by Larissa Ladd
Divulged Secrets
Eye of the Coven Series Novella #2
Larissa Ladd
PUBLISHED BY:
Larissa Ladd
Copyright © 2014
LarissaLadd.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical re-views and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copy-right law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1: Devan – The Confrontation
Chapter 2: Cherry – Catch 22
Chapter 3: Devan – Present and Past
Chapter 4: Cherry – Sinking Feeling
Chapter 5: Devan – Grey Fog
Chapter 6: Cherry – Secrets Divulged
Chapter 7: Devan - Enemies
Chapter 8: Cherry –The Big Day
Chapter 9: Devan – Feeling Hollow
Chapter 10: Cherry – Knock on the Door
About the Author
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Chapter 1: Devan – The Confrontation
I sat on my favorite bean bag with the TV on, drinking a beer. A football game was showing but I wasn’t paying attention, there had been too much on my mind all morning. My dog, Alex was asleep at my feet, curled up in as small a spot as a golden retriever could manage, peacefully unaware of the all the troubles he didn't have to deal with as a dog. I envied him.
The room suddenly went a shade darker. I looked out the window, assuming the clouds had moved in front of the sun, but the tree leaves still reflected the sun's rays. After couple of seconds, Alex woke up, pricking his ears. He looked toward the kitchen. Then he pulled his ears flat against his head and let out a small whine.
“What’s wrong, boy?” I asked, alert now. The darkness alone wasn’t unusual but Alex’s reaction was. He got up and ran out of the room. I reached for the remote and switched off the TV. I couldn’t hear with it on.
I sat still, listening intently, but I felt nothing. The room slowly became darker.
A grey mass started to form in the center of the couches and beanbags. It was like a fog or smoke, only much darker, and I could see the particles join up to form something bigger. I still didn’t move; it seemed safer not to. I swallowed hard, trying to get my throat to feel a little less dry. The grey mass started to take form. My mind raced through the options: sit down and see what’s going to happen or get up and fight. I could attack whatever it was before it was fully fabricated; it didn’t look like it was capable of striking back yet.
But I didn’t know what it was.
So I waited. A few seconds more and it took the form of a woman, slightly hunched, middle-aged I would say, but she had an air of authority about her that you don’t usually see in women in general. Another few seconds and I couldn’t see through her anymore, she was complete and human; well, at least she looked it.
Her hair was grey but the brown streaks in it betrayed that it had been a dark, rich color before, and her eyes held mine with a fierce look. Her face showed no expression. With what her eyes showed it wasn’t necessary.
“Devan,” she said, her voice soft but holding the same authority. I fought the urge to get up; I wasn’t going to pay reverence to someone who came into my house uninvited.
“Yes,” I answered, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt.
“I’m going to get right to the point. I don’t like playing games with your kind.”
The way she said it made me feel like I were the intruder. She looked around the room, and if I wasn’t mistaken, it looked like she pulled up her nose a little, even though her facial expression didn’t change.
“You know a woman, Cherene Blake.”
“I do.” Somehow I’d known it would be about this. Don’t ask me how I knew, I just had a feeling about these things. “What about her?”
“I want you to leave her alone.”
Well she had another thing coming.
“Now see here, I don’t know who you are—“
“Nema.”
“Okay, Nema, you can’t just come in here and make demands like you know who I am.”
“Oh I know exactly who you are,” she walked slowly around the room. It didn’t look like she was walking. Her leg movement wasn’t really visible under her long skirt and her body hardly swayed with the effort. If I hadn’t known better I would have said she was floating.
“You’re Devan Nowell. You work around the corner at a small firm as an administrative. Your parents are Margret and Maxwell Nowell and they live about three miles from here in a rundown house that you’ve grown up in. You’re engaged to Cherene and I want you to break it off.”
“Who are you? How do you know all these things?”
She didn’t answer my questions. Instead she paused at photo frames against the wall next to the front door. They were of my parents and me when I was younger, of my graduation, of holidays. The way she looked at them made me nervous. I felt small and useless in her presence. She made me feel as if I were a school boy who did something wrong and she was the principal, ready to dish out a punishment. I was sure it was something she used to her advantage more often.
“Do you know what Cherene is?” her voice was cold when she asked the question, and I swallowed. I didn’t know if it were safe to answer this question. There was a moment of silence before I finally answered.
“I do.”
Nema looked up at me, and I saw the surprise flickering across her face before she composed herself and drew her face back to the blank expression she’d been wearing until now. But I’d seen it, I’d caught her off guard.
“I didn’t realize she’d given us away. That changes things.”
The way she said it made me nervous.
“She didn’t tell me, if that’s what you mean,” I said, keeping my voice hard, ordering it not to tremble.
She looked at me sharply and her eyes were terrifying.
“I worked it out myself,” I added. I’d known for some time now that Cherry wasn’t human. You don’t date a witch and not realize it after a while. Not when you’re me. There was a reason why she was so attractive to me when I first met her. No real woman would be that perfect. And the danger that surrounded her was like a deadly poison, ready to kill if anyone made the wrong move. I hadn’t put the pieces together then, but I should have. It all made sense later. I tried anyway, that night. Her eyes were so sad, so alone, and the alcohol that she’d ordered was for those who had a lot to cry about. And there was something so sweet about her, so gentle; I couldn’t help myself.”
“You’re smarter than I thought,” she said and turned her back to me so I couldn’t read her face anymore.
“You’re one too, aren’t you?” I asked, to which she didn’t reply, but she didn’t have to. No one just materializes into my living room and then manages to avoid a fact like that.
I must have thrown her strategy off, because she was quiet for some time. Whatever it was she might have been trying to do, scare me with the fact that Cherry was a witch, perhaps, had blown up in her face.
“How long have you known?” her voice sounded strangely defeated, but when she turned to me, her face still had no emotion and that air of authority was stronger than ever, making me want to cringe. I had to fight not to.
; “Just before I asked her to marry me.”
I thought about the night in the hospital when I figured out that no human or animal could attack someone like that, that no human could survive something like that, and that I still felt like she was the only thing that could keep me alive. I’d asked her to marry me that night and she’d been just as shocked, almost not knowing what to say, fighting with herself about the answer because she didn’t know I knew.
That would throw Nema off. And it did. Again, that flicker of indecision crossed her face when my words hit home, and again, it was what she didn’t expect. I could see questions forming, but when she opened her mouth, she didn’t ask them.
“I can’t imagine why you would still choose to marry her, but this cannot go on. She has a duty with us, and you’re ruining it.”
“I’m not ruining anything,” I said, the hardness in my voice finally taking shape in my body, confidence slowly replacing the fear I felt around her, and a stony resolve lodging itself somewhere in my chest, “I haven’t asked her to do anything; the choices she’s making are her own.”
I had no clue what she was talking about, but I wasn’t about to let her use me as a pawn against Cherry.
Nema closed her eyes for a second, and then her mouth moved. I couldn’t hear properly because it was very soft but it sounded like soft mumbling and grumbling came from her throat.
Suddenly she thrust her hands forward and I felt something appear between us, and my instincts told me that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to hit me. I flung my own hands up to shield my face.
I had never fought a witch before, but there was nothing wrong with my instincts, and even though, if I concentrated, I could tell things about her, I wasn’t in the habit of doing it.
Nema took a step back, straightening her back even more than it already was.
“You’re… fae.”
She spat the word out like it tasted foul and it fell on the floor between us. I looked at her and she looked right back at me.
“You’re not the only one with secrets,” I said.
She turned again but not with her back to me this time. She suddenly had to watch it, now that she knew what I was.
It was something I didn’t want Cherry to know, but when it came down to protecting myself from witches, I had to deflect their spells no matter what it took. Fae and witches had been enemies for longer than either of us cared to remember. It had something to do with the fact that we could counter the spells they came up with, because we could do spells and disappear and sometimes read people’s minds too. We were the same in a way, and it must have been a threat to them.
She turned back, mumbling again, and she pushed at me with her hands another time. I lifted mine again, in self-defense, but this time I knew what was coming. I wasn’t planning on striking back, I had nothing against her, but I blocked her spell again.
She straightened out, looking reserved this time.
“We have no records of fae in town,” she said calmly, and I looked at her, trying to keep the expression from my face too.
“Your parents are very good at hiding,” she carried on, almost as if to herself, “unless…”
She looked at me, and then smiled. I knew it had been written on my face. I had failed in keeping it a mask.
“They’re not fae, are they Devan? You’re alone, and they don’t know.”
I didn’t say anything, didn’t show anything, but it was too late. Even though I had closed my mind to her because I knew she could read it if she tried, it had been on my face plain as day for long enough that she would know.
“Well, that does change things,” she said with a laugh that sounded too much like a cackle, “I’ll make this easy for you. I know you’re just as strong as I am, Devan, so I won’t try and fight you for her. Instead, if you don’t give her up, I’ll see that harm comes to your parents. How does that sound?”
My body went cold; I felt the blood drain from my face, and she knew she had me.
“I hope we won’t have to meet again,” she said, satisfaction plastered across her face, and she started fading away. Within a few seconds, she was gone, and I was alone in my living room, gasping for air.
Chapter 2: Cherry – Catch 22
I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Kitten, my cat, had given up asking for food long ago. I’d been here all morning, and no matter how much she complained, I wouldn’t get up.
I was in a dark mood, and I kept wishing the day would go away, that if I tried long and hard enough it would, and I could carry on with tomorrow like nothing happened. But that didn’t happen, and I resolved to lie in bed instead, letting it pass without me taking part in it.
I was supposed to meet Devan later, and it shamed me to say it, but I didn’t feel like it. I knew that it was a terrible sign if you didn’t want to see your fiancé, but it had all become so difficult since I’d agreed to marry him.
It’s not like I didn’t love him; I loved him more than anything. But I was with him because since the moment I met him it had been the nicest feeling I had ever known. It was such a welcomed break from the strain and secrecy of being a witch, of having to hide who I was, of having to appear weaker because I would make people suspicious.
It was a wonderful escape from the coven, who expected me to be high priestess because I was the strongest witch around. Nema, the current high priestess, was still unhappy that I wouldn’t do it, and even though I meant no harm in declining, I just didn’t see the point in sacrificing my life for the coven, and in becoming a target for witches world-wide because of my strength.
When I’d met Devan, he liked me despite the fact that I knew I was scary, and, even though I was extremely independent, he still offered to take care of me, and I liked it. Being with him felt like home. It was like I had been drowning my whole life, and finally someone had pulled me to the surface so I could breathe. It felt normal, something I had never had in my life, and it attracted me to him even more than I already was. Sure, he had quirks, but I wasn’t perfect either, and being with him reminded me that it was alright, because even though we were flawed, we could still be normal and we could still be happy.
I had hidden him from the other witches. Not even Marlena, my older sister, knew. We had been very close growing up but she’d been angry that I got the powers and not her, and she’d betrayed me, siding with the coven when they’d attacked me. So not even she deserved to know about Devan; I couldn’t trust her.
The phone rang, a shrill sound that bore itself into my thoughts and overpowered them. I groaned. I rolled over and grabbed it from the night table, looking at the caller ID. It was him.
“Hey,” I said, trying not to sound as awful as I felt.
“Hey beautiful,” he said and I could feel his warmth gnawing at the edges of my bad mood.
“It’s good to hear your voice,” I said and I meant it.
“I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” His voice sounded strained.
“I am; I’m fine. Why are you asking?”
“I just wanted to check in with you. Ever since you were attacked, I’ve been worried about you.”
“Well, I’m alright. Are we still on for tonight?”
“We are. I’ll see you later. Love you.”
“I love you too.”
I heard the click, the part of the conversation I hated the most, and replaced the phone on the nightstand. I rolled back to the middle of the bed and resumed my staring at the ceiling.
He really was a nice guy, no girl could ask for a better guy than he was. And that was exactly the problem. I wasn’t just a girl. I was a witch, and no matter how hard I wished that I could be different, that was how things were.
I couldn’t tell him. How could I? He would probably think I was crazy anyway, and what would it help? I still wasn’t planning on becoming high priestess, I didn’t want it and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to keep him in my life. It was a problem already, and I was just a regular witch. Now that my cove
n knew about him, they would blackmail me somehow to leave him, or just kill him. They didn’t have limits and I wasn’t willing to take the risk of losing him forever.
Did I still want this? It was such an impulsive decision to say yes to his proposal. And then there was Marlena’s threat afterwards, that they knew where to hit me now. I had been living in fear since then. I had followed my heart when he’d asked me to marry him, but since Marlena told me she knew, I’d been using my head and I was believing more and more that I had made a terrible mistake.
Breaking up with him was an option. I could just tell him that it wasn’t what I wanted anymore, that I didn’t see myself with him. People did that all the time, and it was something that I could hide behind. I would never have to give him the real reason.
The truth of it was that it was exhausting. I was tired of having to watch my own back as well as his. I was tired of being scared that something would happen to him, and that it would be my fault. I found the coven very unpredictable, and there was no telling what they would do to him, or when. I couldn’t keep feeling the atmosphere and reading everyone’s minds during the meetings in the cave; it was exhausting.
I felt like I was falling, with no sight of the ground yet, only the terrible thought that I was going to hit it suddenly and hard eventually.
I couldn’t become the high priestess either to make sure they would him alone. If I were high priestess, there would be no way that he would be safe with the witches of the world looking for a way to hit me and reduce my power. He would just be another target, another thing I could lose, and another reason why I would do what someone said. But besides that, I would have to marry someone else, someone of my own power who would be chosen for me, so he would have to go anyway.
I was caught in a terrible catch 22.
If I didn’t become high priestess, he would always be in danger, and there was a chance I would lose him. A big chance.
If I were high priestess I would have to lose him without question.