Ana Awakens: A YA Paranormal Murder Mystery Novel (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 1)

by Alina Banks

  As the door to Miss Cane’s office opened and closed, I looked over to see Mom standing there. She nodded. “This is a place of power. It affects the town, but the hospital was built over it, in order to use it in the best way possible.” Her eyes met mine. “The Canes have been here since the beginning, and so have the Conways. Our families helped build Clermont into what it is today, but in order to do that, we had to accept that there are two sides to magic - good and evil.”

  Miss Cane raised an eyebrow. “With humans, there are more shades of grey than that, but with magical creatures, that often isn’t the case. Yet there are those who are more evil than good, and I believe that’s what we’re dealing with now, because we’ve seen it before.”

  Mom stepped over to me. “Unfortunately. I was with the coven the last time things got this bad, but I was young.” She looked at Miss Cane. “A lot of us were, because of how things worked out, and when we were called on…we weren’t strong enough. I wasn’t strong enough, and I was the one who had to lead the coven after my mother…” For a moment, there was silence. “It’s been a long time since I talked about this. Longer than it probably should have been.”

  “You know the best place to tell this story, Lilah. Take Ana, and I’ll make sure James gets home safely, before I pop in to talk with Fi.”

  By the time we reached the hidden cemetery, the sun had started to rise. Mom stepped through the gates, and when I did the same, I was hit by a wave of power.

  “Coming here for the first time is always an experience.” She reached out to take my hand. “This is where we bury those who were able to wield the power. I know there are a lot of people related to this small group who don’t have that ability, but are still not entirely human.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I told you that the Canes and the Conways worked to build this city, and that’s because they knew of the power source. The reason they knew of the power source, the reason they were able to use it, was a demon.” She worked her free hand through her hair as we made our way through the stones. “The Canes, I think, were born with the ability to feel magic, and slowly, this came to be something more, due to the fact that they'd been living here for generations. The Conways, on the other hand, were created by the same being your grandmother and I tried to defeat.”

  “Created?”

  “The story has been passed down from one generation to the next, so that we can understand why we fight the demon. There have been those who have been tempted by his lies, which is why things like this happen, but the coven has always been here. At least, until recently.” Mom shook her head. “We all left after what happened, scared of having to endure more fear and pain, and now that I’m back, I can see what a mistake we made. Leaving didn’t change anything. Clermont is still the town it always was, but now it’s unprotected, and that was something we should have prevented, because leaving it like that means it’s become a very different place. With the coven gone, the strength of those who knew about us also failed, and they often left shortly afterwards. I can understand it. Anyone who knew of the demon’s existence would much rather be somewhere far away, to make certain they could never be used as batteries by the creature when he inevitably came back.”

  “Was the creature we saw tonight the demon?” I asked. It was quiet then, eerie. The sun was still low on the horizon, and the darkness of the forest surrounded us.

  “No, that creature is helping the demon in his return for power. They’re using the deaths of those connected to the witches to reopen the path that brought the demon here to begin with. Rebecca called me back when she realized what was happening, because she knew she couldn’t deal with this mess alone. But that meant bringing you to Clermont, something I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do. Having that weight on my shoulders…”

  We stopped in front of one gravestone. In weathered etching were the names of three Conways. “They didn’t all die at the same time, but I made sure they were buried together. Anyone who chooses to marry one of the covens is buried here, and any children are too. In this grave are my parents and my sister. Dad died first, in what we believed was an accident, until we came to understand what was happening. Then, my sister died six months later. We found out that she was used in the same way Dad was. The person in question chose the two of them on purpose, because they knew they were connected to the Conways.

  “Your grandmother died during the battle with the demon, because we weren’t strong enough for what we were doing, but we didn’t have a choice. A large number of the witches died when their power was used up. In the end, I was the one leading the coven because of my name and my strength, and we did manage to slam the door on the demon. We knew it wasn’t going to stay closed forever, but we had hoped we wouldn’t have to deal with it again for a long time. If we hadn’t run from it, maybe none of this would have happened, but now, another minion of the demon is trying to open the door again.”

  I stared out the window and looked at Clermont. It felt as though I was seeing it for the first time. I knew I had to protect this town, even if Mom didn’t want me to be involved.

  The door opened, and Mom stepped in. “You’re supposed to be trying to get some sleep.”

  “Couldn’t.” I shrugged. “All I can think about is what’s coming next.”

  “Yeah, I know the feeling.” She made her way over to stand next to me and sighed. “This isn’t something I ever wanted for you, but I should have known I wasn’t going to be able to protect you from it.” She held a small, clothbound book out to me. “Back when I was your age, I already knew everything I needed to know about being a witch, and I’m sorry for not making the right choices when it came to you. I should have realized a long time ago that it wasn’t fair of me to keep running when it was going to affect you, but I wanted you to be safe, and being here isn’t safe. Not for us. It’s never going to be. If it wasn’t for your dad, I don’t think I would have made the decision to have a child. I never wanted them to have this weight on their shoulders or for them to lose the people they loved to minions of a demon who was never going to stop trying to take Clermont for his own.”

  “From what you’ve said, he was here before.”

  Mom nodded and gave me a soft smile. “He wanted Clermont, and he created the witches to help him take it, but he miscalculated. He forgot about the Canes. They were the ones who showed those first witches what their creator was capable of, and they turned on him almost immediately. Instead of helping him, they sent him back to the demon realm. From what we know of the demon, he only wanted Clermont. He wanted the power of the town to help him take control of the demon realms, although I don’t know how much of that is true. What I do know is that he keeps trying to fight his way back, and that he won’t stop until he’s succeeded.”

  “Why don’t we kill him?”

  “Killing a demon is much harder than it would seem and takes far more power than the covens ever had. It’s definitely something we’ve talked about before, but we were barely able to push him out of this world, so I’m glad we didn’t try to kill him.”

  “Our job now is to stop his minion.”

  “Ana, your job is to learn what it means to be a witch” She gently pressed the little book into my hand. “Then, maybe, we can think about being involved the next time something like this happens. Until I’m certain you can keep yourself safe, I don’t want you to be a part of this.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  I was supposed to be at school, but instead, I walked to the cemetery, the whole time thinking about the strange, clothbound book in my backpack. Ending up at the cemetery felt inevitable. My mind drifted to Sabrina lying on the ground with those deep gashes in her back. Had it not been for Miss Cane, Sabrina might not have made it. There were so many questions I wanted to ask Miss Cane.

  As I stepped in through the gate, I was struck once more by the power. It was surprising how easy it was for me to deal with this time.

  When I reached the Conway stone, Sasha
was sitting on top of it.

  “Sasha, I told you to stay at home.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” For a second I thought Sasha was the one talking to me, but then I realized Miss Cane was making her way toward me.

  “Miss Cane?”

  “Hi Ana.”

  “How did you know I was here?”

  Instead of answering, she pointed to Sasha and said, “She’s here to help you, Ana, because you need a familiar. I think you’re lucky to have her. I’ve known plenty of familiars through the years, and those who’ve been lucky enough to connect with an animal in that way have found themselves lucky in all sorts of other ways too. I assume that is part of the reason I was able to find you last night. Otherwise, I don’t know that you’d be here right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I felt a spark of magic I hadn’t felt before. That, I think, was you.” Her eyes met mine. “You might not know how to use your power, but you desperately wanted to help Sabrina last night. It was that spark of magic that led me to where you were.”

  “How did you get there so quickly?”

  “Some of us have different skills than others. One of my skills is being able to move through space in a…manner that’s more efficient, we’ll say. There have been Conways who’ve been able to do the same thing through the years, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have inherited it. Finding out what you can and can’t do is going to take some experimentation.”

  “Right now, is that something I should be doing?” I thought of the creature I’d seen and what it wanted. “Won’t that make me more of a target?”

  “Possibly, but it will also make you capable of fighting anything, should it decide you are a target.” Miss Cane smiled at me. “I’m not going to judge Lilah for the choices she made, even though I don’t agree with them. The future is going to be complicated enough for all of us. I believe that even if we remove this minion, we will still have to contend with the demon in the not-too-distant future, because he knows how weak Clermont has become.”

  “Leaving after what happened, to me, feels like the worst choice they could have made.”

  “At the time, I felt the same way. Being who I am meant I didn’t have that choice to make. I couldn’t leave because the Canes have tied themselves to the hospital, and so I had to come to terms with what happened in a way they didn’t.

  We all saw people we cared about die that night. I lost Mom, and Lilah’s mom, and a whole bunch of friends, because we were doing what we had to do, and those who survived left as soon as they could. Lilah first, and then the others, because they couldn’t handle being here any longer. For a long time, I was furious with them for running away. I couldn’t understand the choice until I was older and gained the ability to empathize better. Of course, I think it helped that the pain of losing so many people had faded by that point.”

  “Yet their choice to leave has led to where we are now.”

  “Unfortunately, that is also the case, and there are very few who’ve been willing to answer my calls. Of those who have, only your mom returned to do what she could to help. I am grateful to her for that and for bringing you, because you are a true Conway. She hoped that you’d be born a Price, free of all this, but I didn’t think that was possible, considering you are female.”

  “The magic passes down from mother to daughter.”

  “Yes, it does, and only the first-born daughter. Sons also don’t have magic, although I don’t know why. It might simply have something to do with the fact the first witches were women.” Miss Cane shrugged. “I’m not going to tell you we have some great understanding of magic, because we don’t, but we do know what we can use it for. I also know what it can be used for by others.”

  I thought again about the minion I saw, the disgusting creature. “Could it be that magic transforms men who use it into something else?” I ran my tongue over my bottom lip. “Or at least, those who choose to use it for dark reasons?”

  “That is a possibility, Ana. Having dealt with a couple of minions, I have found them to be affected by the magic.” She studied me. “I was hoping, as the two of us are here together, that you could tell me a little more about what you saw last night. I brought a couple of textbooks with me to help jog your memory.”

  Miss Cane left the textbooks with me when she returned to the hospital. I ran my finger over one of the covers as Sasha curled up in my lap. We both felt safe here, safer than we did at home, but the time would come when we’d have to head back. Mom would get worried, and Dad would probably be starting dinner soon. Yet part of me really didn’t want to leave. I felt like I’d finally found where I was supposed to be, and Clermont…I could understand why Mom said it had changed in the time she’d been away. Some of the magic, I think, had faded, and that was likely part of the reason the demon had decided to make his move. He knew he had a chance, and he wasn’t going to walk away from it.

  “What do I do, Sasha?” I raked a hand through my hair. “Mom doesn’t want me to be a part of the hunt for the demon’s minion, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to walk away and focus on other things. He hurt Sabrina.” I shook my head. “I know, in my head, that going after him wouldn’t be safe. If he hurt Sabrina so easily, I know he’d hurt me without even flinching, so going out there unprepared wouldn’t be a good idea, but I have what I need to be able to prepare now. I wonder if James would let me cast spells on him.” My mind turned to Alex. “I know I can’t tell anyone else what I am, at least for now, and it’s not as though I know Alex. There’s no reason for me to think he’d be safe to tell. My focus needs to be on doing the right thing, the logical thing, and keeping as many people as I can safe, even though I don’t know how easy that’s going to be. As we found the minion at the Woods’ cabin, I can’t help thinking it has something to do with Principal Woods, especially considering Wayde. Him being found at the school…

  “I would guess that was a mistake. I highly doubt that whatever power Wayde had would have been collected where he was found, so the likelihood is, is that whoever attacked him wasn’t expecting him to be so strong.” I looked at Sasha, and she looked back at me. “Steroids making someone stronger than magic could? It doesn’t sound possible, but then again, nothing we’ve gone through sounds possible. This is just how things are.” I nibbled on my bottom lip. “I keep thinking I should be more…I don’t know, exactly. Incredulous?” I shrugged. “Nothing about this is something I should be accepting this easily, but how can I not? When I think back to how things were, I can see all the evidence pointing to this being the truth. Every time I think of something more, I see how it could have been due to Mom’s magic.”

  Part of me wished Sasha was able to talk back, but then I thought of someone I could talk to. Gently, making sure I didn’t hurt her, I put Sasha on the ground, and started packing up the books. “I’m going to head to the library for a little while. I think I might have a chat with Alice, and then I’ll go home.”

  Before I could stop her, Sasha was moving, and I knew she was going in the direction of the school. Of course, she was. My familiar, it seemed, had decided she was my guardian, even if I was certain I didn’t need one. Laughing to myself, I followed her and made my way through the silent streets. As I walked up to the school, I hoped to myself that there would be no one around to see me. The time told me there’d be no one at the school, apart from maybe a couple of people in detention, and that would make it easier to get to the library without being seen. Anyone who saw me might go to Principal Woods, and that really was the last thing I needed. If I was right…I shook my head. I didn’t want to be right. Principal Woods being the culprit was something I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. Maybe it was his brother. If he even had a brother.

  There was no one in the library. The silence was a nice change. I waited for Alice to arrive and sat at the same table where I’d sat before. Right when I started thinking about leaving, she drifted through the bookcases, a phantom at first, but she quickly coa
lesced into a solid form.

  “Hello, Ana.” Her eyes met mine. “You finally know the truth.”

  “Finally.” I smiled. “It’s not exactly been hard to accept, even though I kind wish it was.”

  Alice took the seat opposite me and folded her hands on the table. “I can understand that. Life is different from how it was before, and you think you should be affected more than you are, because this is so unusual. Yet when you think back to how things have always been, it’s not that unusual. There’s always been something different about you, about your mom, and you’ve noticed it before, even if you didn’t know why.” She shrugged. “I went through the same thing when I was younger. When I was just coming up to thirteen, I came into my powers. It was late, and I know Mom was beginning to think it wouldn’t happen, but it did. That was when she told me I was a witch, and it was like this switch flipped. I knew. I’d always known. There was no reason for it to change me, and yet, the more I thought about it, the more confused I became. Why didn’t I try to convince myself I wasn’t a witch? Nothing about it seemed like real life. Only it was my life.”

  “I felt the same way. I just…I don’t know. It’s like I’m second guessing my response, because it really wasn’t much of one, and I wonder if that’s because I haven’t had much time to think. There’s a minion of the demon out there doing what it can to open the door to the demon realms, and that’s what I have to deal with.” I thought about what I wanted to say. “At this point, even if I have magic, fighting a demon seems to almost be an insurmountable task.”

  “Having magic doesn’t change you. Not when it’s always been a part of you, a part of the lives of the people around you, and your mother is a Conway.” Alice stared at me until I met her eyes. “My family also goes back to the time when the demon created the first of the coven. I can trace my tree right back to the formation of the town, but back then, the witch was killed. There was no reason for the power to pass down to the next generation, but it did. Somehow. That witch’s brother had a daughter, and the daughter inherited the power, almost as though it needed somewhere to go. I don’t know for certain. There is still so much we don’t know about magic, Ana, because it’s a hard subject to learn. Some of us were gifted the ability, while the Canes are something different entirely. Any man, it seems, who chooses to use the demon’s magic is affected by it. Whenever we deal with a minion, it seems as if they’ve lost a part of their humanity, but gain the ability to switch between forms.”