The Promise (The Coven Series)

by Baker, Apryl

  My gut tells me that Kay is the wrong person to lead our apprentices. My dreams are telling me that something big is on the horizon for our Coven and that the leader of the JC will play a major role in it. It’s nothing good – my dreams are nightmares. Someone needs to be there for these kids who will protect and lead them through the encroaching darkness. Kay is not that person. She has a little of that darkness on the inside thanks to her dad.

  I keep coming back to CJ and not just because she’s my sister or because the Bishop’s have led the Coven for centuries. CJ doesn’t even believe in any of this. Nonsense she calls it. Nonsense. She’ll change her tune soon enough. I have good reason to want her to fill my shoes. She’s gifted beyond anything I’ve ever seen. The Elements respond to her even now, before her initiation. They’ve already deemed her worthy. If she’s too hot, a cool breeze will blow around her even in the house or, just the opposite, if she’s cold – the temperature rises. Air and Fire, one to cool and one to warm. She’s oblivious to it, but Mom and Dad aren’t. Dad just grins and Mom, well, Mom looks…calculating. It’s odd, but sometimes I think she has a plan for CJ she’s not telling the rest of us, even Dad. That has to be wrong, but that’s what my instincts tell me. She’s watching her more closely these days. I just don’t know why.

  Back to CJ. Having that kind of connection to the Elements is beyond rare. Plus she can write a spell like nobody’s business. It’s so easy for her. They roll off her tongue. What’s so funny is she’s not even aware of any of it. She finds answers to convince herself it can all be explained away. Just you wait, little sister, you can’t explain away a greeting from the Elements when you enter my circle for the first time.

  Dad says to listen to what your instincts tell you and my instincts scream CJ. No one else thinks so. They don’t see her like I do. She’s such a good kid, always taking care of everyone else – that’s why she’s perfect. She’ll take care of the JC the way I do, with love and a firm hand. She’ll lead them away from the darkness I see coming.

  I can’t wait for her initiation. I’ll hand the JC over to her then. I know she and Kay always celebrate their birthday together, but a girl’s initiation is special, about only her. She shouldn’t have to share that with Kay. So I am going to break with tradition and hold little sister’s initiation on Halloween, her birthday and Kay’s the next weekend. I’ve got it all planned out. She’ll love it. Every time any of us mention it she just rolls her eyes. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when the Elements pour through her. If my suspicions are right, then my little sister is meant for far more than just the title of JCL – she’s been truly blessed. She’s more than any of us could ever hope to be. I’m just glad I’ll be here to see it.

  Thank you old friend, for helping me to sort through it and make up my mind.

  September 28, 2006

  I saw someone today. He can’t be much older than me, but I don’t know, he just kinda felt older. He reminded me of Adam’s older brother Clint – the one who’s in college. He was watching us from a distance while we were in the meadow. CJ didn’t notice him. She gets so wrapped up in her writing I’m surprised she remembers to sleep. He followed us all the way home. I was ready to call the police, but then he just…disappeared. I don’t mean he ducked around a corner – he flippin faded before my eyes. Like a ghost. That can’t be right.

  Who is he and why is he following me?

  October 1, 2007

  The first of the windows have gone up in the drug store – a silly scene with a black cat chasing a goblin out of the cemetery. I love those windows the Corey’s create. They like magic all on their own. We witches are very creative people. Look at me and CJ – I draw and she writes. I did a couple sketches to some of her stories. I plan on submitting them to a few agents – my little sister is talented. She has this incredible imagination and can weave tales of terror that’ll have you jumping at your own shadow or make you smile all day remembering the silly story she told.

  I saw the boy again. He was in the cemetery. I tried to talk to him, but he was gone before I could catch him. I still don’t know how he gets away so fast. He can’t be a ghost. I’m a witch, but even I have doubts about some things. He seems too real, too solid. He’s watching me. But why?

  October 7, 2007

  I wish to all the Fates I had never seen him. It can’t be true. It can’t.

  October 11, 2007

  Why? Why now? Everything is almost perfect and he shows up to ruin it all. He told us why he’s here. The Senior Coven is jumping for joy. I was allowed into the meeting because of my role as JCL and I’ll be joining the Coven as soon as CJ takes over.

  I want to throw up. It’s sick. A curse. Everything they’ve worked for all these centuries has been about a stupid curse. The thirteenth daughter. It’s not true. I refuse to believe it. But he’s here – how do we know it’s real though? A spell. We need a truth spell to show us if he’s real. Even the Senior Coven will have to agree to that before they pledge themselves on this path of destruction.

  None of this makes sense. At least now I understand the pledge to protect our secrets with our lives. A curse. It’s evil. I need to find out more. They’re not going to tell me. Maybe he will.

  October 13, 2007

  Oh God. No. It’s in the book. It’s all there. He’s there. I didn’t believe it before, but it’s true. I looked for myself while they were busy. That damned book is guarded better than the crown jewels. So many wards. But it was all there. They’re wrong about one thing. They all miscalculated. I have to get them both away from here.

  October 15, 2007

  Too late. They know about my plan. They know the truth now and they won’t let me leave. I have to warn you, little sister. I dare not say anything here – someone might find this besides you. The answers are in my BOS – it’s hidden. You know where. Find it.

  I’m afraid, Cassie Jayne. So afraid. They’re coming and I can’t keep you and Kay safe. I begged Mom, but she told me I was being silly. Dad’s not home and he’s not answering his cell! Why isn’t Daddy answering his phone? I need him.

  I love you so much, little sister. If I never get to tell you that again, I’m telling you now. I love you until the world cracks – remember when we were kids and cracked Grandpa’s globe on Thanksgiving? We swore the dog knocked it over. We promised to love each other then until our world cracked. My world cracked today. I love you.

  Please Cassie Jayne, please be safe. Please.

  I hear them. Oh God, I hear them. I have to go.

  Where are you, Daddy?

  Chapter Twelve

  “CJ?” Kay’s voice came from the hallway. My stomach knotted, telling me to hide my discovery. Instinct, Emily had written. My instincts screamed to keep this from Kay. I didn’t know why, but they did. Maybe it was reading the diary and it’s insinuations that caused my caution, but I hid it nonetheless. I put it back into the shoe box and carefully set it where I’d found it.

  Drying my eyes, I pushed myself up off the floor and closed the closet door. My head buzzed with hundreds of questions that Kay was going to answer. Then I saw her. She had collapsed against the wall beside Emily’s door. Her ebony hair hung damp and limp around a face gone ashen. She looked like she’d just been through ten kinds of hell.

  “Kay, are you okay?” Tears streamed down her face and she was shaking. “Was it the dream again?”

  She nodded, her eyes wild with fear.

  I pulled her up, helped her back into my room and put her back into bed. “Shh, you’re safe now, Kay. I’ve got you.”

  “B-b-bur-rr-nn-ing,” she stammered. “I was…was…was…”

  “It’s okay, I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Kay had dreamed of being burnt at the stake since she was a little girl. It was a horrible dream. She could feel the heat of the flames as they licked their way up her body, feel her flesh blister, burn, and swell as the fire kissed her. Sometimes she’d scream herself hoarse even
after she’d woken up. It was always the same dream and it always scared her shitless.

  “Awful,” she whispered as I tucked the covers around her. Her skin felt hot, feverish.

  “I know,” I soothed. “It’s just a dream, Kay, you’re fine.”

  She nodded, her eyes still wide and frightened. “It’s getting worse, CJ. I’m having it every night.”

  I didn’t know what to say. What could I say? I never had nightmares, ever.

  “I can still feel the heat from the fire on my skin,” she whispered. “So afraid.”

  “But you’re not burning, Kay,” I told her firmly. “It was only a dream.”

  “Just a dream,” she agreed. “Just a dream. God, I need a drink.”

  “No, you don’t,” I argued. “Drinking won’t help anything.”

  “I don’t dream when I’m drunk, CJ.”

  Is that why her drinking had gotten so much worse over the last few weeks? Because her dreams had? “That’s still not the answer, Makayla Joyce.”

  “I know, Mom.” She rolled her eyes and took a shaky a breath. She flipped the channel with the remote and found an old Clark Gable film on AMC. I guess she’d had her quota of scary movies for the night. “This will put me back to sleep as well as a good shot of whiskey.”

  I smiled at her pained expression. She was starting to bounce back. I could understand where her dreams came from. She was a practicing witch and we were all taught about the witch trials at an early age – kindergarten I think. I still remembered the story.

  It started in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Fear ran rampant through the countryside as men and women were accused of witchcraft from all walks of life. It was this fear that drove our original Coven to betray thirteen of its own members. They struck a bargain with George Corwin, the Sherriff, to keep themselves from being named as witches. They betrayed their own to save themselves.

  I always thought that pretty much sucked. How could you betray your friends and family? My own ancestor and leader of the Coven, Sara Bishop, had burned with the others. Such a tragic waste of life. They had been witches, yes, but they didn’t deserve to die like that. No one did.

  On July 09, 1692, the sheriff and his men burst in on one of the Coven meetings. Thirteen were arrested and tried as witches. The Coven testified against them. They had been forced to participate in acts of the devil out of fear for their lives, they claimed. Our ancestors were found guilty of witchcraft and burned at the stake. The families of those thirteen men and women had fled Salem Village in fear and anger over what had transpired. They founded New Salem a year later. The settlement remained and grew into the sprawling town it was today—a town of witches.

  It was no wonder Kay had nightmares about being burnt at the stake. The story had been drilled into us since we were five years old. We knew the details of that betrayal better than any other event in history. Our teacher had gone into vivid detail about the burning. Kay’s nightmares started about a month later. Hell, even I hadn’t been able to shake the vision of thirteen…

  Thirteen men and women.

  The thirteenth daughter.

  Lines from Emily’s diary hit me.

  A curse. The thirteenth daughter.

  Miscalculated. I have to get them both away from here.

  Them? My eyes widened. No. She couldn’t be talking about me and Kay?

  “CJ, what’s wrong? You look like you’re gonna throw up any second.”

  Thirteen. Kay’s dreams of being burnt at the stake. Emily’s dreams of darkness coming.

  “CJ, you’re scaring me,” Kay’s voice floated around me.

  He’s here. He’s in the book. A boy she didn’t recognize. He’s back? Mom had asked.

  “Cassie Jayne!”

  It couldn’t be. He couldn’t be. That was impossible, insane.

  Kay grabbed me by the arms and shook me. “What’s wrong?” she yelled.

  I opened my mouth to scream my questions at her, but my stomach twisted painfully. Be quiet, it hissed at me. I shut my mouth and tried to calm down. I had to get a hold of myself. I needed to think, to sort this out. I needed to write.

  “I’m fine, Kay, just thinking.”

  “What the hell were you thinking about?” she demanded. “You scared me, CJ.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that your dream made me remember the night Emily died. She almost burned to death in the car.” The lie rolled easily off my tongue. I hated lying. It shouldn’t be this easy. How easy was it for everyone around me? For Kay maybe?

  Kay winced. At least it was a lie she would believe. I’d told her afterwards how horribly burned Emily had been. The car caught on fire somehow and she’d burned, her skin blistering just as Kay’s had in her dreams.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

  “They’re not as bad as they were.”

  “Time will do that,” she gave me a half smile. Her own mom had died of cancer when she was thirteen. Thirteen. There was that damn number again.

  “I guess. I’m really tired, Kay. Let’s just get some sleep, okay?” I needed her to go back to sleep so I could think.

  “Sure,” she agreed and settled herself back down into the bed. “Are we going to talk to them tomorrow?” she yawned.

  “No.”

  She sighed. “Are you sure?”

  “Yup.”

  She rolled over. “Night, CJ.”

  “Night, MJ.”

  I lay there for a long time, listening as her breathing slowed and evened out into deep sleep. I hated to think Kay was lying to me too. She was my best friend, the one person I trusted more than anyone since Emily’s death. It hurt to think she might be a part of all this, whatever this was. I slipped from the bed and grabbed a notebook and pen before ducking into my bathroom. No telling how long she would sleep and I needed to make sense of this. I started to write.

  Things I learned from Emily’s diary:

  She was dreaming of a darkness coming – but what?

  A boy appeared and then talk of a curse started and got the town all excited.

  13 men and women betrayed – curse deals with the 13th daughter. Connection?

  The town miscalculated – Emily knew the truth. Made a plan?

  She was afraid. Someone came after her – in her diary.

  Things I know:

  Something weird is going on. Dad is pushing me to stay away from the Coven and Mom wants me to go. People are pestering me more than usual to go.

  Dad freaked at the thought of my going. Went a little crazy.

  Ethan – new in town. Says he’s never been here before, but Mom says he has.

  Who is lying to me? Why would either of them lie?

  Thoughts:

  This is crazy. What I’m thinking is impossible. Did the Coven kill my sister because she found out something she wasn’t supposed to know? She said she couldn’t keep me and Kay safe. From what? The curse? It had to have something to do with the 13 people who had been burned at the stake in Salem. The 13th daughter – 13 to signify the 13 that burned? Revenge maybe? She said it was in the book. What book? Warded by magic? It has to be in the meeting hall. I need to get that book. How?

  Dad knows something, but he won’t tell me. Maybe he can’t tell me. That vow about protecting the Coven’s secrets with their lives? Maybe he couldn’t say anything because he was afraid they might kill him? I’m all he has left he says, that he can’t lose me too. Did he know what they planned to do to Emily? Is that why he didn’t answer his phone that day? Did he know they were going to kill her? Is that why he drinks himself into oblivion? Guilt? Please, Daddy, please don’t have known.

  Did Mom know? I can’t believe either of them knew. They loved her. Mom cried for days afterward. You can’t fake that kind of grief. Emily was their child, their flesh and blood. I refuse to believe they helped to plot her death. If they knew about it, then why have the cops show up at our door? There would be no point to it. They can’t have known. They can’t. />
  Well damn. I guess I do believe they killed her. The Coven killed her to keep her quiet. To protect their secrets. I have to find out what’s going on. It’s something big. Why else would the entire Coven work on a truth spell? The boy. Emily suggested they cast a truth spell. Maybe that’s why everyone was working on it. The boy was back. Ethan? He did show up out of nowhere. And he feels older than a normal teenager, especially when he looks at me with those beautiful eyes. No, it can’t be Ethan. But Mom said he’d been here before. Damn, I need that book Ems was talking about.

  Emily’s Book of Shadows. She said she put everything in there. Where did she hide it? I know where? No, I don’t. Emily had hundreds of hidey holes same as me. Where? I have to find it. It’d be so much easier if I could just ask Kay for help, but every time I try, my stomach decides to shout, HELL NO. Instincts kicking in? Telling me not to trust my best friend? The girl I love like a sister? For now, I’ll keep this to myself, but I may need her help in the end. I just need time.

  Ethan. What am I going to do about him? Is he lying to me or am I being paranoid? Damn his sorry hide. How dare he? How could he do that to me? I didn’t think I could ever hurt this much again. I’m not falling in love with him. I do love him. I’ve known him a week and I love him. How insane is that? Everything that’s logical says it’s too soon to love him, but I do. That’s why this hurts so much. I love him. He’s lying to me. My gut says he’s lying. What am I going to do?

  Find those books. That’s what I’m going to do.

  It’s all I could do at this point. I got up and turned off the bathroom light. I put my notebook in my bookbag. I would start looking first thing in the morning. I crawled into bed beside Kay and whispered a quiet prayer to whoever was listening. I’d need all the help I could get.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A week and a half later, I had nothing to show for my efforts at playing Nancy Drew. I’d searched everywhere for Emily’s Book of Shadows. Nothing. I’d scoured the attic, torn through the basement, and had ransacked the old tree house in the woods behind our house. The only thing I found was dirt and spider webs. Feeling useless and frustrated, I made my way to the cemetery.