Magick (Book 3 in the Coven Series)

by Trish Milburn

  “We’ll do everything we can.”

  I hesitate before diving into the last part of my “Oh, by the way” surprise pack. Might as well spill everything. “I don’t plan on doing this unless I have to, but Sarah told me that I can also pull more power from a fissure if I need it.”

  Keller stiffens. “But that’s dark magic.”

  “I know, but she says that won’t be an issue for me anymore. And like I said, it’s only an option as a last resort.”

  “But what if she’s wrong? We won’t be strong enough, even together, to stop you.”

  “I just have to make sure it doesn’t come to that. I think the fact that I have something positive to fight for will keep me where I need to be.” Yes, I want to rid the world of dark magic, but that’s not all I’ll fight for until my last breath. I think back to those early days in Baker Gap, my taste of a normal life. “When this is all over, it’s not the power that I want.”

  Keller takes my hand and kisses each of my fingers slowly. “What do you want?”

  “A regular life where the worst thing I have to worry about is what grades I’m going to get and whether a certain boy will ask me to the prom.”

  Keller kisses me on the cheek, my forehead and finally my lips, all feather-soft kisses. “You’re so smart that I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about your grades.”

  I run my hand along his jaw and feel the slight stubble. “And the prom?”

  He captures my hand and presses it against his heart. “Jax Pherson, will you go to the prom with me?”

  I smile, ridiculously happy. Prom is such a small thing compared to the fate of witchkind, but it’s so beautifully normal. I can’t help the thrill that goes through me at his asking. “Yes, I will.”

  We curl together, and it doesn’t take long for my fatigue to drag me toward sleep. For tonight, at least, I fall asleep a very happy girl.

  When I wake the next morning, Keller is still sound asleep. I notice Toni’s bed is empty and wonder if she’s down the hall with Egan. I should get up and start strategizing the conversion of witches, but I don’t want to burst this little bubble I’m in quite yet. So I lie on my side and watch Keller sleep.

  I know it’s not wise to think so far in the future, especially when I haven’t even graduated from high school or figured out what I want to do beyond that, but I know with absolute certainty that I want to be with Keller forever. I’ll take it one day at a time, but there’s no denying that’s how I feel at this moment. When he wakes and immediately meets my gaze, I have to wonder if maybe he feels the same. But now isn’t the time for that kind of conversation, probably won’t be for a long time. And that’s okay.

  “I guess we have to get up, huh?” he says.

  “Yeah. Busy day ahead. Witches to convert, world to save. A white witch’s work is never done.”

  He laughs and rolls over to look down at me. “It will be someday, and then you’ll probably just get bored.”

  I cup his cheek. “Never.”

  He plants a quick kiss on my lips then rolls from the bed. “I better get back to my room before someone notices where I spent the night.”

  I prop my head on my hand. “I think that boat has sailed. Whatever will your dad think?”

  “I say we don’t tell him.”

  I smile and point at him. “Good plan.”

  He leans over and kisses my forehead before opening the door.

  “Dude, about time,” Toni says as she pushes into the room. “I thought I was in for day two of these clothes.”

  Keller surprises Toni by grabbing her head and planting a kiss on her forehead before walking down the hall to his own room.

  She shakes her head then walks into the room and closes the door behind her. “Good night?”

  A blush heats my cheeks. “Yes.”

  She lifts an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  I drop my legs over the side of the bed and sit up. “Not that kind of good night. And I could ask you the same thing.”

  “Piper’s not really my type.”

  “Piper?”

  “I spent the night in her room. After Rule kissed her, she was in a talking mood. By the way, I think you’ve made that girl’s life.”

  I hold up a hand. “Wait, wait. Rule kissed her?”

  “Yeah, they disappeared shortly after you and Keller. When I wandered out of the study to go to the bathroom, I met Rule heading back in. Piper grabbed my hand and dragged me off to her room.”

  My glow of happiness gets even warmer. “That’s great.”

  Toni sinks onto the side of her bed facing me. “You don’t look any worse for wear this morning. I was worried silly about you, but Egan told me you were okay.” She tilts her head a bit. “You sure there wasn’t any extra-curricular activity going on in here last night?”

  “Just kissing.”

  She nods. “Seriously, how do you feel this morning?”

  I think about it for a moment. “Good, actually. I don’t feel the effects of the conversions anymore. Not the bad stuff anyway.” I tell her what I told Keller about the increasing well of power. For now, I skip the part about the fissure.

  “I guess I better never do anything to get on your bad side, huh?”

  “Yeah. I might turn your hair brown and give you a burning desire to become a literature professor.” Which of course would make her mother happy and Toni miserable beyond words.

  Toni whops me with her pillow. “I thought you were my friend.”

  I laugh and grab my own pillow to retaliate. We squeal and laugh as we battle it out for a couple of minutes. “Truce,” I finally say as I hold up my hands in surrender.

  After we both shower and get ready, we head to breakfast. Egan cuts us off before we get there. “We’ve got company at the farmhouse,” he says.

  We hurry after him to the surveillance room. On the screen we see three people wandering cautiously through the abandoned farmhouse where we took up temporary residence after leaving our less easily defended cottage in the middle of Salem. Egan sits in the chair and pulls up to the computer screen as Keller, Rule and Piper enter the room behind us.

  I lean over Egan’s shoulder and point at a girl nearest the camera. Her dark hair is cut in a chin-length, angled bob. “Who is that?”

  “Rinna Caldecott.”

  “From the Seattle coven. I’ve never met her.”

  Egan doesn’t say anything, and I feel the thread of guilt go through him. Crap, Rinna’s evidently someone he hooked up with at some point. Toni’s not going to like that if she finds out.

  “Can you tell who the others are?” I ask.

  “Not yet. But we’re also wired for two-way communication, so you want to say howdy? I’m sure that won’t startle them at all.”

  “Yeah, I got something to say to that Rinna girl,” Toni says.

  Egan spins toward her. “How could you possibly know she and I went out?”

  Toni crosses her arms. “I don’t have to have some magical bond to read you like a book, Egan Byrne.”

  He rolls toward her and drags her onto his lap then rolls back to his spot at Witch Mission Control. I notice how Toni is trying hard not to smile.

  “So?” Egan says as he looks up at me.

  “Let’s do it.”

  He pushes a button, and I see the three people on screen jump and look around, their magic crackling and at the ready. “Hello, this is Jax Pherson. Don’t be alarmed. We are communicating with you from a remote location.”

  “This is a trick,” a guy beyond Rinna says.

  “No, it’s not,” I say. “This is just a precaution until we know for certain you are serious about your defections.”

  They look at each other like they don’t know what to think or say.

  “We recognize you, Rinna, but we need to know who the other two people are,” I say. “Step up next to Rinna.”

  The two guys glance at each other before complying, still not looking like they trust me.

  The guy with
close-cropped dark hair is the first to speak. “I’m Caleb Waters, from Denver.”

  The other guy looks vaguely familiar. Light brown hair, tall, angular jaw. “Adam Noble?”

  “Yeah. Surprised, huh?”

  “You could say that. I thought you were dead.”

  Adam rubs his hand over his hair. “That’s the word my family put out.”

  I sense the questions from everyone else in the room. I release the microphone button so I can speak without Adam hearing. “We heard Adam had been charged with cowardice by his coven in Phoenix. It’s rare, but there are cases. Of course, the punishment is death.”

  “Then how’s this guy still walking and talking?” Rule asks.

  I shrug and push the mic button. “Adam, where have you been?”

  “Locked in solitary confinement for two years.”

  “Why didn’t they kill you?” I ask.

  Adam shifts uneasily. “The coven leaders said that punishment was too easy, that it would be a better deterrent to others if I was left to live alone until I died or went nutso.”

  “Bastards,” Egan says under his breath.

  Looks like my coven isn’t the only one keeping secrets from the others and taking the law into their own hands.

  “How did you get out?” I ask.

  “Turns out I’m not as much of a coward as they thought. But I took advantage of how they got used to thinking of me that way. Took out the witch delivering my food and fled as fast as I could.”

  “How long ago was this?” I ask.

  “A couple of months. Been keeping a low profile since then, but I checked out things online when I could. That’s how I found out I wasn’t the only one who wanted out for good.”

  “Are you for real?” Caleb asks.

  “Yes, we are most definitely for real,” I say. “I need for you to wait there and stay out of sight. There’s an enforcer in town, so no magic.”

  “How do we know we can trust you?” Caleb asks.

  “You don’t. You’re going to have to do what we are, taking it on faith.”

  I lift my finger from the microphone connection. “We need to get there and bring them back here as fast as we can.”

  “Sarah won’t want them here without being converted,” Piper says.

  “We can’t take a chance doing that outside of the warding we have here,” I say. “But we’ll take every precaution. Egan, you stay here and monitor the feed. Keller, Piper, Toni and I will go fetch the newest recruits.”

  “Not without me, you’re not,” Rule says.

  I start to shake my head.

  “I know you promised my mom to protect me,” he says. “But I’m not sitting idly by anymore.”

  I know he’s been frustrated by being put on the sidelines for a while, but he played along. But now that he has a girl to impress, those days are done no matter what Adele says.

  “Only if you do exactly as I say.”

  He looks on the verge of mutiny, but he finally agrees.

  “Are we going to take one of the others?” Piper asks.

  I shake my head and point at the video screen. “If one of these guys sees an adult witch, they’ll probably freak.”

  As expected, Sarah isn’t happy when we tell her the plan. “I think in the midst of all this, you all have forgotten you’re not adults yet.”

  “But we’ve been through more than most adults go through in their entire lives,” I say. “We’ve managed to elude capture more than once.”

  “And there’s the little fact that Jax is stronger than all of us put together,” Piper says.

  Sarah gives her niece a frustrated look. “When did you get so rebellious?”

  Piper smiles. “I’ve been saving up.”

  Sarah rolls her eyes. “I guess you all can handle yourselves pretty well. But don’t take any unnecessary chances. If you smell any hint of a trap, you leave those witches right where they are.”

  I nod then head down the hallway before she changes her mind.

  Keller, Toni and I take the truck while Rule drives Egan’s Jeep with Piper riding shotgun. When we reach the farm, Keller takes it slow up the driveway so we don’t spook the trio inside.

  “Let me go first,” I say as Keller parks.

  “Be careful,” he says.

  I approach the house slowly. “I’m coming in,” I say when I step up onto the porch. They’re not engaging their magic, so I breathe a little easier. When I step inside, however, they are positioned to call up their power in an instant. “That’s not necessary.”

  Caleb looks out the window. “Who’d you bring with you?”

  “Friends. Not a threat to you.”

  We all stare at each other for several seconds.

  “So what now?” Rinna asks. She’s even prettier in person, and I dread when Toni sees her up close and personal. Even with Toni knowing Egan loves her, meeting one of his many exes probably isn’t high on her Fun Things To Do list.

  “That depends on you,” I say. “We are prepared to take you somewhere you can’t be detected by the covens, but you have to wear these.” I pull three bracelets from my pocket.

  Rinna narrows her eyes. “What are those?”

  “They are spelled to bind your dark magic, making it impossible to use it.”

  “I told you we couldn’t trust them,” Caleb says.

  “You are free to stay here or go on the run,” I say. “I’m not forcing anyone to go with me. But if you come with me willingly, I have a way to drain the dark magic from you permanently.”

  “That’s impossible,” Adam says.

  “It’s not,” I say. “Go ahead and see if you sense any dark magic in me.”

  I watch as their expressions turn to ones of shock.

  “How?” Adam says.

  “I promise, I will explain everything and make sure that you stay safe. But not until you put these on to bind the dark magic within you. I can’t risk any more magic than it takes to put these on you, not until we’re shielded from detection.”

  Still, they seem unsure. I don’t blame them. It’s hard to trust when you’ve been raised not to.

  Adam is the first to step forward. “I’m tired of looking over my shoulder.”

  I take the first of the binding bracelets and click it closed around his wrist then use the spell Sarah showed me to erase the closure.

  Adam jerks then looks at the bracelet like it’s a complex math problem. “That’s so odd. I don’t feel the magic at all.”

  “I don’t like this,” Caleb says. “It’s leaving us defenseless.”

  “Why’d you even come here?” Rinna snaps at him. She steps forward and presents her wrist.

  I look at Caleb when I finish with Rinna’s binding. “I won’t force you to do this now, but I will tell you that change is coming. If you don’t let me help you willingly now, I’ll have to do it by force later.”

  “Come on, man,” Adam says. “It feels like she’s telling the truth.”

  After a few moments’ more hesitation, Caleb reluctantly steps forward and accepts the binding. Toni rushes in the front door just as I finish banishing the closure.

  “We’ve got company,” she says, out of breath. When my eyes meet hers, I know what she’s going to say before the words form. “It’s your enforcer.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Caleb curses, convinced I’ve tricked them, but I don’t have time to deal with him. Keller and my friends are in the line of fire, and Sean doesn’t take prisoners. I race past Toni, reaching the porch in time to see Piper call her magic up to her fingertips. Sean sends a single blast at her that sends her flying through the air. She lands on her back hard.

  Sean turns his attention toward where Keller is pointing a shotgun at him.

  “No!” I scream and send a blast of magic arcing toward Sean. He’s caught off guard and stumbles backward, trips and falls to his hands and knees. I don’t have time to do anything other than use my full speed to reach him.

  “You!” h
e spits at me when he looks up and meets my eyes. “Tavis is going to give me a big reward when I come back with your dead body.”

  My stomach knots at the mention of my father’s name.

  Keller roars and charges Sean. I see the killing look in Sean’s eyes. Left with no choice, I grip the top of Sean’s head and call all of my white witch power to the task of draining him. He’s strong and struggles against me like a wild animal trying to break a leash. When he tries to stand, Keller kicks him in the side of the knee with his boot. Sean howls and falls back to his knees. I grab his arms.

  I increase the amount of magic I call, and Sean’s darkness begins to twist and writhe toward his arms. This time, I feel the moment our arms become locked together, the point of no return. I try not to think about how I’m exposing us all by using this much magic out in the open, but Sean leaves me no choice. Now to complete the task and get back to the Bane’s compound before we’re detected.

  Slowly, his dark magic flows down his arms and into mine. I can actually see it now, like a slow-moving black river flowing through a tunnel. The nausea starts in my stomach, but I focus on the end result and continue drawing Sean’s magic into me. When the last of it leaves him, he collapses at my feet. For a moment, I feel as if I’m going to throw up. But then the darkness fades and adds an extra layer of light magic within me.

  I turn and point toward the vehicles. “We’ve got to go.”

  “What just happened?” Rinna asks, her eyes huge.

  “No time to explain now. We’re too vulnerable here like this.” Yes, I am more powerful than a dark witch now—a single one. If more than one come at us at once, we have to have an airtight battle plan so none of us gets killed. I look toward Keller and Rule then nod down at where Sean still lies in the half-melted snow. “Get him in the truck.”

  “We’re taking him with us?” Caleb asks.

  I meet his gaze. “Yes, he’s not the same person anymore. I will do the same for you, but not here.” I point toward the Jeep. “Now get in.”