“What is this place?” Emersyn whispered.
Heaven.
“My home,” an unfamiliar male voice said from somewhere above me. The man walked down a flight of stairs and stopped just beside me. He had long, wavy silver hair that shimmered in the light like liquid metal. His beard was scruffy, with hints of black mixed in. He held his hand out in front of me. Behind his glasses, his eyes were such a pale blue they almost looked white. “Hello, I’m Kenneth. And you are?”
I shook his hand and smiled. “Awkward.” Wait. No. Crap.
“Fantastic.” He threw his head back and laughed. He shook his head then turned to the others. “Ah, Tennessee, how are you doing? It’s been too long.”
Tennessee gave Kenneth one of those standard dude half hugs. “I believe the appropriate phrase would be hot mess. How about yourself?”
“A mess has never stopped you before.” Kenneth’s smile faltered. He walked over to a desk covered in a mountain of open books stacked on top of each other and sat down. “Things have been stressful since the solstice, as it has been for you. Emersyn, Tegan, Deacon…welcome to The Coven, to our crazy little family.”
“Thank you,” Emersyn and Deacon said in perfect unison.
Emersyn blushed and looked away from him, but at least it wasn’t a scowl like usual.
“Please, have a seat. Let’s get started.”
I cleared my throat and moved closer. “My brother said he’s been in contact with you?”
Kenneth nodded. He crossed one ankle over the other and scratched his beard. “Bentley is a smart kid. I know Cassandra would be proud of his selection. Yes, I’ve assured our young Hierophant that I’m always available to him. We were just discussing the prophecy a few moments ago.”
So he knew exactly who I was when he asked. Nothing was going to go unnoticed here. I shook myself and joined the group. My first instinct was to stand beside Tennessee, but after the van incident, I knew he was right. We needed to stay away from each other. I forced myself to sit in the chair a few feet over. It was the farthest I could be without offending Kenneth.
Cooper cracked his knuckles. “What do you make of the prophecy?”
Kenneth picked up a pipe off the desk and rolled it between his fingers. “Where only Eden and the chalice knows, your fate lies in the Book of Shadows. Between the balefire, the runes shall dance, from within the cauldron comes your chance. I have to admit, it’s one of the heaviest prophecies I’ve seen. Tell me, High Priestess, what do you make of it?”
I took a deep breath. “Obviously we’re looking for the Book of Shadows. From what I know, there are spells inside we need both to get Henley back and close the gap in Salem. Some visions were shown to me, but they’re not…not in context.”
“I had a feeling you’d say as much. Once you find the book, you’ll have a whole new project on your hands.” He cocked his head to the side and watched me. “I hope you realize this?”
I nodded. “I do. I will be seeking your assistance, if that’s all right?”
“I look forward to that.” He smiled at me. “Tennessee, penny for your thoughts?”
Tennessee rubbed the back of his neck. “The chalice is something specific, isn’t it?”
Kenneth exchanged a guarded glance with Constance. She sighed. He tapped his pipe on his desk. “We can’t protect them any further.”
“I know, I know.” She turned and paced in front of the window. “Tell them.”
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Royce mumbled and sank down to the ground at the base of a bookshelf.
“You’re all familiar with the chalice the Goddess used to create our species, right?”
Tennessee paled. “We’re looking for that chalice?”
Cooper cursed.
Royce groaned. “This is definitely not good.”
I’d heard that story recently, once my parents were able to teach us some of our history. When the Garden of Eden fell, the Goddess created our species by mixing her blood with that of an angel’s and a human’s in a holy chalice. It was quite literally where we were born.
“I didn’t realize this was a cup we actually had,” I said.
“We don’t,” Tennessee answered.
“Was it lost like the Book?”
Emersyn stopped braiding her hair halfway down. Her face paled a little and her eyes stared into space. “Or like the Hierophant’s locket?”
Tennessee sighed and leaned against a wooden railing. He crossed his muscular arms over his chest. “Both. Neither.”
Deacon cursed. He ran his fingers through the longer blond strands of his hair. “I agree with Royce. This doesn’t sound good.”
I doubted the chalice was lost like the Book. That wouldn’t make sense to send us on a quest to find two impossible-to-find things. To find the locket we had to—ooooh. “It’s a quest within a quest. Isn’t it? Like Leyka and the sirens.”
“That sounds fun.” Deacon leaned his head against the rack of books.
“No, no, no.” Royce buried his head in his hands. “That was awful. That was how...how...”
“How we lost Libby,” Cooper finished for him in a low voice. He was a few feet behind Tennessee, sitting at one of Kenneth’s desks.
There was a moment of silence where we all just looked around at each other. This was my family. I’d already said goodbye to one of them. I’d be damned if I did it again anytime soon. The same mistakes couldn’t happen this time. We had to be more cautious and careful. We had to watch each other’s backs.
I cleared my throat and returned my attention to our Hermit Card. “Kenneth, please. Continue?”
Kenneth rubbed his face with the hand not holding the pipe. “The originals had the chalice, but with the Goddess’s help, they hid it where it would be almost impossible to find. In a place where only those worthy of finding could ever do so.”
Tennessee cursed.
Cooper groaned. “Tenn, what do you know that we don’t?”
“I know…” He sighed, like he couldn’t believe this was the conversation at hand. “I know they hid it in the Old Lands.”
My stomach turned. My magic prickled with awareness, like a threat had just walked into the room. Maybe it had. “What are the Old Lands?”
Tennessee just shook his head. To anyone else, he probably looked annoyed with all the questions, but not to me. I saw the anxiety rolling under the surface.
Kenneth took a puff off his pipe then exhaled a large cloud of white smoke. It twisted and swirled until it formed a row of mountain peaks. “There are areas of this world that are hidden from the rest.”
Constance walked over to stand beside him. “The Old Lands belong to the Creator.”
Kenneth nodded. “The Old Lands are cloaked from the human eye and tucked away deep inside the world’s largest mountain ranges, the Smokies, Rockies, Himalayas, and so on. Not much is known about them, because not many return once they go in.”
“So obviously that’s where we have to go,” Royce mumbled.
Kenneth pulled his pipe out and exchanged an alarmed glance with Constance. “You have to go to The Garden of Eden.”
Silence.
I blinked and shook my head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“As in...the Garden of Eden?” Cooper’s face paled, and it made him look even more like my father. Our father.
Kenneth nodded.
Whoa. Wow. Holy crap. The Garden of Eden. My mind went utterly blank. I didn’t even know how to think of that place.
It took me several attempts to get my mouth to form the question on my mind. “How do we get there?”
“I have no idea.” Kenneth shrugged, and for the first time since I’d met him, he looked as perplexed as we felt. “Witches have tried to travel there, but they’ve never returned. Let me get you something. Hold on.”
“You guys have to know the Old Lands follow their own rules.” Constance fiddled with the globe on Kenneth’s desk. I meant to gauge her facial expressions, but my eyes were
locked on her soulmate glyph covering her fingers. “We’ve only barely explored it, but we know modern technology doesn’t work. There are creatures you’ve never faced before, maybe even never heard of before. I wish I could give you examples, but I simply don’t know either. And the magic there... It’s ancient. As old as the world itself. We have no idea exactly what you’ll find.”
I looked around at my crew and saw all of my own fears staring back at me. We were scared. Of who would make it home alive. What we’d have to do to ensure that. What would happen if we failed. Was there even an option of failure? If no one had ever returned, then I got the sinking impression that no, there was no failure. There was success...and death.
I hated that so many people I cared about were there with me. My brother Cooper, even though I was still mad at him. My twin. I’d only just found her. I couldn’t fathom losing her. But the worst was Tenn. I hated that he was part of this death quest. The world needed him alive. I needed him alive. The idea of living without him was just a black hole of pain. Yet at the same time, I was glad he was with me. If there was even a sliver of a chance I wouldn’t survive this journey, I wanted to have him by my side while I could. I just wished I could be with him.
Kenneth walked back over with something in his hand. He held it out to me. “High Priestess, you are the keeper of things.”
My eyes widened. I reached out and took the object from his hands, ignoring the way my fingers trembled. The object was about the size of two baseballs, and weighed about the same. On the bottom, the surface was an inch thick of solid white stone, almost like limestone. On top were clear quartz crystals in varying size and shapes. It actually looked like a crown glued to a rock. Raw energy like I’d never felt tingled up my arms.
“What is this?” I asked.
He scratched the back of his head. “There’s a path inside the Old Lands that is protected by the Banished One. We only know he’s dangerous and not exactly human. This is a piece of that land. In order to get to The Garden of Eden, you must begin there. You’ll have to track its origins.”
“How do we track it?” Cooper asked.
“Well, Cooper, I’m afraid that’s not an easy answer either. We’ve got a few different spells or rituals you can test out, but like Constance said, the magic of the Old Lands is older than us.” He went back over to his desk and shuffled through some of the books.
I stared back down at the crystallized Earth in my palms. It was warm and soothing to the touch. The longer I stared, the more colors I saw reflecting in the crystals. An image popped into my head of another piece of crystal. It, too, tingled like electricity in my arm and radiated warmth. I owned a lot of crystals, and since becoming a witch, I’d had my hands on hundreds. But none of them felt alive like this one. Except one. Something told me it was ancient magic too.
I looked over at Tennessee and found him staring at the ground, lost in thought. His arms were crossed over his chest. He really was beautiful.
“Why are you staring at Tennessee like that?”
I jumped at the sound of Chutney’s voice. Tennessee’s gaze turned to me, his stare hot and intense.
My cheeks filled with warmth. I shook my head. “I was thinking about George.”
Deacon frowned. “Who’s George?”
Tennessee’s eyes widened. He stared for a moment then dug into his pocket. George was the pendulum Tennessee had attained in a quest right before I met him. Tenn pulled the blueish colored crystal out and held it by the silver chain at the top. Purple mist billowed from the stone and swirled around it like a protective force field, or a snake. After a moment, it swung back and forth. I knew without asking that he’d asked our question silently.
He looked over at me and grinned in a way that made my toes curl and butterflies bounce around my stomach. “Brilliant. George can lead us to the entrance with the crystal.”
“That’s excellent,” Constance said with a relieved smile that made me nervous.
“But there’s one more thing you must do before you leave.” Kenneth sat the books down. His gaze traveled around the group, one at a time. “You must perform a Binding Ritual.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Tegan
“Constance.” Kenneth turned toward her. “It’s time.”
I frowned and looked over at our Justice Card. Her sandy blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail so tight it pulled the muscles in her face a little. The blue of her eyes looked like an aquamarine crystal. They were soft and delicate, but heavy and weary. Being the Leader of The Coven probably weighed on her. I wanted to stare at her soulmate glyph and inspect every inch, but that would draw way too much attention and this was not the place to do that.
“I’ll get it,” she whispered then walked to the other side of the room.
Kenneth cleared his throat. He gestured for Constance to set a cauldron on the desk right in front of him. Smoke billowed out the top. “This potion was designed to bind witches before they entered the Old Lands. The magic in there is alive. If you find yourself lost, you may never find your way out again.”
Constance turned to face us. “You must stay together. It’s the only way you’ll make it back out. That is why She has chosen so many of you for this quest. It will take all of you.”
I swallowed down the rush of anxiety threatening to spill out. I had to keep myself together. The room fell silent around me, but I could’ve sworn I heard the pounding of my friends’ hearts. I glanced over my shoulder at them. Their faces were white and their eyes wide. No one spoke, because we all knew we had to do this. I turned back to our elders.
“Unfortunately, Constance and I cannot be present in the room while you perform this ritual, or else we will be bound as well.” Kenneth waved his hand over the cauldron, and the smoke spilled over the edge. The purple glow grew brighter, turning his silver hair as violet as mine. He raised his left hand up, and something shimmered like glass. “Tennessee, will you lead them?”
“Yes,” Tenn answered without hesitation. His voice was strong, steady, and full of that confidence I’d grown used to seeing in him. He stepped up and let Kenneth place the dark object in his palm. “Constance, on your way out, would you mind?”
I frowned. That was the vaguest request I’d ever heard. Did she mind what?
But Constance smiled and nodded her head once. She raised her hands in the air, palms up, then rolled her fingers in a wave. The air crackled with new energy. Little balls of varying size and color rose from the ground and tabletops. One hovered in front of my face about the size of my fist. It was light pink with smooth sides and rough edges. Crystals.
Constance turned her gaze to Tennessee and held it. “I loan to you my crystals from earth. Guide them while your circle is in birth.” She winked at my soulmate, then stepped through the doorway.
“Find us in the courtyard when you’re done.” Kenneth nodded then left us alone.
The rest of us spun to face Tennessee. Not for the first time I recognized how beautiful he was. In the soft golden glow of the candlelight mixed with the flickering light of the fireplace in the distance, his skin was tanned and smooth like honey. His long black hair fell in perfect waves past his jaw. He was gorgeous, but dangerous. His aura radiated power so strong it was almost visible to the naked eye. If you stood close enough, you could feel the strength of his magic, even when he just stood there.
“Where would you like us, boss?” Royce said in a soft voice.
“This is an altar cloth beneath us, used for circles. I need all of you to stand in the middle.” He waited until we were in place, then he nodded. With the dark object cupped in both palms, he walked a circle around us along the edge of the carpet. “I cast this circle round and round, to follow me as I walk this ground. Come with us where we go today, protect us while we move through the fray.”
The crystals surged forward and followed him like a shadow. When he reclaimed his spot among the group, the stones continued to fly around us. They moved faster and faster unti
l they were a white blur.
“Now, everyone stand in a straight line in front of me, with Tegan first, then Emersyn.” His voice was steady and calm, like he’d done this a million times. “Cooper, my brother, please take the end since you know how to do this?”
Me first? My heart skipped a beat. I had to remind myself this probably had to do with the strength of my magic and not his personal affection for me. Still, that rational thinking did nothing to prevent the warm blush in my cheeks or the sudden unevenness of my breathing. He was just so close. The air smelled like fresh rain, and it took everything inside me not to lean forward to let his breath brush over my face.
“Of course.” Cooper inclined his head then moved to the opposite side of the carpet.
Tennessee took the dark bowl-like object in his hand and dipped it into the cauldron. When he pulled it back out, neon purple liquid dripped over the edge. He brought the object to his mouth and took a sip. His lips lit up the same bright purple as the liquid from the cauldron. The glow spread to his cheeks, down his throat, then all the way to the tips of his fingers.
He raised the little bowl up to me. “Take a sip, then pass it along.”
I nodded and took the bowl. Part of me was a little nervous to drink something that glowed. Hell, I had no idea what was in the potion. But I trusted Tennessee. He was my soulmate. Anything that hurt me would hurt him too. I brought the bowl to my lips and drank. It felt like liquid sunshine seeping straight into my bones. Warmth spread through my body with the purple glow. I held the bowl behind me for my twin to take while watching my body change colors. I felt light on my feet, like if I jumped, I might not come back down.
Tennessee held his hand out, and the bowl flew up behind me and into his palm. He sat it on the desk beside the cauldron then turned back to us. “This next part we do in pairs. Emersyn turn to Royce, Willow turn to Chutney, and Deacon turn to Cooper.”
The Rebel Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 3) Page 13