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“Oh, come on, guys,” I said, my voice rising. “Yes, it was a shitty thing they did to us, but that means five other witches are now pulled into this shit.”

Gabe clammed up, but Randy looked unapologetic. The Order had truly pissed him off. At this point, I didn’t know if he’d even go back to them if they were to suddenly tell us that they didn’t care that we were all with one another.

“When’s the last time you had contact with them?” Travis asked, ignoring the looks we were all giving each other. We’d all decided to call the Order though. And of course, they’d be upset that a whole coven was missing. I was upset a whole coven was missing. I just kept thinking, ‘What’s next?’

“They were supposed to check in hours ago when they arrived in town.”

“Jax must have gotten to them,” I said.

“The demon must’ve gotten to them,” Travis clarified.

Liam’s hackles were raised again, but the last thing we needed was to scream at one another again.

“Well,” Gabe said. He picked up the remote and unmuted the TV. “This is what’s happening around town, so take your pick. Maybe they checked themselves into the hospital because they were hearing voices. Or maybe they got called to slaughter a bunch of kids at pre-school.”

“We have a plan,” Liam said, interjecting. “We know all the witches and Wiccans will be celebrating the equinox tomorrow. There’s always this big celebration at the main park by the Hawthorn Hotel complete with rituals and prayers. We’re going there to tell everyone what is happening. We’re going to ask for everyone’s help in all this,” Liam said. “We think this is even bigger than the Order.”

“What else have you found out?” Walter asked.

Liam looked to Travis. He’d hid that book under the sofa for this very reason, but it also seemed like the superiors needed to know everything. “I have a spell to exorcise the demon, but we’ll have to figure out a way to capture it first. That’ll be the hard part.”

“A spell to eliminate a demon?” one of the other superiors scoffed. “Never heard of it.”

“It wasn’t in any of the Order books, that’s why,” Liam said. “At times like this, I think it’s necessary to look up any possible information that could help us and that includes something like this.” He knelt and pulled the book out from under the sofa and dropped it on the coffee table. Walter moved forward, reading the title on the cover. Liam quickly turned the page to what he’d found, holding it open for them. Walter reached forward, and his coven member said, “I don’t think we should be concerning ourselves with a text like that.”

“I disagree,” Walter said simply.

He read through the spell, looking up after he was done. “I think this will take a lot of magic.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we have our lightning rod then,” Liam said.

He smiled down at me, and at first, I smiled. But then the realization came over me as to what he meant. I heightened all their powers. I wondered if I could heighten any witch’s power or if it only worked with my coven.

“What did you say?” Walter asked.

“Norah,” Liam said, not even thinking twice about what he was going to say. “Ever since she joined us, she’s made our magic stronger.”

“Because you got your fifth.”

Gabe shook his head. “No, because she makes us stronger. It feels different with her than it ever did with Jax.”

Walter turned then. “I suppose we should get some dinner.”

Travis and I exchanged a look.

“Weren’t you just saying how hungry you were?”

“Welcome to the club,” Jennie said. All five of the superiors turned toward her as if they just realized she was there. She shrugged. “They don’t have anything in the house.”

“Excellent,” Walter said. “Take Miss Shaw and pick up some food, would you? We’ll have to make Salem our home base for right now.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “If they think they’re staying here, they can knob off.”

Walter turned. “Don’t worry. We’ll stay at the hotel down the street, but isn’t anyone else hungry?”

He gave us all such a full stare that we each agreed. The other coven members left, Jennie in tow. None of them seemed all that pleased about it, especially Jennie.

When the door closed behind them, Walter moved forward. “You must not say that in front of them again. Now, tell me exactly what happens.”