But then, why should he? She’d done this.
Suck it up and move! You look like an idiot just standing here!
Tilting her chin up, Avery forced her legs into motion and sauntered over to her desk. Unfortunately, it was right beside Reid’s. She would have given anything to sit somewhere else, but they’d chosen these seats at the beginning of the year and been assigned to them. She didn’t look at the two of them as she sat and opened her book and gazed at it like math was the most fascinating thing to her when in fact it was often a struggle.
“I knew you were too good for her.”
Avery’s back became ramrod straight when the blonde’s words drifted to her, but she didn’t get a chance to reply before the final bell rang and the teacher walked in. From the corner of her eye, she saw the blonde sit back but not before giving Reid her phone number. Avery propped her book on her desk so she could hide behind it when a few tears slid free.
CHAPTER 41
Avery flung her backpack onto one of the picnic tables where the coven met for lunch, but she was the only one there. She would rather deal with Regan than endure one more minute of this miserable day. At least she could fight Regan. She didn’t know how to fight this distance between the coven members or her constant heartache.
She had yet to see any other members of the coven. She knew she had to try speaking with them, but she wasn’t eager to return to school to find them. After Rosie’s distance, she suspected Landon wouldn’t speak to her, and she doubted Alex would. That left her with Sandra, Mario, Eric, and maybe Shawn. Sandra would still talk to her if only to spite Landon, but she wasn’t sure what the others would do once they learned she ended it with Reid.
She paced in front of the picnic tables as she tried to puzzle out her next move. She’d created a bigger wedge within the coven by distancing herself from Reid, but there had to be a way to get them all together to defeat Regan.
“Avery!”
Her head jerked up when Landon’s voice pierced her thoughts. With her auburn hair flowing behind her, Landon came down the hill toward her. Joy filled her before she realized Landon was stalking toward her like the killer in a slasher movie.
She was not in the mood for a confrontation, but a part of her had known it was coming. Getting it over with sooner rather than later was probably for the best, but she didn’t want to fight with Landon. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that she had a choice. Straightening her shoulders, Avery braced herself for what was coming.
“How could you?” Landon demanded when she stopped before Avery.
“Good afternoon to you too, Landon.”
Avery had no idea why she was antagonizing Landon when she should be trying to mend bridges, but she was so tired of all the hostility. She was also tired of being scared of Regan, whoever was leaving her the notes, what was happening with the coven, and that she’d lost Reid forever. Her entire life now revolved around fear, and she hated it.
When Landon glowered at her, some of Avery’s rebellion melted. If they had any chance of stopping Regan, then she had to play nice, even if Landon’s antagonism was pissing her off.
“Why?” Landon demanded.
Avery didn’t pretend not to know what she was talking about. “It was moving too fast.”
Landon stared at her as if she’d sprouted a unicorn horn and tail. “Too fast?”
Avery waited for her to say more, but she still looked completely flabbergasted by Avery’s words. “Yes.”
Landon’s face hardened. “We brought you into the coven and made you one of us, and this is what you do?”
“I was always one of you; I was just hidden away for most of my life,” Avery reminded her as wrath built within her. She wasn’t a charity case, and she didn’t need Landon judging her decisions, her life, or pushing her to fall in line simply because it made everything easier.
Fury flared through Landon’s eyes. “You broke his heart!”
The anguish in Landon’s voice doused most of her anger. Reid was her twin, and Avery had hurt him. Of course, Landon was upset.
“I never intended to hurt him; it’s the last thing I ever wanted to do. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I love him more than I ever believed possible. It was going too fast and with everything else happening…” Avery lifted her hands before her. “I’ve lost myself somewhere, and I needed some time and distance to think while I tried to figure myself out.”
“And you couldn’t think without hurting my brother? Does your brain shut off when he’s around?”
Sometimes it is impossible to think when he’s around.
“No, of course not,” Avery said.
When Landon’s gaze raked scathingly over her, Avery felt exposed and judged in a way she never had before. “So, you decided that the only way you could think was to hurt him.”
“Landon—”
“You’re not the person I believed you were.”
Avery managed to keep herself from recoiling at the disgust in Landon’s voice. She hadn’t expected Landon to run up and hug her, but she hadn’t expected this either.
Before Avery could reply, Landon turned on her heel and stalked back up the hill. Avery opened her mouth to call her back, to tell her they had to work together to defeat Regan, but she closed it again. No matter how true it was, today was not going to be the day the coven united against their enemy. Unless, maybe, that enemy was her they were uniting against.
She was ready to plunge back into the fight against Regan, but Reid and Landon needed time to get over their anger at her. And she could give them that, even if she didn’t think they had much time before Regan made his next move against them. He’d been stronger in the maze, he was still determined to have her on his side, and he was coming for them.
She’d wait a few days before trying to talk with the coven again. Until then, she’d keep searching for the skull, the traitor amongst them, and some way to defeat Regan.
CHAPTER 42
“I don’t know how I let you guys talk me into this,” Avery said.
“Oh, stop it! We’re going to have fun tonight, I promise,” Tina replied.
“Tina, you don’t understand! Ever since I broke up with Reid, I’ve been the most hated person in that school. Not to mention the death threats—”
“From some cowardly a-hole,” Tina muttered.
“They may be a coward,” Avery said. “But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t prefer to see me dead. I’m waiting for them to burn me.”
Ever since the doll, she’d received three more notes throughout October. Each of the notes threatened to burn her, but thankfully she hadn’t been barbequed yet. She didn’t know if the notes were meant to intimidate and frighten her or if she was in real danger, but they had her on edge and more than a little afraid of every person in her school. Even if they had no intention of following through on their threats, whoever was sending them wasn’t exactly stable.
She’d told Sandra, Eric, and Mario about the notes, but they were also clueless about who was doing it. Eric and Mario had set up a camera inside her locker, but whoever was doing it wore a mask to deliver the note.
The timestamp on the camera marked it as happening after school, but not so late that the person shouldn’t have been on the grounds. With all the sports, tutoring, and clubs going on after school, the time did nothing to narrow down their list of suspects.
She had no idea how the person was getting into her locker, and Sandra had suggested putting a spell on it to keep the perpetrator out, but Avery was still hoping to catch whoever it was. Besides, whoever it was would only find another way to deliver the notes to her.
“They wouldn’t dare burn you!” Lila cried as her head popped into the bathroom doorway.
“No, they wouldn’t,” Karen said as she brushed Avery’s hair with a briskness that made her wince.
“Probably not,” Avery agreed. “But I’m definitely hated in that school, and people make it even more clear now that I’m not with Reid and Lando
n won’t talk to me. I think the students saw me as being under their protection before, and now I’m fair game.”
“They’re both acting like children,” Tina muttered.
“They have a right to be mad at me,” Avery said. “And to be fair, I haven’t tried to approach either one of them again since Landon confronted me that day.”
She’d fully intended to wait a week and then try to get everyone in the coven back together again, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk to Landon and Reid. She was being a coward and it might very well get them all killed; however, every time she saw them, they didn’t acknowledge her existence.
She had broken up with Reid so he would be angry at her and put his safety ahead of hers, but she hadn’t expected this complete indifference toward her. It was horrible.
“You do realize if you go to this dance with me, no one is going to talk to you,” Avery said.
“I don’t like talking to people anyway,” Lila said as she breezed into the bathroom. Though she was still going to physical therapy, Lila had stopped using her cane last week and only walked with a slight limp. “Are you two almost done with her?”
“Almost,” Tina muttered as she turned Avery’s chin one way, then the other. Avery eyed the mascara wand she held while Tina studied her.
“Ow!” Avery cried when Karen stuck her scalp with a bobby pin.
“Sorry,” Karen mumbled around the pins still clutched in her mouth.
“Stop complaining,” Tina said. “Beauty comes with a price, and you look gorgeous!”
“I don’t want to look gorgeous,” Avery muttered. She much preferred to blend in at school and not be noticed at all.
“Of course you do,” Lila retorted. “It’s Halloween! The witch’s holiday and you’re going to celebrate it!”
“Not much of a witch’s holiday this year,” she replied. “The coven is still a mess, and it’s mostly my fault.”
She’d tried to get them all back together again this past month, but it had been useless. Sandra, Mario, and Eric would all happily talk to her and each other, but they didn’t want anything to do with anyone else. Alex and Rosie still spoke with her, but they weren’t exactly hanging out together every day.
Isla avoided everyone, and Shawn—aware some viewed him as suspect number one—had distanced himself from everyone. Even if he hadn’t withdrawn further from all of them, she and Shawn had never been close, and she didn’t know how to approach him.
There were many times she’d picked up her phone to call Reid, and every time she’d hung up again. She had no idea how to fix what she’d broken between them. It had been the right thing to do to help keep him safe and to figure out who she was.
She’d always love Reid and always wonder what could have been if they didn’t get back together. Avery couldn’t see herself with anyone else, but she would continue her life without him because that was the way life went. When someone lost something or someone, they picked up the pieces and continued afterward. They had no other choice.
She’d already applied to her top colleges, though she couldn’t imagine going away to college with a demonic spirit still pursuing her. Everything she’d ever dreamed of doing in her life might never happen because of Regan. It only made her hate the bastard more.
She’d spent every day since they returned from the maze scrying for the skull with no luck. It was as if the thing had vanished. She’d cast locating spells for it too, but they also didn’t do anything to help her. One of the spells had created a ball of light meant to take her to the skull; instead, it took her to the cave where Regan and Celia died a hundred years ago before vanishing.
The rest of Regan’s bones remained in that cave, but they were useless to her. She didn’t know if she’d cast the spell wrong or if the spell couldn’t work with Regan’s skeleton so close. Either way, it only made her more frustrated.
Just in case whoever had taken the skull had decided to hide it in there, she’d searched the cave with her crystal and cast spells; she’d come up with nothing. Frustrated didn’t begin to describe how she felt, but she refused to give up.
Sandra, Mario, and Eric had helped her to search for the skull on a few occasions, but Avery did much of the searching on her own; she suspected they were doing the same. Even if they all remained friendly with each other, the three of them still didn’t completely trust each other.
“It’s not your fault the coven is the way it is right now,” Tina said. “It’s Regan’s fault.”
“I definitely didn’t help it,” she replied.
“Well, no,” Tina said; she’d never been one to pull her punches. “But it is what it is.”
Tina took the mascara wand to Avery’s lashes again before jabbing it back into its holder and rising to stand before her. Avery never wore makeup or did anything special with her hair, but the three of them insisted on making her into a different person tonight. And no matter how much she normally disliked makeup and having her hair styled, she had allowed them to sit her on the edge of her tub and give her a makeover because she desired to be someone else, even if it was only for one night.
When Tina stepped back, Lila squeezed between the two of them to inspect herself in the mirror over the sink. Lila’s sleek black dress hugged her lithe, athletic frame. A pointed witch hat sat precariously on her head, and black eyeliner outlined her warm brown eyes. Avery had protested all their costume choices, but her protests had fallen on deaf ears.
Tina’s black leotards emphasized her slim figure. The whiskers Lila painted on Tina’s face and her black eyeliner accentuated her mahogany eyes. A set of cat ears sat on her head, and a tail stuck out from the back of her leotard. The three of them had decided that Tina would be Lila and Karen’s familiar even though no one in the coven had a familiar; as far as Avery knew, no witches had them.
“Almost done,” Karen said as she stuck another bobby pin into Avery’s hair.
“Wait until you see!” Tina said. “You look amazing!”
Karen stepped in front of her; her brow was furrowed, and the bobby pins stuck between her teeth poked out of her mouth. A black wig covered her dirty blonde hair, and her dress hung to her ankles. Instead of a witch’s hat, she’d opted for a headband with a silver pentagram.
“Okay,” Karen announced as she stepped away from Avery, “I’m all done.”
Karen grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet before the three of them propelled her out of the bathroom and over to the full-length mirror on her wall. Lila placed her hand over Avery’s eyes as they positioned her in front of the mirror.
“Ta da!” Lila cried and pulled her hand away.
Avery gawked at her reflection; she’d wanted to be someone else tonight, and they had succeeded in making her so. They’d curled her blue-black hair around her shoulders and placed a golden halo on her head to keep her hair away from her face. The makeup Tina applied made her sapphire eyes look larger and more mysterious.
Her thin white dress brushed her ankles and clung to curves she hadn’t known she possessed. Sparkling, golden angel wings stood out a foot on either side of her. Twisting from side to side, she watched as the dress swayed with her movements and the wings sparkled.
She looked beautiful, and she didn’t like it.
Stepping hastily away from the mirror, she turned so she wouldn’t have to see her reflection anymore. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“Yes, it is,” Tina stated. “You’re going to this dance, my little angel, if we have to drag you all the way there.”
“This is asking for trouble!” Avery protested.
“Then bring it on,” Karen said. “We’re going to show everyone in that school they can’t mess with our friend!”
Determination etched their faces as Avery gazed helplessly at them. “Why is this so important to you?”
“Because,” Lila said, “ever since you went through that maze and broke up with Reid, you’ve been hiding yourself away. This is your senior year, Avery. You’re
supposed to be enjoying it, and instead you’re being treated like crap. You’ll never get this time back, you deserve far better, and it’s not fair you’re missing out on things.”
Tina and Karen nodded their agreement.
“But things are different here than they were at our school,” Avery said. “They seriously treat me like I’m a leper, and I’m getting death threats.”
They all exchanged a glance, but she could tell she hadn’t swayed them. “And you can’t let them know you’re afraid of them,” Tina said.
“I’m not afraid of them!” she automatically protested, but she was. When something scared people, they became unpredictable, and someone or someones in school feared her a lot. There was too much violence and craziness going on for her not to be afraid, even if she could knock them on their ass with her power.
“Avery—”
“They keep saying they want to burn me,” she interrupted Tina.
“I know,” Tina said as Karen rested her hand on Avery’s arm and Lila hugged her.
“If you really don’t want to go…” Lila’s voice trailed off as she released Avery and stepped back.
She did not want to go, but they were right; this was her senior year, and she was hiding, not only from the kids in school but also from the coven. “If I decide to leave—”
“We’ll be out of there,” Tina promised.
“And next month you’ll come to the homecoming dance with us,” Karen said. “I know everyone at school would like to see you again.”
Avery struggled against the tears burning her eyes as she recalled her old school and the kids there. She’d never been Miss. Popularity, but she’d never been hated, and she always talked with everyone in her class.
The Maze (The Coven, Book 2) Page 21
