As I pulled back, I finally saw a glimpse of fear in the psychopath’s eyes. “Burn his witch’s mark before you take him to jail,” I said. “He won’t be able to practice magic with a scar over it.”
As a hunter, Drew knew all too well what I meant and probably already knew how to do it.
I put my hand on Drew’s arm. “Burn it deep.”
“I know,” Drew murmured. “I will.”
Walking out of the living room, I headed straight for the back door, went down the patio steps, and kept walking until I couldn’t go any farther.
I sat down at the edge of the cliff, looking out over the ocean. Tears rolled down my cheeks and my chest tightened. Memories of the day she died filled my mind. The lightning, her falling. Me desperately trying to heal her with my magic.
I now realized it hadn’t been my failure as a necromancer or my inexperience. It was the curse that had kept me from healing or raising her. Magnus must have added that into her curse so she couldn’t be brought back.
“Mom.” My voice broke. I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure if she could even hear me.
“Ava?”
The familiar voice startled me. I turned to see my mom standing a few feet behind me. “Mom? How are you here?”
Her sea-green eyes, just like mine, twinkled. “You called me.” She tossed her blonde hair, unlike mine, over her shoulder. I’d forgotten how svelte she was. I didn’t get that from her either. I was curvy, to say the least.
I’d called her? I had no clue I could talk to a ghost. Wait. “Are you a ghoul?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, I’m a ghost.”
There was something in her voice that set off warning bells. “Mom, are you okay?”
She looked around like she wasn’t sure where she was then focused on me. “Thank you for setting the children free.” She looked around. “I have to go.” Then she vanished.
I ran forward. “Mom!”
But she was gone. I dropped to sit on the ground, feeling defeated and inspired at the same time. I’d talked to a ghost. My mom’s ghost. I could do it again. And I would figure it out one way or another.
“Ava!” Drew yelled. “I need you to come in here!”
I turned from the cliff, wiping my eyes. Drew stood on the porch frantically gesturing. “Now!”
Okay, Mr. Bossy Alpha Man.
Running as fast as I could, I crossed grass-covered ground, watching where I was going so I didn’t faceplant. I wasn’t as coordinated as I once was. Not that I was ever terribly coordinated.
I hadn’t learned much defensive magic yet, outside of calling for dead things to aid me. I gathered my power as I vaulted up the porch steps. There was a field full of dead animals that I could call to help us if Bevan had managed to do something Owen and the non-witches couldn’t handle.
But when I thundered into the living room, prepared to release a huge burst of necromancy magic, Luci sat on my couch with his feet propped up. “Lovely of you to join us,” he said as he bit into a shiny red apple.
Gasping, I let the power go and leaned forward with my hands on my knees. Bevan and Penny had been bound by magical ropes, by the feel of it.
Relief spread all through me, and my adrenaline dropped. Heaving, I hung my head and stood bent over in the middle of my living room, desperately trying to catch my breath.
Mortified that Drew was seeing me so out of breath after one small sprint, I righted myself and bit back my heaving breaths.
But that made black spots appear in my eyes. I gulped in a deep breath as slowly as I could, praying it wouldn’t look like I was still winded from that small bit of exertion.
Damn it. I was getting a treadmill desk, pronto.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought I’d made you mad so you’d abandoned me.”
Lucifer waved his hand. “Don’t be silly. I‘ve never abandoned you. It was apparent you wanted to do things your way, so I let you. I’ve been watching, don’t worry.”
Crossing my arms, I glared at the devil. “If you’ve been aware of all this, why did you allow these people to be killed?” I asked in a near-yell. My emotions went back to running rogue from everything that had happened.
Luci stood and sucked in a deep breath. “Oh, yeah, see there are rules. Strict edicts I must obey. But if you’ll notice, since the moment I began to suspect who our culprit was, there haven’t been any more murders.” He winked at me.
Bevan’s head swung around. “You? You were the one who kept me from getting a coin into Ava’s pocket?”
Me? I glared at Bevan. “I can’t wait for you to die,” I whispered, and this time, everyone heard me.
“Well, my dear, I watched you all right.” Luci tapped my nose. “I’m very impressed. Whenever you’re ready, I’ve got a few managerial positions I desperately need to fill in Hell.”
I gulped and looked around for any of my friends to help.
The cowards. They all stood back and blanched when I turned to them for help. “Thanks,” I said shakily. Then I held up my hand to him. “Not today, Satan. Or, you know, ever.”
“If all the fun is over, I’ll just…” He turned to Penny and Bevan, then snapped his fingers.
With a sound like a roaring campfire, they disappeared, leaving a black scorch mark on my floor. “Perfect,” Luci said. He turned and clasped his hands. “You don’t have any more of that stew, do you?”
Alfred grunted behind me, and I slowly turned my head, then my body, as I watched Lucifer follow the ghoul into the kitchen.
When I fully turned, I caught sight of all the shocked expressions behind me.
“Well,” Drew said. “That’s one way to do it.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Two weeks later
“Thank you all for coming to our new and improved coven meeting.” I stood in my living room and beamed at the full house.
After a huge debate and a lot of begging—mostly me pleading with the coven that I wasn’t leader material—I caved and drank the High Witch potion. I was their leader now, and as such, I made a few changes. Which explained my full house.
Olivia had to bring chairs from her house, and Drew had even dropped off a few camp chairs. But we had enough. Alfred had been cooking all week. Larry was thrilled he didn’t have to hide from the guests. He’d decided he wanted to stay with me because I kept things interesting. His words.
And my cousin, Zoey, was thrilled to meet so many magical people her age. But we kept the little fact that she was undead to our small inner circle and the magical dozen, the natural-born witches who were honest and strong enough to pass my tests.
Owen had helped me figure out what to look for when selecting the twelve witches who would back me when high magic and planning were needed. I considered them to be my board and advisers.
“Our new coven is all-inclusive. We welcome all walks of witches as well as the humans who know about us and might need some witchy support. Sitting on either side of me were my magical dozen, the officers and board members of the coven. If you have an issue or questions you can go to any of them.”
Olivia stood and held up a hand. “Please, humans, fill out the sign-up sheet for the Not a Sup Support Group, or NAS for short.” She pointed toward the foyer where we had a table set up with reading material and the NAS sign-up sheet. “We’re going to meet once a month at my place.”