“Bettina?” The pretty guy with purple eyes – Deacon, as Tennessee called him - crouched down in front of me and smiled. He handed me a bottle of water and a sandwich. “Eat. Drink. You need it. We’ll figure all this out.”
Okay, THAT was where the supportive glances ended.
I smiled genuinely at him and accepted his offering. Then when he just stared, I took a bite of the sandwich…and sighed as the flavors exploded in my mouth and my stomach sighed with relief. He winked then stood up straight and moved beside Emersyn.
There were a couple others I recognized from that night at my house. Another handsome blond guy, a black-haired guy who looked a lot like Mr. purple eyes.
I gasped. That’s who Henley looks like! I laughed once under my breath and looked over at the girl in question. She stood next to the guy who’d been at my house, and they were basically identical: inky black hair, porcelain skin, sapphire eyes. That was why I thought I’d met Henley before. I wasn’t crazy.
I glanced around the room at The Coven. There were so many of them, and with them all in matching ceremonial white sheaths, it was hard to keep them straight in my head. They were terrifying.
Tennessee turned to me. He’d taken off the crown, and his staff was leaning against the wall behind him. He walked up to me and faced me straight on. The power radiating off of him reminded me of a wave pool at the water park. I swallowed then licked my lips.
“Bettina,” Tennessee said in a soft voice that was pleasant to the ears. “Please tell us exactly what happened. Go back to that moment in your mind. Remember every detail. Visualize it, then tell us what you see. Don’t leave a single thing out.”
I nodded. I could do this. That was the perk of telling the truth—the story never changed.
Just then, the door flew open. I got a whiff of a familiar Christmassy scent a split second before Jackson walked into the room. He still wore his white school cloak, and it made his skin look so tan. His aquamarine eyes really sparkled. He took a few steps in then stopped. Genevieve, Trey, and Harlan walked in behind him.
“This is a closed meeting,” a girl with a gorgeous Spanish accent said. “Coven business.”
“Please.” Jackson held both palms up, and I got a flash of his red rose tattoo. He bowed his head ever so slightly. “We mean no disrespect, and we’ll leave if you ask. We were the ones who found her… We should be here for this.”
At once, in perfect unison, every single member of The Coven turned to Tennessee. I frowned. Why are they looking at him? But then Tennessee moved, and I saw it. The IV Mark of the Emperor on his arm. Then I remembered Harlan saying they made the Emperor Coven Leader. My jaw dropped. Then the crown and the staff clicked. Holy shit, he IS in charge.
Tennessee crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “Fine. But don’t speak unless I ask.”
I cleared my throat then set my drink and food down on the coffee table. “Okay. I need to start by saying I was super distracted. We’d lost one friend in the Old Lands, another is clinging to life in the infirmary…and on the drive over to the gate that Lonan told us to use, Timothy told me a story…about his sister Ruth, her two kids, husband, and the Emperor before you.”
Constance’s face paled. “He told you about that?”
The guy next to her, the one who looked a lot like Hunter and I assumed was the Uncle Kessler I’d heard about, frowned. “Why would Timothy tell you about that?”
“Timothy and I were friends.” I sighed. “Because I asked him why everyone thought he hated the Emperor, when he’d always only spoken very highly of you.”
Tennessee’s eyes widened, and a muscle in his jaw flexed.
“I don’t know why he told me the story. Maybe because I was feeling super guilty about our friend Warner? I honestly don’t know.” I closed my eyes and shuddered. “I wasn’t expecting such tragedy in his story, and then we were walking to the gate…and…I couldn’t shake it.”
The man I assumed was Kessler nodded, and so did the other three adults in the room. “We all do. We were there. The memories still haunt us.”
I sighed with relief. He actually understood me. Hope flared in my chest. “Right, so we walked to the clearing by the gate—”
“Wait, do we not get to hear Tim’s story?” a red-haired guy asked.
Tennessee opened his mouth then shut it. Then he cursed. “Later. Let’s focus on how we lost him first.”
I nodded. “So Timothy paused outside the gate to text Constance our exact location, just in case. Jackson, Gen, Trey, and Harlan had walked through the gate and into the Old Lands… Now after that, everything happened really fast.”
Tegan squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. Take your time, B. I know it wasn’t you, but we need to hear everything so we can find out who it was.”
I nodded and closed my eyes and really let myself relive these moments. The images came rushing back. “Tim had just said he was texting Constance when something moved in my peripheral vision. I turned to my left just as a white object flew by my face. Tim yelled for me to move. I dove forward then rolled, just like I’d been trained. Something dark flew over me, whistling through the air. I rolled a few times then scrambled to my feet with my sword raised in the air. I was now on the opposite side of the clearing as Timothy, and not close enough to the gate to the Old Lands.”
“Okay, then what?” Tegan whispered encouragingly. “Every detail you recall.”
“The ground rumbled. An ice-cold breeze rushed over me. My hair whipped around my face, wrapping around my neck like it wanted to strangle me.” I coughed then licked my lips. “There was a whistle and a chant, and when I yanked my hair out of my face, I found us surrounded by people in dark clothes, or what I thought was dark clothes. Black smoke came out of the ground and rose up. Within seconds, the clearing was drenched in darkness like it was nighttime.”
“I don’t like this,” the raven-haired guy with sapphire eyes said.
“I couldn’t see anything, so I used this spell Jackson taught me to make my sword glow, but that made it worse. Timothy yelled for me to get to the gate, so I sprinted as fast as I could. Timothy shot his ice up as we ran. Something huge and dark shot out from the trees and tackled us to the ground. We scrambled to our feet only to find we were farther from the gate than before. Timothy shot more ice.” I shivered as the memory replayed. “Our attackers hissed and moved…but they didn’t move like people. They were more like shadows—”
“Shadows?” Henley frowned. “Red eyes? Demons?”
“I don’t think these were demons, but I’m new here. Anyway, the first time we went in the Old Lands, there was this shadow creature that tried to take our friend Erin, twice. These people looked like that thing. Jackson, Trey, and Gen all saw them the first time.” I pointed to the far wall where my friends were trying to remain invisible.
Tennessee nodded. “Okay, continue for now.”
“Okay, so these shadow-people swirled around us, shooting white objects at us. Timothy shot a ton of ice. Then I asked him what these things were, and he said he didn’t know. Just then, a huge shadow thing jumped to the edge of the clearing and roared. The trees swayed and the ground shook. I had to hold on to the grass until everything slowed down. The shadow-person held something out that shimmered in the light off my sword, and then…and then…” I shivered. This was the really freaky part.
“Then what?” Tegan whispered.
“It spoke.” I looked around at The Coven. “In our ancient language.”
“Are you positive?” Hunter asked from behind me.
“Yes. Without a doubt. I don’t speak it yet but I recognized it. But Timothy knew it. He gasped and turned sheet-white. Then he said, ‘No. No, it can’t be. You can’t—,’ but then the shadow creature screamed, cutting his words off. Then it pulled its arm back and threw something. There was a flash of white, and then…” I took a deep breath. “Then it sank right into Timothy’s chest.”
The whole room groaned. For a moment, no one spoke
. But I had to finish.
“There was so much blood. I ran to him and tried to put pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, but it was too much,” I said softly. This was the hardest part. “I screamed for help. Then Timothy gripped my arm and said ‘Get it out. No chance,’ so I tried to do that. But when I grabbed it, I discovered it was a human bone—”
“What the—” The blond guy with the Lovers Mark cursed.
“I screamed for Jackson. Then Timothy said ‘Forgive me,’ and then he died.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “And I panicked, okay? He said I had to get it out, so I went into panic mode to get it out. His heart had already stopped, so when the bone wouldn’t budge, I used my sword as leverage to pop it out. Then I picked it up to see what it was exactly, and the damn thing disintegrated in my hands. I know that sounds crazy, but it vanished. And then Jackson and them came out and found me.”
Tennessee cursed and scrubbed his face with his ring-clad hands.
Tegan frowned. “Hey, Deacon?”
“On it.” The guy with purple eyes, Deacon, looked at me, and red smoke swept over my face. “Is there any other detail you missed?”
“No, that was—” I gasped and sat up straight. “Oh my God. No. Yes. How did I forget that—”
“Forget what?” Tennessee’s eyes were sharp.
“Right before he died, like he didn’t even get to finish it, he said ‘Joseph…Locke—,’ and he cut off.”
Constance dropped the large crystal she’d been holding, and it crashed to the ground. “Did—did you say Joseph?”
I nodded.
Kessler narrowed his eyes. “It could be anyone,” but his voice was edged with anxiety.
“Yeah, it was weird. Just like with the Ouija board— Ohmygod.” I spun in my seat to face Tegan. “T, I used a Ouija board at Dean’s house the night before y’all crashed at my place.”
“Why would you use one? We always said we never—” Tegan’s face paled. “What do you mean just like with the Ouija board? Tell me what happened.”
“It was terrifying. I blew up part of Dean’s house. Jackson was there.” I pushed my hair off my face. “At first, it was that kid Max from our school who died. But then he said ‘We’re not alone,’ and then the board said ‘Max left,’ and then this guy asked it what it wanted… Tegan, it spelled my name.”
“Oh hell no,” Deacon said with a shudder. “No offense, Paulina.”
“None taken,” Paulina grumbled with her Spanish accent.
“I asked it what it wanted, and it told me four things that didn’t make any sense then. But I didn’t even know I was a witch then!”
“It’s okay. Trust me, I’m familiar with the whole not-knowing thing.” Tegan glared over my shoulder at her father, then looked back to me. “What were the four things it said?”
“‘They are not dead. They are coming.’” I licked my cracked lips. “‘Joseph,’ and then ‘seek Myrtle.’”
“Seek Myrtle?” Tegan, Tennessee, Emersyn, Deacon, Henley, and the other two guys who came to my house, all yelled at the same time.
I blinked. “You know a Myrtle?”
Tegan’s face paled and she nodded. “She’s the Lead Crone.”
Tennessee cursed.
I gripped Tegan’s arm. “But it said JOSEPH! Just like Timothy did!”
“Dad? Dad, what’s wrong?” Emersyn scowled hard. “Does Joseph mean something?”
The four adults looked like they’d seen a ghost as they stared at each other.
“Can they stop doing that?” the black-haired guy whispered.
“Royce is right. It’s creeping me out,” Deacon said back.
Tegan reached out and grabbed Tennessee’s hand, and he jumped. “Tenn?”
He turned and met my stare. “I believe that you are innocent, Bettina. But until Evaline can get here to confirm, you need to stay by my side at all times.”
“I can do that.” I nodded and tried to hide my excitement of him saying he believed me. I looked to Tegan. “Who’s Evaline?”
Tegan gave me a wicked grin. “She’s the World Card.”
Chapter Eleven
Bettina
So this is what it feels like to hate yourself.
I sighed and wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to hold myself together. We were in the same courtyard as earlier, still dressed in ceremonial white. Except this time I had my cloak. The day had passed in a blur. I couldn’t even have said what happened besides that steaming hot shower I took. Tennessee wouldn’t let me walk around school, so Tegan portaled us to my dorm then stood guard while I cleaned up. It was only twenty minutes, but it was amazing what a good shower could do to your mood.
Though the feeling lasted for a few fleeting moments before that deep dark hole opened back up and tried to swallow me whole. Today was Timothy’s funeral. A visual representation of how bad I’d failed him. We didn’t even have his body. The wooden pyre standing in the middle of the holy ground circle was empty. I hadn’t saved him, and I couldn’t even manage to bring his body home so we could give him the proper goodbye.
I wasn’t sure how The Coven could stand to have me near them.
The entire school and countless numbers of civilians were circled around us, and each of them were glaring daggers at my back. I felt each one like a slice of a knife. Cold chills slithered up and down my spine. The weaker side of me wanted to run and hide, to leave and never show my face here again. Sometime in the middle of the night, when I’d been alone and freezing in that dungeon, I’d told myself that was the plan. That I had nothing left here to cling to.
But as I looked around where Tennessee stood, I realized that wasn’t true anymore. Tegan, Hunter, Bentley, and even Emersyn—they were my family. They hadn’t even needed to hear the story. They knew without questioning that I was innocent. That level of devotion and faith was the only thing keeping me from falling apart.
“It’s time,” Tennessee said softly. “Bentley, please lead us.”
As instructed, aside from my shower, I’d stayed glued to Tennessee’s side all afternoon. Where he went, I went. It was making me jumpy as hell. And not because he was so pretty, though he was. I wasn’t blind, but he just wasn’t my type. If I was honest with myself, Tennessee scared me a little too much to be attracted to him. The power radiating off of him at all times was doing torturous things to my anxiety.
Bentley, little messy-haired Bentley, walked forward with his head held high and his shoulders back. He stopped about ten feet away from the massive wooden pyre that towered over him. Then he opened the worn-out, leather-bound book in his hands and began chanting in the ancient language. I had no idea what he was saying, but this was a funeral, so it couldn’t have been too happy.
Orange mist seeped out of the ground then billowed into the air around the pyre.
The guy with a blond buzz cut, Cooper Bishop as I’d learned, raised his left hand to the black night sky. The Mark of the Star stood out on his forearm. He curled his fingers, and a puff of silvery magic shot into the sky. The stars twinkled back down at him, like a puppy happy to see its owner come home.
Henley turned her sapphire eyes to the sky while holding her palms out to her side. The narrow crescent moon sank lower and grew bigger. In the blink of an eye, a massive full moon shined down on us, and my jaw dropped.
Tegan took a deep breath then exhaled. She walked forward until she stood right in front of the wooden pyre. Rainbow magic swirled around her hands. She raised her arms, and her magic poured off of her and hit the ground in front of her feet. The dirt shimmered and turned a frosty white as it turned to ice. Within seconds, Tegan’s magic froze the entire pyre, and it glistened under the moonlight. She said something in the old language then turned and walked back to stand beside Tennessee. I didn’t know much about the Aether Witch, but they had taught us that she was all magic manifested into one. She was everything all at the same time.
And Ice was Timothy’s magical gift. I’d seen him use it myself. I’d never se
en a frozen funeral pyre, but I loved the notion. It was for him. We didn’t have his body, but we could honor his soul. Plus, it would take longer to burn, and that made me happy.
Emersyn whispered something then marched up to the frozen pyre. She held her arms out to the sides and balled her fists. The wind made her long blonde hair sway around her, and for a moment, standing in front of the ice, she reminded me of Elsa from Frozen. She flexed her fingers straight, and bright orange flames shot out of her palms. The muscles in her arms twitched as she threw her flaming hands toward the pyre. Raging wildfire danced over the ice. The flames rose up into the sky, flickering against the darkness like they were trying to reach the moon.
Without a word, she turned and marched back to stand at Tegan’s side. Holy hell. I hadn’t seen that coming. Between her and Tegan, there was a crazy amount of magic. Too bad we didn’t know that at The Gathering.
Henley’s brother Royce stepped out of our circle. He wiggled his fingers like he was playing a piano, and then the dirt lit up bright white. I blinked and stared down at my feet—then gasped. There were flowers. White roses. I looked up and almost smiled. Every inch of ground between us and the pyre was covered in white roses and lilacs.
A soft, sad silence fell over the crowd with only the sound of flickering flames and cracking ice to fill our ears.
We all just stared at the pyre. After some time, the crowd of students and civilians disappeared, with only a handful of stragglers still watching. I couldn’t shake the pain and regret, of knowing I could’ve done more.
Constance sighed and said something in the ancient language, then she stepped forward. The rest of The Coven followed her, but I stayed put. I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t belong with them. So instead, I stood there while they moved to stand in a circle around Timothy’s pyre. I looked away. I didn’t want to see how much my failure had hurt them…and then my gaze landed on the one person I was afraid to see.
Jackson.
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