The Promise (The Coven Series) (19 page)

“They
bound your words?”

Again
he could only nod.

I
sat down, defeated, and lay back to stare up at the wood beams in the makeshift
roof.
 
I’d counted on Jeff being able to
tell me the truth, but that idea had gone out the window faster than the
handbags in a Vera Wang clearance sale.
 
A binding spell literally wouldn’t let him speak the words he’d been
forbidden to voice.
 
It’d kill him
first.
 
Emily had told me about those
types of spells.
 
She hated what they
could do.
 
He really couldn’t tell me a
damn thing.

Now
what the hell was I supposed to do?

“I’m
sorry, CJ,” he said miserably.
 
“If I
could…”

“I
know,” I told him.
 
And I knew he would
tell me.
 
He wanted to tell me about the
curse, but he’d been forbidden.
 
Wait,
maybe…
 
“Can you write it down on paper?”

“I
don’t know,” he frowned and pulled out a notebook.
 
He started to write.
 
The paper flamed up in his hands and burned
his fingers.
 
“OUCH!”

“Okay,
there goes plan B.”
 
The curse was off
limits.
 
No talking and no writing.
 
Where did that leave me?
 
The book.
 
He might be able to say something about that
if I didn’t ask anything about the curse.

“Jeff,
is there a book at the Hall protected by wards?” I asked.

“Yeah,”
he said and fell down beside me.
 
“We’re
not supposed to go near it.
 
Why?”

So
maybe the binding spell was limited to the curse.

“Emily’s
diary said she’d found the answers in the book, but that it was heavily
warded.
 
I need to get my hands on it.”

“Not
gonna happen, CJ.”
 
He rolled over to
face me.
 
“No one can get near that
thing, not even Kay.”

“She’s
tried?” I asked, surprised.

“Of
course she has,” he snorted.
 
“She almost
set her hair on fire the last time she attempted to break the wards.”

“Wards
can do that?” I frowned.
 
Not what I
wanted to hear.

He
sighed.
 
“CJ, wards are dangerous.
 
They can cause some really nasty stuff to
happen.”

It
was my turn to sigh.
 
I needed to play
catch up fast.
 
Where
were
the Cliff Notes version
when you needed them?
 
I propped myself up on one arm so I could
look at him.
 
“I have to get my hands on
that book.
 
Will you help me?”

His
face blanched and he stared at me in horror.
 

“Please,
Jeff.
 
I can’t do it by myself and I
don’t trust anyone else to help me.”
 
It
was wrong, I knew it was wrong, but I played on his feelings for me.
 
Jeff liked me.
 
A lot.
 
It was so very wrong.
 
“You’re all I have.
 
Please.”
 

His
face softened.
 
“I can try.”

“Thank
you,” I whispered.
 
I was so going to
hell for this.

He
nodded and sat up, rubbing his hands together.
 
“Damn, but it’s cold.”

“Yeah,”
I agreed.
 
“I’m freezing.
 
It’s not like we can light a fire up here or
something.”

I
felt a little shock of electricity filter through me and then the air warmed,
bathing us both in its heat.
 
I shot up
into a sitting position.
 
It wasn’t just
warm.
 
I was warm.
 
Toasty even.

“Shit,”
Jeff croaked.

My sentiments exactly.
 

“You
haven’t even gone through the Rite of Initiation to be tested by the Elements
yet,” Jeff shook his head, amazed.
 
“They
respond to you.
 
They deemed you worthy
without the test?”

I
felt dizzy.
 
I didn’t want this.
 
I wanted everything to go back to
normal.
 
But it wouldn’t.
 
I knew that deep down.
 
I should have listened and ran from the
initiation when my instincts told me to run.
 
But I hadn’t.
 
Instead, I let the
Elements in.

“I
didn’t do that!” I tried to deny the truth.
 
“I didn’t even call on an Element.”

“You
did, CJ.
 
You said Fire.
 
That’s all it took.”

Shit,
shit, shit!

“CJ,
how long has this been going on?
 
Since
the Elements greeted you at Meg’s initiation?”

“A
bit longer than that,” I hedged.

“How
long is a bit?”

“As
long as I can remember,” I told him sheepishly.
 
I chanced a look at his face.
 

“Years?”
he glared.
 
“Years?
 
Really?”

“I
didn’t know what it meant.
 
I always
explained it away.
 
I never wanted any of
this.
 
I didn’t believe in it.”

“I
know,” he sighed.
 
“You can’t explain it
away now, though, huh?”

“No.”

“When
was the first time you remembered something like this happening?” he asked
curiously.

“Do
you remember when we were six and we had that big black out?”

“Yeah,”
he grinned.
 
“Billy was at my house.
 
Screamed like a girl when the lights went
out.”
 
He shot me a look.
 
“No offense.”

“Yeah,
well I did scream like a girl,” I laughed.
 
“I was upstairs by myself.
 
Dad
yelled for me to stay where I was, he’d come get me.
 
I remember stomping my foot and yelling that
I wanted the lights to come back on right now and they…did.”

“Oh,
yeah, I remember that.
 
Dad couldn’t
figure out how your house had lights when no one else’s did.
 
You guys didn’t have a generator back then.”

“Freaked
Mom and Dad out to no end,” I grinned.
 
“Now I know why.”

“Yeah,
you’re a freak of nature all right,” he grinned.

“Hey!”
I shoved him and laughed.

His
smile faded.
 
“You really like him don’t
you?”

“Yeah,
I do,” I admitted.

“Just
be careful, CJ.
 
Ethan is more than he
seems.
 
Don’t trust him.”

“I
wish you could tell me why.” I stood up and walked to the window.
 
The woods spread out before me, their colors
dimmed by the early morning fog.
 
I
didn’t trust Ethan.
 
I wanted to, so very
much, but I didn’t.
 
I just wished I knew
why.

“So
do I, CJ, so do
I
,” Jeff muttered behind me.

“Do
you have anything I can read on beginning witchcraft?” I asked him at last.
 
“I feel so behind.
 
I need to know this stuff if I’m going to get
through those wards.”

“Yeah,
you can borrow all my books.
 
I’ll even
raid Mom and Dad’s books, but I don’t think you can get through them, CJ.
 
I wish you wouldn’t try.
 
You could get yourself killed.”

“I
know,” I told him.
 
“So, can you take me
to the Hall to get a look at this book?”

He
looked violently alarmed.

“From
a distance,” I assured him.
 
“I promise I
won’t try to get near it.”

“That’s…that’s…”

“Are
you going to tell me about the curse?”

“You
know I can’t,” he growled.

“Then
I need that book and it’s going to require some recon work.
 
Are you up for it, Double-O-Seven?”

“Don’t
you mean Neighbor Boy?” he quirked an eyebrow.

I
looked at him nonplussed.
 
Now how did he
know about that?

“You
think I don’t know what you and Emily called me?” he laughed.

“But how?”

“You
guys used to sit on your back porch and talk all the time.
 
Your voices carried.”

“You
eavesdropped on us?” I cried in outrage.

“Oh
yeah,” he nodded.
 
“All
the time.”

“You…you…you…”

“Come
on, let’s get going,” he laughed.
 
“We
should probably get to the Hall while it’s still early.
 
There won’t be many people there and we stand
a better chance of getting a look at the book.
 
From a distance,” he warned.

My
lips pursed, but I followed him down the ladder.
 
He was so going to pay for that.

But after I saw the book.

Chapter Fifteen

Gallows
Lane was just off Main Street so we made it to the Hall in ten minutes.
 
Lucy’s was busy even for a Saturday
morning.
 
What if there were more people
out and about than we’d originally thought?
 
Jeff must have been thinking the same thing because he led us around
behind the library to the back of the Hall.
 
He put a finger to his lips and disappeared inside.
 

I
looked up at the old building.
 
The Hall
was one of the first structures that went up when the town was founded.
 
It looked like some grand old colonial
mansion with its wide porches and good old-fashioned New England
architecture.
 
It stood three stories
high and was meticulously repainted every year.
 
White, of course, with blazing red shutters and a garden most would sell
their souls to have.
 
I loved the old
building and it had starred in several of my short stories.
 

It
also intrigued me.
 
Even though I’d
promised to never go near the Coven and adamantly refused to believe in
witchcraft, I was insanely curious about what it looked like on the
inside.
 
Kay offered to show me around,
but I never took her up on it because of my promise to my sister. Now that I
had the chance to get a look inside, I was bouncing with excitement.
 
What would it look like?
 
Would it feel different?
 
Would I feel different inside?
 
A million questions buzzed in my head.
 

Jeff
stuck his head out the back door and motioned me inside.
 
I found myself in a small entryway of some
sort.
 
A soft, earthy tone colored the
walls and white, frilly curtains adorned the windows.
 
The room was bright and airy.
 
Nothing dark and macabre
here as in my stories about the place.
 

“Come
on, there’s hardly anybody here,” he whispered.
 
“We’ll go through the kitchen and duck down the back hallway.
 
The room is just off the library.”

He
led me through another door and into the kitchen which appeared very
modern.
 
Stainless steel appliances and
industrial sized refrigerators were pretty much all I could see as Jeff dragged
me in a dead run through the room and out another door.
 
So much for my having a chance to look
around, I thought wryly as I tried not to fall through the door he pushed me
through.
 
The hallway in front of us was
narrow and very dark.
 
He didn’t turn on
the lights as we crept forward, and paused when we reached a set of massive
double doors.
 
He put his ear to the door
and listened.
  
The library, I
guessed.
 

“Good,”
he whispered.
 
“They’re still eating.
 
Come on, let’s get this over with.”

He
pushed the door open and very carefully stepped over the threshold.
 
I followed and closed the door behind
me.
 
Light blinded me.
 
He’d turned on a wall lamp close to my
eyes.
 
Blinking rapidly, I tried very
hard not to yell at him with people next door.
 
It took a great effort.
 
He shot
me an apologetic look.
 

Once
my eyes focused, I looked around.
 
The
room was plain, windowless.
 
No furniture
of any type decorated it.
 
The walls were
painted a standard egg-shell white.
 
The
only item in the room was a large pedestal of some sort.
 
It was about four feet high and an ancient
symbol was carved into the mahogany wood.
 
I frowned.
 
It was the same symbol
that we wore on our school uniform and carved into the monument in town.
 
Curious, I stepped forward.