The Coven Awakens (Hollow Hill Academy #1)

8. Soren

Chapter 8

Soren

H ow many people in their early twenties wished they’d listened to the advice their parents gave them when they were teenagers? Years before I came to study at Hollow Hill, when I first expressed an interest in learning Seier, my mother warned me against pursuing it. I still remember how she told me nothing good comes from knowing the future. Though much like Odin, who I take after, I was stubborn and hadn’t listened to her counsel.

I had some idea of what was coming for us, but there were many possible futures, as nothing was ever set in stone. That was what they didn’t tell you about Fate. It was a force, not a certainty. Fate liked to set the board, but it was up to us to play the game and decide which moves we made. All I could do was try to steer things, but even that suggested more control than I really possessed. It was like riding a raft on a raging river as you came up to the rapids. Sure, you had a paddle, but was it really going to make a difference?

I couldn’t talk to Ewan and Caius about this, although for different reasons. Caius put little stock in my magical practices. He knew they were real, of course—he had seen me, and others use them—and his progenitor was the father of the Fates. However, I wasn’t an oracle by birth, destined to speak the words of Fate into reality, and all I did was read the signs and try to interpret them. Caius preferred his knowledge to be more solid, more concrete. He didn’t appreciate uncertainty. Or maybe he just hated Fate. It was always difficult to tell how he felt about things.

Ewan wasn’t like that; the issue with talking to Ewan related to Lydia. As even though she was no longer involved with either of us, the wedge she’d driven between us remained almost tangible. We’d gone from being inseparable to only speaking when Caius was around, or about topics which didn’t matter. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but communication had never been my strength. It was how things had become so strained between us; I hadn’t spoken up about what I wanted, and my silence drove him away.

Of course, none of that stopped Lydia from still sniffing around. She was like a wolf, seeking any sign of weakness so she could take down her prey. We were lucky Caius saw the truth before she convinced us to make her a member of our coven. I didn’t need to look into the future to see how poorly it would have gone for us.

Besides, now we had Audrey, or we would if we played our cards right. But to achieve that, we needed to make sure we all played the same game, and Henri was always good at ensuring we did that. As while he didn’t study divination magics like me, his talent for glamour and enchantment meant he was good at reading people and seeing the bigger picture.

Of course, this all assumed she would talk to us again. Each one of us had fucked things up with her, but it needed to happen that way. She couldn’t have held a grudge against only one of us. Now she had something to be mad at each of us about, and we could all apologize together. Sure, I didn’t think what I had done was on the same level as the others, and I could have explained what I was giving her beforehand, but then she wouldn’t have taken it. This was the problem with Seier, it was a delicate balancing game. Playing the risks, while hoping you didn’t tip the scales too far to push someone down a path you didn’t want them to take.

It was this topic we discussed over breakfast as we waited for Audrey to come out, but just like the day before, she hadn’t. And if I didn’t eat, I was going to be cranky. Different magics expended a varying level of energy. Most of mine relied on physical energy, so I had to keep mine up. Not to mention I had an introduction to healing class today. If everything went wrong and we didn’t convince Audrey to join us, we would need that knowledge.

Ewan glared at me as he fed bits of sausage to his dragon. I was glad to see the two had made up. Paiste could be quite surly, and no one wanted to be around a sullen dragon. He was the reason all our furniture had heavy fireproofing charms.

“A potion? Really? She’s never going to fecking trust us at this rate, Sor. And how could you give it to him?” He turned his ire on Caius, who was reading, just like he did most meals. Caius rarely ate food, sustained by caffeine and his connection to the darkness. Or so he insisted. I was pretty certain he would be a lot less pale if he ate a steak every now and again.

Caius lowered his book just enough to show off his unimpressed glare. “He didn’t tell me what it was for. He never tells us what anything is for. You know how he is, it’s better to go along and save yourself the headache. I wasn’t in the mood to argue, and it’s not like he asked me for poison. For all I knew, he’d been trying to get rid of a memory of his own and had done it incorrectly.”

Sometimes I thought about getting rid of my memories. There wasn’t anything traumatic in my past, but they said ignorance was bliss. I knew some things which wouldn’t happen for years now, decades even, but they were always in the back of my mind.

“Well, we need to apologize to her, all of us. We should probably get her a gift to show her we really mean it.” Ewan’s idea wasn’t a bad one. A gift was his first thought to get people on his side because of the work he did with magical creatures. It would be a good way to get them to agree to what I knew needed to happen next.

“And what do you propose we get her? Chocolates? I know she is a woman, but it’s not like we know her.” Caius was trying to be cutting, but he raised a good point. Though it was one which frustrated Ewan. He threw a piece of sausage to express his displeasure at Caius’s lack of help. A tendril of darkness unfurled from Caius’s shoulder and consumed the piece of meat before disappearing.

Just a typical breakfast, really.

“So we need to find out what she likes. It can’t be that hard.” Ewan was focused on the conversation, and not his familiar. Paiste hadn’t forgiven him entirely, given the way he was stealing the food off Ewan’s plate. Now was my chance to steer things the way I wanted.

“Her room.” It was as good a place as any to start, so they wouldn’t be suspicious. And it meant we could have our apology and gift ready before we spoke to her. Our rooms could tell a person a lot about us, and though she hadn’t much time to unpack, there had to be signs of things she liked. There were other reasons I wanted to go into her room, but I wasn’t ready to reveal those to the rest of the coven yet. If I did, they wouldn’t go, and I needed them to follow the plan, for all our sakes.

Caius closed his book with a sigh, before passing it over his shoulder, where it disappeared into his dimensional pocket. “So let me get this straight. We know the girl doesn’t trust us. You want to apologize to her and give her some sort of gift. And the best idea you can come up with is to break into her room, go through her belongings, and hope you can find something which tells you what to get her?”

He shifted his gaze between us, his expression clearly conveyed just how crazy he thought this plan was. But he also hadn’t said no, and he wasn’t offering any alternatives.

“She’s only a baby witch, she won’t have warded it yet. Plus, it’s not like she’s going to talk to any of us. Unless you think we should ask Henri?” Ewan perked up. He always felt better when we had a plan. Caius pinched his nose, but sighed, and that was when I knew he had agreed.

“All right. I’ve got a free period this morning. Can you two skip your first class?” Ewan and I both nodded. “Once the bell rings, we do this, but we need to be quick. I don’t want there to be any chance of us getting caught, all right?”

Now the plan was in place, and I could focus on my breakfast. There was a buzz of excitement over the table, which even Lydia’s attempt to talk to me couldn’t dent. I ignored her, like I had taken to doing, and when the bell rang she huffed and stormed off. I was sure it wasn’t the last I would hear from her, but even I could hope she’d finally get the message.

We waited until the dining hall cleared out. We didn’t want to run into Audrey on the stairs and have her wonder why we were all heading back to the room. Although she didn’t know our schedules so it would have been easy enough to explain it away. Once the halls were quiet, we made the quick journey to our apartment, doing our best not to look suspicious. It was hard not to imagine that everyone who walked past us didn’t know what we were planning. I knew no one could read my mind—I had shields carefully in place—but it didn’t stop the guilt from sneaking in.

The apartment door closed behind us, and Ewan led the way to Audrey’s door. He had the best senses of the three of us. Once he gave the all clear, Caius tested the door handle with some of his shadow. While we were certain she didn’t have the skill to lay any sort of magical traps, she might have asked Tatiana to do it for her. The two had already spent a bit of time together. It was something I was wary of, but it was further down my list. Once Audrey was officially in our coven, we could protect her from the enchantress.

The door wasn’t even locked, opening easily. Was she so trusting? Or was there nothing in here she cared about? I let the others go ahead of me, shutting the door behind us.

The room looked unlike when Henri had used it, as he had taken all his belongings down to his office and new quarters. It was strange, seeing this room so bare. I wasn’t surprised to see she hadn’t unpacked the two suitcases at the end of her bed, and both remained closed.

Caius was wrinkling his nose as he looked around with disdain. “Perhaps our gift should be an offer to help her decorate. It’s so dull in here.” Not all our rooms could be as extra as his. Caius had enchanted his ceiling, and it was completely dark, like looking into the void. I didn’t know how he slept in his bed without having nightmares. But the darkness was a part of him, similar to Ewan’s animal forms.

Paiste squirmed his way under her bed, and I didn’t want to know what he was doing under there. Ewan unzipped her suitcase, and I didn’t want to be involved in that either. I made my way to her desk, looking over the few things she had placed there. One of them was a laptop. Bingo . This was sure to have the answers we were looking for. It was still open, and the screensaver was a photo of her standing between two people who were clearly her parents.

Audrey was the spitting image of her mother. The same black hair and blue eyes. Her mother didn’t have the same goth vibe that Audrey gave off, but that might have been the makeup and the asymmetrical haircut. Either way, all three of them looked happy.

Tapping the touchpad, I was surprised when her emails came up. Someone must have given her the Wi-Fi password and she must have been checking them before she went to class. This was as good a way as any to find out more about her. There were some from a university—notifications of deferral which made me frown. Did she plan to return to a regular school? There would not be a need for that once she graduated from Hollow Hill. Not all the classes we took were magical. You could study business, languages, even science if you wanted to. Some students took correspondence classes. But maybe she wasn’t ready to let go of her old life.

Other emails were from friends wondering where she had gone. She hadn’t replied to any of them yet, although there were some drafts she had been working on. The sentences stopped and started, as she tried to explain Hollow Hill and everything which had happened to her since coming here. She seemed to struggle with the words, which was understandable.

One particular email made me frown. It asked why she hadn’t been at her parents’ funeral. A friend, Liz, said she had tried to visit Audrey at the hospital, but had been told she wasn’t there anymore.

I turned on my chair, about to tell the others what I had found, when the door opened. Fuck. We hadn’t set a lookout because she was supposed to be in class right now. I thought we would have more time than this. I wasn’t sure why Ewan hadn’t heard her coming, but a quick look sideways showed me he was on his hands and knees, trying to wrestle a piece of clothing out of Paiste’s mouth.

She was standing in the doorway, staring at us. Her expression quickly morphed from surprise to anger. I wanted to head off as much of the drama as I could, so I got to my feet and lifted my hands up in a gesture of peace.

“Audrey, listen. There is an expla—” My words cut off as a pulse of white light exploded out of her chest.

My body locked up. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even blink, let alone finish my sentence.

She looked surprised at what had happened. Her eyes flicked between us, and then to the open suitcases on the floor. She brushed past me, going to the desk first, luckily she didn’t look at what I had been reading. The lid of the laptop slammed closed, and she threw it into one suitcase, then zipped them both up.

“You can have your damn room back.” I couldn’t move, couldn’t stop her, as she yanked the suitcases up and rushed out of the door like the hounds of hell were after her.

I wasn’t sure what held my body still, or what the light had been. We didn’t know enough about her. We didn’t even know what kind of Scion she was, though there had been a lot of speculation, no one had confirmed it yet. It felt like the blood was frozen in my body—not with cold, but as if it had turned solid. Like my muscles were made of stone and were no longer capable of moving. I was glad I could still breathe, at least she hadn’t taken that from us. Caius was as frozen as me, and I was unable to see Ewan or Paiste.

It was almost ten minutes before I could move again. I knew because I counted. Do you know how long ten minutes is when you are counting each second, unable to move? I was on the verge of a panic attack when all at once, my body loosened and I collapsed back into the chair.

Ewan was still on his hands and knees, but started coughing, and Paiste whined and nuzzled in against him. Of course, Caius looked fine, but he could have a gaping chest wound, and still wouldn’t let it show on his face.

“What the fecking hell was that?!” Ewan gave voice to what we were all thinking. I had no idea. All I knew was I didn’t want to go through it again.