The Promise (The Coven Series) (35 page)

“Spirit, I command thee this night,

Unbind the Elements held here and break this
circle with your might!”

There
was a loud snap as the circle broke and I turned toward Kay.
 
The wall of water hovered at the edge of the
trees.
 
I pulled it to me and directed it
to the flames slowly killing Kay.
 
It
crashed into the flames and I watched as the water doused the fire.

“Thank
you, Water,” I whispered and started to run toward her.

A
hand grabbed my foot and pulled me back.
 
Mr. Martin’s eyes glowed black with hatred and pulsed with the fires of
madness.
 
“No, you will not escape your
fate, CJ.
 
You will do what you were born
to do!”

“Fire!”
I screamed, fighting to get away from him.
 
Ethan came into my line of vision.

The
smoldering embers that were left of the fire on the pyre leapt to life and grew
into a flame and soared into my hand.
 
The heat never touched my skin.
 

“Burn,”
I whispered, “burn as you would have burned your daughter.”

The
fire fled from my hands and surrounded him.
 
He howled in rage and started chanting something, a counter spell
maybe.
 
I knew he wouldn’t die that
easily.
 
I needed to get away while I
could.
 
Billy would see to Kay and I
trusted the Fates with my Dad.
 
I had to
go, now, before it was too late.
 
I
pushed myself up off the ground and tried to run.
 

“Matthew,
stop her!” I heard my mom scream out.
 
Another knife twisted in my stomach.

I
took exactly three steps.
 
I made it to
the edge of the broken circle.
 

Fingers
bit into my shoulders, stopping me.
 

“No,”
I sobbed.
 
Please no.

They
twisted, turning me to face him.
 
His
hands shifted to my arms and he held me up so that I was staring into his
eyes.
 
They were darker than night and
full of agony.

“I
came here to kill you,” he whispered.

“Please,”
I begged.
 
“Please don’t do this.”

“My
entire purpose was to see this curse through,” he told me, pain lacing every
word.
 
“All I had to do was let the
thirteenth daughter die.
 
It seemed so
easy.
 
Until I met
you.”

“Ethan,”
I said softly.
 
His eyes were full of
pain, but I saw the love I’d been looking for all night reflected in them
now.
 
Hope sprang back to life within
me.
 
Maybe I hadn’t been wrong about him.

“Ethan!”
Billy yelled.
 
My head snapped
around.
 
Mr. Martin was diving full force
at us, knife in hand.
 
Ethan turned,
taking the blade in his back.
 
His eyes
went round with startled pain and he fell, taking me with him.
 
Mr. Martin still held the handle of the knife
and as Ethan fell, the blade slid in deeper and sliced upward.
 
Blood oozed out of the wound, down my arm
from where I held onto him, and dripped into the ashes.

A
scream of fury rent the air.
 
The sky
flashed with lightening as the spirits of the damned were denied their entrance
into this world.
 
Ethan’s blood had
tainted the ashes.
 
The only blood that
could give them substance was mine.
 
The
air hummed and throbbed with their screeches and the ground heaved with the
fury of the hunting party denied their souls.
 

“No!”
Mr. Martin roared his denial and reached for me, fury radiating in every
movement.
 
I was trapped beneath
Ethan.
 
There was nowhere to go.

Air
came to me without being summoned.
 
My
Element, I thought.
 
Emily said we were
all bound to an Element.
 
Mine was Air.
 
The wind gathered around me and I threw it at
him.
 
It caught him mid-stride and held
him as I’d intended.

“I bind you, Jonas Paul Martin, from doing
harm to anyone

I bind you, Jonas Paul Martin from the using
the Elements

Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit, I call
upon you to do my will

And Bind Jonas Paul Martin’s powers this
night,

And forever let it be.”

The
wind whipped and tore at him, howling in its own rage.
 
It ravaged him before dropping him limp and
broken on the ground.
 
I turned my
attention to the screeching sky.

“Spirit, banish these souls back from whence
they came.

Their time here has passed and never let
them return.

I command it and so shall it be on this holy
night of Samhain.”

The
sky blackened and the ear piercing wails cried out in anger and
frustration.
 
I felt the calming peace
leave me and wash over them, soothing their agony.
 
The silver ruptures in the veil began to knit
back together and a light rain started to mist down around us.
 
It was a healing rain to purge the wounds of
the past, to heal the anger in our hearts and souls, and to settle peace within
us once more.

I
saw my father haul Mr. Martin up.
 
I
don’t know who untied him, but I was grateful.
 
He’d deal with Kay’s crazy dad.
 
I
focused my attention on Ethan.
 
His eyes
glowed with his love for me.
 
They were
soft and gentle.
 
They were also dulling,
the life fading as I watched.

“My
Cassie,” he smiled down at me.
 
“Didn’t I
tell you to trust me no matter what happened?”

“Ethan…”
 
My hand came up to cup his cheek as he had
done mine so many times before.
 
Blood
stained my fingers.
 
His
blood.

“I
didn’t know who you were until that day in the diner when you told me about
your birthday.
 
By then it was too
late.
 
I couldn’t kill you, I’d fallen in
love with you, my little hellcat, and so I broke my promise.”
 

“Your promise?”

“I
promised myself I’d get justice for Sara.
 
That meant your death and there’s not a force in heaven or in hell that
could make me do that.”

“Shh,”
I said.
 
“We need to get you to a
hospital.”

“It’s
too late, Cassie Jayne.
 
I can feel it,”
he grunted in pain.
 
“I left to try and
find a way to save you and I found it.
 
There was only one way.
 
The curse
was a blood promise.
 
Blood was the only
way to stop it, blood given willingly in sacrifice, and I willingly sacrificed
myself for you.
 
You’re worth dying for,
Cassie.”

“Please,
Ethan, please don’t leave me.” I hugged him to me.
 
He loved me.
  
I couldn’t bear to look into his eyes, to see the light fade from their
beautiful depths.

“I
don’t want to,” his voice came out whisper soft.

I
cried harder.
 
I damned everyone and
everything.
 
He was dying.

“Hush
now,” he whispered.
 

“Ethan…”

“I
love you, Cassie Jayne Bishop.”

I
heard the soft rustle of leaves and smelled jasmine.
 
Someone whispered his name.
 

“Sara?”
 

I
looked up into his face.
 
For one moment,
it shone with joy and love and then he looked down at me.
 
Pain filled his eyes.
 
The sky had lightened and the stars were
shining.
 
In the moonlight I saw
her.
 
Long blonde hair swirled like a
cloak around her as she stepped into the meadow.
 
She smiled and held out her hand.

“Matthew,
it’s time to go.”

“I’m
sorry, Cassie.”
 
He leaned down and
brushed my lips with his.
 
His body went
limp and I knew he was gone.
 

I
saw him reappear beside Sara and take her hand.
 
She smiled up at him, but then faltered when she followed his gaze to
me.
 
She stared into my eyes.
 
Her face looked sad as she read the pain in
mine.
 
Then she led him away.
 
He looked back, his eyes never leaving mine,
as they walked away into the night, fading from my life as mysteriously as he’d
appeared.

He
was gone.

Chapter Thirty

My
dad pulled me up.
 
He didn’t say
anything.
 
There wasn’t anything to
say.
 
Instead, he pulled me into his arms
and just held me.
 
I wanted to cry, but
couldn’t.
 
There were no tears.
 
I felt empty, cold.
 
He was gone and there wasn’t a thing I could
do to bring him back.
 
But there was one
person I still might be able to save.

“Dad,
Jeff,” I pulled away.
 
“They shot him,
please, you have to find him.”

“I
know,” he nodded.
 
“I’ve already got
people on their way to get him.”

“He
has to be alive,” I whispered.
 
He had to
be.
 

Billy
brought Kay over to me.
 
Her legs were
covered in burns and she whimpered as he moved her.
 
She reached out blindly and I took her
hand.
 
I noticed Billy had used his shirt
to bind the wound on her arm.
 
Dad
stepped away so we could talk.

“Sorry,”
she whispered hoarsely.
 
“So, sorry.”

“Shh,”
I soothed.
 
“Don’t talk.
 
We need to get her to a hospital.”

“I
know,” Billy fretted, “but she wouldn’t go anywhere until she talked to you.”

“You
little bitch!” My mother screamed from behind me.
 
I turned and stared at her in horror as she
flew at me, Deputy Sims’ gun aimed and cocked.

Time
didn’t slow down like it did in the movies.
 
It happened so quickly, I would have missed it if I’d blinked.
 
Kay threw herself out of Billy’s arms and
knocked me down.
 
The bullet hit her
instead of me.
 
It threw her backwards a
good ten feet.

“KAY!”
Billy let out a strangled cry and rushed to her.

I
stared at my mother.
 
My
mother.

“Mama?”
I whispered.

“You
ruined everything!” she spat.
 
“Everything!”
 
She
cocked the gun again, but my father wrestled it from her.
 

“Rebecca,
you may have killed one child, but you will not harm the other.”

“Daddy?”
  

“I’m
sorry, CJ.”
 
He looked so tired.
 
“I didn’t know before tonight.
 
I swear I didn’t know she’d planned Emily’s
death.”

Planned
it?
 
“I…”
 
Shock, anger, hurt—they all warred within me.
 
She was our mother.
 
She had planned Emily’s death?

“I’ll
deal with your mother,” he told me.
 
“See
to Makayla.”

Kay—I
forgot her when I heard Dad’s words.
 
I
ran.
 
Billy’s hand pressed into the wound
in her shoulder.
 
Her face was graying.
No, I thought desperately.
 
I couldn’t
lose her too.

“CJ,”
she gasped.
 
“Love you…forgive
me…so…sorry…”

I
couldn’t save Ethan, but I’d be damned if I’d let Kay die.

“Spirit, aide me once more this night.

Settle
into your daughter and help her find peace and feel your healing balm.”

Kay
let out a gurgle of pain at the force of the blast that hit her.
 
It didn’t just settle, it
attacked.
 
She cried out and tried
to fight it, but in the end it was too strong.
 
She collapsed into unconsciousness.
 
I felt the Element begin to strengthen her, heal the wounds inside her
soul, my soul.
 

“She’ll
be alright,” I whispered.
 
“Get her to
the hospital.”

“No,”
Dr. Allen, the town doctor shook his head.
 
“There will be too many questions asked, Mistress.
 
Bring her to the clinic.
 
I’ll tend her there.”

“I’m
not…”

“Yes,
Mistress,” Mr. Corey nodded.
 
“We tend
our own.
 
Marcus, take Rebecca, Jonas and
Tom into custody.
 
We’ll deal with them
in the morning.”