Tegan took a step forward and the wooden balcony flooring creaked. Saffie shot up with wide lavender eyes and a pale face. Her gaze went right toward the open doorway. I knew the second she saw my twin because her eyes glistened and sparkled. Her lips trembled.
“Saffie!” Tegan sprinted over and pulled her into a big old bear hug.
The rest of us rushed inside and gathered around.
Saffie pulled away from Tegan and wiped the tears from her eyes. Her translucent pink wings fluttered so fast they were barely visible. The ground under her feet sparkled with golden glitter. She looked at the rest of us and grinned so wide it took up her whole face. “You’re here. I can’t believe you’re finally here. You came…”
“I promised we would,” Tegan said softly.
Saffie buried her face in her thin, pale hands. Then she pulled them back and pounced on the rest of us, one by one she gave us big hugs. Her grip was tight but warm. When she backed away from me she went to move on to the next person when her eyes went wide and she gasped. “DEACON! You’re alive! You made it!”
He chuckled. “Yes, I am. And all thanks to you.”
She squealed and leapt into his arms. She held him a little bit longer than she did everyone else, but it didn’t bother me. I was still having trouble letting him go. When she finally stepped back she pushed her hair out of her face and shook her head. “I am so happy you made it. Goddess, I can’t believe it. You all made it home, and you closed the Gap!”
“Saffie, I wish you could’ve seen it. They were incredible.” Royce smiled and pointed at me and Tegan. “They handled it like champs.”
“I had no doubt they would be.” Saffie took mine and Tegan’s hands and squeezed. “I’m so proud of you. Of all of you.”
“Althea and Aurelia were there,” Tegan whispered.
Saffie gasped. Her red eyebrows shot to the roof. “What?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they never meant to open the Gap so they bound themselves to it so they could help close it when the time was right.”
“Is that true?” Saffie spun to face Tegan. “Truly?”
“Yes. They even helped The Coven put the temporary seal on it, The Coven just didn’t know.” Tegan shook her head. “I’ll tell you all about it, Saffie. There’s so much I have to tell you.”
“I just can’t believe this moment is finally here.” Saffie sighed and plopped down on the couch. “I’ve waited three-hundred-twenty-five years for this. And it’s here. I can’t believe it.”
“Saffie…” Tennessee sat down on the coffee table in front of her. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked her in the eye. “Why didn’t you say something to me years ago? Back when we first moved here? It kills me to know you were here this whole time, for twelve years, and I never spoke to you. I’m so sorry.”
She smiled, and for the first time she actually looked older than us. She reached out and touched his face. “Because you did not know me.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “But you knew us.”
“And I couldn’t risk you finding that out.” She pulled her hand away then looked to the rest of us and patted the couch. “My mother and I knew that we could never tell you the truth until time caught up to us, until this very night. The consequences for meddling with time are too severe to even consider.”
“But Saffie…” Cooper dropped to his knees in front of her. “You could’ve said something to us. You could’ve let us know you weren’t our enemy. This whole time we thought...we thought…”
“We thought you wanted to hurt us,” Henley finished for him as she sat on the coffee table beside Tenn. “We were afraid of you.”
“I am sorry, deeply sorry.” She curled her legs up under her. “I counted down the days. I remembered Cooper saying the day you were returning home to was October 27th, 2018. For three hundred years I waited and waited. I told myself the second I saw any of you I’d approach you and make friends.”
“So why didn’t you?” Royce whispered.
“Some twenty or so years ago…right here in the park…The Coven showed up to guard the Gap here. I was so excited. The Coven. Right here.” She sighed and stared off into the distance. “I made friends. I thought if I befriended them then by the time you all arrived it would be easier…but then that night happened. The one where the Fae got in and most of The Coven was killed. And I just…”
“You felt responsible…” Deacon whispered. “Because it was the Fae?”
She nodded. “I don’t know how they got in, but I was warned by Princess Sage not to interfere—”
“Sage?” Tegan growled. “When did you speak to her?”
“The night you took Uncle Leyka to Cronos and went back home.”
We all gasped.
“What do you mean?” I asked. It didn’t make any sense to me. The Seelies had ignored our call, why then would they arrive after we left? “Why…?”
“Saffie…” Tegan leaned in from her spot on the couch beside her. “What happened after we left? How did you end up here? How did you end up miniature and bound to this place?”
“Princess Sage.” She frowned and started twirling her hair around her finger. “Right after you left Princess Sage arrived. She told me Prince Thorne sent her…to punish me…to curse me…for…for…helpingyouguys.”
My heart stopped. My whole body turned to ice. I wanted to speak but my mouth refused to work. Did she just say what I think she said?
“Your curse is because of us?” Tennessee’s face was paler than I’d ever seen it. He looked like he was going to be sick. “We did this to you?”
“Oh, Saffie,” Tegan groaned and wrapped her arms around Saffie’s shoulders.
Saffie grabbed Tegan’s arm with both hands and held on. “I had to. Deacon would’ve died…and we had to save the world, didn’t we?”
My heart broke for her. For what her sacrifice meant. We owed her everything. I knew I did. If she hadn’t done what she did Deacon would have died, there was no question about that. I reached out beside me and grabbed his hand. “Saffie how do we break your curse? Tell us and we’ll do it. We will. All of us, the whole Coven.”
Her face fell. “I do not know. Fairies are elusive and tricky. The story of how I got out of Salem to here is a long one I’ll tell you some other time…but I have no idea how to break my curse. I don’t even know how Tegan broke the spell that made me small.”
Tegan pulled away and leaned against the couch. “Keltie.”
Saffie’s eyes widened.
Tegan nodded. “When we got back with the Hierophant’s locket, Keltie came to me. She helped us find the Book of Shadows and told me there was a spell inside it that would help you. We have so much to talk about. I have so much to tell you. But while I was pretending to be on the demons’ side I found the way to remove that part of the spell from you – I needed everyone’s magic to do it so that’s why I tricked everyone into going to Hidden Kingdom that night.”
“That’s why you did that?” Tennessee cursed and hung his head.
Tegan chuckled. “Like I said, there’s so much to tell. SO much I haven’t had the chance to tell any of you. Especially you, Saffie.”
“So tell me now,” Saffie smiled up at her with anxious eyes. “Atley filled this tower with snacks for me if you’re hungry…but I would very much love to know everything that has happened. Please tell me?”
So we did. We told her everything. Well, Royce handled giving out snacks – but the rest of us filled her in. We told her everything that happened after we left her in Salem, right up to arriving here with her. Then we told her about everything that happened back when Tegan and I first joined the Coven. Especially the parts about visiting her mother on Crone Island and Leyka in the Bahamas. Apparently her mother had grown too old to leave Crone Island so Saffie hadn’t seen her in decades.
It was somewhere around dawn when everyone started drifting off to sleep. We all huddled close together, talking until our bodies wouldn’t let us stay awake
any longer. And it was in that moment as the pink and orange rays of morning sunshine crept over the wooden floors to my feet that I made a promise to Saffie. It wasn’t out loud, I wasn’t making this oath for show. I was doing it for her. But I promised her and myself that I would not rest until we broke the curse we set upon her.
No matter how long it took.
Chapter Four
DEACON
A woman’s scream ripped through the silence.
I woke with a gasp and bolted upright. The piercing shriek rang out again, making my pulse fly. I scanned the room looking for Emersyn, but she was curled up on the sofa next to Henley and Saffie. Who’s screaming? I frowned and searched for Tegan, the only other female with us, but she was stretched out on Tennessee’s chest like he was her own personal body pillow.
No one else was awake. It didn’t make any sense. Had I dreamt it? I sighed and scrubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The morning sunshine poured through the windows and doorway of our treehouse tower, the brightness stung my eyes. I didn’t even remember going to sleep. We’d been filling Saffie in on everything that happened…and then I woke up.
As if I willed it, that awful scream echoed around the room.
Something large but soft slammed into my face then dropped to my lap. I scowled and looked down to find a green pillow in my hands.
“Shut your damn phone off, D!” Royce shouted from a few feet away. He plucked another green pillow out from under Henley’s head and chucked it right at my face again.
Phone? I don’t hear a phone ringi—OH. If it was a snake, it would’ve bitten me. Realization was slow in the morning. I dug into my jeans pocket and pulled out my cell phone. I was the kind of guy who tended to always have his phone on vibrate, but I’d turned the volume on a few hours back to let Saffie hear a video. That heinous screaming was my custom ringtone…for my mother.
It was an inside joke that was quickly losing humor.
I hit the button and groaned. On the screen of my iPhone there had to be a dozen notifications. All from my mother. Missed calls, voicemails. Text messages. Even messages via my social media. And multiple from each. I was in trouble.
“Sorry, guys, I didn’t realize I left the sound —” my phone lit up and my mother’s face filled the screen. Her screaming made me hiss. I hit accept and held the phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom…Mom? Hello? I can’t hear you…”
Her voice was there but way too quiet for me to make out any words.
I frowned and hit the speaker button. “Mom?”
“DEACON AUBREY ENGLISH!” She screamed through the phone.
Royce giggled and covered his mouth. “Aubrey.”
“Your middle name is Aubrey?” Cooper said without even trying to conceal his laughter. “Really?”
“Shut up,” I groaned.
“EXCUSE ME?” My mother yelled. “Is that how you speak to me? Your father and I have been worried sick! How dare you not call after the Gap was closed to let us know you were okay! I have been calling and texting you all morning—”
“I was sleeping, mother.”
“Oh, how nice for you. I’ve been awake ALL NIGHT waiting to hear if my son is alive.” Her voice was getting higher pitched with every sentence. “How could you not call?!”
“We were burying our friend, mother,” I snapped back before thinking through my answer.
She gasped and I heard the hysteria in her breath. “Wh-who has passed? Royce? Henley? Kessler? Oh, Goddess, not Tennessee?”
Tenn, who I hadn’t even realized was awake yet, threw his arms up and shook his head. “Why did she say it like that?”
Tegan giggled and nestled into him closer. “Because you’re hot.”
“Gross.” Cooper groaned and threw leftover popcorn at them. “Let Aubrey finish his phone call.”
I glared at him. “Really?”
“DEACON AUBREY ENGLISH YOU ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!”
I jumped. “Sorry, sorry. Mom…look…I am sorry I didn’t call you after the Gap was closed but it was chaotic and there was a lot going on—”
“WHO DIED?” She hissed, interrupting me.
“Oh, um…” I scrubbed my face again. “Larissa Willard, the Tower Card.”
“But your cousins?”
“Henley and Royce are alive and well.” I tossed the green pillows back at Royce who was mumbling my middle name over and over. “As are Kessler and Tennessee.”
“So no one else…fell?”
“No — well, Kenneth, the Hermit, he’s got Witch’s Shock but he’s still alive.” I sighed and brushed Emersyn’s platinum blonde hair off her face. She smiled at me and the pressure in my chest lifted a little. “Thankfully, everyone else is okay.”
“Oh, oh well that’s a relief.” My mother sighed. Papers shuffled around and I heard the creak her office chair made when she leaned back in it. “I am sorry to hear of Miss Willard. Your father and I will send her family our condolences. Her poor parents.”
Saffie sat up and looked down at my phone like it was alive.
“That will be nice of you, mother. Now that you know I am alive may I call you back later?”
“No, you may not,” she snapped. “You are coming home. Immediately.”
“Mother, I —”
“NOW, Deacon.” She huffed and slammed something on her desk, probably her own hand. “You haven’t called home in weeks. WEEKS, Deacon. You will be home by dusk or I will send the Knights down there to retrieve you. Do I make myself clear?”
The Knights, aka the secret service of the supernatural world. Each member was a Sword Suit student at Edenburg hired to guard magical families from danger. Well, at least civilian families. As comical as it would’ve been to watch them try to scare Tennessee and Tegan, I didn’t want all the drama.
Especially since I was planning on going home anyway.
“Mom, I’m sorry I frightened you. But there’s no need to send the Knights.” I stretched and my whole back cracked. “I was coming home today anyway…I’m bringing my girlfriend home with me.”
Emersyn inhaled sharply and her golden eyes went wide.
Silence.
I frowned and picked up my phone to see if we’d been disconnected, but we hadn’t. “Mother?”
“Did you say…girlfriend?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Mother. We’ll be there soon enough. I’ll call you in a bit.”
I didn’t wait for her answer, I hung up and turned my phone back to vibrate.
Tennessee propped himself up on his elbows and narrowed his eyes at me. “Your middle name is Aubrey?”
Royce burst into laughter.
“Not you, too.” I shook my head. “Anyone else wanna laugh at me?”
Emersyn giggled. “I mean…it is an interesting choice, don’t you think?”
Saffie frowned and cocked her head to the side. “I know this name. I have heard it.”
“That’s because it’s an old English name,” Tennessee said with a deep, gravely voice. He sat up and stretched his neck, his long black waves were sticking out in every direction. “Aubrey was a surname back then, and many of the first settlers in Massachusetts had that name. Quite a few of our own kind as well.”
“Oh!” Saffie smiled and clapped her hands. “I remember! Amelia Aubrey! She was my mother’s friend and one of our healers. She fled before you arrived in Salem though.”
I shook my head. This whole time travel thing continued to blow my mind, even though I’d lived through it. Then her words registered. “Wait, did you say Amelia Aubrey?”
Saffie nodded. “I did.”
I blinked. “Huh. Weird. That was my grandmother, several, several times removed obviously.”
“Ah, so that’s why they named you that.” Tennessee nodded then got to his feet. “I was wondering if you were related to them, not mocking you like your own blood is.”
“Ignore him,” Henley yawned and waved her hand in her brother’s direction. “I’m more interested in hearing about Emersyn’s trip t
o Manhattan.”
Emersyn froze. She was half sitting, half laying, but her eyes widened. She looked to me and a wave of emotions slammed into me. First and foremost there was panic. But beneath that I sensed both her desire to go...and to not. I didn’t quite understand that. I needed to talk to her, to make sure she was okay with this. Yes, I wanted her to meet my parents and it made sense to bring her home with me now…but if she didn’t feel ready I wasn’t going to push her.
Except I wasn’t going to ask her in front of everyone else.
Let me help you out here, Tegan’s voice said into my mind. She winked up at me then got to her feet, like she wasn’t doing anything at all. But then…no one else was either. Which told me our sneaky High Priestess was talking to them, too.
Tennessee slid his black, beat up combat boots back on then stretched again. “Alright, guys, we better head home. Henley, Royce, your parents haven’t seen or heard from you yet either. I’m sure they’re worried. And I need to check in with my father.”
Cooper cleared his throat and jumped up. “Hey, Saffie, want to join me to find some real food?”
She perked up, her wings fluttered with excitement. “Here in the park?”
He smiled. “Of course. There’s this cute little lunch place I love here with great tacos.”
“I’ve never had tacos before!” She flew up and spun around. “You’ll show me?”
“You’ve never had tacos?” Cooper blinked in confusion. “Then we are definitely getting tacos right now. Let’s do it.”
He held his elbow out for her. She flew over without hesitation and took it. I heard her giggle once and then they were gone. Tegan grinned then turned to me and winked.
Just talk to her, then text me when you’re ready for a pick up.
I nodded.
“Alright, y’all, your ride is leaving,” Tegan said with a grin. She waved her right hand and a white box opened up right in the tower. “Let’s go.”
The Fire Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 7) Page 2