Read Online The Coven by Cate Tiernan - Free Book Online Page B

up, dress warm, and go gather my luibh. The dock root down at the pond is ready for taking in, and there’s early violets, dandelions, and cattails, too, ready. I can’t drink any more beer until then, or they’ll find me facedown in the marsh, too drunk to pick myself up! What a day!
    —BradhadairY
     
    As I drove it occurred to me that there was nowhere to go at eight o’clock on a Monday night in Widow’s Vale, New York. I pictured myself showing up at Schweikhardt’s soda shop, on Main Street, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I pictured myself showing up at Janice’s the same way. No—Janice had no idea how complicated my life had gotten. Robbie? I considered for a second but shook my head. I hated going to his house, with his dad drinking beer in front of the TV and his mom all tight-lipped and angry. And of course Bree didn’t even enter into it—God, what a bitch she’d been today.
    Cal? I turned and headed toward his neighborhood, feeling desperate and daring, brave and terrified. Was I being presumptuous by going to his house uninvited? There was so much going on in my mind: my birth parents’ story, my other parents’ refusal to tell me the truth about my past, Bree—it was all too much to think about. I felt like I couldn’t make any kind of decision about anything—even about whether it was okay for me to show up at Cal’s house unannounced.
    By the time I pulled into the long, cobblestone driveway of Cal’s big stone house, I felt completely incoherent. What was I doing? I just wanted to drive off into the night forever, far away from everyone I knew. Be a different person. I couldn’t believe this was my life.
    I cut the lights and the engine and hunched over my steering wheel, literally frozen with uncertainty. I couldn’t even start the car again to get out of there.
    Who knows how long I huddled in the darkness outside Cal’s home. I finally looked up when strong headlights flooded the interior of my car, reflecting off my rearview mirror and shining into my eyes. An expensive-looking SUV pulled around my car and parked neatly, close to the house. Its door opened, and a tall, slender woman stepped out, her hair barely visible in the darkness. The house’s outdoor floodlights came on, bathing the driveway in warm yellow light.The woman walked to my car.
    Feeling like an idiot, I rolled down my window as Selene Belltower approached. For long moments she gazed at my face, as if evaluating me. We neither smiled nor spoke to each other.
    Finally she said, “Why don’t you come inside, Morgan? You must be chilled through. I’ll make some cocoa.” As if it was normal to find a girl in a car sitting in the dark outside her house.
    I got out of Das Boot and slammed the door. We walked up the broad stone steps together, Cal’s mom and I, and through the massive wooden front door. She led me across the foyer, down a hall, into a huge French country-style kitchen I hadn’t seen on my other visit here.
    “Sit down, Morgan,” she said, gesturing to a tall stool by the kitchen island.
    I sat, hoping Cal was here. I hadn’t seen his car outside, but maybe it was in the garage.
    I cast my senses out, but I couldn’t feel his presence close by. Selene Belltower’s head snapped up as she poured milk into a pan. Her brows came together, and she looked at me assessingly.
    “You’re very strong,” she commented. “I didn’t learn how to cast my senses until I was in my twenties. Cal isn’t here, by the way.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said awkwardly. “I should go. I don’t want to bother you. . . .”
    “You’re not bothering me,” she said. She spooned some cocoa powder into the milk and whisked it smooth on the cooktop across from me. “I’ve been curious. Cal has told me some very interesting things about you.”
    Cal talked to his mother about me?
    She laughed, a warm, earthy laugh, when she saw the expression on my face. “Cal and I are pretty close,” she said. “For a long