The Promise (The Coven Series) (33 page)

I
laughed.
 
It was either laugh or cry and
I couldn’t afford to lose it.
 

“You
think this is funny?” Mr. Martin paused.

“Hilarious,
laugh your ass off funny,” I grinned.

“Why?”

“Because I found my Book.”

“Your
book?” he frowned.

“The Book that was stolen.
 
It’s mine.
 
There was a spell cast
upon it so that only the next true Coven leader would be able to learn all its secrets.
 
It showed me what it didn’t show anyone
else.
 
You’re screwed.
 
Nothing you do will work. You can spill my
blood, even burn me at the stake, and it still won’t work.
 
My death will not invoke your curse.
 
You don’t know what Sara Bishop did with her
dying words.
 
I do.”

Rage
flooded his face.
 
Ohh
,
must have struck a
nerve.
 
“What did she do?” he snarled.

“I’ll
never tell you.”

“Oh,
yes, you will little girl.”

There
was a loud explosion and fog enveloped us, then a velvety blackness coated the
night.
 
I couldn’t see.

Hands
grabbed mine.

“Run.”

Chapter Twenty Seven

I
stumbled.
 
Strong hands pulled me up and
we barreled through the inky blackness.
 
It was like trying to walk through a wall of jello—wet and thick.
 
It had to be some kind of spell.
 
I just didn’t know how long it would
last.
 
My sides started to burn and my
lungs struggled to take in air when we broke free of the mire.
 
It seemed like we’d been running forever, but
it was only about ten minutes or so.
 
I
recognized where we were.
 
Just north of the clearing.
 
They had to be right behind us.

“Dammit!”
Jeff growled.
 
“It was supposed to last
longer than that.
 
We have to leave, CJ,
now.”

“Give
me…a second.
 
I need to…catch…my breath.”

He
growled and glared at my shoes.
 
“Take
those heels off.
 
You’ll run faster.”

“Not
a chance.
 
I run faster in heels than you
can in your track shoes.”

“Fine,
but let’s go!”

I
stared at him.
 
He’d saved me.
 
I thought he’d lied to me, betrayed me.
 
“Thank you,” I whispered.

He
glanced behind us, the worry plain on his face.
 
“I told you I’d do what it took to keep you safe, CJ, even if that meant
pretending to go along with the rest of them.”

He
grabbed my hand and pulled me back into a dead run.

“I
thought…” I gasped, trying to catch my breath.
 

“I
know what you thought,” he cut in.
 
“It
killed me to see your face when I said what I did.
 
I swear to the Fates, I didn’t mean it.
 
I love you, CJ.
 
I have since that first day of kindergarten
when I stole your toy and Kay kicked the shit out of me.”

He
really loved me.
 
Why had I never seen
that before?
 

“CJ,
move!” he yelled when I slowed down.
 
“They can use their tracking spells now.
 
We don’t have much time.
 
My jeep
is just up ahead at the end of the trail.
 
Hurry!”

I
hadn’t thought about tracking spells.
 
“Won’t they be able to find us anyway?”

“It’ll
be harder once we’re in the air.”

“In the air?”

He
growled.
 
I knew it was hard to talk
while running, but I needed the distraction so I could focus on anything except
the building panic.

“I
purchased two tickets for us.
 
The plane
leaves in about an hour.
 
It’ll take us
almost that long to get to Charlotte.
 
It’s going to be okay, CJ, I promise.”

“I
wouldn’t make promises I couldn’t keep, Jeffrey,” Ethan’s voice lashed at the
already raw wounds on my soul.
 
“She’s
mine.”

He
stood there leaning against the Jeep.
 
He
really did look like some dark angel.
 

“No,
she’s not.”
 
Jeff pushed me behind
him.
 
“You want to kill her.”

“You
have no idea what I want, Jeff.”
 
He held
out his hand to me.
 
“Cassie, come here.”

I
wanted so much to take that hand.
 
I
wanted to believe him.

“Trust
me,” he whispered.
 
“Please.”

But
how could I trust him?
 
He’d lied to me
about everything.
 
He’d brought me
here.
 
I wanted so badly to believe him.
 
I loved him.
 

I
looked up into Jeff’s eyes.
 
They glowed
with anger and a fierce protectiveness.
 
He was the one person who’d stood beside
me,
the one person who’d stood up to them and helped me.
 
I took Jeff’s hand instead.

“No,
Ethan.”

His
eyes flashed with hurt.
 
I faltered.
 
Then I saw the hunting party behind him.

“You
found them.”
 
Mr. Martin stopped beside
him.
 

“Why?”
I whispered.
 
“Why, Ethan?”

“He
has more reason than the rest of us to see this through.”
 
Mr. Martin told me.
 
“Didn’t your book tell you who he is?”

“Matthew.”
 
Ethan flinched when I said the name.
 

Mr.
Martin’s eyes narrowed.
 
“Yes, but do you
know exactly who he is and why he’s determined to see you burn?”

“No.”

“His
name is Matthew Ethan Warren.
 
His
fiancé
was Sara Bishop.
 
He died trying to save her, CJ.
 
He laid there on the ground, bleeding to death from a sword through the
gut and watched her burn until she died.”

“Then
how are you here?” I asked.
 
I’d seen him
in my dream.
 
I’d only caught a vague
glimpse of a man through a haze of smoke, but I remembered the look of rage and
pain on Sara’s face.
 
She’d seen them
strike down the man she’d loved.
 
She’d
seen them kill him.
 
What had she done?

“Pain
and anger can do many things, Cassie Jayne,” he said.
 
“I was determined to see my own
vengeance.
 
The strength of my need for
vengeance was strong enough that I became a part of the curse as they cast
it.
 
I have kept watch over the Coven
since, waiting for the birth of the thirteenth daughter.”

“Are
you a…ghost?”
 

“That’s
as good an explanation as any,” he shrugged.
 
“But I am flesh and blood as well.
 
I was given a corporeal body when I came back to see to it that what
needs to be done is done.
 
Jonas is right
about why I’m here.
 
I’m here because of
what they did to Sara that night.
 
I
crawled as close as I could get to her.
 
No one stopped me.
 
Why would
they?
 
I was dying.
 
I heard her screams, watched her skin blacken
and swell.
 
The smoke killed her first,
but I saw her turn to ash,” he said softly.
 

His
eyes were full of remembered pain and horror.
 
They held the same emotion I’d seen in them that first day in the
cemetery.
 
I never asked him how he’d
understood my pain so completely.
 
Now I
knew.
 
He watched the woman he loved die
the most horrible death imaginable.
 
And
he hadn’t been able to save her.
 

“And
you’re going to let them do that to me?” I asked, the tears falling down my
face.
 
“You said you loved me,
Ethan.
 
Do you want revenge so much,
you’ll let them burn me the same way they did Sara?
 
You couldn’t save her, but you can help me,
Ethan.
 
Please.”

Ethan
flinched with each word I fired at him.

“Enough,
CJ,” Mr. Martin snapped.
 
“You won’t
change his mind.
 
This is why he’s
here.”
 
He jerked me away from Jeff.
 
“I’m done playing games.”

“Stop
it.”
 
Jeff tried to get to me, but he was
pulled backwards.
 
Mr. Corey and Deputy
Sims held him at bay.
 

“You
will tell me, CJ,” Mr. Martin promised in a tone full of menace.
 
“If you don’t, you’ll cost your father his
life.
 
I’ll make you watch him die.”

“You
wouldn’t.”

“Oh,
yes, I would.”

“Did
you kill Emily?” He’d alluded to it before, but I wanted to hear him say it.

“She
was going to take you and Makayla away.
 
I couldn’t let her do that.”

“How
did you do it?”

“She
ran from the house and drove away in her mother’s car.
 
The brakes weren’t very good.
 
I simply forced her to speed up to a point
she couldn’t stop.
 
When she hit the
brakes going down the hill, they gave out.
 
She went over the mountainside.”

“Bastard,”
I snarled and swung my fist straight into his nose.
 
I heard the break.
 
Blood spurted and I smiled.
 

“You
little bitch,” he ground out and slammed his fist into my face.
 
I would have fallen if he hadn’t had a death
grip on my arm.
 
My head spun for a
second.
 
My stomach heaved.
 
I heard a scuffle and blinked.
 
Jeff had broken free and was wrestling with
Deputy Sims.
 

“Tom,
deal with that boy!” Mr. Martin barked.

I
saw the flash of metal, heard the shot ring out, smelled the acrid scent of
gunfire, but still couldn’t believe it.
 
Even when I saw the red blossom across Jeff’s chest, saw the surprised
look on his face, I refused to believe it.
 
It wasn’t until I heard his gurgle of pain and saw him crumple to the
ground that it hit me.
 

They’d
shot him.
 

“NO!”
I cried and tried to yank my arm away from Mr. Martin.

Mr.
Martin’s hands inadvertently touched my dress and I heard the sizzle of burning
flesh.
 
He cursed and threw me at Ethan,
holding his hand to his chest.
 
I saw the
smoke rising from it.
 

“Let’s
go.” Mr. Martin turned and headed back towards the clearing.

Ethan
didn’t say a word.
 
He simply hauled me
up, gripped my forearm in one hand and pulled me along the path.
 
He didn’t look back, but I did.

They
left Jeff there, lying on the cold ground.

Bleeding to death.

Or already dead.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Numb.
 
I felt nothing as I walked, not even the
bruising grip Ethan had on my arm.
 
I had
nothing left.
 
My friends, hell even my
own mother, had betrayed me.
 
They were
willing to sacrifice me for their precious revenge.
  
It didn’t matter to them that it was wrong,
that I hadn’t agreed to any of this.
 
All
they saw was their need for vengeance.
 

The
clearing came into view.
 
Ethan’s grip
tightened.
 
I wanted to laugh, but
couldn’t even manage that.
 
Was he afraid
I was going to make a run for it?
 
Where
would I go?
 
Jeff had been my last
hope.
 
He was probably dead.
 
Because of me.
 
He’d died trying to save me.
 
A single tear slipped free, its salty wetness
burned an icy path down my cheek as we came to a stop beside the circle of
ashes.
 

Mr.
Martin dragged my father to where I stood.
 
Deputy Sims pulled out his gun and pointed it at my dad’s head.
 
I had no doubts they’d kill him.
 
His life mattered nothing to either of them,
to anyone in the Coven.
 
All that
mattered was their stupid curse.

“Now,
CJ, what did Sara do?”

My
father’s eyes begged me to stay quiet, not to give in to their demands.
 
He was all I had left.
 
I had to save him even if it cost me
everything.
 
He should understand that
better than anyone.
 
He’d taught me the
true meaning of family and love.
 
He was
my Daddy.
 
I couldn’t let them kill him.