The Oath, Book 2 of The Coven Series

Chapter Twenty Six

~ Confrontation ~

Xavier and I arrived at the school via Xavier's awesome wingspan. I only hid my face for most of the trip. Sebastian showed up in his car. I wanted to ride with Sebastian, but I'm glad I listened to Xavier, because Wes and Mandy met Sebastian at his car. Wes did a quick look inside and nodded. They were looking for me, I'd bet. They had no idea Xavier was a Gargoyle. It was our only element of surprise. Xavier and I went in through the Biology room window. The lock was broken, and the school hadn't fixed it yet since it was on the third floor and not accessible even by a ladder.

The voices were muted, but grew louder as we got closer to their little hangout in the basement of the school. There were no lookouts posted, as they assumed I was dead. First mistake. Always post a lookout. You never know who might show up.

"You don't know if you killed her or not, Bas," Lori said.

"Why else would I have her bloody clothes in the car?" Sebastian demanded. "I can't remember anything! The last thing I remember is telling her all we did was use magic for fun. Everything blanks after that."

"Maybe you should turn yourself in," Madison said. "If you didn't do it, the cops will figure it out."

"No," Mandy shouted before Sebastian could answer. "If he did kill her, then he hasn't got any chance. No, we have to fix this. We'll burn her clothes and yours. Scrub your car down with bleach. Wes has watched enough CSI to know how to clean the car. We're not going to let you go to jail for this, Bas. You're one of us. We'll fix this."

"But her grandmother knows she was with me," Sebastian sighed. "How do you fix that?"

"Did anyone besides her grandmother see you this morning?" Mandy asked.

"No."

"Simple memory potion," Mandy told him. "She'll never remember. All she'll be able to tell the cops is that Melinda went for a walk and never came home. Don't worry, Bas. I'll take care of this. No one will ever know you had anything to do with drowning her."

"Drowning?" Sebastian asked. "I never said anything about her drowning."

"You know what I mean," Mandy said. "Her death."

Oh, the little bitch. She put that into my head. I guarantee it.

"Mandy, is there something you're not telling me?" Sebastian asked. "Do you know what happened to Melinda?"

I heard pacing, then a long, drawn out sigh. "Yeah, you called me earlier. You killed her and threw her in the lake, Sebastian. You were freaking out, and I told you to calm down, to take one of the memory potions we made last week. I didn't hear from you after that.""You're telling me I did that, that I killed her?"

"Yeah, Bas, you did, but we're going to fix it. I swear, you're going to be fine. No one will ever tell. It'll be our little secret."

Their little secret, my ass.

I pushed open the door and swaggered into their little group. Xavier knew not to go in just in case he had to swoop in and save us. Madison, Wes, and Lori were all sitting on the couch. Brandon and Mandy were standing, facing Sebastian. All eyes widened when I walked in.

Brandon smiled. "I didn't think you'd go down that easily, pet."

That wasn't Brandon. It was the eyes. They were older, more intense. Same color, just different. His smile grew wider when he realized I understood his secret.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Euriel," he said with a smile. "I must thank you for releasing me. I've been locked away a long time, and it feels so good to be out."