Magick (Book 3 in the Coven Series) (22 page)

By the time I finish all three conversions, I’m surprised by how okay I feel. Maybe I’m building up a tolerance, strengthening my white witch muscles so to speak.

We all settle into a circle on the couches and chairs and start mapping out how to handle different scenarios, different numbers of attacking witches.

“It’d be helpful if we knew where this was going to take place so we can scope it out,” Egan says.

“I can help with that.” We all look toward the doorway. Sean stands there bracing himself against the doorframe. He still looks pale and weak, but at least he isn’t shivering anymore. He meets my eyes. “They’re meeting at your ancestors’ property.”

“The Pherson land?”

“Yes.”

I glance at Keller, and I see the same realization in his eyes. The covens are coming back to their birthplace. I shift my gaze to Sarah, asking her without words if all these witches can draw from the same fissure to increase their already incredible strength. Her expression doesn’t give me any comfort.

“There’s a reason they’re meeting there,” I say. “It’s where the first covens pulled their magic from the earth.”

Everyone stares at me, stunned.

“The actual spot?” Egan asks.

“Yeah, there’s a fissure on the property line between the original Pherson land and that of the Davenports.”

Egan curses, and I see a lot of sudden anxiety on the faces of everyone else in the room.

“One other thing. I may have to pull from the fissure to have enough power to take on a lot of witches at once.” I detect the coming questions and head them off. “Sarah says that the dark magic won’t affect me in a negative way.”

“How do we know that?” Rinna asks.

“From everything we know about white witches, once their power is fully realized there’s no going back,” Sarah says. “She may have no choice but to use that extra power because the coven witches will surely try to do the same. And considering how they already upset the balance of nature, if they pull more dark magic it could prove cataclysmic.”

That sobering thought brings a hush to the room.

I know what will have to be done. “When the battle is over, I’ll destroy the fissure so it can never be used again.”

“Going to be a cold meeting,” Rule says. “There’s no house on that property, no barn, nothing.”

Sean slips his hands into his jean pockets. “They don’t anticipate being there long.”

The significance of his words hits me. “Only long enough to siphon Egan and me.” Cold dread shoots through me at the memory of my mother’s agony in the middle of another Siphoning Circle.

Sean nods. “Tell me what you need me to do. They don’t know I’m not on their side anymore.”

We make plans late into the night until we all start getting droopy-eyed. Toni looks at the clock. “Hey, it’s Christmas.”

It couldn’t feel less like a holiday.

The next morning
we all wake up early despite our late night. I suspect everyone else is as filled with anxiety and the need to just get this all over with as I am. So I’m surprised when I wander into the dining room to find a huge breakfast spread out on the table, a decorated Christmas tree in the corner and carols playing.

“I’m still asleep, aren’t I?” I say.

“Um, didn’t expect this,” Toni says beside me.

The others filter into the room behind us.

Sarah props her hands on the back of her chair at the head of the table. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, and there’s nothing we can do today but wait. So I see no reason why we can’t do something enjoyable.”

“Maybe next year we can do the whole traditional Christmas thing with presents,” Toni says. “With our families.”

I hear the sadness in her voice. Determination floods me to get everyone in this room safely through the next day and whatever follows, to get Toni and Keller back to their families, to make it a safe world for the rest of them to follow whatever dreams they have.

“We’ve already received the best Christmas present we could ever hope for,” Rinna says. I catch her gaze. “Freedom.”

I choke up at her words, and Keller takes my hand.

As a feast of food is passed around the table, I notice Sean hasn’t joined us. I lean closer to Keller. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“You want me to go with you?”

“No. You stay.”

He squeezes my hand. “You’re a good person.”

“I know what he’s going through, at least a little.”

When I knock on Sean’s door, he doesn’t respond at first, and I wonder if he’s asleep. But then I hear movement inside.

“Come in,” he says.

When I open the door, he’s sitting on the side of his bed. It’s odd to think of a guy as tall, as wide and as powerful as Sean looking lonely, but that’s the impression I get. I sit on the empty bed opposite his. “We’re having a Christmas breakfast. You must be hungry.”

“I’m okay.”

He looks about as far from okay as a guy can get. I notice the notebook on the bed next to him.

“What were you doing?”

He hesitates a moment then picks up the notebook and opens it to the first page. I see he’s written something on every line. “Listing the names of the people I’ve killed at the coven’s command.” His hand grips the notebook hard. “I can’t remember them all.” He looks up at me, tortured. “How can someone kill so many people that he can’t even remember them all?”

“I know this is hard, but you have to realize that the person who killed those people wasn’t you.”

“It was. I can still hear their pleas, see the light go out of their eyes, remember that it gave me pleasure. Pleasure, Jax!”

I grab his hands and hold on tight when he tries to pull away. “I understand. I killed someone, a hunter. And I relished every minute of it. If I could have killed him all over, I would have. I burned him beyond recognition. But that was the dark magic taking me over, suppressing who I really am.”

“At least you had the strength to walk away from the coven. Egan, too. Those others. I just blindly obeyed them.”

“And you were trained, indoctrinated to do exactly that from the moment you were born.”

He tightens his grip on my hands, hanging on for dear life. “I have to pay for what I did, turn myself in.”

“It’s not that simple. We’re still witches, Sean. And even if I manage to convert every witch in the world, we’re still supernatural and normal humans cannot know about us. They don’t do different well, even among themselves. It would just lead to more witch hunts, and it wouldn’t end well. I don’t want to tempt having this cycle of retribution start all over.”

“But all those people’s families
 . . .
how do I live with this guilt?”

“You atone. For the rest of your life, you help people. You save them, more lives than you ever took.”

“It feels like nothing will ever be enough.” When he looks at me, there are tears in his eyes.

“All you can do is take it one step at a time. That’s all any of us can do. And you start by helping us tomorrow. Even with my power, we’ll be horribly outnumbered. But you have to make me a promise.”

“Anything.”

“You stay alive. Don’t do anything reckless because you think it will kill you and end your suffering.”

He doesn’t respond.

“Promise me, Sean.”

He looks me in the eye with a new determination. “I promise.”

I stand. “When you’re ready, I hope you’ll come join us.” I lean forward and kiss him on the forehead then cross to the door.

“Jax?”

I look back at him, see the mixture of emotions warring for supremacy within him. Surprise, yearning, guilt.

“Thank you.”

I smile at him. “You’re welcome, cuz.”

He smiles a little at that, and I hope it’s the beginning of his road to redemption. As I head back to the dining room, I think about all the lives that will be changed tomorrow. Changed by me.

My first order of business is to find the fissure. It doesn’t take me long, now that I’m looking for it. When I approach the crack in the rocks beside the stream separating the former Pherson and Davenport land, the invisible evil bubbling up turns my stomach. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it the time I visited with Rule, even though we’d been at the opposite end of the property.

“This is it?” Keller asks.

I nod. “We can’t let any of the coven witches anywhere near it.”

“Don’t worry about it. You just concentrate on doing your thing and staying safe.”

The sound of an engine draws our attention. When an older pickup races into view, I see Sean ready for battle. But Keller stiffens beside me. “No, stop!”

I realize the problem. It’s Rev. Dawes.

Egan curses under his breath. “What is he doing here?”

Keller starts forward then stops and looks back at me.

“Go,” I say. “Get him out of here.” The covens are enough to worry about without wondering if Rev. Dawes will try to shoot me again in the confusion.

Keller races off toward his father. I watch as he tries to get his dad to leave, gesturing back down the road. Keller’s agitation builds with each passing moment. I groan and stalk toward them.

“What?” Keller says to his dad as I close the space between us.

A jolt goes through Rev. Dawes when he spots me. “The others,” he says then looks back at Keller. “Hunters. They found out about this witch meeting, and they’re coming here in force to kill them and anyone who gets in their way.”

My heart slams against my ribcage. “When?”

A gunshot rings out behind me in answer. I spin in time to see Egan knock Toni to the ground and send a blast of magic toward the shooter. Things just went from bad to way, way worse.

“Capture them!” I yell the command as loud as I can. I’ve got to get all the hunters together as fast as possible so we’re not in the middle of a battle with them when the covens show up. I race toward Toni and Egan as more shots ring out. I use my fastest speed to reach the nearest pair of hunters, disarming them before they even see me. “Don’t fight me. I’m one of the good guys.”