AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stopped the knot in the same place I’d started it. That was the one thing that I couldn’t mess up. The ends had to align or it wouldn’t work. The knot glowed brightly in the air for a second before dimming.
There. It was done. “All safe now. No need to worry about me,” I said.
Christopher tilted his wolf-y head to the side and yipped again before starting away.
At least he trusted me enough to let me use my magic. I rested my arms on the windowsill. I had a lot to accomplish in the coming weeks—at least I hoped I had weeks… I couldn’t predict how fast Luciana would work against us.
The pressure would get to me if I let it. Instead, I tried to breathe through the stress. Being away from Luciana was a good thing. The first step to getting everything put right.
Thank God Teresa had shown up when she did. She’d been a little later than I would’ve liked, but that was better than not coming at all—which had been a real possibility after she got bitten and turned from our future coven leader to a full-time werewolf.
To be honest, I was a little jealous. She’d gotten to live a normal life until a few months ago, while I’d been struggling with the Wicked Witch. I didn’t begrudge her that…much. I wanted what she had. A life. Real friends—not coven members who were trying to suck me dry. A boyfriend who would do anything for me instead of Mathieu le Douche.
My shoulders were so tense that I could barely roll them back. So much for breathing through the stress.
The one thing I couldn’t forget—that I couldn’t let myself forget—was what I’d done to get here. Taking that stupid oath in the first place so that Mom could leave the coven. Doing Luciana’s bidding until my soul was blackened. Then, manipulating my cousin so that she’d be forced to stay at the compound. She’d been stripped of her powers—tortured—because of me. And getting David killed…
I owed both of them. And no matter what—by the time this all ended—I would repay the debt. So help me God, I would settle it or die trying.
Chapter Two
As much as I’d hated being confined to the coven compound, I’d always felt at home there. It was my home. Everything I knew was there. Everyone I knew. And they all knew me. I’d never been an outsider before. I was from one of the oldest coven families and I had a secure place there.
At St. Ailbe’s, I definitely felt like an outsider.
No one would talk to any of us brujos except Teresa’s friends. The rest of them gave us a wide berth. We were unknowns. I understood that. But still, there were eight of us and loads of them. Which meant that we ended up going everywhere in a group. Raphael was half-convinced that if we separated, the wolves would attack. I didn’t think that was likely, but if I were being honest, we’d betrayed our own coven. The wolves knew that, and if it came down to a fight… They might not make the distinction between good witches and bad witches.
I’ve already lost one friend. I can’t lose anyone else.
I swallowed down my grief. I’d cried all day after Daniel died, but now I had to keep going. His death had stopped Luciana’s attack. For all her evilness, she still loved her son. As much as someone like Luciana could… But the quiet after the battle wasn’t going to last. The nightmares alone proved she wasn’t sitting still. She was going to come after us, and now she wasn’t just drunk on power, she was angry too. Her ally had killed her son, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she believed the wolves and those of us who’d left her were at fault.
Now we had to be ready for whatever hell Luciana was going to throw at us. When this was over—when Luciana’s threats weren’t hanging overhead like an anvil about to crush us—I’d give myself more time to grieve for my closest friend. For now, I had to ignore the ache in my heart.
I miss you so much, Daniel.
“Ready to go?” Raphael said as he stuck his head through the doorway.
I’d showered over an hour ago, and it was past time for my morning cup of coffee. “I’m ready whenever everyone else is.” I flattened my hands against my short jean skirt.
“Everyone’s good to go. We’re just waiting on Cosette.”
I grinned. How fey of her to take the longest.
“I’m ready,” Cosette’s voice rang out from the hall. “I’ve been ready.” She appeared in my doorway, her aura a glittering rainbow. The first time I’d seen it, I’d stared, dumbfounded. I’d like to be able to say that I didn’t feel that way every time, but that’d be a lie. I was used to seeing different colored auras on witches, depending on what kinds of magic they specialized in, but her aura was breathtaking. Like holographic glitter. A bright shining silver, but then all colors of the rainbow all at once. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
“Oh… Well…” Raphael said as he practically drooled.
I raised a brow at him. He knew she was majorly off limits. Cosette was always vague about her background, but I’d spent enough time with her to read between the lines. She’d never revealed what kind of fey she was or where her abilities lay, but I could sense the undercurrent of her power. It was a lot of power. She had to be much deeper into the fey courts than she let on.
Cosette flounced ahead of us, all tall and willowy in a mini skirt and tank top. Raphael tilted his head to stare at her butt.
Gross. I shoved past him, shooting him a look. “No,” I mouthed over my shoulder.
He shrugged.
Lord help me. Raphael getting tangled in fey intrigues was the last thing I needed to worry about. Cosette was on our side, but Raphael wouldn’t last a minute in the fey courts. Because of his straightforward nature, he’d never learned how to be diplomatic about things. And, if what I knew about the fey was right, they were all about politics.
As we followed Cosette outside, the group of us was quiet. I scanned my friends’ faces as we moved across the well-manicured quad. Yvonne looked tired, but that could just be because she was older. Her hair had turned gray before I was born. This was a stressful situation for us, but that was possibly more true for her. She’d betrayed something that she’d spent her long life supporting.
