Like I hadn’t done with Tennessee.
My stomach rolled like I was on a rollercoaster.
“What about an apple cinnamon bun?” Emersyn’s eyes widened. “Oh, it has ice cream.”
“Em, I’m honestly not hungry. It’s not even lunch time. I’ll eat later, I promise.”
“What’s bothering you?” she said softly and stepped closer. “And don’t say nothing. I know that face.”
“Nothing.”
“Tennessee,” Henley said at the same time. She zipped her leather jacket up while eyeing me. “Have you spoken to him today?”
I groaned. “Spoken to him? He won’t even look at me.” I’d tried several times before we left headquarters to talk to him, but he’d barely acknowledged me. I deserved it. I’d hurt him, and I knew that. It just didn’t make it suck any less.
“I’ve known that boy a long time. He’s never been great at handling his emotions.” Henley stepped back to let a woman and her stroller pass by. “He always needs time to sort it out.”
“What if time isn’t all he needs?” I heard myself admit. I hadn’t meant to. I didn’t want anyone else to know how terrified I was I’d lost him. Well, it’s out now. I licked my lips and whispered, “What if the damage is too deep?”
Larissa scoffed. Her mocha-colored skin looked stunning in the soft sunlight. “You don’t see the way you’ve affected him because you never saw him before. We have and we’ve never seen him like this before. He loves you, Tegan. We all see it. I think he’d just adjusted to having a soulmate when you went dark. It rocked him hard. But even when the rest of us thought we’d lost you, he still believed in you.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” I grumbled.
“You can handle it, though. Like you said last night, right?” She winked one hazel-green eye and smirked.
I’d said I could handle him being mad at me. I’d meant it, or at least I thought.
Emersyn wrapped her arm around mine and pulled me close. “It’s only been a few hours. Give him time.”
“Seriously? You play frisbee here?” Henley shouted at the frat boy who’d bumped into her. She shook her head and looked back to me. “It’s too crowded. Why are we here?”
I sighed. After breakfast, everyone had agreed to split up and start searching for clues on where the original Gap was. I hadn’t expected us to find anything, at least not right away, but Samhain was only ten days away so we had to try. I’d volunteered to search the main streets in town where all the tourists were because I wanted as many distractions as possible.
I looked up and down the street, eyeing the tourists pouring in and out of the stores. All around us were buildings made of red brick and marketing at its finest. A year ago, I’d begged my father to bring me to Salem for Halloween. Now I couldn’t wait to leave. Every sign about the witch trials and witch museums made my heart heavy. These tourists had no idea what had really happened. If they did, they wouldn’t be behaving like this was one giant Halloween party.
“Hey, look.” Larissa pointed to a little wooden sign hanging above an open door. “It says The Coven’s Cabin. Even has a pentagram. You think that’s us?”
“Don’t a lot of people use the pentagram symbol nowadays?” Emersyn pursed her pink lips and cocked her head to the side, eyeing the sign. “Like Wicca?”
I shrugged. “Pagans use it, too. So do Christians.”
“Actually, I think that one is us. We do have stores all over the world.” Henley turned and walked toward the store, waving for us to follow. “Come on. Let’s see.”
I followed her without hesitation. If it was our species’ store, then we might find some cool stuff. If it wasn’t, I might find some cool distractions. Two feet from the front door, I knew she was right. Magic pulsed through the air of the doorway, seeping out onto the street like a roof leak. It was jumbled and hectic. I stepped inside and froze in my tracks. Energy of every variety slammed into me. I staggered back, but the Sapiens behind me pushed me forward in their eagerness to get inside. I couldn’t blame them. The power of our species lured them in like a moth to a flame.
“Hey, I know him!” Larissa squealed right in my ear and pointed to the far side of the store. “That’s Professor Hoffert. He’s a potions instructor at Edenburg.”
“Didn’t you used to go study with him there a few times a year? Kessler sent you, right?” When Larissa nodded, Henley’s sapphire eyes sparkled. “Let’s go talk to him, see what he knows. Any help would be good right now.”
Part of me wanted to follow them as they sped across the store, but the bigger part of me just didn’t feel like it. My brain was exhausted and burnt out. I’d been planning and scheming for three weeks without a break, without even sleeping. I needed to let someone else do the thinking for a few hours. I pushed the sleeves of my jacket up to my elbows, an old nervous habit I’d never shaken off.
“Just when I think I’m getting the hang of this whole witch thing, we come here.” Emersyn laughed and shook her head. It was nice to see her smiling. Her confidence had grown so much while I was playing dark queen. “I mean…look at all this stuff, Tegan.”
I hooked my arm around hers and led her toward the left side of the store, where there seemed to be fewer people. All the tourists were huddled near the wall of tarot cards and pendulums. Neither of which they knew how to use properly. In the center of the store a group of middle school-aged girls drooled over the jewelry covered in crystals. But just like in any regular store, my favorite section was always desolate—the book section.
“I want to go to Edenburg, once this is all over.” I pointed to a row of vintage-looking, leather-bound books behind a glass case. “I want to study practical magic.”
Emersyn scoffed. “Like you need it.”
“Since when are needs and wants the same thing?” I forced a wink. It was hard to feel like myself, to joke around like I used to. I felt different. I felt damaged and broken. Smiling no longer felt natural. I was afraid to tell anyone.
“Oh my Goddess!”
I spun on my toes and came face-to-face with a girl who looked about my age. She had thick, black-rimmed glasses and pretty dark-purple hair. Her cheeks were flushed a soft pink under a cluster of freckles. Her aquamarine eyes were wide…and staring right at me.
“Um…hello?” I glanced over my shoulders, but there was nothing but books behind me.
“High Priestess?” The girl pointed to my left arm, to where my II Mark was etched into my skin in bold black letters. She looked to Emersyn beside me and pointed to her arm. She squealed. “Empress?”
I cocked my head to the side. She had magic, though her aura was soft and had a flair of innocence. She was definitely one of us, though her face was unfamiliar. “Do we know you? Have we met before?”
She squealed again and bounced over to us. “Can I take a picture with you? My friends at Edenburg will never believe me.”
I blinked. She wanted our picture. Like we were celebrities. I glanced over to my twin and found her face scrunched in both confusion and a little bit of fear. I cleared my throat. “Um, what’s your name?”
She blushed a bright red. “I’m Nadine.”
I smiled and held my left hand out for her to shake, like my mother had taught me once we knew we were witches. “I love your name. It screams girl power.”
“Oh my Goddess, really? Thank you!” She shook my hand about a dozen times. Her eyes glistened like she was about to cry. Then she turned to my twin with her hand out. “I’m sorry. I’m such a dork, and I’m totally freaking you guys out.”
“I’m Emersyn… You know who we are?”
Nadine’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Everyone in our world knows The Coven.”
A woman glanced over at us with a scowl. For a moment, I’d forgotten we were surrounded by Sapien tourists.
I cleared my throat. “So, you want that picture?”
“YES!” Nadine pulled an iPhone out of her back pocket, then moved to stand on my right side
. She raised her phone up with the screen pointing down at us. “Okay, ready?”
Nadine wasn’t a tall girl—she was lucky if she crossed over the five-foot mark—so I lifted her in the air until her face was level with ours. She gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand giggling. “Oh my God, oh my God.”
“Hold on.” I held my left hand up to make sure my Mark was clearly visible in the picture. If she wanted to brag about this to her friends—well, that was totally weird—but if she did, then I needed to prove it was actually us. I held up two fingers, mimicking my Mark then I summoned two little flames to my fingertips.
Emersyn’s grin reflected in the screen. She followed my lead without me telling her to. She raised her left hand, held up three fingers, then summoned three fireballs of her own. “Ready.”
I stared up at the camera and smiled just as heat surged in my chest. I hissed through my teeth and prayed no one else heard it. Tennessee. I couldn’t see or hear him. I couldn’t even smell him. But I felt the magnetism in his energy flowing through the room like waves. His magic pulsed and tickled against mine. He entered the phone’s frame…then our eyes met. Nadine snapped a few pictures with rapid-fire speed, all with him glaring in the background.
The second she pulled her phone down, I dropped her to her feet then spun around to face him. Emersyn must have seen him, too, because she stepped forward and asked Nadine to see the pictures. The world around me blurred away. All I saw was him. He had on a black leather jacket that was much newer-looking than the one he wore at home. His soulmate glyph popped out of the top of his V-neck shirt, shining with a soft pink glow.
A blast of ice-cold energy slammed into my face. I flinched. He snarled and shook his head, then ran out of the store. Dammit. I raced after him, but he was fast. I chased him halfway down the street before he slowed to not plow over a family.
“Tennessee, wait.”
He spun around with fire in his eyes. His cheeks were flushed. His pulse pounded through the vein in his neck. “Why should I?” he growled and narrowed his beautiful mismatched eyes.
I gasped, and I hated it. I needed to keep my cool. I’d told him I could handle him being mad at me. Except I hadn’t been this close to him since…well…since that night we spent together. My pulse quickened. My breath left me in a rush. His fresh-rain scent swept over me. All I wanted to do was bury my face in his chest and feel his arms around me. But the look in his eyes told me that wouldn’t happen. I wasn’t welcome anymore.
I swallowed. “Because—”
“Because you think you can just stand there looking beautiful, smiling for a picture with a civilian like you didn’t hurt anyone?” Both his green and blue eye twinkled like diamonds. “Like nothing happened at all.”
“Tennessee, that’s not… That isn’t…” I groaned and tugged at my hair. “I just want to talk to you. There are things I need to say to you.”
“Too little, too late,” he snapped.
“Tennessee, please…”
He backed away from me, shaking his head in disgust. “You said you could handle me being mad at you. Prove it.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he was already gone. I caught a glimpse of his wavy black hair at the far corner of the street, and then he was out of sight. He didn’t have the ability to teleport like I did. He was just fast, and he wanted to get away from me. My heart sank harder and faster than the Titanic. I deserved every bit of his animosity…but that didn’t make it hurt any less. I’d told myself every day that I was doing the right thing, that I had to do it. That the world needed me to do it. There wasn’t a time or place conducive to telling him the truth before I did.
Something warm and rough grabbed my hand and pulled. I gasped and turned to attack, then froze. It was an older woman, dressed in a black trench coat with wiry silver hair. Her skin was tan and wrinkled, like she spent way too much time in the sun.
“Your aura screams.” She flipped my hand over and ran her fingers over the lines in my palm. “History is coming for you.”
“Excuse me?” Did I hear that right?
Emersyn charged out of the store with wide, panicked eyes. “Tegan!”
Henley appeared behind her, her face pale. “Bentley called. There’s a new prophecy.”
Chapter Four
TEGAN
We probably could’ve just walked back to headquarters. It was located right in the middle of town, only a few blocks away from the strip of stores we were at. But after Tennessee’s cold dismissal and that weird old lady, I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
Despite portal-ing right into the living room, we still weren’t the first ones to arrive.
My father’s golden eyes lit up, and a wide smile stretched across his face. He pulled me in for a hug. “Tegan!”
I frowned. “Dad, I only left a couple hours ago,” I said into his shoulder.
“I know.” He pulled back and sighed, still smiling. “It’s just nice to have you back. I thought we’d lost you.”
My heart sank. My soulmate wasn’t the only one I’d hurt. Except everyone else was relieved and welcomed me back with a smile. Well, not Paulina. Though I wasn’t entirely sure where that was coming from. Can she really still be mad about the dance? I had no idea, but I’d figure it out eventually. The only person I was concerned about gave me every reason to worry.
I cleared my throat and put on the best smile I could muster. “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m back now, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Oh, I suspect you’re going somewhere.” My mother arched one manicured eyebrow. Her pale-green eyes, so similar to mine, sparkled. “But it better be with the rest of us.”
“Speaking of going, where’s this perilous quest sending us?” Emersyn sat down on the brown suede couch beside Willow and curled her long legs under her. “They seem to only get worse.”
“There’s that optimism we love to hear,” Constance said with a chuckle. She was sitting at a table beside Kenneth and Evaline surrounded by a pile of open books.
“I just hope I get to go on this one.” Larissa walked over and sat on the other couch, in the same spot she’d been in last night. “I hate being left behind.”
“You can have my spot,” Chutney grumbled. She was curled up under a blanket beside Willow. “I’ve had my fill, please and thank you. Right, Willow?”
Willow smacked her cousin’s arm. “Great, now you just jinxed us.”
Easton wrapped his arm around Lily’s shoulder from where they sat perched in front of the fireplace. “In that case…I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go.” He winked.
The side door swung open. Paulina and Braison walked into the room hand in hand. I smiled then looked away to not make it weird. At least I did something right.
“Don’t wanna go where? Who’s going?” Braison asked, having only caught the end.
Paulina scowled and looked around as she pulled Braison to the couch with her. “Did we miss the prophecy already?” They sat beside Larissa.
“You didn’t miss anything yet.” Henley stood in front of the big bay window at the front of the house, staring at the city street. “I’m mad I missed the last quest, too.”
Emersyn frowned and rubbed her chest. The front door opened and slammed shut.
“I’m just saying why does everything have to be apple flavored?” Royce groaned. “What’s wrong with a good ol’ fashioned cinnamon bun?”
“I didn’t make you try it, Royce. Not my fault if you gave in to good ol’ fashioned peer pressure.” Deacon’s laugh echoed through the room. His smile was every bit the wicked Devil. He walked right over to Emersyn and sat on the arm rest of the couch right beside her. “What’d we miss?”
“Tegan, can’t you make us a potion to protect us from his tricks?” Royce narrowed his sapphire eyes at his cousin. He stretched out in the bay window in front of his sister. “Henley, can’t she?”
Henley rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Oh, baby brother, I’
ve missed you.”
I did, too. It’d been so long since we saw Royce’s playful side. The part of him we all cherished so dearly. It was nice to see how easily he fell back into his own skin. I wondered how he did it. Even Henley seemed to be herself. If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought nothing had happened. So then why couldn’t I shake it?
The wooden stairs creaked under heavy feet as Timothy and Uncle Kessler stomped down. Their faces were grim and weary. Their auras were heavy, like thick mountain fog. All laughter in the room vanished. We all stared at them, waiting. Except Timothy who moved to join the other Elders at the table without saying a thing. Which wasn’t like him at all. My stomach tightened into knots. I looked over to my Uncle, hoping for his always optimistic energy, but instead I only found a hazy cloud of energy. He narrowed his golden-hazel eyes and surveyed the room. I knew who he was looking for. I was looking for him, too.
“C’mon, Coop,” Bentley yelled from the top of the stairs, just out of sight. “I think everyone is here.”
The two of them came down the steps in unison. Cooper smiled down at our little brother and ruffled up his shaggy brown hair.
But when they entered the living room, Cooper scowled. His gaze swept the room once, then landed on me. “Where’s Tennessee?”
“I don’t know.” I knew where he’d been a few minutes ago. I knew he’d run away from me as fast as he could. I knew he’d probably not answer my call if I tried.
Cooper’s eyebrows raised. “You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t.” I swallowed through a hot lump in my throat. “You got your wish. He hates me now.”
Cooper flinched. His face paled. “Tegan, I…I didn’t wish that…”
The Eternal Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 5) Page 3