Heir of the Coven (Daughters of the Warlock Book 3) Page 4

  “What do you mean?” Matlock asked.

  I turned and addressed the Council. “I know a lot of you want someone to pin all the blame on, but when it comes down to it, there is no-one to blame, and I’m not going anywhere,” I told them. I had no idea where this confidence was coming from, but I didn’t want it to go away any time soon. “But if you want proof, then I have it.”

  “What do you have?” one of the women demanded.

  I walked back to my chair and picked up my small bag. I glanced apologetically at my father and Tavlor.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t show you two, in case it jeopardized the original plan,” I said.

  “What is it?” my father asked.

  I looked at Tavlor. “Are you sure none of them can magic this away from me?” I asked. He was the one I trusted to tell me the truth. He was the one I needed the reassurance from. “I don’t have copies, and it’s very precious to me.”

  Tavlor rolled his hands and threw something at me. It was cold and made me shiver, but it was also comforting. Encapsulating. I had to assume it had protective properties, or he wouldn’t have done it.

  When he nodded, I assumed it meant I was safe to pull the book out. I gave him a smile as a way to say thank you to him, then turned back to my father and to the Council. If I was going to play this hand, I needed to do it now.

  I took a deep breath, steadying myself. I didn’t know why, but this part terrified me more than other things I’d done today.

  It was probably because there was proof of my sisters’ existence in the pages of my mother’s journal and the last thing I wanted was the Council to know about my sisters. Let them do whatever it was they wanted to do to me, but my sisters? I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to them, especially knowing it would be my fault.

  Not only that, my mother’s emotions and journey were about to be laid out in front of the people who hated her the most. It felt so disrespectful, in some way. Despite my feelings about the woman, I didn’t want anyone in her personal business.

  I reached into the bag and pulled out the book, my stomach trembling with fear and a touch of excitement.

  It’s for a good cause. Don’t worry.

  It would save my life, and my father’s. In that respect, it would only help my sisters. And we had Bella to thank for it in the first place.

  I held the book up in the air, the thin leather-bound diary warm in my hand.

  “This is my mother’s journal,” I stated. “Kept over several years, including the year she got pregnant with me.”

  There was a general gasp and hiss from the room.

  “Show me!” the same Witch demanded as Charity screeched behind her sealed lips.

  She wanted it too, I knew she did.

  I laughed at her demand. “Yeah, right.”

  I walked forward and started opening the pages. “I’m sure you have ways of checking the authenticity of these dates and pages, but for the moment, I’m going to hold onto this. No-one is to take it. Actually...”

  I turned to my father, who looked like he’d been hit over the head with a frying pan.

  “Can you make multiple copies of this, now?” I asked. “So that if they steal it, I still have the evidence? I can still prove my case?”

  He nodded. “Yes,” he said, but he seemed hesitant. I frowned. “But the only one that will hold up to authenticity standards will be the original.”

  “That’s fine, as long as I can hold onto it without them threatening to take it from me,” I said. “Can you just make two copies? One for you. And one for Tavlor?”

  They were the only two people I trusted with the knowledge in these pages. The only two people who knew of my beloved sisters’ existence. The only two I could count on who wouldn’t put my sisters in any danger, at least knowingly.

  My father glanced at Tavlor. I couldn’t decipher the look the two shared, but there seemed to be a lot of silent communication going on between the two of them. I probably would have laughed if our circumstances weren’t so dire.

  Tavlor nodded. “I’ll do it. You won’t be able to penetrate the shield I put around her.”

  I heard a snort from behind us and we all glanced that way to find Charity glaring at Tavlor. It almost seemed like she couldn’t believe Taylor had more power than the High Warlock. Clearly, she didn’t understand the Fae power.

  I looked at my father. “Can you unlock her lips for a minute?” I asked. I knew it was petty, but I couldn’t help it. “I’m dying to know what she’s saying.”

  Matlock nodded, and then threw a bolt of magic at his wife’s mouth.

  She burst out with, “Why didn’t anyone know how powerful you were until today?”

  I giggled.

  “Because you’re all selfish, narcissistic wankers who are so obsessed with being at the top of the food chain, you can’t even see who’s around you,” I said with absolute glee.

  Charity scowled at me and I scowled back.

  “And if you hadn’t been so blinded by your pure blood bullshit, you would have realized that the mixing of Fae blood and Witch blood is a brilliant combination,” I continued.

  “Heresy!”

  “Abomination.”

  The insults went on and I rolled my eyes. Even with the proof before them, they still couldn’t see the wood for the trees. It was almost comical if it wasn’t so pathetic and sad.

  Tavlor touched the pages of the journal with one hand, waved the other hand, and two identical copies appeared on top of the first.

  I smiled up at him. “Thanks.”

  I held tight to the original and let Tavlor take one copy and hand another to my father.

  “Okay,” I said, stepping forward and turning my attention back to the Council. “I’m going to read directly from her journal. Taylor and my father will follow along. Hell, I’m sure one of them might even hold up the page so you can read along yourself, in case you don’t believe me.”

  I looked over at the two men and told them the page number before opening to the page I knew almost by heart. I sucked in a breath. My heart started hammering against my chest. I didn’t know why I was nervous, not when this was the right thing to do. I shook my head, trying to calm myself down. The Council and my father needed to hear this to see just how ridiculous they were being. I cleared my throat and started reading.

  July 20th 1996.

  Oh, my goodness, holy shit... I’m pregnant!

  I stopped reading for a moment, smiling at my mother’s words. She sounded like... me. My prim and proper mother saying swear words, writing them down. I unconsciously reached for my locket but found it wasn’t hanging around my neck. I suddenly wished I had brought her with me.

  No, no, no. This was not supposed to happen. What is Matlock going to say when I tell him?

  He’s meant to get married to that crazy-ass bitch in the fall.

  What am I going to do?

  Do I tell him at all? Maybe it’s best if I just keep this to myself. I don’t want to put myself or my child at risk. Who knows what’ll happen if anyone finds out?

  I lifted my gaze and stared directly at Charity.

  She lifted her nose and looked away. I was glad she couldn’t look at me, because I was disgusted by her too.

  August 1st 1996.

  I saw Matlock again tonight and he told me we needed to stop seeing each other. That it was getting too hard for him to continue, so close to the wedding.

  I was hoping we’d get another few weeks... but then again, he might start noticing how sick I am all the time.

  I haven’t told him yet. I still don’t know if I’m going to.

  I know that makes me a bad person, but I don’t care. I need to figure this out, and soon.

  I inhaled sharply, my heart aching with the empathy I still hadn’t worked out how to stop.

  How scared must she have been?

  August 10th 1996.

  I confided in a friend about the pregnancy and she told me to get rid of it.


  I can’t do it. Not just because I could never kill a living creature, but because this baby... well, it’s his. It’s Matlock’s.

  The love of my life.

  When he goes on to marry Charity, and have children of his own, he’ll forget me. But I will always have a piece of him to love.

  To treasure.

  As long as I stay healthy of course. The stress of all this is going to be the death of me, I’m sure.

  I can’t lose my baby. Not now.

  And I refuse to be the one to get rid of it.

  I glanced up to see that my father had sat down on a chair he’d magicked up, and was swaying as though he was a leaf in the breeze.

  Everyone else was staring at me, listening to every word.

  I continued, trying to control the emotion in my voice. My chest squeezed, making it hard to breathe, but I pushed forward. Everyone needed to hear this. Everyone needed to hear my mother’s words, to know what she went through, to know the Council was utterly wrong.

  August 20th 1996.

  I’m nine weeks pregnant and Matlock gets married in less than a month. I can’t tell him. He won’t even speak to me now.

  And why would he?

  I’m just the girl who loved him through all our schooling years and still do. I’m a total fool.

  He used me.

  And I can’t even bring myself to tell him I’m leaving this realm forever.

  But I am. I have to.

  A powerful friend of mine, who I won’t name just in case this journal is found one day, has set up a realm for me.

  You can only enter if you have my blood line, so my daughter and I will be safe.

  I know it’s a girl. Though it isn’t confirmed.

  My child will be the first baby born to the High Warlock out of wedlock, ever, I think.

  So, it makes sense to me that she’s a girl. I think that’s against the laws too.

  They only have boys.

  I sighed and looked up.

  “There’s one more that’s relevant,” I said, flicking my gaze at the Council. “Should I keep reading?”

  There was a chorus of yes’s and I bent my head to the page once again. I was surprised by their assent. I’d assumed they’d want to keep me quiet. I couldn’t assume that this was a good sign, but part of me hoped it was.

  September 19th 1996.

  Matlock got married today and a part of me died.

  I can’t believe he went through with it.

  And I can’t believe I didn’t tell him the truth before I left. But there’s no going back now. If he finds out that I’m pregnant, he’ll have to tell the Council, and then there will be hell to pay.

  For me, for him, for our child.

  No. I’ll never tell him now.

  Never.

  This is my baby.

  I have built a home for us in this realm. With animals, and a small farm.

  She will grow up happy, and loved, and I will pray every day that they never find out who she is.

  It would be too dangerous for her, and that’s an understatement.

  I stopped and swallowed hard. How right she’d been.

  Matlock had been right too. My mother was fearless, and strong, and brave. She’d only been young, and stupid to get pregnant when she did. And to whom she’d got pregnant to.

  I wasn’t sure I could forgive her for the rest though. To go back and get pregnant on purpose with my sisters. That had been intentional. From what I’d read, though, my pregnancy was not.

  I still didn’t understand why she felt the need to pursue a relationship with him after me. It angered me trying to rationalize it, so I tried not to.

  However, from reading this part of her diary, I knew that it was never her intention to have her life turn out the way it did. I didn’t know what she wanted, exactly, but I was sure it wasn’t this.

  I shook my head and shut the book.

  When I looked up, the whole room was silent.

  Still.

  Shocked, I think.

  Then Charity, of course, broke the silence. “That is fabricated,” she said as though it was obvious. “A lie.”

  I groaned, nearly dropping my head in my hands, the book carefully held under my arm. “Which part?” I asked. “That my mother loved your husband, or that she never told him about... me?”

  I’d almost said, us, and that would have screwed it all. I’d managed to keep my sisters out of this, and I wanted to continue to do so.

  I swallowed hard and pushed through the pain. I had to protect my sisters, at all costs.

  “The... the...” Charity floundered and as the people of the Council began to chatter around her, I realized that my mother’s testament had affected them more than I’d expected.

  The women especially, and luckily for us, half of the Council was female.

  I tucked the book under my arm and walked forward, still feeling the tight stiffness of Tavlor’s magic wrapped around me.

  “I will make copies of this chapter for you all,” I told them fiercely. “You can thoroughly dissect it as much as you want, but I’ve read it a couple hundred times, for my own peace of mind as well as the trial.”

  “What do you mean?” a dark haired woman in the back asked.

  “I mean...” I sighed heavily. “I... I’m still mad at my mother for all this. Even though I know I can’t change the past, and it’s obvious from reading her journal that she never meant for any of this to happen. But when it comes down to it, she knew my father was off limits, but fell in love with him anyway. She kept her pregnancy when she could have taken another path. She hid me, kept me isolated, my whole life... and I just...” I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “I have things I need to forgive her for too.”

  There was a strange silence in the room, almost as though the mood had shifted. The tide had changed.

  Was it possible?

  I glanced over at Tavlor, who was looking a little worried still. No one would be able to tell except for me, but the way he sucked in his bottom lip told me he didn’t think we were quite out of the woods just yet.

  I had to finish this now. “So... I’d like to present this evidence, as well as the ancient book we brought, and perhaps give you all some time to think about what the next step is?”

  My confidence fell a little flat at the end, but there was nothing I could do to help that.

  A lot of the fight had gone out of me now. There was an exhaustion in my arms, my very bones, that had crept over me. I just wanted this all over and done with. I wanted to crawl back into my room and sleep for as long as I could. I wanted to know deep in my heart that I was safe, that my sisters were safe, and that we didn’t need to hide anymore. I just wanted to be done with it all.

  I glanced at Tavlor. “Can you get the other book back?”

  He nodded and held out his hand to me. The ancient text that Charity had stolen flew into his grasp.

  “You can’t use that!” Charity yelled and I grimaced.

  God, she had a terrible voice. I didn’t know how my father had put up with it for so long.

  I took a moment to connect my gaze with hers. “We won’t, as long as you listen to reason,” I said. “Now... excuse us for a moment.”

  I gestured to my father and Tavlor to pull back with me, so we could have a sort of group huddle. I hoped no one would be able to use magic to overhear our conversation.

  “Do you think we can let them go?” I asked, glancing over at Tavlor. I trusted his take on the situation more than I trusted myself right now. “I mean, is it safe for us to go back to your rooms... or what do you think?”

  I glanced from Matlock to Tavlor, and back again.

  Tavlor inhaled sharply. “Matlock? Are your chambers safe enough?” he asked, keeping his voice so low I had to strain to hear him, even though he was right next to me. “I can re-inforce them even more than I already have if you’d like.”

  My father nodded. “Yes. I think that is a good plan. But first...”

 
; He stood and turned around, addressing the people he’d tied to chairs.

  What was he going to do now?

  Send them all to the dungeons?

  To be honest, I kind of wanted to see that. Suddenly, I wasn’t so tired.

  Chapter 5.

  MATLOCK SUDDENLY PULLED his wand out and held it in the air like a conductor. His gaze was fierce as he looked at the Council members who had defied him.

  Even I found myself taking a step back from him and giving him some much needed space, afraid he was going to turn that wrath onto me.

  “You have all proven untrustworthy,” he began, his voice thunderous. “Treasonous, arrogant, and cruel. We have shown you that neither Ava, nor myself, ever committed treason against the Council. At the very most, I... had a love affair as a young man that would have been frowned upon, but permitted. As many of the men, and women in this room know.”

  He looked from one person to the other, and although he didn’t say anything specific to any of them, I knew that each witch or warlock understood what he was saying.

  They’d all had relationships before they’d gotten married and that was not illegal. None of this was.

  “The fact that you were willing to destroy my daughter out of a misplaced sense of honor to the Council is villainous, and once this is cleared up, we must decide on a way forward,” he continued. He began to pace the length of the line of his audience, one hand holding out his wand, the other in a fist at his side. “This simply will not stand any longer.”

  He flicked his wand and the magical bindings that had been wrapped around each of the Council members fell away.

  My eyes widened. Was this truly a good idea, to free them from their confines?

  Charity jumped to her feet.

  “How dare you do this to us?” she hissed, but she didn’t attempt any magical retaliation. “How dare you do this to me! After everything we’ve been through together! You know I tried everything to give you an heir, Matlock. Everything.”

  Her cry tugged at my heart strings, and yet my father seemed unmoved.