Found (Book One of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel
Read Found (Book One of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel Online
Authors: Hazel Hunter
FOUND
Castle Coven Book One
By Hazel Hunter
FOUND
Castle Coven Book One
Though novice witch Hailey Devereaux seems to have settled into her latest coven, she knows that it can’t last. Tucked against the remote Alps of northern Italy, the Angioli coven is ill at ease with their newest member. Whispers and fearful glances follow her everywhere.
But the arrival of a Magus Corps major ends all that. Kieran McCallen isn’t afraid of her singular ability. Instead he’s been sent to nurture and test it. Though Hailey’s waif-like and delicate beauty are charming, her power is the stuff of legend.
Each loners in their own way, Kieran glimpses Hailey’s fiercely protective spirit when it comes to friends. For her part, Hailey dares to hope that she’s found the person and place meant for her. But their bond is put to the test by danger and by duty, forcing each of them to impossible choices.
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THOUGH THE COMMON halls of the Angioli coven’s holding were tall and vaulted, as befit the medieval monastery it had once been, most of the private rooms were dark and small. Even the abbot’s quarters were dim in the midday light. Though the monastery had been wired for electricity a generation ago, Donato Angioli kept the light low.
Today, though, the coven master could wish that he had chosen differently.
In the shadows of his personal chambers, the man who stood in front of him looked primitive, almost savage. He was tall, and there was a powerful bulk to him that made the coven master think of bears and wolves, the powerful beasts that ruled the Alps and paid no attention to the dominion of this lord or that country.
Donato was seated behind his desk, and the man stood in front of it. By any measure, the man was a supplicant. He had come to ask for a favor. Donato himself held the rank of coven master. He was a powerful warlock who had survived for almost three hundred years. He had many allies and contacts from all over the world. But he knew with painstaking clarity that mattered little in this situation. The man’s deferential posture was a courtesy. It rankled, and Donato frowned.
“You are being deliberately vague in your request,” Donato said at last.
The shadowed man shrugged.
“I have been perfectly clear. The Magus Corps is interested in Hailey Devereaux’s skills, and I am here to evaluate them.”
“The Magus Corps plays the long game, and that tells me nothing,” snapped Donato.
His nerves were fraying, and he knew it. The Magus Corps had a long reach and longer claws. Having a Magus Corps major in his coven made him nervous.
“It may be as you say, but my orders are clear. I am here to evaluate her. What comes next is not something I am prepared to discuss with you.”
The dismissal was implied but pointed. Donato’s lips sheered back from his teeth. A shower of sparks sputtered and danced around his fingertips. Though he knew what a very bad idea it was to do battle with a major of the Magus Corps, he was tempted to it anyway. He had ruled the Angioli coven for generations, and he had not done it by allowing insolence.
The man in front of him did nothing. He did not acknowledge the coven master’s threat with word or motion, but suddenly, the window at Donato’s elbow blew in, carrying with it a breath of alpine air that was colder than it should have been. Donato hissed at the chill and then watched as a thin blade of ice formed in front of his eyes.
It was as narrow as a pencil, but wickedly sharp at the tip. It danced through the air, weaving patterns just inches away from Donato’s face. The threat was clear, and the coven master dropped his hand.
“What, pray tell, does evaluating
her involve?” Donato asked stiffly. “She is under my care.”
The man inclined his head, the ice blade melting to nothing.
“Nothing that will harm her. Nothing that will harm any members of your coven. I swear it on the iron pentacle that I wear. But my orders are precise and, coven master, I am the will of the Magus Corps. We will not be denied.”
The words were uttered softly but with an edge of menace like distant thunder. Donato swallowed twice and nodded.
“You will have my full cooperation, of course,” he said stiffly. “Shall I summon Miss Devereaux to us for this test?”
For the first time, the man hesitated. Then he shook his head.
“No. I will go find her myself.”
Donato allowed himself a small smile.
“Then the best of luck to you, Major. I wish you joy of her.”
• • • • •
When Hailey had first learned that she was being sent to Italy to hone her powers, her head had been full of visions of Rome, of sun-kissed vineyards and of a beautiful Mediterranean country lush with beauty. She had not pictured the snowy reaches of the Amato Valley, one of the northernmost and remote of Italy’s provinces. She had not pictured seeing her breath more than twenty days out of thirty, and she had not imagined the only village being a good two hours’ hike down the hill. The plains of Italy rolled straight into the foothills of the Alps, and even in the summer, there was a bite of cold to the air.
Despite the persistent chill that left her feeling eternally a little tired, there was a certain beauty to the Angioli coven’s stronghold. It had been a monastery once upon a time, but the Italian coven had taken it over centuries ago.
As she walked the long road down to the village, in her hoodie, jeans and boots, Hailey looked even younger than she was. She knew that technically she should have been at her books, but that morning she had pulled down the ancient treatise she had been translating and made an important realization.
If I have to sit here and translate with the twittering of the other coven members in my ears, I do believe that I shall scream.
The thought appeared bright and fully formed in her mind. Just then, she heard a twitter of hushed giggles behind her. Turning around, she could see Letizia and Francesca watching her over their books. In that moment she had realized that she’d been completely and utterly right.
She had sighed, stretched, and leaving her books where they lay, she’d made as if she was going to go to the bathroom. Instead she’d taken a quick detour that was now turning into a hike down the mountain. She smiled to leave her coven mates behind.
The day was crisp and cool. Though the temperatures would drop like a rock when night fell, right now there was sun on her face, and she walked with a bounce in her step. With her red hair, short stature and slender build, she looked like she should have been in the Scottish highlands rather than the Italian mountains. She smiled up at the clear blue sky, and her smile got even wider when she heard her name whispered close by.
She paused, looking around, but she was unsurprised that she couldn’t see anyone.
“Beatrice, come out,” she said, trying and failing to hide a smile. “You know you’re not supposed to leave the coven grounds without permission.”
One moment, it looked like she was alone on the narrow track, and the next, there was a grinning teen with long, curling black hair hanging down her back. Even at the age of sixteen, Beatrice was taller than Hailey and curvier besides, something the teen loved to point out when they bickered.
“Who’s to say that I didn’t get permission? Perhaps I am out running an errand for Donato.”
Hailey crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow.
“I find that fairly unlikely. Donato takes your education seriously. I doubt he would let you out of your tutoring today simply to go down to the village. What did you do to your tutor?”
Beatrice waved her hand airily.
“Nothing, nothing,” she said, and when Hailey continued to look unimpressed, she rolled her eyes.
“Fine, he believes that I am studiously working on my mathematics. I asked Luca to project an image of me in the study.”
“Beatrice, he’s only ten!” Hailey cried, slightly scandalized.
“So it only cost me a handful of candy and my old comics to do the deed, yes? Besides, I know all of that already. He will find no fault in me when the time comes to test my knowledge.”
Beatrice tossed her hair and walked down the path ahead of Hailey, all leggy grace and adolescent pride.
Hailey wondered what it would have been like to be born into the Wiccan world rather than being born a magic worker to non-magical parents. Beatrice and Luca were among the handful of children and teens studying at Angioli who had been born to witches and warlocks. They had known their entire lives that they had special powers. Unlike Hailey’s, which had awakened when she lost her virginity, the powers of Wiccan-born witches and warlocks appeared when they were still children.
Still, no one could say that Wiccan children had it easy. Beatrice’s parents had been killed years ago in a Templar raid. The girl sometimes still woke up screaming from the memories of that night. When she remembered that, Hailey’s heart softened, and she would let Beatrice get away with far more than she should have.
Still, it was a beautiful day, and if she had been tempted to sneak out and avoid her own work, she could hardly be self-righteous about Beatrice wanting to do the same. She hurried to catch up with her friend, threading her arm through Beatrice’s and walking with her.
“All right, but we’re going to make this quick, okay? It’s probably not good for Luca to keep up a spell like that too long. No matter how good you are at mathematics, you still need to put in the work.”
“Just like you need to study the works of the ancients, yes?” asked Beatrice slyly.
Hailey shook her head.
“Latin makes my head spin, and frankly, I wasn’t feeling all that welcome in the library today.”
Beatrice’s cheerful grin turned into a storm cloud in an instant, and she took Hailey’s hand, holding it tightly.
“Who was it this time? What did they say?”
Hailey shook her head, feeling tired of the whole mess.
“They didn’t say anything, Bea, they never do. They’re probably too smart for that. It’s loads better than when I first came here though.”
Beatrice relaxed, but her look was still stormy.
“Ah, because it is so much better to be mocked and reviled than it is to be feared. I see.”
“You’re overstating. No one was mocking or reviling me.”
Not that it hadn’t almost come to that on occasion,
Hailey thought. But that wasn’t something Beatrice needed to know.
“It’s terrible. We heard of you coming here, and right away there were people who protested. In the old days, some said, you would never have a coven to call your own. Covens would refuse to take people like you. Francesca was so frightened she told everyone she would never even let you cross her path.”
The pang was an old one, but it was still there, and Hailey shrugged.
“That’s not new. They said the same thing when I went to the coven in Canada, and to the one in Buenos Aires before that.”