Magick (Book 3 in the Coven Series) (21 page)

I turn and point toward the vehicles. “We’ve got to go.”

“What just happened?” Rinna asks, her eyes huge.

“No time to explain now. We’re too vulnerable here like this.” Yes, I am more powerful than a dark witch now—a single one. If more than one come at us at once, we have to have an airtight battle plan so none of us gets killed. I look toward Keller and Rule then nod down at where Sean still lies in the half-melted snow. “Get him in the truck.”

“We’re taking him with us?” Caleb asks.

I meet his gaze. “Yes, he’s not the same person anymore. I will do the same for you, but not here.” I point toward the Jeep. “Now get in.”

They comply as Rule and Keller drag Sean into the bed of the truck.

“Won’t he freeze back there?” Toni asks as she scrambles into the truck after me.

“No choice,” I say. “We didn’t plan for an extra person.”

“It’s not that far,” Keller says as he starts the truck and heads down the driveway. I can tell he’s more concerned that we’re going to run into a full coven of dark witches before we can get back to safety. And the air around me is so full of magical signatures from Piper, Sean and me right now that I can’t discern if there’s anything beyond them.

Keller keeps checking both the side and rearview mirrors, and I try to sift through the signatures. Of course, that’s harder at sixty miles an hour.

“Anything?” he asks.

“Not that I can tell, but stop before we get back so I can do a scan.”

When we reach the turnoff to the Bane’s hideaway, Keller pulls over on the side of the road and Rule does the same. I slide out of the truck after Toni.

“What are we doing?” Rule asks as he steps out of the Jeep.

“I need to check out the area, make sure we weren’t followed.”

The sound of running draws my attention. I look over my shoulder to see Egan skid to a halt at the end of the gravel drive that leads back to the Bane headquarters. He looks scared out of his mind. One heartbeat passes before he and Toni lock eyes and he races to her, pulls her into his arms and kisses her like it’s the end of time or something.

I close my eyes and reach out with my senses as far as I can. When I find no indication of other witches beyond the ones with me, I breathe a sigh of relief. Still, we need to get beyond the Bane’s shielding.

“You all scared the crap out of me,” Egan says.

I open my eyes in time to see Sean sit up in the back of the truck. He looks a bit too blue to be healthy. But what really hits me hard is the haunted look in his eyes. I’ve never seen that much pain in my life.

“We need to get back,” I say.

Egan turns with Toni wrapped in the crook of his arm. When he sees Sean, he starts toward him with lethal anger in his eyes. He might no longer have dark magic, but the danger Sean put Toni in hits a very human protective instinct in Egan.

I step into Egan’s path. “You know it wasn’t his fault.”

Egan’s jaw tightens.

I put my hand against his chest. “Get in the front with Toni.” He doesn’t budge, even though we both know I can make him. “Now,” I say more forcefully.

With a curse, he takes Toni’s hand and they slide into the front.

When I climb into the back with Sean, Keller gives me a questioning look. “It’s not far,” I say.

Sean doesn’t move, doesn’t speak, doesn’t even look at me as Keller drives toward the Bane’s home. Sean and I aren’t connected like I am to Egan, not even like my new bond with Keller and Toni, but I’ve gotten my answer as to whether I can still feel my family bond. I feel his pain as if it’s my own. Realizing what I’d done to Amos Barrow had been a raw horror like I’d never known. I can’t imagine how crushing it must be to feel that dozens of times over.

When we reach the house, Rule and Piper direct the newly bound witches inside. Egan sends Toni in with them while he and Keller stay outside.

Sean still doesn’t move, not even when it begins to snow and the flakes start to collect in his hair, on his naked hands.

“We have to go inside,” I say.

“Leave me out here.”

“I can’t do that.”

Slowly, he drags his gaze to mine. “Why didn’t you just kill me?”

“Because what you did wasn’t totally within your control.” I realize in that moment that my hatred of the covens has been misplaced. Every one of those witches is entitled to a chance at life without the noose of dark magic. It doesn’t mean they’ll be good people, but some will be. The weight of responsibility drops onto my shoulders. Only I can give them that opportunity for a second chance. God, how many of them are there? Can I convert all of them, or will it be too much for even my powers?

Sean shakes his head. “It was. I killed
 . . .
so many people. Innocent people.” I can hear how difficult it is for him to speak past the huge lump in his throat.

“Because we were imprisoned by dark magic. We couldn’t be who we are underneath.”

Sean looks off into the distance. The cold soaks all the way down to my bones, but I won’t move until Sean does. This is a test, for both of us. He has to see a path to redemption. And he is the first witch I’ve converted against his will, so I feel like a lot is riding on how this turns out.

I hold my hand out to him. “And I need your help.”

He begins to shake visibly. Mother Nature cannot be defeated, not even by an enforcer witch.

“You’re freezing. Come with me,” I say.

Sean doesn’t look at me, but he finally puts his big hand in my much smaller one. I’d thought mine cold, but his feels like a block of ice. I glance toward Keller and Egan. “He’s too cold,” I say.

They hurry to the back of the truck and help me guide Sean to the ground. His knees almost buckle, but they catch him. When I try to release Sean’s hand, he won’t let me. His tightened grip doesn’t scare me though. My instincts tell me he’s holding on to the only thing in his world that seems good, and I can’t deny him that no matter what he’s done in his past.

With a few more stumbles, we get him inside and down into the underground facility. Caren and Sarah are there with blankets and hot chocolate.

“Take him to the room across from Egan and Keller’s,” Sarah says.

Once we get there, Caren throws back the covers on the bed and guides him so that he’ll sit down. When she reaches to take off his shoes, he holds out his arm. “I can do it,” he says. Even though his teeth are chattering, I take it as a good sign that he’s slightly less remote.

I nod for the others to leave. Keller and Egan linger at the door. “It’s okay,” I say. “You can wait outside.” When they step out and close the door, I crouch next to Sean. “You need to take off your coat and shoes and get into the bed. You’re close to hypothermic.”

With slow movements, he removes the coat and shoes. When he slides under the covers, he stares at the ceiling. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because I want to. There’s been too much hate and revenge. It’s time for the opposite.”

He falls quiet, and I let him. I simply sit next to him as his shivering slowly fades. I sense Keller and Egan tensed outside the door.

“What did you do to me?” Sean asks.

“I drained your dark magic.”

“Will it come back?” The fear in his voice is so at odds with how I’ve always viewed my cousin that it’s heartbreaking. He’s only three years older than me, but it seems like he’s been an adult a long time, expected to take on the enforcer role the moment he turned seventeen.

“No, it’s gone forever.”

He turns his head on the pillow and looks at me. “How?”

“There’s a lot to tell you, but right now you need to rest. Honestly, so do I.”

“Can you do that to any witch?”

I nod.

“How many?”

Something about his question sounds an alarm in me. “I’m not sure, but only one at a time. Why?”

“Because the covens have called a Conclave. They know you’re in Salem, and it’s all my fault.”

“When is the Conclave
supposed to happen?” Sarah asks when I share Sean’s news with everyone several minutes later.

“In two days,” I say.

Rule leans against the bookshelf in the study. “Not exactly a lot of time to prepare.”

“How can you possibly prepare?” Adam asks from his spot in one of the high-backed chairs. “There will be hundreds of witches here. Not just the coven leaders, but their entourages, their protectors and scouts.”

“We’ll have to try to pick them off a few at a time as they arrive,” Keller says.

“Even for Jax, it’s too many,” Egan says.

“We’ll manage,” I say, thinking about how I might have to pull extra power from the fissure despite my determination not to. “I will fight when I can, but when I’m draining witches I can’t do anything else.”

“We’ll have to form a protective circle around you,” Hope says.

“And every person without magic needs to be paired up with someone who has it,” Sarah says. “Our numbers will slowly grow as Jax finishes conversions.”

“You’re sending the non-witches out into the middle of that?” Adam asks.

“They’re battle tested,” I say. There’s the part of me that is terrified of Keller and Toni going to full-on battle with us, even Rule and Adele with their very limited powers. But the truth is we need all the help we can get, and not even my powers will keep them away from this. They’ve come this far with us, and they deserve to finish by our sides.

“Won’t we all collapse like Sean after Jax does her spooky mojo on us?” Rinna asks.

“It affects every witch differently,” I say. “Sean’s was an extreme case because of the enormity of what he’d done with his dark magic.”

“You mean killed a bunch of people,” Caleb says.

“Yes. Even if you don’t realize it while under the yoke of dark magic, each kill takes a bit of your soul.”

“Did he say that?” Adam asks.

“No, I know from personal experience.” Before the questions can start, I share the story of my struggle with the dark magic within me, how I killed Amos Barrow, and the path to learning I am this generation’s white witch.

“I think I just fell down the rabbit hole,” Adam says as he leans forward and drops his head against his palms.

“So we’ll be what when you drain us?” Rinna asks as she nervously picks at her fingernails. She glances at Egan, the only person in this room she really knows.

“Pale witches,” he says. “You’ll still have your abilities, but no dark magic.”

Adam pulls himself to his feet. “If we need to be at full strength, then we better get this done.” He crosses the room to where I’m standing next to the wall opposite the door. “What do I do?”

Whoever claimed Adam was a coward is dead wrong. “Give me your hands.”

“Your girl sure does hold hands with a lot of other guys,” Egan says to Keller.

Keller gives him a punch in the shoulder. The teasing cuts the tension in the room, which is Egan’s intent.

Adam’s conversion is much easier than Sean’s. When it’s finished, he plunks himself down in the chair beside me.

“What’s it like?” Rinna asks him.

He looks stunned for a few moments then a smile stretches his lips. “Amazing. It’s like I can breathe for the first time.”