The Rebel Witch

by Chandelle LaVaun

  Cooper opened his mouth, but Deacon beat him to it. “If I may? I’d like to offer my services here.” He walked over and stood over my best friend.

  I frowned. “Like what?”

  He arched one eyebrow and pointed to his Mark. “Devil here. Persuasive speech comes with the territory. I do believe you’re all quite familiar with how it works. Libby was far more gifted than I’ve had time to be, but if we wake her, I can simply tell her not to ask questions.”

  “That’s…” Emersyn sighed and released my hand. “Actually a good idea.”

  “Thanks for the glowing review, Empress.” Deacon rolled his pretty purple eyes. It was the first time he seemed to genuinely be annoyed with my sister. He shook his head and looked to me. “Well?”

  Everyone turned to me.

  I looked down at my best friend sleeping soundly on the floor. Part of me knew we could’ve just left her like that. Maybe it was the best idea. Just move her to the couch and turn the television back on, then we could crash in the attic and be on the road before she woke back up. She’d wake and assume it was all a dream. She’d call me and laugh about it. My stomach turned. I didn’t think I could keep that kind of lie from her. If Deacon used his gift, she wouldn’t know it, and I’d have time to come up with an approved explanation.

  Stupid Coven laws. Who even makes this stuff? Rules written in a black-or-white manner never worked. Life happened in the gray areas. I agreed that in general, Sapiens couldn’t know the truth about us, about the world, but I knew in my gut some could be trusted. Bettina could be trusted with it. Maybe I should become Coven Leader so I can change these rules.

  “Tegan?” Tennessee bent down and scooped her into his arms. He carried her the few feet over to the sofa then put her down. He looked over to me. “What do you want to do?”

  I cleared my throat. “Thank you, Deacon. That sounds like a great idea.”

  “Cooper...” Deacon wiggled his fingers. Red lightning sparked. “Please?”

  Cooper rolled his eyes.

  “Tegan?”

  I jumped at the sound of her voice. Cooper hadn’t even touched her to wake her. I walked over to the couch. “Hey, bestie.”

  Deacon knelt beside me. He gripped her elbow and helped her into a seated position. “Hey, beautiful.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tegan

  An hour later, I was still wide awake. My eyes burned and my body twitched from overuse, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. Tennessee went into the kitchen to call Kessler and hadn’t come back. There was no way I’d be able to sleep if he wasn’t in the same room, not after we almost all died in that plane. I wished more than anything he could curl up on the couch and hold me, just so I’d feel his heart beating and know he was safe. But there was no way we could with everyone in the same room.

  But he’s not in the same room.

  I sat up with the intention of going to find him, but my gaze landed on my sister. She was under a blanket in a lounge chair. Her long Rapunzel-like hair hung over the armrest and grazed the hardwood floors. I assumed she’d fallen asleep, but her eyes were open. They were dark and hooded…and sad. I threw my blankets off and jumped to my feet.

  Emersyn’s eyes widened. “Oh, you’re awake?” she whispered.

  “And so are you,” I whispered back. I tiptoed over to her then dragged her off the chair by her elbow. She didn’t fight me. “Come with me.”

  I led her out of the living room and down the hallway to the far side of the house to Bettina’s room, careful to not step on the squeaky boards. I opened the door and stood aside for Emersyn, then closed it behind her. Before Em had the chance to speak, I ran over and turned the standing fan on. The lamp in the corner cast the room in a soft golden glow. The room looked exactly like I remembered. Bettina hated the mint-green paint her mother insisted on, so she covered it in pictures. I sighed and let the nostalgia seep in.

  “Bettina’s room?”

  “Yup.”

  She narrowed her eyes and walked around, eyeing all of the memories on the wall. “So, what did you drag me in here for?”

  I walked over to Bettina’s bed and sat down. Turned out I still hated the quilt her mother made her use. “Em, talk to me. What’s going on in your head lately?”

  She dropped her gaze and nodded. I knew that look. It took me until that moment to place it. My father had made the same face whenever I talked about Bentley’s mother and sister back before the move.

  She sat on the edge of Bettina’s wooden desk and wrapped one arm around her stomach, the other one pressed against her chest. After a long, quiet moment, she closed her eyes and whispered, “It’s just…I remembered you two being close at The Gathering… I know she’s your best friend, and I have no right to be jealous…”

  “Of course you do.”

  She spun around with wide eyes. “What?”

  “Emersyn Howe Bishop.” I smiled and shook my head. “You’re my twin. Bettina has been my best friend for eleven years, but that bond didn’t form overnight. After I used those spells to try and find Tennessee, I used them to try and find you. If there’s anyone who should be jealous, it’s Bettina, because though I love her, she doesn’t mean as much to me as you do.”

  The bed dipped with Emersyn’s weight, then she wrapped her arms around me. “I love you, too, twin.” After a few long moments, she pulled back.

  I watched her out of the corner of my eye. There was a conversation I’d been wanting to have with her, and it was the reason I’d dragged her into another room. I turned more toward her…and frowned. She stared out the window with her hand still pressed to her chest.

  I ran through my catalog of memories, scanning through the images. Emersyn started acting weird once Deacon arrived. That was why I wanted to talk to her. It hadn’t made sense. I couldn’t think of a single reason for her to be so angry with him. But looking back, every time Deacon was around, my sister looked like he was physically hurting her. Maybe he was.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Hold that thought.” I didn’t want to say what I was thinking if I was wrong. I reached into the inside pocket of my leather jacket and pulled out the Tarot deck. It could provide the answer I needed. Emersyn watched me like a hawk. I shuffled the deck and focused my thoughts on what I wanted the deck to show me. The cards didn’t work within the same restrictions as normal tarot cards. These had magic.

  What’s on Emersyn’s chest?

  I fanned the cards out in front of my sister. “Pick a card.”

  She frowned. “I’ll never understand the way your brain works.” She waved her hands over the cards, then stopped over one and plucked it out.

  I took it from her and flipped it over. Purple eyes the same color as my hair sparkled up at me. Deacon. His smirk was devious and confident, an exact replica of the one I saw in person on the plane. He held a bright red apple between his fingers. One of his eyebrows was raised, like he dared me to reach out and grab the fruit. At the bottom of the card, written in glowing red script, was XV The Devil.

  “Which card did I pull?”

  I turned the card around. Her eyes narrowed into little slits and her nostrils flared. But it was the way she gripped her chest that really told me I was right. The question I asked the cards could’ve been answered figuratively, as in what was weighing on her. Instead, it answered me literally. Or probably both, actually.

  I tried not to smile. “Show it to me.”

  Emersyn’s face paled. She shook her head. “Show you what?”

  “Show me your chest, Em.” I swallowed and pointed to my chest, right over the glyph.

  When she just stared at me without moving, I leaned forward and pulled the collar of her white T-shirt down. Boom, there it is. Twinkling like a star on a cloudless night was a mark that looked eerily like a crystal was glued to her skin. The mark shimmered with light, like it was glowing from within. It was a soft blue color, like the sky just after sunrise. I recognized it immediate
ly.

  “It just showed up the other day, after that night we went to Hidden Kingdom. It looks like the demon scar on your chest from when we first moved here.” Emersyn’s heart pounded through the veins in her neck. She twirled her hair around her fingers nervously. “I kept meaning to show you, but everything has been crazy. I don’t know how I got it.”

  “I do.” I smiled and leaned back. “Why does Deacon annoy you so much?”

  “I don’t… It just…He’s just…” She groaned and threw her hands in the air. “I don’t want to like a boy!”

  I giggled then threw my hand over my mouth. That was not the answer I expected.

  “Don’t laugh! I have zero interest in romance right now. Everyone keeps expecting such awesome things from me because I’m the Empress, and I supposedly have the most power after you and Tennessee, except I don’t. I hate that everyone is depending on me when I can’t deliver.” She rubbed her face with her hands. My magic may have been on power-saver mode, but hers was soaring wild. “I need to focus on learning my power and knowing how to use it. A stupid, pretty boy with stupid purple eyes is not what I need right now. And he’s just so not my type. Have you noticed how confident he is? Why can’t I keep my eyes off him? Why does he stare at me so much? Why does he smile like that at every girl he sees? I don’t know, and it drives me insane. Wait, how does this connect to the mark on my chest?”

  I slid my leather jacket off then peeled my shirt off. If I was going to show her, then I had to show her the whole thing. Or at least what it looked like at the moment, because it changed every day. I knew the second my sister saw it because she gasped.

  “What…what the hell is that?” She leaned closer to look at it. “That is not the same thing I saw a few weeks ago.”

  I chuckled. “No. No, it’s not. Yet, it is at the same time. I didn’t know what this was back then, but after I blew up that fountain, Mom told me.”

  “Mom knows?” She pressed her fingers to my mark then yanked them back. “It’s hot.”

  “You have no idea.” I laughed, thinking of the intensity between Tennessee and me. “This mark is called a glyph, and it means that I have a soulmate.”

  “A soulmate?!”

  I nodded. “Not every witch has a soulmate out there, so those of us who do are lucky—and cursed, I suppose. When we meet our soulmate, this glyph appears, and it happens immediately. It burns like hell, like someone lit a match on your chest.”

  “No,” she whispered and shook her head rapidly. Tears pooled in her eyes. “No, no, no. You’re not—you’re not telling me that…that…that…”

  “Deacon English is your soulmate.”

  She groaned and buried her face in her hands. “I didn’t ask for this.”

  I scoffed. “You think I did?”

  “Wait.” She looked up and frowned at me. “That means you have a soulmate. Who is—oh. Tennessee?”

  “Tennessee.” I nodded. I ran my fingers over the crystal-looking mark. “Yup.”

  “Does he have the mark too?”

  “Yeah. It looks exactly like mine. Our glyphs are linked. Whenever he’s near, it burns, though I’m told the pain is a temporary phase.” I glanced down at my right shoulder. “You see these vine-like lines? They spread a little farther every day. Eventually they’ll cover our entire right arms down to our fingers.”

  She traced the vines. “Why is yours pink and mine blue?”

  “Mom says the glyph will change colors to reflect moods and stuff. She says it can even warn you if your soulmate is in danger or hurt.” I looked down at my arm and tried to imagine what that would be like, to look down and know Tennessee was hurt. “Mine has always been pink, though, so I kinda assumed that’s how they all started.”

  “Mine has always been blue,” she whispered.

  “Well, maybe that’s because things are cold between you two?”

  “And yours is pink because things between you and Tenn are super hot?”

  I blushed and bit down on my bottom lip. “Um…well…”

  She rolled her eyes and smiled. “Oh, right, tongue down the throat. So things with him are…?”

  “Great. Wonderful. Awful. Torturous.” I groaned and pulled my shirt back on before someone came into the room. “At first, finding out we’re soulmates made me feel better, like there was a reason I was so out of my mind for him, but now? It’s just more torture. I’m forbidden from being with my soulmate until I’m middle-aged. If we break the law, if we get caught together, then we can get our magic stripped. No one can know, Em.”

  “Your secret is safe with me.”

  I reached out and squeezed her hand. “It’s your secret now, too.” I pointed to her chest with my other hand.

  Her face fell. “Do you think Deacon knows?”

  “Absolutely. That day we took him to Hidden Kingdom, he was asking all these questions about you. Totally makes sense now. He knows you’re his soulmate, I don’t have to look to know he has a glyph to match yours.”

  She cringed. “And I’m awful to him. It’s just… I don’t want this.”

  “Well, lucky for you, it’s forbidden.” I laughed for her sake, even though it killed me inside. “I’m just telling you what it means.”

  “Thank you, Tegan.” She sighed. “It’s nice to know there’s a reason for it all.”

  “You don’t have to like him, but maybe it’s worth getting to know—” I gasped and clutched my chest. Tennessee. It always burned more after we spent too much time near each other. I clenched my teeth and breathed through it.

  “Tegan? Are you okay?” She exhaled. “Wait, does that mean he’s nearby?”

  I nodded. The hardwood floors outside Bettina’s room creaked a second before the door flew open. Tennessee stormed inside with wild eyes. His hands were in fists at his sides, and the muscles in his arms flexed. His gaze swung around the room, then did a double take on me. His cheeks flushed.

  “Hi,” I whispered.

  He sighed and his shoulders dropped. “Hi.” His voice was rough and low.

  I knew Emersyn was watching us, but all I could do was stare. My pulse quickened and my body temperature soared. The light from the lamp flickered. Still, I stared up at him. A muscle in his jaw popped. His lips had a little shine to them, like he’d just licked them. I jumped to my feet and walked forward until we were a few inches apart. That fresh rain scent of his washed over me, and all I wanted to do was bury my face in his chest.

  His eyes scanned me over once before resting on my face. “You weren’t in the room with everyone.”

  “You were on the phone.” I grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him closer. The heat radiating off his body felt like a fireplace. “We’re okay, though.”

  Emersyn cleared her throat. “Okay, I’m gonna go back and try to sleep.”

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered the sound of the bedroom door closing, but all of my attention was on Tennessee.

  I pulled him flush against me. “Hi.”

  He cupped my jaw and pulled my head closer. “Hi.”

  I licked my lips. “You okay?”

  He brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “No.” He dragged my mouth to his.

  A moan slipped out between our lips, and I didn’t try to hide it. I’d been dying to kiss him for hours. I sighed and sank into his chest. His lips were warm and soft, but his kiss was hot and rough. The world around me disappeared. He fisted my hair and held me close while he kissed me senseless. I twisted my hands in his shirt and pulled him into me. I needed more. I needed him closer.

  He angled my face to deepen our kiss, and we stumbled across the room until we crashed into Bettina’s desk. My back smashed into the lamp and sent it flying to the ground, but I paid it no attention. I was lost in him. I threw my hand out to balance us. Papers and what felt like pens rolled off the surface. I didn’t care. I’d clean it up later. All I wanted was more of this moment with him. I didn’t want it to stop or end. His lips on mine was the only thi
ng that kept me sane.

  But then he was gone.

  An ice-cold draft washed over me. I shivered. “Why?”

  Tennessee was across the room, gripping onto the doorframe like it was the last life preserver on a sinking ship. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes wilder than I’d ever seen. “No. We can’t,” he said between labored breaths.

  “Tennessee, please. Don’t go.”

  “Cooper is going to be suspicious after Bettina’s comments. He’ll be watching. We can’t.” He closed his eyes and banged his head against the wall. When he finally reopened his eyes, they looked as broken as how I imagined mine were. “Go get some sleep, Tegan. We need your power restored.”

  Then he disappeared, leaving me grasping for solid ground all alone.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Tennessee

  “Wait, why didn’t Kessler just send someone to get us? Eden isn’t that far, is it?”

  I sighed and turned to face Willow. The rest of our gang stood beside her, and judging by their faces, they wanted to know the same thing. “I had Kessler send help to follow Walter to that hospital. But it’s too dangerous out here. I don’t want anyone else leaving Eden. I can’t have anyone else on my conscience, can you?”

  Tegan shook her head. “No.”

  She hadn’t looked at me since I’d left her in that bedroom the night before, but surely she understood why I did it. She had to. I forced myself to look away from her.

  The sun had a warm haze that made everything seem a little fuzzy. The morning dew had yet to evaporate, so everything was a little wet, too. We stood in the parking lot of an animal rescue center waiting for Bettina to come back with the keys to her father’s work van. I wasn’t thrilled about taking a Sapien vehicle into Eden, but desperate times meant desperate measures.

  “Who’s that?” Emersyn pointed behind me.

  I spun around and spotted Bettina strolling across the parking lot with an unfamiliar guy. The dude had on a black beanie and dark-rimmed glasses. His hands were stuffed in the front pocket of his red-hooded sweater.