The Cursed Witch

by Chandelle LaVaun

  We hurried down the hall, each of our footsteps making the hardwood floors creak and groan. Savannah and Gigi launched into a play-by-play of what we’d done at the cemetery but I shut them out. I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t want to hear what I’d done. I didn’t want to know. Because something deep down inside me told me that it was me who’d done that.

  Nothing had happened in light as a feather until I’d done it.

  It was me.

  I was not normal.

  I was some kind of monster.

  A sharp, wild shiver ripped through me and the trembling in my body got so much worse my feet were slipping. All the spirits had been looking for me. They’d followed me. They’d spoken to me.

  How are you still alive? That was what she’d said to me. Bridget Bishop. That spirit had said her name was Bridget Bishop. The woman that was hanged in the Salem Witch Trials. She knew me. How can she know me?

  How are you still alive? Her words echoed through my mind, growing louder and louder until I couldn’t hear the pounding of my own heart or my friends’ panicked voices. Savannah’s face was paler than normal but her eyes were laser focused. Landreia’s face was a mask but I only saw a glimpse of it before she raced out of the room.

  “Guys, guys,” Gigi said with a shaking voice. Her eyes were wide and staring at something behind me. She pointed over my shoulder. “They’re everywhere.”

  Savannah turned and gasped. “Landreia, HURRY!”

  Landreia flew back into the room carrying sage and a huge cluster of crystals. As she hurried toward us crystals dropped to the floor behind her, leaving a trail. She looked up and slid to a stop. Her gaze swept from window to window, then she mumbled in a language I didn’t know – but there was something oddly familiar about it.

  Savannah and Gigi grabbed my elbows then dragged me into the center of the room. I looked around and realized with a start we were in the living room – except the big rug in the center of the room was gone and the furniture had been pushed aside. When did that happen? Why did that happen?

  “Gigi. Sage.” Landreia tossed the sage she was holding over to Gigi then dropped the mountain of crystals into Savannah’s open palms. “I’ll make the circle. Savannah, crystals. You know what to do.”

  I didn’t know what to do. Yet none of them were looking at me. I glanced around and my stomach dropped. There were spirits everywhere I looked. They lined the walls of the room and peeked in through the open doorways. They were even outside the house, looking in through the closed windows.

  No, no, no, no, no.

  I heard my name over and over, like a whisper in the wind. I didn’t look. I didn’t want to know who was talking to me because I didn’t recognize a single voice. The room wobbled and shook. The walls buckled and started to cave in.

  “Saffie?”

  I jumped and looked straight in front of me at Gigi. She frowned and squeezed my arm. Her mouth was moving but her words were a blur. My pulse hammered through my veins and pounded in my head. I frowned as an image from the cemetery flashed in my mind. “You were a penguin.”

  Gigi’s eyes widened.

  “Okay, salt circle is complete,” Landreia said in a rush.

  “You were a penguin…you were a penguin…you were a —” and then everything went black.

  Chapter Thirty

  Saffie

  I woke up in the middle of the living room, lying on the hardwood floor in the same clothes from the night before with a circle made of salt around me. Crystals littered the floor inside the circle and the sage by my feet was still burning. The air in the room was stuffy and warm, like someone desperately needed to crack a window. Heat billowed from the fireplace but there were no flames. The smell of the burning embers reminded me of Riah.

  Riah. At the thought of him, images from last night came rushing back. The cemetery. The spirits. Bridget Bishop. The thing she’d called a demon. Riah saving me. My pulse quickened. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. Except I knew in my heart it was anything but. I sat up and pulled my hair up into a messy bun on top of my head to cool the sweat beaded on my neck.

  “Oh, good. You’re awake,” Landreia said in a soft, rough voice. “Good morning.”

  I followed the sound of her voice to my left and found her sitting on the couch by the window. Savannah and Gigi sat beside her with open books sprawled in their laps and on the coffee table. If I had any doubts whether the night was a dream, they would have died at the expressions on their faces. These three women, from the moment I’d met each of them, were always the picture of calm confidence.

  But right now, they looked shell-shocked and traumatized. I knew the face well, I’d seen it in the mirror for two days before starting school. Gigi wouldn’t hold my gaze for more than a second and if she didn’t stop gnawing on her bottom lip she was going to bite it off. The little silver hoop on her lip was missing, I’d only hoped she hadn’t swallowed it.

  Landreia was trying to act natural and calm but I saw the tension in the straightness of her spine and lingering in the backs of her eyes. She was trying not to spook me. Except it was far, far too late for that.

  Savannah fidgeted with the silver hoop hanging from her septum, her gaze locked on mine. I got the impression she was faking it until she made it, an expression I’d recently learned from her.

  I sighed. There was no point in beating around the bush. There was an elephant in the room and I saw no reason to skirt around it. I cleared my throat. “How much of last night actually happened?”

  The three of them exchanged nervous glances.

  But none of them said a thing or looked at me.

  “That’s what I thought.” I scrubbed my face with my hands. “All of it.”

  “Here, I made this for you.” When I looked up, Landreia was crouched in front of me. She reached up and slipped a silver chain around my neck then let the chunk of raw amethyst fall against my chest. “This is a talisman to keep the spirits at bay.”

  Great. Fantastic. “What the hell happened last night?”

  Landreia stood and brushed her hands off on her dress. She looked away from me and I hated the darkness in her eyes. “Tis not the right place to discuss this. Come, there’s somewhere we have to go”

  Gigi looked to me. “Do you want to change first?”

  I frowned and looked down at myself. I still had on my black jeans with the gray cashmere oversized sweater. My Ugg boots were snug on my feet but in a good way. “Umm—"

  “No time for changing. The rest of us haven’t either.” Savannah walked up and handed my black wool coat to me. “Put this on for warmth, it’s snowy AF out there.”

  “Out there?” I frowned and glanced out the window to see a wall of white. It looked like a blizzard had hit – not the kind of weather we should’ve been venturing out in. Then why are we? There was something they weren’t telling me…something that could not be spoken about here. I turned back to my foster mother with my heart in my throat. “What is this place? Where are we going?”

  But it was Savannah who looked me dead in the eye and said, “Coven Headquarters.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Savannah

  “Okay, just hang tight here for a second. I’ll be right back.” I met Landreia’s gaze then nodded.

  “But wait – where are you—”

  I spun around before Saffie could even finish her question. I didn’t trust myself to speak, none of us did. We were afraid to say something we weren’t allowed to…because what if we were wrong?

  We are not effing wrong. We can’t be. She has to be.

  She HAS to be one.

  This is the hill I’m gon’ die on.

  From the first moment I met her I thought I’d felt it, but Gigi told me I thought that a lot. She always said I was sensitive to that kind of thing, and she wasn’t wrong. When I’d seen the tattoo on her arm I’d wondered, but it was so common to see Roman numeral tattoos. I was only suspicious of it because of The Coven. I’d told myself
Saffie was just a normal girl with a normal human medical condition.

  But then she had that reading with the medium. Nothing about that was normal…or human. Hell, I was a witch and I’d never had that experience. I’d been telling Gigi but my bestie was not quick to make these assumptions. Granted, she wasn’t a witch. She couldn’t feel what I felt.

  The memory from light as a feather, stiff as a board flashed in my mind. It felt like it happened months ago when it was just last night. That was the moment Gigi started to suspect what I’d been thinking all along…Saffie was a witch. But we couldn’t say a damn thing. Not without proof.

  The séance was my idea to get proof.

  But boy did I bite off more than I could chew. I’d never been more afraid in my life. I knew without a doubt I would have nightmares from it for years. Gigi wanted to bring Saffie here to Coven Headquarters last night but I wanted to take her home…I wanted to be the one to explain it all to her. I thought she’d take it better. Landreia, however, refused.

  The Coven had laws. Ones we civilians had to obey.

  I walked through the living room of Coven Headquarters looking for someone. It was strange to have entered without anyone noticing. The Coven. I shivered. They were the rulers of our entire species. They called the shots. They made the laws. They enforced the laws. And then they delivered the punishments. Of course they also kept the rest of us alive and safe. Without them the demons would’ve destroyed us eons ago. And for all that, they were terrifying. All twenty-two of them.

  And you couldn’t just join them. You had to be chosen. By the Goddess herself.

  You had to be Marked.

  With a Roman numeral…on your left forearm.

  And each one of those numbers coordinated to a card in the tarot deck.

  To be Marked for The Coven was both a blessing and a curse. An honor and a punishment. They were gifted with immense power but the lives they lived were short and brutal. I’d always had a healthy respect for them, but was happy to have my distance. As long as I lived my life by their rules I would have no need to cross paths with them. I could live my happily ever after, with my magic…the way I wanted to.

  But that didn’t mean I didn’t know where to go if they were needed. Every witch knew. I was just fortunate enough to live in the same town as one of their headquarters. Back in October The Coven themselves had even been here, I’d even caught glimpses of them – before they used their magic and forced literally every single person out of Salem besides them.

  Evaline May was The World card. I’d never met her but my parents had grown up with her as children. Landreia knew her well. That was who we were looking for today. But the house was eerily quiet.

  I paused outside the kitchen door and glanced back at Saffie. My heart twisted for her. She was still shaking from last night. I couldn’t fathom being in her position. I wanted answers for her and I wasn’t leaving here today without them. I pushed through the kitchen door and found Nadine standing there at the counter.

  Nadine was a tiny little thing, about the same size as Saffie at five feet tall. She had dark plum purple hair that fell to her hips and thick, black rimmed glasses. She looked up and froze with the box of cereal in her hand. Her bright aquamarine eyes widened. “Hey! Got your message, was just going to call you back once I poured break—"

  “We need The Coven.” I walked up and gripped the counter. “Now. Do you know how to contact them? Is Evaline still here?”

  “I’m afraid not,” a deep very masculine voice said from behind me.

  I gasped and spun around – and my jaw dropped. The guy standing in the doorway was probably six-foot-two and built like a truck. The gray long-sleeved shirt he wore hugged big biceps and did nothing to conceal the ripple of abs. He had blond hair that was trimmed short. I licked my lips and stared. He was gorgeous in that clean-cut kind of way. The type of guy who would treat you like a princess and your parents would love.

  So…not the kind of guy I typically went for.

  Although there was a spark of wildness in his beautiful pale green eyes.

  He smiled and it made his eyes light up. “Evaline retired from The Coven and became a Crone.”

  Wait. What?

  Nadine stepped up beside me. “You won’t believe the coincidence.” She winked at me then hurried out the side door with her bowl of cereal.

  I looked back to Mr. Hot Nice Dude and narrowed my eyes at him. “Who are you?”

  He strolled up to me then held his left hand out and then I saw it. His Mark XVII. He grinned. “Cooper Bishop. Star Card. And you are?”

  The STAR? OH MY GODDESS. He’s in The Coven. Holy SHIT. He’s a Card.

  I scooped my jaw up off the ground then shook his hand. “H-hi. Um. I am Savannah Grace. Civilian extraordinaire.”

  He chuckled and dropped my hand. “Nice to meet you, Savannah.”

  “Um. Yea. Likewise. Wow. A Coven-member, right in front of me. Holy shit.”

  He arched one eyebrow and crossed his muscular arms over his chest. “Sounded like you were trying to get one of us in front of you…”

  “What? Oh. Right. Yes, I was. But I thought I’d have more time to mentally prepare myself and it’s been a long, long, long, freaky AF night.”

  He blinked and nodded. “Okay, well, why don’t you tell me what’s going on that you need us for?”

  “Right. About that…” I took a deep breath then exhaled. “It’s about my new friend…I think – I’m pretty positive after last night – that she’s a witch. One of us.”

  “All right. And is there a problem? The Coven is happy to help but the tone in your voice when you came in here suggested something was wrong.”

  “Saffie has—”

  “Saffie?” His eyes widened. “Your friend is Saffie?”

  My eyes widened. “You know her?”

  “Saraphina Proctor? Red head about this tall,” he said while holding his hand up to show her height level. “That one?”

  “YES.” My heart fluttered with excitement. “Holy shit, you know her! Oh my Goddess, she’s going to be so excited someone knows who she is. Is she a witch? One of us? She has a Roman numeral on her arm that matches yours – well, it’s number thirteen not seventeen—”

  “Yes.” Cooper held his palms up to stop me from rambling on, but he was smiling. “Saffie is in The Coven—”

  “Wait, you knew?” I half-shouted then regained composure. “How could you just leave her here with amnesia—”

  “Savannah, please?” He arched one eyebrow. When I sighed and nodded, he continued. “I will explain, but before that, I’d like to know what happened that made you come here today. Can you fill me in?”

  “Oh. Right. Okay, I mean, she’s fine, but…” I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to wait, I wanted him to answer my questions and explain how they just left her here. However, I was a civilian and he was in The Coven. His request came first and I needed to play nice. “Okay, so what had happened was…”

  Then I told him everything. All of it. I filled him in on what happened to her before I met her, from what she’d told me, and then I told him everything since. I may have left out a few details about the readings because those felt private and I’d let her share those. It only took me a few minutes to tell him but he listened carefully and quietly.

  When I was done, he chuckled and shook his head. Then scrubbed his face. “Hell. You did a séance with her. That was a horrible, horrible idea.”

  “Why? What did we do?”

  He arched one eyebrow at me again, a part of his personality no doubt. “Saffie is the Death Card. Her gift is communication with the dead.”

  My jaw dropped. Oh…shit. I hadn’t even thought about that.

  “Let me guess, you raised all of Salem’s dead at once?” When I nodded, Cooper cursed. “She was not ready for that. She just got Marked, she hasn’t even been initiated or trained.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean she just got Marked?”

  He sighed an
d pinched the bridge of his nose. “Saffie was Marked the very day she showed up here, merely minutes beforehand. It’s a complicated story because Saffie has a complicated life.”

  “I don’t understand, if you knew she’s been here this whole time then why are you just now here?” I licked my lips. “I mean no offense to The Coven, but —”

  “But you care for her? I understand.” To my surprise, he smiled like he did know. “The Coven has been in the middle of a war. People were dying, and we had to do our job. Yes, we knew she was here but we also knew someone we trusted was nearby to keep an eye on her. Our war ended yesterday. My sole purpose for being here today was to check on Saffie. My little brother, our Hierophant, told me just moments ago that she lost her memory. He also told me we’re already working on helping her.”

  “Oh.” I cursed under my breath. Insert foot in mouth, Savannah. “So can’t you take her back? With The Coven?”

  Cooper shook his head, his eyes darkened. “No. The Hierophant has insisted that being with us could hinder her memories from naturally coming back, and I’ve been instructed to keep the truth from her.

  “But she’s scared and confused.”

  His face fell and I saw pain in those beautiful eyes. “The Coven live dangerous lives, Savannah. We fight demons and other monsters nearly every day, especially right now. Saffie coming with us while she has no memory would be a huge risk both for her and anyone around her.”

  “But…but…” I groaned and tugged on my hair. “I don’t like that.”

  “Listen, Saffie has been our friend for centuries—"

  “Don’t you think that’s an exaggeration?”

  Cooper smirked. “I’ll let you take that as you wish. Point is, we care about her deeply. She is very important to us. She’s family to us. We’re trying to help her but we just know a little more than you and we’re asking you to trust us.”

  The kitchen door beside me swung open and Gigi rushed in. “Hey, Savannah—”