The Promise (The Coven Series) (14 page)

I
smiled.
 
Bless the Fates, but I loved
her.
 
She would stay mad at Billy for as
long as I wanted her to.
 

“Oh,
look, there goes Little Miss Stupid Ass to see what’s in the laundry room,” Kay
muttered.
 
“Really, why would you go out
there?
 
We’d never do anything so
stupid.”

“No,
but we’ve watched way too many horror movies,” I remarked dryly as we settled
down to watch the John Carpenter Halloween marathon and gain about six pounds
on ice cream and chocolate.
 
Kay’s
rambling shouts at the stupidity of the people in the movie faded as I thought
back to another Saturday night.

I
stormed up the stairs and threw myself on Emily’s bed.
 
I wanted to die.
 
Steven Jones had just asked me if I could get
him a date with Kay.
 
He’d been flirting
with me for over two weeks and it had all been to get me to talk to Kay for
him.
 
I liked him.
 
A lot.
 
Why did this always happen to me?
 
Why couldn’t the hot boy ever like me?
 
Why did it always have to be about Makayla?

“Hey,
little sis, what’s wrong?” Emily asked me when she came in a bit later.
 
“Mom said you came home crying.”

“I
hate her!” I raged into the tear sodden pillow.
 

“Who?”
She stroked my hair with gentle hands.

“Makayla.”

“Why
do you hate your best friend?”

“Because
every boy we know likes her and none of them like me.”

“That’s
not true, CJ,” she denied.
 
“Plenty of
boys like you.
 
What about Steven?
 
He’s been flirting with you for weeks.”

“So
he could get me to talk to Kay for him!” I burst into tears again.
 

“Oh,”
she murmured.
 
“Well, that just sucks.”

“Ya
think?”

“But
it’s not Kay’s fault, CJ.
 
She can’t help
it.”

“I
know,
Em
, but it’s just not fair!
 
Why can’t the cute boy ever like me?”

“What
about Allen Pike or Jeff Parker?” she asked.
 
“They are both extremely cute and seem to worship the ground you walk
on.”

“Allen’s
boring and Jeff is…Jeff.”
 
I sat up and
dried my eyes.

“Oh,
so Neighbor Boy’s not good enough?” she teased.

“No,
that’s not it.
 
Jeff is just not
boyfriend material.
 
He’s inconsiderate
and thinks he’s the hottest thing on the market.
 
Plus he has wet, slobbery lips.”

“And
how do you know that?” Emily wiggled her eyebrows.

I
squirmed.
 
“I kissed him.”

“You
kissed Neighbor Boy?” she squealed.
 
“When?”

“Right
before school started, at the Labor Day bonfire by the lake.”
 

“And
why were you kissing Neighbor Boy if he’s not boyfriend material?”

“I
don’t
know,
curiosity I guess.
 
It is not something I will repeat again.”

“That
bad?” she laughed.

“No,
I guess not, but his lips were just too…wet,” I grimaced.

She
wet her lips and smacked them together.
 
“So not too bad a
smoocher
, just too
slippery when wet and wild?”

“Emily!”
I laughed at her lewd expression.
 

“There,
see, you’re laughing.
 
The world’s not
over because of some idiot boy.”

“What
would I do without you?” I grinned and threw a pillow at her.

We’d
ended up in a pillow fight that had us both in tears from laughing so
hard.
 
She’d been right, though.
 
The world wouldn’t end because of an idiot
boy.
 
It’d just hurt like hell.
 
It was also the last time I’d ever let a boy
make me cry.
 
I became the person who
always got the boy’s attention I wanted.
 
I never thought I’d be in that position again.
 
Ems had been right then and she was still
right now.
 
The world didn’t end because
of a jerk.

When
I glanced at the TV I was surprised to see that we had progressed to Halloween
II and Michael was chasing Lori down the hospital corridor.
 
Kay was sound asleep.
 
I collected the empty ice cream containers
and went to throw them in the garbage.
 
Everyone had already gone to bed so I didn’t have to deal with the
parents tonight.
 

Emily’s
door called to me on the way back up.
 
I
found myself in there instead of my own bed.
 
I missed her so much.
 
Kay was
great, but she wasn’t my sister.
 
I
needed Emily, but since she wasn’t here, her room would have to do.
 
No one had been in here in a long time.
 
A coat of dust covered the furniture and her
clothes still lay on the floor where she’d thrown them.
 
None of us had been able to pack up her room.
 
I suspected it would stay just as it was
forever.
 

I
opened her closet and took a deep breath.
 
Even now, three years later, a hint of her favorite jasmine perfume
still clung to the clothes inside.
 
I ran
my hands over them, relishing the feel of the soft cottons, cashmeres, and
knits.
 
I spotted a box in the back
corner.
 
My mouth opened in
surprise.
 
Her Jimmy
Choos
!
 
Her six hundred dollar
Jimmy
Choos
.
 
Emily had saved every penny to buy those shoes.
 
She’d wanted to wear them to the winter
solstice ball.
 

The
box came out easily and I opened it.
 
The
shoes weren’t in the box.

But
her diary was.
 

This
could hold the answers I was looking for.

I
opened the leather bound journal.

Chapter Eleven

I
stared at it, almost afraid to read it.
 
Emily had been the one who convinced me to start keeping a journal.
 
It would come in handy later if I learned to
write things down, she’d said.
 
My
writing kept me sane, even if I hadn’t done it in a while.
 
I owed her so much.
 

This
one must have been one she’d just started.
 
The pages weren’t full and the first entry was dated in September.
 
These were her last thoughts in the weeks
before she died.
 
I took a deep breath
and started to read.

September
09, 2007

Well,
old friend, Dad gave me my own Book of Shadows today.
 
He says anything I write about the Coven
needs to go in it from now on.
 
It’s
beautiful, bound in velvety soft black leather with my name etched in gold
along the top.
 
He had it handmade.
 
It doesn’t look that big, but he says when I
need more pages, they’ll be there.
 
Who
am I to judge after some of the things I’ve seen?
 
If he says they’ll be there, well, then I
guess they will.
 
He also told me to hide
it in a very secure
place, that
it’s for my eyes
only.
 
A witch’s BOS is sacred and
personal.
 
It’s also very powerful.
 
If you let others see your innermost thoughts
and how you work your magic, you hand them a weapon to use against you.
 
Yup, that’s what he said, a weapon.
 
So, I guess I’ll have to find a good hiding
spot for it.

I
will share it with CJ, though.
 
She’s my
sister and I trust her more than anyone else in the world.
 
She would never use it against me.
 
Besides, how can I not share it with her
since she’s practically written over half of my spells the last couple of
years?
 
She’s much better at spelling
than I am and she doesn’t even realize it.
 
It’s only fair that I give her my spells in return for all the help
she’s given me.
 

Dad
says that I’m not supposed to write anything else about the Coven in my
journals, that all my insane ramblings go in the BOS,
but I
have kept a journal for so long, it’s going to be a hard habit to break.
 
How can I not confess everything to you?
 
You’re my secret keeper.
 
Don’t worry, I’ll keep telling you my secrets
for a while longer.
 

September
12, 2007

I’ll
kill him.
 
How dare he?
 
Who does he think he is?
 
Cheat on me and think I won’t find out about
it?
 
So dead.

September
15, 2007

Thank
the
Fates,
CJ is a whiz with spells.
 
I have tried for three days straight to get
my truth spell to work on Adam.
 
CJ came
into my room while I was ranting about my last failed attempt and I asked her
what she thought about it.
 
She frowned
and rambled off the perfect truth spell.
 
It worked the FIRST time.
 
Why can
my spells never work the first time around?
 
Jealous?
 
You
betcha
.

Bastard
was cheating with my best friend.
 
Damn
them both.
 
The look of horror on Nora’s
face when Adam confessed in front of everyone was well worth it.
 
You do not MESS with the JCL and expect to
get off scot free.
 
No one is speaking to
either of them right now because I’m not speaking to them right now.
 
Thank you, little sister.

September
21, 2007

I
know I’m not supposed to write about Coven business in here, but I don’t have
time to dig out my BOS and I need to sort through this.
 
So, old friend, help me to figure it out.

The
Council keeps pressing me to name a successor, but I keep putting it off.
 
I have to make a decision soon, though.
 
Even Dad told me to get a move on.
 
Who should I name as the next Junior Coven
Leader?
 
I’ve thought long and hard,
looked at all the candidates and still, I’m hesitant.
 

Everyone
is pushing for Kay to take over.
 
She’s a
born leader and can command a crowd better than anyone I know, maybe even
better than Mr. Martin, her father.
 
Everyone adores her and pretty much follows her lead now, so it wouldn’t
be too much of a leap for me to chose her.
 
But there’s something there in her face that makes me
uncomfortable.
 
It’s a look she gets, the
same look her dad gets, that says she’s out for herself and everyone else
be
damned.
 
Then I
feel bad for even thinking it.
 
I know
Kay – she’s CJ’s best friend.
 
Kay is not
her father, but I can’t shake the feeling that she only lets us see what she
wants us to, including CJ.
 
Growing up
with the asshole she did must have left scars – hell she gets drunker than sin
every weekend.
 
That’s her way of
coping.
 
CJ tries to keep her out of
trouble, but sometimes she looks for it, especially when she’s drunk.
 
What kind of trouble could she cause if I
gave her the JC?

Mom
even agrees that Kay is the best choice.
 
Am I being too paranoid?
 
It’s my
baby and I don’t want to give it to someone who will use it for gain instead of
the foundation of trust and service I’ve built.
 
I want it to rest in the hands of someone who will treat it like the
sacred trust of learning it is, someone who will foster the traditions of our
people and guide those who seek its shelter and knowledge.

My
gut tells me that Kay is the wrong person to lead our apprentices.
 
My dreams are telling me that something big
is on the horizon for our Coven and that the leader of the JC will play a major
role in it.
 
It’s nothing good – my
dreams are nightmares.
 
Someone needs to
be there for these kids who will protect and lead them through the encroaching
darkness.
 
Kay is not that person.
 
She has a little of that darkness on the
inside thanks to her dad.

I
keep coming back to CJ and not just because she’s my sister or because the
Bishop’s have led the Coven for centuries.
 
CJ doesn’t even believe in any of this.
 
Nonsense she calls it.
 
Nonsense.
 
She’ll
change her tune soon enough.
 
I have good
reason to want her to fill my shoes.
 
She’s gifted beyond anything I’ve ever seen.
 
The Elements respond to her even now, before
her initiation.
 
They’ve already deemed
her worthy.
 
If she’s too hot, a cool
breeze will blow around her even in the house or, just the opposite, if she’s
cold – the temperature rises.
 
Air and Fire, one to cool and one to warm.
 
She’s oblivious to it, but Mom and Dad
aren’t.
 
Dad just grins and Mom, well,
Mom looks…calculating.
 
It’s odd, but
sometimes I think she has a plan for CJ she’s not telling the rest of us, even
Dad.
 
That has to be wrong, but that’s
what my instincts tell me.
 
She’s
watching her more closely these days.
 
I
just don’t know why.