The Promise (The Coven Series) (27 page)

“I
hadn’t noticed,” he laughed and rubbed his eyes, and then his expression turned
serious.
 
“Don’t worry about Billy.
 
He’s just a little fanatical about following
the rules.”

“I’m
not worried about Billy,” I told him.
 
“Kay will take care of him.”

Jeff
smirked.
 
“Yeah, I doubt he’d do anything
to risk her being mad at him again.”

“Thanks
for helping me tonight,” I smiled and squeezed his hand.
 

“Not
a problem,
hon
,” he winked.
 
“You know I’d do anything for you.”

In
that moment, looking into his cornflower blue eyes, I wished I felt for him
what I did Ethan.
 
I even resented Ethan a
little for taking this away from me.
 
Jeff was my friend and he’d never lied to me.
 
I didn’t have to worry about his intentions
every second of the day or question my sanity around him.
 
He made me feel safe and protected whenever I
was with him.
 
He was always the first
person I thought of when I needed help.
 
Why couldn’t I love him the same way I did Ethan?

Wait,
the same way?
 
Crap.
 
This was not a conversation I wanted to have
with myself right now.
 
Maybe not ever.
 
I
couldn’t let myself think those kinds of things.
 
It wasn’t fair to anyone.

“You
look upset, CJ,” he frowned.
 
“What’s
wrong?”

“Tired,”
I waved off the question.
 
It would do
more harm than good for him to know about how I was really feeling.
 
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I
gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and hopped out of the Jeep before he could
say anything and fled into the house.
 
Mom and Dad were both home.
 
Their
light was out under their door as I passed and I was grateful they were
asleep.
 
I didn’t feel up to answering
any questions tonight.
 

Every
time I closed my eyes, I was back there in the heat and the smoke.
 
I could still feel the fire crawl up my
calves onto my thighs.
 
The stench of
burning hair and fingernails surrounded me.
 
It nearly choked me and I was wide awake.
 
How could it be so real?
 
Laura wasn’t even related to me.
 
I could find it more believable if I’d seen
it through Sara’s eyes.
 
Then I could
convince myself it was some kind of reincarnation.
 
But this?
 
I didn’t understand this.
 

The
only theory I could come up with had to do with the transference spell.
 
Maybe I hadn’t just transferred the
memory.
 
Maybe I had transferred myself
to that moment in time?
 
But that didn’t
explain Kay’s dream.
 
She’d had the same
dream since she was five.
 
Then again, it
wasn’t her dream to begin with.
 
It was
mine.
 

I
sighed in frustration and tried to focus on what I could remember of the
dream.
 
It wasn’t much.
 
I’d heard mumblings.
 
I knew one was the curse and Sara had cast
something herself, but I couldn’t hear past the screams.

Then
there was the brand new problem I had.
 
Jeff.
 
I just outright refused to
think about that particular little dilemma.

It
was almost dawn when sleep finally claimed me, still no closer to the answers
then before.

Chapter Twenty Three

Thirteen betrayed, thirteen avenged…

Invoke…blood
promise….

Arwan
and Agrona, hear us this night….

The
thirteenth bearer of life…

I
screamed in frustration and threw my journal at the door.
 
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make
myself remember.
 
I’d only had the one
dream.
 
Stupid
me
had repeated my father’s words verbatim:
 
Show me now what she sees and forever let it be.
 

Everything
was so muddled.
 
I couldn’t get past the
terror.
 
I could only remember snatches
of the curse.
 
Sara’s spell was out of
reach.
 
Laura had been so horrified at
the casting of the
curse,
she hadn’t paid attention to
Sara.
 
Apparently neither had I.
 

Why
couldn’t I remember?
 
I’d tried to write
memory spells, but it was useless.
 
The
dream was gone.
 
Maybe
for good this time.
 
Tomorrow was
my birthday.
 
Maybe the dream was only
supposed to last until then as a reminder or a warning of some sort.
 
I just didn’t know and it was driving me
crazy.

Some
of my frustration was due to the fact that Ethan had been gone since last Saturday
and hadn’t bothered to call me even once.
 
I was so pissed.
 
I’d left
messages for him, but no response.
 
My
boyfriend was ignoring me.
 
Granted he
hadn’t told me why he needed to go home and there could be something wrong, but
would it have hurt him to drop me a text?
 
Just to say hi?
 
No, it would not
have.
 

He’d
better
be
back by tomorrow or at least call me.
 

“What’s
going on in here?” Dad poked his head in.
 
“I heard a thump.”

“Sorry,
Dad,” I smiled.
 
“I was just taking out
some frustration.”

He
glanced down and saw my journal.
 
Without
thinking he picked it up, his eyes skimming over what I’d written.
 
He let out a hiss and came in, closing the
door behind him before making his way over to my bed.

“What
the hell is this, CJ?”

Ohh
, so not
good.
 

“Nothing.”

“Where
did you see this?” he demanded, towering over me.
 
His face had gone white and his eyes were
wild with fear again.
 
I shrank back from
him, remembering the last time I’d seen that look in his eyes.

“In
a dream,” I whispered.
 
“A dream you took
from me.”

All
the anger fizzled out of him.
 
He took a
shaky breath and sat down.
 
“How?
 
How did you
remember it?”

“Kay,”
I told him, scooting to the other edge of the bed.
 
“She was having the dream and I repeated the
same spell you cast on me and Emily.”

His
hands shook.
 
“CJ…”

“Why,
Dad, why did you take the dream from me?”

“Because
it was a sign,” he whispered.
 
“A sign of the curse.”

Oh
crap.
 

“I
thought if I could make you forget, no one would know.
 
They wouldn’t have any more reasons to suspect…”

“Stop,
Dad,” I whispered frantically.
 
“Don’t.
 
I know what will happen
if you tell me.
 
You’ll die, Daddy.
 
I don’t want you to die.”

“It’ll
be worth it, pumpkin, if it saves you.”
 
He reached out, pulled me to him, and crushed me in a hug.
 
“You’re my baby.
 
I can’t let you die.”

Die?
 
I was going to die?
 
No.
 
It
didn’t matter.
 
I did what I always did.
 
I pushed the panic aside and focused.
 
I could fall apart later.
 
I was going to die…stop it!
 
I needed to keep Dad from doing something
rash.

“No,
Daddy, please.
 
How do you think that
would make me feel for the rest of my life?
 
Knowing I caused your death?”

“That’s
a parent’s job, CJ, to protect their children.
 
This is the only way left I can protect you.”
 
His voice was gruff and hard.
 
“I won’t fail you.”

“Emily,”
I breathed.
 
That’s what this was
about.
 
“Do you think you failed her,
Dad?”

“I
know I did.”

“Did
you know what they were planning to do?” I asked.
 
“Is that why you didn’t answer your phone
that day?”

“What?”
he pulled away and looked down at me, his eyes wide with shock.
 

“I
found her diary, Dad.
 
She was
terrified.
 
She wrote in her last entry
they were coming for her and you weren’t answering your phone.”

“God, no, CJ.
 
I’d
left my phone in the truck.
 
I had no
idea she needed me.
 
When I checked it
later that night and found all the missed calls she’d made, I tried to call her
back.
 
By then it was too late.
 
After her death, I suspected the Coven might
have had a hand in it, but I didn’t have any proof.
 
It’s why I quit.
 
I didn’t want any part of something that may
have caused my daughter’s death.

A
weight lifted from my chest.
 
He didn’t
have anything to do with Emily’s death.
 
“I’m pretty sure they killed her, Dad.
 
I just can’t prove it either.”

“I’m
going to tell you about the curse, CJ.
 
I
will save you.”

“No,
we’ll find another way.”

 
“You’ll be eighteen at midnight, Cassie
Jayne.
 
There’s nothing I can do then.”

“Maybe
you’re not supposed to do anything, Dad.
 
Maybe I have to be the one to figure this out.
 
Born to be the Coven leader, remember?”

He
gasped.
 
I’d shocked him.
 
“How do you know that?”

“Jeff
told me.
 
He explained that all the stuff
I can do is a sign of a true Coven leader.”

“Is
that what you want, CJ?”

“Hell no.
 
I don’t
want any part of it, but maybe it’ll help me get through this.”

“Not
if you don’t know what you’re doing,” he sighed.
 
“I’ll help you.”

“Already covered, Dad.
 
Jeff’s been helping me get caught up on basic magic and spelling for the
last couple weeks.”

“Jeff?”

I
nodded.
 
“He’s been a really good friend
through all this and the only one I really trust.
 
He’s the only person who hasn’t lied to me
about something.”

“Why
couldn’t she have picked him for a boyfriend?” he grumbled under his breath.

I
wish I knew, I thought silently.
 
I wish
I knew.

“Dad,
can I ask you something?”
 

“I’ll
tell you anything you want to know, pumpkin.”

“In
the dream, they were burned, but every other accused witch hanged.
 
Why the difference?”

“The
Coven made sure the accused were burned.
 
You understand, CJ, that we practice witchcraft and not Wicca, yes?”

“Wicca
is more of a religion with gods and goddesses.
 
Witchcraft is different in that it’s pure magic, manipulating the
Elements.
 
We don’t need to pray to a god
or goddess, but can if we need more…umph?”

“That’s
a good way to put it.
 
We do sometimes
seek the aid of a deity, but normally we don’t.
 
We don’t need to.
 
True magic…”

“…is
neither good nor bad, but a culmination of the two,” I finished for him.
 
I’d read it in the first book I’d picked up
on the subject.
 
Wiccans were all about
good magic for the most part.
 
There
weren’t any clear lines in witchcraft.
 
Witches had no qualms about using black magic.
 

“The
only true way to kill a witch, CJ, is to burn them.
 
Even then, the ashes must be scattered.
 
If they had hanged the witches, their spirits
could have remained in their bodies and sought revenge.
 
By burning them, there was no vessel for
their spirits to return to.
 
The ashes
are scattered so that they cannot be used to give them a form to come back to.
 
Their spirit can never be reborn to pass on
the knowledge they possess either.”

“They
turned them over to witch hunters and then made sure they couldn’t come
back.
 
No wonder they were all pissed.”

“Pissed?”

“In
the dream, everyone was angry.
 
They couldn’t
believe the Coven would burn them.
 
Now I
understand why.”