Part of me worried I’d regret this deal. Except she’d said Tennessee had struck a deal with Leyka, so I hoped I wasn’t wrong. “I agree to keeping our conversation secret. Thank you for the information on the book. Now, you said there is a spell you need?”
Keltie sighed, and for the first time, her eyes looked tired. The sparkle faded. I saw depth and wisdom, much like I had in Myrtle and Leyka. Even Saffie. This siren half-breed had lived a long while. “I desperately need your help. A long, long time ago, a horrendous spell was placed upon myself and my sister. Two decades ago, I finally learned of a reversal spell buried in secret within the book.”
“The same book from our prophecy?”
“The very one.” She bit down on her bottom red lip that matched her hair, then leaned forward. “It is the Book of Shadows, but keep that between us. If your friends ask, you do not know what it is.”
My eyes widened. “The Book of Shadows? The Book of Shadows?” I’d heard about witches using these in my research over the years, and once I’d joined The Coven, I’d asked about it. Henley told me there was one, but it vanished centuries ago.
“Yes. It was lost when The Coven fled Salem. You must find it in order to heal our dimension, and I need you to find it to heal my sister and me.” She pulled strands of her red hair and began braiding them together. “I am offering my help in exchange for your services. I have already given you some in good faith.”
I wanted to help her, though I wasn’t sure why I felt so compelled to. “I am not The Coven leader.”
“I do not need The Coven. I only need you.”
A chill ran down my spine, and I fought the urge to shiver. “Why me?”
Keltie frowned at me then looked to my friends behind me still in the Glass Bowl. “The Book of Shadows belongs only to the High Priestess. There are spells and wisdom hidden within the pages, only visible to the keeper of secrets. A way of sharing information to the next High Priestess after you.”
The Book of Shadows is mine? That might explain why I was so obsessed with it. I licked my lips and nodded. “Okay, and once I get the Book of Shadows, I’ll be able to find the reversal spell you need?”
“Yes. You’ll need some help to finish it, specifically Leyka. However, we will discuss these details upon your acquisition of the book.”
My heart sank. “We don’t know where it is. The line says we’ll go on a quest to find it, but we have to solve this one first…and we are clueless.”
“But I am not. It is too late to stop what has happened. That is what the second line refers to. More than one soul is in danger now. The string of lies must come undone. This is the line you must focus on, High Priestess.” She opened her mouth then shut it again. “I wish I could outright tell you, but I cannot.”
“You said you could share knowledge with me though.”
“Not all that you have seen or will see is as so. You must look deeper, read between the lines, and see the truth. Do not blindly accept.” She took a deep breath. “Your destiny is before you, yet your fate is unwritten.”
A million thoughts and questions ran through my mind at once. I glanced over my shoulder and saw my four friends watching me from the other side of the glass. “You’re saying I’ve already been lied to?”
“Do not poison the well of your heart. Certain lies were told for reasons which may seem insufficient to you, but I assure you were not done lightly.”
“The last line of the prophecy is about lies told to me?”
“No…and yes.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “A new lie will be presented to you. It will have grave consequences. Watch out for it, stop it from happening, and you may save the souls in question. You will need to move with haste when that time comes. But also, in order to heal Salem, you must uncover the other untruths or you will fail. The line has two meanings.”
“The string of lies must come undone.” I sighed and rubbed my face. “Do you have any idea where I might find the end of said string?”
Keltie grinned. “Do you recall the line from the last prophecy, the one to help you find the Hierophant?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Of course.”
“Was there a line you felt you hadn’t fully interpreted yet?”
My jaw dropped. I had thought that. It felt unfinished, like there was more to it. “For power in blood comes with a price.”
“I bet if you looked through some photographs, you will figure it out. You must.”
“Photographs?” What kind of mermaid knew about photographs? There was definitely more than what met the eye with Keltie, but my gut told me to trust her. “Of what?”
She nodded her head toward my friends behind me and smiled. “The power in your blood.”
My heart pounded in my chest. Her words were vague, but I knew she gave me hints. I just needed a moment to think. “Once I find the Book of Shadows, how can I contact you?”
She took my left hand in hers then slid a thick, golden ring onto my pointer finger. When I pulled it back, I smiled. The ring was shaped like a wave. Before I could ask about it, she reached up and ran her fingers over my ears. Warmth trailed my skin where she touched.
“The soul of the ocean is inside you. This ring and the ones in your ears will protect you. They’re also rich with magic of the Fae. When you have the book, or if you ever need my assistance, press the ring to your ear, and I will find you.”
“Thank you.” Bright white beams of light flashed into the tank from behind me. When I looked back, I spotted men with flashlights in their hands, pointing them at my friends. My little stunt hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Thank you for your help, Keltie. I better get back now.”
Keltie nodded. “One last thing, High Priestess. Darkness is coming. You must listen but not follow. Goodbye for now, brave witch.” She snapped her fingers, and golden glitter shimmered over me.
In a flash, I appeared back in the Glass Bowl beside Tennessee…and a cop, aquarium security, about ten staff members, and our teacher. None of them noticed my sudden arrival; it must’ve been some fairy magic at work.
Tennessee’s head snapped around to look at me. His gaze traveled up and down my body like he was searching for injury.
The cop stepped forward with his hands on his hips. “Okay, who wants to explain what happened here?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tegan
“Please, Tennessee, don’t encourage her,” Cooper grumbled.
Tennessee chuckled and shrugged. “C’mon, Coop, that was epic.”
“And dangerous. People could’ve gotten hurt.”
“We needed to get the humans out, so I got them out.” I sighed and shook my head. “No big deal.”
“No big deal.” Cooper nodded then turned his glare to Tennessee and pointed a finger at me. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
Royce threw his head back and laughed. “Of course, he isn’t fazed. Neither of them is human. Besides, Kessler will get us out of this mess.”
This mess. Also known as detention. When we got back to school, our teacher sent us straight to the principal’s office, who then put us in immediate detention until our parents arrived. However, I got the sinking impression he wanted us to sit in here a while before he called them. The detention room looked like any other classroom, void of any personal details. The five of us sat in the metal desk-and-chair combinations, waiting for our next step.
“There’s no one watching us.” Emersyn turned in her chair to face the door. “Can’t we just leave?”
Royce barked a laugh. “I think we’ve been a bad influence on this one.”
“Don’t encourage her, either,” Cooper growled. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers.
I smiled. My father did the same thing when he was frustrated. I bet Uncle Kessler did too. The power in blood. I frowned as my conversation with Keltie came to mind. There was some lie about my family she said I had to figure out. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and opened up the app for photos
. Keltie said I’d find my clue in there.
“In theory, Emersyn, yes, we could walk out of here,” Tennessee said with a low, lazy voice that drawled. “But that will only cause more complications for Kessler to clear this all up. It’s best if we wait.”
“Fine.” Emersyn sank back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I want to know what happened with the siren.” Royce leaned forward and looked at me with his eyebrows raised. His pretty sapphire eyes were expectant. “Tegan?”
“She can’t tell us.” Tennessee sighed and rested his head on the windowsill behind him, his denim-clad legs stretched out in front of him. He looked like he’d been in detention frequently. He also looked ridiculously hot.
“What? Why not?” Royce sat up straight. He glanced back and forth between us.
I narrowed my eyes at Tennessee. “I didn’t tell you that.”
He tapped his ears. “She’s clearly part Fae. Whatever they discussed was done in secrecy. Tegan cannot tell us.”
My pulse quickened. I both loved and hated how he just knew things. There was a wealth of knowledge in his brain he wasn’t sharing willingly. It made me wonder if the string of lies involved him. But that was dangerous thinking.
“Can she think it to us?”
I frowned and glanced over to Emersyn. “Think it?”
She nodded and tapped her forehead. “Like you did in the aquarium, and when that shadow monster attacked you?”
“It is not wise to try and outsmart the Fae, even halflings.” Tennessee closed his eyes. He was the picture of comfort and ease. “I wouldn’t even use telepathy to tell us.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. He had a point. Keltie had known about my telepathy. I couldn’t risk it. And I didn’t want to break her trust. I just needed to figure out the hint she gave me. Power in blood, power in blood. I looked down at my phone and began flipping through pictures. Whatever I was looking for, it could be in a picture of my family.
About fifteen pictures in, I found a selfie I’d taken with Emersyn. She was smiling from ear to ear, like she was secretly proud of something she shouldn’t have been. I remembered this shot. I took it after our fight with the fairies in Hidden Kingdom that Saturday. Emersyn’s smile was the same one our brother, Bentley, wore whenever he accidentally broke a window with a baseball, when he was proud of how hard he hit the ball despite the destruction.
Wait a second. I frowned and swiped through a bunch of pictures, looking for one specific image. Everyone always said Bentley had Dad’s smile, because he did. My brother had his mother’s hair and eyes, but his smile was identical to my father’s. How could he have the same smile as Emersyn, too? They weren’t related.
I glanced up at my stepsister, ignoring whatever conversation she was having with the others. All of my attention was on her platinum blonde hair. Dad has platinum blond hair. My heart froze in my chest. They have the same hair. The same smile. The same heart-shaped jawlines.
Emersyn looked over to me and scowled. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
My jaw dropped. Emersyn’s eyes were bright golden bulbs, like champagne in a marble. Like sunshine in the spring. I’d seen the color before. Those are my father’s eyes. My pulse skyrocketed to life, drowning out the other sounds in the room. Oh my God. She has Dad’s eyes. She looks like Dad.
“Tegan?”
I couldn’t respond; my mouth didn’t seem to work. How had I not seen this before? How did I not see it immediately?
Emersyn said something else to me, but it was distant and fuzzy. Something passed in front of my face…Emersyn’s hand. “Tegan, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”
How can this be? She can’t be my sister. We’re the same age—oh my God. A light bulb flicked on in my head. My finger burned from how fast I flipped through my photo album, searching for a specific picture. Oh my God. Oh my God.
“What the hell is going on?” Emersyn ducked her head to try and get my attention. Her voice was laced with worry. “Damn it. Talk to me.”
I knew I should answer her, but I couldn’t until I knew.
“Tegan?” Cooper’s voice rang from nearby.
I didn’t acknowledge either of them. I was too busy scrolling through my pictures. Where is it? The day we all moved to Tampa, Emersyn made us take a picture together in front of the house. She’d asked a stranger walking by to take it for us. She’d texted it to me after and I saved it in my phone, but I hadn’t looked at it again since. C’mon, where is it? I had a suspicious feeling of what I’d find—I just needed to see it. AHA! There you are, Devon.
Someone touched my arm, but I flung them off. I zoomed in on the picture of the five of us smiling outside our new house. In the picture, I stood between my father and Devon. I zoomed in closer and gasped. Oh my GOD. I zoomed all the way in on only my face and Devon’s… We were identical. A weird noise I’d never made slipped out of my mouth, but I didn’t pay it much attention. Emersyn may have looked similar to my father, but I was a damn carbon copy of Devon. Sure, she was two inches taller than my five foot eight, and she had wrinkles around her eyes…but…everything else. Same pale green eyes. Same dark hair. Same narrow face and angled jawline. Same high cheekbones.
That’s me.
Holy shit. That’s ME.
“What’s wrong, Kitten?” Tennessee’s velvety voice whispered in my ear. His face popped into my peripheral vision.
I wanted to look at him, but my eyes were locked on my phone. On the woman’s face identical to my own. My chest burned. My fingers trembled. “Oh my God,” I heard myself whisper.
I guess I can’t call her Devon anymore.
“What is it?” Tennessee asked.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I just held my phone up for him to see. There was a moment of silence, and then he cursed and looked away.
I gasped. “You knew! Didn’t you? Didn’t you? You knew and you didn’t tell me?” Rage boiled inside me, and this time I didn’t try to hold it in place. The ground trembled under my feet. The lights in the room flickered. How could he keep this from me?
“TEGAN!” Emersyn shouted, pulling my gaze away from Tennessee. “What’s going on?”
I took a deep breath to try and cool off a little. Emersyn wasn’t at fault here.
“Someone tell me something right now,” Emersyn snapped.
“That night at The Gathering, was it your sixteenth birthday?”
Emersyn frowned. “Yes, why? How is that relevant?”
“Because it was my sixteenth birthday, too.”
Silence.
“What?” Emersyn stared at me with wide eyes. “What are you saying?”
I slid my phone over to her, with our family picture staring back. “Look at this picture and tell me who you look like.”
She scowled and looked down at the phone. Using two fingers, she zoomed in on the photo…and her jaw went slack. All of the blood in her face vanished. Her eyes snapped back up to mine. “I… How… I mean, what?”
I nodded. “I think we’re twins.”
Emersyn’s eyes widened so far I saw a ring of white around them. She looked back down at the picture. “Holy shit.”
“That night, when we left The Gathering…” I hesitated. This was the question I’d been wondering and been too afraid to ask. “When our friends dragged us away before we could say goodbye, did that bother you?”
There, I asked it. It’d been bothering me, stewing in my mind until I had enough courage to ask such a personal question. I’d never told anyone how much Emersyn had affected me that night, or how protective of her I felt since. “Did it, Em?”
Emersyn’s eyes watered and she nodded. “Like part of me was being ripped away,” she whispered.
I exhaled and jumped to my feet. I balled my fists. I wanted to hit something, to break something. The lights flickered again. Little golden bolts sizzled around my hands and wrapped up my arms. I spun to face the three guys who sat suspiciously quiet during my revela
tion. Cooper was scary calm, his face pale and his body locked in place like he was holding his breath, waiting for the explosion. Royce wouldn’t meet my eyes. He stared at the ground with his dark eyebrows raised. Tennessee’s mouth was set so firmly it looked like he only had one lip. He wouldn’t look at me either; he just stared at nothing in the distance.
“Is it true?” Emersyn leapt up and stood beside me. Heat radiated off of her like a blow torch. She stomped her cowgirl boot. “Damn it, one of you better answer us.”
Tennessee sighed and ran a hand through his long black hair. “Perhaps this is a question better suited for your parents.” His tone was soft, but his words were formal. It was how he spoke to adults or when he was uncomfortable with a confrontation.
I roared, part scream, part growl. The chalkboard on the wall crashed to the ground. “How could you?” I screamed at him. I raised my hand and smacked him on the shoulder over and over. I wasn’t swinging hard enough to hurt him; my arms trembled too much.
Tennessee ducked his head to avoid contact but didn’t try to stop my attack. “I’m sorry! We weren’t allowed to tell you!”
I screamed again. “You weren’t allowed to stick your tongue down my throat, either, but you did that! No, you’re right. Let’s draw the line there!”
“Excuse me, what?” Cooper growled. His face turned red and his eyes shot lasers in Tennessee’s direction. “You did what?”
Royce whistled under his breath and moved a few seats back. “Oh, shit.”
Shit is right. I slammed my mouth shut and bit down on my lip to stop myself from saying anything else. I hadn’t meant to reveal that information. Tennessee had made it perfectly clear. We were forbidden from dating, and breaking said rule would result in having our Marks and magic stripped. I didn’t want that to happen to either of us. I cared about him too much to do that to him. I just…I was too livid to stop myself.
Kissing and dating aren’t the same thing.
Tennessee had the grace to flush a brilliant pink, but his lips were glued together while he ignored Cooper’s rage.
The Brave Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 2) Page 16