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Cora started
surveying her surroundings, just in case they needed to run. Along
the path stood various gates that led up to steps which exited on
to the street with all the shops. She knew that the run from that
street was just straight ahead to the hotel. She turned around and
retraced their route, plotting it out and forcing it to memory. If
things went wrong, she could get them out. But get them out of
where exactly? That was the important question.

Alastair
glided further into the darkness, heading towards the castle.
Before she could demand where they were going, Alastair suddenly
stopped at the base. Before anyone could ask Alastair what was
happening, she blinked and tried to clear her vision believing she
was seeing things. She wasn't. The air shimmered around them like a
transparent curtain, one only they could see. She wasn't entirely
sure what was real. Water, it had to be water, rippled from within
the ground. It rose higher and higher, creating a dark pond at the
base of the large castle.

“
Awrite, in
yer gae.”

“
What?”
Tabitha asked, shocked as she stared at the water with an
expression of disgust on her face.

Tabitha was
wearing her best robes today, her deep emerald ones. Her hair,
curled to perfection, cascaded down to her waist. Cora knew that
the sight of the water was less than appealing.

“
This leads
tae the meiting.”

Ember,
standing at the side of Tabitha, was nibbling her lip, her hand
smoothly running down her coat.

“
This is
Prada,” Ember whispered to Tabitha.

Cora smothered
a laugh. She loved the two of them dearly. Firstly, they had made
her laugh at a moment like this. Secondly, it was typical of the
two women who cared so much about their appearance. Saying that,
not a single member of her coven seemed all that keen on going into
the unknown. She couldn't blame them. Why hadn’t Alastair told them
to bring a change of clothes? It was freezing and they were about
to get wet.

“
I’ll go
first,” Ayden offered.

She turned
giving him a look that asked if he was sure. Although, she wasn’t
surprised by his offering to go first. They didn’t know where this
led to, it could be a trap for all they knew. Ayden nodded, touched
her arm and jumped into the rippling blackness.

His dive
wasn’t followed by the splash of water. The night remained still
and silent. Her pulse quickened with each passing minute as they
waited for Ayden's call. She held her breath when Tabitha's phone
rang. Tabitha quickly answered it, after a few murmured words,
Tabitha looked at her.

“
Ayden's okay.
He mentioned that it leads to an entrance.”

She watched as
Ember and Eli jumped in and disappeared. Clay and Tabitha moved in
front of the big black pit. She didn’t even know if they could
swim. It hadn’t been a question that had every come up in
conversation before. They’d been dealing with the notion of dying
by magic rather than water.

“
We all go
together,” Jack demanded looking at Alastair and Tavish.

Alastair
looked at Tavish and they nodded. Jack held her hand tighter as
they stepped up to the pond.

“
On the count
of three, Cora. One, two, three.”

She took a
deep breath before she jumped in.

It wasn’t wet.
This shocked her, making her open her mouth and quickly close it
fearing whatever it was would enter her mouth. As the ebony soup
surrounded her, she found that she could breathe normally. This was
a weird sensation. Jack was pulling her along and she found that
she had to use her arms to move, it was like they were swimming but
without the water.
How did this work? What
kind of magic was this?

She’d lost
sight of Alastair and Tavish once they’d jumped into the fake pond.
Before she could question where they had gone, they burst out to
the surface and she gasped for air. Ayden and Eli helped pull them
from the black abyss. She stood up and looked down at her dry
clothing, gasping. “What the hell is that?”

“
It is not
water, I know that for sure. It is almost like a portal,” Tabitha
whispered as they continued to follow Alastair and Tavish down a
corridor. Alastair must have heard their conversation, but he
didn’t explain what it was. She gritted her teeth to hold back the
curse. The man was really starting to annoy her.

The echo of
Ember’s heels as they clacked against the old stone floor was the
only sound to follow them down corridor. Under the soft glow of the
elegant lights, Cora could see the many large paintings framed in
what appeared to be gold. Good solid gold at that. This coven was
rich, Alastair would want the coven’s entrance to scream
money.

Cora managed
to peek inside large oak doors that remained open. Her nosey habit
was going into overdrive. One room, she noticed, was a seating
area. A grand white sofa which appeared to be as soft as feathers,
faced a large grey stone fireplace. The mouth of the fireplace was
so big she knew she would be able to stand up in it without having
to bend. An orange glow licked at the wood. The room, in her
opinion, was tastefully decorated with wooden panelling separating
the room into large squares. The squares were apple green, adding
warmth to a room that needed it.

A huge bouquet
of flowers, a colourful blast of soft petals and green foliage, was
accompanied by a flower that had a green bulbous body that held
sharp spikes whilst something that looked like purple fur, sprouted
from the top of it.

“
They are thistles, the symbol of Scotland.
According to legend, a sleeping party
of Scottish warriors were saved from ambush by an invading Norse
army when one of the attackers trod on a thistle with his bare
feet. The cries from the man raised the alarm which woke up the
Scottish army, and they won the fight because of
it,
” Ayden whispered, informing
her.

She smiled
and nodded. It was nice that Ayden thought
to tell her, she also liked the history behind it.

Another room
stopped her in her tracks. It was a library. She absorbed every
miniscule detail of the room as they passed. All four walls were
hidden by deep, mahogany bookcases, the wood shinned under the soft
glow of the large crystal chandelier. The bookcases stood from
floor to ceiling, each of them must have housed thousands of books.
A ladder, one she’d dreamed about swinging on, rested against a
bookcase ready to be used.

The middle of
the room was home to plush leather seating. It was positioned in a
square, and surrounded a mahogany coffee table. Again, the thistles
were used in this room. The fireplace was already burning and
crackling on the furthest wall facing the open doorway. Cora most
definitely wanted to visit this room if she ever got the chance.
She also despised the Scottish coven for having such a nice meeting
area compared to hers.

“
Tabitha, why
doesn't our coven room look like this?” she whined.

“
If it did
look like this then you would never get any work done,” Tabitha
replied with a smile.

“
So, it makes
no difference if I clean anyway,” Cora remarked.

This comment
earned her a tut from Tabitha. The shop was forever dusty, no
matter what she did to it.

Cora would
love a library like this, and there was nothing wrong with sitting
behind the till with a good book in her hands. It showed the
customers that she was an educated, young woman who loved to
read.

They came to a
halt at a dark oak wooden door. Alastair, having remained quiet up
until this point, waited until they were all standing huddled
together. He motioned for Cora to stand at the front, and she
pulled Jack with her, much to the disgusted look on Alastair face.
Alastair coughed rather exuberantly and then opened the
door.

A sea of
faces, thousands of them, turned and looked at their small
group.

11

INTRODUCTIONS

Cora took a
deep breath, trying to swallow her heart that had jumped up into
her throat. She hated public events like this. She hated people
staring at her full stop. She cast a quick glance up and found the
sea of multicoloured eyes critiquing her as she entered the room.
Avoiding the eyes, she concentrated on the room instead.

It was
panelled, similar to the rest of the rooms she’d passed, but in
this one the dark wood was complimented with beige paintings. The
ceilings were high; the chandeliers hung low above the long glass
table which forced the light in every direction. It cast a warm
glow upon the many pieces of art. The room was massive and this
made her feel more nervous.

Cora ignored
the eyes staring at her and squeezed Jack's hand. She felt his
thumb brush over hers as they followed Alastair, like sheep, to the
front of the table. Seven seats were left purposefully vacant at
what looked like the top of the table.

“
Cora, yer
must sit there.” Alastair pointed to the chair nearest
him.

Biting her
tongue, fearing her remark would be too sarcastic at this tense
time, she sat. Jack sat in the seat next to her as Eli sat next to
him. Tabitha, Ember, Clay and Ayden made their way around the table
to sit opposite them. Alastair stood at the head of the table and
smiled, it was a creepy smile, one that made him look like he’d
swallowed a whole bottle of vodka in one sitting.

“
Meiting is in
session.”

With a
flourish of arms and exaggerated smiling, Alastair sat in his chair
at the head of the table.

Cora’s heart
jumped into her throat. She didn't dare look around, she would just
concentrate on her coven and Jack, but she could sense the eyes
looking at her. Unease slithered up her neck, making her want to
squirm. Jack held her hand tight under the table.

“
Absences
first,” Alastair stated. “Covens who cannae come tae the meiting
are The Chesters, Newcastle and the Corenthio Coven.”

She openly
gasped, aware this would bring more attention to her, and looked at
Jack. He kept his gaze level on Alastair. His body held rigid with
anger. She could see Jack’s jaw popping; he was biting his tongue.
Cora could see the words in his eyes. She almost wanted him to
snap, if she didn’t fear the whole room of witches using their
elements against them.

Why would they
mention the Corenthio Coven? Did the Corenthio Coven actually
attend these meetings? The cogs started turning in her head, pieces
were now falling into place. Alastair was in this position of power
because they’d killed the Corenthio Coven. From the moment he’d
walked into the shop, he’d never seemed pissed by this. Alastair
appeared to love his new headship. Her coven, their actions, put
him in a position of power that was quite clearly going to his
head.

Cora knew that
Alastair and the others were aware of the reason why they were
there, in this room. They knew the Corenthio Coven were dead. So
what kind of game was he playing?

“
Well, we huv
new visitors tae the Highlands so we should introduce oorselves.”
Alastair nodded to the back of the table and sat.

Tavish stood
up, his lips pulled together in what could only be described as a
smile. He was standing next to a woman who was his double. She had
the same vibrant ginger hair which was also touching her petite
hips. The slight difference was the exaggerated waves in her hair.
Their same facial features were identical, eyes slightly pointed at
the corners, the strong cheekbones and the scatter of freckles on a
narrow nose.

“
Ma name is
Tavish Gordon, and ma power is blending.”

His twin
smiled as she looked around the table, obviously proud of her
brother. The woman’s eyes latched onto Cora's.

“
Ma name is
Alva Gordon and ma power is linguality.”

As she spoke,
Alva’s striking blue eyes never left her face. This woman could
understand languages? That was a great gift to have. You could
listen in on people’s conversations. It would be handy when on
holiday. It was quite clearly a handy tool for Alastair.

A woman with
long blonde, loosely curled hair, stepped forward. Her wide amber
eyes, set against pale skin and naturally rosy cheeks, seemed to
sparkle with excitement. “Ma name is Cathella, and ma power is
retrocognition.”

What the hell
was that? Cora looked at Tabitha, her face asking the question but
she received a shrug. If Tabitha didn't know what it was then how
was she meant to know? This didn’t bode well for the rest of the
people yet to stand up. Cora knew one thing, the witches elements
were very powerful.

“
Ma names Ina,
and ma power is the ability tae fly.”

What? She
could fly? Like superman?
She coughed
covering the small giggle that escaped her mouth, she noticed this
made Ayden smirk. Cora had seen Jack suspended in the air, but his
ability was different. For one, he couldn’t lay on his belly and
fly. He depended on his ability to push his feet up first before
the rest of his body. Then his element seemed to wrap itself around
you. To just be able to fly sounded amazing.