Coven (30 page)

“And if it doesn’t?” Jett asked, joining
us.

“Then it’s back to the drawing board.”

“You’re Grandpa is the one with the jinn
powers, right?” Seth asked. “Sorry, I’m trying to keep all the
facts together that you told me about your family.”

I nodded. “Yes, he is.”

“How’d he get a name like Hex?” Jett
added.

I laughed. “Actually, his name is Hezekiah.
When he was younger, he fell in with some demons and his family
ostracized him when they found out. That was when everyone started
calling him Hex. It sort of stuck.”

“Bummer,” Jett said. “It must suck to have
people brand you that way.”

“I can’t even imagine what he’s been
through.”

If anyone was paying attention to what the
three of us were saying, they didn’t comment. Instead all eyes were
on my mom, monitoring her every reaction and facial expression.

“Are you okay, Lollipop?” Grandma asked her
when she winced as the large needle and catheter went into her
arm.

“I’m fine. Just used to giving IV’s, not
getting them,” she added with a smile.

Before long, the bluish fluid was dripping
rapidly into her arm. Everyone relaxed and visited while we waited
in the safety of the circle.

Mom gestured for me and I moved to her side.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, taking my hand and glancing
briefly toward Jett and Seth.

“I hope so. We need to do some talking, but
it can wait until we see how things go with you.”

At that moment, a white light suddenly
appeared, growing ever stronger as Dee Dee took on full form
staring straight at Mom. The others in the room gasped in
shock.

“Dee Dee?” I asked in surprise, wondering
what she was doing here.

Her face appeared determined and in one
swift move, she dove straight toward my mom. A brilliant purple
light shattered through the air as my mom’s pendant activated,
repelling the entity trying to reach her. Immediately, Dee Dee
refocused her attention on me, rushing toward me at full speed. I
gasped as she entered my body, feeling her zip through my arm and
into my mom.

A swirling vortex developed in the center of
the circle, sucking the table completely out of the room.

“What’s happening?” I yelled as I struggled
to hang on to my mom.

“She’s going to jump!” Hex yelled, grabbing
my mom’s other hand.

“Dad!” I screamed in desperation, reaching
out for him.

“Kenna!” he shouted.

The next moment everything around me
disappeared. Tumbling through the air, I screamed, my hands clawing
at the emptiness around me, searching for anything to grasp
onto.

Hitting something hard, the air whooshed out
of my lungs as I rolled several feet before coming to a complete
stop. Glancing up, I saw my mom standing over me, smiling, the IV
still hanging from her arm.

Terror filled me. “Mom? What happened?” I
asked, climbing to my feet.

Her smile grew wider. “I am not your mom,”
she stated, causing fear to race through me.

“Dee Dee?” I asked in a choked whisper. “Is
that you?”

“I have waited a long time to return home,”
she replied. Instantly she dematerialized, disappearing completely
and taking the body she had possessed with her.

Several loud grunts sounded behind me and I
whirled around to find everyone else, rolling on the ground behind
me.

“What the hell was that?” Dad asked,
standing and glancing around. “Kenna, where’s your mom?”

“It’s not Mom,” I rushed to explain. “She’s
been possessed by a ghost that was in the house.”

“We had a ghost and you didn’t deem it
something important I should know about?” he growled.

“I didn’t want you to freak out.”

“Well, I’m freaking out now! Where’s my
wife?”

“She said she’s waited a long time to come
home, and then she disappeared.”

“Where is home, exactly, Kenna? We need to
know everything you can tell us about this spirit,” Grandma spoke
as she stepped toward me.

“She was never very specific.” I wracked my
brain, trying to come up with anything. “All she said was that she
was in love with a boy who married someone else after she was
forced to marry a madman. She never gave me a time frame to her
existence—only that she was tied to something in Salem. That’s all
I know. I swear.”

“What about clothing? What was she
wearing?”

“She was the same as she looked like now.
Just in a long white shift with a ring of flowers around her
head.”

“None of this is helping.”

“How’d we all end up here anyway?” Jett
asked.

“I have no idea,” Hex said, scratching his
head. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I wonder if the entity somehow magnified
the jinn powers and opened a portal of sorts. Because we were all
contained in the circle, we all took the jump,” Grandma
suggested.

“So where are we?” Seth asked, his hands
still pressed to the earth. “The ground doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, not
following.

“It’s . . . cleaner? Not as full
of pollutants.”

“So we’re really far out in the middle of a
forest somewhere?” Glancing around, all I could see was lush
greenery.

“No, you don’t understand. When I feel the
earth, I can sense all of it—as a whole.”

“So you’re saying the whole earth doesn’t
feel right?” My brain struggled to wrap around this.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. It feels
almost . . . younger.”

Grandma glanced at Dad. “I’m getting a bad
feeling about this.”

“I’ve had a bad feeling since we arrived.”
He stalked away, running a hand through his hair. “Kenna, think
harder. There has to be something else we can go on.”

I felt totally helpless, knowing I didn’t
have any more information to give them.

“Wait! Look!” Jett pointed and we all
followed his gaze to a small road that no one had previously
noticed. In the distance there appeared to be a man approaching
with a wagon.

“Is it possible that we’ve gone back in
time?” I asked, unable to believe my eyes. “Or maybe we’ve landed
in the middle of some sort of reenactment?”

“Follow my lead,” Jett said, stepping
forward. Immediately all our clothing changed and we looked as if
we were a group of peasants standing on the side of the road. I
realized, then, we’d been made to match the clothing style of the
man walking in front of the cart.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
my dad asked under his breath.

“We have no idea where we are and I can cast
illusions and interpret languages. Do you have a better
suggestion?”

“No. Go for it,” Dad continued. “Just try
not to get us killed, if at all possible.”

“That is the plan,” Jett whispered.

We all watched as the man approached and
Jett raised his hand in greeting. The man paused but didn’t say
anything, as if waiting for one of us to speak. I knew Jett had no
idea what language to use.

Suddenly he doubled over and began coughing.
The man rushed to his side, speaking rapidly in a foreign tongue as
he pounded him on the back heartily.

“Gaelic.” Jett managed to spit out before
being pounded again. Raising his hands in submission, he thanked
the man and continued speaking with him.

“Gaelic.” I breathed out in surprise.

“Ask him what year it is,” my dad
prodded.

“Working on it,” Jett spoke, exasperation
filtering through his voice. He continued speaking with the man,
but the man looked confused.

Finally Jett turned and motioned for us all
to gather closer around him. “Near as I can tell we are in Ireland,
but there is no supreme ruler. The land appears to be ruled by five
primary kings, who rule over lesser kingdoms that are governed by
different rulers. If I understood him correctly, he said he came to
Ireland recently with the Celts.”

“The Celts?” Irritation filled my dad’s
voice. “Like as in somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred to
one hundred B.C.?” His voice crescendoed as he spoke.

“Well, it’s not like I can ask him that! He
doesn’t exactly have calendar or even a clue about what B.C. and
A.D. stand for, since they haven’t happened yet. This is the best I
can pin it down for you.”

“B.C. Ireland,” Hex said in amazement,
staring around.

My dad seemed completely frustrated. “Aw,
shit. We are so screwed!”

Acknowledgments

Over the last few years, I have received
message after message from readers who have read the Of Witches and
Warlocks series, begging for more. Much to their dismay, I
constantly hedged on the idea, never feeling like I had quite the
right story to tell . . . until now. It is my hope that everyone
will enjoy this continuation as much as I have, but there are still
so many exciting things left to come in this adventure!

I want to thank my husband, James, for
letting me bounce ideas off him for months. I’m sure he’s totally
sick of the story by now. I also thank my children, Brady and
Kysee, for helping to give their input when I needed opinions.
Also, a HUGE thank to my daughter Kamery Solomon, who did the
AMAZING formatting for both the ebook and print interiors. You are
awesome! And to my best friend, Belinda Boring, thank you for
reading along and letting me know if I was on the “right path.” I
love seeing you swoon! A special thank you goes out to Raquel
Auriemma, for her help in answering any questions I had about the
Salem area during my research for the story. I couldn’t have done
this without any of you!

Lots of Love,

Lacey

About the
Author:

Lacey Weatherford is the
#1 International and
USA TODAY
bestselling author of the popular young adult
paranormal romance series, Of Witches and Warlocks, and
contemporary series, Chasing Nikki, Crush, and Allure. She has
always had a love of books and wanted to become a writer ever since
reading her first Nancy Drew novel at the age of eight.

Lacey resides in the beautiful White
Mountains of Arizona, with her wonderful husband and children. When
she’s not out supporting one of her kids at their sporting/music
events, she spends her time reading, writing, and visiting with her
readers on her social media accounts.

Visit Lacey’s Official Website:

http://www.laceyweatherfordbooks.com

Follow on Twitter:

LMWeatherford

Or Facebook:

Lacey Weatherford

Did you love Coven? Then you might enjoy the
latest time-travel hit from author Kamery Solomon, Swept Away! Get
a free look now!

Prologue

Buried treasure.

It’s quite possible no two words, when
placed together, incite the imagination of a person so greatly.
Immediately, visions of rugged men, tanned from months at sea,
bodies bearing scars that tell of a lifetime of battle, their
clothes hanging slightly tattered around them, fill the mind of the
believer. They imagine old, locked chests carried between sailors,
over sandy beaches and into dense forests where the air is so thick
that moisture clings to their every movement. Perhaps, just before
burying their booty, the pirates decide to have one last look,
cracking open their vault and revealing piles of gold coins,
strings of pearls, and bright gemstones that spill over the lip of
the case, tumbling into the pit below. And then, the buccaneers
hide it all there in the dirt, under the leafy greens of the
tropical paradise. A map is drawn, where “x” marks the spot, and
then tucked away. Maybe the men will come back for the treasure,
maybe they won't. Years later, some poor lad will find the map and
go on an adventure rife with danger and suspense, winning the final
outcome of a better life with more money than he could ever
possibly use or want.