I was flustered and anxious so I snuck down the hall and into the bathroom. I just needed a moment alone. I slipped inside the handicap stall and leaned against the sink. I’d barely had a moment to myself when I heard the door open and the all too familiar sound of feminine laughter. I knew that laugh, I’d heard it the night before. Scarlett.
“I mean, who does she think she is, Cinderella?”
Yup. Scarlett. My heart sank. There was no doubt in who the she was.
“Just think Caroline, you didn’t even need to help her break dress code she did it all by herself tonight,” Olivia said between giggles. “Who wears redneck boots to a gala? With a ballgown.”
“Oh, don’t worry ladies, she’ll be gone soon enough.” Caroline had the voice made for a cartoon movie villain.
Olivia scoffed. “How do you figure? She’s his soulmate.”
I peeked through the crack in the door to see them standing by the mirror.
“A soulmate mark does not mean they’re married. It simply means she’s a good match, or technically anyways. I mean come on.” Caroline touched up her lipstick. She pressed her lips together then stood straight. “Deacon will get bored with her soon enough. He’ll miss his booty calls with those human girls, especially Carrie his play toy only a few avenues over.”
My stomach turned. I didn’t want to hear this. I unlocked the stall door and stepped out behind them. Olivia and Scarlett giggled. I saw my own reflection behind them. There were no tears, no red eyes. My face wasn’t pale or flushed. Actually, with the dark eyeliner I looked a scary amount like Tegan. Be strong like her, Em. These girls are catty bitches who don’t know you or him.
Caroline grimaced and covered her mouth with her hand like she was embarrassed, but the sparkle in her eyes gave her away. “Oh, Emersyn. How embarrassing. Though it’s better that you know.”
“After all, he disappeared a while ago, you might want to check the coat room.” Scarlett leaned toward me and whispered, “He’s probably with her now.”
I pushed passed her and went to the sink to wash my hands. Not because they were dirty, but so I wouldn’t use them to light her on fire.
“That is so like Deacon,” Caroline said with an evil little chuckle. She met my gaze in the reflection. “He’s sneaky like that, must be why he was chosen as the Devil. Did he tell you how he came over to my place Friday night? I guess you were tired and went to bed. Such a pity, though not for me.”
I smiled and dried my hands. After tossing the paper towel in the bin I leaned toward the mirror and mimicked Caroline and the way she checked her lipstick. “You know, it must kill you. All of you, but especially you Caroline. I mean, your father and Heather are both Majors. You’ve known Deacon the longest. You’re beautiful, he’s gorgeous, you must’ve had all these plans in your head of how you two would ride off into sunset together. But then while he was making his rounds through all the girls in town like Carrie, creating that reputation of his, he never once had you. Not once, despite all the efforts I’m positive you made. He never wanted you.”
Caroline scoffed.
I chuckled and turned to face her. “Deacon is my soulmate. I know what he was like, I know who he was with, but more importantly I know that the only person he will ever be with again is me. And you will never have him. So go ahead, run your mouth. No one that matters is listening.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
EMERSYN
I took my time returning to the table. I strolled around the room hoping someone would either be nice enough to talk to me or not afraid enough. But after about ten minutes I gave up. When I got back to the table Deacon still wasn’t there. I spotted him two tables away smiling and laughing with an elder woman. He looked up at me but I smiled and shook my head. I didn’t need him to babysit me. I needed him to know I could handle these types of events without requiring his presence, after all, this was part of his life so it was part of mine now.
Caroline’s words hadn’t bothered me, at least not that much. Deacon had warned me she’d insinuate they’d hooked up the other night. I wouldn’t have believed her anyway, but it was nice to have the facts ahead of time.
No one seemed to notice that I’d rejoined the table. Caroline and her two gal pals had beaten me back and sat beside each other. I screamed silently in my head and sat back down. Amelia was off with the other children, so I didn’t even have her to buffer. I was positive Caroline and them were well aware of my presence, since they immediately began texting each other again.
The adults weren’t any easier. They may have been friendly and welcoming, which was more than their children did, but they made no effort to try and include any of us in their conversations. It was no wonder their children were so awful.
“I swear,” Caroline said with a laugh and a hand over her chest. “I’ve seen every piece of art in the Louvre. We went this summer for three weeks. It was on mom’s bucket list and since Salem’s Prophecy was this year she insisted on going. A month in Paris, I’ll never be the same.”
“Our parents felt the same way, except we went to Greece.” Olivia smiled like a cat that just caught a mouse. She leaned back in her seat and sipped her drink.
“Yeah, we had a private tour of the whole country – by yacht.” Oliver wagged his eyebrows. “Our parents got bored of the boat after a week so then it was just Liv and I…and as many hot babes as could find along the way.”
“You think that’s special?” Scarlett leaned forward and flipped her bright red hair over her shoulder. “Mom and I went to Bora Bora. Two words, private bungalow.”
Are they competing over who had the better vacation? They were, and they were doing it to show off – and to make me feel uncomfortable. They all had these lavish trips they went on when their parents thought the apocalypse was coming. All while I was trying to stay alive.
“We saw the Great Wall of China,” Noah said with a cocky shrug.
Liam scoffed. “I swam the wild pigs in the Bahamas.”
“Ew, wild pigs?” Scarlett wrinkled her nose. “Why in Goddess’s name would you want to do that?”
Oliver rolled his eyes. “He’s just messing with you. There’s no such place.”
“Hey!” Liam yelled so loud all the adults at our table jumped. “It is so real.”
Olivia leaned forward and narrowed her eyes at him. “You expect us to believe that?”
“It’s true,” I said for some unknown reason I’d ask myself a million times later.
Caroline arched one eyebrow at me like I was a talking cockroach. “Excuse me?”
I shrugged. “The wild pigs in the Bahamas, it’s a real place. In Exuma.”
Liam looked shocked, like I was a toddler who’d just spoken mandarin without training. “You’ve been there?”
I know. The horror, we have something in common. “Yes. In August, we went there to find Leyka—”
“The angel?” Caroline’s mother asked from the other side of the table. “You met Leyka, the angel?”
You have no idea. I nodded. “Yeah, we’re kind of old friends.” I giggled but they all just stared.
Claudia leaned forward and looked to her left. “Heather, Sebastien, you didn’t tell me Deacon met Leyka!”
Sebastien frowned. “I didn’t know…”
“Oh, no, Deacon wasn’t with us. That was before he joined The Coven.”
“I thought you’d only joined The Coven right before Deacon did?” Olivia said with a snarl, like I’d somehow offended her. “How is it you went to meet this angel before he got there?”
“Because the Devil before him died on that trip,” I whispered, wishing I hadn’t brought it up at all. But the rest of the table stared at me with dropped jaws. “We’d gone down to the Siren’s den and she was injured, she died a few days later. That’s how it works, you know. When one of us dies a replacement is chosen…that’s how Deacon got the job.”
Claudia shook her head and leaned back. “I’m sorry, Emersyn. That must have been hard.”
Caroline glared at her mother, because apparently she wasn’t allowed to be impressed by me or be nice to me. Then she rolled her emerald eyes and turned back to me. “Tell us, Emersyn, what other cool places have you been to?”
“Where has Deacon gone with you?” Liam asked. Something about his tone made me think he wanted to be able to get proof. “Perhaps another tropical island?”
I sighed. These people had no idea what I’d been through while they strolled art galleries and historic landmarks. “The Old Lands, actually. Tennessee actually got hurt and almost died because when we came back out it was five weeks later and his wound hadn’t been treated—”
“Wait, you were in the Old Lands for five weeks?” Heather shook her head. “When was this?”
“It was October 2nd when we got back to Eden.”
“So that’s where he was that whole time.” Sebastien shook his head but there was a smirk on his face. “That’s wild. Where else have you been?”
Scarlett scoffed. “Why would you go into the Old Lands? Everyone knows that’s suicidal.”
“Well our Coven-mate Henley, you know Deacon’s cousin, was possessed by a demon so we had to go find the Book of Shadows in order to save her. Which we did…so…” I shrugged. Why did I tell them that?
Heather’s face paled. “Henley was possessed by a demon? Why didn’t Deacon tell us that? He could’ve at least told us after she got healed.”
“After?” I shook my head and laughed. “Because mere seconds after she was healed Tegan portaled us to Salem, where we were for a matter of hours before we were off to Issale to talk to the dragons, then the kingdom of Avolire to meet Queen Sweyn and the vampire court. And then we fell into the Seelie tunnels where four of us fell and we thought died. Only to then meet the Seelie Prince and Princess who are awful because they promised to send us home to Salem and sent us back in time to 1692 instead—”
“WHAT?” Everyone at the table said at the same time.
Ah crap. Was I not supposed to say that? Damn it, Emersyn get ahold of your nerves. You don’t owe them a single explanation. I cleared my throat. “Yeah…we…kinda…went back in time. Got stuck there, actually. Though that’s where we met Leyka the first time, or was it technically the second time?”
Claudia stared at me with wide eyes. “You were in Salem 1692? What was that like?”
“Oh, you know, horrible. Traumatizing.” I pushed a cherry tomato around my plate with my fork. “Got there just after the Gap was closed and hidden and half the Coven had left town already. Then Deacon and I had the lucky chance of witnessing them hang those innocent humans. And then Deacon died—”
“Excuse me, what?” Heather shrieked. “Did- did you say my son died?”
Oh shit. I wasn’t sure if Deacon wanted anyone to know that, and if he did he probably definitely didn’t want it to come out like that. I sighed and looked down at my hands, remembering how long it took to get his blood out from under my fingernails.
“Emersyn,” Heather hissed.
“Yeah, um, there were spider demons…and uh, back then they didn’t have the cure for their venom. Tegan had to…well, she’s the Aether Witch, she has so much magic. She did a little trick to keep him alive but…” I closed my eyes and shook my head as the memories came flashing back. I rubbed my hand over my soulmate glyph. “But when we finally managed to get back to the present…the time jump…it…killed him.”
“He actually died?” Caroline asked in the softest voice I’d ever heard her use. She actually looked devastated to hear this. “Like for real, he died?”
I looked her right in the eye. “He died in my arms exactly one week ago from tonight.”
“What – what happened after that?” Sebastien asked, his face ashy like he was going to be sick. “How did – how did…”
“Tegan,” I whispered. Despite the horror of the memory a small smirk pulled at my lips. Pride swelled in my heart. “My sister is a force to be reckoned with. She refused to give up on him. He’s alive because of her.”
The table fell into tense, awkward silence. Everyone stared at me in horror. My heart pounded in my chest. I had no idea why I told them all that. That was the worst moment of my life and I just opened up to the worst people I’d ever met. My chest burned and I felt an ugly cry bubbling to the surface. I glanced around, looking for Deacon and spotted him on the other side of the dance floor.
“I’m sorry, where are my manners?” I said with a forced chuckle. “Please forgive me for telling you about the worst moment of my life while you were competing for whose exotic vacation was the most ridiculous. If you’ll excuse me…”
I didn’t wait for any response, I jumped to my feet and stormed off. It took everything inside me not to run across to Deacon and bury my face in his chest. I just needed to stay by his side for the rest of the night. It appeared my mouth couldn’t be trusted. The weird part was, I didn’t regret telling them what I did. They needed to know how privileged their lives were. They needed to know that while they ate caviar on private yachts in the Mediterranean that The Coven was struggling to stay alive. At this point I couldn’t wait to get back to them, to my real friends.
Tomorrow we’d stop by and check on Sofia Lorenzo then call Tegan for a pickup. If Deacon wanted to come back to visit his parents then we would. Later. I was halfway across the dance floor when the ceiling exploded over my head. Flaming pieces of wood and metal crashed to the ground. I dove to the side to miss getting hit just as a loud ear-piercing shriek ripped through the gala and a demon the size of a truck slammed onto the hardwood floor right in front of me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
EMERSYN
The hardwood flooring erupted under my feet like an atomic wave. Everything moved in slow motion. I saw it happening, but I couldn’t move fast enough. The explosion blasted me into the air. I flew backward, my nude-colored tulle dress floated up around me. Cold air rushed over my body as I soared over everyone’s heads.
“Emersyn!” Deacon screamed far away.
My back hit something soft but I was moving too fast. My feet flipped over my head. I rolled over and over before finally sliding to a stop at the base of the grand staircase. Sharp pain shot through my body. I groaned and rolled to my side. My ears rang in that high-pitched squeal, drowning out most of the noise but I still heard the screaming and panicked cries from around the ballroom.
It took me a few seconds to get back to my feet, every bone in my body screamed in protest. I looked around but my vision was blurry. All I saw was flashes of red and orange light and dark shapes scrambling around. The ringing in my ears grew sharper and sharper. I shook my head and blinked. Damn it. I closed my eyes and counted to three.
When I opened them I wanted to run and hide. I wanted to close my eyes and pretend this was a nightmare. But I knew it was real. The witches of New York screamed and raced toward the exits in a panic. There was a gaping hole in the ceiling and craters in the dance floor. Dinner tables were overturned, chairs thrown all around.
I knew this kind of panic. I recognized the energy tickling against my skin.
Demons.
Except with the stampede of people running toward me I couldn’t see a single one. I saw flames of orange and red shoot up all around the edges of the room. I saw little blasts of magic, felt the magic in the air.
“EMERSYN!”
Deacon. I sprinted toward the sound of his voice when a dark object jumped in front of me. I slid to a stop. The demon had to be almost ten feet tall. It walked on four legs like a giant lion, except it was dark gray and hard shelled like a reptile. It had no tail but it gouged the floor with talons that had to be a foot long.
And it wasn’t looking at me.
On the other side of this monster was Caroline and her five friends. I may have hated them but I wasn’t going to let them or anyone else die. Except I didn’t have a single weapon besides myself, and there were too many innocent people around to call on that. Noah waved his wand in front of
it and shouted some spell. Golden sparks poured out of his wand like a Fourth of July sparkler. The demon growled and pounced on him. Liam jumped in front of his friend, waving his own wand but it barely cast a light.
The demon grabbed Liam by the foot and threw him clear across the room. It stomped its feet and roared. Long, white fangs dripped with thick, red blood. My stomach dropped. The head of this thing looked like a gorilla. It swatted at them, catching Olivia by the dress and dragging her under its body. Oliver cried out and dove for her, only to be thrown straight in the air.
Damn it! I sprinted toward them, pushing my legs as fast as I could go.
The demon swung its arm and snatched Caroline by the ankle. It roared and hung her in the air upside down. She swatted at it, digging her nails into its flesh. The demon hissed and dropped her to the floor just as I got there. I didn’t pause to check on her. I didn’t ask them to back away. I bent down and snatched Caroline’s black stiletto pump right off her stupid pale foot. I adjusted my grip on the soft leather then dove at the demons. Cold air rushed by my face as I swung my arm and brought the pointed tip of her shoe down on the demons’ neck. The narrow black heel sank into its throat.
Black sludgy demon blood splashed over my arms. The smell of maple syrup overwhelmed my senses. Its red eyes flared with rage and panic for a moment then rolled to the back of its head. I yanked Caroline’s heel out from its body and turned to face her. She looked up at me with a mask of horror. I threw her shoe into her lap then spun around to face the carnage around us.
At first all I saw were half a dozen gorilla-lion demons terrorizing the crowd. My pulse kicked into hyper speed. My breaths were short. I wanted to summon my flames to my palms and let my magic go but there were so many people. There was no way for me to use my magic without endangering everyone else.
I groaned and spun in a circle, looking for an answer anywhere. Heather and Claudia faced off one of the demons but they seemed to be in a standstill. Sebastien, Marshall, and three other men had swords out and were in a vicious battle with another demon – except it was taking all five of them to kill just one. Shouting erupted from off to my left, when I looked I found a whole squadron of men dressed in black with swords raised in the air. But they couldn’t get through the stampede of witches trying to get out.
The Fire Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 7) Page 15