Words of Power (Alice Gray Book 3)

3

Before, the coven's magic had warded off the leeches and the beasts.

Not anymore.

Now the coven was gone.

The screams that haunted the nighttime hours told me that they'd glutted themselves again.

Stealing through the passageway past the main hall, I kept my eyes ahead. I'd no wish to see the bloodless, broken husks.

Stepping into the sunlight felt like freedom.
A flicker of movement in the dark hall caught my eye. The blood froze in my veins as I tried to keep the breath moving in and out of my chest.

She came to the door in a flurry of speed, too fast for me to track. Skin white as snow, eyes bright crimson, there was still gore rotting between her fangs.

Skidding to a halt, the Baroness hissed at the invisible barrier that separated us. "What is this?"

My eyes shot to the loose brick where I'd slipped the written charm. In the brightest part of every day, I'd carefully placed them in each sill and doorframe.

She glanced up, following my eyes, but she had no idea what she was looking for. One so powerful didn't learn the paltry magic of witches.

My circle was strong. 

The words would keep me safe.

The Words of Power.

I woke from the dream sticky and hot. My eyes were glued together and my hair was stiff with dried blood.

Gross.

Before it had time to take hold, the discomfort dissipated as the heavy thrum of Lucas's heartbeat lulled my anxiety away.

"Who was it this time?"

"Jennet," I said, twisting my head from its resting place on his chest. I should be embarrassed to be lying on top of him, our bodies connected from head to foot. But I'd got used to the shifters' physicality pretty quickly.
It was a pack thing.

The absence of pain and the heavy cotton wool feeling in my brain told me that Anne had healed me. Her magic wasn't made for that, hence the crude, painful methods, but once I was out cold my bond with Lucas speeded the magic that she had initiated, and it only took around four hours to bring me back.

Not brand new and sparkly. Every muscle still screamed in protest when I moved, but good enough.

"Jennet, huh. What did she have to show you this time?"

"She escaped from Roger Nowell and the Baroness by doing her circle trick again."

"The charms?" Anne asked from the armchair across the room. She'd used a lot of power healing me, and now she was recuperating by watching the Vampire Diaries and eating Haribo.

"Yeah, the vamps didn't bother to learn how she'd spelled the coven so she used the trick again. Judging by her relationship with Mary, the Baroness learnt her lesson."

Jennet Device was the witch-child that had condemned the entire Pendle coven to be executed in their trial of 1612, including her own mother and siblings. She cut the coven off from their power by creating a circle using written charms in the courtroom. Then she'd let Roger Nowell, the Justice of the Peace for Pendle, coach her testimony to ensure a guilty verdict.

Diabolical? Certainly, but there was more to Jennet than the evil witch-child who betrayed her family. Jennet had thwarted one of the oldest vampires in the world. The vampire who presented herself in the seventeenth-century as Baroness Knyvet. The vampire that I had murdered.

And Jennet had just given me an idea.

"How do you think the coven would take it if you did a little digging around in the records?" I asked.

"Um, you know they don't trust me now," Anne said, head tilted back so that she looked at me upside town.

"Turn that off cousin," I snapped, impatient at her reluctance to tear away her attention from Damon Salvatore, even though my life might depend on it.

"Fine," Anne huffed. "No need to thank me. I only rebuilt your face. Again."

"You know I'm eternally grateful. But unless we figure out how to win this trial, all your efforts will have been for nothing."

The room went silent as we all remembered at once that if I was found guilty on any of the charges, no magic in the world would save me.

"The written charms that Jennet used," I said, refusing to wallow in my impending doom, "I need to know how she did it."

"They worked twice didn't they?" Lucas asked, a spark of hope in his voice. "Against witches in the Pendle trial, and then again against the vamps when Jennet escaped from Nowell and the Knyvets."

"Exactly," I said, catching Anne's hand in mine as she sat next to me on the bed, "and I'm not the only descendant of Jennet Device."

"Hazel," Anne gulped, the fear bright in her eyes.

"Or Evelyn," Evan piped up.

Anne's eyes stretched even wider in fear at the mention of Evelyn Gray, the powerful witch that currently possessed the leader of the Northern Coven.

Evelyn was my great-grandmother, a former coven leader. She was also a practitioner of outlawed blood magic. And she was dead.

"Hey, look on the bright side. At least Evelyn might let you in to see the records!"

Anne looked at me, a sceptical pout puckering her rosy lips. "Yeah, but how do I know who's in control when I ask?"

"If the door gets slammed in your face, it's Hazel. If you get enticed inside and used as a blood sacrifice, then it's probably Evelyn," I laughed.

"Hmph," Anne half said, half snorted, eyes narrowed and lips compressed into a straight line.

"Look, they'll be expecting a report tonight won't they?"

Anne's narrowed gaze shifted away from me. "I don't have any choice," she mumbled.

Anne had to report back to the coven twice weekly, and even though we didn't talk about it much, it was a nasty thorn festering in the side of our little group. Anne's carefree nature wasn't made for subterfuge. It was a heavy burden for her to carry, for us all to carry.

"I know," I said squeezing her hand. "But if you have to do it, why don't we use it to our advantage?"

"Yeah, you could say that you saw Alice writing charms out and wanted to check them against the coven's records," Evan said. "Neither Hazel or Evelyn would be able to resist finding out more. It wouldn't matter who was in control."

"Yeah, and then if you found the one that Jennet used you could bring it back with you. We need to know how she did it, how she contained all that power. If she could influence the trial back in 1612, maybe I can do it now!"

There's hope for Alice yet! But will her magic be strong enough to work Jennet Device's written charms?