Coven (19 page)

“That seems kind of useless.”

“It all depends. There are some who are
masters at it. They understand how all the intricacies work.”

“I’m afraid I’m not one of those people.”
Despite all my training, sometimes I still felt inadequate. There
was so much to know about the Craft that I wondered if anyone
actually “knew it all,” so to speak.

Bels laughed, tossing some of her long dark
hair over her shoulder. “Me, neither. Is there a particular reason
you asked about this?” Her eyes practically bore through me,
missing nothing.

“There’s a guy at school,” I replied, seeing
no reason to hide the truth from her. “He claims to have the power
of premonition. Today he told me that he dreamed I was coming
before I arrived.”

“And you didn’t know him before this?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Is he a witch?”

“He is.” I conveniently left out the part
about him wanting to be turned into a demon.

“Hmmm. Interesting.”

“Interesting good? Or interesting bad?”

She stared at me for a moment. “Do you like
this guy?”

Immediately, my traitorous body reacted,
sending a flash of heat zipping over my skin at the memory of being
with Jett this afternoon. “I, uh, it’s complicated.”

Bels laughed and leaned forward against the
counter. “It’s only complicated if you make it that way. It really
is an easy answer. Do you like him? Yes or no?”

It wasn’t nearly as simple as she made it
out to be. Teeth clenched, it was almost as if I was afraid the
word would jump right out of my mouth. “Maybe. Is maybe okay?” It
was the best I could do at the moment.

Thankfully, Bels decided to ease up on me.
“I think ‘maybe’ will work.”

“So is it good or bad?”

“It depends on your view of the situation.
If you like the guy, then it could be very good. Usually dreams of
people before you meet them are referred to as Soulmate
dreams.”

Shoot. Me. Now. She had to be kidding
. . . right? “Uh, maybe I heard him wrong or something.”
I knew I was grasping at straws, but there was no way in hell Jett
could be my soulmate. Could he?

“Remember what I said earlier. Fate is
fickle and subjective. One dream doesn’t necessarily shape a
future.”

Feeling thankful for her words, I took a
deep breath. Fate must not have seen Seth before my arrival. Surely
everything that had happened after I moved here had shifted the
balance. Suddenly I could breathe easier—I didn’t feel so
panicked.

Except that there was that one niggling
voice in the back of my head that kept trying to ask the question I
refused to answer.

Would it be so bad to be crawling into that
bed with Jett, as his dream suggested?

“Shut it, Kenna,” I whispered under my
breath as I hurried back to my task. There were still several books
to shelve before I could leave to get ready for my dinner at Seth’s
house. Until then, I needed to find something else to occupy my
mind.

~~~

“I thought now was never going to get here,”
Seth said with a smile when he answered the door. Turning, I gave a
wave to my Dad and he pulled away.

“
Be safe,”
he whispered in my
head.

“
I will. Have fun working with Kyle
tonight. I hope you find a cure for Mom,”
I quickly
replied.

He chuckled.
“I hope so, too. I feel like
we’re getting closer. I’ll do my best.”

“
Good, love you.”

“
Love you, too. See you later.”

Clicking out of our mental link, I
reinstated all the defensive walls in my head and gave Seth my
complete attention. “I didn’t think so, either.”

“Come in.” He smiled and opened the front
door wider so I could step inside. “Are you feeling okay? You look
kind of beat—but in a drop-dead, completely gorgeous way,” he added
quickly.

“I am exhausted.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t get any more sleep
after I left.” Regret filled his eyes.

“It was worth it.” I grinned. “Totally worth
it.”

He laughed. “I have to agree. I say we pick
right up where we left off.” Dragging me into his arms, he kissed
me full on the lips. Immediately, I wanted to sink into him and
just keep doing this, but concern over his parents seeing us caused
me to hesitate and push away.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, observing me
carefully as I glanced around the very nicely decorated room with
its restful ocean-colored themes.

“Nothing. I was just worried about your
parents walking in.”

He pulled me closer. “They aren’t here, yet.
It’s only me and you at the moment.”

“Oh. I assumed you’d all be here
cooking.”

“Actually, there have been a few bumps in
the road. My mom forgot about a previous appointment she had, so
she’s actually ordering dinner from Nicolazzo’s. I hope that’s
okay.”

Just the mere mention of Jett’s parents’
restaurant brought all my guilt over this afternoon flooding back
to the surface. “That’s fine.” I restlessly toyed with the purse
hanging from my shoulder.

“You can leave your things in my room if
you’d like.”

I couldn’t help my grin. “Sure, thanks. And
that was real subtle, by the way.”

Laughing, he grabbed my hand and pulled me
after him. “What can I say? I like the idea of you in my room.”

I liked the idea of me being in his room,
too; but the guilt flaring inside me had me all tangled in knots.
“Your house is really pretty,” I said as we moved throughout the
Cape Cod style home. While the two-story house wasn’t overly huge,
it was beautifully decorated in restful pastel blues and yellows
that gave a very cheerful feeling to the place.

“Nothing like your house,” he replied,
leading me up the stairs. “That place is impressive.”

“Yeah, well, I think this place is pretty
perfect.”

“Good. I’m glad you like it. Maybe it means
you’ll spend a lot of time here.”

“I’d like that.” I really meant it. My
feelings for Seth seemed to grow so quickly. I wasn’t sure why, but
every time I was around him, there was just something inside me
that seemed eager to be with him. I honestly couldn’t get enough.
Considering the short amount of time we’d known each other, it was
a bit frightening. And now there was this whole thing with Jett. I
wasn’t sure what “normal” high school relationships were supposed
to be like, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t it.

Pausing in the hallway, Seth opened a door
and ushered me inside. I glanced around his personal space,
decorated mostly in a blue and white sailing theme that I was sure
his mom had chosen for him. Here and there, red and black items
from school were showcased, like the banner that said “Salem
Witches” hanging on the wall and several trophies and pictures of
Seth in various red and black uniforms.

Drifting closer, I leaned in and observed
several of them. “Wow. You play a lot of sports.”

“It’s kind of my thing.” Lifting my bag off
my shoulder, he set it on his desk next to a stack of school books.
I liked the way our things looked mixed together.

“So, how was the rest of your day?” he
asked, dropping languidly on the bed and patting the space beside
him.

Sitting, I noticed my skin was already
tingling in anticipation of being next to him. I couldn’t figure
out why I always had such a strong, instant reaction to him, but I
liked it. It reminded me of the stories my parents had told me
about falling for each other and how they knew they were each
other’s soulmate.

Instantly, my mind reverted back to what
Jett had to say and I took a deep breath. Time for honesty. “It was
eventful.”

“Eventful, how?” he asked, completely at
ease. I, on the other hand, was as tense as humanly possible. My
insides were in knots and trembling.

“Well, after you left, Jett kind of
kidnapped me instead of taking me back to school.” Seth’s eyes
widened in alarm. “I mean, he did take me back, just not right
away,” I rushed to add.

Sighing, he stood, moving to lean against
the dresser across from me. Folding his arms casually, he stared at
me. “Continue.” The tightness of that one word belied his
relatively calm exterior.

“He said he wanted to talk and clear the air
between us. Actually, he invited me to kick his ass.”

Seth gave a half smile at that comment.
“That sounds like Jett.”

Studying the slight improvement in his
expression, I decided to lead in a different direction. “He told me
the reason you trust me with him is because you know he feels the
same way about me that you do. Is that true?”

Some sort of strangled sound escaped him.
“He made a play for you, didn’t he? How? Did he beg you? Kiss you?
Force himself on you?”

I was the biggest jerk ever. “He didn’t
force me to do anything. He simply asked for five minutes to state
his case.”

Laughing, but not in a good way, I could
tell he was trying to hold it together. “If you gave him five
minutes, I should probably be asking if you might need a pregnancy
test in a few weeks.”

“Wow, you’re obviously more confident in his
seduction skills than my ability to resist them. That makes me feel
wonderful.”

“Did you resist?” he asked pointedly.

“I’m afraid I failed,” I answered honestly,
not missing the pain that shot through his eyes. “But it was just
kissing, nothing more,” I hurried to add.

Dragging a hand through his hair, he shook
his head. “That doesn’t help much.” Turning away from me, he
hunched over the dresser, leaning on his clenched fists before
picking one up and slamming it against the wood. “Damn it!” Some of
the items bounced precariously with the strength of his hit, and I
was sure there was some magical force behind it.

“I’m so sorry, Seth. I don’t know what to
say. It wasn’t planned and I wanted to call you, but he made my
phone disappear.”

With his back still to me, he sighed
heavily. Slowly turning, he faced me, his features totally
crestfallen. “Answer me one thing.”

“Anything.” I simply wanted to make this
better, to stop hurting him.

“Are you attracted to him at all?”

Swallowing hard, I was pretty sure he knew
the answer before I spoke it. “I am.”

“Shit.” Grabbing his keys off the desk, he
headed toward the door.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Jumping up, I
grabbed my purse off the desk and ran after him.

“To do what you should’ve done. I’m kicking
someone’s ass.”

“Seth, please. You don’t need to do this. He
had a good reason for approaching me.”

Spinning on me, Seth glared. “Seriously? And
what reason might that be?”

“He said premonition is one of his powers
and that he dreamed of me before I moved here. He dreamed we were
married and that I was his soulmate.”

Releasing a hard laugh, Seth moved closer.
“Did he now?”

I nodded. Despite my feelings for him, I was
discovering he was more than a little scary when he was upset.

“Did he happen to mention that I had the
exact same dream about you?”

“Wha . . .?” I couldn’t even
finish the word, his statement shocked me so.

“That’s right. Jett knows about my dream. I
told him all about it, since it’s not every day that I dream about
my future wife. Imagine my surprise when he was able to give detail
after detail of his dream—verbatim to my own. The dreams even
happened on the same night. We thought it was just some weird
coincidence, and then you showed up.”

“So you both have been talking about me
behind my back, comparing notes?”

“Kind of. You make that sound bad.”

“It is bad! I’m going nuts here with the two
of you constantly trying to pull me in two different directions.
Now you’re just confirming what he said, that you know how he
feels.”

“I do. And I’m sorry if we’ve been placing
undo pressure on you. I was hoping that . . .” He didn’t
finish the sentence.

“You were hoping he’d back off, weren’t you?
How come I’ve only known him all of four days now, and even I know
that isn’t a possibility? Come on, Seth! He’s not going to let this
go; and if we don’t figure out what is going on between the three
of us, then you will both lose me, because I’m going nuts!”

“Come on,” he said, slipping his hand into
mine and practically dragging me down the stairs behind him. “We’re
going to get this straightened out right now, once and for
all.”

“What about dinner with your parents?” I
protested, not wanting to offend them.

“I’ll call them and tell them something came
up and we had to reschedule. This is more important.”

Chapter Seventeen

It may have been the same meadow Jett had
brought me to earlier, but it certainly felt a lot more sinister at
night. Suddenly it was easy to imagine the wicked history that had
taken place on this land, bathing it in the blood of the innocent.
I wondered if people had hidden in these very woods, frightened and
trying to escape those accusers who had named them as witches.

There were many theories about what had
happened during the Salem Witch Trials, from demonic possession to
the possibility that moldy food may have made the people go mad.
Much speculation had happened since the time of the horrific
events, though I was pretty sure no one but the people that lived
it knew the answers.

It was ironic to me that the very people the
law sought so hard to destroy were now the people who flocked to,
and even populated, the Salem area. Witches were everywhere you
looked, both real and imagined, and Salem had become the mecca for
all things related to the Craft.

Only a sliver of a moon peeked occasionally
from behind a heavy set of clouds. The smell in the air promised
rain at some point in the near future.

Seth leaned against the hood of his car,
unspeaking, as we waited for Jett to arrive. It wasn’t long before
the rumble of an engine could be heard making its way down the dirt
road. A few moments later, the sports car came into view, parking
beside Seth’s Barracuda, and the engine turned off.