The Rose Witch (The Coven: Old Magic Stand-Alone Novel Book 1) Read online

“Exactly.”

  I blinked and then we were standing in front of a railing a quarter of a mile closer to it than we’d just been. I frowned then looked to my soulmate. “Was that you?”

  “I certainly hope so.”

  I rolled my eyes. “So that’s how it’s gonna be now?”

  He grinned at me. “I would think there’s a reason why he dropped us way back there. Perhaps the fourth rose is easier to see from a distance.”

  “Excellent point.” At that, I eyed the massive ancient structure in front of us.

  The road we’d been on was raised, so from where we stood on a staircase that led to ground level, we were level with the second story of the colosseum. The first three levels had the open archways that led inside. The fourth level, the top one, was a solid stone wall with squares cut into them. I bit my lip and tapped my fingernails on the metal railing. Malachi’s point had to be on to something. My father had clearly planned things out very carefully. If we went down to the colosseum we wouldn’t be able to see the third row of archways, yet when we were on the road back where we came out of the red painting that level was perfectly visible.

  Something told me we had to go through one of those archways at the top. I didn’t know if that made any sense, but my instincts were screaming it at me. Except… so far the clues only revealed themselves when we got close to them. What does he want us to do, fly around up there?

  Okay. Think, Chloe. Dad had obviously wanted me to know about that spot at All Souls College or he wouldn’t have brought me there so many times. In Vegas I had to use my magic with the painting — I gasped. That’s it. My magic. I looked down at my hands. My magic was dark red smoke. If I shot it toward the colosseum it would trigger the next rose to appear. I started to summon it when a little girl tripped and bumped into my back.

  And that was when I noticed just how many humans were nearby. It couldn’t have been more than nine in the morning but there were dozens of people in every direction I looked. How am I supposed to do this now?

  “Why are you looking at them like that?”

  “If I use my magic right now, will all the humans see it?”

  He narrowed his eyes and the gold sparkled. The air pulsed around us. Then he shook his head. “We are now invisible. What are you thinking?”

  “Do you think he knew you’d be with me for this?”

  He was silent a moment. Then, softly, he said, “I promised him I would be. That I’d see this locket to its end. Why?”

  I threw my hands out in front of me and pushed my magic out. Dark red smoke shot into the air like rockets. When it got to the colosseum I flicked my arms out to my sides and my magic copied. It coiled around the colosseum like a giant, menacing snake.

  Bright light flashed like the North Star from an archway on the third level.

  I gasped. “There!”

  Malachi whistled under his breath. “Brilliant. Come on, let’s get up there.”

  I leapt into his arms, wrapping my arms around his neck without taking my eyes off our target. To my surprise, we weren’t taken by darkness like usual. We lifted off the ground and flew. I turned toward him and my eyes widened. His big white angel wings flapped like an eagle’s wings in the breeze.

  I grinned. “Your wings are beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” he said with a chuckle. “I didn’t want to lose sight of our destination. Here we are now.”

  A shadow passed over me and I jumped – but it was just the archway above me. We were standing inside of one of the archways, way, way above the ground on a stretch of stone that was far too thin for my comfort. He started to set me down but I hissed and crawled back up his body like a cat climbing drapes.

  He arched his eyebrows.

  “I don’t like heights,” I whispered.

  “I wouldn’t let you fall—”

  “I know that.”

  “But you don’t want me to put you down.”

  “I mean you’re the one with wings, so I think I’ll just stay right here.”

  He smirked and nodded. “Don’t you at least want to look around at the view?”

  “I see my view, right behind your head. It’s a red rose and it’s glowing.”

  “Our fourth rose.” He turned and my stomach dropped, but his grip was tight on me. He reached out and ran his fingers over the rose. Then he shuddered and golden lines stretched over his body. “Interesting. Go ahead, Chloe. Touch it.”

  I licked my lips. It took me a second to make myself release one hand from him, but I reminded myself he wouldn’t drop me. With an embarrassingly shaky hand, I reached out and pressed my fingers to the rose.

  Bright white light poured out around us. Flashes of red and then every other color in the rainbow. Weird glowing runes danced in the air. I didn’t recognize them at all, but the more I looked at them the stranger I felt. The colored mist faded until it was almost gone but then red lines shot up all around us. It was like watching someone sketching from inside the sketch.

  The drawing wrapped around us. Tall boulders stood tall, forming a circle with no visible way in or out. At our feet, the floor of the drawing was covered in bones, stones, and strange weapons. It looked vaguely familiar. I leaned back to look behind Malachi and my jaw dropped. There was a waterfall falling right out of thin air and disappearing into the ground without a pool of water at the base. It defied all laws of nature and physics.

  “Malachi. I’ve been here,” I heard myself whisper.

  “You’ve been here? You’re sure?”

  “Positive. This is where Mum and I hid from the giant, angry, massive bird chicken thing. But I don’t know those runes or where this place—”

  “Those are angelic runes,” he grumbled. “This is the Old Lands, Chloe. We have to go to this exact spot in the Old Lands.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chloe

  “Chloe? Chloe, are you all right?”

  I blinked and shook my head. Then nodded.

  “That did not clarify anything for me.”

  “I just…I remember this. I’ve been here. I’ve seen this.”

  The memory was old and it looked a tad different, but I’d definitely been there before.

  We were on a narrow road, sandwiched between a small mountain and a lake. The lake wasn’t super wide but it stretched left and right as far as I could see. On the other side the land was raised up with small mountains.

  “Well, this is Loch Ness, so I’m sure you’ve seen many pictures—”

  “This is Loch Ness? As in the home of the Loch Ness Monster?”

  “They don’t like to be called that,” he said with a deep frown and a shrug. “But yes.”

  “So it’s real?”

  He arched one eyebrow at me. His black smoke wings swayed behind him, like he was trying to make a point.

  “Oh. Right.” Now my brain was trying to wrap itself around the fact that this creature was real along with the memory of having been there. “But that’s not what I meant. I mean, I was here. With Mum, in our carriage—"

  “I know,” he said softly. He walked ahead of me toward a small piece of grassy land that stretched into the lake. Then he turned and held his hand out for me. When I put mine in his, he pulled me close. “This is where you and your mother entered the Old Lands.”

  I gasped. “How did we get all the way up here?”

  “The safe house was north of here—”

  I leapt forward, passing through a wooden gate, then slid to a stop. Light sparkled like glitter near the edge of the grass. A black iron gate stood by itself, with no fence or anything to hold it up. A narrow stretch of gray cobblestones lead up to it. A thick gray fog clung to the ground near the gate. I spun around and crouched down, then glanced over my shoulder – and I saw it. The memory became clearer. On the way in we were still in our carriage, but on the way out we were on foot.

  “I remember. We came out right here and then Mum saw that building, so we started to walk towards it but then a man appeared. Yeah,
he was a friend of ours. I remember recognizing him. He was tall and had black — oh my God. It was you.”

  He smiled but it was kind of sad. His eyes had a distant dark look to them. “I wasn’t allowed to pull you out of the Old Lands. I had to wait. I sensed the moment you stepped through the gate…so I came.”

  My eyes teared up. “You brought us home.”

  He nodded.

  “But then you left.”

  “I was never far,” he whispered and walked over the cobblestone path and into the wall of fog. His black wings and gold eyes stood out like beacons within the haze. He held his hand out and I floated toward him. “Let’s do this.”

  As my hand found his, I braced myself. The memories I had from the Old Lands haunted me as a child, playing out over and over in my nightmares. Together, we walked into the fog. It was cold against my skin and tingled. I braced myself …but when I got through the fog, I found nothing but forest. Everything was green, from underneath my feet all the way up to the mountaintops in the distance, slicing into the clear blue sky. And this forest was alive. I felt it deep down into my bones.

  “Just breathe,” Malachi whispered close by.

  “We were in the carriage before…so I don’t remember how we got there—”

  “I know the way.”

  “You do? How?”

  He shrugged. “Angel.”

  My breath left me in a rush. I kept forgetting that detail. He just seemed so human. Which really, he wasn’t. At all. Even in the slightest bit. His father was an angel and his mother was Seelie Fae. He just looked human. Whereas I was human. For now. Once I get changed into a vampire I’ll just look like human, too.

  I forced those thoughts away and focused my attention back to the pathway. Although it wasn’t really a pathway—more like controlled chaos. “All right. But just…stay close to me.”

  “Try not to run off, okay?” He chuckled and took my hand. “And let’s stay silent. There are many creatures who live here, and we don’t want to alert them of our presence.”

  I nodded and gripped his hand with both of mine. “I’m a silent shadow. Got it.”

  Together, we charged forward. The path was bizarre. If I took my eyes off of it for a split second it would change. Trees would move. The sky kept changing colors, from blue to green to its current shade of purple. With every step the knots in my stomach tightened. We ducked under branches and climbed over fallen trees and random roots. Animals stirred and scrambled closer, peeking through bushes yet not revealing more than pairs of sparkling eyes.

  The forest thrived all around us. The trees towered so high above us I couldn’t even see the tops. Little bits of weird purple sky poked through the branches and leaves. Streams of sunshine looked like spotlights. The air was warm and fresh.

  There was a huge gust of wind, and then a massive bird the size of a car swooped down and landed on the path ahead of us. It had the head of an eagle and the legs of a tiger. The wingspan on this thing had to be fifteen feet wide. It opened its mouth and squawked…and two fangs popped out.

  Malachi pulled me behind him. His black smoky wings billowed around me, hiding me from the monster’s sight. I should have been scared, but I knew he wouldn’t let anything hurt me.

  The bird cocked its head to the side and stared at him. I didn’t know what it was seeing, but after a few moments it flapped its wings and took off out of sight. I sighed and sagged into his back. Malachi squeezed my hand twice, which I knew meant he wanted to keep moving. So I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind him — and gasped.

  Up ahead, lying at the base of a tree at a fork in the road was an old wooden carriage.

  Our carriage.

  The one Mum and I left London in all those years ago. In the fifteenth century.

  I sprinted over to it with my heart in my throat. Oh my God. Oh my God. The dark brown wood had a little more wear and tear on it than I remembered but almost six centuries of lying in the same spot would do that – especially in the middle of the Old Lands. I yanked the door open and my breath left me in a rush. Sure, it was toppled over on its side and the benches were broken, but the red velvety curtains still hung from the windows. Memories I hadn’t realized I’d forgotten rushed back.

  “This was ours,” I whispered to Malachi who was standing silently behind me. My voice hitched and I had to clear my throat. Seeing this hurt my heart because it reminded me of my father, but it filled me with a strange bit of happiness. This was my past, proof of the life I’d once had. It helped to merge those old memories with the modern ones. “Dad made us take this old wooden one so we wouldn’t look like royals. I remember him saying that to Mum.”

  “Chloe, look.”

  Something in the sharpness of his voice sent chills down my spine. I spun and found him crouched down by the front of the carriage. His brow furrowed deep and his gold eyes narrowed. A dark, hot energy poured out of him.

  “What is it?”

  He growled like a lion and his top lip snarled back. Then he held his hand up and sitting on his palm were three black arrow heads. Black ink dripped from them, running over his skin and into the soil, which glittered and hissed when it touched it. “That day you came out, your mother told me your driver was already dead when she got out of the carriage. After it crashed. And the horses were nowhere in sight.”

  My stomach tightened. “What are those?”

  “Lilith,” he snarled. Then he stood and shoved the arrows in his pocket. “I fucking knew it. You didn’t get lost. She sent you here.”

  My eyes widened. Lilith sent us to the Old Lands? Lilith. Rage like I’d never known surged inside of me. She’d robbed us. She’d stolen my life with my father from me. From us. If not for her, we would have made it to the safe house and he would have come to us. Mum wouldn’t have lost everyone and everything she’d ever known. If only I had known the truth about the time travel situation, I would have helped my mother adjust. She rarely even left the estate.

  Because of Lilith, my mother never found happiness.

  Because of Lilith, Malachi lost his brother, even though he lived.

  Because of Lilith, Malachi spent the last six centuries alone.

  Because of Lilith, I never got to really know my father.

  Because of Lilith, an entire bloodline lost their magic for six centuries.

  Because of Lilith, I was going to get myself turned into a vampire so that I could spend the rest of eternity making her life miserable.

  In that moment the truth and weight of everything from the last twenty-four hours really set in. My heart pounded against my chest. My blood boiled with anger. I balled my fists and my magic surged like a volcano inside of me. I glared at the carriage where her arrowheads pierced the wood. Red smoke coiled around my hands. I screamed and thrust my hands forward, letting every ounce of my magic soar out of me.

  The red smoke shot like a rocket, slamming into the wooden carriage in the blink of an eye. The whole thing exploded right in front of me. I cursed and spun just as chunks of wood and glass erupted all around us.

  Malachi threw his hand up and everything froze. He arched one eyebrow at me then nodded. “We will have our vengeance against her. But we have to get that off first.”

  That. The soul sucking locket of Lilith’s my father had accidentally got stuck on me. I took a deep breath —

  A loud, sharp scream ripped through the forest.

  My heart stopped.

  Memories flashed by like I was watching a movie on fast forward. I knew that sound. And I hated the fear that had me lunging for Malachi’s back to hide behind. Damsel in distress was never a title I associated with myself, but in the last twenty-four hours it’d become my middle name. I would change that. As a vampire I would have strength and power. For now, I clung to the back of his shirt.

  The trees swayed in front of us and then a large dark object leapt out of the branches and landed on the path in front of us. This creature was not something found in the real world. It wa
s a giant bird of some kind with a sharp pointed beak and talons at the edges of its wings. The damn thing stood as tall as Malachi and its beady black eyes were darker than his wings.

  “Angry bird chicken thing,” I hissed and tugged on his shirt.

  Malachi’s pulse was calm and steady. He held his hands up but made no other movements.

  The angry-bird-chicken-thing screamed and flapped its wings. It kicked its legs back one at a time, like a bull about to charge. The bushes behind it rustled and then two more jumped out, flanking the first one in an instant.

  I tugged on Malachi’s shirt as I peeked over his shoulder. “Does your black death smoke work here?”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  I grabbed his wrists and shook them. “Okay, then why aren’t you doing it?”

  “They’re not demons, Chloe.”

  “But we’re about to be dinner,” I hissed back. “Fine. Where’s your sword? I’ll do it.”

  Malachi sighed. “The Old Lands is an extension of the Garden of Eden. You cannot kill things here. But more importantly, I am an angel. I cannot kill innocent creatures.”

  “So what do you have in mind here?” I understood we couldn’t kill it but I wasn’t exactly ready to be dinner either.

  “Think carefully. Be creative?”

  I groaned. “Not helping…”

  The ground rumbled under my feet and then the pathway to our right vanished. Huge purple-colored oak trees towered into the purple sky. Branches swung low and wide. Three more of those angry-bird-chicken-things lunged out of the tree line. Large shadows slid overhead. I cursed and started to look up when two more angry-bird-chicken-things landed on the other side of us. They’d trapped us…and we were outnumbered.

  “What about now?”

  He shook his head and kept his arms lifted toward the animals. “The rules suck but I am bound.”

  I cringed and danced in one spot behind his back. “You can’t help me at all? Is there nothing you can do?”

  “I am…limited. Especially here.”

  “These things hurt, Masen. I have scars from them.”