The Promise (Book 1, The Coven Series)

Chapter Twenty-Six

I stared at them in shock. Kay, Billy, and...Jeff all stood flanked around Ethan. Fear twisted through me at their expressions. Gone was the warmth and concern from their eyes. They all looked ready to pounce.

It was Ethan's eyes that caught and held my attention. Those beautiful gray eyes that had gazed down at me last night with such love and passion were now cold and hard. Their icy depths burned through me worse than the remembered heat of the fire from my dream. He watched me like a predator, ready to pounce and eat me alive the moment I moved. Eyes the color of a gathering storm shattered my heart. There was no love there. Only my death.

"Ethan?" I whispered, desperate to find some hint of his former self in those eyes.

He smiled and crushed any hope I harbored. Pain lanced me, a physical hurt that caused the air to leave my lungs. I wanted to throw up. I knew he was lying about something, but not this. Damn you, I wanted to scream. I couldn't get it out past the knot of agony that had lodged in my throat. How could I have been so wrong?

"Why can you just never stay put, Cassie?" he sighed. "I told you'd I'd come fetch you when it was time. Now you've gone and made this more difficult."

"You don't have to do this, boy," Mr. Warren spoke up. "She don't deserve it."

"You're wrong, old man," he said softly. "I do have to do this." Before I could blink, he'd moved and grabbed hold of my arm. Fingers that had caressed my skin with such gentleness the night before now bit into it with bruising force. "Come along, Cassie Jayne."

I hurt. Everywhere. Even with my mind reeling from shock and pain, I knew I couldn't leave with them. I had to find a way to escape, but how? I needed time to think and to do that I had to stall.

"Was it all lies then?" I asked him. I forced the panic aside. "Do I mean nothing to you?"

"You said it yourself, Cassie. You were never more than a means to an end." He smiled that beautiful smile I loved, but it twisted with a cruel curve. "It was so easy to fool you. Such a gullible girl. A few kisses, some sweet words and you fell right into my lap. I had no idea you'd be so easy."

I hit him as hard as I could. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and he wiped it away. "Still have a bit of a temper, don't you?" he laughed. "I always did like that about you."

Bit of a temper? I'd show him just how much of a temper I had. "Air..."

"Oh no you don't." He grinned and slapped a hand over my mouth. "No spells this time, Cassie. Do you think we're stupid enough to come here without the proverbial ace in the hole?"

Ace in the hole?

"Your parents," he explained. "Jonas collected them earlier. Either you come with us now, or they die. It's that simple."

My eyes widened in horror. They wouldn't hurt my parents. Mom and Dad were Coven members. But the Coven had killed Emily, I reminded myself, just to keep their precious little secret safe. Mr. Martin would murder my parents in an instant if he needed to.

"Are you going to behave, love?" Ethan asked.

I nodded. What else could I do? They had my parents.

"Good girl." His hand came away from my mouth and he tweaked my nose.

I hated him in that moment. The blind fury must have shown on my face because he smiled at me with the smile of a fox. Cagey and wicked. I wanted to hit him again.

Mr. Warren put a restraining hand on Ethan. "No boy, I won't let you do this."

Ethan's eyebrows shot up and he laughed. He shoved the old man. He fell, his head hitting the hallway table. When he didn't move, I cried out. He was so old. The fall might have broken bones if it hadn't killed him. He could have a head injury...