The Coven (Coven of Bones, #1)(59)

I reached into the water with my free hand, panicking as I felt my legs and tried to find the source of the touch. But I was alone, the tub empty save for my body and the bubbles on the surface.

Come to me, witchhhhh.

I pinched my eyes closed, leaning back against the tub as the force of that voice hit my belly. It crawled over me, and I could have sworn if I’d allowed my eyes to open, I’d stare into the face of a monster.

My other hand covered my amulet, focusing my will on the crystal that protected me from compulsion. That protected me from the call of whatever creature tried to summon me from my bath.

“It’s not real,” I said, trying to reassure myself as I clutched that amulet.

The voice stopped, giving me a reprieve of silence. I waited several moments for it to return, for it to sink into my head all over again.

Nothing came.

I opened one eye slowly, peering out cautiously. The bathroom remained empty, and my lungs heaved with relief as my other eye opened. I sat in the stillness of the bath, wondering if I’d imagined the entire thing. If my exhaustion had taken a new life or if it was just the school itself.

If the ghosts of Hollow’s Grove had come to take me to the grave.

I swallowed, gathering my bar of soap into my hands and working it into a lather. I whispered words in Latin, warming the lavender within the bar to help soothe the chill that had covered my skin in goosebumps in spite of the hot water.

The door to the bathroom burst open, Gray’s frantic face filling my vision as I shrieked. I plunged myself beneath the surface of the water, keeping only my head above it.

“What is wrong with you?!”

“Are you hurt?” he asked, his relieved sigh making my fingers twitch.

“I’m just sore from earlier,” I said, my brow furrowing. I didn’t want to think about what had sent him rushing into my room at this time of night. “What’s wrong?”

“Get out,” he said, grabbing the towel off the rack beside the tub. He dropped it onto the sink vanity, reached into the tub, and grabbed me beneath my arms when I didn’t move quickly enough.

“Gray!” I protested, smacking his hands away when he set me on my feet on the floor. He paused, glancing down my body and taking in what he hadn’t seen. He’d seen it in bits and pieces, particularly the prime real estate, but I refused to cower or hide as his gaze swept over my body.

“Fuck,” he grunted, shaking his head and reaching for the towel as he gave me one for my hair.

I worked to dry the length of it, shaking it and wincing at the mess it would be the next day with such harsh treatment.

He ran the towel over my shoulders with rushed strokes, dragging it lower over the rest of my body as I tried not to focus on the fact that I was naked with him.

Naked, and we weren’t…

I swallowed. “What’s going on?”

“There’s been another murder,” Gray answered, catching my gaze as the towel froze on my skin. My heart throbbed, pulsing in my chest as I thought about the voice I’d heard.

Calling to me.

“Gray,” I whispered, catching his arm as he turned away. My mouth dropped open silently, the words getting caught in my throat. I couldn’t risk telling him about the voice. What if it had something to do with my bloodline?

He pulled away when I said nothing more, heading for the door to my bedroom. I wrapped the towel around my body and followed, tugging on the pajama shorts and t-shirt that he set out for me.

“There’s something you need to see,” he explained, taking my hand and guiding me to the halls outside my room.

Following behind him, I tried to shove down my rising dread. Students milled in the hall, giving me a passing glance before it darted away at the glare Gray gave them. We hurried down the stairs, taking them as quickly as I dared without risking falling on my face.

My wet hair clung to the side of my face, chilling me to the bone as Gray guided me to the doors. The crowd that surrounded his body had formed in the exact spot Gray and I had sparred earlier in the day, where both our blood had spilled on the ground by the end of the training session.

I didn’t recognize the witch on the ground, but whoever had killed him had cut his throat. Blood covered the grass. The plants ignored it, as it hadn’t been given willingly. I swallowed as the crowd parted, revealing the stone wall of the school behind them.

Blood covered the stone, wedged into the crevices and dripping down the smoother parts of the surface.

Two.

I swallowed, staring at the words as my horror mounted. Gray had wanted me to see it; he’d dragged me here so that I could see the message written in blood.

“Are they counting their victims?” I asked, shoving the panic down in favor of rationale.

Any normal person would need answers. It was a natural assumption, and it still could have been accurate. I swallowed, hoping that was the case. My stare moved away from the body, sweeping over the crowd of observers studying not the body but me. Glaring at my hands as if I was the one who’d cut his throat.

“Before Charlotte Hecate was torn apart and her pieces scattered, she foretold a prophecy of the daughter of two,” Susannah said, stepping up beside me. She looked down into my eyes, and I felt the sweeping analysis of that stare.

My breath caught in my lungs, and I held it there, forcing myself to hold her stare. I hadn’t been around the Covenant since she’d tried to force me into a deep sleep, and I hoped that the last interaction would cover any of my nerves about this conversation.