Ana Awakens: A YA Paranormal Murder Mystery Novel (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 1)

by Alina Banks

  Alice stepped back, disappearing into the shadows, leaving me alone with Alex. I was still working out what to tell him. Drawing someone like him in…I couldn’t help but think I was just going to get him killed. He didn’t have magic like me. He wasn’t a kitsune like James. He was human, nothing more, and keeping him out was probably the most logical thing I could do.

  “Don’t.” Alex gave me a look. “I came to you to learn the truth, Ana. Don’t push me out. You’re probably the only person who will tell me what I need to know.”

  “If you are in danger, then it’s because both of you are related to one of the guardians of Clermont.” I gestured for him to sit down. “From what I’ve heard, a lot of people are related to them, but there are only certain people who have that power.”

  “Are you one of them?”

  This was the point where I could either tell him everything, or tell him what he needed to know at that point in time. I couldn’t help but think he would expect too many things from me. “In time, maybe. I don’t know for certain. What I do know, is that there’s someone out there killing people who are related to the guardians, because they have some of the power within them, but they can’t use it.”

  “Why not?”

  “No idea.” I smiled. “It’s one of those things I’m still trying to work out. I don’t have all the answers. I think I know more than other people, but what I do know isn’t always enough, so a lot of the time I’m guessing. I am almost certain Mom’s taken on the job of being one of the guardians, and Miss Cane definitely is.”

  “So, what happened to Sabrina?”

  “The three of us were stupid enough to go out there to try to find whoever killed those people for their power. We ran into a creature of some kind.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what it was, but I do know it would have killed us, had it not been for James’s quick thinking. He distracted it, throwing whatever he could at it, giving me some time to try to get Sabrina out of there.”

  “But she’s still in hospital, and there are those who are saying she’s not coming out alive.”

  “She’s going to be fine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  James stared at me. “I told him some of the truth, but not enough, I hope, for it to be a problem.”

  He shook his head. “Letting someone else get involved…”

  “It wasn’t a case of letting him. It was more a case of telling him what I knew so he wouldn’t go out and do something stupid.” I shrugged. “For now, I think I’ve told him enough that he’s not going to make any bad choices, like going out into the forest alone. I hope.”

  “That wasn’t enough for us.”

  “Okay, I know I might not have made the right choice here, but I did what I thought was best, considering the situation. I didn’t tell him anything more than he already knows about you, and he does know a little more about me. Only that I might become one of the guardians of Clermont.”

  “Might be?” James laughed. “We both know you’ve already taken that job on, even if you had no idea it was even a possibility until last week.” He studied me. “I think what we need to be doing is preparing to go out there again. We can’t let that thing can kill anyone else.”

  “You aren’t wrong about that, but it has only been a few days. I still don’t know what I can do with this power, so I think I need a couple more days to experiment before we even think about going out there.”

  “There is one slight problem with that.” I raised an eyebrow, and it seemed that was all I needed to do. “I’m in detention for the next week, with the principal, for a prank I apparently pulled last week.” He sighed. “There’s even a chance I might have pulled it before I knew what the situation was, and if he is the creature we were fighting before…what’s going to happen to me if I’m alone with him, Ana? If he knows I have some of the power he needs to be able to open the door for the demon, he might want to take me, and that…”

  “Don’t worry too much. I’m sure we can work something out.” I raked a hand through my hair. “You have detention tonight?”

  He nodded. “I called my parents, so they know, but I didn’t say anything to them about believing the creature might be the principal, because I didn’t want to worry them.”

  “As long as you aren’t alone you should be okay. I can sit outside the room, maybe with Alex, and the principal wouldn’t dare do anything to you. Hopefully.”

  “Can I ask why you’re worried?” Alex studied me. I did my best to seem unconcerned, which probably wasn’t working quite as well as I wanted it to. “Do you think the principal might be behind what happened?”

  “At the moment, I think it’s more that I’m not willing to trust anyone.” I shrugged. “I don’t have any reason to suspect Principal Woods, but from the beginning, there’s been something about him that makes me really uncomfortable, and that…I guess I just don’t want James to be alone right now, especially after everything that’s happened, and I especially don’t want him to be alone around someone I get weird feelings about.”

  “Why me?”

  “You’re probably the only other person I trust right now. From what happened before, I believe you when you say you’re worried about being a target, and I can tell you now, there’s a high chance James is as well.”

  “Okay.” Alex gave me a smile. “I don’t have any reason to go straight home, so I’ll sit with you to make sure James is safe, but I want something in return.”

  For a moment, I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he was after, but I did need his help. “What is it?”

  “If you go out into the forest again, I want to be there with you.” He looked down and then back at me. “I feel like I need to be there to help, because it would only be the two of you, and I don’t think you two will be enough.” He paused. “You said you trusted me.”

  Slowly, I nodded. “I do, and if you want to be there, I can’t stop you, but being out there isn’t safe.”

  He laughed. “Like being out here is safe now. Anyone could be attacked, Ana, and I…this is going to sound stupid, but I can’t just not do something. Especially not when I know the next person could be me or Dante. I might not like him anymore, but I don’t want anything to happen to him, because he is family. He’s terrible family, but…” He shrugged. “I need to do something. I think you’re very much the same, so I’d hate for you two to go out there and lose because there was one less person than there could have been.”

  “Then you need to know we’re probably going to head out there tonight, after James’s detention is over. He’s got a whole week of this and he doesn’t want to be alone with the principal, so we decided it would be best to deal with this tonight. It might not work out, but we have to try.”

  “As soon as James gets out of detention, we’ll talk about how this works out.”

  Principal Woods stared at the two of us emotionlessly. Both Alex and I had books out. “Why are the two of you here?”

  “We had plans with James so we thought we’d wait.” I almost smiled. “We’ll be quiet. You won’t even know we’re here.”

  He stared at us. I had a feeling he really wanted to kick us out, but we hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Eventually, he nodded. “Okay. Just make sure you are quiet. If anything untoward happens out here, I will be sending you both home.”

  Before I could respond, he stepped into the classroom, closing the door behind him. There were so many ways I could have responded to that, but none of them would have done us any good. I glanced at Alex, and he nodded, turning his attention back to his book. I did the same. Well, I sort of did, when I was able to concentrate on the words in front of me, but I spent more time worrying about James. He was in that room alone with Principal Woods. With the two of us sitting there, it was unlikely the principal was going to do anything suspicious, but from the sounds of things, he had let his emotions get the better of him during homecoming. At least that girl had healed from the scratches and headed home.
She didn’t have the kind of power he wanted. Unlike Sabrina. She was the other reason we really needed to get things sorted as quickly as possible. If we didn’t, there was still a chance she could die.

  Finally, after what felt like hours, the door opened again, and James stepped out into the corridor. We shared a look. Then, Alex and I stood so we could all walk out of the school. I did my best to ignore the eyes boring into my back. I knew it was Principal Woods staring at us. I didn’t doubt for a moment he was frustrated, because we’d done what we could to block his plans, and there was a chance he might have made the wrong choice. In some ways, I think we were very fortunate that he didn’t try to take all three of us, but decided to let us leave.

  “We’ll meet at the edge of the forest at sunset.” James looked at the two of us. “We need to prepare, so let’s get it done as quickly as possible. Let’s finish this.”

  It was rare that I had some alone time in the sanctuary, and it was more of a relief than I thought it would be. There were things I needed to do to prepare for what was to come. I took more time than I should have, I stood there and relished the feeling of being at home. Relished the feeling that told me everything was going to be okay. I had to believe that. After dealing with the minion before, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy job, and there were things we’d need that I’d never made before, so I grabbed one of Grandmother’s herb craft books. There were people I could have asked for help, but if I did, they would have definitely asked me why I needed it. If they knew what we were planning, they’d do what they could to stop us.

  “I’m not going to try to stop you.” The voice came from behind me, and I glanced back to see my grandmother standing by the door. I didn’t know if it was her ghost, or if I was having another experience like the one before, but I stared at her, trying to work out why she was there. “Lilah isn’t the best teacher you could have at this point, Ana.” She smiled. “Even though I know she came back to try to make up for the choices she made before, there is no way to fix the damage she caused. Not for her. All of the choices she has made in her life has led her here, and the time will come when she truly understands how little there is she can do now. She tried to give up on her magic and that weakened her further, when, truth be told, she was already one of the weakest of us.”

  “How are you here?”

  “When I learned of what was to come, I did what I could to tie myself to this place. I hoped I would be the ghost to help bring about the end of the demon, but in the end, this is what I managed to force. Most of the time, I am in the spirit world watching over you, and then there are times like this when I’m able to step back into the world to help you.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “But you understand why I did.” She shrugged. “This is unlikely to work out exactly the way I want it to, because you don’t want to be fighting the demon anywhere near this place, but I might be able to do something more, if you manage to learn how to call to me in the spirit world. I think it’s possible. It is an ability we’ve had in the past. We have always been one of the strongest families. I’ve been told that’s because the demon chose us first and used more of his power than he really wanted to, because he’d never created a witch before. The woman in question wanted to get revenge on a man who said he’d marry her, only to marry someone else. She didn’t care what she had to do in order to make him pay. There are so many people the demon has manipulated to do what he wants.”

  Nodding, I looked back at the book. “Like the minion we’re dealing with now. I know you wouldn’t be happy with the thought of killing him, but I honestly don’t think we have any other option. Not if he is who I think he is. On the outside, he seems perfectly normal to everyone, because he doesn’t want them to know what he’s become. He’s doing everything he can to disguise himself. With someone like that, I don’t think it’s possible to really help them have a new life.”

  “Most of the minions don’t want help from us, either. They come to believe we are their enemy, even if we are doing what we can to help, and so they fight us, in the hope that they’re going to be able to use our power to help open the door.” She stepped forward. “I know you’ve made your decision, and I approve of that choice, even if you aren’t where you should be.”

  “I want to be prepared, especially since someone entirely human is going to be with me.”

  She flicked through the pages of the book. “There are a couple of things you can make in the short time you have. James should be easy enough to cast a couple of spells on, but I know you don’t want to do that with Alex, so potions it is.”

  Blinking, I looked at her. “How do you know who I’m going with?”

  “Like I said, Ana, I’ve been watching over you. I did what I could to help before you made your way here, and now that you are here, I can teach you things Lilah never took the time to learn. She was so certain that her power should have belonged to someone else, she wasn’t willing to try to accept it. It was hard for me to accept what I was, but I did, because I had no choice. She did everything she could to find other options. When she found the spell to pass her magic on to someone else, I was scared for her. That was when I knew, for sure, that I was never going to get through to her.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  James shrugged. “If you think it will help, then go right ahead.” He studied me. “Are you certain this is something you can do?”

  “I’m certain I can cast the spell. What I’m not so sure of, is if it’ll actually help, but it’s not going to harm you if it goes wrong. At least, Grandmother said it wouldn’t, and I’m going to take her at her word, because that seems like the best thing I can do at the moment. She knows so much more than I do.”

  “It’s weird that you can speak to the dead.” He shook his head. “Then again, I can’t really say much, can I? I turn into a multi-tailed fox, so…” He smiled. “Everything about this is weird.”

  “True.”

  I gathered my power the way Grandmother taught me to and focused on the chant that would make James stronger, in the hope it would help once we got out there. My mind turned to how I was going to convince Alex to drink the potion, when I’d been warned there was a chance it was going to taste terrible. I pushed that thought aside and chanted over James, and I could feel the power as it left me, gently sweeping over him. He stared at me as it did, so I knew he could feel it too. Casting a spell like that…I smiled. I couldn’t stop myself. I had to believe it was going to do something.

  “Wow.” He ran his hands over himself. “I can feel it, Ana.” His eyes met mine as he smiled. “I don’t know how exactly to describe what I’m feeling, but I can feel it, and I think it worked.”

  “We won’t find out until we get there, but I think it worked.” I shook my head. “Everything about this is weird, but we’re doing something, and that’s better than doing nothing.” I lifted the bottle I was holding. “Any suggestions as to how I can convince Alex to drink this?”

  “How about you give it to me? I’ll pretend to drink from it, pretend it’s some kind of protein drink, and he can have the rest.” Even though I wasn’t certain that would work any better than my ideas, I passed it over to James. “What’s actually in here?”

  “Magic, and herbs.” I shrugged. “Grandmother taught me how to make it because she knew I couldn’t cast a spell on Alex, and it’s the only way I can think of to keep him safe while we’re out there.”

  “Instead of worrying about him, we could go alone.”

  “We could, but I made a deal. He could come with us, as long as he sat with me to wait for you, and I didn’t want to walk away from that.” I sighed. “Well, no, there’s a part of me that wants to, because he is just a human, but I can’t. Not when I made that deal.”

  “Okay.” James nodded. “I would have said the same thing.”

  The sound of footsteps drawing closer had us both turning. Alex was walking toward us, something poking up behind him. I looked at it, and then a
t him. “What have you brought with you?”

  “Borrowed a sword.” He shrugged. “I thought it would be helpful to have a weapon.”

  “Honestly, we don’t know if we’re even going to run into anything.” I glanced at James, wondering if we should have brought weapons, but then neither of us were human. If things went badly, I could turn to my magic. If things went badly for him, it would be easy enough for him to shift. “I don’t think I even have weapons at home. At least not like the sword you have.”

  Nodding, Alex looked between the two of us. “That’s why I brought it. If something happens, I want to be ready.”

  “So do we.” James brought the bottle of potion to his lips, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he’d drank some of it. “That’s why I have this.”

  “What is it?” Alex stared at it.

  “Mom gave it to me. It’s one of those weird concoctions she makes, in the belief they’re going to make me stronger. I don’t know if they work, but it’s worth a shot, considering the fact that we might be going out there to confront a murderer.”

  “A murderer that just so happens to be a creature of some kind.” Alex took the offered bottle and downed it, grimacing at the taste. “Don’t tell your mom, but that was terrible.”

  “I won’t.” James glanced at me. I could tell he was trying not to smile. “We should get moving. It won’t take long for it to get stupidly dark in there, and I’d like to be back at the cabin before it is. I have a feeling it only travels like that at night.”

  “That would make sense. Whatever it is, it’s not going to want anyone to see it.” I shrugged. “Okay, so when we get to the cabin, we need to be looking for anything unusual. Anything that might tell us why they’ve been killing people, and why they chose those specific people.” Granted, I was almost certain we already knew that, but more evidence would be nice, if only so it could be used to explain what had happened. “The sooner we get there, the more time we’ll have to explore.”