Chapter 307
Tessa’s POV
By the time I got home this evening, I was utterly exhausted. I didn’t want to think about anything besides slipping into my bed and falling fast asleep. But of course, that would have been too easy. As soon as I walked in the door, I heard arguing.
“He was still our coven leader, Amy, we should hold some kind of service for him,” Hannah said; she was red in the face, and I could tell they’d been arguing for a while.
Derek and Laura were sitting on the couch; Laura looked pale in the face and Derek had his hands covering his face and his elbows on his knees.
In the far side of the living room, I saw Cole and Bennet glaring at the arguing ladies with disgust and exhaustion all over their faces.
“He was an asshole who took our lives away from us,” Amy squealed, anger fueling her. “He deserves to be burned for what he did to us.”
“He took care of us,” Hannah said, shaking her head. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke about Lucias and my heart was heavy. “He was still our leader and even if he did take our lives and our memories, even if he controlled us, we are still alive and well-fed because of him. We are somehow stronger too. I know how to do things I didn’t know how to do before. Like some kind of muscle memory shit. Obviously, he had us training to become like this. We are different, stronger, and better because of him. He deserves some kind of recognition.”
“If you feel that way then you can just leave,” Amy hissed. “You are the only one who cares, Hannah.”
I felt like the walls were caving in around me and soon, I could hardly breathe.
“They’ve been going at it for hours,” Bennet told me, finally seeing me at the front door.
The girls stopped arguing and looked at me; both breathing heavily and red in the face with the fury that melted off their flesh.
“Tell her she’s being stupid,” Amy said, pointing at Hannah who lowered her gaze.
“I’m being a decent person,” Hannah murmured.
I looked at the others who looked just as stressed about this situation.
“How do the rest of you feel about this?” I asked, furrowing my brows together. “Do you want to have some kind of ceremony for Lucias?”
“Fuck no,” Bennet said, scowling. “He might have made us stronger, but he took nearly two decades of our lives from us. Made us do shit we would never do.” He glances at Derek. “I’m not the only one who has used bloody weapons in my room. We did fuck up shit because of that monster. He deserved to die and if he was still alive right now, I’d hunt him down and kill him myself.”
“If he was still alive, we wouldn’t have control of our minds,” Amy pointed out, shaking her head as she still glared at Amy.
Hannah had tears in her eyes and she broke her eye contact with Amy.
“I’m sorry I brought it up,” she murmured, just before she turned and ran up the stairs. I flinched when I heard her door slamming shut.
“You shouldn’t have yelled at her like that, Amy,” Laura whispered, her eyes downcast.
“Why not? She was being fucking stupid and you can’t tell me she wasn’t,” Amy muttered.
“You know why,” Laura said, wrapping her arms around her body.
Amy rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know anything and neither do you. Not for sure at least.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on?” I asked, taking a seat on the loveseat and kicking off my shoes to rest my tired feet.
“Nothing,” Amy was quick to say, shooting Laura a look.
Laura pressed her lips together when she glanced at Amy and then shifted her attention back to the ground. It was clear they weren’t going to say anything. Cole and Bennet stood in the corner, looking between the girls and then at one another. Something transpired between them as well.
They were keeping something from me and that irritated me. I wanted to yell at them to tell me what they weren’t saying. However, out of all of them, I never expected Derek to be the one to break first.
Before I could say anything, Derek blurted, “We are starting to remember some things.”
“Derek!” Amy scolded.
“She needs to know, Amy. We are literally living in her home. She’s basically the coven leader and it’s not right for us to keep this from her.”
“She’s not the coven leader,” Amy muttered.
“But we are living in her home and she is taking care of us; trying to find us a new home, letting us eat her food, live in her guest rooms. She’s basically our leader right now,” Cole said, folding his arms across his chest. “Derek is right, she needs to know the truth.”
“What don’t you want me to know?” I asked, directing my question to Amy specifically. I wanted her to be the one to tell me, but it seemed she was adamant about me not knowing the truth.
She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“That we are starting to have memories of our time under his control,” Amy muttered, meeting my eyes. “I didn’t think we should tell you because some of the stuff is pretty fucked up and I didn’t think it was wise to freak you out.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Trust me, I know some of the shit you guys have done,” I said, glancing at Derek whose face reddened immensely. I looked back at Amy. “But it wasn’t you. It was Lucias. You were under his control.”
Tears filled her eyes as she bit her lower lip.
“Yeah, but it’s still hard. Hearing about the things we’ve done was one thing… but actually remembering it…” her words trailed off and to my surprise, Cole stepped up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“It’s hard for all of us,” he told her gently. “Bennet was right, we did things we would never do. He made us do these things…”
“Look, I can’t imagine what you guys are going through and I’m so sorry you are remembering some of the horrific things you’ve done throughout the two decades you’ve missed but turning on each other isn’t the answer. Right now, you need each other more than anything. You are a coven, you are family. You need to stick together.”
They were quiet as they processed my words, looking around at one another. They knew I was right, I just hoped they took my words to heart and actually leaned on one another some more.
“Where are the others?” I asked, looking around at the few in the living room.
Sniffling and wiping the tears from her eyes, Amy answered, “Esmeralda went grocery shopping to stock up on some essentials and to replace some of the food we ate. She said it’s not fair for us to keep eating your food and using your supplies without contributing. So, she’s replacing it. Patty and Claira are in the kitchen cooking dinner. They wanted ot make something nice as a thank you to you and Joseph.”
My heart melted from her words; it was really sweet of them. Not necessary because I could never regret helping them and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, but the thought was really sweet.
“Austin went to his room, not wanting to listen to those two arguing,” Bennet said, motioning to Amy. “He said he had a headache and wanted to lie down.”
“I don’t blame him for not wanting to be around the conversation,” Laura murmured. “I think he hated Lucias more than any of us.”
That caught my attention, and I raised my brows.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
She shrugs and picks at the invisible lint on her sleeve.
“I’m the quiet one and I stay out of everyone’s business… but I also obverse a lot and I saw a lot going down over the years. As you know some of us were a part of this coven for less than a decade. Even when I was under his control, I was still the quiet one. He didn’t make me do much other than basic housework with Claira. I was around the house a lot, so I saw a lot.”
“Okay?” I said, wanting her to get to the point. “What does this have to do with Austin?”
She sighed.
“I don’t know if you know much about Austin’s story, but he came to the coven after running away from his former coven. We aren’t really sure what went down there and why he ran. He was an angsty teen and he didn’t want to abide by their rules. But his whole family was a part of that coven, so by leaving the coven, he left his family too. He had just turned 18 when he met Lucias while he was on the run and Lucias convinced him to come back to our coven. His mind was wiped and controlled before he even walked through the doors for the first time. We know this now because Lucias introducing himself and asking him to join the coven was the last real memory he had. So, it’s assumed that he lost control of his mind at some point during that conversation.”
My heart ached for Austin. He didn’t even get a real chance to reconcile with his former coven or family. He was taken as a teen and never given a real chance.
“That was 2 years ago,” Laura continued. “He’s the youngest of us all. He’s the baby and even under the mind control thing, we all thought of him as the baby and took extra care of him when he joined the coven.”
“Is that why he hates Lucias more than anything?” I asked, my voice softening as compassion consumed me. “Because he never got a chance to speak to his family again?”
They were all quiet for a moment; most of them looking at Laura. I realized at that moment that none of them knew the story except for Laura.
Then, Amy spoke up, her face red and her eyes downcast.
“I saw them too…” Amy whispered, making us all turn to look at her. “I was home…when Lucias brought them downstairs to get rid of them. He made me help him…”
Tears escaped her eyes and Laura winced.
“I saw it happen,” Laura told her, tears also falling from her eyes. “I hid in my room afterward and pretended I wasn’t home.”
“Saw who and what?” I asked, looking between the girls and feeling impatient.
“Austin’s parents,” Amy said, her eyes meeting mine. “I saw the bodies and I recognized them from a picture that Austin had in his belongings when he first ran away. He had nothing but a bag on him when he arrived at the coven and in the bag, with the rest of his stuff, there was a picture of him and his parents. So, I knew who they were when we melted the bodies in the basement of the coven house. Lucias had me perform the acid spell and I was the one who melted them.”
“You melted Austin’s parents?” I gasped, staring at her with wide eyes.
She winced at my question.
“I melted their bodies,” she corrected. “They were already dead.”
“How did they die?” I asked, my voice rising.
“They were struck by a death spell; a lethal one that could take out any living creature,” Laura answered, staring at her hands. “Lucias forced Austin to do it… they found out where Austin was, and they were coming to get him. They had tears in their eyes when they saw Austin after months of worrying about him… I watched Lucias whisper something in Austin’s ear… and the next thing I knew, Austin killed them.”
