The Promise (The Coven Series) (30 page)

The
13th daughter signifies the 13 who were betrayed. She will invoke the
curse.
 
Her blood must be spilt upon the
ashes of our ancestors.
 
This will give
them substance again and her soul will be bound to theirs.
 
She must burn as they did.
 
I’m not sure if this is to release the curse
or not, but it must be done.
 
Together,
their essence will fan out and find the descendants of those who betrayed us in
Salem Village all those centuries ago.
 
The souls of those people were promised to the god Arwan as compensation
for his assistance.
 
They’ll burn for an
eternity, never knowing any relief from the feel of flames eating away at their
skin.
 
It’s the most horrible fate I can
imagine.

‘The
book says ‘The 13th bearer of life shall be born on the night between shadow
and light.’
 
It’s an old reference.
 
It refers to All Hallows Eve – the night when
shadows are free to break through the veil into the light.
 
You and Kay were born on the day that
signifies the shadows representing the dead and the light representing the
living.
 
One of you is the thirteenth
girl to be born on Halloween.
 
Problem
is, little sister, no one knows who came first.
 
You were born within the same minute and no one recorded the
second.
 
It could be either of you.

The
curse will be invoked on your eighteenth birthday.
 
Sara Bishop cast a spell herself before she
died.
 
She made sure that the 13th
daughter would have some sort of life, could be prepared to fight for
herself.
 
Otherwise the Coven could have
killed you when you were born.
  

If
I can find Matthew, maybe he will help us.
 
He has an agenda of his own.
 
I
don’t know what it is.
 
His appearance
will signify the beginning of the curse.
 
He’s here to see it through so I won’t count on his help.
 
He may be as driven by revenge as the rest of
them.
 

Cassie
Jayne, you have to find this.
 
I’m
running out of time.
 
Dad won’t answer
his cell and Mama just smiles.
 
She knows
who you are, CJ.
 
I’m not sure if she is
so wrapped up in all of this she’d let you die.
 
I have to believe that she won’t.
 
She loves you.
 
I’m going to go
home now and try one last time to reason with her.
 
Maybe she’ll help us instead of telling me to
calm down or that I’m overreacting.
 

They
followed me all day.
 
I managed to slip
out earlier, but I must hurry.
 
I don’t
want them to see where I’m hiding this.
 
It’s yours now, Cassie Jayne.
 
Keep it hidden.

Be
safe, little sister.
 

The
book fell from my hands.
 
I had to
burn?
 
Images from the dream invaded my
mind.
 
Sensory memories let me again feel
the heat of the flames as they burned and blackened my skin, smell my hair and
fingernails burning.
 
I twisted to the
side and threw up.
 
They weren’t just
going to kill me.
 
They were going to
burn me at the stake.
 
Shit.
 
I was going to burn…

I
could run, leave and never come back.
 
But I couldn’t go without Kay.
 
I
couldn’t leave her here to face them.
 
No.
 
I would not let them do that
to me or Kay.
 
She might know a lot more
than me, but I doubt she knew she had to die.
 
She wouldn’t let me die and neither would I her.
 
I’d get us out.
 
Ethan and Jeff.
 
I’d call…

Ethan.
 

Ethan
Matthew Warren.

Matthew.

It
couldn’t be.
 
There was no way.
 
Matthew was a ghost.
 
Maybe.
 
Emily didn’t know.
 
Ethan was flesh and blood.
 
Solid.
 
He couldn’t be the same person.
 
My stomach rolled violently and cramped
up.
 
Instincts.
 
No.
 
I
wouldn’t believe it.

I
stood up on shaky knees, bit back the bile that rose in my throat and picked up
Emily’s Book of Shadows.
 
Placing back on
the ground it had come from, I stepped back.

“Earth
I thank thee for showing me that which I sought.

Now
I ask thee to please return it and keep it safe.”

It
didn’t rhyme, but I was too upset to make up something.
 
The Earth didn’t take offense.
 
It swallowed the book whole.

I
turned back toward town.

To Ethan.

Or
was he Matthew?

Chapter Twenty Five

The
Warren Estate, as it was called, stood just off
McKelter
Avenue.
 
It took me only a few minutes to
reach the house.
 
In all the time I’d
known Ethan, I’d never been to his house.
 
It was an old colonial mansion that rivaled the beauty of the meeting
hall.
 
Tall white pillars and dark red
brick shouted at the passerby to stand and stare in homage.
 
The old structure had weathered the years and
the Warrens had preserved the history of the house beautifully.
 

The
door opened before I could knock.
 
Old
Man Warren, ninety if he was a day, stared down at me from under bushy
eyebrows.
 
He scowled, not at all pleased
to see me on his doorstep.
 
His wizened
features were carved into a perpetual mask of grumpiness.
 
His eyes, however, were the same steely shade
of gray as Ethan’s.
 
The sparkle in them
belied his grumpy exterior.
 
Maybe he
wasn’t as upset as I thought.

“Hi, Mr. Warren.”
 
I
gave him my best smile.
 
“I’m…”

“I
know who you are.”
 
He turned away and
left the door open.
 

I
frowned.
 
Was that an invitation to come
in?

“Well,
git
yourself in here, girl.
 
You’re
lettin
’ out
all the heat.”

Okay,
so it was an invitation.
 
I stepped in
and closed the door.
 
He’d disappeared
into the room off the entryway.
 
With no
other choice, I followed him.
 
We were in
a study or maybe a library.
 
Books lined
every wall and took up residence on any space that wasn’t occupied.
 
The furniture was all done in a deep mahogany
wood and the couch and chairs were a light cream color.
 
They looked softer than anything I’d ever
seen.
 
There was an ancient feeling to the
room, like I’d stumbled into a gentleman’s retreat from the olden days.
 
I loved it.
 

As
fascinated as I was, I didn’t have time to admire the room.
 
I needed to see Ethan.

“Is…”
The photo on the mantle stopped me.
 
I
hurried over to look at it more closely.
 
“Great Aunt Susan?”
 
Shock sizzled
through me.
 
Why was there a picture of
my aunt here?

The
old man grinned and walked over to me.
 
“Aye, ‘tis her.
 
She
was a looker, Susan.”

“But
why do you have a picture of her?”

“I
almost married her.”

“What?”

“Don’t
sound so shocked girl,” he laughed and settled himself onto the couch with a
grunt.
 
“We Warren men have been trying
to capture a Bishop woman for ages.”

“Why
didn’t you marry her?”
 
Curiosity blazed
through me.
 

He
sighed heavily.
 
“She and I didn’t see
eye to eye on the Coven.
 
She was caught
up in the foolishness of the past and I wanted to look forward into the
future.
 
We couldn’t get past it and in
the end she ended up marrying Ben McKay.
 
She died a few months later.”

“You
sound like you loved her a great deal.”
 
I took a seat beside him.
 
His
eyes looked very sad as he remembered her.
 

“I
knew I loved my Suzie the first time I laid eyes on her.”
 
He closed his eyes.
 
“She meant everything to me.”

“I’m
sorry.”

“Nothing
you can do, girlie.”
 
He sat up.
 
“I suppose you’re here for the book.”

“The book?”

His
eyes turned sharper.
 
“Your
book, girl.”

My
eyes narrowed and a wave of rage swelled up again.
 
It overpowered me.
 
I got lost in it for a second.
 
“YOU!
 
YOU STOLE MY BOOK?”

He
grinned.
 
“You bet your ass I did,
girlie. Did you want me to leave it there for those idiots to use against you?”

Use
my own Book against me?
 
No.
 
That’s not right.
 
It wasn’t my Book.
 
I’d never even seen it.
 
Why did I think it was mine?
 
Why was I so possessive and where had this
rage come from?

“I’m
sorry, Mr. Warren,” I told him.
 
“I
didn’t mean to yell at you.
 
I don’t know
what came over me.”

“Perfectly
normal reaction, girlie,” he assured me.
 
“It is your book.
 
You know that
deep down.
 
The book chose you.
 
It became a part of you when it did.
 
That’s why you’re so angry about someone
stealing it.”

“It
chose me?” I frowned.
 
“How could it
choose me?
 
I’ve never even seen it.”

His
smile widened.
 
“Course you have.”

“I
have?”

“Your
Daddy, he brought you down to the meeting hall when you were round three or
so.
 
One of the Coven members had been
looking something up and left it just lying there on the table.
 
You wandered in and walked over to the
book.
 
I tried to grab you before you
touched it, but I wasn’t fast enough.
 
As
soon as you laid a hand on it, it grew.
 
It held about four hundred and fifty pages or so, but it tripled in
size.
 
Damndest thing I ever saw.”

“Tripled
in size?”
 
How was that possible?

“The
book has secrets that she doesn’t reveal to everyone.
 
Only a few have been able to learn its
secrets since we stole it from the bastards in Salem.
 
I don’t think anyone’s ever been able to read
all of it, except maybe Sara Bishop.
 
She
was the last true Coven leader we had.”

Sara
Bishop.
 
I’d looked into her eyes, saw
her lips move as she cried out her own spell.
 
She was the last true Coven leader.
 
Had she cursed the Book as well that night?
 
Did she make sure no one could use it for
purposes it wasn’t meant for?
 

Jeff
said I was born to be a true Coven leader.
 
Is that why I felt like the Book was mine?
 

“But
how did you steal it?
 
Mr. Martin said no
one but him or my dad could get past the wards.”

“Them
fools never suspected me,” he laughed.
 
“They think I’m just some grumpy old man that’ll snap their heads off if
they look at me wrong.”

Well,
I’d thought the same thing too.
 
The
thought of Old Man Warren stealing my Book had never occurred to me
either.
 
I really needed to pay more
attention to detail.

“Can
I see it?” I asked hesitantly.
 
I wasn’t
sure I wanted to, but I needed to.

“Course, girlie.
 
I
kept it safe for you.
 
I knew eventually
the book would pull you here.”

But
it hadn’t.
 
I’d come looking for
Ethan.
 

He
went over to one of the bookshelves lining the walls and pulled out an old
leather bound book.
 
It was small and
fragile and could have fit in my purse.
 
This was the Book everyone was flipping out over?
 
Including me?
 
Ridiculous.
 
The old man dropped the book into my hand and I very nearly threw it
across the room.