“Cade, Gilles has come to Coalhaven for a very specific reason.” Rémy settled in a chair across from him. Gilles sat beside Cade in another wingback, cradling his clear drink in one hand.
“Sir?” Cade said, prompting him to go on.
“You see, I have lost someone très chère,” Gilles added, leaning on his elbow to put himself closer to Cade. “She is here, in Coalhaven.”
Cade fought the urge to lean away from the man. “If you know she’s here, how is she lost?”
“En français,” Rémy reminded him.
Cade repeated his question in French, unable to keep the biting irritation from his voice.
Gilles clucked. “She does not know who I am nor that I am here.”
“Who are you to this woman?”
Rémy interrupted. “At this point, that information has little bearing on what we need from you.”
That was his father: never giving any information that he didn’t deem necessary. Rémy was known in magickal circles for being a very secretive man, which was probably why Cade had never met this Gilles guy, even though Rémy had known him for years.
Cade wanted to press for information, but not enough to put himself in danger of being punished by his father. “Where do I fall into this?”
Rémy nodded, pleased with his son. “This girl attends your school. We do not believe you are acquainted with her yet. But today, our simple request is this…”
Gilles took up the conversation. “We wish for you to befriend her and do a little reconnaissance about her. She is believed to be very powerful. More so than even your father.”
Rémy laughed heartily, waving away the slur. “Nonsense. No one is more powerful than me.”
Cade didn’t know Gilles all that well, so he couldn’t be sure, but something flashed on the man’s face that looked like rage. The glance was fleeting, but it was directed towards Rémy.
Interesting. Maybe the men weren’t as close as Cade had first thought.
Cade relaxed, just a little. All they wanted was for him to get some info on a girl he went to school with. He was good with girls, and he was good at digging for information. Just because they needed to know about her didn’t mean they had evil machinations towards her.
Right?
“Who is the girl?” Cade asked.
Gilles Robidoux smiled. “Ever O’Connell.”
Chapter 11
EVER
EVER SAT STATUE still, stunned at what had just taken place behind her.
Fifth was her free period, and she usually spent it sitting against her favorite oak tree studying for whatever class she felt needed the most work — usually calculus. Nobody knew she came out here, not even Meagan. So of course Cade and Donovan had no idea she was hidden on the other side of the thickest tree in the courtyard during their heated exchange.
She listened to Cade’s footsteps scuff the concrete, and heard the heavy clunk of the door as he went back inside. When she was sure he was gone, she peeked around the tree to see Donovan completely unconscious in the dirt.
Like her own magick, Cade’s had a signature color. Donovan’s form was superimposed with red, wispy tendrils still undulating around him as he snored.
“Oh my goddess,” Ever murmured, whipping back around, her breath coming faster. Cade was a real witch. A real witch. Like her.
She pressed a hand to her injured head. It throbbed beneath the bandages as if her heartbeat lived inside the stitched wound.
Not only was Cade capable of real magick, but he’d cast a spell on Donovan to protect Ever. The gesture alone was enough for her to forgive that she’d witnessed Cade take away someone’s free will.
* * *
“CAN YOU TAKE me home?” Meagan asked as Ever met her at their lockers. She made a face. “Something was rattling under my hood this morning, and Mom’s freaking out about it. Her text had, like, thirty exclamation points. She’s gonna send a tow for it later tonight.”
“Yeah, sure.” Ever tugged her backpack out and shoved her math homework inside. What was it with her friends and their cars? It wasn’t that hard to keep them in good repair. Meagan’s was understandable because it was a POS her mom had bought for three hundred bucks. Ollie’s wasn’t, because her dad was loaded and she owned a brand new Miata. “I’ll take you home on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Quit with the revenge stuff.” Ever avoided her best friend’s gaze as she said it. “Ava, Roxy, and Tia all look up to you. I don’t want anyone to do something stupid.”
“People always do stupid stuff in a war.” Meagan grinned.
“This isn’t a war, Meg.”
Meagan slammed her locker. “Why are you so concerned about a bunch of assholes?”
“I’m not!” Ever snapped, slamming her own locker door. “I’m concerned about a bunch of friends doing things they shouldn’t. What you put out into the universe comes back on you threefold. I’d rather your karma remain intact.”
“I’m a big girl, Ever. I can take care of myself.”
“Good. Then find another ride home.”
Ever stomped away, leaving Meagan gawking down the hallway.
Was she completely out of line? Ever knew she wasn’t anybody’s mom, and wasn’t responsible for her friends’ behaviors, but as coven leader, she felt responsible. That had to stand for something.
The temperature still hovered low, and the sky was charcoal gray. The way her bad hand ached, she had to assume there was rain moving in. A gust of frigid wind blew dried leaves across her path. She watched them swirl away, thinking of how the world never changed. In thirty years, another seventeen year old girl would walk down this sidewalk and watch the leaves blow by. In thirty years, Ever could be gone, living in Paris or on Mars.
Or dead.
She shook off the thought and tugged her jacket closer.
A crowd had gathered in the parking lot, situated around one of the BlackMags’ cars. Ever didn’t think anything of it until she was halfway to her car, and noticed Ava, Roxy, Tia, and Tomas laughing maniacally near Roxy’s SUV.
They didn’t, she thought, whipping around and heading back in the other direction, towards the BlackMags. Dear Goddess, what did they do?
Ever used her small size to her advantage, ducking under elbows and slipping through gaps in the crowd to make her way to the front.
She halted, staring. The scene she met was as comical as it was horrifying. Mitch Allen was on the hood of his car, frantically scraping his windshield with a pocket knife. His convertible was covered in brightly colored stickers.
“Happy Bunny” stickers.
Ever covered her mouth, attempting to hide a smile and not burst out laughing.
Happy Bunny covered every inch of Mitch’s car except for a one-square-foot section right in front of the driver’s window. Some said things like “Run along and die now” or “You suck big time.” The little pink rabbit was all over Mitch’s car in various shapes, sizes, and poses, all of them with derogatory phrases.
Ever caught Cade’s eye across the top of Mitch’s car. He stood with his hands deep in his pockets, watching with a kind of amused detachment as Mitch scraped at the stickers.
I’m sorry, Ever mouthed, rolling her eyes.
Cade shrugged, a grin tugging at the corner of his lips. He looked like he wanted to walk over to her, but he didn’t.
“Who did it?” Ever asked as she got near her coven. The rest of them had shown up while she’d been trying not to laugh at Mitch’s car.
She was met by innocent looks.
“I know it was you, guys. I just don’t know if it was one of you or all of you.” She didn’t look at Meagan, still pissed about their spat earlier. She had a feeling her best friend was behind it, or at least had played a role in facilitating it. “That’s a crime. Mitch can sue us for damages done to his car.”
“He’s an idiot,” Roxy spoke up. “If he takes the car home and puts it in the garage to warm up, they’ll peel right o
ff.”
“You can’t take stickers off in the cold,” Ava added.
“Who did it?” Ever repeated.
Tia shook her head. “If we don’t tell you, you can’t be responsible for anything.”
Ever brushed past them, her anger building. “You guys are going to get us all in trouble if you don’t stop. Ollie, are you ready to go?”
Ollie nodded, jumping to grab the passenger side door as the locks clicked.
After they were settled in the silence of her car, Ever said, “I don’t know what to do with them.”
“Behavior on both sides is out of hand,” Ollie agreed, showing Ever for the first time that she wasn’t alone.
* * *
THURSDAY WAS NAH’S day off, so she was in the kitchen when Ever got home from school.
“Hey,” Ever said, tip-toeing to kiss her grandmother’s cheek.
“Hey, sweetie. How was school?”
“Enlightening.” Ever hung her book bag over the back of a chair at the table and sank into it. “What are you cooking?”
“A casserole. For ritual tonight.”
“Oh, is that tonight?”
“Sure is. Would you like to go this week?”
Ever’s gut response was always No. She felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny of so many witches she barely knew. But after what Cade had done… she wondered if anyone in Nah’s coven knew anything about the Bourdain family. Not to mention she could use the opportunity to siphon off the coven’s power and try to subdue her own covenmates’ vendettas.
“Sure, I’ll go,” she said. “Nah, what do you know about the Bourdains?”
“Grace and Rémy?” Nah smiled. “I like Grace. Always have. A very gentle woman. Now, Rémy, he’s a bit tougher to understand. A true Frenchman. Lavish and elegant. A little too preoccupied with wealth.”
“Are they magick practitioners? Real ones, like us?”
Nah shrugged. “No clue, honey pie. You know how close-mouthed we witches can be. We’ll need to leave around six. If you’ve got homework, go do it.”
Ever took the stairs to her room, lost in thought. Who would have thought Cade Bourdain had real power? The odds of there being more than a dozen blood witches in a town the size of Coalhaven were nearly impossible. True magick practitioners were like a dying species. As more and more witches married mundanes, the bloodlines got so diluted that the magick disappeared entirely.
* * *
EVER HADN’T WANTED to go to ritual alone. Meagan was her best friend, and while she liked worshipping a dual deity, she wasn’t as into the ritual portions of Wicca. Not to mention Ever was still pissed at her.
So she and Nah picked Ollie up on their way.
Nah’s coven met at an old barn on Melody Barstow’s property. The barn was probably older than even Nah’s house, and it had holes in the roof and an assortment of live-in wildlife that Melody’s lazy barn cat didn’t bother with. But the building stood, the paint still red and the roof mostly intact.
Melody greeted them at the open double doors with a cheek kiss for both Nah and Ever. “Ah, the O’Connells are here! Ever, dear, it’s so lovely to see you. I do wish you’d come more often. How’s your mother?”
“In Thailand,” Nah answered, smiling at Ever. “I got an email this morning.”
“Of course she is,” Ever muttered.
“Lily’s always on the go, isn’t she?” Melody shook her head. She was a short, plump woman with fetching green eyes and thick, dark hair that hung to her lower back. Ever had always liked her. “And who might this be?” she asked, turning her mega-watt smile on Ollie.
“This is Olive Robey. She’s a friend of mine from school.”
“Olive, I’m Melody. Lovely to meet you, dear.”
Ollie shook her hand with a timid smile. “Everyone calls me Ollie.”
Nah lifted the casserole dish. “Where do you want the grub?”
“Same place as always. Make yourself comfortable, girls,” she continued, addressing Ever and Ollie. “We’ll begin in about thirty minutes.”
The barn was no longer an average barn; it had been transformed into a magickal haven. Ever looked up, following the strings of glittering lights that looped across the ceiling like luminous swaths of lace. Each wall sported a giant tapestry in the corresponding color of that direction — a paisley red for south, a checkerboard green for north, swirly yellows for east, and waves of blue for west. Fire, earth, air, and water.
“This is so cool,” Ollie murmured, her green eyes soaking in the people meandering and chatting in their colorful robes.
“Yeah, the coven always goes all out. They’re kind of…” Ever trailed off, unsure how to say what she wanted to say without sounding like a brat.
“Over the top?” Ollie supplied.
Ever grinned. “A little. But they’re nice, and the ritual is really intense because of it.”
“I feel like I’m underdressed.”
Ever eyed Ollie’s long gray skirt and lacy blouse. Ever herself had opted for one of her favorite ritual dresses, a bell-sleeved emerald green that swirled in handkerchief edges around her calves.
“You look beautiful,” Ever assured her friend.
They found an unoccupied wooden bench against the fire-themed wall and sat.
“In the few months I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve ever actually met your mom,” Ollie said after a brief silence.
“That’s because my mother makes it a point to be anywhere but Coalhaven.”
“Why?”
Ever shrugged, watching Nah come to life as she approached a group of women her age. Her shirt sleeves fluttered as she grasped each one in turn, meeting their eyes with an almost thankful greeting.
“Your grandmother seems happy here,” Ollie said.
“She is,” Ever agreed. “This coven is her salvation.”
“There’s more to your family than I ever realized.”
Ever laughed. “Yep, we’re just one messed up bunch of O’Connell women.”
“So for reasons unknown, your mom can’t stand to be in Coalhaven, and your grandmother seems to love this coven enough that she likely doesn’t want to be anywhere else.” Ollie paused, long enough for Ever to turn and meet her eye. “What about you, Ev? Where do you want to be?”
Ever didn’t have a chance to answer the question as Melody clapped her hands and announced dramatically, “It is time.”
She was thankful for the interruption, though. As she locked hands with Nah and Ollie in the circle, and they swayed to the flutes coming from the loudspeakers, Ever considered Ollie’s question so single-mindedly she could think of nothing else — not even casting a spell to dampen the battle between the covens. Did she want to be in Coalhaven like Nah? Graduate high school. Find a husband from the hundreds of lame guys in town. Pop out a baby or two while making ends meet by being a teller at the bank. Die and be buried in the same graveyard where her Nah’s grandmother rested.
Or did she want to live like her mother? No roots, no solid ground as she searched the ends of the earth in a fruitless effort to find something that would save her from her past. Lily O’Connell, phoning from the top of an Alpine mountain in some kind of misguided effort to be a mother even as she dug her heels into the snow of a foreign land.
Ever couldn’t imagine either life. As the circle moved, an unbroken ring of like-minds chanting the “Song of the Goddess,” energy flowing like a real entity between them, Ever closed her eyes and tried to imagine a life. Her life.
The future seemed insubstantial. Fading threads between her fingers and reality. A tear slipped from her eye when the chant suddenly ended. All around her, witches of all shapes and sizes, all forms and degrees of true power, threw their hands in the air, releasing the energy they’d raised together.
Show me, Ever pleaded, another tear cresting her cheek. Show me my path.
In her pocket, her phone buzzed. She ignored it as she took part in the closing ceremony, and she’d forgotten about it b
y the time they’d finished eating. It wasn’t until Ollie was safely home, Nah had kissed her goodnight, and Ever was alone in her room that she checked her phone one last time before bed.
A text she’d forgotten she’d received in the midst of ritual. Thinking of you.
Ever didn’t recognize the number. Bewildered, she tapped out a quick response. Who is this?
Her heart pounded. The answer came so fast it was as if he’d been waiting for her.
Cade.
Chapter 12
CADE
CADE’S MIND WAS a whirl of emotions.
His conversation yesterday afternoon with his father and Gilles had shaken him to the core.
This thing with Ever had started off innocently, just a guy finally having the balls to talk to the girl he liked. Funny how Donovan’s attack on Ever was the catalyst that pushed him to do it. It wasn’t that he was thankful for Donovan’s attack — he wanted to shake the kid’s hand and then punch him hard enough to knock a few teeth out. But he was grateful to have had a reason to visit her house the day she’d been hurt. Then again last night when he’d been lying on his bed in the dark, trying not to obsess over his father’s proclamation. Out of nowhere, he’d suddenly wished he was with Ever, so he’d texted her.
For the fifth time that morning, he pulled out his phone and unlocked the screen to read her text one more time.
Thinking of you.
Who is this?
Cade.
He remembered the long pause, the heart-stopping wait for her response.
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