His violet eyes looked up at me. He smirked and arched one blond eyebrow. “Finally.”
I blinked. “What?”
Deacon chuckled and shook his head. “Emersyn told me. I don’t think she knew I was awake, but she told me you were going dream walking. So I’ve been waiting.”
My jaw dropped. I glanced around then back at him. “Wait…so this isn’t a dream?”
“Well, you tell me, dream walker.” Deacon grinned. “We’re both asleep. I just happened to be sitting here waiting my turn.”
I sat down at the table across from him. “How do you know how to do this?”
His smirk curved wickedly. “The Devil has his tricks.”
I chuckled and shook my head. Then his words clicked. “Wait, why are you waiting for me in a dream? What’s going on?”
Deacon’s smile vanished. He stared at the wooden table. “Even when I’m awake, I lack the strength to open my eyes or speak. It’s like I’m trapped in my own body. And I just…I need to know…”
“Need to know what?”
His violet eyes met mine, and there was a pain in them I’d never seen from him before. “Emersyn...how is she?”
I opened my mouth then shut it. How do I answer that? I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hand. Lying to him would be wrong, but I didn’t need to go into detail. I looked him in the eye. “She’s scared.”
He groaned and ran his hands through his sandy blond hair. “Are we—are we back? I thought I heard other voices I recognized, but maybe I was hallucinating.”
I smiled. “Nah, man. We’re back. Right now, you’re sleeping in a room in Coven Headquarters surrounded by Katherine, Evaline, Larissa, my parents, and Emersyn.”
Deacon sighed. A small smile pulled at his lips, and he shook his head. “I can’t believe it. You actually did it.”
“Yeah. So don’t worry about Emersyn. She’s tough. You need to focus on healing.”
He nodded. “I am. Trust me. I just…I need her to know I’m still in here, ya’ know? Can you tell her for me? Tell her I feel strong, and I’m going to give this demon venom a nasty fight. Tell her I have no intention of dying anytime soon. Can you tell her that for me? Please?”
I held my palm out for him to shake. “I will tell her that. I promise.”
“Good.” Deacon sighed and leaned away from the table. “Thank you.”
I opened my mouth to assure him it was no problem when red mist swirled around the table. It slithered up my body and wrapped around me like a snake. I met Deacon’s stare through the red magic. His magic. “What’s happening?”
Deacon smirked. “Now focus, Cooper. Focus on what you need to see.”
“Dude, what?”
But Deacon was gone. I was no longer in the courtyard at my high school. Now I was somewhere else. Somewhere I’d never been. Something about it seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what, or why. The air was clean and crisp. It was warm, but the breeze was cool. Trees towered above me. I craned my neck to look up. Stars twinkled way overhead. A soft glow from the moon shined through the branches but barely made it down to me. I looked down at my feet and found a light fog hovering above the ground.
I was alone in the darkness.
Up head, between the trees, an orange light flickered. I frowned and made my way toward it. When I got there, my jaw dropped. There was a massive clearing, ringed by trees the size of skyscrapers. In front of me had to be a dozen raging bonfires and at least a hundred people dancing around. Where the hell am I?
I stepped into the clearing, and a cold chill slithered up my spine. I shivered and looked around with narrowed eyes. Something was off. I felt it in the air, like a whisper just out of my hearing. There was an edge to the breeze that made me want to reach for my weapon despite the fact I was in a dream.
Shake it off, Coop. Just see whose dream this is.
The people around me seemed oblivious to the sharp energy in the clearing. They all danced around with drinks in their hands. I frowned and tried to look at every face that went by to see who of my Coven-mates was in this dream. It seemed to be some sort of costume party, though not quite. I saw hippies, goths, and people with furry tails attached to their backs. Weird.
I stepped around one massive, raging bonfire, and then I saw him.
Tennessee.
He walked through the fog and into the clearing like he was on a mission. His eyes were narrowed and surveying the crowd around him. He was dressed in all black, like he always was. His long wavy black hair rustled in the breeze. For a moment, I saw him from a different angle. One I’d never seen before…a stranger. I’d always known he was terrifying, but I’d never been personally intimidated by him. I knew he’d never hurt me.
But in that moment, standing between two bonfires, I saw what everyone else saw. Raw, radiating power. The air around him pulsed from his aura, like humidity on Florida asphalt. Like a mirage in the desert. People jumped out of his way, and others stared with dropped jaws. Sure, the latter were mostly girls, but still.
I was just about to go up to him when one of the dancing partiers slammed into him. A female voice cursed. Tennessee bent down and caught the girl by her arms and hauled her to her feet. The girl looked up, and my body turned to ice. Tegan. She stared up at him with big green eyes and flushed cheeks. I moved closer, wanting to hear whatever they said to each other, but neither one of them had spoken. They just stood there frozen like statues staring at each other.
It wasn’t until I was standing right beside them that I realized exactly what I was witnessing. The moment they met. And then everything made sense. Tennessee’s reaction to her showing up in Tampa, the way he looked at her, the way she looked at him. I wasn’t even part of it, but I felt the power in their connection. Suddenly I realized just how much of an ass I’d been. He’d told me he hadn’t known who she was when he met her, and I guess deep down I hadn’t quite believed him. Now I knew, and I owed him quite the apology.
“Hi…” Tennessee said finally, but his voice was rough and low.
“Hi,” she said softly, her eyes twinkling up at him.
I scrubbed my face with my hands. Is he somehow dreaming this on purpose? Wait, or is this Tegan’s dream? It could be either. Tenn wouldn’t want me to see this, but Tegan is just twisted enough to make me squirm and suffer for being an ass before.
I glared at the two of them staring into each other’s eyes still. “Okay, I get it. Love at first sight. Can we stop this now? I don’t really need to see more. Point taken. Two soulmates meeting by chance at a party. So romantic.”
My eyes widened. At a party. My pulse kicked up a few notches as realization hit me far, far too late. This wasn’t a dream. This was a memory. A memory from the night they’d met, and not at just any party…at The Gathering.
Just then a loud, ear-piercing scream ripped through the clearing.
Holy shit.
Chapter Twenty-Three
TENNESSEE
The circle’s energy called to me. It was pure and innocent, full of happiness and excitement. A feeling I’d never experienced in my life. I walked around the dancing circle, moving in the opposite direction, when my body slammed into something warm. A female voice cursed. I reached forward and caught the girl by the elbows to stop her from falling. Her head snapped up, and our eyes met.
I gasped. My body locked in place. Her eyes were the palest green I’d ever seen in a human being or witch. They looked like the purest of gemstones the earth could make. They looked like peridot. I wanted to lean in close and inspect the tiny flecks of color inside. All of the sounds around me blurred into one distant buzz. Heat rushed through my body and up to my cheeks. My chest ignited, like I’d stepped into the flames. She looked like a wild jungle cat with her dark hair and light eyes. My body went numb, like I was a robot who’d been unplugged from the wall. My heart raced so fast it fluttered like hummingbird wings.
I licked my lips and opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. I d
idn’t know what to say or do. I didn’t know what day it was, why I was standing by a bonfire, or what my name was. My eyes refused to leave hers. I wanted—no, I needed—to memorize her face. I wanted to hear her voice and feel the heat in her skin.
I wanted to know what was happening inside me. “Hi…”
Her mouth opened, and I waited on the edge of my seat to hear her speak. “Hi…”
My lips curved into a crooked smile all on their own. My body seemed to have been hijacked by the jungle cat in front of me. Heat radiated off of her skin through her black hoodie and into my palms still holding her elbows.
She took a step forward, and my hands slid up her biceps. She reached like she wanted to grab onto me. I desperately wanted her to, and the conviction in the need knocked my focus so off-kilter that I didn’t see the person approach behind her until they slammed right into her back. She gasped and tumbled to the ground. I reached down and pulled her back to her feet. She smiled brighter than the stars above, and it did something funny to the beat of my heart. I wasn’t even sure I was still breathing at that point; the burn in my chest suggested I wasn’t. She opened her mouth to speak when a high-pitched shriek tore through the crowd.
I spun on my toes to face the center of the clearing. My ears rang from the scream, but my senses kicked into overdrive.
I flexed my muscles and rolled to the balls of my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girl drop to her knees and cover her ears. My body twitched and begged to turn toward her, but I forced myself to ignore it. I was here for a reason.
Bright light flashed and lightning struck the ground three times in a row a few feet in front of me. I took a few steps forward to get a better view of the entire clearing. Lightning bolts hit the dirt one after another without pause, sometimes striking the same spot over and over. We were trapped inside the clearing by Mother Nature’s rage. Thick, sizzling bolts of electricity formed a ring, blocking off all escape routes.
The pine trees that circled the clearing were completely blocked off by a fog so thick it looked solid. The trees were swallowed and lost to my sight. The fog shot straight up into the air and connected with the clouds that hadn’t been there before. I shifted my weight back and forth between my feet so I’d be ready to move in any direction. The bonfires roared like dragons and blazed brighter and higher until the flames stood taller than the forest around us. The heat off the flames rushed over my body. I soaked in its raw energy and let it fuse with mine.
Shock and terror hit the crowd one by one. Little blue bursts flashed like lights being switched on. I ignored the screams and cries of the people around me. Their panicked energy tickled my spine, but I shoved it away. There wasn’t anything I could do for their fear except be ready to fight. If I let my concentration slip, they could get hurt. My power rippled through my body, waiting for me to unleash it.
A wave of ice prickled against my right arm half a second before a man shouted in pain. I turned in time to see his long robe light on fire. He scrambled to get it off but wasn’t moving fast enough. Any second, the flames would burn through the material to his skin. I flicked my hand and sent a gust of wind in his direction.
“NO!” A girl’s voice sliced through my concentration.
I gasped and spun on my toes, searching for the girl with gemstone eyes. I found her standing in the same spot she’d been in before, her mouth open. But the scream wasn’t coming from her. Relief hit me like a Mack truck, crumbling my focus into dust. Her lips moved, but it took me a second to process what she was saying. Slow down? What does that mean?
“Hey! Stop!” she yelled and leapt forward. “No!”
I followed her gaze toward the edge of the clearing just as lightning ripped through a woman in a Renaissance dress. Her pained shriek pierced through the haze in my brain, and I snapped to attention. A person in a black-hooded cloak ran by me in a mad dash for the forest.
“No! Stop!” the girl next to me shouted again.
I aimed my energy at the fleeing form. Lightning struck the ground at the person’s feet like a sharpshooter with a split-second delay. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girl next to me duck down and cover her eyes, like she didn’t want to see someone else get struck. Not on my watch. I threw my palms out and pushed a gust of wind at the person’s side and sent them crashing to the dirt with a heavy thud just as lightning blasted the spot they’d been in. They didn’t move even an inch, but my hyper senses caught the beating of their heart.
I exhaled and my breath billowed in front of me like a white cloud. Arctic chills prickled against my exposed skin, but the power racing through my body prevented the cold from hitting me. All around me, puffs of smoke escaped people’s mouths as the temperature in the clearing plunged below freezing. Any second, the ground would turn to ice. Fire wasn’t my element. I couldn’t control it, but I could control the air around it. I held my hands out to the side and drew the fire’s energy toward me. With a swirl of my fingers, I pulled out little flames the size of quarters and pushed them through the air to bring the temperature to a safe one for summer clothing. I needed them to not get frostbite or hypothermia before I saved their lives.
I took a few steps forward to force the heat through the crowd. The girl with gemstone eyes called out. Her words were drowned by the raging fire until I focused on the sound of her voice.
“Where are you?”
I knew it made no sense for her to be talking to me, but my body turned toward her anyway. My eyes found her in an instant, like they were programmed to her like a GPS. I knew she wasn’t looking for me, but watching the relief in her face when her tall blonde friend gripped her hand twisted something inside of me.
“What’s happening?” the blonde friend cried. Even from ten feet away, I saw the tears pooling in her blue eyes.
“I…I…” the raven-haired beauty stuttered. Her gemstone eyes were clear of tears, but wide enough to see the white all the way around. Her shock dissolved into what I could only assume was concentration. She snapped her head back and forth, like she was looking for an escape. “I don’t know!”
But I knew exactly what was happening. The Fallen were preparing to materialize. This was just the pregame. This is it. This is why you’re here. I didn’t know why this stranger had such an effect on me, and I didn’t have time to process it. I had a job to do, and if I screwed it up, the whole world would suffer…forever.
We only had one shot to close the Gap.
And we couldn’t do it if I failed this quest.
But I did fail the quest…and apparently my brain wanted me to watch that in replay.
Chapter Twenty-Four
EMERSYN
“Emersyn, are you awake?”
I scoffed. I’d been awake all night. There was a small, tiny chance I’d slept maybe a few minutes once everyone else had gone to bed. But it hadn’t lasted more than a matter of minutes. I just couldn’t sleep, not when Deacon was barely hanging on. How could I rest? How could I shut all of this off inside me long enough?
“Hey, Em, just wanted to talk to you a second…”
I was trying to stay positive for him. But my mind kept circling over the pain of what if I lose him, like a vulture eyeing its prey. I’d even sorted through which of my regrets I regretted most, because I was a twisted individual. It didn’t help that my Coven needed us, but I wasn’t leaving him. I figured Tegan and Tennessee would understand, maybe even my parents.
“Hello, Emersyn?”
I turned and found my brother standing right behind me. My eyes widened. My heart skipped a beat. “How long have you been standing there?”
Cooper chuckled and shook his head. His pale green eyes sparkled with amusement. “Long enough to see you make an entire lap around the room.”
I sighed and pushed my hair back out of my face. My feet burned and my legs ached, so I must’ve been pacing for a while. “I’m just…did you need something?”
“I just wanted to tell you something, but I can come back
…?”
“I’m not going to be in any better shape until he wakes up. Go ahead.” I knew I should’ve stayed there standing next to my brother, but I needed to move. My feet carried me across the room then back again.
Cooper cleared his throat. “So, as you know, I went through some dreams last night…”
I nodded then chewed on my thumbnail.
“…and I spoke with Deacon.”
I froze. “What does that mean?”
He held his palms up. “He apparently has the ability to seek people out in their dreams, or something. All I know is he was waiting for me. He wanted me to tell you something.”
“To tell me something?” My eyes watered. “Do I want to know?”
Cooper smiled and looked over to where Deacon was still unconscious. “He says he can hear you, but he doesn’t have the strength to speak or open his eyes. I think that might be a result of Katherine’s medicine, though.”
I blinked through a rush of tears. “He can hear me?”
Cooper nodded. “He asked me to tell you that he’s still in there. He says he feels strong, and he’s going to give this demon venom a nasty fight. He also said he has no intention of dying anytime soon.”
Tears poured down my cheeks. I looked over at my soulmate and tried to rein in the wildness of my emotions. He was supposed to be healing, to be focusing on surviving this wound…and he was finding ways to send me messages. To tell me he wasn’t giving up.
Cooper squeezed my shoulder. “You know, maybe if you actually got some sleep, he’d be able to talk to you.”
“Oh, hey, Cooper.” Katherine’s voice rang out from behind us. “Everything okay?”
His hand left my shoulder. “Yeah, just relaying a message for Em. I’m gonna go now.”
I heard the heavy thump of his footsteps as he walked out of the room. I knew I should’ve said something to him, thanked him, but I was frozen in place. In my peripheral vision, I saw Katherine moving around the room. I just stood there. Thinking. Feeling. Worrying. On repeat.
The Aether Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 6) Page 13