The Coven Awakens (Hollow Hill Academy #1)

19. Audrey

Chapter 19

Audrey

I still felt tired after my nap, but not as bad as I had felt before I laid down. As soon as Caius saw me, he handed me a potion bottle. I was going to refuse it until he told me it would help with the exhaustion, and I needed to be at my best for the coven rite. His explanation didn’t completely ease my suspicion, but I needed to meet the boys in the middle if this was going to work. They were used to doing things one way, and I was used to another. It would take time for us to find a rhythm together.

The potion was surprisingly pleasant. It tasted of lemons and made my skin tingle—like taking a bath in pop rocks. Once the sensation faded, I felt much better. It was reassuring to know not all potions led to a splitting headache and me questioning everything about my childhood.

Dinner was the best meal I’d eaten since arriving at the school. Not because of the food—although it was as good as always—but everyone was in a good mood. Henri sat at the table with us, rather than with the staff. He took the seat on my right, with Soren on my left. Conversation flowed, with everyone joking around with each other. I wasn’t sure if it was excitement about the ritual, but it was nice to see, and was the most comfortable I’d felt in a while.

Lydia tried to approach the table halfway through the meal, with her eyes locked on Soren. With a wave of his hand, Caius summoned a wall of darkness around the table. The ceiling lights still shone down on us, so we weren’t eating in the dark. Though the sound of Lydia cursing and screaming at Caius wasn’t blocked by the wall, he was unbothered by it, and continued to drink his coffee. Henri looked at him with a frown, but Soren and Ewan seemed just as unbothered as Caius, so I continued to eat, and the conversation quickly started flowing again.

Caius didn’t drop the wall when dinner was over, even though Lydia had stopped her cursing not long after it went up. He hadn’t broken a sweat, and the wall shielded us from everyone in the hall, not just her. When we stood from dinner, the wall became a tunnel, and he motioned with a gloved hand for us to follow it.

Without being able to see the hallways and the paintings, I wasn’t sure exactly where we were going, but after a few minutes’ walk, we pushed through the doors and out into the frosty night air. It was colder than I expected, as winter was rolling in quickly. A shiver ran through me, and I hugged my arms around my body, folding my hands under them to conserve body heat as we walked. I’d only taken a few steps when a warm suit jacket settled over my shoulders. The scent of pepper and citrus enveloped me, and I breathed the scent of Henri’s cologne in deeply. He gave me a smile while rolling his shirtsleeves up over his forearms, not saying anything as we walked toward the tree line.

As we stepped into the fog that never lessened or lifted, another shiver ran through me. This one wasn’t from the cold, though. My heart raced as adrenaline seeped into every cell of my body. My breathing quickened, and my eyes darted around. Panic built quickly, overwhelming my senses. I was about to turn and run when suddenly Henri was in front of me, his green eyes full of concern as his hands rested on my arms. The weight of his touch helped steady me enough to hear what he was saying over the instinct which screamed at me to run.

“You’re safe, mon chou. We are with you, and nothing can hurt you while we are with you.” His eyes were warm, and so was his touch. Both helped ease some of the tension in my body.

Once I stopped shivering, he stepped to my left, and the boys all fell in around me. Soren was on my right, Ewan leading the way, with Caius behind me. My breathing eased. I still couldn’t remember what attacked me in the woods, but I felt much safer with the boys surrounding me. I’d seen Ewan change shape into a bear and experienced the illusions Henri could summon. They were so real. And Caius and his darkness weren’t to be underestimated. The woods were more alive at night than they were any of the previous times I’d ventured into the trees. Owls hooted, rodents scurried, and the trees rustled. More than once, I heard something larger moving, and Ewan broke away from the group. The sounds moved away, and he rejoined us, leading us deeper into the woods.

It wasn’t a short walk, and we lit the way with the torches of our phones. No one spoke once we were in the woods, but the time passed quickly enough. As we stepped past some hawthorn trees, I felt the magic pulse through me, settling deep inside my core. This place was the closest anything had come to feeling like home. Not my parent’s house, or my dorm at my old campus. This felt like a place I was supposed to be. It was like I had been here before, and I was finally returning. That the air itself was welcoming me back into its embrace.

Letting out a long exhale, the last of the tension seeped from my body. My shoulders lowered away from my ears and my jaw unclenched. There was no way I could find my way back here on my own, so I would need to ask Ewan to show me the way. Maybe it would be easier to find from the air. So asking him to shift with me would be the best way to convince him to bring me back.

In the center of the ring of hawthorns was a gigantic oak, its boughs and branches reaching above everything surrounding it. It had to be ancient; it was so big. Magic thrummed through its branches, down its trunk, into the ground, and then outwards. It was hard to describe how I knew, but I could feel it in my chest. I hadn’t noticed I was moving toward it until my hand pressed into the bark and visions flashed through my mind.

At first, I thought Henri might have cast an illusion, but this felt different. Not as real; like I watched through someone else’s eyes. Different groups gathered around the tree, each making offerings, feeding the magic, and letting the magic feed back into them. The tree had watched over this space for centuries. The weight of time pressed down on me, images flicked faster and faster, until a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled it free. Blinking profusely, it took me a few seconds to see Ewan standing in front of me, frowning with concern.

“Best not to touch this tree unless you’re prepared for it, lass. Are you okay? It can be a lot to take if it talks to you. And given the way you were glowing, it must have had a fair bit to say.” Confused by his words, I looked down, and saw there was indeed a soft white glow under my skin, radiating from my chest. It was fading, and I watched in curiosity as it got weaker and weaker until it disappeared.

Ewan hadn’t let go of my wrist, his concern deeper now. “You’re as tied to this land as I am, lass. We’re a part of it, and it is a part of us. You don’t need to be worried, but you need to be careful, okay? If it draws you in too deeply, it can be hard to find your way out. You need something to anchor you here.”

Guilt flooded me for having worried him so much, and I nodded. If he hadn’t pulled me away from the tree, I don’t know if I would have been able to let go on my own. There was something intoxicating about the visions, about the weight of the age the tree bore. Like a heavy blanket over my shoulders, it comforted me. But Ewan was right, I needed to stay tied to the present. We had things to do, and I didn’t want to miss the ritual because I was too busy caressing a tree.

Ewan let go of my wrist to pull something from his pocket. Once he had the white rope in his hands, he gave one end to me. “Hold on to this for me, lass.”

He didn’t wait for me to answer, simply walked away, circling the tree. Looking around, I saw Soren, Caius, and Henri move to stand at three other ropes. Each one was a different color. Black, like Caius’s darkness. Gray and green, like Soren’s and Henri’s eyes, respectively. Ewan was back before I knew it. He took the end of the rope from me before tying the two ends together, although one end was much longer than the other.

Once he was done, he gave me a wink. “All right, let’s get this show on the road.” With his hand on the small of my back, he guided me away from the trunk, keeping the rope in his other hand. Roughly twenty steps from the tree, we stopped, and he turned me, so I was facing inward.

“Give me your hands?” He held his own out, the rope wrapped around his wrist. No one had explained to me what was going to happen, and I wasn’t sure if that was intentional. Maybe they thought I knew what happened, it wasn’t like I hadn’t had the opportunity to ask.

I gave him my hands, and he wrapped the rope around my wrists, bringing them together. My eyebrow shot up, and he gave me another one of those cheeky winks. This definitely wasn’t what I had signed up for, but when I looked at the others, each of them was binding the rope around their wrists. My eyes were drawn downwards to where Ewan patted my hands, and I saw he hadn’t actually tied a knot. Instead, the rope wove around my wrists, and then around itself in between them, the tail trailing away, unsecured. It would take me a minute or two, but I could get out of this if I needed to.

Once I was secured, Ewan took his place, wrapping his rope quickly around his own wrists. It was dark green, a very different shade to Henri’s, but I was curious why they shared a color. They didn’t seem like they had much in common, and they were from very different lineages. Henri was all sophistication and comfortable living, whereas Ewan was a rugged outdoorsman. Though now wasn’t the time for questions. The clouds above us were clearing, and the sky was a sea of black. There was no moon, so the clearing stayed dark, with only enough light to make out the silhouette of each other as the boys turned off their phones and pocketed them.

The surrounding energy shifted, built in anticipation of what was to come. My hair felt like it stood on end as the boys spoke in unison, their voices blending in a single chant.

“By the darkened sky and the new moon’s gleam,

We gather in a sacred space, a timeless dream.

From realms of old and whispers of lore,

We call upon spirits to open the door.

Erebus, shadowed lord of the night’s embrace,

Guide our hearts in this sacred space.

Odin, with wisdom vast and deep,

Grant your insight as our coven’s keep.

Cernunnos, with nature’s ancient grace,

Bless our union in this sacred place.

Pasithea, with dreams and visions of delight,

Bring serenity to this new moon’s night.

From shadow’s depth and forest’s breath,

We embrace new kin with strength and zest.

With offerings sweet and ale’s soft cheer,

We bind our spirits, far and near.

In this hour of the moon’s new face,

We welcome you with purpose and grace.

May our bonds be deep, our bonds be tight,

Under the veil of this new moon’s night.”

With their words, their ropes glowed, starting at their wrists, the light traveled inward toward the tree. The grass beneath our feet glowed as well, sigils I didn’t recognize or understand appeared all over the grove. As the glow reached the tree, it raced along each of the boy’s ropes, until all four were lit up. The light traveled toward me, and I watched, my heart racing.

As they reached the final stanza of the incantation, my eyes were drawn upwards again, as the boy’s appearances changed. Antlers sprouted from Ewan’s head, and he grew taller, stronger, like an ancient tree. Caius looked like he was made entirely of darkness, drawing the light toward the void he had become. Soren was taller, his blonde hair now gray, his eyes shone brightly, one blue, the other white and unseeing.

It took me a moment to realize how Henri had changed. It was subtle, like the colors of his clothes, his hair, and his eyes became more saturated. But then I could see through them, and see him behind it, looking as he always did. Four versions of himself were projected outward, and they showed each of us the same enhanced illusion.

As the light traveling along my rope reached my hand, a glowing wave of light came out to meet it. I felt it pull from deep within my soul, sending a pulse of white light down all five ropes. My hair was longer again, spilling over the shoulders of Henri’s jacket. There was a weight on my head, not unbearable, but the definite impression of something resting on my hair.

All four of the boys looked directly at me, their ropes glowing. Green eyes, blue eyes, black, and gray. Their mouths moved together, and their voices echoed around me. They weren’t loud, but they were everywhere.

“Will you join us, Daughter of Avalon? Child of Brécheliant Forest. Will you bind your will with ours?”

My nod had not answered their question, and they still looked at me expectantly. Finding my voice, my reply echoed around the circle, surprising me. “I will join you.”

And with those four words, the ropes pulsed again, warmth blooming around my wrists. It didn’t get any worse than that, thankfully. And with a second pulse, the rope disappeared, the glow fading from the grass. I was left gasping for breath, as the magic receded back into the tree, into the earth, and all of us returned to our regular forms.

Caius interrupted the silence as he clapped his gloved hands together. “I don’t know about any of you, but I could use a drink after that.”

Laughter met his statement, bubbling out of each of us as euphoria settled over the group. I found my soul lifted higher than I thought it ever would again after I woke in the hospital. Things felt like they were going to be okay.