The Promise (The Coven Series) (13 page)

“It
was interesting.”

She
stopped and turned to stare at me in amazement.
 
“Interesting?
 
Is that all you can
say?”

“Kay,
I’m not about to convert after seeing one ceremony,” I told her.
 
I knew by the look on her face she’d half
expected that.
 
I also knew how important
the Coven was to her so I tried to soothe her.
 
“The ceremony was really beautiful and whatever trick you used to make
the candles shoot up like that was wicked cool.”

“It
wasn’t a trick, CJ,” she told me quietly.
 
“It was the Elements accepting Megan.
 
The flames gave them a voice.”

I
frowned at her.
 
I’d needed it to be a
simple trick.
 
That way I could explain
away everything I’d seen.
 

“And
I don’t expect you to convert, not really,” she smiled half-heartedly.
 
“I know you need time.
 
You have to think things to death before you
make a decision.”

“Hey!”

“But
I count on that, CJ.”
 
She hooked her arm
in mine.
 
“If you didn’t over think
things, we’d both be SOL.
 
I’m glad
you’re the way you are, and that you’re my best friend even if you don’t
believe in all this nonsense.”

“Yeah,
well, I don’t think anyone else would put up with either one of us for long,” I
laughed.
 
“So, I guess we’re stuck with
each other.”

“Speaking
of stuck with each other…”

I
rolled my eyes.
 
I knew where this was
going.

“Tell
me what’s going on with you and Ethan.”
 
She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

I
laughed.
 
“That’s not going on.”

She
sighed wearily.
 
“Have I taught you
nothing?”

“I
barely know him.”

“You
know him well enough to be kissing him on your front porch.”

I
groaned.
 
Damn that nosy old woman!

“So,
dish, girl.
 
Is he a good kisser?”

“He
makes me forget where I am,” I confessed.
 
I wasn’t really sure I liked that fact.
 

“Billy
does that to me,” she smiled.
 
“I’ve
never met anyone who could do that before.”

“He
really loves you.
 
He went so far as to
ask me what to get you for your birthday.”

“
Ohhh
, what did you tell him?”

“Uh-uh,”
I shook my head.
 
“It’s a surprise.”

She
sighed.
 
“Since I know you’re not going
to divulge secret information, back to Ethan.
 
Do you like him?”

“More
than I should.
 
He makes me so mad
sometimes, but then he says or does something that just makes me melt.”

“I
think you’re starting to fall in love, CJ,” Kay whispered.

“I
think maybe I am,” I sighed.

“That’s
a good thing, isn’t it?”

“I
don’t know, Kay.
 
It just seems too soon,
too sudden.
 
I thought love was supposed
to take longer.”

“Nope,”
she said.
 
“I knew I loved Billy after
three dates.”

“How?”
I asked, curious.

“Well,
the way I felt when he kissed me was a huge sign.
 
When I think about him, I get all…gooey on
the inside.
 
I need to hear his voice
when I wake up or before I go to sleep.
 
He makes me feel special and loved.
 
No one else ever has.
 
Usually
guys just want to go out with me because they think I’m hot or because my dad’s
the Coven leader.
 
Not Billy.
 
He likes me, CJ, for me.
 
He sees past the drinking and the smartass
attitude.
 
He sees me.”

“Damn.”

“Ethan
makes you feel the same way?” she grinned down at me as we approached the boys
from behind.
 
We’d made a full circle of
the clearing as we talked and were back to where we started.

“Yup.”
 

“I
can’t believe you did it, man,” Billy told Ethan.
 
“I didn’t think anyone would ever manage to
get her to come anywhere near the Coven.”

I
saw Ethan shrug.
 
“I told you I’d get her
here and I did.
 
You guys went about it
the wrong way.
 
You have to know how to
handle Cassie.”

Handle
Cassie?
 
What the hell?

“You
can’t push her.
 
You have to let her make
the decision on her own.
 
All I did was
just point out a few things to make her think about it.”

Jeff
looked up and saw us standing behind Ethan and Billy.
 
“Well, you did promise to get CJ here.
 
Was it hard to do?”

“No,”
Ethan shook his head.
 
“I just kept her
distracted like Billy suggested and asked the right questions.”

Billy
reached out and slapped him on the back.
 
“Welcome to the Coven, man.
 
You
did the impossible and earned your place.”

“What
the hell are you talking about?”
 
Kay
shouted, outraged.

Billy
and Ethan turned around to see us standing there.
 
They both looked alarmed, but Jeff stood with
a vindictive smile on his face.
 
Wait.
 
Had he known what Ethan and
Billy were up to?
 
My eyes narrowed as
they focused on Neighbor Boy.
 
His smile
faded and he too began to look alarmed, realizing how much trouble he was in.

Had
this entire week been about getting me to a stupid Coven meeting so he could
prove something to the two jerks standing beside him?
 
Had everything he said just an hour earlier
been a lie?
 
It hurt to think that, but
it also pissed me off.
 
Anger was easier
to deal with at the moment, so I let it out.
 

“So,
let me get this straight,” I snarled and the wind started to howl.
 
It ripped through the trees and whipped
around us.
 
“You were manipulating me to
get me to come to a damn meeting?
 
Is
that right?”

“Cassie,
let me explain…”

“Shut
it!” I tried to keep from yelling, everyone was already staring at us.
 
The wind tore through the trees and lashed
out at us all.
 
“At least you got what
you wanted.
 
I’m here.”

“Cassie…”

“Don’t,”
I told him.
 
“Just don’t.”

“It
was Billy’s idea!” Ethan pointed a finger at him.
 

“Billy’s idea?”
Kay rounded on her boyfriend.
 
“You put him up to this?
 
How could you do that?
 
She’s my best friend.
 
How could you hurt her like that?”

“Kay…”

“Oh
no, Billy, don’t even try it.
 
I’m so mad
I might just break up with you right now if you say another word to me.”

“Kay,
I’m sorry.
 
It was stupid.”

“No,
it was more than stupid, you assholes!” She glared at all three of them.

“Cassie,
please…”

“No,”
Kay cut Ethan off.
 
“Leave her
alone.
 
You’ve done enough.
 
Come on, CJ, let’s get you home.”

“I’ll
drive you,” Billy offered, his voice desperate.

“I
don’t think so,” Kay told him, her own voice as cold as a winter’s frost.
 
“I have my own car.
 
What you did was horrible and I can’t stand
to look at you right now, William James Howe, so fuck off.”

She
turned us away from them and I didn’t start to cry until we were in the car.

Chapter Ten

I
ran straight past my dad and up the stairs to the bathroom.
 
I jerked off the dress and the shoes – well,
I was a bit more careful with the shoes.
 
After scrubbing my face and pulling on my
pjs
,
I crawled into bed.
 
So I’d been just a
way for him to prove himself?
 
How could
he do that to me?
 
Why would he do it?
 
I thought he’d felt the same way I did, but
I’d been wrong.
 
All he’d managed to do
was rip another hole into my already tattered heart.
 
Those beautiful gray eyes rose up to taunt me
when I closed mine and I cursed.
 
Why did
it hurt so much?
 
I barely knew him.

But
I did know him.
 
My heart knew him.
 
It loved him, traitorous fool that it
was.
 
All I had been to Ethan was a means
to an end – he’d managed the one thing no one else had ever been able to
do.
 
So what if he was a great kisser and
told me things that made me feel special and even understood the depth of the
pain I felt for Emily.
 
So what?
 
Who’s to say it wasn’t all an act?
 

Tears
blurred my vision.
 
Please, please don’t
have been an act.

“Here,
move over.”
 
Kay pulled back the covers
and piled junk food on the bed.
 
She
grabbed the remote and handed me a spoon.
 
“I think I covered all the basics – chips, pop, ice cream, and
chocolate.”

I
blinked at the mountain of junk food she’d brought up.
 
I also saw that she had pulled on one of my
longer nightshirts.
 
It barely covered
her.
 
I smiled at how idiotic she looked.

“Do
you want butter pecan or cookies and cream?” she asked, diving into the
bed.
 

“Butter
pecan,” I told her through a hiccup.
 

“Good,
cause you would have to fight me to the death for the cookies and cream.” She
smiled and flipped on the TV.
 
“O-h-h,
look,
it’s
John Carpenter’s Halloween.”
 
She knew I was a sucker for horror movies.

“What
did you tell Dad?” He’d seen us come in together.
 
He must have put two and two together.
 

“That
your date was an ass and you called me to come get you.”

“He
believed you?” I asked.
 
“I didn’t leave
the house in a dress, MJ.”

“Don’t
worry,” she soothed.
 
“We’ll come up with
something.
 
Let’s not worry about that
right now, okay?
 
Let’s just eat ourselves
to death on ice cream and chocolate.”

“I
can’t believe I was so stupid.”
 
I
shoveled a large spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.
 

“You
weren’t stupid,” she said quietly.
 
“I
know you’re pretty mad and you’re hurt, but I honestly think Ethan cares about
you.
 
No matter what happened, I believe
that.”

“WHAT?”
I exclaimed.
 
“How can you say that,
Makayla Joyce?
 
Did you not hear the same
thing I did?
 
It was all about getting me
to a stupid Coven meeting!
 
He lied to me
and he tricked me and…”

“Okay,”
she held up a hand to stop my tirade.
 
“I
agree, what he did was beyond sleazy, but still, CJ, you’re all he ever talks
about.
 
That first meeting he came to, he
didn’t even ask a single question about the Coven.
 
All he wanted to know about was you.”

“Only
because he wanted to find out how to get me to go to a meeting and who knows me
better than you?”

“Maybe,”
Kay agreed grudgingly, “but that doesn’t explain the way he looks at you.”

I
groaned.
 
She had to remind me of that
didn’t she?
 
Ethan looked at me like I
was the center of his world.
 
His eyes
saw only my face and then they would darken to molten steel that blazed with a
heat and intensity that set my entire body flaming scarlet.
 
He could make my toes curl with just a
glance.
 

“Look,
I’m not saying forgive him or anything, at least not right now,” she
sighed.
 
“Just hear him out when you’re
ready to talk, okay?”

Talk?
 
I wanted to hit him until he hurt as much as
I did right now.
 
It felt like my insides
had been put through a meat grinder.
 
My
skin felt raw and bloody, like I’d been dragged over asphalt.
 
Talking was out of the question for a good
long while.

“Sure,”
I nodded.
 
“Let’s just watch the movie,
alright?”

“So how long are we going to be mad at them for?” she asked me
through a mouthful of ice cream.

“Them?”
I asked, confused.
 

“What,
you think I’m going to talk to Billy as long as you’re not talking to
Ethan?”
 
She looked affronted I’d even
need to ask such a question.
 
“No way.
 
The assholes
can suffer together.”