Broken (The Immortal Coven Book 1) (20 page)

It took all the resolve in my system to push him back, to break off the kiss that would make me want more of what he isn’t willing to give.

“You shouldn’t kiss me like that if certain things are not going to be happening.” I sighed, placing my forehead to his moist lips.

“Just because they can’t happen doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be hard to keep them from happening naturally.”

Oh, how you confuse me dear Dmitri!

He hugged me;
I promise I don’t mean to confuse you.

There was a loud knock at my door and without responding a face peeked out from the other side. “I’m sorry to interrupt but the ladies are all meeting in the great hall at the end of the wing. They are asking that the two of you make your way there.” She winced, as if extremely apologetic, and closed the door.

“And so it begins. Just remember, you are Nanette’s daughter and of Ciara’s bloodline. Don’t let them give you any superiority crap. As far as everyone is concerned, you are of the greatest bloodline of the group.” He warned.

I nodded, as prepared for this as I was ever going to be.

We walked, hand and hand, to the end of the marbled castle hallway. The opening to the great room of the West wing was similar to that of the entrance way.

The voices trailed into the hallway so it was an obvious relief to see 7 other female faces and their male protectors nearby.

I caught sight of Kyle first, and smiled at him. His features showed genuine appreciation for my presence. I squeezed Dmitri’s hand, the nerves jumping like silly beans in my stomach.

They all seemed to be standing in a circle formation, so I just walked to an empty opening and looked at everyone chit chatting.

The woman to my right, someone I hadn’t met, took my free hand and smiled. “I am Beatrice, but you can call me Bea. You are Celia, correct.”

My expression mirrored hers, “Yes, I’m Nanette’s daughter.”

“Oh, honey, I am so sorry about your mother.”

They had all known my mom, and this made me sad. They knew this part of her, and I did not. “Thank you.”

She wanted something more for you, always remember that
. Dmitri interrupted my thoughts

I shifted to face him, with Bea still holding my hand.
I know now, without a shadow of a doubt that I would have like to have shared this with her, to know this side of her.

“I suppose we should begin.” A voice at the far end of the room boomed, ceasing the voices from continuing.

Being that I had met all but three members, I would assume the woman speaking was the lady of the house, Pricilla.

“First of all, has everyone had a chance to greet Celia?” She gestured in my direction. I looked at all the faces that were now familiar.

“As you all know, Augusta is not with us. This is why we are all here. The situation with Kalvati has reached its cusp and something must be done. Our generation has not had to defeat dark magic and so we look to our predecessors and their knowledge.” She gestured to who I would assume is her protector who came forward to be seen and heard.

“We, as your protectors, have learned as much as we can about the situation and it is grave, indeed.”

Dmitri let go of my hand and got in front of me. “I was explaining to our small Western world member that Celia has made a discovery regarding Augusta’s absence from the coven.” He turned and signaled for me to address the group.

Where was that damn courage when I required it!

Remember, I believe in you, my love.
His eyes beamed pride and it was the tiny push I needed to be bold and unafraid.

“My mother did extensive research about Kalvati before she was murdered by the shadow demons. He has always attacked our coven because of our ability to defeat dark magic, especially those that pertain to the shadow realm. All it takes is one coven spell for the veil to be closed, but all the witches in the coven must be present and only coven witches.”

The whispers began, their faces shocked by the simplicity behind it.

“He won’t kill Augusta because he needs her alive long enough to attack us while the veil is opened.” I reached into my pocket and removed a sheet of paper I’d been carrying around with me for the past few weeks. It was a copy of mom’s notes from her book.

“We could try to isolate Kalvati, if each of us casts a binding spell on him, including the successors, but I’m not sure it will be strong enough.”

“We should summon Ciara. She holds the power to close the veil in one spell.” Maura suggested, her annoyance far too clear to deny.

My eyes met Dmitri, not knowing what to counter her request with.

“Ciara doesn’t respond to summoning, Maura. She hasn’t been seen or heard of for many generations.” Kyle said prominently.

“That’s not true.” Valerie countered, loud enough to cause an echo in the hall.

The women all stopped their conversations cold, their eyes affixed, as mine were, to her stance which had become tense.

“What do you mean by that?” Pricilla asked her as quickly as a whip.

“She pulled Celia in, not too long ago.”

‘Now why did she have to go bringing me into this?’ I thought!

“What did she say to you, Celia?” Gloria asked, her hand slightly grazing my arm.

“She made it clear that if we don’t do this right the first time, something bad would happen.” The matter of factly tone didn’t make my case easy to swallow. I looked to each of them, waiting for one of them to say something but they were waiting for the rest of it, almost as if knowing a warning like that would be followed with something even worse.

“She said that if we fail, I alone would bear the consequences.”

Their eyes drifted from me to Dmitri, who was staring at me. His temper boiled just below the surface. He said nothing, didn’t even budge an inch, merely waited for me to continue on.

“She also said that I would know what to do, while difficult the decision would be, the coven would follow my lead.”

To this, a tisk was heard leaving Valerie’s mouth. “And why would we follow a 17 year old amateur into any sort of spell casting?” she sassed, turning to the rest to find agreement.

She found none.

“What have you learned from your mother’s book other than the spell to bind Kalvati?” Jezabel inquired the worried lines on her brow ever present.

“Every coven spell in the past thousand years has needed a great life force, something hundreds of years old to sacrifice.”

“A tree of life,” Katerina countered.

“Yes, I recall seeing such a spell in my book. Here in Oxfordshire is such a tree. The tourist claims it is one of the most magical places on earth.” Pricilla added.

Jezabel began to shake her hand, as if recalling something. “I too remember seeing something about a tree in my book, but mine referred to one by where we live in the US.”

She looked to me, “Your mother took you there almost every year as a little girl. The tree was at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor, the one that’s near the ocean.”  She tried to jog my memory.

I put two images together and found the memory, a giant tree with huge long branches that hung low to the ground, and the smell of the salt water all around.

“She took me this past year for my birthday. We walked the park and ended up at the tree.” Her image was engraved behind my closed lids. Right with the tears that I was trying to hold back.

Dmitri placed the palm of his hand in the small of my back, “Do you want this to be over for the night?” he whispered into my ear.

I turned, tossing him a half smile for the effort to keep me strong, “I’m okay.”

“The tree makes little difference in this discussion. We can’t do a coven spell without Augusta. The fact remains she is in his control. Who is to say she hasn’t given him all of our secrets?” Valerie argued.

Kyle turned to her sharply. “We don’t know, but Aerok is here and if anything happens, Perri is with him to immediately take her place.”

“It’s almost like they want it to happen.” She sassed him.

“It’s called preparation, Valerie.”

She shook her head and started to pace. “We are missing something, ladies.”

I felt the mental shut down only seconds away. No one was focusing on the bigger picture. As Dmitri had conveyed in our private conversation, the bigger picture is the key.

“Look, our best bet is to cast the binding spell using everyone we have. Each of the individual spells will work; we just have to believe in it.” I tried to soothe her worry.

“I need to go; I can’t do this right now.” She stormed out of the great room and back down the hall. Every step she took echoed throughout the extra space in the castle.

“Leave her be. She gets cranky when she is tired.” Kyle assured me.

Dmitri took my hand back into his own. “I think it’s time to rest. Our day has been too long, and you’ve had a busy several days before this.”

Maura took a step towards us, “Yeah, we heard you bolted something to save Lisa.”

“I didn’t even know what I was doing. It just kind of happened all on its own.”

“That’s crazy; I’ve never done anything like that.” Gloria added, joining in on the conversation.

“You know she has to be powerful though, Gloria, she is from Ciara’s blood line. Remember the stories Toren use to tell us about Ciara back when dark magic was running rampant?”

“He made it sound so unbelievable though. I just never realized that we can actually use light magic like that.”

“I suppose you just have to channel it the right way.”

“See and I didn’t even know any of this.” I giggled to them.

“Sweetheart, you will do just fine. Believe us.” Gloria tapped my shoulder.

Dmitri took two steps back, pulling my body to follow his.

“It’s time to rest. I guess we will see each other in the morning.”

Everyone nodded and started their walk back to their own chambers.

You say too much when you talk to them
. Dmitri warned.

I glared at him,
why are you so worried about what I say to my sister witches?

Because sometimes they aren’t all peaches and crème.

“So freaking what!” I seethed through my teeth, the words traveling down the hallway.
What are they going to do? Attack me?

You never know, Celia. And remember I’m the one that has to protect you when you go and do something thoughtless.

Dmitri took the doorknob to enter our room, but instinctively I reached out pausing him from opening it for us.

He looked from my hand to my eyes and the seconds felt like an endless building of tension.

There’s something inside!
My thoughts screamed at him, the terror finally hitting reason.

He swung the door open, shoving me behind him, and we both witnessed a cloaked figure jump up to an opened window towards the back of the room.

I shrieked, causing every nerve ending to freeze in place.

Dmitri on the other hand, barreled towards it, but the figure was far too quick for him. It leaped out of the window and into the dark night before Dmitri even reached the bed.