Found (Book One of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (5 page)

The teen tossed her hair as if everything he said was beneath her.

“I was afraid for her, not myself. She has reasons to be afraid of you, but I do not.”

“I would say that she has no reason to be afraid of me anyway, but go ahead. What do I need to know?”

The girl met his gaze coolly and steadily. He realized that she was quite a beauty, and when she grew into her looks, there would be no saving the Wiccans of Italy.

“Go apologize to her,” she said, “because you have done her a great wrong. Speak to her frankly, and tell her what you can tell her. Apologize for not being able to tell her more. Treat her the way that you would treat a man in this regard.”

Kieran nodded slowly, forced to think about her words.

“You…may be right.” He paused. “I thank you. It is difficult sometimes–”

The girl cut him off with a sharp motion.

“You owe me nothing, except for perhaps an apology for attempting to stave my head in. Tell it to Hailey.”

“I wouldn’t have struck you.”

“I didn’t know that. Hailey didn’t know that.”

“My apologies for acting unwisely towards both of you. I’m sorry that my actions were such that you could think that.”

She studied him for a long moment, and then she nodded slowly.

“You are not used to being trusted, are you?”

“Perceptive of you. No, the Magus Corps does a lot of field work, and most of what we do has nothing to do with the covens. We technically have authority over them, but it’s a precarious prospect.”

The girl’s smile was small but genuine.

“Well, if you see troubled waters, you should build bridges, as my teachers always tell me. Go and build a bridge with Hailey.”

Before he could respond, she disappeared, and he was alone. He shook his head.

“I’d wager that your teachers adore that trick,” he muttered, and he was answered with a light laugh.

“Do not tell them I am going to the village. It would only worry them.”

Then Kieran was alone, or at least, he could pretend he was. He thought of Hailey and how he might have bungled it. He wasn’t really a man who was made for diplomacy. Though he had been chosen for this mission with his strengths in mind, there was very little he could do about the tasks in front of him beyond blunder through. He shrugged his jacket back on and picked up the staves, but paused. He considered the girl’s words yet again.
 

“All right,” he said softly.

EVER SINCE SHE was a small child, Hailey had always been clever at finding the best hiding places wherever she was living. It had served her well when she was a child bouncing from indifferent home to indifferent home, and somehow, she had never lost the habit as an adult. Sometimes, she felt a little embarrassed about her childish habit, but at the moment, she was too upset to worry about it much.

The sanctuary of the monastery had a choir loft built into it. In centuries past, skilled singers would ascend to the hidden area, and the people below would be enchanted by the ethereal sounds that seemed to drift down. In the days of the Angioli coven, the choir loft was mostly a place to store extra supplies, and most people only ventured into it once or twice a year.

Hailey had discovered it when she was exploring her new home. She had found a perfect little nook between two upended old pews that fit her perfectly. She was seated below one of the open areas that looked over the sanctuary, and it let enough light in for her to avoid feeling like she was trapped.

She sat and tried to calm her breathing, but for the longest time, every thought and every breath only brought more tears. She realized distantly that she hadn’t cried in ages, and then there was no stopping her tears. She cried until she was drained and tired, and then she simply sat. She felt like a child, and she knew that eventually, she would have to go downstairs to face Kieran and the coven. She knew it, but she couldn’t, and soon enough, she heard the door to the choir loft open.

 
Hailey was only a little surprised to see Kieran crossing the floor to come sit by her side. If she had had more pride, perhaps she would have tried to hide the fact that she was crying. She was so tired, however, that she only looked at him.

“Is this where I apologize for running out on you?” she asked. To her surprise, he shook his head.

“No, actually, this is where I apologize to you. I acted inappropriately when I tried to force you to do something that you didn’t want to do, and I certainly should not have tried to trick you into it. I had a plan, and I put it into action without ever thinking about what it could mean. I was wrong, and I am very sorry.”

Hailey froze, hardly able to believe her ears. She thought that at the very least, she would have been dressed down thoroughly. The Magus Corps could exercise some discipline over Wiccans who disobeyed them. At worst, she might have been removed from the coven, and who knows what might have happened to her then. This humble apology caught her completely off guard. She was silent for so long that Kieran must have taken that as continuing fury.

“I understand that what I have done might have destroyed any possibility of trust between us, and if that is the case, I will speak to my commandant. I can have myself removed from this affair entirely. However, I will warn you that just because I am gone does not mean that the Magus Corps’s interest in you is gone. Someone else will be sent–”

“I don’t want you to leave,” Hailey said at last. Kieran looked at her with surprise. “I don’t. I just need to know what’s going on. Can you tell me that at least? Please?”

For the first time, Hailey saw Kieran look uncertain. It made him look younger, and she wondered what his past was like. Once they had been initiated by an act of unprotected sex with another Wiccan, witches and warlocks were effectively immortal. Members of the Magus Corps, known for their strength, their power and their wisdom, were all initiated warlocks. There was no telling how old Kieran was. He could have been thirty years old, or he could have been eight hundred years old.

“I will tell you what I can,” he said at last. “It isn’t much, but I swear to you it is simply because I do not know much.”

He settled down beside her, and suddenly it made her think of the calmer periods of her childhood, when she and another foster child would rest next to each other, at peace for once. Her life had been too fractured for anything like real friendship, but this peace was the next best thing.

“You must know that witches like you are quite rare. Warlocks don’t seem to develop this power at all. We have records of witches with your power dating back to the Renaissance, and, well. It was a different time.”

“You mean they were shunned,” Hailey said bitterly, and he nodded.

“They were forced out. Some of them survived, and some of them didn’t. I and many others of the Magus Corps consider it a great shame that that happened, and Hailey, I swear that is not what is going to happen to you.” She looked up, startled, but Kieran continued. “There is a certain coven in the United States, in Wyoming. It’s dedicated to study, and as far as I and the rest of the Magus Corps are concerned, it does some of the most important work in the world when it comes to protecting us.”

“From Templars?”

“From anyone who would hurt us. They call it the Castle, and recently, they learned of your existence.”

Hailey shivered.

“You know, that sounds pretty terrifying,” she said. “When people say things like that, it means that they want to experiment on you.”

Kieran flinched, and she could tell that he had read some of the same books that she had. If he was old enough, he would have known some of the writers. Humans didn’t have a monopoly on terrible deeds. Some of the covens from the dark days of Wiccan history had created nightmares.

“That is not going to happen to you.”

“Why not?” she asked, and then Kieran looked at her fully.

She was shocked by how blue his eyes were, and when he looked at her like that, it was as if he was allowing her to look inside him.

“I won’t let them,” he said simply, and that was all it took. In that moment, she believed him with everything inside her.

She found that her hand had crept across the space to rest on his. Now she could feel how warm he was, and self-consciously she pulled away.

“If they don’t want to perform strange experiments on me, what is it they want, then?”

“It wasn’t entirely clear to me, but the coven master in Wyoming believes that you can use your power to do something amazing. It was told to me that he thinks this could be a turning point in the way the Wiccan world operates––if you are strong enough. If you are willing.”

Hailey shivered. There had never been a time in her life when she wanted attention. It brought danger, and she knew that it was far safer to be quiet.

“But you must be willing.” Kieran sighed. “I had forgotten that. I was focused on your strength, which already looks formidable, and I am sorry.”

“I accept your apology,” Hailey said, but her mind was whirling. “But I can’t be that important.”

Kieran’s smile was rueful.

“I promise you, you are. The coven master heard about you from the master of your old coven in Canada, and he ripped that old man up one side and down the other for failing to see your potential.”

Hailey choked back a giggle at that. The Canadian coven master had been a terror, and he had shoved her off as soon as he could. It pleased her to think of him having to take a tongue lashing on her account, even if she hadn’t gotten to see it.

“So now I have to ask you. Will you let me test your strength? I can’t tell you what kind of use the coven master in Wyoming has for you, but I will promise you that you will come to no harm through it. I’ll be with you every step of the way. This has to be your choice, and if you commit yourself, there will be no more tricks.”

“And what if I say no?”

The silence stretched between them, and Kieran shook his head.

“Then I will leave and you will never need to set eyes on me again. I will report to the Magus Corps that you are unsuited for the work they have in mind, and they will have to search for someone else.”

“But they will send someone else?”

Kieran looked torn.

“I cannot promise that they wouldn’t, but I would do everything in my power to stop them.”

Hailey was not someone who could read the future. She had met a few Wiccans who could, and on the whole, they tended to be a closed-mouth lot. However, there had been a young woman in Canada who was strong in the gift, and she believed that everyone had a little.

“You can’t always tell what can happen,” the girl had said, “but lots of times, you can tell when something’s
about
to happen.”

Hailey didn’t understand what that had meant at the time, but she certainly understood it now. Life as she knew it split two ways in front of her. On one path was her life the way it had been. She could stay at the Angioli coven until she was tired of whispers or until someone made a strong case to get her placed elsewhere. The cycle would then repeat, over and over again, with no end in sight.

Or she could walk down the path that Kieran was leading her towards. There was no guarantee that it would be better, and from what he said, it sounded far more dangerous.

She thought about it, but already knew her decision.

“All right,” she said softly. “Let’s give it a shot.”

Kieran didn’t smile at her. Instead he nodded in a way that seemed almost like a bow, a gesture of respect for what she was offering him.

“Thank you,” he said, and climbing to his feet, he offered her his hand so that she could do the same.

She took it, marveling at how warm he was and how gently he held her hand, and then she didn’t want to let go. She realized with a start that since she had discovered her power and her heritage, the people willing to touch her had been very few. Yet here was Kieran, offering his hand. Her thoughts were full of what it might mean.
 

But as she rose with his help, her sore body protested. After the punishing test and then sitting, she hadn’t realized how stiff she’d gotten. She took an awkward step and caught her foot on the uneven floorboards. A tiny yelp was all the warning Kieran got before she pitched forward into him.

He spun and half caught her, but the surprise and her momentum pushed him back into the wall. For a long moment, they only stared at each other in the dusky space. Hailey’s eyes were full of him, and, as large as he was, he seemed to take up the world. She remembered that seer again. Hailey knew for sure that something was about to happen.

Kieran’s large hands around her body were warm, and very slowly, he brought his face down to hers.
He was giving her time to back out, and realized that she had no intention of doing that. The warmth of their bodies together made her feel slow and languid. In the choir loft, there was a certain timelessness to the moment. Nothing they did here mattered. Nothing they did here meant something else.

Instead of kissing her the way that Hailey thought he would, Kieran leaned down to rub his face against hers. She could feel the slight prickle of his stubble and his warm breath against her neck. Something in it made a shiver race through her body. It was like wolves meeting in the wild. Kieran brushed his lips against her throat, and she lifted her chin to give him better access. His breath was so warm, and when he passed his lips over the point of her pulse, she whimpered a little. It had been so long since she had been touched like this that she was nearly drunk with it.

“Hailey… Hailey, are you sure?”

His urgent whisper cut through the haze, but she nodded her head.

“I am,” she murmured. “Bolt the door.”

When she looked up, his face was unreadable in the dim light. Then she lifted her hand and laid it against the side of his neck. She laughed softly.

“Don’t try to fool me. Your pulse is racing.”

“You have a singular effect on me,” he retorted, but he turned to bolt the door.

There was not much room in the choir loft, but she found a dim space that was open enough for what she wanted. Hailey spared a thought for the people who had sang in that loft in centuries past. Had any of those men sneaked their lovers into this quiet space? Had they removed their clothes in this sacred darkness? Held each other, kissed? More?