Page 1 of The Coveted
Prologue
Daelon
Two decades ago on unconquered lands…
My home was in flames. The witches the High Priestess warned us about had finally found us.
They broke through the force field and brought with them magick that was cold, dark, and ill. I still didn’t understand why they were doing this, but I knew I had to protect my parents and my coven. That was what my gift from the Goddess was for.
“Dad?” I called out, coughing. My eyes burned and my chest ached from the smoke that surrounded me. My stomach turned into knots as I remembered Mom was at ritual. We needed to find her before the Order did.
I stumbled through the doorway into the kitchen. The stove was up in flames that were unnaturally black, and they screamed like a wailing tea kettle. When I caught sight of movement beyond the window in the backyard, I hurried through the side door and into the open air. My lungs heaved with relief at the freshness of the warm afternoon air.
“Dad?” I yelled.
My father stood among the grass and the wildflowers, but he was not alone. I heard screaming and blasts in all directions. I wanted to cover my ears and cry, but I knew I needed to be brave.
There were two men in front of my father, dressed in dark clothing. Their faces were warlike as they glanced at me before setting their attention back on my dad, who was in a defensive stance, his hands glowing with energy.
“Daelon,run!” he yelled. “Go find your mother. Use your gift if you need to.” He strained to deflect blackish energy shooting his way from the bad men. “I love you.Now, run.”
I gulped, trying to decide if I should listen to him or help him. My father was strong. He was a shield like me.
“I said go, Daelon!” He braced as dark power snaked toward him, icy and dense. I had never seen magick like it. Or maybe I had, in the deepest, darkest abyss of my nightmares.
A lump formed in my throat as I hesitated to leave my father to fight the men off by himself. They barely acknowledged my existence as I stood, frozen in place. “I can’t move,” I croaked over the din of destruction. I started chanting to raise my energy. I wanted to help.
With a labored grunt, Dad suddenly leapt toward me, breaking his defensive magick. As soon as his hands collided with my shoulders, he cried out. My vision was distorted by darkness, and a suffocating iciness constricted around us both.
Then, he let go. My ears popped and the roar of a great whooshing blew me through space. I staggered forward, nearly throwing up from the vertigo. The sky came into focus, its lovely lavender and baby blue swirls eclipsing with the stormy, black clouds rolling in from the west. I was on the beach now, and I heard lyrical chanting floating through the wind and the waves. The sand beneath my feet was warm and multicolored like the remnants of geodes.
“Daelon!”
I turned to see Mom running at me, tears streaming down her olive-toned skin. She was dressed in white for ritual, her dark hair ornamented with blooming pearl flowers. I saw more of my people gathered in a crescent formation by the tall dunes.
She enveloped me in her lavender-scented arms. Pulling back, she studied my eyes carefully. “Where’s your father?”
A sob escaped my lips, and a deep sadness rolled over her features like the storm clouds. We both knew without saying. We could feel it. It felt like a bad dream, and I just wanted to wake up. I wanted to be back under the covers between them, practicing my shielding and invocations.
“Listen to me now, Daelon. We don’t have much time, and you can’t be here.”
“No, Mom,” I sobbed. “Please don’t send me away. Let me stay and protect you.”
She shushed me, her chestnut-colored eyes insistent. “I’ve seen things in the waves. Things that are to come. Your purpose is not to protectus, sweet boy. It’s to protect someone who will lead you back to us. Things are about to change, and what do we know about change?”
My tears were hot as they pooled and slid down my cheeks. “That it’s the natural state of things.”
I peered around my mother at the figures approaching. It was Celeste and Jane, hand in hand. There was a magick in Celeste’s growing belly that I didn’t know how to put into words—like the cresting of a tall wave.
“And therefore mustn’t be feared. Good. You are going to have to live among enemies for a long while, but you mustn’t lose hope. We will never leave you, even when you can’t see us anymore.”
“No,” I whined and begged, my small hands clutching her fingers tightly in protest.
“You will not be alone. There will be others of us, living in the shadows. You will find a way to survive until you find your reason to hope again. Do you understand?”
“No,” I said again, the lump in my throat growing.
“That’s okay,” Celeste said, reaching us. She rubbed her round stomach. “You will in time.”
