The Broken Witch

by Chandelle LaVaun

  “You’re gonna have to step in here, T,” Bentley whispered up to me.

  I frowned and looked down to meet his golden eyes. His gaze was clear and calm, void of all the concern in the rest of our Coven’s faces. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was only a kid, or if he knew things we didn’t. It was probably both. The Hierophant’s locket hung down by his belly button, glowing a soft orange color. He seemed perfectly content sitting between me and my twin. Then his words clicked.

  I leaned down closer to him. “Have they been like this the whole time we were gone?”

  Bentley sighed and nodded. “Timothy has his own demons to deal with, but he’s still here. He does care about us. He just doesn’t know how to show it.”

  I glanced over at the couch to my right where Cooper practically sat on top of Uncle Kessler. He leaned over our uncle’s shoulder and watched whatever was happening on his phone. They were completely oblivious to the argument, and I was terrified to ask why.

  Tennessee.

  “GUYS,” I yelled over everyone’s arguing. When they all jumped and looked over at me, I set the Book of Shadows on the coffee table in front of me. I shook my head. “This has to stop. Timothy, we get it. You’re the Leader. Lucky for you, Tennessee has no interest in taking your throne, so calm the hell down. Everyone else, chill. The best offense is a good defense.”

  Everyone stared at me with wide eyes. Even Uncle Kessler and Cooper looked away from the phone. My father blinked several times, opened his mouth, then shut it. My mother took a sip from her cup, but I saw the smile she tried to hide.

  “Keep going,” Bentley whispered just loud enough for me to hear.

  I licked my lips and took a deep breath. “Things are only going to get crazier and more stressful for us. I promise you that. We have to stick together, or we’ll never win. I’d love to tell Timothy off for his attitude, too, but instead, I’m going to ask him to rephrase his comment.”

  Timothy sighed and ran his hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “I just meant we should be capitalizing on your plan working. We can’t get the demon out of Henley if we don’t have her in our…you know…possession.”

  “That’s what I’m saying!” Royce threw his hands in the air. He’d finally stopped pacing.

  “And what exactly is your plan, though?” I leaned forward. “It could be anywhere. We don’t even know what we’re up against yet.”

  “Shouldn’t we be waiting for Tennessee anyways?” Lily frowned and ran her fingers through Easton’s hair. “Leader or not, we need him.”

  “Tennessee is going to be out of commission for a few days,” Bentley said in a soft voice.

  I gasped. What? Why? My stomach turned. I clenched my teeth to stop myself from freaking out on the outside. With pretty much the entire Coven sitting in front of me, I had to keep my cool.

  “What do you mean? Is…is he all right?” Timothy asked, and for the first time since I’d met him, I saw concern in his eyes.

  Uncle Kessler sighed and scrubbed his face with his palms. “No. No, he’s not all right. Katherine just text messaged me that although she’s confident she can heal him, he’ll have to stay at the infirmary until further notice. She said she’ll call me in an hour to give me more details.”

  My pulse skipped a beat then jumped into hyper speed. I swallowed through a lump in my throat. I needed to see him, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to for a while. Not with the stupid no-dating law. I couldn’t risk us getting caught.

  Timothy cursed and sat down on the chair beside my uncle. “I didn’t think that boy could get hurt. Did you want to go over there? We can finish this conversation tomorrow?”

  Uncle Kessler shook his head. “I’ll go over after she calls me.”

  “Okay.” Timothy nodded then turned his gaze to me. “Well, High Priestess, did you have a plan in mind?”

  “The first step was bringing the game back to home territory, which we’ve now done. Henley is here. The spell Kenneth and I used has trapped her—it—here. The demons are planning something, and that’s why they needed to possess one of us. So for now, she’s safe. Which is why we have to play this smart.”

  “What do you mean, though?” Royce started pacing again.

  “We don’t even know how to separate the demon from her yet. So, let’s act normal. Act defeated. We wait and watch to see what their next move is.” I pulled the Book of Shadows back to my lap. “The answer is in here. I just need time to find it.”

  My mother set her cup down and walked into the living room. “It’s the best plan we have right now. We do heavy recon, like we did in New Orleans.”

  My father nodded. “Exactly. Put up a calm front, like everything is normal.”

  Deacon raised his hand like we were in class. “You want us to act normal? Like, go to school and stuff?”

  “That’s exactly what we need to do. We’ll set up a schedule for everyone like always. Some of us will be at Hidden Kingdom every night, while some of us go out searching for answers.” Uncle Kessler looked at Timothy and Constance. “You are welcome to help us.”

  “No.” Kenneth stood. “Our Leaders need to return to Eden before we have a widespread panic through the race. That’s the last thing we need right now.”

  “He’s right.” Constance sighed. “We’ll return home in the morning.”

  “Fine, but you tell us if you need help, okay?” Timothy looked around at all of us. “Like Tegan said, we’re in this together. Right?”

  “Of course,” I said with a smile, because I meant it. My liking Timothy didn’t matter.

  “We will keep you updated as things progress,” Uncle Kessler assured him.

  “Hold on.” Royce stopped pacing and held his hands up. “You want me to just go to school and do homework and normal rotations while pretending my sister isn’t in trouble? You want us to be normal teenagers?”

  Paulina’s eyes widened. She pulled her head off Braison’s shoulder. “We have the dance this Saturday!”

  “A dance?” Emersyn asked with a frown. “Now? Really?”

  “YES!” Larissa clapped from the kitchen. “The Halloween dance at school. This is our dance. We always do it big.”

  Royce’s face turned bright red. “How can you think about a stupid dance right now?”

  Easton sat up with a wide grin. “Hey, I finally get to wear a couple’s costume this year!”

  I glanced over at Braison and Paulina, waiting for them to confirm their relationship, but Braison turned three shades of pink and looked to the ground. Paulina seemed oblivious to his reaction. Wait, maybe they’re not a couple? If not, I was gonna have to change that.

  Deacon raised his hand. “I know this may seem an odd question coming from the Devil, but aren’t our priorities a little skewed here?”

  “Seriously,” Emersyn mumbled.

  “Not really.” Bentley held the locket in his palm. “No one is forgetting Henley, or the prophecy we must succeed in later this month. But in light of everything that’s going on, we can’t lose who we are. Life is short. We need to let ourselves enjoy it too.”

  I pressed my palm to the front of the Book. “Besides, if we act like we aren’t paying attention, we’re more likely to catch something.”

  Chapter Six

  Tennessee

  My little talk with Tegan had calmed my raging nerves. Her magic gave me the extra surge of power and energy that I desperately needed to get me to the infirmary. But as I walked over the threshold, all of it faded away. I realized belatedly that I hadn’t been inside since Libby had…well, since that last night I saw her. My body turned to ice, and I froze in place. I didn’t want to go any farther. I didn’t want to walk down this memory lane.

  Why did I volunteer to come here alone?

  The door on my left swung open, and a young witch about my age walked into the hallway. I’d never seen her before.

  Her brown eyes widened when she saw me. She gasped and dropped the stack of towels she was carrying. She cu
rsed and her cheeks flushed. “Emperor!”

  The door at the end of the hall opened, and three healers scurried to greet me. They looked a little older than me, and entirely unfamiliar. I wasn’t sure when the infirmary brought in so many new healers. Or more importantly why. What the hell has been happening? These women were probably all rather nice, and I assumed worthy of their jobs, but there was absolutely no way they could treat me. Not when I had things to hide.

  “Tennessee!” Katherine’s voice was a relief.

  I looked up and sighed. The lead healer was coming down the staircase in hurried steps. “Katherine. Hi. How are you?”

  “Happy to see you all made it home. Your father is quite concerned about your injury, though. Sorry I wasn’t down here when you arrived.” She stepped off the stairs with a warm smile that lit up her brown eyes. “Ladies, please see to your work. I will tend to Tennessee myself.”

  I waited until they scattered out of sight before I took a deep breath. I met Katherine’s gaze. “Not upstairs. Please.” I didn’t think I could handle that yet.

  “Goddess, no. Much too soon.” She waved for me to follow her down to the room on the left at the back of the first floor. She opened the door then stepped aside for me. “That room is not in use yet.”

  I spun on my toes. “What? Why not?”

  “Losing a patient isn’t easy for us.” Her smile turned sad. She glanced up over her shoulder to the room upstairs that Libby had been in. “There are rituals to honor her soul, in tribute to her life…as beautiful and short as it was. Healing the heart takes the longest, after all.”

  I stared at the closed door at the top of the stairs. Would going in help us accept that she was really gone? Had we done enough to honor her? Then I thought of Cassandra, and I wondered if we should have done something when we’d lost her.

  “Tennessee?”

  I gasped and jumped back a few feet. But it was only Katherine. I cursed and scrubbed my face with my good hand. “Sorry, sorry. It’s been…yeah, sorry. Did you say something?”

  She smiled and patted the bed behind me. “Please sit down and take off your shirt so I can inspect your wound.”

  My pulse quickened. Take off my shirt. Right. No way. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me that she’d ask me to take the whole thing off. I guess I figured she’d just remove that one half. I licked my lips and tried to think of a valid excuse to leave it on, but my mind came up blank. Perhaps if I’d had something to eat, I’d have more fuel for my brain. I sat down on the bed as slow as possible. Except stalling wasn’t helping.

  “Tennessee?” She moved to stand in front of me. “You just turned as white as these bed sheets.”

  “Why do I need to take my whole shirt off?”

  She frowned and cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy. “Because I can smell and see the infection. I need to see how far it has spread and if there’s anything else going on under your skin. Or have you not noticed how many places you’re bleeding?”

  I closed my eyes and looked down at the ground. My right hand was trembling, and I prayed she didn’t notice. Her reasoning was completely logical. She did need to check those things. My father would ask if she did. Tegan would ask.

  My heart fluttered at the thought of my soulmate. She was the reason for my panic. I can’t lose you. That was what she’d said to me. If our situation was reversed, I wouldn’t be able to relax until she had a thorough checkup.

  “Tell me something…” I cleared my throat. When I opened my eyes and looked back up, I found her watching me. “Are witch healers bound by the same oaths as Sapien doctors?”

  “Of course.” Her frown vanished, though she still looked confused. “Talk to me, Tennessee. What’s going on?”

  I sighed. “Okay, but you’re going to have to cut it off of me.”

  She nodded and pulled a pair of scissors out of her apron, like she expected she’d need them. I stared straight ahead while she chopped my blood-soaked shirt to pieces, waiting for the reaction. I knew there would be one. Katherine was quick with the cutting—she had that thing off of me in seconds. The cold air from the air conditioning system brushed over my bare back, and I sighed in relief. The Florida heat was nothing to mess with.

  Katherine inhaled sharply and stood straight. Her brown eyes were wide as she stared at my chest. “You have a soulmate?” she whispered.

  “You can’t tell anyone. Not even my father.”

  “Why the secrecy, though? This is a blessing—oh.” She pulled back. I knew by the look in her eyes that she’d answered her own question. “Which of them is it—Tegan or Emersyn?”

  I opened my mouth, but she pressed her fingers to my lips.

  “Never mind, don’t tell me. They’re both equally forbidden. I understand.” She tucked her auburn hair back behind her ears. “The less I have to hide, the better. At least now I know to be careful if either of them should need my assistance.”

  “I’m sorry to put you in this position…”

  She scoffed. “Tennessee, it is not a burden I can’t handle. The Coven keeps us safe, and for that your secret is safe with me. I promise.”

  I sighed with relief. “Thank you.”

  She smiled and rubbed her hands together. “Now, let me look at this wound. Do you know what it was that impaled you? Might help me fight the infection.”

  I grinned. Tegan said the same thing. I pulled the bone fragment out of my bandage and handed it to her. “This is what I landed on.”

  “This is the actual piece that went through your body?” She took it out of my hands and held it close to her face. When I nodded, she cursed. “This is from the Old Lands, right?”

  “Is that bad?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip long enough to make my pulse kick into overdrive. Finally she shook herself and set the bone down on the counter beside the bed. When she came back, she had a whole rolling cart full of concoctions. “Okay, so, there are very specific ways I have to treat these kinds of injuries from the Old Lands…because the magic there, it’s ancient.”

  “Have you ever been?”

  She shuddered. “Yes, but that’s a story for another day. For now, let me take a closer look at the wound itself.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes. Despite the chill in the air, Katherine’s fingers were warm against my bare skin. I didn’t try to pay attention to what she was doing. The second I closed my eyes, my brain went into hyperfunction. It was like I’d been pushing too many thoughts aside, and now they broke free. Images flashed across the backs of my eyelids, and most of them were Tegan’s face. But a lot of them were Henley. My stomach turned. I’d already lost two of my closest friends, and the idea that Henley could be next shook me to my core.

  “Okay, you awake?” Katherine’s voice made me jump. “Oh, sorry to startle you.”

  I blinked and forced a smile I wasn’t feeling. “It’s okay. What did you find?”

  She wiped the back of her hand over her forehead then shook her head. “This wound is severely infected, but also the bleeding isn’t slowing down as much as it should. To make it worse, that bone tore through some muscle and tendons.”

  “What—what are you saying?”

  “The magic of the Old Lands should’ve killed you, if not instantly, then by now. Every minute you spent back in the real world without treating this made you weaker and weaker.” I must’ve made a face because she held both palms out to stop me. “I can heal you. I can.”

  “Why didn’t it kill me?” I whispered. It sounded like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Or are you about to say it still can?”

  “I’m not entirely sure why it didn’t kill you.” She shrugged. “Honestly, Tennessee, I know Royce makes jokes about you not being human…but I’m starting to wonder if there’s some truth to that.”

  I groaned. “I’m no less human than any other witch.”

  “That is definitely not accurate.” She ran her finger up my injured arm, and rainbow mist swirled. �
�Healers study a lot about the Aether Witch because their magic is so unique, but it’s also unparalleled in danger. Tegan may or may not even realize what she did when she transferred this little bit of her power to you tonight. But if you weren’t the Emperor, you wouldn’t have been able to survive any of this. It would’ve burned you out like a transformer box in a hurricane.”

  I opened my mouth then shut it. What was I even supposed to say to that?

  “Listen, let me get you cleaned up and covered up. But then I’m going to have to call your father because you won’t be leaving here for a couple days.”

  “A couple days?”

  She nodded. “At least. This kind of magic is slow and old. But I’m confident. Bentley must’ve seen this coming because he gave me some supplies for it already. Oh, and you might want to call that soulmate of yours… She’s probably worried sick right now.”

  Chapter Seven

  Tegan

  I told myself not to go to the infirmary to see him. I told myself Uncle Kessler had gone over to be with him. I told myself Katherine would take good care of him.

  But there I was, at four in the morning, knocking on the front door of the infirmary. My reasoning? The Book of Shadows. No one would question why I’d need the Emperor’s help, or at least that was what I told myself. I just needed to see him or I’d lose my damn mind.

  My plan was to sneak over and slip inside unnoticed. But apparently at night they locked all of the exterior doors. Even the ones on the upstairs balcony in the back. I’d already tried it. So I knocked for a third time, hoping someone inside would hear me. I didn’t want to be rude and ring the doorbell. People could’ve been sleeping. Including my soulmate. I didn’t want to disturb him. I just needed to see his face. I needed to hear his heart beat with my own ears.

  The front door opened, and a familiar face appeared. She was wrapped up in a fluffy white robe with fuzzy pink socks on her feet. Her auburn hair fell in curls down to her elbows. She looked like she’d crawled right out of bed, but her brown eyes were clear and sharp. Katherine smirked and shook her head. “Come on in.”