Nightmares (The Coven, Book 1) Read online

  “This,” he said, pointing at the knot in the center of the wheel, “is the triquetra. It’s an ancient Celtic symbol used to symbolize the maiden, mother, and crone. It also symbolizes the infinite cycle of life and is known as a rune of protection.”

  For seventeen years, she’d assumed her birthmarks were just that, two random marks on her and one on her father. She’d never imagined the designs might mean something or that other people might share them, but how did they all have the same birthmarks as her and her dad?

  “Okay, so what does that mean?” she asked.

  “We all have one,” Landon said, holding out her right wrist to reveal the same mark.

  Avery had only eaten toast for breakfast, and bile now twisted in her empty gut. “So, you all have matching tattoos.” She refused to let them see how much their revelation had rattled her.

  “They’re not tattoos.” Reid touched her arm, and though their revelations had her feeling like she should put on her snow parka, heat flooded her system. Still, she moved her arm away from him. “We were all born with them as were our parents. Of course, our parents didn’t know what they are—”

  “What they are?” Avery interrupted.

  “If you don’t know that story, it’s better if they tell you,” Landon said. “But we were all born with these birthmarks on our right wrists.”

  “Good for you,” she said, edging further away from them.

  “Do you have it?” Sandra demanded.

  Avery held out her right wrist to reveal her unblemished skin. “Nope. Now, it’s time for me to go. Julie is probably looking for me.”

  “Told you she wasn’t one of us,” Sandra sneered.

  “Why are you so smug about this?” Mario demanded.

  “We don’t need her,” Sandra said. “We’re strong enough without her.”

  “And we’ll be stronger with her,” Rosie interjected.

  “But she doesn’t have the mark!” Isla snapped. “Which means she’s not one of us.”

  “She has to be,” Landon murmured. “With who her parents are, she can’t be anything else. Maybe we’re not all marked.”

  “She hasn’t been awakened yet. That didn’t make a difference for us, but maybe it will for her,” Alex said.

  Awakened to what? What the hell are they talking about? Avery was getting whiplash from trying to follow their conversation, and the more they talked, the more creeped out she felt.

  “It’s better if she tucks tail and runs now, like her father, than to have her stick around before deciding to leave,” Sandra said.

  The anger Sandra’s words aroused freed Avery’s trapped voice. “Don’t talk about my dad like that! You don’t even know him!”

  “I know of him,” Sandra hissed. “And I wish I didn’t.”

  Avery’s eyes narrowed. Sandra unnerved her, but she wouldn’t tolerate anyone talking about her dad that way. “He wouldn’t want to meet you either,” she retorted.

  Sandra gave her a haughty stare, but grudging respect bloomed in the emerald depths of her eyes.

  “You should talk to your mother,” Isla said.

  “Julie left us when I was a baby, but my dad has always been there for me. I want nothing to do with her.” Taking a deep breath, Avery paused to calm herself. This conversation was reopening wounds she’d prefer these lunatics didn’t see. “My mother has always come and gone as she pleased. I can’t trust her, and I don’t want to talk to her.”

  “It’s okay,” Landon said. “We understand.”

  “No, we don’t.” Sandra snorted.

  Avery edged further away. She wanted to get as far away from these people as she could. “I have to go. Julie will be looking for me.”

  “Meet us here tomorrow,” Reid said. The tenderness in his silver eyes didn’t calm her uneasiness. “Talk to your mother. It will help you understand.”

  “I have plans for tomorrow,” she lied.

  “Be here,” Shawn said. “Or we’ll come to get you.”

  Avery didn’t reply before spinning on her heel and hurrying down the beach. She resisted the impulse to run with every step she took. When Avery knew she was far enough away from them, she lifted her left wrist and gazed at the birthmark there. She searched for differences between theirs and hers; Reid’s was a little larger than hers, and there were probably other subtle differences, but for the most part, they were nearly identical.

  Lowering her hand, she rested her fingers against the mark on her left hip that was identical to the one on her wrist. More questions swam through her mind, but the last thing she wanted was to talk to those kids again or her mother.

  • • •

  Avery opened one of the glass doors and stepped into the empty kitchen. Grateful her mother wasn’t present, her shoulders relaxed as she shut the door and a wave of exhaustion swept over her.

  The second the door locked into place, Julie appeared in the doorway. “Did you have fun?” Julie asked with far too much cheer.

  “No,” Avery replied.

  Her mother chewed on her bottom lip as she stepped into the kitchen. “Didn’t you meet the kids?”

  “The kids?”

  “Yeah, the ones who live around here. They’re my neighbors.”

  Avery wouldn’t describe them as kids, but she knew this woman was talking about the teens on the beach. “Oh, yeah, I met them. They’re a little weird or crazy. Either way, I hope never to see them again.”

  “I know you’ve had a lot thrown at you recently, but don’t be angry.”

  Avery leaned against the glass door. She longed to crawl into bed and forget this whole awful day, but it seemed her mother had other plans. “Of course I’m angry, Julie. I was forced to come to a place I don’t know and stay with someone I don’t know; I want to be with my friends, in my home, where I belong.”

  Her mother flinched when Avery called her Julie, but she edged further into the kitchen. “You belong here, Avery. There’s something I have to tell you.”

  The anger and confusion Avery felt on the beach came back to replace her exhaustion. She knew her hostility was upsetting her mother, but she didn’t care. This woman had hurt her time and again with all her broken promises, missed visits, missed birthdays, and all the months that passed without so much as a phone call.

  Over the years, she’d spent a lot of time wondering what she’d done wrong to make her mother avoid her. She’d spent a lot of time questioning what was so wrong with her that Julie didn’t love her?

  It had taken her years to realize there was something wrong with her mother, and not her. When she’d finally come to terms with that, Julie strolled back into her life. The unfairness of it all made her want to scream in frustration.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Julie suggested.

  “I’d prefer to stand.”

  Julie slid onto one of the old, wooden chairs. “Those kids are special.”

  “They’re certifiable,” Avery said. “There’s something seriously wrong with them.”

  Sadness flickered over her mother’s beautiful features. “No, there’s not. You don’t realize it yet, but you belong with them. They have so much power it’s scary, yet they need you to complete them.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Staring at the kook in front of her, Avery’s confusion mounted by the second. She had no idea what her mother was talking about, and she didn’t want to know. She just wanted a bed and her home.

  “It’s time you learn what you are and what you can do,” Julie continued. “That’s why your dad and I decided it was time you came home.”

  “I didn’t think it was because you wanted to see me,” Avery replied bitterly.

  “But I do!” Julie cried. “I love you, and I’m proud of the woman you’ve become. However, you resent me so much that it’s difficult for me to be around you.”

  “What did you expect? You abandoned my dad and me, and you never tried to keep in touch with me!”

  “Let me tell you this first, then maybe y
ou won’t judge my actions so harshly.”

  Avery couldn’t respond to her; she was afraid if she tried, she would end up screaming or crying in frustration.

  Julie twisted her hands nervously in her lap. “We all grew up on this island. Our parents also grew up here, and their parents, and so on for many generations. This island was once full of families who lived together for many centuries in this country and Ireland, but now all those families reside on this street. Over time, outsiders moved to the island, and as the town grew, the original families became smaller.

  “After coming to this country, the original families settled on this island after they were accused of witchcraft and driven out of Plymouth. As you know, witchcraft was a serious charge in the early eighteen hundreds. Sixteen families settled in this place, and with all of their children, a hundred and eleven people originally lived here.”

  Avery couldn’t help it; she found herself oddly fascinated by this story and wondering where it would lead.

  “Over time, the original families grew smaller until there was only a handful of them left,” Julie continued. “Some members moved away over the years, but most stayed here where they were accepted, welcomed, and protected. The original families didn’t intentionally keep away from outsiders, but it was natural for them to fall in love and marry one another until many became related in some way.”

  “Are you saying the kids I met on the beach are all related?” Avery blurted.

  “In one way or another, yes.”

  “Am I related to any of them?”

  “You’ve never met your Aunt Becky, who is my sister. She is married to your uncle Dom and Sandra is their daughter.”

  Avery gaped at her. Out of everyone she’d met today, the last person she wanted to be related to was Sandra. The girl had been nothing but hostile to her, even though Sandra had to know they were related.

  “Sandra is my cousin?” she choked out.

  “I know she can be a little abrasive—”

  “A little! She’s a downright bitch!”

  “Language, Avery,” her mother scolded.

  “Don’t pretend to be my parent now, Julie.”

  Her mother clasped her hands in her lap as she gazed out the window. “Not all cousins get along.”

  “It doesn’t help that I never knew she existed,” Avery replied, “or that I have an aunt and uncle. I’m guessing Sandra knows about me though, and our relation didn’t warm her to me at all. Do I have any other family you should tell me about?”

  “No. All of our parents are dead.”

  Avery knew her dad’s parents passed in a car accident before she was born, but she hadn’t known about her mother’s parents. “All of them?”

  “Mine, your dad’s, and most of the other grandparents are dead. Most of them died in their fifties or sixties from one thing or another, but Mario and Eric still have grandmothers who live in Florida, and Isla’s granddad lives with them.”

  “I see,” Avery murmured. “The family tree on this island does have branches, doesn’t it? We’re not all inbred or something, are we?”

  “Of course not!” Julie cried. “None of the original families were related, and this is the closest everyone has ever been related.”

  “That’s good to know. Okay, so what does any of this have to do with me?”

  Her mother inhaled deeply before rising and walking over to the sink. She stared out the window before turning to face Avery.

  “The original accusations of witchcraft were true,” Julie stated.

  Avery blinked at her but didn’t reply. She’d hopped on this spiraling descent into madness when she’d asked the question; she might as well ride this insanity all the way to the end.

  “The founding families were descendants of the ancient druids,” her mother continued. “They fled persecution in Ireland and came to the new world with the hope of finding peace, but that wasn’t to be. Not at first anyway.

  “The original families used their powers for good, but people are scared of what they don’t understand, and the families often moved to avoid being hunted. When they came to this island, they felt safer; there was no one here to bother them, and they used their magic more often. As they practiced more, and the bloodlines grew closer, their strength increased with every generation. Eventually, more people moved onto the island, but they mostly ignored what they believed to be the eccentricities of the founding families.

  “When I was younger, there were eighteen of us, not including our parents, and we are all descendants from the druids. However, we didn’t know we were witches, and neither did our parents, grandparents, or our great-grandparents. For a hundred years, the power lay dormant within the descendants, and the great-great-grandparents who did know about it, buried it. Then, one night, twenty-two years ago, everything changed.

  “We were having a party on the beach. I was sixteen, your dad was eighteen, and some of the others were a little younger than me, but most were older. Your dad was on a jetty, jumping between the rocks, acting like a complete fool. The night was crystal clear, every star in the sky was visible, but out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning erupted from the sky.”

  Avery felt like she should tell her she was crazy, or at the very least walk out of this room, but she couldn’t get her feet to move or ask Julie to stop. She didn’t want to hear this, but she couldn’t stop listening.

  “When it raced straight at your dad, he screamed and threw himself into the water. We all ran to help him, but then the bolt split apart and came at us. A piece of it seared across my arm, leaving it blistered and raw. It touched every one of us, and when it did, it awakened powers we never knew we possessed.”

  Avery stared incredulously at her mother as she tried not to laugh. She waited for the punchline, but Julie merely stared at her. It couldn’t be true, but as improbable as it was, Avery sensed the truth in this stranger’s words. Still, she couldn’t swallow the story this woman was feeding her hook, line, and sinker.

  “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Lightning doesn’t come out of the sky and attack people,” Avery said.

  A sad smile flitted across Julie’s face. “It wasn’t lightning. It was something else, something magical.”

  Julie pushed up her sleeve to reveal the puckered scar marring the pale skin of her upper arm. The uneasiness in Avery’s stomach grew when she saw it looked very similar to the scar she’d seen on her dad’s shoulder.

  “We will always have the scars,” her mother whispered.

  Avery didn’t want to show any interest in this, but she had to ask. “What’s the story about the birthmarks those freaks on the beach showed me?”

  When Julie’s gaze dropped to Avery’s left wrist, Avery forced herself not to shove her hand behind her back. Of course, her mother would know about her birthmarks, but Avery wasn’t going to acknowledge them to her.

  “Every member of the original families has had a mark for as far back as their line goes. They are a mark of power.”

  “I see,” Avery murmured. “So what happened after the lightning chased you down?”

  “Our powers, which had lain dormant, were awakened, but we didn’t know how to use them or what they were. At first, it was fun to have them, yet strange and frightening as many of us didn’t have much control over our abilities. As we got older, married, and had children, we decided to put the magic aside to raise our children the way we were raised.”

  Her mother took a deep breath as she stared into the distance. “However, we all passed our powers onto our children, and they are far stronger than us. From what we’ve learned in our readings, they’re stronger than any previous generation. They’re also more excited to learn about their powers, and far more eager to use them than we were.

  “When you were a baby, your dad and I decided we wanted a normal life for you, so we took you away until you were old enough to understand what you are. After we left, I became desperately homesick. This island and these people are all I’v
e ever known. They’ve been my best friends and family since I was born. At the time, my parents were still alive, and my sister is still here. After a few months, I realized I couldn’t make it on the outside, and your dad refused to return, so we split up.

  “I agreed he should keep you and give you a normal life. I never dreamed it would be so hard for me to stay close to you after I left. I didn’t want you to come here until you were an adult, but I hate leaving the island. It’s my fault we’re so distant, and I’m sorry about that.”

  Avery wasn’t sure what to say. Did this woman have mental health issues? Was that the real reason she’d always stayed away and didn’t like leaving this island? Was she agoraphobic? But she’d had no problem picking Avery up today, so that couldn’t be the issue.

  Then she realized that it didn’t matter. None of what her mother had said mattered. She planned to return to her blessedly normal life and never set foot on this island again.

  “So I was born here and not Newport?” Avery asked, uncertain as to why it mattered.

  “Yes.”

  “My entire life has been a lie,” Avery muttered.

  The sympathetic look her mother gave her set Avery’s teeth on edge. “No, it hasn’t,” Julie said.

  “I don’t believe anything you’ve said. You’ve done nothing but lie and disappoint me for my entire life. I’m sorry you have these delusions of witches and powers, but I want nothing to do with any of it.”

  “You have to believe me, Avery. It’s time for your powers to awaken.”

  Avery’s mouth fell open; her mother really believed she was a witch, with powers, and that the kids from the beach were also witches. Then she realized those kids suffered from the same crazy fantasies. It would explain their behavior, and why they were disappointed she didn’t share their insanity.