I hadn’t heard anyone say Yaya’s first name in a long time. It sent a pulse of sadness through me.
“Did you know your mother was voted coven leader a few weeks before she died?” CeCe swiped a finger under one of her eyes. “We’ve all lost too many friends and family.”
I stilled and studied CeCe. I hadn’t known Mom was to be the coven leader. “No, I didn’t know that. Then again, after she died, I withdrew from magic. Especially my necromancer powers. Yaya and Winnie pulled away from the coven then.”
CeCe nodded. “I stepped in after that. We gave your family the space they needed to grieve. But we had hoped that you would rejoin. I don’t tolerate prejudice against others and have opened membership to all magic born.”
But they kept the coven to thirteen members. No more, no less. Some traditions didn’t go away. And there were only witches. All didn't mean the same thing to both of us.
At the sound of her name, CeCe glanced up to see Bevan calling her. She sighed. Before she let go of my hand, she sent a thought to me. “The High Witch position is yours as it was your mother’s. Just say the word, and I’ll step down and pass on the torch. Ah, it’s a potion, actually.”
While I processed her words, she drew me into a hug and said out loud, “Welcome to the coven, Ava.” A potion? Why a potion?
Then she darted off to tend to Bevan. I watched her leave, stunned. Why did she tell me that telepathically? Was it not public knowledge? Then again, she believed there was a killer inside the coven and maybe didn’t want him or her knowing I was next in line to lead the coven.
How in the Hell did she send me her thoughts? That was a trick I needed to learn. I wonder if Yaya’s imprint knew how.
I caught Bevan’s stare… more like glare. For a brief moment, his aura shifted to a darker grey, then was back to its usual blue. Interesting.
A laugh drew my attention to the other side of the room where Luci…er Bertie was entertaining a couple of female witches. Lenna and Mai, I believed were their names.
Frowning, I made a mental note to make more charms for the coven. When I stepped forward, one of the twins appeared in front of me. I jumped and moved back a few steps.
He didn’t materialize or anything. I just hadn’t seen him approach. Damn it. I needed to pay attention.
“Welcome to the coven.”
I forced a smile. “Thank you.”
He stared at me, so I stared back, lifting both brows because I wasn’t talented enough to do the one brow lift. Dark magic flowed from him, tingling my skin. It surrounded me, teasing my dark powers. I didn’t like it. But I couldn’t run out the door because that would make me look weak. A weak prey was dead prey.
“Can I help you with something?” I asked, amping up my dark magic.
One side of his mouth lifted in a smirk. “Do be careful. Coven members haven’t had much good luck lately.”
Once again, I was left standing in the center of the room with my mouth open in shock as I watched him walk out.
This was going to be a long night.
After the twin, whom I never got to ask which one he was, the evening was pleasant. My guess the twin was Brandon because he was the creepier of the two. But I could have been wrong.
The other coven members were nice, and I didn’t get bad vibes from anyone else besides the twins and Bevan.
Luci came up to me a while later, after I’d talked to everyone at least once. Some twice. “You look ready to go.”
“I am. These shoes are killing me. I’ve had enough playing nicey-nice to the witches.” I laughed at my joke and quickly realized that I was starting to like some of these witches.
Well, that was a twist I hadn’t seen coming.
Luci took my arm and curled it in his. “Come, Ava, dear, Let’s go home.”
“Thank you. You know, for crashing the party and pretending to be my cousin.”
“Any time, dear.” Luci really came through tonight and almost seemed normal.
I had to remember. No matter how nice he was, I was still finding out a way to send him back to Hell.
Chapter Fourteen
My sofa had never been so comfortable. After drinking entirely too much champagne last night and letting Luci drive me home, I didn’t want to be anywhere but right here, watching bad reality TV bundled up in my fluffiest robe.
Just a lazy, relaxing day.
So—of course!—my doorbell rang.
Great. I hoped it wasn’t anything that would involve me leaving the house.
“I got it,” Larry called from the kitchen. Or preferably the couch.
“Don’t answer it if it’s someone that will freak out,” I replied, frowning.
He stopped in the living room doorway. “Give me a little credit, Ava.”
I would not. The darn skeleton kept forgetting he was all bones. He liked to hang out with the flesh-wearing people too often. I even caught him meditating in the middle of the backyard the other day. It was a good thing my only neighbor close enough to see him was a demon. The demon.
“Hello, Officer,” Larry said. I sat bolt upright. Please tell me this was not Drew.
“Uh, hello?” Drew replied.
Crap!
Waving my hand over my face, I glamoured myself just enough to not look quite so crazy. Or homeless. I hadn’t taken my makeup off before collapsing in bed the night before, so I removed my dark circles and tamed my hair. I didn’t mind Drew seeing me without makeup or in my robe, but he didn’t need to see the blotchy leftover foundation or my raccoon eyes.
Too bad I couldn’t get rid of this hangover so easily. There was a potion cure for a hangover, but it was so disgusting I wouldn’t use it. Drinking raw eggs and frog toes wasn’t on my list of things to do the day after too much champagne.
“Hello,” I said softly as I muted the TV and scooted over on the couch to make room for Drew to sit next to me.
“Hey, there,” he said, studying me for a long few seconds. Did he know I was glamouring myself? Probably, since he was a born hunter and was sensitive to magic. “Late night?” He looked at his watch and raised his eyebrows.
I moaned and let my head hang back. “Yeah. There was a coven meeting. The invitation said fancy dress, and when I got there, it turned out it was a party to celebrate me accepting their invitation.”
Drew furrowed his brow. “But at our date last weekend, you said you weren’t sure if you’d join. I got the impression you were leaning toward not.”
I snorted. “They couldn’t conceive of the possibility that I might refuse them.”
He nodded. “I see.”
“That’s not the best part. Although, this ended up being a big help to me. As I pulled up to the party, Lucifer appeared in the car beside me.”
Drew’s jaw dropped. “What happened?”
I sucked in a deep breath and thought about how Luci had captivated the coven. “I don’t know, having him there took the heat off of me a bit. He was charming and made the rounds, so I wasn’t the only new person in the room. He introduced himself as my distant cousin, in for a visit.” I imitated his British accent when I spoke the last sentence.
With a chuckle, Drew shook his head. “Didn’t they recognize him? He was at the Christmas party, and I imagine several of the covens came to that. And he’s not exactly been hiding from the town. He goes out and about often.”