“Things might be a little difficult for awhile,” he whispered, “and I need to get used to it.”
He wrapped his arms around me, bringing his mouth down to mine. The heat of our skin together built a fiery anticipation of the unknown. This kiss was deeper, hotter than any we’d shared before. My body began trembling against his as I felt his embrace tighten. Running his finger up my spine, a wave of chills ran through me as I felt his lips break free.
“I’ve promised you before, and I’ll promise it again,” he whispered, “I’ll never give up on us.”
***
The panic my earlier words carried finally subsided, but I didn’t feel any more settled.
“This might be a stretch, but what if we did the spider spell again? I know the feelings I have for you are far stronger than anything that stupid spell might have captured between Trevor and me. Maybe a new spell would overpower the old one or something,” I offered.
We were sprawled out on the floor in front of the fire on a pile of cushions and blankets. This seemed to be the perfect spot to discuss possibilities privately.
“Mmm,” he replied, twisting his lips as he thought about my idea.
Logan was stretched out next to me, and even with the seriousness of everything, he was difficult not to admire. His hands were behind his head, which only did worse things for my imagination due to the fact that his shirt was raised far too high for my own good.
I reached over and tugged on his shirt, but he wrestled me into his arms instead.
“You’re too distracting,” I complained, burying my head into his shoulder.
“Am I?” he quipped. “I’ll have to keep it up and layer it on even more.”
“Whatever works,” I whispered, snuggling into him. “Try to wear those jeans as often as possible as well.” If teasing about the Trevor thing will help him get through it so be it. “Seriously though, do you think that might work with the spell?”
“It’s an interesting idea. But my major concern is that it would somehow connect me to Trevor.”
“But he can’t see my images, right? I was just allowed to see his.”
He nodded, “But who knows once it’s done twice with the same person.”
“I say we try it.”
“I don’t know about that. You seeing my deepest, darkest secrets and all?” His lip curled up slightly and the overwhelming desire to kiss him came over me.
“It’s getting hot in front of the fire,” I teased, scooting away slowly.
“Right here is perfection,” he said, letting out a sigh bringing me back to him.
“It is,” I agreed, closing my eyes.
The crackle of the fire kept me hypnotized as my mind wandered back to the possibilities of avoiding Trevor or thwarting the spell entirely.
“One thing we’re going to learn through all of this is to never give up,” I mused. Logan’s embrace tightened.
“That’s for sure,” he whispered.
“Now for my father and motive,” I started again.
“Don’t you ever stop?” His laughter lingered.
“I thought that’s one of the things you loved about me? My stubbornness.” I opened my eyes and rolled on top of him, staring straight into his gaze.
“One of many things.”
“If my father’s got a network in some states, or worse yet, all states, he’s planning something big.”
“Right.”
I rolled off Logan. It was far too difficult to be that close to him without my heart’s desires taking over.
“I saw something about my father’s side of the family being around during the Salem witch trials,” I paused, “but they weren’t listed as suspected of practicing or any such thing. Kind of odd.”
“Where’d you find that?” he asked, propping his head on his elbow.
“In one of the books from the Witch Avenue Coven’s library. It’s on the table over there. I’m surprised I caught it all. It was only touched on lightly in one of the passages, but it got me wondering.”
“Yeah, that is strange.”
My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it off the table. It was close to one o’clock in the morning in Lake Placid, but a couple hours earlier in Colorado.
“It’s got to be Jenny.” I touched the screen and sure enough, Jenny’s smiling face appeared next to her name.
“What’s she got?” Logan asked, sitting up now.
“It looks like there are several people in the coven who are considering creating an offshoot for something called The Praedivinus Order. Praedivinus? What does that even mean?”
I began typing it in my phone’s dictionary, but Logan already knew the answer.
“It’s like prophetic, an oracular being or idea.” His eyes darkened as he stared at the flames.
“My father thinks he’s a prophet?”
“Someone connected to the Gods,” his voice trailed off.
“Or?”
“The underworld.” He shook his head.
“This might be a stretch, but what—” I stopped.
There’s no way. Now I was just being paranoid. I sat up and leaned against the stone of the fireplace, allowing the heat to penetrate the back of my head. Maybe I’d fry the crazy out. Trying to find excuses for my father’s abhorrent actions was not going to help anything. I can’t just say it’s in his genes and be okay with it. Besides that would imply it was in my genes too.
“What? Might as well throw it out there,” he suggested.
I texted to Jenny again, hoping I’d divert Logan’s attention.
How did she find out about this? I couldn’t afford to lose any more people I cared about. I hoped she followed my request to stay away from those members and leave well enough alone.
“So what’s your thought?” he tried again.
“What if this wasn’t my father’s initial plan, but something passed down through the generations. Maybe going back to —”
“1692?”
I bit my lip and nodded at him.
“Crazy?” I asked.
He shook his head, “Not at all.”
“I mean I’m not trying to make excuses for him, but if we could trace something back through the years there might be a method to stop it.”
“I don’t know how we’re going to figure this out, but we’ve definitely gotta give it a shot.” He looked concerned, like he was contemplating something.
“You always make me feel less crazy.”
His eyebrows furrowed, and he shook his head. “How so?”
“Ever since you came back into my life, you’ve been this grounding force. Always willing to believe or try out my harebrained ideas, hear me out, whatever it is… You’re there, and I thank you for it.”
He was in the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water, when my phone buzzed again.
“So far your ideas have been pretty close to reality. I don’t think they’re as crazy as you think. Intuition is an important part of our world and very few people listen to it. I’d say I’m simply the lucky one who’s in love with someone who’s dialed in pretty good to the universe.” He was coming back with his water and a bowl of chips. “Your mom’s side of the family has always been tapped in to the energies of the world, and it’s even stronger in you. Hopefully it will work in our favor at some point.” He smiled.
A flash of silver caught my eye out the window.
“Logan,” I hissed. “Did you see that?”
He turned toward the window I was facing and looked out. It was gone.
“I don’t see anything.”
“I don’t know. It must’ve been a reflection. It’s fun to be this jumpy.” I laughed nervously while he continued to look out the window.
“I saw it,” he announced. “A flash or something.”
“Yeah. That’s what I saw,” I said, looking at him.
He was already at the window, staring out when I reached his side.
“I don’t see anything out there,” he said, shaking his head. “But I
saw what you were talking about.”
We continued staring out the window for several minutes when I finally decided I had enough.
“Let’s just close the curtains,” I said, sliding the fabric shut. He closed the wooden blinds I couldn’t reach, and I felt immensely better.
“You know if that stuff from my mom can come down the family line, why wouldn’t the other be able to?”
Even though I was next to the fire, I began to get chilled as I let my worries vocalize again.
“The black magic?” he asked.
“What if the darkness is inside of me waiting to be roused, and there’s nothing I can do about it? All of this time, I’ve been worried about you leaving me for the dark side and what if it’s me who’s called to it?”
“Is that what you want?” he asked, setting the bowl on the table.
“Of course not.”
“Well, then get it out of your head. We need to recognize that these forces exist out there, but we can’t let the idea rule our lives. Life is about choices. I would’ve thought the one I made would’ve had more of an impact.” His brow rose.
A smile spread across my face, knowing that he was right on so many levels. He did choose me over black magic. So why was I teetering on the edge of madness worrying about things that I couldn’t control when there were ones that I could solve?
“Kind of like that spell with Trevor,” I said, staring at Logan. “I don’t care what the spell’s trying to create for my future. It’s not going to happen. I won’t let it.”
“That’s a little different,” Logan said softly.
“It’s not,” I insisted. “I’m not going to play the victim on this one. I’m going to find a way to make it stop.”
“Triss,” he began again, but I interrupted him.
“I’ve got some ideas, and we’re going to try them all until one of them works.” I folded my arms in front of me. “Like it or not.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It’s not that complicated. I remember you telling me how much you admired that I wasn’t like the other girls who always agreed with you. Told you what you wanted to hear and all that.” I got up from the floor and sat on Logan’s lap, and he couldn’t hide his happiness.
Logan took a deep breath in and slowly let it out as he let my words settle over him.
“So I take it we’ll be starting with the spider bite?”
I nodded and grabbed my phone, glancing at a new message from Jenny.
“She asked if I’d heard from Trevor lately?” I waited for Logan’s reaction.
“Huh, that’s a tricky one.” His smile did a pretty good job of hiding the pain.
“I guess we’d need to get our story straight. You still think we can trust her, right?” I asked.
“For the most part. Don’t you? I think more than anything she might not believe us before she actually turned on us.”
“I haven’t told her anything about my mom, us being back here…nothing.”
“Maybe now’s the time,” he suggested. “Just not in text.”
My stomach began feeling sick at the thought. Where would I even begin? What good would it do? Would she think I’m crazy? She told me not to hide anything from her or Angela.
Logan sat on the couch and nodded at me for encouragement.
“I can leave if you want, if it would make it easier.”
“No way,” I said, dialing Jenny’s number. “Maybe I could build a network like my father, only for the good of Witches everywhere instead of the destruction,” I told Logan as the phone rang and rang.
“Think we should scout out the town of Saranac Lake?” I asked, thankful for a good night’s sleep.
He nodded, finishing his cereal quickly.
“Let’s get a Starbucks on the way out of town. Try another attempt at normalcy maybe?” I joked.
I don’t know what it was about the evening, but come daylight I felt tremendously better from whatever might have plagued me the night before.
“I’m tellin’ ya, the whole normal thing isn’t for everyone.” He winked at me and placed his cereal bowl in the sink. “Now let’s get a move on it.”
“Still get to go to Starbucks, right?”
He smiled and out the door we went. I hadn’t seen the property in the daylight, but it was absolutely delightful. The landscape was mostly natural, but there were benches and garden paths in many directions.
“This place is pretty lovely,” I said, plopping into the passenger seat.
“I’m glad you like it.”
Logan turned onto the road leading into town. The main drag was already pretty busy with cars and people, but we managed to find a spot to park right beside Starbucks.
“I hope to make this outing as uneventful as possible,” I smiled, feeling a little sheepish for the previous night’s outburst.
He tossed a couple coins in the parking meter and into Starbucks we went. Logan lined up at the counter to order our drinks, and I wandered off to the community board, noticing all of the fun festivals, paddle boarding lessons, and local plays that were posted. Then my eyes landed on the flyer.
My heart began racing. I knew it was him. It was my father staring at me. Did he place this for me to see? Does he know we’re here? The flyer was bright yellow with the words ‘The Praedivinus Order’ above tiny fringes allowing people to tear off the phone number. And many were already missing.
Logan came up behind me with our drinks, but I was frozen. He followed my gaze to the invitation.
“He knows,” Logan whispered.
I turned to face him and saw disgust in his eyes — a darkness like never before.
“I don’t care that he’s my father. I want to destroy him.”
“He’s trying to plant hatred in you and it’s working. Don’t let it.”
I took the cup from Logan, and we walked out of the coffee shop in a daze.
“Why would he want me to hate him though? Think we should still go to Saranac Lake?”
He nodded and pointed to one of the empty benches where we both took a seat.
“Hate is hate. It’s a powerful tool. It doesn’t matter what you initially hate because in time it will grow to include other things.” Logan was staring across the street. He became silent, stirring with something that worried me. The darkness seemed to be slowly reappearing. I wondered if it had to do with his own father’s death.
“What’s going on?” I asked, unable to wait any longer. I needed to know what had suddenly changed inside of him.
“Last night, I thought about what you said and looked some stuff up. You’re right about your father’s family being in Salem and playing a part in the hysteria.” Something was really bothering him, and it was more than that flyer.
I reached for his hand, and sat closer.
“And?” I asked.
“I think they started it, actually.”
I looked at him puzzled.
“In Salem?”
“Even before. When I started tracing your father’s ancestors, the coincidences were far too great to ignore. Looking at all of those pages you managed to scan from the library allowed me to see things we’d usually ignore.”
“Like?”
“There seemed to be a glaring coincidence over the years...everywhere his family was, Witch Hunts soon followed, possibly as far back as 1581 in Europe.”
“If they’re witches why would they want to start problems for their own community?”
“Possibly to distract from what they were really up to? Or maybe it was a way of eliminating the competition?” He shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“I remember seeing maps and dates going back that far, but it never occurred to me to look for that connection.”
“There’s no way either of us would have guessed it by just looking at the books. I’m not sure what drove me to find the pattern, but —”
“Maybe we do have help after all,” I suggested.
“Yeah, maybe so.”
“Well, we’ve got two options. Your mom or my aunt, and I’m guessing it’s not the latter.”
“Probably a good assumption.”
“If it is your mom, that means they haven’t turned her yet,” I replied. “She’s still herself.”
“All we can do is hope.” He dropped his gaze to the sidewalk. “If your father’s trying to incite something we need to be careful.”
“I haven’t stopped being careful. I feel as if my entire life is built around me looking behind my back. I’m beginning to pride myself on my different levels of paranoia, real and otherwise.” I smiled, craning my neck to catch his gaze.
“I know. It’s just that I need you to understand that I will always have your best interest at heart. No matter what decision I’m faced with, it will be to protect you.” Logan’s eyes darkened as he spoke.
“Riiight?” I asked confused.
He bit his lip and his body shifted away from me slightly.
“I feel the same way,” I began.
“But you shouldn’t. That’s the problem. You need to worry about protecting yourself. You need to think about the bigger picture, especially if everything we’re finding out is true.”
“That’s ridiculous. My life isn’t worth any more than anyone else’s, especially yours, and we don’t even know what the bigger picture is yet,” I protested.
“That’s not what I was trying to say,” his voice softened.
“I love you. How can I not want to protect you? I want you safe.”
He took a sip of his coffee and put the drink down on the bench.
“I’m worried you’re going to let this whole Trevor thing distract you from the real issues,” he began.
“That is a real issue. As real as any of them,” I whispered.
“Yes and no. If there’s nothing we can do to stop it, then it’s a distraction and your father gets away with whatever it is that he has planned.”
“It’s not a distraction because I have a plan. Several of them. And one of them will work eventually. Getting my mom and your mom back is the most important thing. I understand that, but I’m not going to allow my destiny to be tweaked by some ridiculous turn of events,” I couldn’t hide my anger. “You of all people should understand that. I will get what I want.”
Witch Avenue Series (The Complete Set) Page 34
