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“You are no longer part of this coven, get out.”

“Jack, you cannot make a decision like that,” Eli protested.

“I don’t give a damn. Get out!!”

He glared at Clay and caught the look he was giving Eli. His temper snapped. “Get out!! I’m the High Priest. You follow my orders!”

Clay bowed and left the house. Clio watched him leave, her eyes drifting to the floor as Eli resumed pacing around the room.

“Jack, we need to do something about the other coven. It is dangerous that we should face each other like this. It can have repercussions. If the other coven find out it will lead to-”

“I can handle it, Eli.”

“No, it’s not something you can handle. They are-”

“I don’t care.” His head throbbed. “I need to lie down.”

“But...Jack, what about the other coven?”

“I will handle it.”

Chapter 29

TAKING THE HIGHER GROUND

More than a week had past and she hadn't received word from Clay. What had once been flirty fun was no longer funny. The bell tinkled signalling yet another customer. She walked into the shop and did a double take as he pushed his hand through his short hair, the green and blues of his eyes watched her.

“Hello, Cora.”

“Eli, what can I do for you?”

It was thanks to this man that her arms looked like abstract art of black and blue, the bruises were only just fading.

“I've come to talk about what happened.”

She nodded her head. Tabitha had expected this so she wasn't surprised. “Shouldn’t I be speaking with Jack?”

A blush appeared in his cheeks.

“He doesn’t know you're here, does he?”

“No, he doesn’t. Jack has been somewhat
engaged
.”

“We can talk but I don't have long.”

“That will be fine.”

She watched him sit down in her usual seat. She stopped herself from grinding her teeth.

“Can I offer you a drink, Eli?” she said sliding the bolt across the door.

“No, thank you.”

She sat down not knowing what to expect.

“I need to talk to you about what happened in 1612. I don't think you know the
right
version.”

“When you say
right
version, you mean your version, am I correct?”

“The only
right
version is the Chattox version. You have been-”

“Don't. You will not come in here and tell me what you believed happened. I know what happened in 1612. My mother was murdered.”

“And so was my wife.”

She opened her mouth and then instantly closed it. Eli had been married?

“I was married to Jack’s sister, Anne.” He took a deep breath and clenched his fist on his knee. “Your mother was a murderer-”

“Hold on just one damn minute!” she shouted. “How dare you come in here accusing my mother? It was your family who sent my mother to her death. It is quite obvious that
certain
traits run through your blood line.  If Jack isn't attacking someone then he's shouting at them. You should have words with him. Without his anger, without his stupid mouth, this would never have happened. He attacked me first.” Her voice dipped dangerously low. “I want you to leave.”

             
He stood, crowding her personal space. His eyes locked intently on her face.

“If this situation is not resolved, we are all in imminent danger!” he spat the words at her and headed for the door.

“Well, you just tell your High Priest to get his arse in gear then!” she shouted at his back.

Each and every member of his coven was stark raving mad.

“I have to say, he was right.”

“Jesus Christ!” She jumped at the sound of Tabitha’s voice close behind her.

“Sorry,” she apologised as a smile played on her lips.

Cora knew she wasn’t sorry. “What do you mean he's right?”

“I don’t think he is right about your mother, so stop giving me the evils. We need to resolve this situation.”

“Well, Jack doesn’t make that easy. Neither did Eli coming in here saying bad things about my mother.”

“After all this time he still grieves for his wife.”

She grieved for her mother; it didn't make what he'd done, what he'd said, right. 

“What happened to the two families, Tab?”

“I don’t know. I understand that one rumour may have led to another but for rumours to end like that. Have you found anything in your family book?”

She blushed guiltily. “I haven’t had time to look at it. Don't stare at me like that. What with working here and doing the training, there's been very little time for sleep let alone reading the book.”

“And seeing Clay in your free time,” Tabitha added.

“Yeah, that too. Are you mad about that?”

Tabitha hadn't said much on the topic which, reading between the lines, meant she wasn't happy about it.

“What can I do about it now? What's done is done. Have you heard from Clay?” Tabitha asked.

She felt guilty that she hadn't told Tabitha but what could she do about it now? “I haven’t heard from him.”

“I'm sure things will turn right in the end. You still need to resolve things with Jack.”

“I know. I just don’t see why I have to make the first move.”

“Because you must be the sensible one in this situation.” Tabitha tucked some of her loose hair behind her ear.

             
If she was going to do this then she needed to do it now before she thought about it and convinced herself she shouldn't. Tabitha smiled at her as she walked down the stairs. The only thing that was stopping her from quitting was the look she would see on Tabitha’s face. She pulled her phone out of her bag and sat in the little tea room as she liked to call it.

“Tabitha, where is the...”

A white note was stuck to the fridge with Tabitha’s lovely neat handwriting engraved on it. The two words under the number read ‘Jack’s mobile.’ Taking a deep breath, she picked up the note and started punching the number into her phone. The phone rang and with each ring her chest tightened. 

“Hello?”

“Jack, its Cora... don’t hang up.”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t?”

“Because you will regret it?”

“Oh yeah and who is going to make me regret it? You?”

“Jack, listen to me.”

“No, you listen you bit-”

“Shut up!” she snapped, surprising herself.

Silence.

“Right, we need to resolve this situation. You hate me and I hate you, that much is clear. Our parents died; they are no longer with us because of this hatred. Now we could continue to play the blame game or we could focus on the here and now and sort this.”

“When and where?” His voice was cold and straight to the point.

“Meet us on Andrew Bruton's field at midnight on Monday.”

“Halloween. You sure know how to pick ‘em.”

That had totally passed her by, some witch she was. Well in her defence she had bigger things to deal with, plus she didn't need to dress up and go trick or treating. She was a witch every day of her life. She didn’t even like the pointy hats.

“See you there,” she said.

He hung up the phone without responding.

“So it’s done?”

“God, Tab, you have to stop doing that.”

“And you need to listen with your ears a little better.”

“Yeah, it's done. We’re meeting at midnight on Monday. I forgot it was Halloween.”

“No, that's a good thing. If Jack loses his temper again, which is a high possibility, then we can cover up the magic with the atmosphere of the night. Go home for the day. I’m sure we will be rushed off our feet tomorrow. We have three more coaches coming in and a primary school.”

“Oh God! Why? Bring them to me; I will take great pleasure in telling them how horrid it is being a witch.”

Tabitha laughed, the sound making her grin despite herself.

“You wouldn’t change it for the world.” Tabitha’s leaf green eyes danced.

“Humph.” She shrugged her coat over her shoulders and placed a kiss on Tabitha’s cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

“Be safe.”

“I’ll try,” she smiled.

             
She stepped out of the shop and was greeted by a lovely fresh cool breeze. Regardless of what she'd just told Tabitha, she loved being a witch. It was just hard luck her first month as a witch had royally sucked.

AYDEN’S WOMAN

Cora sat on the little stool behind the till watching customers pick up the half price deals Tabitha had put on after lunch. It surprised her that people were still fighting for bargains until the bitter end. After tonight they wouldn't use the things again. She knew people convinced themselves they would but they always went out and bought new decorations.

             
The shop looked the part for the night ahead. Her favourite item sat on the end of the counter. It was a medium sized death black cauldron with a little stirring device, similar to the one in the window that was forever malfunctioning. This one exploded after a customer bought something.

             
There were several real brooms, Lord knows where Tabitha got them, maybe witches actually used them back in the day? Hanging from the ceiling were childlike witches riding on the brooms. One of the witches close to the front entrance had a black cat perched on the end of it. If you went up to the cat and stroked it, it purred. The kids had loved that. The cauldrons in the window also puffed smoke over the rim of the cauldrons. Ghostly pumpkin faces grinned within the layer of smoke. Her mother had promised to make everyone pumpkin pie from all the innards.

             
A few more loud smoke filled explosions later and a hushed silence fell over the shop. Tabitha was in the coven room arranging a meeting after work. The meeting before she saw Jack tonight. Butterflies attacked each other in her chest. She remembered all too clearly what had happened last time. She still had the bruises on her arms to show for it.

“Have the customers gone?” Tabitha asked as she came up the stairs holding two cups containing chocolate, somewhat a tradition now.

“Yeah,” she said sliding down from the stool behind the counter to join Tabitha at the table. “We don’t have much stock left over. You could put what we have left on the website.”

“Good idea. You can do that tomorrow morning.” Tabitha raised her eyebrows and smiled at her.

She held back a groan. It was so old and so slow it would take her the entire day to upload the items with the pictures, prices and save it. She preferred to be dealing face to face with customers, even Mrs Rogers who liked all the love spells.

“So, what is the itinerary for tonight then?” she asked Tabitha.

“That’s up to you. This is your meeting.”

“Are you joking? You made me do the meeting, which by default means it’s your meeting.”

Tabitha laughed. “Your mother’s sense of humour always made me laugh; you have the same sarcastic trait.”

“Good to know. If I have to sort this meeting I'm going to need food.”

She grabbed her phone, punched in the number and listened to it ring. The bell above the door tinkled. She turned with her phone to her ear to see her mother struggling through the doorway with a huge picnic basket.

“Mum...”  Cancelling the call, she jogged over taking some of the weight. “I was just ringing home for some food supplies. Great minds think alike, huh?”

She grinned as she helped her mother drop the basket to the floor. What was in that thing, a whole cow?

“Well, I knew it would be a long night for you all. Ayden had mentioned something to me earlier. I wanted to make sure you were all-”

“Ayden told you earlier? What do you mean?”

The instant blush in her mother’s cheeks told her everything she needed to know. Something was going on. She remained quiet, partly because she wanted to see her mother squirm and partly because she wanted to hear the words come out of her mouth.

“Well... we...”