“That all you got? HIT ME!” Tenn screamed and threw balls of magic at my face. He glanced over my shoulder. “Stay back!”
My heart thundered through my body like a runaway freight train. I summoned every ounce of magic inside me, from deep down in my gut, then pushed it out. The world around me faded away. I was in a haze filled with rage and fear. All I saw was the target in front of me, the one thing keeping me from going after Warner.
I threw my magic one after another without pause. My body sang. With every burst of power, my energy grew stronger and fiercer. Tennessee dodged my shots, deflecting them left and right. But I was pushing him backward. I was gaining ground on him. I was actually holding my own against him. My arms and legs burned, but it felt good. I felt stronger.
Then Tennessee flicked his head, and I flipped over and slammed into the brick pathway.
My breath knocked out of me like I’d been sucker punched. My vision went completely fuzzy. Pain shot down my spine and into each of my limbs. My head throbbed. My ears rang. I groaned and blinked several times until my vision cleared.
Tennessee stood over me with narrowed eyes. He arched one eyebrow. “Feel better?”
I groaned. Bloody hell. He wasn’t even breathing hard. He hadn’t even pulled the dagger from his boot or summoned his sword. He flicked his wrist, and a gust of cool air lifted me back to my feet. Bloody hell. I sighed and bent over to rest my hands on my knees. Behind me, the voices of my Coven-mates sounded. Their presence registered on my radar before my ears heard them.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly and shook my head. Then I looked up at him and grimaced. “Sorry I attacked you. And them.”
Not only was he the Emperor, but he was also Coven Leader. I had no idea why I’d decided attacking him was a smart idea.
“Next time we get attacked, I want to see that kind of intensity. All right?” he said, then to my utter surprise, chuckled. He shook his head. “That was more like it.”
My breath left me in a rush. “You’re not angry?”
He frowned and looked at me like I was crazy. “For losing your shit because some sociopath kidnapped your best friend? Nah, man. We don’t judge for that. Nobody here gonna be mad at you for that.” He smacked my shoulder lightly and smiled, then walked back toward Headquarters.
Bloody.
Hell.
“Come back inside. We have a rescue mission to plan,” Tenn yelled from behind me.
I turned and followed him back up the walkway. When I got to the porch, I found Easton, Cooper, Royce, and Kessler watching me. I grimaced.
Royce chuckled. “Welcome to crazy land, where we frequently attack each other when we can’t control our emotions.”
“I am so glad we got to keep you, bro.” Easton grinned and gave me a high five. “That was sick.”
Kessler rolled his eyes.
My stomach turned. I’d hit him with my magic. “Kessler, I’m sorry about your hand—”
“Don’t be.” He grinned and squeezed my shoulder. “I’m tough. Besides, we’ve all been there.”
“Yeah, Cooper attacked Tennessee last month,” Easton said as he bounced back in the house backward. “Got his ass kicked, too.”
Royce clapped. “Now that was sick to watch.”
Tegan frowned from the foyer as they all passed her. “When did that happen? I don’t remember that.”
Tenn paused next to her and tapped the glyph on her chest. “That was the day you set me up for slaughter, love.”
She flushed. “Oh, riiiiiiight. It was a necessary evil, babe. Promise.”
“Should we start a tally of how many times she’ll say that in her lifetime?” Deacon wagged his eyebrows. “But don’t worry, we can start from today, and not all the times you’ve said it already.”
Emersyn grinned. “Like a grace period.”
“Hey, whose side are you on, twin?”
Henley giggled. “I liked it.”
“Shocker,” Kessler said as he passed her and ruffled her hair. “Come on, guys, let’s have a serious chat about this.”
Don’t worry, Jackson. We’re all as serious about getting Warner back as you are, Tegan said into my mind. In person, she winked at me then followed her soulmate into the dining room. But we have to be smart about it or he has no chance.
My heart sank. She was right. I knew she was right. They were right. I might have been Sword Major for a decade, but these people in this room had been Coven members for longer than that. They knew how to handle situations like this. I glanced over to Henley. She’d been possessed by a demon a month ago, and they’d managed to rescue her. I had to have hope they could do the same for Warner.
“First things first…” Tennessee rubbed his palms together. “Let’s get the school and residents on lockdown. Effective immediately. Deacon, Hunter, and Devon, you’re going to be key in getting this done quickly and smoothly. I want every single person inside within a half hour. We can’t lose anyone else.”
Chapter Twenty-One
BETTINA
“Hey, you wanna go grab dinner in the hall?”
Lennox glanced over her shoulder at me as we walked down the hall after class. “What? You mean you’re not rushing over to Coven Headquarters to see Cooper?”
I sighed. “No.”
“Oh, are we still on about Jackson?”
“Shhhh,” I hissed and glanced around at the other students within earshot. “Like I need that going around school?”
Lennox chuckled. “Touchy, touchy. But yes, let’s go grub up.”
I opened my mouth to deny, to say I wasn’t touchy, but then I realized maybe I was. My crush, which severely undervalued my feelings for him, hadn’t gone away yet. I was enjoying being close to Cooper. I genuinely liked him. He was quite handsome and kind, and he made me laugh.
But more importantly, I wanted a time-out from all the stress The Coven was dealing with. I wasn’t one of them, so I needed to give myself a break and not involve myself in everything. Tegan would find me if she needed me.
Something hit my arm and I jumped…but it was only Genevieve.
She chuckled and shook her head. “Girl, what are you thinking about? People have been talking to you.”
I frowned and looked around. “Wait, where’d Lennox go?”
Gen pointed to my left, to where Lennox stood in a beam of sunshine. “We were talking, then her phone rang, so she walked away from all the noise.”
Noise? I blinked…and then I heard it. I really had been zoned out. There were about three dozen students hanging around the front of our building, talking and laughing. The way they always did after class. I glanced back over at Lennox. She’d wandered quite a bit off the sidewalk while pressing her hand to her ear.
I cleared my throat and looked back to Gen. “Right. Sorry. What were we talking about? Wait, how’s Erin? I tried to go check on her yesterday, but Katherine and Mona have that place on lockdown.”
Her face fell. “Yeah, with all these Joseph attacks, they’re keeping the infirmary as safe as possible. Only the injured and sick get in. Though, between us, Mona told me if I came by this afternoon, she’d sneak me in. That’s where I’m headed now.”
My stomach tightened. “Good. That’s good. Lennox and I are headed to get dinner at the Great Hall. Come join us after?”
“Yeah, sounds good. See you then!” She gave me a thumbs-up then spun and sprinted down the sidewalk toward the infirmary.
I was not doing a good job checking on Erin. Granted, there’d been a lot going on, but still, I felt awful. My stomach growled like a tiger in a cage. I wrapped my arms around myself and turned to look for Lennox. She was easy to spot with that indigo hair. Whoever had called her must’ve had something serious to say because she’d ventured even farther away from the crowd and was plugging her ear.
I headed toward her, across the ten-foot sidewalk. It took some maneuvering, since there had to be over a dozen people in my way. I swerved through the crowd like a snake until I ca
me out the other side. When I looked up, my heart stopped.
Lennox was crouched down…talking to a little blonde girl.
NO, no, no.
Tegan’s story replayed in my head. The Coven suspected this girl was with Joseph.
“LENNOX!” I screamed and sprinted toward her. “LENNOX!”
SHIT. I hadn’t told Lennox about the little girl. Tegan had asked me not to. I understood her reasoning then, but now I regretted it. I was too far away from her. She didn’t know.
The massive pine trees just behind Lennox swayed in the breeze, and then the darkness between them moved. My heart shot up my throat. My pulse went nuts.
Joseph!
It was something out of a nightmare or a horror film. The darkness moved from between the tree line and stepped into the sunshine. It towered over Lennox, who still hadn’t seen it.
“LENNOX!” I screamed as loud as I could. “RUN!”
But she didn’t hear me. I summoned my magic to my hands then threw it toward the shadow monster as hard as I could. Pink mist exploded out of me. That shadow looked up at me, and I saw big, bright golden eyes from within the darkness. It raised its arm and flicked my magic away. I wasn’t strong enough. But that didn’t stop me from trying. I kept firing, over and over. I pushed with everything I had.
Then it swung its shadowy arm down and scooped Lennox up, then sucked her into the darkness and vanished from sight.
“NOOO!” I cried.
Chapter Twenty-Two
JACKSON
I sat at the dining room table desperately trying not to lose my ever-loving shit.
Tennessee said we couldn’t move until Edenburg and all of Eden were locked down and secure. Deacon, Hunter, and Devon were already working on campus. And according to the phone call they’d just gotten, there were just a few stragglers to get back in their buildings. Then they’d move to the residents of Eden.
It was a test of my patience. I’d never considered myself impatient before this moment. I sat there with my legs bouncing and my hands shaking. Adrenaline and magic coursed through me. Once we started doing something, I’d feel better.
Tegan and Henley had some kind of plan. They sat at the table flipping furiously through two different books. Everyone else just waited. Some paced, some ate, some sat on the couch and meditated.
The door to Headquarters flew open and slammed into the wall.
Bettina came flying in like a bat out of hell. Her long blonde hair was wild and her eyes were panicked. We all jumped to our feet.
She ran right up to the table. Her breaths were labored, and she gasped for air. “Lennox… Joseph…took her…little…girl… Lennox…gone.”
Tegan slammed her book shut, and it changed into a crystal pendant. She slid the chain over her head and headed toward the front door. “All of you, come with me. I wanna try something.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
WARNER
When I opened my eyes, I found only darkness. I blinked over and over, yet still I saw nothing. In the distance, I heard the crackling of fire and whispered voices. My pulse quickened and my stomach turned. I was in the balefire. Maybe I’d never left. Maybe all of that had been a dream or part of the magic torturing me.
“He’s awake, Father.”
I gasped. I knew that voice. It was the little girl. The reason I was here. It wasn’t a dream or torture. It’d been real. I wasn’t in the balefire. This was worse.
The darkness looming over me moved. It swayed lower, and then big golden eyes appeared from within the black shadow. “Excellent. Our fighter must play an important role. Let us get started.”
What? No. Oh, HELL no. Nope.
I’ve got to get out of here.
I tried to get up then found my hands and feet had been bound together. I thrashed against my bindings and tried to scream, but my mouth had been sealed shut. It didn’t matter. I kept screaming and making noise from behind my gag. Anything I could do to distract them was all I needed. I jerked my legs out, except nothing happened. Something kicked me in the side of the head, and I rolled with the motion of the kick, flipping onto my right side.
My stomach turned.
It was one of the shadows who’d kicked me, but my attention had zeroed in on the scene in front of me.
There was a circle with lines running across the middle, and they glowed a red that flickered like embers in a fireplace. I frowned and lifted my head as far off the ground as possible— Ice filled my bones.
It was a pentacle.
And at each point of the star, there was a body. I was at the single top point. To my left, just beyond my feet was a boy I recognized from school. His name was something like Billy, or Bobby, Blaine—or maybe Brandon. Something like that. He was a nice, nerdy kid. Bettina’s friend. He was stretched out on his side with his limbs flopped about like he’d been dropped and left. I shuddered and moved my gaze. Across from me about ten feet, at the bottom two points, were a woman wearing a bonnet and a little girl with black hair. They were both curled up in balls, their eyes shut. I tried to look for breathing, but my vision was getting wonky from trying to hold my neck off the ground.
I sighed and let my head drop back.
That was when I saw her lying on the last point.
Lennox.
No, no, no. Not Lennox. I thrashed and screamed against my bindings. Lennox’s yellow-green eyes flew open, and our gazes met. Her stare was calm and steady, like she’d accepted what was about to happen. Well, I hadn’t. I was going down fighting until my very last breath.
The shadow looming over me chuckled, and it sent goose bumps down my arms. “This one has fight. He will be perfect. Excellent choice, my child.”
The little girl beamed up at the shadow monster. “Thank you, Father.”
NO. You won’t get away with this!
The little girl pulled out a book and flipped it open. Then she walked over to stand right over me, opposite from her father. I tried to swing my legs out to bring her down, but my body was barely moving.
She began chanting, and my body broke out into a sweat. I trembled from head to toe. That’s dark magic. Really dark. Oh, Goddess, get me out of here! The red ember lines grew thicker and bolder, and their color shone brighter. My heart was pounding so hard my breathing was ragged. Thick white smoke billowed from within the lines but turned black as night two inches up.
The little girl skipped all the way around the circle then dropped into a crouch beside me. I braced myself for the killing blow. She slammed the tip of a dagger into the crook of my elbow. Red blood gushed out of me, then ran along the dagger’s blade like a river. She giggled and pulled the weapon away…then tossed it to the center of the pentacle.
The white smoke shot straight into the sky before turning a sickening shade of red.
She chanted more, faster and sharper. Shadows descended upon us, circling in real close and towering over me. Her dark magic call grew colder, the words blending into one.
There was a flash of red, and then a dark puddle floated off of the girl’s sword and raised up high in the air, it shimmered like an oil slick. It was a deep red and pulsed with energy. It was my blood. My stomach turned.
The girl giggled and skipped to the center of the pentacle with a clear vial gripped in her tiny hands. She held it up to the floating bubble of my blood and magic as she chanted more lines of dark magic. My blood seeped into the vial like it’d been summoned.
Once the vial was full, she turned and held it high in the air.
The shadow, the one she’d called Father, reached out and took it from her. There was a pop and a poof of smoke…and then a man stood in front of me. A human man. He looked to be in his forties, with salt-and-pepper hair and dark golden eyes. He looked at me, and my bones turned to ice.
He cackled and rolled his shoulders.
Then he turned to Lennox. I tried to scream, but it was no use. I was helpless.
Her eyes were wide and watching him. He reached down and grabbed a fi
stful of her indigo hair then dragged her up onto her knees. Her body was limp, and a dark strip of magic covered her mouth. The shadows moved. They reached out and wrapped around her arms then hoisted her into the air with her feet dangling a foot off the ground.
The man—Father, as the girl had called him—inhaled sharply like he was breathing her in.
Joseph.
He held his hand out to the side then snapped his fingers. The little girl rushed over and handed him her book. He flipped a few pages. When he looked back to Lennox, he wore an unnerving grin. He opened his mouth, and a long string of words in the ancient language came rolling out. I tried to recognize some of the words, but he’d said them too fast. A cloud of dark smoke exploded out of his mouth and slammed into her face. When it faded a second later, the binding on her mouth was gone.
“Spellcaster.” He wiggled his fingers in front of her face. “How do we bring down the High Priestess’s barrier?”
There was no way Lennox would give that kind of information out. She wasn’t a traitor. She’d die before betraying us.
But then her whole body began to shake. Her eyes went so wide I could see the whites all the way around those yellow-green irises. Her lips trembled, and I knew she was trying to fight him, to fight whatever spell he’d just used on her.
And then the words slipped through her clenched teeth. “A rune must be written into the soil at the gate.”
“Which rune?” Joseph stepped closer. “Show me.”
He blew a cloud of white smoke in her face. She closed her eyes…and blew. The smoke swirled around until it made the shape of a rune. But I never learned runes. They weren’t something I needed to know before.
The Wild Witch (The Coven: Academy Magic Book 3) Page 9