Page 59 of The Coveted
“He can’t find us like this.”
“I know. Don’t worry about it. I don’t feel his energy anywhere in the castle. I’m monitoring it.”
Because he was in that clearing, raising witches from the fucking dead.
Chapter19
Time warped and eluded me as I slipped in and out of consciousness, the sickness still wreaking its havoc. Sometimes I was in this bedroom, and other times I was in the dark forest, or among the evergreens by Daelon’s cabin, the rolling hills of Northern Ireland, the Beach of the Nameless and Formless, or with Steph and Rena at our apartment in New York. I saw my mothers’ faces, saw their hands kneading sourdough and pouring steaming water from a kettle over loose tea leaves.
“Mommas, I’m scared,” I said, my voice small and tremulous. “It feels like there are storm clouds in my head.”
“I know, baby,” Momma Jane answered, rubbing circles on my back. “Things are about to change. But you will survive. We will never leave you.”
Momma Celeste dropped the rolling pin, her shoulders heaving. I watched in confusion as Jane went to her, pulling her into her chest. I could feel their love and sadness reach toward me as if it were my own.
“What’s wrong? Why is everything so sad?”
They didn’t answer. I knew now that they couldn’t bear it. They couldn’t bear to tell me that soon they would sacrifice themselves to keep me safe.
Now I was in my cosmic ocean, and the stars and galaxies appeared above me like a roadmap, reminding me how small I was in comparison. They held the full course of history in their patterns, from the big bang to my mothers’ deaths to whatever the future held in its esoteric palms. I felt the light of the moon warm me and remind me of who I was.
But soon the ocean grew stormy and turbulent, the sky overcast and obsidian black. I struggled to keep my head above the cresting waves, earning a mouthful of salty water in response.
I’m sorry!I screamed into my power.I had no choice. Please, please, end this suffering!I begged for an end to this sickness, as Lucius’s power corrupted all the light and good and natural. The water grew colder and colder, and soon I grew numb. I had to get back to my body. I wrestled and fought, refusing to let this darkness swallow me whole.
Áine,a voice called out.We hear your calls for help. Stay where you are, and we will find you.
Who are you?I answered, choking on Lucius’s disgusting, soiled magick. I thought of my mothers, my people, and their grand plan. This couldn’t be the end. I needed to return sacred lands, restore balance, free the witches in the dungeons and the servants from their enslavement…
Your friends.
Everything went dark once more.
“Oh, Áine,” Daelon sighed into my hair.
I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up curled onto his chest, clutching him like he was a life raft. Hewasmy life raft. “Does Lucius even care what he’s done? Or is he too busy disrupting the balance of the Universe?” I muttered, the taste of ocean still on my tongue.
“You don’t remember?” he asked, frowning down at me.
“Remember what?”
“He came to see you earlier today, but you were… out of it. You zapped out all the power in the castle for a couple hours, among other things. You might have called him a sadistic witch dictator, which he didn’t find all too offensive until you accused him again of murdering your mothers,” Daelon explained, and I swallowed. “But the vomiting of black magick immediately after your outburst felt like punishment enough, so he just let you be.”
“I’d say this is a punishment of cosmic, witchy proportions,” I groaned.
Daelon sighed. “Oh, and he also said that we don’t have to worry about these side-effects much longer, or about holding back your magick. He said he was working on something that was going to change everything. Which is—”
“Suspicious?” I finished. “Terrifying?” I knew it had everything to do with whoever he raised from the grave at the dark altar. “When I’m better, we must find a way to the Akashic Records. It’s going to make everything clear.”
“Okay,” was all Daelon said at first, and I could tell he was working very hard to stay calm, cool, and collected for me. He wanted to be my sturdy shield from the cold and the dark, always. Unfortunately for him, those things had a way of finding me regardless. “Maybe a bath will help.”
I let him help me to the grand bathtub through a set of sliding doors on the other side of his bedroom. Waves alternating between ice, fire, and nausea still worked through me like a raging ocean, and I struggled more than once to cling to consciousness.
“This can’t go on much longer,” Daelon said, clutching my hand as he sat next to the tub.
The water was warm and smelled of rose and jasmine, and I was just grateful to finally be out of those sex party clothes. The pleasure of last night felt like a whole different world than the one I was currently drowning in.
Áine. We’ll be there soon. It’s time for Solstice worship.
