The Coven Awakens (Hollow Hill Academy #1)

20. Soren

Chapter 20

Soren

I t had been too long since we had all been in such a good mood. The last time we’d partied was Henri’s graduation, but there’d been a bittersweet edge back then. At the time, he hadn’t yet been offered the job teaching here at Hollow Hill. Not knowing he was going to be back, it had almost felt like a wake, celebrating the life of our coven as it ended. Before that, we had been dealing with Lydia. And now the sex-blinders were off, I could see the way she sucked all the good energy from the room. She was like a dog with a bone, just wouldn’t let things go. Caius helped me get her claws out back then, and she was doing anything she could to get them in again.

I knew this good feeling would not last, so I was determined to enjoy it. There were a lot of tribulations coming for all of us. Some we would get through easily, while others would test our bonds with each other. But if I warned the coven about what was coming, everything would change, and rarely for the better. The future was like the ocean, large and overwhelming. It changed with the weather, but only on the surface. Deep down, things ran as always, without influence. Telling the others what was to come would only upset them. They would panic and make desperate choices. Scared people made mistakes. The suffering we were all going to go through had a point. It would bring us closer together and make us the people we needed to become. A lesson I learned long ago, one taught to me by my family, was suffering wasn’t something to shy away from. It was part of life, and all of life was to be lived.

We returned to the apartment. There was a brief discussion about going to Henri’s office, but it was better to be close to our beds, and this space was all of ours, not just Henri’s. I wanted Audrey to feel comfortable here, to move past the teething problems of her arrival and embrace the coven with whom she had bound herself. We didn’t bother with glasses, each of us held a bottle of liquor. The akvavit in my hand was warm, the way I preferred it. This was a celebration, after all. Audrey and Henri were on one couch, Caius and Ewan on another, and I had a couch to myself so I could stretch out. Ewan was more relaxed than he’d been in a while, and it was good to see.

The fight had helped us; some things could only be solved with a good brawl. A moment of violence, and then it was done, the issue was dealt with. We had put it off for far too long. We’d let Henri and Caius convince us talking was the best way to deal with the hurt which lay between us. Hurt I’d caused. Even though we were a coven, some of us were closer to each other. It was the way people were. Caius and Henri were closer, having more in common, and Ewan and I used to be too, before I let Lydia get her poisonous words into my ear. Before I let her turn me against him. There had been a time when I thought we could share her. When we could more than share her, when the three of us could be together, a true trio. But she hadn’t wanted him, not really. She’d been using him to get to me, to get what she truly wanted.

I didn’t know how to talk to Ewan anymore about anything that mattered. Every time I tried, I saw flashes of the past, of the hurt on his face when Lydia verbally tore him to shreds. She’d known all the soft points to target. Caius often called her a harpy, and even though she wasn’t, she had the verbal talons of one. I might not have been the one who hurt him, but I made it worse because I hadn’t stopped her. I was a pawn in her schemes, though I should have seen it coming. They say love is blind; the truth was love blinds you. It wasn’t the last problem we were going to have with Lydia. Every time I threw the bones to read the runes or when I brought on visions, every glimpse I had of the future, she was tangled up in it. Her black ichor was over everything. If we wanted to get to the genuine problems, the actual struggle to come, we needed to get through her and her petty games first.

All I could do was hope we worked it out before the coven games. We were going to need all our energy focused on them if we wanted to defend our title. The other covens were coming for us. Not only them, but the games would be harder this year. So much outside influence made it difficult to see exactly what was coming, but I was doing everything I could.

The rest of the coven played a drinking game, as they got to know more about Audrey. Only half of my attention was on them, drinking when I needed to, and asking mundane questions when it was my turn. I wanted to learn more about her. Her favorite color, the songs she listened to when she was sad. She was one of the most intriguing women I’d met in quite some time, and her future was fascinating. Parts of it were hidden, and parts of it were as easy to read as a book. But in the end, we would all be standing by her side, and I wanted that more than anything. For us to be whole.

“Tell me about the coven games?” Audrey’s curiosity was finally coming through now that she had a little J?ger in her system. I was glad we hadn’t dimmed her spark. Even though everything which had happened since she arrived at the school was necessary, I’d worried it would taint who she was and make her unwilling to trust us entirely. Things weren’t completely healed between us yet. They needed to break more before that could happen.

Caius leaned forward, his bottle of wine held by a tendril of darkness, so he didn’t have to trouble himself with something as ordinary as holding his own drink. “They happen every year. Some years are more difficult than others. It depends on which members of faculty, or alumni, design them. They run for a month, and there are five challenges in total. They test our abilities with magic, but more than that, they test our bonds to each other. We are going to have to do a lot of work to get you up to speed. We have won the last three years, and I don’t plan on ending on a loss.”

It was a simple explanation, but now wasn’t the time for details. We had been training before she came along, and we would get right back to it now that she was bound to us. It would be hard work, fitting her and her magic style in with ours, but her ability to heal would be useful. Not to mention having two shifters. So far, we had been neglecting her ability with plants, something we also needed to remedy. I wasn’t sure how to help her with that yet. I had tried to see, but it was one of the many things hidden from me.

Audrey gazed at Henri expectantly, waiting for the answer to a question I was too distracted to hear. Henri’s hands were in the air, a clear sign of surrender, his bottle of wine on the side table next to the couch. “I cannot help you all with this, mon chou. The faculty is keeping me far away from the games. I am still bound to this coven after all, even though I am not competing this year, and cannot help you. They don’t want any accusations of impropriety. I will be in the crowd watching though and cheering for you all. And I will help you train where I can. Illusions can be quite useful for that.”

Audrey’s pout was a dangerous weapon, and I was glad she hadn’t turned it on me. Henri and I still had a lot of ground to navigate, working out the dynamic between the three of us. I wasn’t worried, there was no rush. Our group was fluid and had many changes to go through. No matter what he might call her now, I knew he was going to do his best to keep things casual between them while she was still a student. He was going to fail, but I would not enlighten him. The man deserved to cling to his silly morals for as long as he could.

“The most important thing is getting you fighting with us as soon as possible. We will all be training with you on that, lass. The coven games always involve a fight. Whether against the other covens, against the environment, or against creatures. We have been fighting together for three years. We know how to move together, and how to react. It’s been hard work plugging the gap Henri left, but now we need to slot you in.” Of course, Ewan was focused on that part. He loved the fighting challenges. I was fond of them myself.

It would be a good way for her to learn about our strengths and weaknesses, though, and to teach her how to blend her magic with ours. I wasn’t sure how she would go in a fight. She had the fire, and the ability she used to freeze us all in place, which was useful, but she hadn’t done that on purpose. Her healing ability clearly gave her some control over people’s bodies. But we needed to work out how to teach her to focus on her abilities. She almost burned herself out in our last healing lesson.

“We have been working hard the last few weeks, but it is going to get a lot harder. Before class, after class, all the time we have. You’re one of us now. It’s time to prove we haven’t made a mistake.” Caius was blunt, but he was right. There were a lot of long days ahead of us. There would be some fun too. Hand- to-hand combat meant wrestling with her and a chance to get closer, now that I was looking forward to.

I waved my bottle in the air, drawing everyone’s attention. “I am supposed to be the one who focuses on the future. We should enjoy our first night as a coven. Whose turn is it to pick the game?” I didn’t want to go back to the question game we’d been playing. Sure, the chance to learn more about Audrey and to teach her about us was interesting, but it lacked a sense of fun, a sense of danger. We could do so much better.

“We could play truth or dare?” I hadn’t been expecting the suggestion from Audrey, but I should have, since she didn’t know any Scion drinking games. It was a good middle ground, as we could learn about each other while injecting some risk into the situation. I just had to keep Caius or Ewan from kissing her. These relationships needed time to develop. Too much was going to overwhelm her quickly, and she wasn’t ready for more yet.

“The rules?” Caius was such a stickler for the rules, but it was a good idea to set some boundaries. We didn’t want to cause an incident or draw too much attention to ourselves.

“Nothing which leaves the room. If a person doesn’t want to answer the truth, they can do a dare or vice versa. If they don’t want to do either, they need to take two shots.” The rules Audrey laid out were simple enough, easy to follow if we got drunk. And it gave everyone a chance to keep their secrets or keep from embarrassing themselves.

“Well, who goes first, lass?” Ewan had a grin on his face, which was going to lead to trouble, but it was going to be a hell of a journey. Letting Audrey take the lead, she looked at all of us before pointing to Henri.

“Truth or dare, Henri?” I thought she would have asked him to take the first turn, but my lilla gudinnan had a plan. I was sure we were all in trouble, but it would be a fun journey on the way there.

Henri looked the most stunned of all of us, his eyes widened as he thought about his choices. It was hard to take him by surprise, and I was glad to see her do it. The rest of us smirked, waiting to hear what he said. He took a drink from his bottle, stalling, but Audrey wasn’t having any of that.

“Are you conceding? Wouldn’t have thought my fated mate was such a chicken.” That blow landed better than she expected, but she didn’t know how seriously we took fated mates. To her, it was just a name on her skin, some words. She was still learning. Still making her own mind up about Fate and how she felt about it.

“Truth. I suppose I should start things out easily.” Henri thought he had taken the simple choice, but the look on Audrey’s face said it wasn’t true at all.

“Why do you keep rejecting me?” Wow—the alcohol had made her brazen, surprising even herself with that question. We all looked at Henri again, wondering if more had gone on between them than he had told us. I understood why he had turned her down, he was a teacher now. There were rules, but fated mates trumped everything in our society. Henri deserved a little happiness in his life.

Henri didn’t look happy about the question and took another long drink from his bottle. He could have done a dare instead, but we would have eventually gotten the answer to Audrey’s question later, even if we all had to gang up on him to get it for her. With a long sigh, he looked at the ceiling. I could only imagine he was wishing it would fall in on him.

“Because of my job, Audrey. I am a new teacher. I am still developing my reputation and building trust with my students. Patience is a virtue I value. You won’t be a student forever. And you’re one of us now.” Had someone cast a truth spell over the room? My eyes narrowed suspiciously at Caius, but he looked just as shocked.

Audrey seemed content with the answer and waved her bottle in the air. “Your turn to ask.”

Henri looked at each of us, stopping at Caius, trouble gleamed in his eyes. What he could have over Caius, I wasn’t sure, but it was about to come to light.

“Ewan. Truth or dare?” Well, tonight was full of surprises. Henri was getting into the game as much as Audrey, or maybe it was the effect of the coven bond, influencing them both. I couldn’t feel her as much as I could feel the boys, but that would change over time, especially once we got through everything coming.

Ewan choked down his drink, glancing around the circle like one of us could save him. There was no safety to be found, though, he needed to pick.

“Dare. Someone needs to make this game interesting.” Of course he chose dare, I would have done the same thing. Better to do something potentially embarrassing than say something awkward.

“I dare you to kiss Soren. On the lips. For at least five seconds.” Well, fucking hell. Henri must have been upset about the question Audrey asked him, because he was coming out swinging. A glare from me, and an indignant sputter from Ewan, wasn’t enough to get him to take it back.

“You can always take a truth if you don’t want to do it, Ewan.” Audrey’s voice was soft with understanding. She wasn’t goading him and wasn’t teasing. She didn’t know the history between us, there was no way she could. No way she knew how close we had gotten to this moment before Lydia ruined everything.

I looked over at Ewan, who was contemplating me. I gave a small shrug of my shoulder as he sat forward, taking another pull from his bottle.

“Five seconds isn’t that long. I can do it.”

He was talking himself up to doing it, which was not really what I wished. But I also wanted this to happen and had for a long time. Even if it was part of a game, it would be a good way to work out if I desired it again. Both of us had slept with other men before—that wasn’t the issue—it was forming a relationship within the bonds of the coven. It could make things uneven.

But Audrey was changing all of that.

Ewan set down his bottle and pushed up from his seat, sauntering over to sit beside me. His blue eyes were a little glazed from the alcohol, and part of me liked to think I would call it off. I wanted him to do this because he desired to, not because of a game, but I was greedy. There was so much pain coming, I wanted a moment of joy.

With a muttered, “Feck it all to hell.” His lips pressed to mine. Warm, a little dry. The kiss wasn’t mind-blowing, and there weren’t any fireworks. But it was good, and I wanted more. A lot more. I needed to get through this game so we could talk about this again when we were sober.