The High Priestess smiled and waved at me. “Hi, hi, hi to you, too.”
“Hi-High Priestess!” I stuttered pathetically. “H-how can I help you? I thought you were in Salem—”
“I like your style,” she said suddenly, looking me up and down. “What’s your name? Because we’re gonna be friends.”
“I-I-I…” I closed my mouth before I could embarrass myself any further. The High Priestess liked my style. She wanted to be my friend because of my style. I didn’t care that she’d just ignored what I was saying because I was totally and completely fangirling right now, and there were far too many witnesses. Yet none of them were Bettina.
I’m talking to the Aether Witch!
She sighed, like she’d just realized what she said, and she shook her head. “Sorry. I’m a weirdo. Continue.”
I giggled and felt my cheeks warm. I tucked my hair behind my ears. “I’m Lennox. Thank you. We can totes be friends, High Priestess. I was just asking if I could help you? I’m assuming you left Salem for a reason…”
She frowned and scratched her forehead. “Oh, right. Yes. Sorry, I’m sleep-deprived.”
“And a weirdo.” I grinned.
“Such a weirdo.” She laughed and shook her head in embarrassment. The other students around us stared in shock. “Right. I’m here for Constance.”
“Oh, that’s convenient! She’s right in here!” I bounced over to the door and yanked it open. Then I leaned inside with a big smile on my face. “Constance, the High Priestess is here for you.”
Constance sighed with relief. She nodded then turned back to Harlan. “Unfortunately, I must return to Salem now. I believe in you. Good luck.”
Then she turned and practically ran out the door, pushing past me. She marched right to the smiling High Priestess and pulled her in for a big hug. When she stepped back, her face was grim. “I’m so glad you made it back. I heard what happened. How’s Deacon?”
The High Priestess grinned, and it was totally mischievous. “Good as new, and ready to play.”
“That’s wonderful news. Thanks for coming. Just follow me. I need to give Daniel something.” Constance turned and gestured for the girl to follow her down the main hallway. “I didn’t realize you were that fast.”
“No worries,” the High Priestess said and followed after her.
Crap, she’s leaving. Say something! “Bye, new weirdo friend!” I yelled down the hall after her. Well, at least she knows you’re a weirdo, too, now.
She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “Bye, Lenny!”
And then she disappeared around the corner with Constance. I chuckled and shook my head. The High Priestess just gave me a nickname. Lenny. I kind of loved it. And I couldn’t wait to tell Bettina.
Chapter Forty
BETTINA
I’d gone up to my room to grab what I needed for Lennox, but also to change out of my demon-blood-stained clothes. They were sticky and reeked of maple syrup so strong I kept gagging. Plus…I really needed a moment to collect myself. In private.
Jackson was going into the Old Lands to find the dragon Lonan. I was terrified for him. There was no knowing what was going to happen while he was in there. I’d acted calm about it when he first told me, but that was all a big show. What if he was gone for five weeks? What if he came back injured? What if he never came back at all? What was I going to do with myself while I waited?
I didn’t know why I cared. It wasn’t like he did. He hated me. That kiss was probably some ruse to fluster me, to mock me. If he felt the way I did, then he wouldn’t have acted like I didn’t exist ever since.
My room door flew open, and Lennox came bouncing in with a wide grin on her face. “Oh my Goddess, Tina! I just met the High Priestess!”
I froze with my fingers on my Converse laces. “Wait, what? The High Priestess? She’s here?”
“Yes. Well, probably not now!” Lennox squealed and dropped down on the sofa. “I didn’t get her name, or maybe I did. You know I’m terrible with those! Anyway, I walked out of the classroom right after you. I mean you missed her by seconds, dude. She just appeared out of thin air. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
My jaw dropped. I’d been dying to meet the High Priestess…and I missed her by that little? “Well, what happened?”
Lennox sighed and shrugged. “She just came to get Constance. They left. But oh, dude, she has a soulmate glyph, and it looks so badass. Like, Constance never shows hers off. But this chick had hers on full display, pink crystal and all.”
I frowned. I hadn’t heard the part of her having a soulmate. It was pretty rare. “I wonder who her soulmate is?”
Lennox wagged her eyebrows. “Word on the street says the Emperor.”
There was a loud knock on our door. Lennox waved her wand toward it, and the lock clicked. The door swung open, and Jackson sauntered in. Lennox squealed and jumped to her feet.
“Wait!” I grabbed the book I wanted to show her off my table then tossed it to her. “Chapter six. Check it out real quick.”
“Got it!” she said as she walked backward. Once she was behind Jackson, she winked and stuck her tongue out before turning and slipping out the door.
I didn’t get a chance to speak.
Jackson turned that heated glare I knew so well right at me. “Be ready and on the border in ten minutes. We leave for the Old Lands now.” Without another word, he spun and headed for my door.
Wait, what? We? What does he mean by WE? Did he seriously think he got to just drop that little bomb and leave? I wasn’t going to on this quest like this. I groaned but it came out as a half scream.
Before he got to it, the door slammed shut right in his face. Pink mist swirled around the hinges. I had no idea how I did that, but damn did it feel good.
I raised my chin and said, “No.”
Chapter Forty-One
BETTINA
He spun around with fire in his eyes. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not going on that quest,” I said in a rush.
His eyes flashed, and his face flushed with anger. “Yes, you are,” he growled.
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re not actually my boss or leader, so you can’t just barge in here and make demands.”
He moved closer. “I was ordered to take the five Swords with me, you made that list.”
My stomach rolled. ME? Why me? I wasn’t good enough for this quest. Everyone knew that. So it didn’t make sense for me to make the cut. I wasn’t trained for something like that. How could they ask me to go?
I looked into Jackson’s beautiful ocean-colored eyes, and my heart sank. He hated me, but that was so far from how I felt. Even now, I kept looking at his lips and imagined kissing them. I’d missed the entire ritual on Saturday because I’d been so distracted by his presence. How could they not see I wasn’t a smart choice? Would I be able to keep my eyes off him long enough to not get us all killed? Didn’t they see that he hated me so much that he could miss things he never would’ve missed without me?
Jackson must have taken my sudden silence as surrender, because he started to turn back to the door.
“I know you hate me,” I said in a rush. It was time to get this out in the open. It was time to address the elephant in the room. When Jackson turned and looked at me with narrowed eyes, I continued. “I know you hate me. I don’t know why, or what compelled you to kiss me, but I do know that people die in the Old Lands. People get lost and never come back from there. Hell, The Coven was lost there for five weeks. I’ll do whatever we need to help The Coven. But not like this. We need to have our heads on straight and this…this…this thing between us is distracting. I don’t belong on this quest. And yet my biggest concern is that your hatred for me is going to get you killed, and it’ll be my fault. I’m done pretending like I hate you, Jackson. That kiss might’ve been to mock me, or whatever it was, but it told me that I feel things for you and they’re not hatred. I’m not asking you to be in love with me. I just want to know w
hy you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” Jackson whispered, his face was blank but his eyes were tortured.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, you do. From the very moment we met, you’ve hated me. That’s fine. You don’t need to lie to me to coddle my fragile emotions. But please, tell me why so I can get over you.”
He frowned and for a second I thought I saw pain flash in his eyes. “What if I don’t want—"
“Then why am I on this quest today? Unless this is some tactic to scare me off, get me to drop out of Edenburg and run home to Charleston. It’s not like you’ve tried to help me get better—” I slammed my mouth shut before I could say anything else.
The second the words left my lips I regretted saying them. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized he had helped me. I licked my lips and tried to think of how to take that back.
Jackson’s face fell. He nodded and scratched his forehead. “I deserved that.”
“Jackson, I didn’t mean that. I kn—"
“I know. I can see it in your face.” He sighed and strolled over to stand in front of me. “But I still deserved it.”
I looked up into his beautiful eyes, and my chest tightened. “Why do you hate me? Why don’t you want to even be honest with me?”
He stared at the ground. “I was trying to say…what if I don’t want you to get over me?”
I gasped and shook my head. My pulse skipped a beat. There was absolutely no way I’d heard him right. “What did you say?”
He stepped forward until the steel toes of his boots were flush against my Converses. He looked down at me through thick, dark eyelashes. His aquamarine eyes sparkled with some kind of intense emotion I couldn’t read. That Christmassy scent washed over me. The warmth coming off his body so close to me made me want to snuggle into his chest—and that was so not helping. The energy radiating out of him was hot and pulsing.
“I deserve your anger and none of your affection.” He took my face with both hands, cupping my cheeks against his warm palms. He brushed his thumb over my cheek, then he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.
His kiss was tender and soft. Each brush of our lips melted the ice-cold fear deep inside. I sighed and leaned into him. My hands gripped his hips, pulling him closer.
When he stepped away, I knew I would never be the same.
He let his fingers trace over my skin until the cold air parted us. For a moment, we just stared at each other. I had no idea what he was thinking or feeling, but I knew I was so totally on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
“Talk to me,” I heard myself whisper.
He cursed and scrubbed his face with his hands, then plopped down on the little sofa beside us. “I am sorry for kissing you without your permission. Twice. That is not behavior becoming of me.”
“You had my permission. Still have it, actually.” I walked over and sat on the sofa beside him. “Jackson, please. Nothing makes sense. Just talk to.”
He sat with his head in his hands and elbows on his knees in silence for a long time. So long that I had just begun to wonder if he was going to answer at all when he cursed again, or at least I assumed it was a curse. His accent and choice of slang were sometimes impossible to translate.
“I don’t hate you, Bettina.” He sighed and shook his head. “Okay, that’s a lie. I did hate you when I first met you, but that was no reflection upon you.”
I’d known this, but hearing it still hurt like a knife to the heart. “How is it not? You hadn’t even seen me before we met.”
He laughed in a short burst, but there was no humor in the sound. “Oh, I saw you. The moment you stepped onto that sidewalk outside Dean’s house. I thought you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and I liked the way you looked at me a little too much. After that, Dean told me you were the one he thought was a witch. Goddess, it was the only thing I could think about. It was distracting, so much so that I missed the red flags and did nothing to prevent the chaos that followed. That wasn’t okay. I had a job to do. The Coven relied on me for it…and I screwed up because I couldn’t keep my eyes off the pretty blonde girl with big blue eyes. People could’ve gotten really hurt. The damage could’ve been so much worse. I was so mad at myself afterward that I took it out on you. I hated you before you made it to Edenburg, yet your arrival was the only thing I could think of.”
My mind went blank. My heart pounded in my ears. “Jackson…I…”
“And then you got here, and it was so much worse. You consumed me, and I hated it.” He turned and looked at me with grave eyes. “I hated that you belonged in my Suit because it meant I would have to train you. I hated that you were beautiful and naive to our world. I hated that you had all the raw talent but were so clueless. I even hated when you started practicing and progressing. Not because any of these things were a reflection on you but a distraction for me.”
“I don’t understand. How am I that much of a distraction, and why is it a bad thing?”
He groaned and jumped to his feet, then he stormed over to the glass door for our balcony. “Do you remember the story about the House of Lancaster and our situation? I heard Lennox telling you in that tattoo parlor.”
“Yes,” I whispered but didn’t move, afraid he might spook and run off.
“My family was one of the original twenty. The magic in our veins traced all the way back to the very start of our race. We were strong, powerful, but good people. And then Lilith came and started that war. My family was at the heart of it for a hundred years until the archangel Michael showed up and lent Henry his sword.” He hung his head and closed his eyes. “I have no idea what possessed Henry to steal it. And then he hid it, and not even Michael himself could find it. Do you know how strong that magic had to be? To fool an archangel? Not that that matters. Because of Henry, our bloodline was cursed. For six hundred years, Bettina. Do you have any idea how long that is?”
I shook my head and patted the sofa beside me. “Come here.”
To my surprise, he listened. He took the seat beside me and leaned his elbows on his knees. When he didn’t speak right away, I brushed my hand up and down his back. He sighed and I felt some of the tension ease out of his muscles.
“All of our honor was wiped in a single moment. And then he took our magic.” Jackson leaned into me. “I heard you ask Lennox why I was suddenly born with magic, after six hundred years.”
I nodded. “I did ask that,” I whispered. I knew he heard me.
“My parents used an old family spell book and summoned the archangel Michael back to Earth. This is not only strictly forbidden but stupidly dangerous.” He rubbed his face with his hands and groaned. “They made a deal with him, Bettina. While my mother was pregnant, they made a deal with Michael so I would be born with magic…and then I was.”
“Wait…the Ouija board…”
He nodded. “Michael is coming. I’ve known that. I’ve known since I was four that before my eighteenth birthday, the archangel Michael was coming back for me. He’s going to test me, without warning or mercy. If I pass, Michael made a promise to return my family’s magic to them. But if I fail, my magic will be stripped and no Lancaster will ever have any again. Ever.”
I groaned and pressed my forehead to his shoulder. “That’s so much pressure.”
“My parents sent me here when I was six. I’ve only been home a couple times since.” He turned his head and pressed his forehead to mine. “For a decade, this has been my only focus. And then you showed up, looking like a supermodel. So I hated you…for threatening my entire existence simply because you’re amazing.”
For a moment, we were silent. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. It was a lot to take in. And it explained everything. I wasn’t alone in my feelings; he felt them too. He’d been as tortured by me as I was by him. I wasn’t this supermodel he saw, but the idea that he felt something for me felt like a dream. It was overwhelming to hear, and such a relief. I wanted to scream, cry, and kiss him until the sun went down. But he wa
s hurting, and I’d caused it.
That hurt more than I cared to admit. I wanted to help him, but there really was nothing I could say, so I wrapped my hands around his muscular shoulders and tugged him down so I could press a soft kiss to his cheek.
I pulled back a little and whispered against his skin, “Thank you for telling me.”
Then our eyes met, and everything else melted away. My heart pounded against my ribs so hard it vibrated down into my legs. I licked my lips and leaned in.
Jackson stood, leaving a cold space beside me. “We leave in ten.
Chapter Forty-Two
BETTINA
“This will lead us to the Old Lands.” Jackson used his sword to point straight ahead.
I frowned and followed his point. My stomached dropped. Of course it’s a super creepy gate. Of course. Couldn’t be a paved roadway with streetlights. It was a horror film setting. The gate was black wrought iron with runes carved into the metal in silver and gold, which I now knew meant there were spells and enchantments on it. The creepiest part? There was no fence. Just a gate. A cold chill slid down my spine and I shivered.
Behind the gate, there was a pathway of cobblestones but only for a few feet, then it disappeared into a wall of fog. This wasn’t regular human fog—it was witchy fog. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have known the difference but not now. This fog was thick, with pulsing energy swirling inside it. I’d seen it before…at the Gathering.
Memories from that night slammed into my mind. I peeled my eyes off the fog, and my gaze landed on the red rose tattoo on Jackson’s hand. I stared at it and tried to breathe normally. This wasn’t like the Gathering. I was a witch, a trained witch, now. And I had backup. Jackson was the best warrior we had. I’d seen him in battle now, and at sixteen years old, he commanded that battle like he was an experienced pro.
The Coven - Academy Magic Complete Series Page 20