by Lily Luchesi
The Coven History
The Coven Series Book Four
Lily Luchesi
Vamptasy Publishing
Contents
The Coven History
The Coven History
Also by Lily Luchesi
Praise for Lily Luchesi
Foreword
Spell Glossary
Music
Playlist
Part One
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part Two
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Part Three
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Part Four
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
The Coven History
Also by Lily Luchesi
The Paranormal Detectives Series:
Stake-Out
Miranda’s Rights
Life Sentence
Right To Silence
Last Rites
Never Again (standalone spin-off)
Skin Deep
Day of Execution
Paroled From Heaven
The Coven Series:
The Coven Princess
The Coven Heir
The Coven Rescue
The Coven History
The Coven Queen (January 10th, 2020)
The Devil’s Kin Trilogy:
(Coming 2020)
Standalones:
A Bloody Legacy (18+)
The Hunger Within (18+)
Bad Reputation
Bloodspell (18+)
Soul Syndicate (written with Faith Marlow)
Anthologies:
Damsels of Distress
Naughty Bedtime Stories: In Three Words (18+)
Naughty Bedtime Stories: Four You (18+)
Death Love Lust (18+)
Lurking In The Shadows
Beautiful Nightmares
Another Beautiful Nightmare
Lurking In The Mind
Weirdbook Magazine #35
Weirdbook Magazine #39
All You Need Is Love (18+)
Black Magic
Demons, Devils, Denizens of Hell
Praise for Lily Luchesi
Lily Luchesi’s Paranormal Detectives Series has it all; action, mystery, mayhem, heart and a compelling cast. Each book is entertaining and emotional, filled with a delicious blend of darkness, sass and salvation. - The Adventures of SacaKat
Pure sexy action adventure. If you like your heroine's sassy, sexy, and tough and your stories packed with hard hitting, badass action, then The Paranormal Detective series is just what you’re looking for. An exciting ride that gets better with each new book. - reader Danetta Sutton
Absolute HORROR. Heart wrenching ROMANCE. Gritty ACTION. The Paranormal Detectives series has it all. Fall into a world with deadly creatures, complex characters, and a kickass heroine who isn’t afraid to bare her fangs! You’ll flinch, you’ll cry, and your heart will swell with unimaginable emotion with every passing installment. Luchesi sure knows how to pack a punch and ignite an addiction for a tale that explores the thin line that exists between honoring one’s humanity and resisting the urge to give into a monstrous heritage. - Knightingale Reviews
The Paranormal Detectives Series is a gripping, real, and action-packed paranormal ride that will keep you coming back for more! - Charity Rowell at On My Kindle Book Reviews
Forget Underworld and Twilight, this is the modern day vampire series that you're craving!
Luchesi perfectly constructs a world where vampires and other beings exist among us, it's True Blood meets Supernatural and you won't be able to put this series down! - A. Giacomi, Authoress of The Zombie Girl Saga
The Paranormal Detective Series by Lily Luchesi blew me away. Every time I thought I had a scene figured out, she threw me a curve ball. Lily left no paranormal stone unturned. The amount of research and pure literary genius that went into these books is insane. I laughed, I held my breath and at times of frustration, I almost cried. But throughout the read, I found it hard to put the books down. I highly recommend this series to all lovers of paranormal literature. - TL Travis, author of The Sebastian Chronicles
Foreword
“When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.”—Psalm 146:4
Spell Glossary
Ligabis: binds opponent’s legs together.
Artaith: illegal torture curse; causes extreme pain, invented by Robert Mor Munro.
Imputresco: illegal curse, causes enemies to decay rapidly, invented by Robert Mor Munro.
Caedas: Bleeding Curse, invented by Salem Sinclair.
Ignis: sets fire to whatever it’s aimed at.
Plaga reparo: heals minor wounds.
Imperium: expels pure soul energy, only used by members of Clan Munro.
Volant: makes opponent or object fly a wide distance.
Stabilis: steadies people and objects; can be used offensively.
Dimoveo: removes liquid and solids from their containers, useful for cleaning wounds.
Evanescet: makes liquids disappear.
Argentum ferrum: creates silver blades. Useful against many creatures.
Praemium maleum/Praelium: sends dark energy as an attack. Only used by members of Clan Munro.
Rescarcio: fixes most broken objects.
Rado: cleans up spills.
Vestigo: tracking spell.
Flecto: bends even the most stubborn objects.
Lux: creates light like a torch.
Sol: increases the effect of "lux".
Praetrunco: severs flesh, fabric, and other solids.
Sufflatus: blows up objects.
Flammo: creates wall of flames.
Ausculto amplifico: enhances one’s hearing at a distance.
Detineo: freezes opponent temporarily.
Music
Music speaks to the soul, even the souls of characters who don’t, technically, exist in the real world. For this playlist, I had been building it since before The Coven Princess was even released. My initial plan was to make TCP be Salem’s story, and that just didn’t happen. So now you have his story, and his heartbreaking playlist.
Playlist
“Over It” by Bullet For My Valentine
“Feel” by Skarlett Riot
“My Heart Is Broken” by Evanescence
“Lost In The Echo” by Linkin Park
“Leave It Alone” by Disturbed
“Lithium” by Evanescence
“Speak To Me” by Amy Lee
“Open Your Eyes” by Disturbed
“System” by Jonathan Davis
“Waiting For The End” by Linkin Park
“Piece of Me” by Bullet For My Valentine
“Close Your Eyes” by Breaking Benjamin
“Tyrant!” by Disturbed
“Monster” by Disturbed
“Rise” by Disturbed
“Love Exists” by Amy Lee
“Never Go Back” by Evanescence
“Damaged People” by Depeche Mode
“I Want To Live” by Skil
let
“Violence Fetish” by Disturbed
“One More Light” by Linkin Park
“Voices” by Disturbed
“Black Soul” by Shinedown
“Helena” by My Chemical Romance
“Poetic Tragedy” by The Used
“Together Again” by Evanescence
“Pyro” by Shinedown
“One Day Too Late” by Skillet
“Parasite” by Disturbed
“Broken Pieces” by Apocalyptica featuring Lacey Sturm
“Darkness” by Disturbed
“Pieces Mended” by The Used
“Circus For A Psycho” by Skillet
“Even In Death” by Evanescence
“You’re Not Alone” by Lacey Sturm
“Lost In Paradise” by Evanescence
Prologue
There are moments in every teenage girl’s life they will remember forever: their first kiss, their first breakup, the first time they cast a spell. Not every moment is pleasant, but they all leave an indelible mark on their soul for the rest of their lives.
Some of those marks are actually scars. Because the moments that will shape a girl for the rest of her life are often painful and they cut deep as a blade.
Nineteen-year-old Coven Princess Harley Sinclair would remember this day as the one that gave her the deepest scar of all.
She had been celebrating the birthday of her younger half-brother, Nick Smith. Nick had just been given a motorcycle by Caelum Lynx, Harley’s boyfriend and Nick’s self-appointed godfather. Nick’s boyfriend, Roger Ainsley, was not having it.
“No way. I don’t want my boyfriend to become roadkill!” he insisted.
Harley chuckled as Nick practically danced around the bike. “It’s not that bad.”
“When have you been on one?” Nick asked.
“With Caelum.” She gestured to the shifter in question. He came behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Her heart double beat, knowing that none of them had known about the two of them. Now they would, and she was torn between pride and nervousness.
“If your dour cousin says a motorcycle is okay, then you can believe it,” Caelum said to Roger. He kissed Harley’s neck and she melted into the touch.
Nick was staring, wide-eyed. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again, but nothing came out.
Roger nudged him. “Stop it. You look like a cod fish.”
“But you hate him!” Nick cried.
“There’s a fine line between love and hate, brother dear,” Harley replied, turning to kiss Caelum full on the lips.
“Speaking of hating me,” Caelum said when he pulled away, “where’s your dad?”
Harley’s father, Salem Sinclair, was the Coven King. He ran the entire UK Coven single handedly and had for nearly four years.
Harley was about to reply when she heard her name being called.
Mrs. Donahue was running toward her, her steel-coloured hair blowing out of its pristine bun. “Harley, oh dear! You need to come. Now. Something’s wrong.” Mrs. Frieda Donahue was eighty-five if she was a day, and was a high-ranking Coven Elder.
“What is it?” she asked. “Mrs. Donahue, please calm down. What’s the matter?”
“It’s Salem. He’s ill.” She clutched at her high frilly collar. “I was just in to pick up some papers he needed me to file and he was at his desk … in a swoon.”
Harley felt like all the feeling had gone out of her body and if Caelum had not been holding her, she would have hit the floor.
“He did wake, Madam Maysa is with him now,” Donahue continued.
Maysa was an official Medic, trained in medicinal magic. She was almost as old as Donahue.
“What’s wrong with him?” Caelum asked, seeing that Harley wasn’t able to speak at the moment.
Donahue shook her head. “All I know is he was feverish and coughing. Miss Sinclair, you might want to—”
“I know,” Harley said, her voice rougher than she had intended. She moved away from Caelum’s warm embrace and dashed toward the castle, her heart thumping in her throat.
A little more than a year ago, Harley had found her father bloody and poisoned, mostly dead thanks to a Dark wizard named Robert Mor Munro. She had managed to create a cure for him, but it had been the most frightening moment of her life. Until now.
Magicians were immune to most human maladies, and she didn’t know of any magical illness that could have caused fever and coughing, save for Pixie Pox. And that was a disease that only affected children. Her father was already immune to it. So, what was this?
It was no secret that the Sinclairs were disliked in the Coven. That summer, a necromancer had waged war on them, and it had nearly destroyed the Coven. What if someone had poisoned him?
But that was silly. Salem was, above all, a master potioneer. The only person on Earth who was even close to his level of expertise was Harley. He could have detected any sort of poison before ingesting it.
Harley felt her eyes fill with tears that she held back. Of course, perhaps because his mother had been an apprentice witch, which meant she was technically human, maybe he had caught something when he’d been in London two days ago. It wasn’t impossible. And it was the only string of hope she had to hold onto. Because human ailments were easy to cure.
Inside the castle, she paused. Was he in the hospital wing, or was he in his chambers? She made a decision and went to his private quarters. Salem was a private person, he’d not want to be taken to the infirmary and cause others to see him weak.
Harley had inherited that from him.
His office door was wide open, as was the secret door that led to his living quarters. Harley sensed Maysa’s magical signature and followed it through the sitting room and into the bedchamber.
Madam Maysa, a short, thin woman who wore native robes from her original Coven in Afghanistan, was bent over Salem’s prostrate form.
Salem lay in the bed, his face even more pale than usual, with dark circles under his eyes. His chest rose and fell with the sound of his laboured breathing. It sounded like his lungs were filling up with water.
“Father!” Harley cried, losing whatever molecule of composure she had retained at the sight of him. She dashed across the room and knelt at his side. “Oh my God,” she said, more to herself than to him. She reached and took his hand and promptly dropped it. He was burning up. It wasn’t normal. If he had been a shapeshifter, perhaps. But not for a magician.
With effort, he turned to look at her. His eyes were bloodshot. “Little one … you should not be here.” His voice sounded like he had a sore throat.
“Of course I should: you never left my side when I was ill.” She looked up at Maysa and asked, “What’s wrong with him?”
The old woman took a moment to speak. “I have been testing him with all the spells I know. And I am afraid … it looks like poison.”
“But how?” Harley asked. “What sort? You know I can make any antidote you might require.”
“I do not know how,” she replied. “Only he can tell me, and as you can see, he’s barely conscious. What sort, that is limited. Before you burst into the room, he was physically ill. I transported what he sicked up to my office to analyse. But it was brightly coloured. So it had to be from a plant or plant powder mix.”
Harley paused, recalling something. “When we were in London, the Zookeeper, the insane man who had trapped all those creatures and kidnapped Caelum? He had something, a ball of powder. I thought it was a bath bomb, but no one uses a bath bomb as a weapon, no matter how mental they are…”
“What colour was it?” Maysa asked her.
“Purple. With flecks of white,” she replied. “You said he vomited? Monkshood is purple and causes vomiting, and the little bit he inhaled would have taken time to get into his system.” Harley’s analytical brain was kicking in. “But what was the white?”
“There are too many to list, but there is a very general poison cure we can create,” Maysa said
. “I trust you can go to the castle’s Brewing laboratory? Salem would have the recipe.”
“Of course. He taught it to me,” Harley said, getting up quickly. She brushed her father’s hand softly. “Don’t worry, I’m going to make you better, I promise.”
She left the room and dashed down three flights of stairs and made it to the main floor. Once she hit the foyer, she hooked a right and approached the dungeon door. Most brewing labs were underground because ingredients were delicate and required storage in a cool, dry place. Dungeons were a natural solution, and of course the castle had already had one when the Coven had first settled there in the sixteenth century.
It was intimidating for some of the younger students, especially apprentices, to go down there the first few times, but never for Harley. From the moment she arrived in the Coven, she had found solace and comfort inside the underground stone room. Most of her free time was spent with Salem, learning and brewing down there.
She descended the winding stone staircase as quick as she could. As she opened the Brewing classroom door, she was hit with the smells that reminded her of her secondary school days, of her friends, and her father.
I’m not going to let you die, she promised silently as she stood behind the cauldron that the teacher used, as opposed to the smaller ones lined up for students. Salem hadn’t taught Brewing for four years since he became King, but to Harley and many others her age and a little older, this would always be his classroom.
