by Jen Stevens
“So, you want to steal it from her? Is that any better than what you accuse her of?”
“Stop being so naive. There is no right and wrong here anymore, Storie. It’s about survival, and we’re not going to survive much longer if we can’t get our hands on this book and find the truth that no one wants to share. She isn’t your family. You don’t have a family because of this, remember?”
I couldn’t stop the gasp that left my lips at his crass words. I watched him in disbelief as he spun his body around and stared out the balcony doors with his back to me while he gained his composure.
After a few moments, he returned to the room and kneeled down onto the floor before me, gently taking my hands into his.
“I have this obligation to the Quarters. To my coven. I was born into this role and given these gifts without anyone asking if it was what I wanted, and I’ve felt trapped under the weight of responsibility since birth. But you should know that you’re so much more important than any of it. I’d give my soul for you and burn through a thousand lifetimes in Hell as punishment. I never want you to feel like I’ve forced you into anything against your will. To feel even a sliver of the misery that I’ve grown comfortable with.”
The golden flecks in his eyes shined against the shadows of his black irises. He was looking at me with such devotion, his words rooted from someplace deep inside his soul. I could tell it took great effort for him to admit all of that. To confess that he was willing to betray everything he’s ever known for me. To reveal this weaker side of him that struggled with the tasks he was given. To profess such deep, unfamiliar feelings to me.
I was uncomfortable with taking advantage of Tabitha’s trust. It didn’t make sense that she would be the only one who could provide answers, but I never understood her role in any of this to begin with. She very well could be the one hiding the truth from the Quarters and contributing to the chaos that has ensued since they lost their gifts.
“You don’t have to do this. I’m sorry that I even asked. We’ll find another way.”
“I’ll do it.”
His brows raised high into his forehead as he blinked at me in stunned silence.
My eyes rolled to the ceiling to hide their growing mistiness. “You’re right. She isn’t my family. You’re the closest thing I’ve felt to family since Aunt Ash died, and probably long before that. I’ll get into the room and see if she has what you’re looking for.”
“Are you sure? I swear, we can find another way,” he started, but I shook my head and stopped him with a kiss.
“I can’t lose you, too. And as much as I find it to be puzzling and unwelcoming, I can’t let this town burn to the ground over any more secrets and lies,” I explained when we pulled away.
It would kill me to deceive the family who has welcomed me with open arms, but Remy was right. The information wasn’t Tabitha’s to keep, and if he was telling the truth and she was holding onto it out of spite, then she was putting the rest of us at risk for her own ego. I’d make sure to get in and out of there before she even knew and hopefully put an end to the destruction.
---
Blaire and Tabitha’s moods never fully shifted into the same hostility that everyone else had. I'm not sure if it was because they were already generally hostile people or if they had protected themselves with spells strong enough to avoid it. Still, they remained untouched by the growing darkness that loomed overhead.
I realized that Tabitha reminded me of an older, grumpier version of Aunt Ash. Watching her work on her incantations gave me a strange sense of familiarity that comforted me each time I felt my panic rise. I wanted to express my gratitude toward her for taking me in and treating me as her own in a way that I’d never been able to do with Aunt Ash, but Tabitha made that impossible. Each time I tried to offer her anything, she’d swat me away and mumble something crude under her breath. It all made what Remy asked me to do that much more difficult.
She wasn’t happy that I didn’t heed her warning about him, and she couldn’t stand that I kept my faith in the Quarters coming around about their Counters the same way Remy had. I liked to think those feelings were rooted in fear of something bad happening to me, but I knew deep down that Tabitha didn’t worry herself with much outside of her family. There was clearly something the Grangers weren’t telling me about our pasts, but I wasn’t ready to face that reality just yet.
I’d spent nearly a week waiting for the right opportunity to sneak into Tabitha’s study. Blaire would be easy enough to get past. It was Tabitha and Callista who made it difficult to find a window of time long enough for me to get in and out unscathed. That was so long as Remy’s speculation was correct, and the protection spells were lifted for me. If she put new ones in place, there was no telling what could happen to me.
Tonight, the three of them were at yet another town meeting about the Movement. I faked a stomachache and hung back, grateful that none of them pressed me too hard. Even if they had, the dread I was feeling had put a rock in my stomach so large, my lie wasn’t too far off from the truth.
I knew from watching Blaire lose her keys multiple times that they left a spare office key beneath the mailbox hanging beside the door. The entry leading into their home was always open, so after I replaced the spare exactly how I’d found it, I walked right into their dark foyer.
Once I reached the hallway, I was sure the door to the room would be gone again. Remy explained that one of the protection spells she could have used might have masked it, disguising it as part of the wall. I figured that was why I didn’t ever remember seeing it before she’d taken me there. But as I rounded the corner, the wood door was still fully visible.
My dread grew stronger the closer I got, nearly paralyzing me in fear when my hand finally reached for the handle. I was shocked to find that it turned with ease, the hinges creaking as I pushed forward into the unlit room. I found the light switch and shoved my fears as far down as they would go, then quickly got to work on reading spines.
Most of them were records of the births she’d assisted, all separated by year. Remy instructed me to look for a black, leather bound book with gold foil lettering titled something along the lines of Watchtower Quarter Book of Shadows.
I nearly reached the last shelf, and my hope was all but lost when I stumbled onto the book Tabitha had used to tell me about my role as Remy’s Counter. It had been moved to a different spot than where she pulled it from that night, an entire bookshelf over and three rows up. I wondered why she would have gone through the trouble of moving it if she never expected that I’d come back.
Was she just overly paranoid? Or did she know I’d return to find out more? That would explain why she left the spells untouched.
My fingers gently grazed the plain spine of the ancient-looking book, stopping over the small, lonely compass that sat at the top. It was similar to the compass that was plastered all around town and served as Beacon Grove’s official logo. This one was slightly different in that instead of the lines simply crossing over each other in the center, there was another circle placed there, same as the one’s on each directional point.
I wanted to pull the book from the shelf to show Remy but decided against it at the last minute. If Tabitha had expected me to come back here, that would be the first one she looked for to be missing, since it was the one she showed me. Instead, I committed the logo to my memory and moved on, afraid that I was running out of time.
The Book of Shadows sat on the final shelf I checked. It was set against the wall behind the door and filled with different colored spell books and grimoires. The title was as Remy described, but when I pulled the brittle, cracked leather from the shelf, the cover was nothing like anything I’ve seen before.
Instead of a four-point compass, the black book was adorned with a silver, five-point star. Each point was labeled with the elements I’d grown familiar with hearing about. Water, earth, fire, and air were represented with their corresponding symbols, with the addition of spirit. I
t was represented in the uppermost point and was accompanied by a circle symbol. My eyes scanned the cover curiously, wondering if this was the correct one for me to take. I looked back to the shelf I'd taken it from for any other books with a similar title and came up short.
Before I could reconsider, I heard a noise outside the hotel and shoved the heavy book under my arm in a panic. With a quick scan of the room to make sure everything looked as untouched as it had when I arrived, I slipped through the door and closed it quietly behind me. Then, with the same dreadful feeling I entered the house with, I locked the office behind me and ran to my room.
Chapter 30
Storie
I was having dinner with Blaire at the Watchtower Tavern the first time I heard it.
In the beginning, we chalked it up to nasty rumors that would never gain momentum. Then, we heard talk of it while walking past the barber shop and Hazel’s boutique. Slowly, the news made it to Maisey's diner where we had lunch two days later, and we knew there was no way it could be false.
The town was planning to hunt down the Quarters.
Each version of the story differed in how they would handle the four men when they finally had them. Some wanted to punish them for failing the coven and allowing the darkness to infiltrate its borders. Others wanted to force them to use their gifts to clear out the black magic and bring normalcy back into their lives. The most extreme plan I heard involved burning them alive and ending the reign of the Quarter families over the coven, similar to what Rayner had always suggested they do.
Every variation left me with an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew that their fathers would do nothing to help them. They’d watch them burn and pray to the gods that their gifts would return back to them. Blaire was hesitant at first, but finally agreed that we had to do something to help them, and we had to do it soon.
I remembered reading about an old cabin in the woods just on the border of the Alden and Easton properties. The Graves owned a sliver of land that was mostly taken up by a large creek flowing through it, rendering it useless for building a decent-sized home like the ones that now made up the town. The cabin was where the Graves lived while they built their family home downtown. Most of the founding families had something similar, but their property was bought up by the Quarter families and the small homes were demolished once the town was officially built.
“It’s a crazy idea,” Blaire admitted when I first told her about my plans for the cabin.
It'd been three days since I snuck into their house, and so far, they had yet to mention anything being off or the Book of Shadows going missing. I figured Tabitha was still unaware of the stolen book and held my breath every time she opened her mouth to speak in case accusations flew off her tongue and I lost their trust forever.
We were sitting in the library at the crack of dawn with the town’s deed records laid out on a table between us. The Graves family was stubborn about their strip of land. According to the records, they never ended up selling it. Instead, ownership was passed down through generations, always left to the oldest heir at the time of the last owner’s death.
As the final member of the Graves bloodline, that land technically now belonged to me.
I only hoped that the Aldens and the Eastons didn’t destroy the cabin and take over the land when my father and Aunt Ash left town for good.
“It seems to be their only option,” I pointed out.
“Why do you care so much about them?” she wondered with genuine curiosity.
I told Blaire about what Tabitha showed me the night of the last town meeting. After what happened with Julia, I realized she was more than trustworthy. She responded with empathy, even when I admitted what was happening between Remy and me.
Blaire may have had her quirks that scared people away, but she was one of the most honest, authentic people I had ever met. Having her around during such a transformational time in my life was a true blessing from the gods and I couldn't stand that I was deceiving her and risking losing the friendship we shared.
“It’s not just about them. Rayner and his movement have cost me my entire family. Now, he’s coming after the only other piece of me that seems to make sense.”
She considered that for a moment before her eyes fell to the spread of parchment before us. “Okay. So, how do you plan to get them there without anyone noticing?”
“First, we have to make sure the cabin is still standing.”
---
The forest on the northeast side of town was far more dense and uncared for than the thinned trails I walked with Remy on his property. Blaire and I hiked for two miles before we found the creek, constantly stopping to find ways over fallen logs, thick brush, and tangled vines. It was clear no one had bothered to come out here for some time. While that made the trek feel impossible for us, it reassured me that there was a chance the cabin remained untouched as well.
“I think it’s this way.” Blaire pointed to the east, her eyes flicking between the map in her hands and the creek running before us.
The map we were using was a poor photocopy of a slightly outdated one we found in the library that marked property lines. We knew our phones would be of no use this far into the woods, so it was our best bet. I was grateful that Blaire was so capable at navigating through the dense earth because I had lost my sense of direction over a mile back. Where I continuously tripped over random tree roots and ivy, she handled the terrain like a professional, practically floating above the cluttered floor like it was nothing.
We followed the creek for about twenty more minutes before a dark structure came into view just around the bend. It was covered in foliage and surrounded by thick, mature trees that reached far into the sky above. We exchanged an excited glance and jogged the rest of the way there.
“It’s really here,” Blaire mused. Her hand rubbed against the old logs, and she closed her eyes, soaking it in.
While it was technically still standing, the cabin was in rough shape. Fallen tree branches had punctured a window and weighed down part of the roof, causing it to bow in a way that made me hesitant to walk inside. Vines had taken over nearly every surface outside, suffocating the wood and holding moisture so most of it was rotted and warped.
We broke the rusted lock with a rock and pried open the door, revealing a surprisingly clean living space. It was all one room with a loft built overhead. The roof was curved inward over an area that I assumed was the kitchen. A woodburning stove sat in the back corner beside an old sink and cabinets, and a solid wood table sat a few feet away.
Sure, it would provide them temporary shelter, but it was hardly livable. We’d have to come up with another plan quickly.
“This is amazing.” Blaire spun in a slow circle with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
I lifted one of the mattresses that was lying on the floor and bugs scattered in every direction. “I’m not sure if this was such a good idea,” I admitted dejectedly.
“It just needs some cosmetic work. They’ll be able to fix most of this up without even lifting a finger.”
I doubted that was true. Blaire seemed to look at this place and see something completely different than me, but I trusted her judgement. I only hoped Remy would feel the same way that she did.
“Should we tell Remy about it?”
She took one last look around and smiled, nodding her head. “Yes.”
Chapter 31
Remy
Blaire Granger was a strange girl.
She was awkward and unusual, and most people avoided conversations with her because of the odd things that came out of her mouth. Plus, she was a Granger—one of the only families in the coven that proved to be untrustworthy. For some reason, Storie had taken a liking to her immediately.
That was the only reason I allowed her through my front door and into my home. They were both reeking of the woods, their bodies covered in sweat, leaves, and random scratches. Blair wore a look of pure excitement, practically bouncing on
her feet as we walked through the foyer while Storie appeared despondent. She chewed on her bottom lip in a way that made me want to grab her up and steal it away.
“We’ve got a plan, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
“That’s no way to get him on board,” Blaire chastised. Her hand swatted at Storie’s arm. “It’s actually pretty amazing.”
“What is it?”
“Well, as you know, no one’s happy about Samhain being canceled. They’re blaming the Quarters for everything, and they’re getting pretty aggressive out there,” Storie began. Blaire’s head bobbed in agreement. “Recently, we’ve heard some concerning things and I thought it might be helpful if you guys laid low for a minute. At least, until the holiday passes.”
“Lay low?” I asked, frowning. “You mean, like we’ve already been doing?”
“No, lower,” Blaire said, holding up a very faded map of Lux and Enzo's properties.
“I'm not following.”
“My family owns a cabin on the border of these properties. It could use some work, but it should serve as a safe space for you guys to hide out while we figure everything out.”
Of course, figuring everything out meant reading through the ancient book of shadows that we stole from Blaire's home to find more answers about why we were losing our magic and how we could stop the dark magic from eating up the entire town.
“I think you're overreacting. We're safe in our homes. There's protections lifted all around the property,” I started to say, but Blaire's dramatic scoff stopped me from continuing.
“You Quarters are so hard-headed. Do you think a Granger would be standing in your home right now, offering you safety, if things weren't bad?” She shook her head and looked over at Storie, her brow lifted incredulously. “You guys have managed to screw yourselves so royally, Rayner and the Movement don't even have to lift a finger anymore. Watchtower is crumbling, Beacon Grove is being swallowed by dark magic, and the only people we thought would save us have been holed up in their mansions, refusing to face us.”
