Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

2

"Your kind's not welcome here."

The venom in Jenny's tone made me recoil. The door to the restaurant where the coven met was closing, fast. I stuck my foot in to stop it.

Jenny let the door swing back open, but she continued to block the entrance, a dark look focussed unerringly on my face.

Jenny was a constant presence at coven headquarters, always ensuring I received a warm welcome.

Not.

A model-like young woman, she had a tall willowy figure that she constantly flaunted. Today she was wearing a long skirt made out of a transparent, gauzy material, and a silk camisole. Her feet were bare.

Looking me up and down, Jenny snorted her disparagement. My hoodie and jeans obviously didn't meet with her approval. I didn't let it get to me. It was December for Christ's sake.

"Are you going to let us in? Hazel is expecting us."

Jenny hated me, but she feared and respected Hazel. It was the only thing that we had in common. She moved aside, nudging me hard with her shoulder as I passed.

Bitch.

I ignored it. I had bigger fish to fry.

Hazel wanted my power. For the coven, but more specifically for herself. She tried to hide it, but I had an advantage. I could see the way her life-force swirled and gathered when we spoke. It surged into my personal space, probing my control.

Her words enticed with offers of companionship and belonging, a symbiotic relationship between the coven's power and my own. But her intention was to take what was mine, my silver life-force. My magic.

I was going to exploit that hunger to get answers.

"We have someone in common, don't we, Auntie?"

Hazel's face blanched white as snow. She thought I was ignorant of my father's full name, and his connection to the coven. Jonathan Device had grown up here, with his sister, the current coven leader. I'd been keeping that snippet to myself.

"I'd have thought you'd be happy to show me where I came from, the family that I never knew thriving in the Northern Coven?"

"We can't just permit you access to the members' sensitive information when you refuse to join with us. Surely you can see that it would be a betrayal of their confidence?"

The smooth honey of Hazel's cajoling tone slithered through my veins. The tree mosaic centred on the restaurant's floor pulsed in response. I skirted round it, unwilling to be intimidated by the threat that it represented to my free will.

The mosaic was the coven's circle, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It would draw my power into it and contain it for their use.

If I let it.

"Don't you want to protect yourself and the coven from my father? What if he decides to take back his prisoners?"

"We'll be able to protect ourselves when you join with us, Alice. It's your duty."

Pacing the room, avoiding that damn tree mosaic, I tried to rein in my anger before it got the better of me.

Talk about emotional blackmail. I was not responsible for the fate of the entire coven. There had to be another way. In fact, I was absolutely convinced that there was, and that Hazel was purposely hiding it from me.

As I turned, ready to shake the truth out of her, I hit a hard chest. Thomas lay his hand on my arm. The current of desire that transferred between us snapped me out of my violent intention.

"Easy there, lover. You're starting to glow."

I grunted in response, unwilling to thank him for his timely intervention. The smile that I'd been longing to see again for weeks threatened to break through his reserve. Just as soon as I saw the hint of it in his eyes, it disappeared. Thomas would not reward me with that until I had given him something in return.

I was nowhere near that point yet.

But Thomas was right. I couldn't lose control of my anger here. That's when my power was the most unwieldy. If I couldn't hold the sequence of my own magic, they'd leech it from me, picking apart the strands of my life-force and knitting it into a web of their own choosing.

Focusing on my hands I watched as the silver particles joined together to form the pattern that was all my own. It glowed bright and solid.

My gaze drifted up in satisfaction. I smiled.

The fury in Hazel's eyes shot into me like hot lava. Her usually serene blue life-force sizzled with intense electric blue.

She thought she could goad me into losing it.

I held her gaze, all anger having dissipated.

I was stronger than that.

Hey, thanks for reading. What do you think so far? ⭐️ if you like it.