The Rose Witch (The Coven: Old Magic Stand-Alone Novel Book 1) Page 6

  She threw her hands up in the air. “This is why women should lead wars, my friend.”

  I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. This girl was…absolutely unnerving. She just sat down here like we were old friends, unless that was typical for an American? I didn’t know. But it wasn’t just that. There was an energy rolling off of her that felt like standing outside during a thunderstorm. It felt like lightning striking something close by and making the hairs on your arms stand tall.

  “I’m Tegan Bishop, by the way. Not that you haven’t heard that by now.”

  “I did hear.” I grinned. “But nice to hear directly from you and not like a creeper.”

  “Oh, I’m a creeper. You just haven’t noticed it yet.”

  I snorted. Again. “I’m Chloe Lancaster. I also know you’re the High Priestess in The Coven and you have a soulmate. Is that creeper level yet?”

  “Oh. Feisty. I like it.” She narrowed those pale eyes again and cocked her head to the side. Some kind of light flashed in her eyes, but then it was gone. She leaned forward. “You’re interesting.”

  My heart stopped. Somehow that was not a compliment. “W-why?”

  “You have more magic than the rest.”

  My eyes widened. I didn’t know what to say to that.

  “Give me your hands, Chloe.” She laid hers on the table between us, palms up. “Don’t be afraid. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  There was no way I wasn’t going to see where this was headed, even if my fingers trembled as I laid my hands in hers.

  She smiled softly. “You don’t have to be afraid of your magic. It won’t hurt you. It wants to protect you, to help you.”

  “You speak like it’s a living thing.”

  “Yes…and no. It’s an extension of yourself.”

  Her fingers wrapped around my hands and then electricity sizzled between our palms. That rainbow smoke seeped out, coiling around us. There was a flash of light and my red smoke poured out of me.

  “You see this smoke?”

  I nodded.

  “That’s your magic, it only comes out when it thinks you need it or when you summon it.” She smirked. “Red. Like the Lancaster rose. Why am I not surprised?”

  My jaw dropped. I hadn’t thought of that.

  “This morning was really rough for you, wasn’t it?”

  I nodded.

  “Don’t be afraid, Chloe,” she said softly. Then she closed her eyes and whispered, “Runes of water, air and ground, seek the gifts that can’t be found. Charms for strength, seed and flower, search within for magic and power.”

  Air surged within me. Light flashed. Heat bloomed in my chest. Electricity tingled up and down my entire body. My eyes twitched. That red smoke of mine billowed around us higher and higher.

  “I call the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, to calm this spirit heart and stone. By flame and breeze, sand and sea, Ease thy soul by power of three.”

  My breath left me in a rush so hard I actually slumped forward. I blinked and looked around….and frowned. I felt lighter. Stronger. Like I’d been buried under a boulder that was suddenly lifted off of me.

  “What did you do?”

  Tegan grinned. “Well, your magic is…old. It needed a little more of a bump. You’ve been feeling really panicked today, right? While everyone else is calm and excited? Like you can’t sit still?”

  “YES.”

  She nodded. “Your magic felt trapped still. It wasn’t at all, but it thought so. I just took that away. Then I did a simple calming spell to help you.”

  My eyes watered. “Thank you.”

  She grinned. “You’re very welcome. Now…tell me to screw off if you’d like, but I sensed something else is bothering you? What happened this morning?”

  “How do you know something happened?”

  “I’m the High Priestess. I am the keeper of secrets. The queen of mystery.” She arched one eyebrow. “I know you don’t know me yet, but I just know things.”

  I stared at her for a long moment, fighting the urge to run away as fast as possible…or to tell her everything. I didn’t know her at all. I had no reason to trust her. Yet I wanted to. Deeply. Like she was my best friend I hadn’t seen in months and was dying to tell her everything that had happened. It was overwhelming.

  “I know you have a lot of questions, Chloe. I can feel them just as I can feel your magic.” She smiled. “Tell me and I can help you.”

  I opened my mouth, then closed it. How did I even begin? Would she think I was crazy? A man with smoke wings that moved faster than the eye?

  “If you’d like, I have ways to see what happened without you having to say it. Just say yes.”

  My eyes widened and my pulse quickened. I don’t have to say it out loud? Sign me up for that. “Yes.”

  She grinned and coiled her fingers around my hands tighter. “Red of rose, seed in vine, See her day, make it mine.”

  Rainbow mist exploded like fireworks between us. It shot straight up, then wrapped around her head. Her entire body lit up like a full moon, glowing a bright white so sharp I had to look away. My hands buzzed and pulsed. I felt my muscles twitch but it didn’t hurt. And then a bolt of sharp cold energy shot straight up my spine. I gasped and my back arched. Images filled my mind, changing and morphing too fast for me to tell what they were of. And then I saw Rolland.

  With Shelly.

  My stomach rolled.

  “That son of a bitch,” Tegan growled and then the image changed.

  My eyes were open but I watching a replay of my day. I saw my memories like they were just happening. I watched as I hurried down the stairs and out onto the street. My muscles tensed as I watched myself enter the bookstore, knowing what was coming. Knowing I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to see this again.

  As memory-me toppled into the books and those images popped up Tegan gasped. “Wicked.”

  “What?” I said between clenched teeth.

  “That would make reading so much more fun, and reading is already my favorite,” Tegan said with a chuckle. “OH, I recognize these books! That’s Percy Jackson, and ohhh that’s Odin and Medusa from Megan Montero’s Wicked Omen book. And oh, oh, oh, those are the brothers.”

  “The brothers?” I shrieked as the holographic vampire men charged for memory-me.

  “Wrath and Vishous, from J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood.” Tegan shook her head and grinned. “Girl, if you haven’t read those, you need to.”

  “Tegan, but what’s happening?”

  She narrowed her eyes as the memories played. My memories. To anyone else we probably just looked like normal people having a conversation, but I knew she was seeing what I was. It was like watching a movie in my eyeballs. I could see the real Tegan through the memories. It was starting to make me dizzy.

  “Oh, look at the paintings! Like in Harry Potter.”

  “Tegan.”

  She grinned. “Really, Chloe. This is just your magic. You have a gift. You make art come to life and that, my friend, is amazeballs.”

  “This next part isn’t,” I grumbled. “Here comes the demon.”

  “A demon—” she gasped and sat up straight.

  I focused my eyes on her and not the memories. I didn’t want to see that demon-dog again, or the man with the smoky wings. I didn’t want to relive that. Goosebumps spread across my body. I shivered and my teeth rattled together. My legs bounced with the need to run.

  And then he filled my mind. I closed my eyes to try and not see, yet still there he was. I couldn’t get away from him. His face loomed in my mind like an echo. Like a song I couldn’t get out of my head. Heat exploded in my chest. I hissed and breathed through clenched teeth. Memory-me looked up and met his golden stare and my whole body warmed. He really was beautiful, but that was how incubus were. Gorgeous to lure in their prey.

  Memory-me turned and charged for the wall with the painting. I sat up straight, trying to watch this part for myself. I saw the painting, my painting, of the hall in O
xford, and then I fell right through it.

  Tegan gasped. “You can portal!”

  “What?” I shrieked.

  She giggled and did a little dance. “Girl. No one in The Coven can do that.”

  My face fell.

  “I mean, I can. But I’m not a normal witch and my way of portaling is so very different.”

  “What are you saying? Am I some kind of abomination? What’s wrong with me?”

  “Wrong?” Tegan frowned and the memory movie froze. “Chloe, there’s nothing wrong with you. This is a gift. I told you, your magic is stronger than the others. It’s…old. Powerful. Your family can do normal kind of magic, with normal spells. They’d all need wands and shit. You’ve got a real talent. An ability. I understand if it frightened you, given the way it suddenly came out, but just take a deep breath. Because trust me, I don’t know a single witch who wouldn’t kill to have this ability.”

  I blinked and opened my mouth, then closed it. I frowned.

  Warmth spread up my arms and then the memory movie started again. When I finally found the door with the rose etched into it and dove through, the images vanished. Tegan pursed her lips and let go of my hands. I shook mine out, then rolled my wrists. Holding on to her was like sticking a metal fork in an electrical socket – not that I’d tried that.

  “How do I do it? Go through a painting?”

  She tapped on her chin. “I think…if there’s a passageway in a painting, you may be able to use it. But you’ll need to be careful. There are always limitations to our gifts. Will you have control over where it takes you or will the painting decide? You’ll want to test this out cautiously. Find a painting of a place you know well but then when you step through, think of someplace entirely different and see where you end up. Okay?”

  I nodded. “And the doorway here from Oxford?”

  “Oh, that I have no idea, isn’t that exciting?”

  I frowned. “That’s exciting?”

  She wagged her eyebrows and nodded. “I can’t wait to go try all those doors.”

  “What if it takes you somewhere weird and you get stuck?”

  “I won’t. I have many ways of transporting myself, including portaling.” She rubbed her hands together. “But, have no fear, The Coven is going to investigate all of those doors. You just carry on with your life and let us handle it.”

  “Carry on— what about that demon?”

  “That’s not a demon. That’s a hellhound.”

  “WHAT?”

  “I want to meet a hellhound.” She gripped the crystal hanging from her necklace and light flashed – and then a big brown leather book appeared in her hands. She pressed her palm to the cover. When she lifted it, the book opened itself and the pages flipped like it knew where she needed to look. Tegan leaned forward and her eyes widened. She looked up at me and grinned as the book vanished back into a necklace. “Come on. Let’s go summon it.”

  Chapter Six

  Chloe

  Bright white light flashed all around us — and then we were standing in the middle of the lawn. I spun in a circle and spotted the tall glass wall that was the backside of the ballroom.

  My jaw dropped. “Bloody hell! What was that?”

  “My portal.” Tegan giggled. “We’re just outside, still on property.”

  I wrapped my arms around myself as a cold breeze rushed over me. I turned back to face her. “Tegan, what are we—” I froze.

  Tegan was back in her jeans and boots outfit. Her long purple-tipped hair hung loose, whipping around her body. She stood a few feet in front of me with her arms spread out to the side. Her skin glowed like she had covered herself in glow-in-the-dark paint.

  “Tegan—”

  “Come here.”

  “What? Why? What are we—”

  “Chloe.” She flicked her wrist and my feet slid over the cold grass until I landed right beside her. We were almost the same height, so when her pale green eyes looked sideways at me it was unnerving. “I know what I’m doing.”

  “You’re summoning a demon,” I hissed and wrapped my arms tighter around myself.

  She rolled her eyes and waved her hands. A strong gust of energy rushed out of her and then whipped around us in a circle. I shivered. Goosebumps spread across my skin. I didn’t have a coat. I didn’t even have sleeves on this gown, yet neither did she. But she didn’t look bothered by the temperature at all.

  “Hellhound.”

  “Fine. Hellhound. Aren’t you afraid of what you’re summoning?”

  At that, she looked over to me and grinned a grin that sent a shiver down my spine. Her pale green eyes twinkled like a glass of absinthe. “Darlin’, I’m the scariest thing out here.”

  I froze. Like literally. Every inch of my body went ice-cold. What does that mean? Why would she say that? Before I could form words to ask, that rainbow magic of hers poured out of her hands. It rained down on the grass in a light mist. The ground warmed under our feet. Little pulses of energy tingled through my feet and up my legs. I glanced over my shoulder to the house, but through the glass wall I saw the party was still going hard. No one had noticed our departure.

  No one knows I’m out here.

  Wait. Why am I afraid of the High Priestess? She’s in The Coven. They’re supposed to protect us. But there was something about Tegan that terrified me deep down into my core. I wanted to trust her except something told me not to. I needed to stop her and ask more questions. I needed to let someone else know we were out here. Tell my mother or granny. Shit. Maybe I ought to tell Jackson?

  I opened my mouth to insist we pause when bright light flashed from the ground. I looked down, finding two circles drawn in the grass – one inside of the other. Both were drawn in neon red light several inches thick. Tegan dropped to her knees beside me but raised her face to the sky. She wiggled her fingers through the air like she was playing a piano.

  My stomach turned and tightened into knots.

  It was too late to turn back.

  She chanted words in a language I’d never heard.

  My pulse skipped. My palms grew sweaty. I trembled. She was summoning the hellhound. The one that had chased me. Why did I agree to this? Why didn’t I just leave? Walk back to the house?

  I took a step backward, preparing to abandon Tegan to her own rubbish when a pair of eyes lit up within the shadows of the trees.

  One gold. One red.

  Both glowing.

  I froze. I’d found my courage to bolt too late, or maybe that was a complete lack of courage. Either way I was going to need courage now, because there was no turning back. It saw me. Granny had said nothing could touch me here…but Tegan had summoned it.

  I swallowed the hot lump of fear in my throat and turned to face it head on. Just beyond our property line was a small little forest that I used to play in as a little girl. The trees were lined up so close together that the branches interlocked, blocking out any and all-natural light. At night, it was utter blackness. Those glowing eyes emerged from the darkness. Two big black paws stepped out from the tree line and into the moonlight, shadows clinging to it like a cape.

  “Tegan…the demon is coming…”

  “It’s not a demon.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know demons,” she growled and then I realized she’d meant exactly what she’d said. She really was the scariest thing out here. “Plus, demons smell like maple syrup.”

  “Okay, well, what’s your bloody plan here?”

  The demon-dog, hellhound, lunged forward. I shrieked and jumped behind Tegan. Then it vanished. I gasped. My blood ran cold. Smoke and shadow filled our circle, seeping up under our feet between every single blade of grass.

  “Where is it? Where’d it go?”

  “Here,” Tegan whispered.

  The shadow slithered over the grass and then swirled together, growing thicker and taller in size until it stood almost as tall as me. My knees trembled. My breath left my mouth in shaky white puffs of smoke, like t
he temperature had plummeted. I wanted to be brave. I wanted to have courage. But I was terrified. I reached out and grabbed ahold of Tegan’s shoulder.

  From within the black shadow, it opened its mismatched eyes.

  Tegan gasped and lunged for it so quickly I actually stumbled forward, dropping to one knee. But she didn’t notice. She slid right up to its face and giggled. With hands that were somehow not shaking, she reached up and — Ruffled. Its. Ears. Like it was a damn golden retriever.

  “Well hello, handsome. Look at you,” she purred and ruffled its fur even more.

  My jaw dropped. What is even happening right now? I cleared my throat, but she ignored me. She’d done it. She’d actually summoned a bloody hellhound and was now cuddling the bloody thing. I just wanted to go. I wanted to leave before she had the crazy idea to summon—

  Heat rushed over my body, burning like I’d swallowed fire. I looked up and choked on a scream. HIM. The beautiful man with black smoke wings.

  He looked down at Tegan and snarled in disgust — then turned his glowing gold eyes on me. I squirmed and stumbled back a few steps. I opened my mouth to scream for Tegan when he reached out and grabbed my arm…and then darkness fell all around.

  Chapter Seven

  Chloe

  I blinked — then we were in the middle of the forest behind our estate. The tree branches above us had a gap just big enough to let moonlight in, casting his face in shadow. I screamed and swatted at where his hand still gripped my bicep. Red smoke shot out of me and slammed into his arm.

  “Let me go!” I shouted and slapped his arm over and over. “Don’t touch me!”

  His grip loosened and I scrambled away. I spun and sprinted back in the direction of the house — and slammed into his chest. I screamed and shoved at his body but he didn’t budge. He gripped my elbows and lifted me off the ground, my feet hovering a foot in the air. Fear flooded my veins. I’d never been in a fight in my entire life, but I was going to go down swinging now. I swung my leg forward right into his groin. He grunted and dropped me.