Magick (Book 3 in the Coven Series) (16 page)

“That was
 . . .
amazing,” Piper says, her voice filled with awe.

“Beautiful,” Caren says.

“You did it, didn’t you?” Keller asks.

For a moment I simply look at him, as much in awe of him as he is of me. “I did. It’s gone.”

“Gone?” Sarah asks.

I meet her gaze. “The darkness. It’s all gone, like I burned it into nonexistence.”

Keller walks slowly forward and takes my hand. We don’t need any more than that simple touch at this point, not after we shared so much intense emotion only moments ago. Toni rushes forward and hugs me. Even Egan comes forward and kisses me loudly on the forehead.

“Damn girl, that was something else,” Egan says. Everyone laughs at his thick Texas twang coming out stronger than usual.

I squeeze Keller’s hand in one of mine and Egan’s in the other, beyond thankful to have them both backing me up. When Toni grasps the guys’ other hands, Egan and I both gasp and tense as a strange vibration runs through the four of us. It’s followed by what feels like the pop of a large rubber band. I drop Keller’s and Egan’s hands, but the feeling is still there.

“What was that?” Toni asks.

“You felt it?” I ask.

“Yeah, and I still feel tingly all over.”

Keller looks first at the top of his hands then his palms. “I think we all did.” Curiosity laced with a layer of concern flows through him.

Wait, how do I know that? I look up at Egan. “Do you feel that, too?”

He’s staring at Toni. “Yeah.”

“Feel what?” Toni asks, her eyebrows scrunched.

I take a moment to wander through my senses to make sure I’m really feeling what I think I am. But it’s all there, crazy as it seems. “I can sense your emotions, your presence.” I look from Toni to Keller. “Both of you, the same as I can Egan.”

“Me, too,” Egan says.

“That’s impossible,” Hope says as she comes close to us. “They’re not witches.”

“Seems like impossible is falling by the wayside a lot lately,” Sarah says.

I direct my attention to the head of the Bane. “Care to share what’s going on here? Have I done some freaky white witch thing without knowing it?”

“You’ve extended your coven bond to Keller and Toni.”

I hear what she’s saying, but it doesn’t compute. “Coven bonds only extend to witches.”

“I wonder.” Sarah places her hands on her hips and takes a few steps, appearing deep in thought. When she stops, she points back at the four of us. “Did you know that’s how the first generation of dark covens sealed their families’ coven bonds, by holding hands while the head of the coven had his power fully engaged?”

I shake my head.

“They chose who to bond with.”

“But they were all already witches,” Egan says. “Like Rule’s family.”

“Yes, but I’ve got to wonder if it would have been possible to bond with non-witches even then.”

“You’re saying we’re witches now?” Toni asks, her eyes wide.

“No,” Sarah says. “You’re either born a witch or not. But family bonds are different. It just so happens that the covens formed along family lines.”

“But only Toni and I are related,” Keller says.

Sarah motions to me. “Everything we’ve known for centuries is changing thanks to Jax.”

“So you’re saying this could be a family of choice versus family of genetics situation?” A buzz of excitement builds within me. These three people next to me are more of a family to me than my blood relations. I find I wish Rule were already here so he could be a part of this, too.

Sarah nods. “It makes sense when you think about it.”

A sudden thought sends a shot of concern through me. “Will this replace the coven bond with my family?”

“I don’t know. We won’t know until you’re near enough to one of them to test it.”

“What if I can’t sense them anymore? I won’t know when we’re in danger.”

Keller takes my hand. “Don’t worry about that yet. We’re safe here.”

“We’re rewriting the laws of how everything witch-related works,” Sarah says. “But if I were to guess, I’d say your original bond is still intact. That’s three centuries of family bond strength.”

“I burned away the darkness. Maybe I did the same thing to that Pherson coven bond.”

Sarah shrugs. “Unfortunately, we won’t know until faced with that situation.”

Great, just what I want. To possibly find out I can’t sense my family anymore when at any moment they could have me surrounded.

I feel a stirring of jealousy in Keller, so I look toward him and smile. The twinge of jealousy recedes, replaced by relief. I get the feeling it’s more a relief that I won’t have to go out and put myself in danger to get Rule and Adele than anything else. When I see Piper staring at where I’m holding Rule’s hand, I let go to stand behind Keller, my hands on his shoulders. He reaches up and entwines the fingers of one hand with mine.

Sarah joins the group, followed by Hope, Caren and Amanda. “I see our newest guests have arrived,” Sarah says. “Welcome back.”

“I still can’t believe this place, that all of you have been here all this time and we never knew,” Adele says.

“Absolute secrecy was essential for our survival.”

“We’ve always lived by the same code,” Adele says. “And yet I understand you knew about us.”

Sarah indicates for Adele to take a seat. “It’s time you heard the story of how our families are connected.”

I watch Adele and Rule’s faces as Sarah recounts the story of Penelope Davenport and Benjamin Latimer. I can tell by the changes in their expressions—the widening of eyes, the slight opening of mouths, shifts in position—that they’ve never heard this story before. It must be a shock for a family whose purpose has been to record the history of witches in Salem to find out that there is a big chunk of that history they don’t know, a piece that involved their own family.

I glance at Piper. She’s watching Rule, too, but I don’t think it’s to judge his reaction to a story from the past. I wonder if now, three hundred years later, love might blossom between Penelope’s and Benjamin’s descendants. I smile at that possibility. It makes me really happy to think I maybe had a part in that happening. I watch as Rule glances toward Piper and catches her watching him. She blushes but doesn’t shift her gaze away.

Quiet settles in the wake of Sarah’s revelations. Adele is the first one to speak. “Mom would have loved knowing all of this.”

Sorrow stabs me in the heart, and I think back to how Fiona had insisted she believed I’d find a way to become the white witch I’d glimpsed at Shiprock. Her daughter and grandson deserve to know she was right. “If your brains aren’t about to explode, I have something else to tell you.”

Rule pulls his gaze from Piper, but I notice he eases over on the couch. She casually sits beside him. They don’t touch, but I don’t have to have a coven bond with them to know there’s a lot of nervous attraction building between them.

Instead of launching into a long story, I step away from the couches toward an emptier part of the room. I lift my hands and call upon my magic. Where it used to explode out of me, now it comes easily. I go from normal-looking me to bright white in the blink of an eye.

Adele gasps and brings her hand to her mouth. Rule jumps to his feet. “You did it.”

I pull the magic back in, returning to normal. “I couldn’t have done it without you, both of you.” I swallow. “And Fiona. She believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.” I look around the room at my friends. “And she wasn’t the only one. I have no doubt I couldn’t have done this without the help I got from my friends.” I look down at the floor for a moment before lifting my gaze back to the people watching me. “I can’t tell you how odd that still feels to say, that I have friends. Real friends.” I shift my gaze to Toni, Egan and then Keller. “More than friends. A family.”

I wish I could capture this moment so I can pull it out in the tough days ahead to remind me that whatever I have to go through will be worth it.

Sarah stands and rounds her desk. “It’s getting late. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I could use some rest.”

Hope steps toward the door. “Adele, I’ll show you to your room. Rule, yours is next to Keller and Egan’s.”

“Hey, why does he get his own room?” Egan teases as he ruffles Rule’s hair.

Rule retaliates by fake punching Egan in the gut. After some good-natured wrestling between the two of them, we all head for the hallway. Only I notice Sarah doesn’t follow us. Instead, she shuts the doors to her office quietly. I stop and stare at those doors and consider going back inside. She’s hiding something, and I doubt it could be anything that doesn’t involve me in some way.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Keller says as he drapes his arm around my shoulders and guides me down the hallway.

Soon enough turns out to be the next morning at breakfast. Sarah walks in after everyone is seated but doesn’t sit herself.

“In the past weeks, information has been held back until the holder of that information felt it was the right time to reveal it,” she says. “There has been one thing I’ve had to keep to myself until now. It’s a secret known only to the head of the Bane, and none of my predecessors ever had a reason to share it.” She looks straight at me. “I know the location of the missing page to the Beginning Book.”

A collective inhale of surprise goes through the room. Once the initial shock passes, I scoot forward on my chair. “Where?”

“Inside Penelope Davenport’s crypt.”

“That doesn’t do us much good when we can’t get inside it,” Rule says.

Keller leans his forearms on the table. “There’s no visible way to open it, and it’s spelled closed. The spell’s so powerful it blew Jax off her feet and burned her fingers.”

“It’s spelled against dark witches, not a white witch,” Sarah says.

“You mean she can open it now?” Toni asks.

Sarah nods. “She’s the only person who can open it.”

“How?” I ask.

“I don’t know. But you should be able to tell when you’re facing it.”

Egan leans back in his chair. “How about we skip that part and you just tell us what the missing page says.”

“I can’t because I don’t know that either. Penelope had the crypt built well before her death, and she hid the page somewhere inside. She created the spell that would seal the crypt shut for good after her body was interred inside. It would never be able to be opened or even touched by a dark witch. Only a true white witch in full control of her powers can open it.”

“That’s one important piece of paper,” Rule says.

“Guess I’m going on a field trip,” I say.

Sarah holds up her index finger. “Not until Egan gets the surveillance set up and we do anything else we need to outside of this building.”

“Why?” Toni asks. “Seems like the sooner we get that paper, the better.”

“Because if any dark witches are in the area, they will detect the discharge of magic it will take to open the crypt,” I say. “I’ll have to be very fast.” I realize in that moment that I feel like I might actually be able to run faster than I used to. I’ll have to test that before I go out.

“You’re not going alone,” Keller says. Worry fills him.

“I need to be able to move more quickly than you can.”

“No,” Sarah says. “I can’t have your energy signature leading any dark witches to our door.”

“So I’m supposed to take an entourage? Expose them to danger?” I don’t hide the sudden frustration, but it’s not coming from any darkness within me. This is just plain old human emotion.

“We’ll make a sweep of the immediate area,” Sarah says. “It should give you enough time to get inside, retrieve the page and leave the area by car even if your magic is detected from farther away.”