When the backdoor opened, Whitney disappeared out the front as easily as she came.
“We better get going if we plan to be there on time,” Nate said as he came into the room.
His dark hair was wet like he just got out of the shower, and he was wearing nothing more than a pair of sweatpants, not even shoes. Cassie tried not to check him out, but failed miserably. He was standing around in almost nothing and looked absolutely at ease.
“Do you want to grab your coat?” Nate asked, breaking Cassie from her thoughts of him. He grinned as she looked up at him like she didn’t catch what he said.
“I assumed with you dressed like that, it would be warmer outside,” Cassie finally replied, hoping her cheeks weren’t as red as they were warm.
“I have a feeling I won’t be staying in my day human form for most of tonight. No use wearing more than this.” Nate shrugged. “But it is cold out. I’d love to keep you warm all night, but we do have a show to put on …” Nate waggled his eyebrows at Cassie.
Cassie reached down on the couch to a sweatshirt she had left there days before and shrugged it on while ignoring his flirting.
“Ready,” she told him.
Nate reached forward and took her hand before she could protest. She had held Jared’s hand often, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise to her, but Nate wasn’t the hand-holding type, and it felt completely different. Just one more thing to have to compare, which was completely unfair. Comparing Nate and Jared was like comparing apples to oranges. Not fair at all.
A smile hinted at the corner of Nate’s lips like her thoughts weren’t completely hidden from him. Cassie looked up at his blue eyes and wondered if he was one of the strong ones that could break through her wall like Fiona explained.
“I know you’re worried about tonight, but I’m not. Jared and I will keep you safe. Tonight I’ll prove to you that I’m a better choice than Jared. When the time comes to choose between us, you will choose me.”
Cassie would have made a remark, but here was the cocky friend she remembered. She had been missing him. Nate pulled Cassie tight against him, her hands on his bare chest as he spoke. It took her breath away to be this close to him. She tingled from touching him and didn’t want to look up as he was staring at her. Nate kept her held close to him and waited for her face to tilt up to his.
“I’ve seen part of the vision you had of the future. Just remember. That isn’t me. Don’t make a choice based on something that could have been. Make a choice on what you feel now.”
Nate didn’t wait for her to respond before he bent down and kissed her.
Tingles traveled from her head to her toes, and her stomach did thousands of backflips.
Nate pulled back so that Cassie was still in his arms, but they were standing nose-to-nose.
“You and I are meant to be together. The skinwalker fate depends on us. The coven was worried that you would change the skinwalkers. It doesn’t matter what they try to do now. You’ve already changed us. Your blood has made me stronger than they could ever guess. I won’t let them harm you tonight. I promise.”
His confidence melted into her. And she let it. She had spent all afternoon wanting to see the future, but here Nate stood and didn’t ask if she saw anything. He was completely sure they would come out on top. He was so certain that it made Cassie feel sure. His confidence took away all the lingering doubts she had. He wasn’t just telling her. She could feel it. He didn’t have a single worry about what they were doing.
“Now I think our escort is here just in time for us to be fashionably late and make our grand entrance.” Nate scooped Cassie into his arms and carried her out of the house.
She would have protested at him holding her, but it felt right. Being in his arms felt perfect, but his assurance was more what she needed. She had to feel that. They were standing up to the coven. She had spent her whole life wanting to be part of it, feeling the power of the group. Now she didn’t care in the least. She was part of something, and she didn’t need them to do that. She had Nate and the skinwalkers. She had Jared and the wendigo. She had her two best friends, Whitney and Owen, and everyone else waiting in the woods. They were going to stop the coven, and they weren’t alone.
CHAPTER 10
The coven was already in place when they arrived. Women in flowing white gowns were standing around, all waiting for them. The head priestess was the only one with a splash of color in the form of a red sash. They were, as Nate called it, fashionably late, and the head priestess had an expression of anger on her face she tried to cover up as they neared. Not only were they late, but also very much underdressed for the occasion. Cassie was still in a long-sleeve T-shirt with an old sweatshirt overtop and jeans, while Nate wore only sweats. It kind of seemed like the priestess didn’t appreciate their choice in clothing either as she looked them over.
Cassie had to hide her smirk. It was like Nate was purposely baiting her in his choices. She didn’t blame him though, and had no idea what else he had planned.
Jared had run beside Nate the whole way, but blended into the night as they neared the first set of witches standing guard over the clearing. He was already in place, within feet from it all, when Nate slowly walked Cassie past the crowd of over fifty witches. It seemed like almost everyone in the coven had come out for Cassie’s ceremony.
‘You ready for this?’ Nate asked both Cassie and Jared.
Was Cassie ready? Would she ever really be ready? She was going against everything she grew up believing. Cassie had always thought that she’d join the coven and be part of something bigger than herself. She had always wanted to be part of it. Now that she understood more, she didn’t want to be part of a group that would take someone’s powers just because they wanted it. How many more people had they done it to?
Cassie looked up at Nate. With his confidence flowing through her, and her anger at what they planned to do, she was ready.
Grinning, Nate took her hand.
‘Let’s do this,’ Nate said.
“Nathaniel and Cassandra, it’s nice that you finally arrived. The moon is almost perfectly in position. A moment longer and we would have missed our chance to bind you together,” the head priestess, Holly, told them with sugary sweetness, unable to completely cover the venom in her voice.
They were throwing off her plans, and she almost missed her opportunity to take Cassie’s powers.
“To begin, we need Cassie to move into the center,” she explained.
Cassie took a deep breath. She had watched Jack break all the layers around the circle, so she didn’t need to trust him on that. She was only a tiny bit worried about the last layer he had created, but she let Nate’s confidence beat out that worry.
Cassie moved to step forward, but Nate stopped her. He swung her around so that they were face-to-face instead of side by side. Crushing his lips to her, he sent her one last thought.
‘Please understand everything tonight is part of being in charge.’
‘What the heck does that mean?’ Cassie asked, trying not to get distracted by his lips on hers.
‘There are going to be changes, and they won’t necessarily be nice. Please don’t try to stop me or anyone else. Please trust me if I ask you to do something.’
Cassie broke the kiss and gazed up into his eyes. He was completely serious. He was confident and had a plan, but he was still worried Cassie would stop him. She gave him a smile.
‘I trust you, Nate, just like I trust Jared. I know what’s inside you guys, and you’re both good. I promise to be on my best behavior for one night only.’
Nate chuckled and dipped down to press his forehead to Cassie’s.
‘That will have to work.’ He pulled back regrettably. ‘Don’t worry about a thing. We can do this, and I promise you are completely safe.’
Cassie squeezed Nate’s hand one last time before turning to the circle. Women stood all around, but were back far enough to not be caught in the spell. Cassie had to wonder how many
people were in on the plans for the night, but she didn’t have time to look into each person’s eyes. She was going to be the start of something, and she hoped it would end well. There were a lot of skinwalkers and wendigo sitting in the woods, ready to attack if it didn’t. Jared had explained it was a precaution, but Cassie still wondered. Unfortunately, the time for worry was done. It was time for action.
Jack’s fake spell zinged her as she stepped forward, over the stones that marked where the spell was sitting. Nothing inside made her move to the middle, but Jack had explained from the spells cast that was exactly what they expected it to do. Cassie continued to walk until she was directly in the middle of the circle. She waited for the next step. The power to see the future would have been very helpful now. After breaking all the spells, it would be helpful to see how things were going to end up.
“Before we can bind you, we need to prepare each of you,” Holly told Nate. “Nathaniel, if you could come here, but don’t break the edge of the circle.”
Nate moved forward. He had seen her vision and knew what was coming.
“Actually, this is where we stop everything,” Nate told the priestess, and with one slightly rough push, she was in the circle with Cassie.
Cassie hadn’t been expecting it and jumped back to the edge by one of the stones that would break the circle when Nate moved to the stone he would take.
“What are you doing?” the seer asked as she came up beside Nate.
With another not-so-graceful shove, she was in the soon-to-be-broken circle.
‘Jared is going to break the circle, and then I will need you to demonstrate to everyone how much more powerful you are than them by putting the stones all back to keep them trapped,’ Nate told Cassie as the women around the circle broke into loud whispers.
No one stood up to stop Nate, but they also didn’t seem to know what to do. Women looked to the priestess before they would act.
Cassie reached down and snatched the stone. Jared jumped down from one of the stones in his full wendigo form and picked up one of the stones from the outside of the circle, breaking the spell. Nate then reached down and took his also.
“But that’s impossible,” Holly complained, finally noticing all her spells were gone.
“Impossible that you set a spell to trap Cassie to strip her powers, or impossible that a wendigo is here to help her?” Nate asked. Cassie could feel the anger coursing through his veins. Just looking at the priestess and the seer made him furious.
“Don’t let him do this,” the seer finally spoke, more out of desperation than anything. She was picking up on Nate’s anger even if Holly still didn’t notice it. “The seers before me all said that the child of Gabriella would bring destruction to everything in our lives. We need to work together and stop this from happening. I have seen the future. We can’t let her have her powers. We need to stop Cassandra.”
Now that she understood how it worked, Cassie rolled her eyes. The fact that Cassie saw anything at all meant the seer had no ability left. All she spewed was lies.
“Have you ever thought that what they saw might have been because you are masquerading around as the seer and planned to strip away the powers from an innocent witch? Has anyone ever wondered why you don’t make as many predictions now? Or possibly why my mother wasn’t named the head priestess when my father came to power?” Nate glared at the seer.
The ladies who had appeared ready to rally around the seer and the priestess now hesitated on the edge of the circle. No one moved; all caught in the truth of what Nate had said.
Holly finally caught on to the game. Her fingers twitched. She had more planned.
Without thinking, Cassie made the stones fly from Nate and Jared’s hands, along with her own stone, right back to where they had been. She repeated the words Jack had said just as quickly, and when Holly raised her hand with a vial to throw at Nate, there was a wall between her and him. The seer and the priestess were stuck in their own trap.
Cassie walked back around the circle to where Nate stood with Jared now only feet away. The witches gave him a lot of space and backed away from Cassie as she moved.
“It’s about time the rest of the coven learned the truth of everything,” Nate said to the priestess.
She looked smug, like she was still getting out of the trap.
Nate’s mother moved out of the crowd of women gathered. She stood across from them on the other side of the circle.
“Twenty years ago, Holly was just an average student.”
The witches around the circle all stopped talking and turned to her. Nate nodded to his mother.
“She was just a normal witch. There was nothing special about her. But Gabriella … she was special, and Holly was jealous. Mikel would never choose Holly as his mate, so she came up with a plan to get the power she wanted. I was there the day she convinced the old priestess that Gabriella was a problem. She had Gabriella stripped of her witch powers. They would have killed her if I didn’t step in. When I did, they took my powers, too. Holly got what she wanted. I wasn’t strong enough to be the priestess, but she was now. That’s how she got where she was, on lies and the powers of others.”
Nate nodded to his mother. She had the effect he was hoping for. The women around the circle were no longer talking about ways to help the priestess and the seer. They were now discussing what to do with them. No one had ever known the real truth, and his mother had never been in a powerful enough position to tell them before.
“My father let the coven do as they pleased because my mother was forgiving. She let go of all the anger of what was done to Gabriella and her. My father respected that. But now he’s gone. I’m in charge. I’m sorry, but I’m not as forgiving. Holly Carsen and Cheryl Glint need to be punished. They have been taking power from innocent witches long enough and pretending to be what they are not.”
A brave witch across the circle tentatively raised her hand. Nate kept his serious face on, but nodded to her as he was trying not to smile.
“Did they do this to more witches than Gabriella?” she asked as she lowered her hand back down. Nate had said witches, and she’d caught that.
“They’ve been doing it to one witch a year since they found how to direct all the power drained to themselves.”
The women around the circle no longer whispered, but were getting as angry as Nate was. He looked across the circle to Holly. She gave him a smile, not a happy smile, but more of a smirk.
“Well played,” she said to him. It was noisy enough that Cassie barely heard, but Nate heard fine. “But if you want to play with the adults, you’ll have to do better than just a little trap.”
Holly threw a potion on the stone in the middle of the circle. She smiled evilly at Nate, and then closed her eyes. Smoke puffed up from the vial and the seer scrambled across the way to be beside Holly.
“She’s getting away,” someone cried from outside the circle, reaching down to break the circle and take the stone Cassie had placed away.
Cassie moved the stone out of the woman’s reach. The lady glanced up at the people near her.
“Stop,” Nate growled at the women, and everyone froze in their spots. “I think this has gone on long enough. Let me tell you how this works. The alpha is in charge. If you want to do something like break a spell, you need permission from the alpha or his mate. I happen to be the alpha, and Cassie is my mate. If you want to make choices on your own, you can join Holly in the circle. Anyone not willing to follow my rule can join her right now.” Nate’s eyes flashed blue in the darkness as his tiger form was on the verge of coming out.
The ladies all stood watching him. They had to see it.
“We bonded over a few weeks ago. Cassie is already my mate, and I’m in charge,” Nate told everyone as he tried to calm down the tiger inside of him, who was getting very sick of the witches. Cassie was tempted to see if she could ask the tiger to come out, but Nate needed to speak more with the disbelieving witches.
“But Hol
ly is getting away,” the lady that had tried to move the stone squeaked out once she saw he wasn’t turning into his animal yet.
“She isn’t going anywhere,” Nate explained to the woman who was twice his own age. He held up a small flat piece of metal. “Not until I say she is.”
The smoke from the potion Holly had thrown on the ground was getting thinner, and everyone saw she was still in the circle with the seer right next to her.
Nate nodded to Holly, who was no longer smiling.
“We can’t allow these two to continue what they have been doing for years. They have been harming innocent people and casting them aside. Their time running the coven is over. They are no longer part of it.”
Nate motioned to his mother. She moved around to the east side of the circle. Through the witches left standing, Maria emerged on the opposite side. Everyone seemed shocked to see her there.
‘But I thought …’ Cassie added silently to Nate. She didn’t know how they sent her away, and Cassie had no clue how he got her back, either.
‘I sent John to go get her. They made it back an hour ago while we were on our way here.’
“Holly Carsen and Cheryl Glint—you have both been found guilty of harming innocent witches for your own gain. Your powers will be stripped, and you will forever be exiled from the coven. Do you have any last words?”
Holly glared at Nate. He had been ready for her and her games. The seer simply hung her head in defeat. At least one of them had a conscious. Cassie wondered how many more witches would have been hurt if they both had been as ruthless as Holly.
Maria began the spell, and Cassie wanted to turn away and not watch. Nate was right; there were things that had to be done that she didn’t want to be a part of. Even though they had planned to do it to her, Cassie still felt bad for them. He stood beside her as she turned her head from it. Silently he grasped her hand, but didn’t make her look. He watched the whole thing without a word. Reaching down, Jared took Cassie’s other hand.
The Witchling Seer Page 17