The Coven Awakens (Hollow Hill Academy #1)

21. Lydia

Chapter 21

Lydia

T his year wasn’t supposed to go like this. Things had started so well, all the work I’d put in with Soren’s coven was finally taking shape. It had taken years to come together. I should have been in their coven since it was formed. It comprised the most powerful magic users in the school, and I was one. I consistently aced all my exams, but they hadn’t even asked me if I was interested. Caius formed his little boy’s club, and everyone went along with it.

Caius didn’t bother to learn about the other magic types. Why else would he have overlooked necromancers? I couldn’t work out why the others listened to him. Potion making wasn’t anything special. All you had to do was study, it didn’t take any talent. If you could read, you could make potions. Yet the rest of his coven listened to him anyway. If it hadn’t been common knowledge that he was a Scion of Erebus, I would have wondered if he was a Siren or an enchanter of some kind.

Potions must be the way he was controlling the others. When I spent time with Soren, Caius made everyone a drink in the morning. I tried for months to convince Soren not to drink the coffee. But trying to come between Soren and food was like holding an intelligent debate with a brick wall—you wouldn’t win, and you’d look like an idiot if people saw you try.

I even tried to get Ewan on my side. As surely, if the two of them advocated for me to join the coven, Caius would have to listen. But everything was ruined, and Ewan turned against me when Caius questioned his loyalty to the coven. There wouldn’t have been anything to question if Caius had inducted me like he was supposed to.

Now they were down a member, with Beaudelaire being a teacher, and they still wouldn’t accept me. It wasn’t fair! I’d done everything to prove to Caius I was worthy. He was so blinded by his own goals he couldn’t see what was good for the coven.

And then the little goth bitch came along, with her wide blue eyes, and her fake-innocent act. Why the hell would they care about some girl who pretended she knew nothing? The teachers would not accept it as an excuse. If it was some ploy to lure people into underestimating her so she could pull out her tricks at the coven games, she would be in for a rude awakening. I knew she was hiding something.

I was also worried about how often Delvara talked to them. All the students knew you couldn’t trust the counselor, she was an enchantress. Sure, it was useful to send a coven member to her if they were stressed out, as she helped them calm down, and then we could make sure they got their head on straight again. Was she behind this all somehow? She’d always had a thing for Henri, even when he was a student. Maybe she planned to separate him from the rest of them.

If I couldn’t join their coven, I would get Soren to join me. He and I were destined to be together; the ghosts had told me. They were always telling me things they didn’t share with other people. It’s because they knew I was the most powerful necromancer at Hollow Hill. They knew I could get things for them or help them cross over to the next part of their afterlives. And if they didn’t want to cross over, I let them have a little fun—they deserved it. Like with that Audrey bitch; I was still mad she lived. The plan was for her to die in the woods. My blood was supposed to poison her so she couldn’t heal. I was glad I thought ahead to borrow my coven-mates ability to change her memories. I didn’t need her running off to Soren or Caius and crying that I had attacked her. She would not ruin everything, not when I’d worked so hard for so long.

I was still seething about the night before, when Caius conjured the wall of darkness around their table. By the time it faded, they were long gone, and I didn’t know where. I tried their apartment, but the door burned me when I knocked. Soren had answered none of the texts I sent him, so I was pretty sure he’d lost his phone in the last couple of weeks. I never saw him with it.

It was time for a new plan. I needed to get Soren away from the new girl before she got her claws in any deeper. The thought of having a ghost possess him surfaced again. It would get him away from all of them, but it wouldn’t be him, not really. I also didn’t know what kinds of wards he’d placed over his person. If I tried and failed, I wouldn’t have any other plan left. Every time I considered it, I came up with something else, but this time, nothing was coming to me.

I needed to get out and think, and summoning some ghosts around the school might help. They may have an idea I hadn’t thought of yet. They had been the ones who told me about my destiny, so they had to help me. I skipped my morning necromancy class, as there wasn’t much more for me to learn. I could summon ghosts, manifest them, and control them. Also, I could banish them and help them cross over. Class bored me, and I usually spent it doing my own thing. The woods were the best place to go. The ghosts I needed to talk to could be a little messy, and I didn’t want that in my room. I packed a bag full of offerings and spell components in case I needed to bind one of them; I didn’t want to use all my energy. My coven was meeting after classes to work on our strategy for the coven games. Or rather, they were going to be gathering, so I could tell them what our strategy would be. I was determined to wipe the floor with Caius’s coven this year, and I had a plan.

My eyes rolled as I stepped into the quad. Paths were cleared through the snow, and the flowers the new bitch made grow were still peeking out of the white blanket. Why couldn’t they die so people stopped talking about her? It wasn’t like making plants grow was anything special. Half the witches and warlocks in the school could do it. I was about to step around the combat training building when I heard the stupid bitch’s voice—probably out here bragging about her stupid flowers. I pressed my back into the wall and let myself partially phase into the Spirit realm. It was enough so she couldn’t see me, but I could still see and hear her. Maybe this would be another chance to attack her. Sure, it was a little close to the school, but very few students could see into the Spirit realm unless they were actively looking.

She came around the corner, but she wasn’t alone, Soren was by her side. For a moment, I gave up on my plan. I couldn’t attack her in front of him. I was a good fighter, great even given the right circumstances, but Soren was better. All that Viking blood. It was part of what I loved about him, and it was why we’d have such beautiful children. He needed someone who understood the bloodthirsty, death-dealing side of him.

They were talking about her healing classes, and she was complaining about having a hard time. This fucking act was playing on my nerves. How could they really believe this? If someone truly knew so little, they wouldn’t have lasted more than a couple of weeks at Hollow Hill. They always transferred to an easier school. The teachers here were ruthless, and it was a good thing too. It strengthened us as witches.

I leaned forward, wanting to see what Soren was so captivated by. He was staring at the side of her neck as she spoke. It wasn’t like he was a vampire, watching a pulse point, and who would want her blood, anyway? It probably tasted awful. But then I saw it.

Fucking. BITCH.

The name tattooed behind her ear must be a fake. It had to be part of her ploy to get the boys on her side. There was no way he was her fated mate. Soren was MINE. Fate had given him to me.

My blood burned in my veins, and my pulse pounded in my ears. I whirled away from them, not wanting to listen to any more of their conversation. There had to be something I could do about this, some way to show him how fake she was. I needed to show Soren he deserved so much better than her. He deserved a powerful witch. He deserved me.

The trees looked different in the Spirit realm, but I wasn’t scared of them. Nothing here scared me. These woods should fear me. My fingers ached as I clenched them so tightly, but I ignored the pain. I stormed down paths only I knew; drawn onward by a beat which echoed my pulse.

I reached the tree faster than I ever had before. If I didn’t know I couldn’t, I would have wondered if I’d teleported. The veil was thin here, and I spilled back out into the world, landing on my knees. The dead tree was before me, blackened, gnarled branches reaching desperately for a sky which would no longer nourish it. This was where I did my personal rituals. A place my mother had told me about, that her mother had told her about. Necromancy was in the soil itself.

I took my dagger from its sheath on my belt. The metal was cold as it dug into my arms. Black blood welled from the wounds, coating my wrists and then my hands, dripping into the soil, hissing as each drop fell. I stayed on my knees, letting the knife fall to the ground as I looked at the tree, which had to have the answers to my problems.

“In the silence where shadows coil and whisper,

I call upon the restless echoes long past.

By the icy breath of forgotten ages,

By the void, that lies beyond the reach of time,

Arise, specters of power,

Wraiths of ancient might.

Heed the plea of a soul lost in the night,

Bound by the chains of an unending dusk.

From the chasms of the abyss,

From the places where light dares not tread,

Come forth, unseen and unyielding.

Cast your gaze upon the living world,

And grant your strength to the one who summons.

In the shadows, where silence reigns,

Where the veil between worlds thins,

Answer now, and let your power be known.

By the dark unknown and the void beyond,

I invoke you—now, heed my call.”

My words were whipped away as a wind swirled around me. Screams and hisses, words I didn’t understand, floated on its currents. This incantation was more powerful than those I usually used, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I couldn’t lose Soren, I couldn’t. Tears filled my eyes at the thought, my blood continued to flow into the ground, and I waited.

Dark shapes faded in and out around me, none of them formed enough to talk. Worry built, had I done the spell correctly? Or maybe no one wanted to answer. Perhaps they were punishing me for not finishing the bitch off earlier. For letting this happen. Weakness was not something I usually indulged in, and the spirits rarely did either.

I was swaying on my knees, and about to give up, when a woman stepped out of the tree. She was beautiful. Dark hair which fell to her knees and shone like it was lit from above. In her hand, she held an apple, the reddest I had ever seen. Her eyes were sapphire blue, shining with power as she crouched in front of me. There was a sadness in them as she took me in, one which echoed my own.

“Child of Endor, you are far from the lands of your people, but your cries were heard. Tell me, what troubles you so?” Her voice was melodic, magical. I wanted to lean into her, to lay all my worries at her feet. My mother had never been the most maternal, it wasn’t in our blood. But this woman made me feel like a small child again. Like she could ease my every ache and hurt.

“A witch is trying to take what is mine by right. By Fate’s decree.” I kept it succinct, not wanting to risk her ire. I didn’t need her help with Soren. He would be mine as soon as this bitch was out of the way.

The woman tutted, and stood, her fingers fitted under my chin and lifted me to my feet as well. Where she touched me, warmth settled under my skin. Comforting, like lounging in front of a fire. It spread through my body, and the pain in my arms disappeared. Looking down, the wounds were closed, my blood gone.

“You speak of Audrey St. John. I will aid you in your quest.” She was so calm, looking at me like a goddess giving a blessing. For a moment, my heart soared, but then my wits came back, and I shook off the calm that had enveloped me like a blanket. How she knew who I was talking about wasn’t a question. The dead were often watching the living.

“What do you want from me?” There was always a cost, I had learned that lesson as a child. No one offered to help for no reason, and I needed to know the cost before I agreed. It was ringing a little too good to be true, and I would not be taken advantage of by a ghost.

“You will invite her into your coven. She needs to be away from those boys. I have plans for her and you will give her to me.”

Fuck me, that was everything I wanted. I got Soren, and I got rid of Audrey at the same fucking time. Having Audrey in my coven wasn’t the best situation, but at least I could control her there.

My hand rose between us to strike the deal, but rather than taking it, she pressed the apple into my palm, staring at me. A quick scanning spell told me it wasn’t poisoned, so I bit into it, the crisp juice running down my throat as I did. The woman smiled, and took a step toward me, moving through me before I could stop her. A shiver ran down my spine, but it was nothing I wasn’t used to. She was moving away, though, and I had to hurry to catch her.

“I will take Audrey, and you will have the binding ready.” She was giving orders now, something I wasn’t fond of. Though I could put up with it for a short time, especially if it got me what I wanted. She was moving faster, and I had to run to catch up with her. The woman was on a mission, and I felt my excitement build the closer we got to the school, and my goal.

No one looked as we ran out of the woods. I wasn’t sure anyone could see her other than me. When a couple of students who were walking to class nodded to me, it became apparent she was still in the Spirit realm. Good. I didn’t want anyone to see this.

We didn’t enter the main building, instead we turned toward the greenhouses. Ahead of me, I could see Ewan walking with Audrey. Even better. Soren wouldn’t have any idea I had anything to do with this. My steps slowed as the ghost raced ahead of me. I wasn’t sure what she had planned, and I didn’t want to waste my time arguing with Ewan. He complained far too much. But there was nothing for me to do. The woman flew right at Audrey and settled inside her. Audrey’s body tensed, fighting, before they became one. If I hadn’t been looking, I wouldn’t have known the woman was there. I wasn’t sure how she hid herself so well, but it was genius.

Audrey pushed Ewan away from her, telling him to stop crowding her and to give her space. The poor shifter looked like someone kicked him, like the puppy he was. It was fantastic to watch. Audrey kept walking, turning over her shoulder to give me a wink.

Everything was going perfectly. It wouldn’t be long now.