now? Not me!” Surely I hadn’t even been accepted into the coven yet. I couldn’t lead them.
He sighed heavily, this conversation was taxing on him, as well as myself. “With her gone you’re the new Electi leader, it's a bloodline thing.”
I pushed myself away from the table. “Me? But I don't even know how to control my powers! I did nothing tonight that required magic. I can't rule the coven Ultan!”
My panic started to choke me and I went over to the sink and dry heaved. Ultan came over and rubbed my back slowly until I calmed down enough that he could turn me towards him. My breathing was returning to normal but my heart still stuck to my chest. I gazed into his beautiful gray eyes. Ultan had come to save me and I knew it wasn’t because he was my protector. He came to save me, the girl. He took my face in his hands and put his forehead to my own. “You're stronger than you think Paige. Can't you see that?”
“I don’t know that I am.”
“You managed on your own tonight. Without magic. You didn’t want Natalia to get to us.”
“I couldn’t.”
“That’s your strength Paige. It’s who you are.”
When Joy came back, she said the hospital had called my mom and she was on her way. I fell, crumpled on the floor and allowed my grief to overtake me. Gran was gone. I couldn’t even grasp it. Ultan got me her blanket from the couch and as I was crushed by the guilt, my body slipped into a terrifying sleep.
7
Natalia
Natalia nursed her wounds in silence. Her internal battle was crashing around in her system and it hurt to have so many emotions inside her at once. Their leader was finally dead, but she had lost many on her own side as well, including Ashley, the young girl whom she had called almost a friend. Nonetheless, she and Nick had survived and she needed him to help heal her. She would engage with him shortly in order to eat away some of his life force, which would cause her to heal more quickly. The wound in the back of her head was still open and bleeding and when she touched it, her fingers came away with the sticky red substance. At least it had been red at one time, but as her soul became darker as did her blood and it was now a fluid filled with black metallic flakes. Natalia's victory was intense and many of the Invidia had come to congratulate her. Some were considering nominating her to become an elder, but she knew that the heads of the group would never go for it. She had strict orders to only kill Paige, Aine wasn't part of the original agreement. She was sure that they would be pleased that the Electi leader had perished, but she wasn't happy about Paige's escape, and she knew that they wouldn't be either. She had evaded her grasp twice. She knew her fight with her was not over.
Nick emerged from his lair and approached Natalia carefully. Natalia knew she might be killed for not following the explicit instructions of the elders or she could be celebrated for her victory.
He brushed the hair from her face and put his hands around her own, pulling them away slowly and confidently. “You did what they asked. Why don’t you look pleased?”
Natalia looked deeply into Nick's eyes, she was really starting to fall for this one. This was quite possibly the first time she'd ever felt real feelings in over fifty years. Just because her exterior never changed didn't mean she didn't feel aged on the inside and she contemplated for a moment keeping Nick this way, with her forever. He would never have to know about her other lovers, she would keep him in the dark in order to protect him. Her emotions hurt in her chest and she didn't quite understand how to make sense of them, but she knew she was going to keep Nick around. He had known she wasn't dead when they permitted him to leave unscathed. For when Natalia died, so would Nick. They were connected and only her death would break their bond.
“What will you do next?”
She had already made that decision before they had even returned to the compound. “I'm going to go after her again. Only once I kill her will I be able to continue on my path to greatness. You will continue my journey with me, won't you?”
He smiled and brushed her hair out of her face with his strong hand. “Of course I will, my love.”
She smiled back and walked away, leaving his hands elevated in space for only a moment. She crossed over to her bar and poured herself a shot of scotch, knowing that it would warm her cold interior. “You know Nick, killing her felt quite good. No matter what the elders say, it was her time.”
He nodded. “Do you think she'll stay in Salem now that her grandmother is dead?”
“It all depends on whether or not she accepts her fate as the leader. I suspect she'll flee. As she should. But we’ll find her, don't you worry my pet.”
She poured herself another shot and laid back on the sofa to rest her eyes while she waited for the elders’ decision.
While she was resting she didn't take notice of the fact that Nick was fumbling with something in his pocket. A small picture of a girl painting, from a life that seemed familiar.
8
I stood there, one hand clasped in my mother’s, the other in Ultan’s, as I watched the casket being lowered into the earth. The dark box juxtaposed against the beautiful white flowers my mother had chosen for the funeral. The crisp scent of late summer air mixed with the flowers filled my nose as I inhaled a deep breath. I didn’t know what to
say. I was supposed to be the one to protect her and yet under my careful watch she still managed to die. I looked out of the corner my eye to see if I could catch Ultan’s gaze. His eyes were glued to his shoes. He wasn’t looking at me of course, I mean why should I expect him to? But all the same, I wished he was. As the Reverend stopped speaking I realized the funeral was over and it was time to move on. I looked at my mother, tears silently streamed down her face as the loss hit me. Gran was gone. I walked away from the casket. The hole in the earth singed through my chest as Ultan still cradled my hand. I was glad he came, though I know it didn’t have to do with me, it had to do with her.
People scattered and Ultan and I stepped away from the scene.
“So have ya decided what you’ll do?” He looked at me like I should know the answer to that question when honestly I had no idea what I was going to do. “She left it to ya didn’t she?” he asked. He was talking about the house. We had been discussing for the past week if I would stay in Salem and if so, what would I do with the house?
“Of course she did,” I responded. What else would she have done?
“So?” he inquired.
“So, we’re staying, you and me, in the old house. Joy will move in with us too. I want it to become the new coven house.”
“Does that mean yer taking over the coven?”
I shook my head unable to answer. I still hadn’t made my decision.
“Ya have to do it, ya know. They need you. If ya don’t someone else will just take over the coven and if that happens, there will be nothing left.”
“I know,” I said, “but what can I do? I don’t know how to lead a coven. Just a couple months ago I didn’t even know I was an Electi. Look where it got her. She’s dead Ultan. And if it’s the last thing I do, Natalia will pay for this.”
“Whoever said that this is what she wanted?” He pointed off in the distance, but I knew who he was pointing at. My grandmother, now dead in the ground. “I don’t remember her asking for this but she still took it on just as ya need to now.”
I pondered what he said. I knew he was right, obviously. Ultan was always right, sometimes annoyingly so. But could I really lead a coven? Could I really do this all by myself… without her? It’s almost as if Ultan knew what I was thinking. He took both my hands in his and said, “I think there is something ya need to see.”
I walked with him past looming Oak trees. His hand felt warm in my own. At least I had him. We hadn’t discussed him being a bear, or my powers since that night. But at least we were together, and for now, that was enough.
We continued to walk past hundreds of graves. I didn’t wonder who I was walking over just wondering what I was walking to. And then I saw them. The hundreds of people who had come to visit Gran’s gravesite. They’d come to pay their respects. They’d come because she was their guide. I took a deep breath as I looked over the crowd. Some met my gaze while others focused their eyes on the ground, bowing their heads. As I looked at the people in front of me, I knew that someday they would be at my funeral, because it was my turn to lead them.
I was the gifted one. Their leader. An Electi.
About the Author - Terra Wolf
I love to write about romance that isn’t your typical love story. My books allow my imagination to run free and explore every possible idea I have. That makes writing less like a job and more like a fantasy come to life.
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