High Witch Next Generation (Generations Book 1)

by Mona Hanna

Gareth unlocked his front door and walked through. He’d been drenched by a horrible storm on his walk home. He couldn’t have felt any worse. He’d have to somehow break it to his father that he wasn’t going through with the plan, that his last chance for survival was being wiped out by his own son. Gareth felt awful, but deep down he was relieved he was no longer going to hurt Erica. The selfish part of him grieved—he would never see her again, he’d lost a woman he liked so much. He hadn’t been kidding himself, saying they would ever be together normally, but it hurt all the same.

  He walked through the house and found his father at the kitchen table. He gulped loudly, not even knowing how to begin. “Father, I have something to tell you,” Gareth said. “It’s difficult, but…”

  “You’re not going to do it. You’re choosing the girl. I should’ve guessed as much.”

  Gareth stood there, stunned. He hadn’t expected his father to say that. “How did you know?”

  “One look at you, son. Like you were about to give me the worst news, and what else could it be? I knew you couldn’t do it. It doesn’t matter. Suffering is my lot in life. Has been since we lost your mother.”

  Gareth looked at the ground, his heart crushed and his stomach turning. “Maybe we can get help for you another way.”

  “I’m dying! There is no other way! You kid yourself, boy. This is the end for me. Just get out and think about how you’re going to break this to our blond friend. Something tells me he won’t take the news as well as me.”

  Gareth frowned at his father. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you think he was wanting to save me out of the goodness in his heart? It was a means to an end. He has a plan, and now you’re messing with it. I don’t know that he’ll take no for an answer that easily.”

  Gareth swallowed. It hadn’t occurred to him that the blond man would try to force him to go ahead with the plan. What was he going to say to him? Would Erica ever be safe?

  ***

  Sebastian sat at his desk, something deep in his bones convincing him things weren’t going well. He sat in his study, wondering how Gareth was doing after he had given him his orders. The boy was a fool, but he’d proven useful so far. That’s why Sebastian had chosen him—the boy had enough guilt in him from losing his mother and was devoted enough to his father that he was willing to do anything. It was the perfect scenario—the perfect people to help him get what he wanted.

  Sebastian ran a hand through his blond hair and hoped his gut feeling was only a feeling and not an indicator of something else. His spying on Erica’s household showed him the family was suspicious of something, that the girls had even had a vision of him. They didn’t know who he was, though, and didn’t know how he intended to have things play out. Oh, he wanted Erica turned, alright. He wanted to own that woman. But he wasn’t going to have the same fate as Julius when he tried to turn Ariel. Just in case things went wrong, Sebastian had a plan to take care of that. If Erica passed the test, it wouldn’t be him she would kill. But if she failed—and Sebastian dearly hoped she would—then he would have her. There was just one thing he needed for things to work out in either scenario.

  Gareth.

  One way or another, that boy was going to die.

  Chapter 10

  “What should we say?” James whispered in the hall outside the kitchen door.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know how to deal with feminine feelings. Get Elliot,” Caeden replied.

  James snickered, then stopped himself. “Don’t be an idiot. We need to think of something comforting. How did you feel when Karyn told you to stay away from her?”

  “Karyn?” Caeden said. “Was she the blonde one?”

  “Would you two shut up!” Julia shouted from the kitchen. “We can hear you!”

  The twins sheepishly walked into the room, smiling apologetically at Erica. “Sorry,” they said at once.

  “It’s alright,” Erica replied. She half smiled at the twins, knowing they meant well. She guessed everyone in the house had already heard about what had happened. There never were any secrets among her family and friends. “Come sit down.”

  James and Caeden sat on either side of her at the table.

  “I’m sorry Gareth hurt you,” James said. “You’ll find someone else. Who wouldn’t want you?”

  “Thanks,” Erica said. “I don’t really want to talk about it, though. I’ll just have to forget I ever met him. It was just all so strange. He appeared in my life so suddenly, then left just as quickly. I don’t even know why any of this happened.”

  Everyone fell into silence, making Erica feel uncomfortable. She didn’t want them to focus on her and her problems. Her family and friends were all together so infrequently that they should be enjoying their time together—their visitors were only staying two weeks. Everyone should be savoring the precious moments. And if they were going to focus on Erica, it should be about the vision she and Julia had had about the test. Although she had been trying not to think about it, it was important, and they had to deal with it. Erica groaned.

  “What is it?” Mother asked.

  “Nothing,” Erica mumbled. “I just want sit in my room alone for a while. Mother, if you arrange for the coven to meet soon, please let me know. I’m going to have a nap.”

  “Alright, dear. Take care.”

  Erica rose, went to her room, and shut the door. She lay on her bed and shut her eyes, hoping she would soon drift off to sleep.

  ***

  Gareth answered the door.

  A tall blond man pushed through, then turned and faced him. “Well?” the man asked. “How did it go with Erica?”

  Gareth shut the door and stood still for a moment. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going ahead with the plan.”

  The blond man glared at Gareth. He lunged forward, grasped Gareth by his shirt, and shoved him against the door. “What was that? Did you forget your father’s life is in my hands?”

  Gareth gulped. “I can’t go through with it. And you can’t make me.”

  The older man laughed wickedly. “I can’t make you? Do you really think you have any say in this? I’ll make things clearer. Out of the goodness of my heart, I was willing to help your family in exchange for a favor of my own. But make no mistake—I have chosen you for this task, and you will obey me. Maybe you’re callous enough to not care if your father is saved, but that doesn’t matter. You will do this. You have no choice. I will tear your father’s heart out myself—I’ll kill him, and you, in the most painful way possible if you dare go against me. You will put Erica through the test. You’ll hurt her the way I say—you’ll watch her kill a man of my choosing, and when she’s turned, I’ll give you further instruction. There won’t be any straying from this plan. And just to get my point across, I’ll leave you with a little reminder of what I’m capable of.”

  The man let go of Gareth’s shirt, then grasped his left arm and twisted it sharply behind Gareth’s back until there was a loud crack. Gareth screamed in agony and fell to his knees, crying. The man kicked Gareth aside, then hurled open the front door, stormed out, and slammed it shut behind him.

  Gareth lay on the ground, whimpering.

  A much older man approached Gareth and knelt down beside him. “What have we gotten ourselves into, son. What have you led us to?”

  Gareth only cried softly in response.

  ***

  Erica shot up in bed. The sunlight was fading outside—she must have been asleep for hours. She frowned as her horrible dream ran through her mind. It all seemed so real. Seeing Gareth being hurt, hearing him scream in pain. And that blond man—there was no mistaking that he was the man from her vision, the man who said Erica had failed the test and now he owned her. He had been talking about the test in the dream.

  Was it just a dream? Or was it real—a vision of something that had actually happened or was about to happen? Did this man know Gareth? And the worst part—was Gareth part of a plan to put Erica through the test?

 
Erica’s blood ran cold. It had all been lies. Every word Gareth had spoken to her, every moment they had spent together. He’d been deceiving her the entire time. There was nothing Erica could believe in. Had his story about how his mother had died been true? Was his father even sick? No, in the dream it was clear Gareth’s father was in trouble. But she could believe little else.

  There was something Erica needed to do. Her family was determined to find the blond man from her and Julia’s vision. Gareth seemed to know this man. Gareth knew what was going on, and Erica wasn’t going to just sit there and let these horrible things happen to her. She was going to pay Gareth a visit. She would find out the truth from him. She was sorry he’d been hurt, but anger raged within her at the way he had treated her. In the back of her mind, there was the knowledge that Gareth had wanted to stop the plan. But he had been willing to turn her. To turn her! The boy she had started to love had been trying to trap her all along! No one was going to trap her. No one was going to put her through the test.

  Erica stood, walked to her door, then opened it and took a deep breath. “Julia!” she called. “I need you!”

  Julia hurried to her side.

  Erica ushered her into the room and closed the door. “I’m going to talk to Gareth. I need you to help me find him. There’s so much to tell you—but you can’t tell anyone else. I need to do this myself.”

  Julia frowned. “Erica, I don’t know if that’s a good idea—”

  “Gareth was going to put me through the test. He knows the man from the vision we had. I’m going to find out the whole truth from him, but I don’t want our parents to know. Please help me, Julia. I have to do this.”

  Julia stood there speechless. “Talk. What do you know?”

  “I had a dream…”

  Chapter 11

  Everyone had gone to bed, and Erica and Julia were huddled in Erica’s bedroom, talking about their plan. Merilyn was fast asleep on her makeshift bed on the floor, so they whispered to each other in the dark as they sat on the bed.

  “I don’t know any locating spells. Do you?” Julia asked.

  “Mother told me about the spell she used to find you and Hallie, but you have to brew a potion and I’m not sure how. Besides, we’ll be caught if we do that.”

  “So now what? How will we find Gareth?”

  Erica chewed on her lip as she thought. Suddenly the answer occurred to her, and it was so obvious she felt like a fool for not thinking of it sooner. “We don’t need a locating spell. I saw inside Gareth’s house in my dream. I think saw it clearly enough to transport there. His house just needs to be close enough for us to get to by magic.”

  “But we don’t really know where his house is. I mean, he said he lives near you, but maybe that was a lie, like everything else.”

  Erica sighed. “Well, I still want to try it. He can’t live too far away because, when he came here, he didn’t travel by horse. Are you ready for us to go now?”

  “Yes. I want us to leave a note, though, saying where we’ve gone in case something goes wrong. Our parents will be worried sick if they wake up tomorrow and we’re missing.”

  “We’ll be back well before morning. But I’ll write a note if you want.”

  Erica held out her hand and made a soft light appear from her palm. She walked over to her desk, took her ink quill, and quickly scribbled a note to her parents. She put the note on her pillow, made the light disappear, then turned to Julia. “Ready?” she asked again. She was filled with nerves but trying not to let it show.

  Julia took her hand and squeezed it. “Ready.”

  Erica took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and carefully pictured Gareth’s home in her mind. She imagined everything she had seen in her dream, everything she could remember about the room. She waited until the picture was clear, then cast the spell that would magically transport both her and Julia to that place. There was the familiar pull in her stomach that came with moving by magic. The air around them was suddenly cold and drafty, and she opened her eyes.

  They were standing in Gareth’s home. A few candles were lit on a small table by a settee, and Gareth was standing before it, staring at them in shock. “Erica?” he whispered. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?”

  Erica released Julia’s hand and took a step forward. Gareth’s left arm was in a sling; Erica’s heart leaped at the sight of him in pain. She inwardly scolded herself, telling herself not to feel any tenderness for a man who had been lying to her. Still her heart yearned for him, but she gritted her teeth and walked up to him.

  “I had a vision about you, this place. I saw you and the man who was here earlier, the man who broke your arm. I heard every word you spoke to each other. Every word, Gareth. Explain yourself!” Erica took in a shaky breath, terrified of speaking to him that way. She stared into his eyes, standing close to him and half expected him to defend himself.

  But he only stood there, staring at her in anguish, and then a tear ran down his face. “Oh, Erica,” Gareth whispered. He slipped an arm around her waist and leaned his head against her shoulder. He wept softly against her, clutching her to him.

  Erica desperately wanted to hold him, but she stepped back. “No, Gareth. You lied to me! You were going to hurt me! My worst nightmare is going through the test, and you were going to do that to me! How can I ever forgive you?”

  Gareth took a deep breath. “You’re right. You can’t. You’re right about everything. I was going to hurt you, horribly. I was using you to get the man to save my father from his illness. But that’s no excuse and it was wrong. But, Erica, I changed my mind. If you saw me talk with that man in your dream, you must have heard me say I wasn’t going to go through with it. He’s threatened me and my father, but I don’t want to hurt you. I care about you too much—you mean too much to me. But now I’m trapped, and I don’t know how to get out of it. I’m so sorry—I’m sorry I’ve ruined everything for everyone. I don’t know what to do.” Gareth lowered his head and stared at the ground.

  Erica gazed at him, saw how broken he was, saw how tortured he was. “Was the story about your mother true?” she asked him.

  Gareth looked at her. “Every word.”

  They gazed at each other for a long while. Erica had a hundred thoughts racing through her mind. As much as she felt betrayed and hurt, her anger had dwindled as she thought of all Gareth had gone through. His mother dying and his father now ill. A horrible man using Gareth’s vulnerability to force him to act out his dark plans. Then Gareth choosing to disobey the man, deciding not to hurt Erica, even if it meant losing his father. The situation wasn’t completely clear, but she could see that much. She knew Gareth was hurting. And she couldn’t stand it.

  “Gareth,” she whispered, throwing her arms around his neck and holding him close. He held on to her tightly with his good arm and kissed her neck. Erica sighed deeply. “We’ll stop him. I’ll kill him myself,” Erica said. “He won’t hurt anyone ever again.”

  “I believe in you,” Gareth said back. “And I’ll do anything you want to help.”

  “Oh, darling,” Erica whispered. They held each other for a long time. She finally stepped back and looked at Gareth. He leaned forward as if to kiss her, but she held up a hand to stop him. “No, not yet. We need to talk. I need to know everything—everything from the beginning of this. What was the truth and what was lies. I need to know it all. You can’t keep anything from me.”

  Gareth nodded, then walked over to the settee. Erica walked over and sat beside him, gazing at him. She’d almost forgotten about Julia—she looked over and saw Julia had moved a chair near the small table and sat. Erica nodded to her, then turned back to Gareth.

  “Well, there’s so much to say. It’s true that my father and I moved here because he became ill and lost his job. And I am looking for work. But I came to you, Erica, knowing who you are—I knew you were a High Witch, even though I pretended I didn’t. All of my feigning ignorance about you and your family was false. The man who hu
rt me—I don’t know his name—approached me and my father, saying he knew my father was sick and that he could heal him. He did heal my father, but it lasted only moments. The man promised my father could be cured, but only if I did as he asked. He told me about you, about the test, and that he wanted me to get you to trust me so I could lead you into it.

  “The story horrified me—I didn’t want to hurt anyone. It sounded ridiculous, and I couldn’t understand why this man would want me to do such a thing. It didn’t make any sense—what would he get out of it? The man told me you wouldn’t be hurt for too long before giving in, and the man you were to kill would be a horrible criminal who deserved death. It still sounded terrible, but I agreed. I felt if I let my father die, I would be the worst kind of person. I felt I owed him this. I’d taken my mother away from him and left him with a life of hardship. I had to do whatever I could to save him.

  “But, Erica, when I spent time with you, I knew I couldn’t go through with it. I lied to you and acted like someone I wasn’t, but my affection for you was real. The last time we were together was the most real time of them all, when I told you about what happened to me when I was a child. Every emotion I felt for you was real, and I just couldn’t stand the thought of doing anything harmful to you. So I chose you instead of my father, and he hates me for it.

  “But now… now I’m lost. The man said I have to go through with his plan or he’ll kill both me and my father. I can’t see a way out of it. I won’t do it—I promise you I won’t. But he’ll kill us.”

  Erica hugged Gareth fiercely, distraught over his words. He’d chosen her. If this wasn’t true compassion, she didn’t know what was. Gareth held her tightly, and they sat together for an age.

  Finally Erica sat back, but only to softly kiss Gareth on the mouth. His lips lingered on hers, kissing her deeply, holding her close, sending shivers through her body as his tongue moved with hers. The kiss was touched by pain and sadness, but an intense passion ran through it.