“I’m not finished,” Clarence’s voice vibrated the walls. The four of us stood, towering over the Sacred round table, eyes glaring down at Clarence. “The Pruitt’s are hosting their annual ball during Samhain, and I have a feeling he is hiding the missing books. I’ve spoken with Pruitt myself. He has agreed to let the four of you bartend the event. You have your way in. But it is up to all of you to take back the missing books.”
When I didn’t think this meeting could get any worse, it did. I’d lost all trust and respect for Clarence a long time ago, and yet, he continued to surprise me. Pruitt may be a smug prick, but he and Viola Cantini were only following Fallon’s father’s wishes. I knew where this was going, and it would take more than afeelingto convince me to walk into the Pruitt home, snooping around for the books. This plan—if one would call it that—was different than breaking into the Chambers. This was someone’s home.
“How are you so certain Pruitt has the missing books?”
“You forget I am a Heathen as well. A very old Heathen. My magic may have faded over time, but I still hear the whispers in the wind.” He slid his gaze to Zephyr then back at me, almost as if Clarence couldn’t stand to look at his son. There was no doubt in my mind Clarence would never have passed along his air element if he weren’t forced to do so, selfishly keeping it until the day he died. “The books are in the Sacred Sea chamber under the house.”
“Let me rephrase, try and understand this. You want us to break into Sacred Sea’s chamber? All four of us could be executed,” I reiterated, shocked he was ordering this of us.
I wasn’t surprised Clarence was just as desperate as we were to break the curse, but risking the Heathens? The only ones who held the coven together? Had he lost his mind?
“I told you, change needs to happen for this coven. Breaking this curseneedsto happen, so don’t get caught,” he said and drank from his glass. “Start preparing. I will see you four at the Samhain ritual.Now, you are dismissed.”
The candles flickered until the flames were engulfed by the Goody wind.
And darkness befell us, inside us.
Chapter 34
Julian
Once,I read that women had something woven into their genes that allowed a man to break down and expose his feelings without it compromising his manhood. I suppose that was why I’d ended up on Fallon’s balcony, distraught and out of my mind, needing the same comfort and peace she’d always been able to satisfy. For Fallon Grimaldi had become my safe place.
The meeting with Clarence and the Heathens reminded me I was nothing more than an object or a weapon, whichever way they required me to be and saw fit at the time. A host for magic.
I’d been loyal to my coven. I couldn’t recall at what point things had turned, for it seemed as if the corruption itself had become corrupt. Perhaps it had always been this way, and I’d been a blind fool, or it could have been the moment Dad had walked the Green Mile in my name.
I didn’t know, and for a mere moment, I thought it would do the town and the Heathens a favor if the coven did fall. But only for a moment. Because in spite of everything, they were my family.
“Something’s bothering you,” Fallon pointed out. I was lying back on her bed as she was straddling my waist, her white hair curtaining my face, in my eyes, but I didn’t mind it.
“Nothing for you to worry about.” She didn’t need to know that Clarence had threatened me. And if he found out about River Harrison, it could be over for me. My days could be numbered, and I’d rather spend them with Fallon. I needed her to distract my mind. I needed to change the subject. “Were you close with Tobias? Did he ever warn you about anything? Talk to you about the town, us, or anything strange?” The more information I had, the better.
Her father had taken away her choice, and I had to know why. Was it solely to protect her from the monsters of Weeping Hollow, or did he know something I didn’t?
“No, we hardly talked. He rarely talked about my mom, let alone the town,” Fallon said, pulling back from me and sitting upright. “Why are you asking me about my dad?”
I unlinked my hands from behind my head and wrapped my fingers around her wrist, pulling her back over me. “Your father asked for Sacred Sea’s protection. I want to know why,” I told her, her hair falling back over my face again. I liked her on top of me, her lightness touching all over me as if it could fix me.
“Well, I got this letter sent to me back in Texas. It’s why I came in the first place, but Gramps said he never sent it,” she explained, her finger drawing lazy circles over my temple as her expression turned distant, recalling. “We passed letters back and forth for about a year, you know. Then I got the last one, and I should have known it wasn’t his. But when I read how sick he was, I just packed my bags and jumped in the car. I didn’t even think twice about it.”
“How do you know it wasn’t from him?”
“He told me himself. You should have seen the look on his face. It scared me. And you know I don’t get scared easily, but, Julian, he looked like … I don’t know, but it was like everything he was so afraid of was staring back at him. He wouldn’t talk to me for days. Come to think of it, his health really took a turn after I showed him the letter. And I know this sounds crazy, but my thoughts go and go then spiral, always assuming the worst. Still, I can’t help but think Gramps was giving up, so his body was giving up too.” She paused and moved her eyes downward. “Like he knew something bad was going to happen to me, that there was nothing he could do to stop it, and he wanted to die before I did. Or maybe it’s all in my head.”
My chest tightened. “Let me see it.”
Fallon’s clear eyes snapped to mine. “See what?”
“This letter. Show it to me.”
My hand fell from her thigh as she turned and hung off the edge of the bed, her bottom in the air as she searched through something. My gaze flicked over her little round bottom, the small space between her thighs. I’d never experienced the same form of intimacy with anyone else as I did with Fallon. It had always felt forced and unnatural, and I was ashamed of doing it because it felt as if I were forcing myself on a female even thoughIwas the one being forced.
But with Fallon, it was freeing, the reason I could never pull away from her at the last second as I had with everyone else before her. Fallon willingly gave herself to me. Fallon trusted me. Fallon moved with me. She never cared about my magic, never asked a thing of me other than to be real with her.
“Here it is.” Her hand raised from the edge of the bed with the letter between her fingers. I sat up against the headboard, and she crawled next to me, handing me the letter before crossing her legs at my side.
Moments passed in utter silence as I scanned over the letter, feeling the weight of her stare with her nail between her teeth. “Has Benny always written with a quill pen and ink?”
