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He dropped his forehead to mine, then moved forward to kiss my lips. “Thank you.”

He kissed me again, this time lingering. His soft lips pressed into mine with more urgency before he broke away. “I feel like I’ve really made a mess of things, Norah. I can’t even keep my head straight.”

“It’s because you really care, Travis. It’s just confusing because of who we are. That’s all.”

He tucked my hair around my ear. He was still close enough for me to feel the air from his even breaths. “You know what’s not confusing? How much I love you.”

I smiled, then moved forward, pressing my lips to his knowing that whatever happened, nothing could take this away. We could be Order members or not. We could be witches or not. But I would still have these guys. We may be not a coven anymore, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t always be together like this. And that was what was most important. These feelings we had for one another were the best reasons to deal with what we were dealing with now. It gave us strength. It gave us purpose. It gave us love.

I kissed him until he fell back on the bed and I moved on top of him. I would never give up an opportunity to show any one of them how I felt. And this time was no different.

12

The more we watched TV, the worse it got. The media personnel kept commenting on different things going on around town, but they didn’t have all the information. They couldn’t see how they were connected, but of course, we could. I never thought I’d say this, but I wanted the superiors to come. This seemed like too big to manage all on our own.

“Can you mute that for a sec?” Liam asked.

Gabe grabbed the controller and muted the woman we’d been watching all day. It was a hard thing to look away from. They say that happens when you’re looking at something tragic like a car accident. You can’t look away. It’s just too terrible.

Liam pushed the book we’d gotten from the Reid’s house onto the table. “It’s not much to go on, but I do see in here that a sign of demon possession can be eyes that turn black. Supposedly it’s a window into their soul. If the eyes are black, the demon has taken over and the soul is now dead.”

“That’s uplifting,” Gabe said.

I wanted to kiss him for it. The whole day had been filled with dread and confusion, but just his cute little accent saying something funny made me want to smile. It made me remember that I wasn’t alone.

“Anything on how to kill a demon?” Randy asked.

Travis perked up. He’d been better about not sticking up for Jax, but he was clearly still on the fence about what to do. Liam nodded slowly. He looked away, his foot bobbing up and down. He looked much better than he had that morning. His pallor was returning to normal, which calmed my insides a little. “It’s crazy,” Liam said.

“Well?” Gabe asked. “What is it?”

“According to the book, Jax must have summoned the demon to him from hell. In order to get it to go away, we have to send it back to hell.”

Travis leaned forward. “Are we talking about an exorcism?”

“Maybe?” Liam said. I could tell he was hesitant and that his mind was telling him it was an exorcism, but he didn’t want to believe it. It seemed so cliché. Did we need a priest for that type of thing?

I drew in a breath. “Is that why they set the churches on fire?”

Liam shook his head. “If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking…no. They set the churches on fire because they’re evil. There’s a spell to send the demon back to hell that’s not an exorcism, but the problem is going to be finding and containing the demon. We don’t know if it’s stayed inside Jax and he’s using his magic to control the people. Or, if the demon is moving in and out of people at its whim.”

All of this because someone wanted his magic back. The concept seemed so foreign to me. For the longest time, I hated that I was different. I understood the value of it now, but it was hard to understand someone who just thought so completely different from me.

The doorbell rang, and we all stiffened. Travis had broken the news earlier about the new Order coming. None of us really thought they would come here, but at the same time, we didn’t know where else they would go. We were the ones that knew this town. They would be so out of sorts.

Travis got up and moved to the door. Liam pulled me closer to him on the sofa, then moved forward and grabbed the book, shoving it under the couch in front of us.

I looked around Travis when he opened the door and sure enough, Walter was right there. His face was stricken as Travis opened the door wider to accommodate his whole coven moving into the small apartment.

Liam stood. “What’s wrong?”

“We lost contact with the new Order.”

My eyebrows rose. I locked gazes with Randy who’s jaw set right before he looked up at the Order. “Not to sound like a dick, but what do you want us to do about it?”

I rolled my eyes. No one held a grudge better than Randy.

Gabe rubbed the back of his neck. “Randy has a point.”