Abandoned (Book Two of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (3 page)

The next door that they stopped by did not have an alchemical symbol on it. Instead, it had a sword.
 

“Swordsmanship?” she asked as they entered.

“Not exactly.”

The room was enormous, and there were obstacles placed all over it. As Hailey looked on curiously, she heard a loud bell, and suddenly, a young woman who had been standing unobtrusively in a corner burst into motion. She leapt over some of the obstacles and ducked low to slide under other ones. She never stopped running, she never stopped moving forward. Entranced, Hailey watched as the young woman came to a halt just a few feet away.

“How’s it going?” asked Piers.

The girl shook her head.

“Not bad, but not great either. Can’t seem to beat my best time.”

“Well, it’s your best time for a reason.” He turned to Hailey. “This is Erin. She’s putting herself through a course on parkour and free running. Erin, this is Hailey.”

Hailey shook hands with this decisive young woman, who eyed her up and down.

“Are you interested in getting started with either? You’re small. You’d probably do terrific.”

At just a hair over five feet and skinny as a teen boy, Hailey had never heard of her size being an asset before.

“You think?”

“Oh yeah. I can’t always slide under things so easily because my shoulders are so broad. I have to go under on my back or my stomach when I can at all. You could just slide under, I bet.”

“Is it related to your power?” Hailey asked in curiosity, and Erin shrugged.

“I’m a weather witch. I’m pretty good at that, but I’m sure I’m better at this.”

“Parkour and free running keep you safe when you’re out in the world,” Piers explained after they left. “You can’t always fight back, but if you’re on your feet, and even sometimes if you’re not, you can get away.”

The next place that they stopped was a bay window that overlooked a deep natural spring. Hailey realized that it must have been where the Castle met the cliff face of the mountain. The spring was bordered by natural rock, and its depths were black.

As she watched, a young witch, the girl with Bantu knots from before, stood on one of the rocks on the shore and lifted an enormous geyser of water into the sky. Her small face intense with concentration, she lifted the geyser higher and higher, letting it thin to a thread.

Hailey watched, enchanted, as the girl made the thin rope of water dance at her gesture, letting it switch back and forth. The little girl kept it up until her thin limbs were shaking. Then with a shout, she let the water fall back into the pond with an enormous splash. A tall black man clapped wildly for her, and she turned to him with an enormous grim.
 

 
The small scene made Hailey’s heart swell with happiness even as it hurt a little. She had never thought about children before, but she very much remembered her own childhood. To have her gifts nurtured as that girl’s were, to be raised as part of a community that cared about her, it was like a fairytale.
 

They passed by a window that looked out over a snowy cliff face. Across the hall from the window, there was a bench seat cut into the wall. Hailey and Piers sat down.

“You’re giving people tools,” she said softly. “That’s what this place is about. Everything I’ve seen since I’ve come here, you’re trying to give people the tools that they need to survive and thrive.”

Piers nodded, his face serious.

“I am. Do you know what the biggest cause of death for Wiccans is?”

Hailey shook her head.

“It’s other people. Templars specifically, but I’m old enough to remember when some of the witch mania spread through Scandinavia. Wiccans who had never done a bit of harm in their entire lives were hunted and killed in the most brutal ways possible. Many people died, but some of those that survived became monsters. They lost the people that they cared about. They had no place to release their grief, so they turned it to rage. That led to more killing and more pain. We are safe if we are quiet. That’s what I was taught, and for many years, I felt the same way. I taught others that the best thing we could do was hide. Then I learned that no matter how well you hide, it’s not always good enough.”

There was something about the way that he said the last part that made Hailey shiver. There was an old pain, an old hurt there. It went deep, she could tell. Impulsively, she reached out and took his hand. He looked surprised, but after a moment, he relaxed and continued.

“That’s when I realized that a place like the Castle needed to exist. I wanted a place where people can learn to defend themselves, and a place where we can work towards protecting each other. That’s what the Castle is a part of, and that’s why I wanted you.”

“Me?” Hailey blinked.

“You look surprised.”
 

“Well, to be perfectly honest, my skill isn’t often considered one of the ones that people think will protect others. In fact, I would say that when you get right down to it, it’s one of the most selfish skills out there. I literally take energy from other people and use it for myself.”

Piers laughed.

“I suppose I could see how you might think that, but that’s not what I’ve seen.”

“What do you mean?”

“The first time I saw you use your power, you were doing exactly what I wanted you for. You were taking power from a willing person and using it to protect the Wiccan community. The most vulnerable among us, I might add.”

Hailey frowned.
 

“I wasn’t doing anything that anyone else couldn’t have done.”
 

“You’re wrong. What if you were just a mindreader or someone who could read auras? What if you were someone who turned into a small animal like a ferret or a cat? Mindreaders and shapechangers are amazing for espionage work and information gathering, but their offensive and defensive capabilities are very poor. No, you’re something special.”
 

“Tell me what you have in mind,” Hailey said.

Even she could tell that he was right, but there was a missing piece here. There was something he wanted from her. She didn’t know what it was, and that made her nervous.

“I’ve always been someone who dreamed big. I always wanted more, and a temporary solution never pleases me as much as a permanent one. What I think we need, both at the Castle and at the other covens worldwide, is the ability to protect ourselves. We need to be able to hide. That means more than just one person becoming invisible. That means that I want to find a way to shield an entire coven from Templars and non-magical humans.”

Hailey blinked. She had known many other Wiccans, and for the most part, the effects of their spells could only affect themselves. A witch might be able to turn herself invisible, but she could not make someone else invisible as well. She could read minds, but she could not give the skill to someone else.
 

“You’re thinking of something entirely new,” she said hesitantly.

Piers nodded.

“What I believe it comes down to, and many other people agree with me, is power. Our capabilities are nearly limitless, but where they start to run into problems is power. Each person, witch or warlock, only has so much power to work with. We do what we can, but our sphere of influence remains small. I believe that you’re different.”

Hailey frowned at Piers.

“So what are you suggesting? That you run a lot of power through me and see if you can perform enormous spells?”

Piers nodded.

“I’m not saying it’s entirely without risk. I couldn’t lie to you like that. However, no matter what the risks are, I believe that the rewards could be immense as well.”

Hailey was silent. She could see what Piers meant. Back at the Angioli convent, she had been close with a young boy named Luca and a lively teenager named Beatrice. Both had been orphaned by Templar attacks, and Beatrice still woke up some nights screaming in fear and pain. She realized that Piers wanted to give her the opportunity to do something about that, to make sure that it never happened again. No more crying children. No more broken families.

Piers must have interpreted her silence as reluctance.
 

“This isn’t something that you have to decide now. Even if you should decide that the risk is too great, you would have a place here. There are ways to hone your abilities and to learn more about what you can do. Perhaps you’ll change your mind, or perhaps you won’t, but at the end, you would absolutely know more about yourself.”

Hailey shook her head, brushing his words off.

“I’m definitely going to do it, that’s not a question. I’m just thinking. I don’t know how it will turn out, but yes. Yes, it is something that I want.”
 

Piers’s smile was small, but it still pleased her. With a start, she realized she’d been staring at his lips.

What are you thinking? Kieran left you less than a day ago. Are you so very shallow?

The thought of Kieran brought a stab of pain and sorrow to her heart. No matter how fickle she was, the grief was still there, and she flinched.

“Are you all right?”

Hailey looked up blankly.
 

“What do you mean?”

“You looked a little lost there for a second.”
 

Piers brought up his hand and smoothed the ball of his thumb over the point of her cheek. Hailey was too entranced by his butterfly-gentle touch to mind, but then she realized how intimate it was.

“I think I’m tired,” she lied clumsily. “It’s been a little bit of a long day, I guess.”

Piers looked chagrined.
 

“Of course. It was foolish of me to want to give you the grand tour while you were still fresh off your flight. Someone’s likely taken your bags to your room. Do you want food first or would you like simply to rest?”

She started to open her mouth, but then her stomach growled, answering for her.

“There’s my answer,” he said teasingly. “Let’s go.”

PIERS WATCHED IN amusement as Hailey ate the vegetable quiche that he had found for her. The egg pie was stuffed full of peas, carrots and potatoes, and it was enormous. He doubted very much that Hailey was going to be able to finish it, but it looked like she was going to give it a determined try.

He had to admit that she wasn’t what he had been expecting. He had read the histories, probably the same ones that she had. They had painted a dismal picture of the lives of witches like her. Her skills or ones very much like hers had cropped up throughout the ages. There would be one or two or even a group of young witches born with that power, but invariably, the result was the same. Their covens first became wary of them. Then in most cases, they would turn the young girls out. In some very dark cases, those young witches were persecuted as harshly by their own community as they were by the frightened, powerless humans around them. In the matter of a few cases that still made Piers shudder, their persecutors had been as bad as Templars.

Witches with Hailey’s powers were still uncharitably called vampires, and from what he knew from her records, she had been bounced from one coven to the other, each one wary of her skills and her abilities.

None of that seemed to affect the young woman who was sitting across from him. He had been expecting someone jaded, someone who had to be cajoled and perhaps even bribed to display her talents. He hadn’t expected a rather elfin young woman with long red hair and green eyes that he suspected could melt through stone. He hadn’t been expecting someone who would throw herself into what she thought was a fight, eager to defend children who couldn’t defend themselves.

“You’re looking at me.”

She had given up on the quiche, and instead sat watching him, her chin propped on her hand and her eyes wide and curious. She looked like nothing so much as a curious cat then. He had to stifle a small laugh.
 

“Well, there’s plenty to look at,” he responded in amusement. “There’s plenty to like.”

A faint blush stole up her fair cheeks, and she toyed with her fork. There was a charming artlessness to her. It made him want to reach over and tousle that gorgeous red hair. It made him want to sweep her up for a kiss.

Piers was not a man who was used to denying his impulses. He had come of age when England ruled the seas. He was used to following his inclinations
 

“You don’t look like you believe me,” he said softly.

Hailey shrugged.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” she mumbled. “I like you.”
 

The words must have slipped out, because she clapped her hand over her mouth in shock.
 

Piers was so delighted by her answer, he laughed out loud.

“Now that’s more than I deserve,” he said. “And I think you’re tired, so perhaps I should show you to your room?”

She only nodded. Even the tips of her ears were turning red. He took pity on her, offering her his arm again. She was quiet, but she took it willingly, and he led her to the living quarters of the Castle. When he opened the door, he had been expecting surprise, but not the reaction he got.

“Oh…Oh is this all for me?”
 

Hailey stared about her wide eyed. She was standing in a roomy chamber, a sitting room that was appointed with fairly tasteful, if subdued furniture. There was a desk off to one side, and plenty of shelves for books.
 

She darted inside and started opening doors, revealing a bathroom, closets, a kitchen and finally her new bedroom. At the last, she stared at the large bed and turned to Piers.

“This can’t all be for me,” she said a little nervously. “Did you kick someone else out or something?”

“Not at all,” Piers retorted. “This is a room we had open, and I had it furnished yesterday when we knew for sure that you were coming.”

“You mean that all of the rooms look like this?”

“Some larger and some smaller, of course, and some people trade when they need a new space. Some of the witches and warlocks who live on the mountain proper never bother coming in at all.”