by Alicia Rades
The Coven’s Secret
Alicia Rades
Copyright © 2019 Alicia Rades
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The reproduction or utilization of this work in part of in whole including xerography, recording, and photocopying is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
PIRACY IS FORBIDDEN AND ILLEGAL. Any piracy or illegal sharing by this work will invoke legal action by the publishers.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Art by Arel B. Grant.
To Megan.
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Hidden Legends
The Reaper’s Shadow: Sneak Peek
Bonus Offers
About the Author
This book contains references to the following medical conditions. To learn more, or to contribute to the research and education of these illnesses, please visit the non-profit organizations below.
LUPUS
Lupus is an autoimmune disease that affects approximately five million people world-wide. Symptoms may include chronic pain and fatigue, sun sensitivity, and rashes, among other complex symptoms. Lupus affects each patient differently, and symptoms can come and go throughout the course of the disease.
Lupus Foundation of America
TYPE 1 DIABETES
Type 1 diabetes affects insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Insulin is the hormone responsible for allowing sugar into the body’s cells. Patients require insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar levels. Without treatment, symptoms may include fatigue, blurred vision, and—over time—life-threatening complications such as nerve damage, kidney damage, and eye damage.
American Diabetes Association
DEPRESSION & SUICIDE
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in America, and affects over 264 million people world-wide. Symptoms may include fatigue, insomnia, and suicidal thoughts or actions. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States and affects people across race, age, and gender identity.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Chapter 1
Lucas
Several Months Earlier
The coven claimed the town cemetery was haunted, which made it the perfect place to sneak into tonight. See, when I was a kid, I lost a bet to my buddy Grant. Loser had to go through with their Evoking Ceremony in the darkest, creepiest place we could find. Nothing beat the abandoned mausoleum on the far side of the cemetery.
“Let's speed it up, losers!” Chloe called from ahead of us. “The witching hour is approaching.”
It was the end of November and freezing out. Snow dusted the ground, and the wind bit at my face. Tall trees rose up on either side of us, and the narrow dirt road ahead was so dark that I couldn't see the end of it. Above us, the moon was half full, and the stars didn't do much to illuminate the Connecticut landscape. The darkness didn't bother me, though. I was used to it.
Grant leaned over to me. He wore a thick dark winter coat that matched the color of his eyes. His black hair was gelled to stand on end in a trendy way that seemed like too much work. He looked a lot like his mom and had inherited most of her Latin American features.
Grant spoke in a low whisper. “Lucas, remind me again why we invited her.”
I shrugged and glanced ahead at Chloe, who wore a dark jacket over a black dress and thick tights. She carried a black leather bag and walked with a skip in her step. I swore, that girl thrived off the energy of the moon or something.
The truth was, I didn't know why I'd invited Chloe. We weren't dating, and she could be kind of a bitch sometimes. But when she asked to come see what an Evoking Ceremony was like, I couldn't refuse. I'd watched my brother's and Grant’s ceremonies, and they’d helped me prepare for tonight. She hadn't had a chance to take part in one yet, so I figured I could at least prepare her for her own.
“We're coming, princess,” Grant called up to her.
She tossed her raven hair over her shoulder and stopped in the middle of the path to wait for us. “Get to know me a little more and you won't be calling me princess.”
She winked at him, and he shot me a curious glance. The two didn't know each other well. Chloe and I met in high school. She still had a year left, while Grant and I were in our first year at Miriam College of Witchcraft. He'd moved away from Octavia Falls when we were kids after his parents split, and he'd only just moved back for school.
“What am I supposed to call you?” Grant asked.
“Wicked,” I joked, cutting in.
Chloe cackled for show. “You know it. Now come on, Lucas.”
She grabbed me by the arm when we reached her and started pulling me down the road. She squeezed so tight I thought I might lose feeling in my hand.
“Where's Eric, by the way?” Grant asked. “Is he meeting us there?”
“Dunno,” I said.
I was staying home for the weekend and had checked his room before I left, but it was empty. It wasn't unusual. My older brother didn't sleep well and often went for midnight walks to clear his mind—to quiet the voices in his head. I shouldn't have taken it personally, but I really wanted him here with me tonight. I already knew my parents wouldn't be. Dad didn't care, and Mom was dealing with enough already.
“Forget Eric,” Chloe said, clearly not reading my fallen expression. “We're here.”
Where the thick forest ended, a towering iron gate began. On the other side stretched an endless graveyard, with headstones large and small reaching up toward the night sky.
“You’re up,” Chloe said, clapping Grant on the back.
Grant stepped forward and wrapped his hands around the lock that secured the gate shut. He’d gone through with his Evoking Ceremony last month and was the only one of us three who had magic. He was an Alchemist—and had the cauldron mark on the back of his arm to prove it.
Grant muttered an incantation under his breath. “We seek to step upon this grass. Unlock this gate and let us pass.”
A green glow lit up his hands. Tendrils of magic swirled out of his palms and twisted around the gate. Then came a soft click, and the gate swung open.
Grant smiled proudly and stepped inside the cemetery, holding the gate open for Chloe and me. “Easy peasy.”
Chloe snorted. “I don’t know why they even bother locking this place up.”
I shrugged. “To deter people, I guess?”
“Well, nothing’s going to deter us,” Chloe stated confidently.
“Come on.” I cocked my head in the direction of the mausoleum. “It’s this way.”
They followed me through an endless maze of grave
stones, until we reached a line of trees. We left the graveyard and stepped into an overgrown forest. Prickly berry brush, fallen logs, and sharp rocks lined the forest floor, but I walked right over them and continued on my way.
“Are you sure this is the right spot, Lucas?” Grant struggled through the brush as it caught on his clothes.
“For sure,” I replied. “It's just up here.”
Just as I said it, the mausoleum came into view. The bricks were covered in moss and had weathered over time, and the roof had long ago caved in. The building had to be as old as our town itself.
Apparently, the bodies had been removed and buried elsewhere, but rumors said some of the skeletons remained. According to legend, certain spirits wanted their bodies to stay in the mausoleum, so they hounded a group of Seers until they gave in and moved their corpses back to their proper resting place. The rumors had never been confirmed, of course, but Grant said he hoped to see a skeleton tonight. I told him he wouldn’t be able to handle it, considering he’d screamed when he saw the plastic hand we’d put in the punch bowl at Halloween.
Chloe looked amazed. After a few moments, she picked her jaw up off the ground and said, “Well, what are we waiting for?”
She rushed ahead. I stepped over broken bricks and shattered beer bottles to follow her. It was kind of creepy inside, with a small bit of moonlight illuminating the shadows. The room wasn’t very big, barely the size of my bedroom. Most of the grave markers had been smashed, leaving behind large holes in the walls that could fit a casket. Others were intact. I wondered about those, but I wasn’t curious enough to investigate. The ground was flat concrete, but it was covered in dirt, dust, and broken bits of building.
Chloe kicked rocks and other debris aside, making room for the ceremony. She set her bag down and pulled out five candles—one to represent each of the five Casts within our coven. Tonight, our goddess, Mother Miriam, would awaken my magical powers and assign me to one of the Casts. I was pretty sure I'd get Mentalist like my parents—the Cast known for their telepathic and telekinetic abilities—but it was hard to say. We all thought Eric would be a Mentalist, and he'd been gifted the powers of a Seer.
Chloe placed the candles in a wide circle, then pointed to the center. “Lie down, loser.”
Grant frowned at her choice of words, but I didn’t care. Like I'd told him before, it was Chloe's term of endearment.
I sat on the cold ground, propping my elbows on my knees. “Well, Grant. Take it away.”
“Okay, if you’re ready.” Grant plopped himself cross-legged in front of me on the other side of the candles.
Chloe used a lighter to light each of the five candles, then found a seat on a huge rock, watching intently. The light cast flickering shadows across the walls of the mausoleum. My heart started to pound heavily in my chest, but I didn’t let it show.
“We’re not to the witching hour yet, so allow me to say a few words before we begin.” Grant snapped his fingers, and a small leather-bound book materialized out of nowhere. He opened it to the first page.
“Aw, man,” I complained. “Do you have to?”
Knowing Grant, it was something stupid, like a collection of roasts to rile me up before the ceremony.
“Yes, I have to,” he deadpanned. He cleared his throat before he began reading. “Evoking Ceremony… what is it?”
Chloe groaned. “We know all this.”
Grant frowned up at her. “Humor me, would ya?”
Chloe didn’t say another word as Grant returned his attention to the book.
“As I was saying…” He made a show of reading the passage like it was a scary story. “On the eve of a witch or warlock’s nineteenth birthday, at the witching hour, they become eligible to contact Mother Miriam through a sacred ritual called the Evoking Ceremony. This ritual can be performed only once, and only on the night of eligibility.”
He broke character to add, “So don’t screw it up, okay?”
“I’m not going to screw it up,” I huffed.
Grant turned back to the book and continued. “Through this ceremony, the witch or warlock will be tested by Mother Miriam. If she judges you a fit for the coven, your powers will be awakened, and you will bear the mark of one of the five Casts within the Miriamic Coven. Should you fail Mother Miriam’s test, you shall be banished from the coven for all eternity.”
His voice fell dramatically at the last three words.
I raised an eyebrow. “All eternity?”
Grant shrugged. “That’s what it says here.”
I rolled my eyes, but inside, I was quivering. I didn’t know what would happen during the ceremony or how Mother Miriam would test me, since the trials were different for everyone. But I knew one thing. I couldn’t be banished from the coven. This was my home. These were my people.
Grant continued reading. “The ceremony requires at least one witch or warlock who has already undergone their Evoking Ceremony. Place five candles in a circle”—he gestured to the candles we’d already set up—“and repeat the following incantation.”
He paused for a moment, and Chloe eagerly asked, “What’s the incantation?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Grant said. “Lucas, you’re going to need to lie on your back. Says so here.”
“Okay.” I did as I was told and stretched out across the cold floor. My gaze turned up through the gaping hole in the roof—if you could call it a roof anymore, since there was almost nothing of it left. I stared at the stars, trying to force my pulse to slow. I shouldn’t be afraid of what was to come, so why was my body freaking out?
Grant checked his phone. “We have one minute until midnight. Are you ready, Lucas?”
I took a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good,” Grant said. “Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you feel more comfortable.”
“Conjure a space heater?” I joked.
Grant nudged my foot with his. “Shut up and relax, smartass.”
I gave him a salute, and he chuckled.
He stared down at his phone a few seconds longer. It felt like an eternity. Finally, he took a breath and set his phone aside. “The witching hour is upon us. We can begin.”
I heard Chloe shift on her rock, but she stayed silent, which was actually kind of shocking. The girl never shut her mouth.
Grant began to mutter the spell beneath his breath. “The clock has struck the witching hour. It’s time to wake this warlock’s power. We call our goddess down to earth. To bear witness to this new rebirth. A series of tests he shall partake. And join the coven before day breaks.”
My body began to rise from the concrete as Grant repeated the incantation. I knew this would happen, as I’d seen it in ceremonies before, but the sensation was stranger than I imagined. I felt as if I could fall at any moment, but I tried to push the fear from my mind. I trusted Mother Miriam and the rituals she’d put in place for the coven. She wouldn’t have us do this if it could hurt us. So I closed my eyes and relaxed.
Grant’s voice continued as he repeated the incantation over and over again. The words started to fade together as I let the magical feeling of floating in mid-air overtake me. Warmth entered my bones, which was weird because of how cold it was outside. A little warmth was all I needed to know that this was working, that I could take whatever Mother Miriam threw at me. I belonged in the coven, and no trial was going to change that.
Suddenly, the sensation of falling jolted throughout my body. My eyes shot open as my body slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of me. I sprang upright to a sitting position, my heart pounding against the walls of my chest. Shit. Something had gone wrong.
As my pulse slowed, I glanced around. It was so dark that all I saw were shadows. For a second, I forgot where I was. It took me a moment to make sense of my surroundings. The crumbled bricks of the abandoned mausoleum were scattered all around me, and the candles Chloe had set up were still there, but they’d been blown out.
My friends were nowhere to be seen.
Concern whipped through me. I reached into my jacket pocket to pull out my phone to use as a light, but it wasn’t there. I checked the other pocket, then my pants, but it was gone.
Fucking Chloe. I should’ve known she’d pull some stunt like this. I was fuming.
I got to my feet and called out into the forest. “Really, guys?”
There was no reply, except for the sound of the wind whistling through a hole in the wall. A chill traveled down my spine, and my breath turned to ice in the air.
“It’s not funny!” I shouted. “This isn’t the time for some stupid prank.”
All that met me was silence—until I heard the sound of a stick breaking in the distance. I stepped out of the mausoleum and started making my way through the brush toward the noise. Thick fog blanketed the forest floor, so much that I could barely see the underbrush beneath my feet. The moon was all I had to light my way.
“Grant?” I yelled into the trees. I couldn’t believe he’d agreed to go along with this!
By now, he was probably crouched somewhere with his hand over his mouth, trying not to give his location away. Any second now, he’d burst into laughter he couldn’t hold back.
Except the laughter never came.