Hex Girl | The Dark Child Prophecy Series

Chapter Five: Sour Cherry

I gulped quietly, not liking that I was about to cause an upset. Avalon would demand to put me in lockdown, and what was worse was that my brother and Marcus would agree. It felt like the Connor Mezdor scare all over again.

Luce let go of my hand to knock on the door to his parents' apartment. I heard Marcus's voice as he continued his sentence about supply chain in the States.

Great, he's going to be present for this, too? I thought, inhaling a deep breath.

My guardian opened the door with a smile. "Hey, we were just talking about you two," he greeted, holding the door ajar for us to come inside.

I smiled, but didn't say anything.

Elizabeth was sitting in the desk chair, her eyes on a file folder in her hands. Avalon was also rifling through another collection of papers. They both looked up at us as they exchanged folders. "What's wrong?" Elizabeth immediately asked, frowning at our expressions. She looked from me to Luce again.

Her question made Avalon take his eyes off his work and he scrutinized us carefully. "What's going on?"

I looked up at Luce, biting my lower lip.

Luce sighed and nodded to me. He'd take the reins on this one. "Jenny was attacked last night by two men looking for witches. Well, we think more specifically, her," he said calmly.

Marcus shut the door behind us and circled around to stand near Avalon and Elizabeth, frowning. "Jenny, is this true?"

I nodded. "They came after me after the sun came up when I went for my run. They were human. I think they did that on purpose, so there would be less of a chance for them to encounter one of you with me." I crossed my arms over my chest again, my fingers gripping the material of my shirt tightly.

The three adults exchanged glances. Elizabeth sighed softly, looking from one man to the other. "Maybe it's time we send them back to the States, for their own protection," she said.

This had been something up for debate for months since the Connor Mezdor situation. Adrian and James were adamant that they wanted to stay here at the Capital Coven. Serenity wanted to stay so she could be close with her cousin, Krystal. They were the only two daughters in the family. I hadn't really had an opinion on the subject, but I wanted to remain wherever my brother and Luce wanted to be.

"How do you know they were after just you?" Avalon asked.

"One of them touched me," I answered honestly. "I saw his memories."

"They were ordered by a man who told them to bring him the witch," Luce added.

"Are you okay?" Marcus asked. "Did they hurt you at all?"

"No, one of them had grabbed my sweatshirt and tore my shirt when I fought to get loose and ran away. That's how I saw his memories," I explained. "I was able to get away after I used a spell and I ran home." 

"And they didn't chase you?" Avalon asked, studying me.

"No," I responded, my voice growing shaky. I felt the guilt of killing that man knot in my stomach and threaten to choke me as it crawled up my throat.

"What aren't you telling us?" Marcus asked, reading my expression.

Here it goes...

"They didn't chase me back to the coven because I killed one of them," I confessed. "It was an accident. My banishing spell failed and I couldn't get the barrier back up. I just threw energy at him, to knock him down, but it ended up electrocuting him. I didn't know he was human. I thought he was a vampire. The light was weak enough he could've been out in the open if he had been."