Night came all too soon and someone was crashing through the apartment calling her name. Lilly's lids slowly opened, Hailey called her name again. The girl didn't know the meaning of the word quiet.
She groaned and contemplated going out the window and hiding from the insane girl, and Jake. Wherever Hailey went Jake was not far behind, and vice versa. Before she had time to escape her bedroom the door crashed open and someone was shaking her shoulder. "Get up! I know you're faking."
God Hailey was lucky Lilly liked her. She groaned and turned to see Hailey and Jake standing over her. Hailey was wearing her signature black though she was missing her thick eyeliner and makeup. She was a very slender girl with not an inch of fat on her, short too with a white blonde mess of hair that fell messily to her waist.
Jake was the polar opposite from his best friend. Where Hailey looked like she just rolled out of bed Jake looked like he just stepped off a GAP photo shoot. His hair was always perfectly styled with gel sticking up on his head. His clothes fit his toned frame. Most girls fell in love with him when they met, when they find out he was gay hearts got broken. And he loved it.
Lilly groaned and rolled over, frowning at her two friends, "The only reason I'm not arguing with you is because I want to know what this Authority is."
Jake snickered, "The only thing you need to know is they are not real. That's the short version-"
Hailey cut him off, "Ace says completely different."
Jake and Lilly exchanged a quick look, both smirking. Hailey and Ace have been quietly seeing each from the end of the school year. Hailey didn't talk about it much, Lilly thought it may be because she felt bad for dating her ex-boyfriend but Lilly didn't care, she also didn't really know how to bring it up without Hailey getting offended.
They had attempted a relationship in the school year, Lilly and Ace, and it was good. He was thoughtful, funny, romantic, loving and caring but she maybe screwed it up when she blamed him for all the deaths happening in the school.
As it turns out it wasn't Ace, he wasn't even involved. Norah even kidnapped Ace and made him fight Mason in a fist battle the loser becoming her sacrifice to bring life back into Hazel Essex. Ace beat up Mason pretty badly, but only to distract Norah. Ace was a black belt and if he wanted to kill Mason he could easily.
Hailey and Jake were muttering to each other while Lilly slowly climbed out of bed. She was covered in sweat from head to foot but it was too close to midnight to shower before the meeting. Quickly splashing water in her face she pulled on a loose tank and some shorts before meeting the other two in the kitchen. "So is there a reason I was woken up by you guys and not Mason?"
"We wanted to see you." Jake said quickly, too quickly, he was cutting Hailey off from answering with a smart ass comment.
She was starving, Lilly looked in the fridge for something to eat but came up empty. The only thing around the kitchen was a pot of coffee from the morning so she grabbed a traveler and poured the ice cold coffee in adding milk, sugar and ice to make her home made iced coffee.
It was disgusting.
Hailey was playing with a spoon on the table while Jake was flipping through the paper. Lilly did miss them and their banter. She assumed Hailey wanted to get her because she hadn't been around in a while spending all her time with Mason.
With Hailey's beckoning in the background all three of them were out the door and hopping into Jake's car heading towards Black Lake. Though it was almost midnight the heat was sweltering, beads of sweat were slowing trickling down her back making her stick to the seat.
Once they were at the lake Lilly was ready to jump into the eerily still and devilishly black waters. Legends say that a Coven from when the town was original founded trapped some sort of sea creature under the waves of the once untamed Black Lake. The curse they used killed the lake and kept it forever calm even in a storm.
Darcy and Sean were wading hand in hand in the waters, a smile across both of their faces with Sage and Mason were standing beside the fire, she was scowling and he was smoking, something Lilly had asked him to stop doing.
When Mason saw Jake's car pull up he quickly tossed his freshly lit cigarette into the fire while Sage just shook her head. When they got out of the car Lilly could hear the end of the cousins conversation; "-she's going to smell it."
Mason shot his cousin a look before looking over to Lilly, "Hey, did you fall asleep?" He asked all innocently as he held out his hand to take hers.
Lilly nodded and leaned her head against Mason's arm, she was too short to reach his shoulder. He put his arm around her shoulders and they walked towards the fire together.
The rest of the Coven came around the circle taking their places in the light of the fire. Sage had cast a charm that kept everything outside the light of the fire unable from hearing what was happening on the inside of the light, a useful charm that Lilly had been meaning to learn how to cast.
Everyone was silent as Sage, their leader by default, took everyone's attention. "So in case you haven't heard we got a surprise visit from the Authority today-"
Lilly cut her off, "Before we go any further can someone tell me what the Authority is?"
"A story parents told their kids to keep them out of trouble." Jake mumbled
"It didn't work for all kids." Sage shot a look to her cousin, who just smiled.
Hailey rolled her eyes and turned her back to the rest of the Coven, keeping her eyes trained on Lilly, "They're like the governing body of all Covens. When a Coven or a single member starts acting out to the point where others, non witches, notice then they come in and stop the problem."
Lilly nodded, "And how to they stop the problem?"
"They use to put the witches to death, now the just take abilities." Sage answered, "But again that is just the story parents told their kids." She laughed tossing back her mane of gorgeous dark hair, "Look what happened at the school, what happened last summer and they're only interjecting now?"
"Ace told me-"
Mason snorted, "Yeah because what Harrington says should be taken into account." He laughed some more, "He's the leader of another Coven for Christ sake, he has every reason to want to see us fail."
Hailey's eyes were narrowed on Mason. Hailey was not known for keeping herself cool and collected and the longer Mason smirked at her the angrier the girl became. She turned back to Lilly, clearly trying to ignore the rage she was feeling. "Ace told me The Authority was involved with what happened at the school. He didn't tell me much outside of that."
"Alright so pretend the Authority is real and that a member is here and investigating us." Lilly said cutting off Mason, Hailey and Jake from attacking each other, "What does this mean for us?"
"It means we have to be more careful." Sage said cryptically. This started an argument, half the Coven was freaking out about having to control their abilities, being more careful how and when they use them for something that doesn't exist while the other half was saying it was not worth the risk not to believe in The Authority.
Lilly's head was throbbing, if not from the heat but from everyone talking around her about what they should do or if the Authority was even real. But the one thing that really mattered was who the hell was Link Palmer and did he have an ulterior motive for coming to Willow Creek?
"Question." Mason's voice quieted everyone else's, "How does Ace know all this about the Authority?"
"His dad works for the Authority." Was Hailey's simple reply. Now everything made sense to Lilly, Ace had told her that his father was in the government he just never said he was in the magical world's version of government.
"So what's the plan?" Sean asked speaking for the first time, "Are we just going to keep living our lives while Link Palmer wanders around town spying on us and sharing the information with the Authority?"
Jake shrugged, "What other option do we have here? And it's not like we have been involved with anything illegal Norah dragged us all in to her mess. We're innocent bystanders."
"But they might not see it like that." Hailey's voice caught everyone's attention, "Lilly you're an Essex and by history you are evil. Mason, your parents were Norah's most loyal followers and Sean she raised you. They are going to be very interested in you three."
Lilly's heart dropped, Hailey was right. She was an Essex by nature while Sean was an Essex by nurture. She didn't think either of them were evil but would the Authority see it like that? Not to mention the entire Coven was taught most of what they know from Norah, they were guilty by association.
Sage cleared her throat, "Whatever his or their reason to be here we do have some help." For the first time that day a smile came across Sage's face, "Cleo. She has no reason to help the Authority, we can use her-"
"You can't." Lilly cut the other girl off, something which pisses Sage off more than most things but it needed to be done, "I saw Cleo today she's leaving."
"Leaving?" Sage's voice went to the high pitch octave that was only hit when she was super angry, "What do you mean leaving? Why? For how long? How come she told you and not me?"
Lilly shrugged, "I don't know."
"You don't know what?"
"Anything! All she told me was that she was leaving and that we should be careful."
Jake's dark eyes narrowed on her, "Careful about what?"
She shrugged again, "She said evil attracts evil. And then she left..."
Sage threw up her hands in frustration while the other members of the Coven simply stared at the fire while others nodded their heads. Evil attracts evil. Did Cleo know something was coming or was it just her way of giving a friendly warning? Was Link Palmer the evil she was warning them about?
Everything was so complicated. Now Lilly knew what the Authority was but she still didn't know if it was real or not. The Coven was divided down the middle on opinions about it. Hailey swore that the Authority was real and that they should all be watching out for Link Palmer, while Jake was willing to bet his life that it was all stories made up to scare children, but they should still watch out for their unwanted guest.
No matter the case the newest member in town could not be trusted, working for the Authority or not
As the meeting came to an end as always people went off in groups to argue more or discuss the next plan of action while Lilly wandered to the dark waters and looked across the still lake. It was silent, eerily so not even the crickets could be heard.
"You're not planning on going in, are you?" Mason asked as he stopped beside her, putting his arm around her shoulders.
She laughed and leaned on his broad arm, "I was wondering where the Essex Mansion is, and why no one told me about it." Back at the bookstore before he left Link mentioned that he was staying in the Essex Mansion, wherever and whatever that was.
Mason pointed directly across the lake, "Just there in the trees. There use to be a dock but the mansion went unused for so long I think the dock just fell apart."
"Why didn't anyone tell me about it?"
He shrugged, "The Essex family lost their fortune over one hundred years ago no one has lived in the mansion since and it's not like you have a few million dollars lying around to buy the place." He pulled her closer and wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her into his body as they stared out into the lake.
She wished the others weren't standing behind them talking, laughing, arguing. If it were just her and Mason it would be a perfect night for a dip together in the lake. The night was warm and the stars were out. That was all she needed, plus him to have the perfect night on the beach.
"Mason I will leave you here I swear to God!" Sage called out.
"Go." He simply called out to his cousin. Sage complained more all the way to her car but her voice was cut out from the roar of her engine.
The night was becoming quiet again as the other members of the Coven left the beach, Lilly assumed Jake was waiting on the road giving her and Mason some private time.
"We could stay here you know." Mason whispered into her ear, "Sleep on the beach, wake up with the sun and stay here all day tomorrow. Just the two of us, no one else in the world to bother us, talk to us about Covens, powers or listen to Sage's voice."
Lilly laughed and turned to face Mason. Mason Avery with the face that looked like the Greek Gods carved it themselves and a smoking body to match. She ran her hand up his broad chest before going on her top toes and kissing him on his soft lips. "As much as I want to, I was cleaning sand out of places sand shouldn't go for days last time we did that."
He laughed and leaned his forehead against hers, "Camp out at your place then?"
She smiled and took his hand leading him back to the car, and she was right Jake waited with Hailey behind the trees for them to finish at the lake. They climbed into the backseat and Jake drove back to town while he and Hailey still argued about the existence of the Authority.
Lilly and Mason sat in the back hands interlocked silently the entire time.
"I'm just saying I don't see why you don't believe me when Ace's dad works-" Hailey's voice cut off and she gasped, "What is going on?"
Before Lilly could ask the car was stopped and the other two had already left the vehicle. Mason and Lilly climbed out to see a black SUV parked outside the book store while men in black and white suits came out of the store carting books out with them while Link Essex stood on the sidewalk watching.
Lilly saw Sean, who was being held back by Darcy near the driveway while Sage was leaning against the brick of the store. The rest of them ran over to the others, "What happened?" Jake asked flabbergasted.
Sage motioned towards Link, "He's confiscating all the books that contain anything to do with powers and abilities. Most of those were hand written by witches from all around the world, they're worth a small fortune."
"Why are they taking them?"
"It's quite simple." Lilly turned to see Link standing beside her a smile on his face, "Norah was always a person of interest in the eyes of the Authority and now that she is gone we are taking it upon ourselves to insure that her supply of Coven literature does not fall into the wrong hands."
"Those aren't Norah's books you're taking!" Sean yelled, Darcy was still holding him back but he easily broke free and lunged at Link. Mason stepped in and pushed Sean back, Jake joined in and held Lilly's cousin against the brick wall.
Link tisked, "You were raised by Norah, you have her temper." He turned to Lilly and handed her a piece of folder paper, "This is everything we are taking, thanks for your cooperation." Before anyone could answer he turned on his heel and headed back to his car, both vehicles speeding down the road before anyone could go after him.
Lilly opened the note, the top of the page had the symbol for the Authority.
"What does it say?" Hailey asked as she grabbed the page from Lilly's hands.
Lilly gulped and looked at Sean, "They took everything, the Book of Souls is even on here."
"But Cl-" Darcy started to say before everyone shushed her and Sage went as far as to cover her friends mouth with her hand.
"That is safe and it will remain safe as long as it's there." The Coven leader said softly as she released her hand, "When they realize it's missing Link is going to be back and he won't stop until he and the Authority has their hands on that book."