The Derivative Ring

Chapter 9

Sorry for not uploading for so long! I kind of took a break from writing to rethink some things, but I'm back with a new chapter, and possibly even another chapter later tonight! Please please please let me know what you think :)

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Once we got back home we immediately went to talk to Troy. There was no way we could deal with this on our own anymore now that we knew how dangerous Anthony was. The Valiente Coven was back, and a member of our Ring had been killed by them. What was going to happen in the near future? Were they going to come after us?

Over all we are stronger than them, but their magic is different. They use black magic, and even though we could over power them, black magic was still something you didn't want to mess with. It was scary.

We told Troy all about Lacey and going to the house and what we saw. He was concerned, worrying about what the Valiente coven had planned. He had the same questions as us. He promised that he would keep us safe. Being the Head of the Nation, he could easily ban the Valiente coven from Salem Falls altogether. But doing so because of personal reasons wasn't in his best interest. There were lots of other citizens of Salem Falls who practiced dark magic. They weren't all dangerous, but if the Valiente Coven was banned it would upset a lot of the black magic culture. We had to keep Salem Falls in balance, meaning we had to do everything we could to contain the situation before it got critical. Banning them would be the last resort.

"Are you guys okay?" Nate asked Adam and Ben. They had both been quiet since realizing who killed Lacey, which was understandable. Nate and I knew the Valiente Coven was dangerous, but we hadn't had the same experience with them as Ben and Adam. With them it was personal.

They both mustered a quiet "Yeah," and continued to sit in silence.

I sighed, not knowing what to say, as my hand wandered to my chest to hang on to my emerald. It had become a habit to play with it whenever I wasn't sure what else to do with myself. But where my fingers should have wrapped around the cool, hard emerald, there was nothing. My hands trailed up around my neck to where the chain should be, but again, there was nothing.

"My emerald's gone," I said, breaking the silence.

They all looked over at me, with my hands searching around me for it, but I couldn't find it.

"Are you sure?" Nate asked.

"Yes I'm sure, it's gone."

"When was the last time you had it on?" Ben asked.

"Well I had it on when we were going up to the house because I could see Lacey."

"What about after that?"

I thought for a moment, trying to remember when it could have fallen off.

"Wait..." I said, my mind trailing off in thought. "On the path, when I said Lacey disappeared. She didn't go anywhere, my necklace fell off. It's still on the path."

"Shit," Adam said, putting his head in his hands. "Could this day get any worse?"

I looked over at Ben. "What do we do?"

"What, do you want to go get it?"

"No! Of course not, we can't go back there. But they'll find it. Anthony will know it was mine, I know he's seen it in class, and they'll know we were there."

"We can't do anything about that," he replied. "For now, we'll have to get you a new one so when Anthony sees you at school he'll see you with it and it might throw him off."

I mimicked Adam and put my head in my hands, letting out a groan. Ben lightly rubbed my back a few times, trying to reasure me it would be okay, but he was already worried before I realized my necklace was missing, now he must be full on freaking out. Still, I left my face in my hands, letting myself fall sideways onto the couch so I was laying down.

It was dark out and all I could see around me were trees. There was a smell in the air, I couldn't place my finger on what it was, but it made me nauseous. I pushed myself up off the ground and brushed the leaves off of me when I heard a noise behind me. I whirled around to see Anthony. His bright green eyes pierced into mine, slitted slightly as if he was trying to figure me out. His light brown hair looked soft and smooth as it swept across his forehead, while I'm sure mine was a mess, tangled with leaves and twigs. At the sight of Anthony, my first instinct was to run. I whirled around again and started running. He was running behind me, trying to catch me, but somehow I managed to stay in front of him. I continued running. Running. Running.

I bolted up right, waking up with a start. I was still laying on the couch in the library. Nate and Adam were gone, but Ben was sitting over in the chair flipping through a book. When I woke up, he looked over at me, concerned.

"Bad dream?"

I nodded. It wasn't so much of the content of my nightmares that disturbed me, it was always the feeling they gave me. Ben walked over and sat beside me, putting his arm around me.

"I got this for you while you were sleeping," he said, handing me another emerald on a gold chain this time.

"Thank you," I said, letting him fasten the chain around my neck. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, although I could tell that wasn't true. There was something about him that was different. The happy go lucky guy I had been reunited with a few weeks ago was now quiet and serious, and looking in his eyes I could tell he was worried. He was scared. He sat down beside me on the couch and I took his hands in mine.

"You know everything's going to be okay, right?"

He was quiet for a moment before he shook his head. "No, I don't. My life has already been forever changed by the Valiente Coven. If it weren't for them, I'd be able to hear right now. I've come to terms with it and accepted the fact that I'm deaf, but I still hate them for it. And I know Adam feels the same way. The thought of them coming back to change my life even more or take something else away from me just pisses me off because now I'm not only worried about myself. I have you now, and I'm not going to let them get to you like they got to me and my brother. I won't let them hurt you."

"Ben, I can see how much this is affecting you. You don't have to worry about me."

"Yes, I do. You and Nate haven't mastered your magic yet. The Valiente Coven knows that. If they decide to come after us, it's up to Adam and I to protect you. My dad will do as much as he can, but ultimately he's the Head of Salem Falls, he can't drop everything and fight for us all the time. And I know my mom's terrified. We're on our own, and I don't know what to do."

"Keep helping me and Nate with our magic. We can only get better, you and Adam don't have to do this alone. Don't automatically think we've already lost, you alone could take them. If we do this together they have no chance against us."

"I don't want you to fight against them because I don't want them to do to you what they did to me and Gavin. I don't want them to hurt you."

"Ben, you guys were toddlers when that happened. I know everyone around here acts like it's a big deal and blames you guys but you didn't know anything about anything. You were too young to even understand you had powers, let alone have your parents teach you about magic and tell you about good and bad witches. Now you're the strongest witch in Salem Falls. You don't have anything to worry about."

"I guess you're right."

"Now do you believe me when I say everything's going to be okay?"

"Maybe," he said with a smile.