Chapter 240

Tessa’s POV

The owl watched me with its head cocked as I grabbed a pen off my nightstand and went over to my vanity. Under Joseph’s message I wrote down the location of the coven. My hands trembled with each letter I wrote, and my vision became blurry with tears.

I knew he was alive from the beginning. But I lost hope. Now I knew for certain that he was out there, and he was coming for me.

My Joseph was alive.

I’m not sure where he managed to get an owl and how the owl knew where I was, but that was a question I’d ask him once I was safe in his arms again. I felt a warmth spreading across my features when I thought about being held by Joseph once again.

My entire being missed him.

Under the location, I added another note saying: I’ll be waiting for you. I love you.

Tears ran down my cheeks and I dripped onto the page as I rolled the note back up. Now I just had to hope that this owl would take it back to Joseph.

It seemed like it was waiting for me because it was watching me intently and almost curiously.

“Hey there,” I said, as I stood and neared the owl. It waited with the utmost curious look in its eyes. “Can you bring this back to Joseph for me?” I asked.

I lifted the rolled paper toward the owl and without a single hesitation, the owl snatched it up in its talons and quickly flew out of the room and out the window.

My mouth dropped open as the bird disappeared into the night’s air.

I ran toward the window, trying to see if I could get a glimpse of it, but it was already gone.

My chest tightened as I stumbled away from the window. I hoped and prayed that it would find Joseph again and give him that night. I hoped that Joseph would find me and get me out of this place. I no longer wished to stay here; I didn’t feel comfortable being here.

I wrapped my arms around my chest and tried desperately to breathe without breaking down and crying.

Leaving my window open, I scurried back to my bed and curled up, pressing my knees to my chest and burying my face in my lap.

Soon, all the exhaustion I felt over these last few weeks took over and I fell asleep.

…..

Joseph’s POV

It’s been a few days since Esmeralda was here with her owl. I spent time healing despite how badly I wanted to be out there searching for Tessa. But Anna was right when she said I wouldn’t be much help to Tessa if I was even more damaged. I needed to heal myself, so I kept myself in bed and rested until I was finally able to stand without feeling pain.

My wounds were healing nicely, and they were almost completely closed thanks to Anna and her medicines.

Esme instructed me to leave my window open in case the owl returned with a note. I still wasn’t sure how she knew what Coven Tessa was in, but it wasn’t important. As long as Tessa knew that I was coming for her, that’s all that mattered. I didn’t want her to think I had forgotten about her and lost hope.

After a couple of days of no response and after I was finally able to walk without feeling pain, I no longer wished to stay in the village and wait for that owl to return.

“I’m not going to wait anymore,” I said as I walked down the stairs of Bernard and Anna’s house and into the kitchen.

It was late in the evening, and I could tell they both just woke from their bed head and the fact that they were still in pajamas.

Anna was busying herself with making breakfast while Bernard was sipping on his coffee while leaning against the counter.

His brows furrowed when he saw me barging into the kitchen.

“Esmeralda said you need to wait,” Bernard reminded me. “Her owl hasn’t returned yet. Once the owl returns, that’s the green light. She was pretty specific.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Since when do you care what the witch says?” I asked, annoyed that he was suddenly team ‘Do what Esmeralda says.’

“I don’t, but this is her territory and I think she really does want to help Tessa,” Bernard said, shrugging.

“Tessa needs me, and I’ve wasted too much time. It’s been almost 3 weeks.”

“Look, Joseph—” Bernard began to say, but we were stopped by the whoing of an owl upstairs.

We all froze and looked at one another and without another word, I teleported into the room I was staying in and watched as the white feathered owl flew around the room and dropped a note on the bed.

My chest tightened as I grabbed the note. Relief flooded me when I recognized Tessa’s handwriting.

It was a location and under that, she wrote “I’ll be waiting for you. I love you.”

I wanted to scream to the mountains, ecstatic that Tessa was okay and that she was waiting for me.

Bernard was standing at the door and when I turned around to show him the note, he looked genuinely surprised.

“I guess you have a girl to get,” he said, motioning for me to leave with his head.

I nodded and turned back to the owl.

“Let’s go back to Esmerlda,” I told it; the owl whoed again and flew out the window.

I was right behind it.

I teleported out of the house and to my car. I got in my car and turned it on, putting it in drive I sped away from the village and toward the small town where Esmeralda kept her shop.

She kept her shop open late, which I was thankful for at that moment. The owl had already flown in through the window when I got there, and Esmeralda was talking to it when I barged into her shop.

She didn’t look surprised to see me.

“She wrote back?”

I showed her the note and when she looked it over, she smiled.

“Now that we know she’s ready… we move onto phase 2,” Esme said, a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. “We need to be fast, and we need to be smart about this. They are a very powerful coven, and we can’t mess around.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask; how do you know so much about them? How did you know Tessa was there?” I finally asked.

She was quiet for a moment, a darkness cascading over her features.

“That’s a story for another time,” she murmured, turning around and facing the potions on her back wall.

She grabbed a couple of different kinds and then turned back to me with a crazed look in her eyes. She lifted the blue potion in the air before setting it on the counter.

“This potion will mask your vampire stench,” she said, crinkling her nose at me. “It’ll only last a little while so we would have to be quick. But it’ll help disguise what you are long enough to get her out of there without them detecting you.”

I nodded in understanding and waited for her to continue.

She lifted the red potion and then set that on the table.

“This one will let us both through the barrier that most covens set to keep away outsiders,” she explained. “The only ones who can break the barrier set by a coven are the members of the highest grand council. Unless the coven leader invited us in, we wouldn’t be able to enter the house. When he sees me, there’s a chance he will try and kick us out. But if we enter without issues, he will think we are part of the grand council, and he will have no choice but to hear us out. My job is to get you into that house and to Tessa. Your job is to get her out.”

I nodded again.

“And then finally,” she said, lifting the light green potion and then setting that on the counter. “This one is for Tessa. If they truly are holding her captive, there must be some kind of spell on her that’s preventing her from leaving. Whether she can’t physically leave the coven house borders, or it’s some kind of mind control spell, she’s physically stuck. She might not even realize it. This potion is powerful enough to break any spell cast on her and it will make her undetectable for a little while. At least long enough to allow her to escape without a trace.”

“How did you get a potion like that?” I asked, furrowing my brows at her.

Esme looked at me like I had gone insane.

“I think you underestimate just how powerful I truly am,” she said, rolling her eyes as she picked up each of the potions carefully. “If we are going to do this, we need to be fast because these don’t last a long time.”

“Should I reach out to Carter and have him on standby with the warriors?”

“Are you trying to start a war?” Esme growled. “Having a vampire army on standby is the worst thing you could do. If we are going to do this, we need to act as if we have nothing to do with vampires. I need you to trust me on this. No army. Just you, me, and these potions.”

I stayed silent, unsure if I could truly trust a witch or not. But I needed to get to Tessa and if Esme was the way to do that, then I had to do what she said. So, I nodded and held out my hand for her to shake.

“Okay...” I finally said. “Let’s do this.”