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“
I'm not
hungry,” her raspy voice drifted across the island towards
him.

Jack was
rather happy to hear the anger in her voice, he could deal with
anger better than grief. “Tough.”

“
You are not
forcing me to eat,” she snapped.

Jack cut the
last piece of bread and put his knife down. “You're eating, Cora.”
He kept his voice level, trying to bite back the anger.

“
I'm not
hungry,” Cora persisted.

He ignored
her, pouring the thick homemade potato and leek soup into two
waiting bowls. Setting one in front of Cora, he sat. He took a deep
breath as he told his stomach to accept it and put a spoonful into
his mouth. Jack felt his throat gag, trying to force it back up.
Taking yet another deep breath, he managed to swallow
it.

After several
minutes of silence, Jack
watched with some
satisfaction when Cora picked up her spoon and
played with the food.
Well, at least
she's picked up the spoon
, he thought,
happy with the result. He continued to spoon the food into his
mouth. He couldn't taste it, he was just chewing and swallowing,
going through the motions. He was trying to put off what he needed
to say to her.

Cora held a
spoonful of soup towards her mouth and gingerly took a small sip.
Jack lifted the bread and immersed it in the soup. She put away a
few more spoonfuls, adding a heat that touched her cheeks. His
stomach squirmed uneasily, knowing he would be the one to take away
what little colour she had gained. He had to do it. He had no other
choice. He set his bowl to one side and faced her. “Cora, I need to
talk to you about something.”

She stopped
eating, the colour already fading.

“
It's about
your mum... they’re arranging the funeral and I told them you
needed to have your say. You need to be involved in
the...”

Jack stopped
talking because she looked like she was struggling to breathe. She
bolted up out of the chair and raced to the bathroom. He hurried
after her, watching as she reached the toilet before she threw up
what little she'd eaten. He held her hair back feeling like the
worst boyfriend in the world.

“
You can go,
I’m okay now,” Cora whispered.

“
I'm not going
anywhere.”

“
Jack, you
don’t need to be here.”

“
The hell I
don’t. I’m not going anywhere,” Jack argued.

“
Fine, but can
I at least wash?” she sighed. “Please, let me wash.”

“
Will you be
okay with the bandage? I can get Tabitha?” He pushed back some of
the loose hair around her face, seeking comfort from this small
action.

“
No, I'll be
fine,” Cora assured him.

Stroking her
cheek, he stepped back and left her in the bathroom.

Jack sat down
on the sofa and watched the hands on the clock tick by. He wouldn’t
leave her in there too long to wallow in her grief. It was never
good for a person to do that. Ten minutes passed before he heard
the door click. He noticed that heat from the shower had flushed
colour into her cheeks as Cora shuffled towards him and lay down,
curling up at his side.

“
I don't want
to do anything... let Ayden do it,” she broke, her sobs crushed his
heart.

Jack pulled
her closer and let her cry herself to sleep. He made sure she was
fully under before he made the call. She'd made the decision, and
there was nothing he could do to change her mind. He wouldn't push
her, not with something like this.

“
Eli, let
Tabitha know that Cora doesn’t want anything to do with the
arrangements.”

He didn’t wait
for an answer, it really didn’t require one. He held her close,
making sure she was sleeping somewhat soundly before he went under
himself.

4

DARK
DAY

Jack stood,
looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He didn’t like
the image reflected back at him. The lack of food over the week was
taking its toll on his body. He'd lost weight around his face. The
hard lines, the square cut of his jaw were more prominent, making
him look ill. His eyes, deep dark chocolate pools surrounded by
pasty skin, portrayed the hurt and the sorrow that would surround
this entire day. The purple bags under them showed the lack of
sleep he'd had.

Eli was
fidgeting next to him. His trembling hands were giving him trouble
with his tie. The knot was getting smaller with each irritated tug.
Jack could see the dread on Eli’s face. New lines had formed around
Eli’s eyes. Jack’s hands shook as he styled his hair, luckily it
didn’t take much, one squirt of gel and then a flick of his hand
and it was done.

Jack had
returned to Eli’s cottage this morning, much to his dislike,
because he didn’t like leaving Cora. His clothes were here, and he
needed a change before he went back to Tabitha’s flat. He'd
promised Cora he would be fifteen minutes, and having pulled
himself away as he watched her sink further into her grief, he
planned on making it less than that.

Yesterday had
been hard on Cora due to the fact that he’d gone to Clio’s funeral.
It had been a quiet affair, only Ember, Eli, Clay and himself had
been there to say goodbye to her. She had a nice plot underneath a
cherry tree which he was sure she would like. The vicar an elderly
witch named Fredrick Cunning with long grey hair and eyes of
twinkling blue, was no longer part of a coven, so Tabitha was able
to use him to conduct the service.

The laws were
different for witches. How were you able to declare someone dead
who should have died decades before? Luckily, witches were placed
in all walks of life, so they were covered when a witch died. They
were able to adjust dates of birth and so forth to keep
unsuspecting humans from asking too many questions.

Eli had taken
her red crystals to throw them upon her concealed body. Eli had
murmured something under his breath as he did it. His way of
respecting the woman he’d known longer than Jack. There had been no
wake afterwards. They had a funeral to attend the following
day.

Leaving Cora,
even for a short while, had been one of the hardest things Jack had
ever done. Cora hadn’t handled the separation well. According to
Tabitha, she’d shut herself in the bedroom until he’d returned.
He’d found her whimpering on the bed with the covers thrown around
her shivering body.

Jack took a
deep, shaky breath and gave his reflection a quick glance before
leaving the bathroom. Pulling on his black jacket, one that used to
fit snugly but now hung off him, he watched Eli enter the living
room. “I don't think she is going to get through this day,” Jack
murmured, hating that his voice was breaking already.

“
She has you,
and she has us. We will make sure Cora and Ayden have the support
they need today.”

He hadn't seen
Ayden since the Corenthio Coven’s
visit
. His last memory of the man had
been the moment Evander’s neck snapped and he’d crumbled to the
floor, sobbing. Ayden hadn't been present at Clio's funeral
yesterday. Jack didn’t blame him, he had so much more to deal
with.

“
How is
Ayden?” Jack asked.

“
Tabitha went
to see him yesterday after Clio's funeral. She choked up whilst she
told me. If this upset

Tabitha enough
for her to struggle with her words, it’s bad.

“
Laura was
taken back home, ready for today. Ayden didn’t want her and the
baby spending their final night on their own. Tabitha said he just
sat with Laura in the front room, holding her hand as his other
hand rested where the baby was. He never uttered a single word. He
never cried. Tabitha is concerned that the anger will eat at him.
He needs to grieve, but he won’t listen to anyone.”

Jack’s heart
stopped, and then painfully stammered back to life. To even think
of the heartache Ayden must be going through was too much to bear.
He knew seeing Ayden would push him over the edge of his already
unstable control. “I'm going back.”

Eli walked
over and hugged him. “Stay strong for her today.”

He nodded, not
trusting his voice.

Blowing out a
breath, Jack picked up the bag with his change of clothes for the
next couple of days. He couldn’t think beyond that; he didn’t know
what would happen to their coven now. He walked out of the front
door and back to Cora.

Jack took the
key out of his pocket and unlocked the shop door, noticing that the
sign on the door still told customers they would be closed until
further notice. He didn't know if the shop would ever open again.
He couldn’t envision Cora feeling up to it. He also wasn’t sure if
Tabitha would open it up without her. Jack knew, however, that it
would be sad if this shop closed permanently. He stepped in,
turning to lock the door behind him.

“
Don't lock
up. I’m leaving now anyway, Cora is ready upstairs.”

He turned to
look at Tabitha. She was wearing jet black robes which made her
usual creamy complexion look grey. Her long coal black hair was
pulled into a tight plait down her back. Her leaf green eyes
expressed her hurt and sadness.

“
How is Eli?”
she asked.

“
He’s coping,”
he whispered.

“
I can imagine
he is struggling with thoughts of Anne.”

Jack felt the
tears sting his eyes.

“
I can see you
are too,” Tabitha soothed, putting her hand on his arm.

“
I’m sick of
all this bloody death and losing people we care about,
Tab.”

“
Yes, I’m
growing rather tired of it myself. I'm going to be with Ayden. The
cars leave there at eleven.”

He swallowed
past the lump in his throat and managed to speak. “Okay. I'll get
Cora there.”

How am I
going to do that?
Jack knew that it was
only a five minute walk, but it would be the longest walk of his
life. Tabitha walked to him, enfolding him in a hug before pulling
back. Her eyes shimmering with tears as she kissed him on the
cheek. Sighing, she stepped around him and left the
shop.

He walked
slowly up the stairs to Tabitha's flat, taking deep breaths as his
heart pounded with grief. He needed to be strong for Cora. He
couldn’t cave whilst she was with him. He would be her rock if she
needed him. His heart did one last hard thump, and then he walked
into the living room.

Cora was
standing in front of the mirror absently running a brush through
her thick russet brown hair. She wore the same midnight black robe
as Tabitha. His gut knotted when he saw the pain on her face. He
desperately wanted to take her away from all of this, but he knew
the only way she could cope with it all was to face it head
on.

Cora’s face
was pale, too pale. Her eyes were sunk too far into her face. The
skin looked like it was shrinking back, pulling over her
cheekbones, forcing them to protrude further. The bruises under her
eyes had become worse over the week. They were deep hanging bags of
black. Jack moved to her and hugged her from behind, looking at her
in the mirror. “I'm here for you. Please know that I'm here for
you.”

Her eyes
watered before she took a deep breath and looked at him. “I'm going
to wear my hair down today. Mum always liked it down.”

He held her
tighter as her voice broke, but she didn’t let the tears fall. He
could see the effort it took to pull herself together.

She'd had
horrific moments over the week. She’d screamed and thrashed in her
nightmares. It pained him that he couldn’t go into her nightmares
and rip them away from her. He’d spent the week on the sofa, which
had resulted in Tabitha mentioning the dreaded word. Bed. Tabitha
had told him the bed was free for him to use with Cora, but he
assured her he was fine on the sofa. It was an embarrassing thing
to talk about with someone like Tabitha.

It didn't
change anything. Cora always made her way to him during the night.
The already small sofa; becoming smaller with two bodies on it. He
peered at the clock and noticed the time. “Cora, we've got to
go.”

Cora nodded
her head slowly, he knew she didn't want to believe today was
happening. She would go through today, her own personal nightmare,
in a daze. He knew it was the mind’s way of coping with something
like this.

Jack pulled
her to him because he couldn't fight the urge not to touch her, to
comfort her. He needed this contact as much as she did. He kissed
her hair, and keeping her close to his side, walked her down the
stairs, through the shop and out onto the street.

The walk had
been a slow one. He knew that she was stalling. As they neared the
full wall of trees, she was panting with the sobs that had a tight
grip on her. He held her tightly as they rounded the corner and saw
the two striking black cars and hearse that were parked outside
Cora's house. Cora's legs buckled, almost dragging him to the floor
with her. She cried out, her grief consuming her.

He bent with
her, holding onto her as her cries of pain filled the air. His
heart twisted for her. The lump in his throat wouldn’t budge, but
he wouldn't cry, not today. Trying to swallow past the roadblock in
his throat, he held her closer. Soothing her with his voice. He
didn’t know what he was saying to her. He murmured anything that
would help, and eventually her sobs grew quieter.