Page 37

They all nodded right along with me.

“There’s still one problem,” Liam said. “We don’t know how to find them.”

Gabe scratched his chin. “We’ll have to draw them out.” We turned toward him, and he sat a little straighter. “Think about it, all the witches together like that made him come out. He wasn’t hiding behind the fires and the psychos anymore. He came out to talk to them, to get them to his side just as we were trying to get them to go against him. If we do something similar, we can draw him out. Then, we’ll try the spell.”

“We know the Akashic cell won’t work on him. It hadn’t even worked on Dupre.”

I remembered how it disintegrated in front of us and how shocked the coven had been. Since I was new to the whole thing, I wasn’t aware that the cell was their bread and butter move to lock people away until they could do the Akasha ceremony.

“We’ll figure something out,” Liam said. “If we get other witches to help us, we might just be able to come together to defeat him. I felt so…powerful out there with everyone.”

I glanced at Travis. “You were amazing, you know that?”

He didn’t even hear me at first.

Randy kicked the chair. “Dude, Norah’s talking to you.”

He shook his head, trying to force himself out of his own head again. “What?”

“At the park, they all listened to you. I said that you did amazing.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m a regular winner, aren’t I?”

“I told you already,” I said, sighing. “She doesn’t really feel that way.”

His gaze narrowed. “She does even if only a little, and for me, that’s just a bit too much. I’d rather my sister not hate me at all.”

I clenched down on my jaw. Now was not the time for pity parties. “You can’t undo what’s already done. You can only make it better from this point forward.”

He stared at me for what seemed like a full minute without commenting, then looked away. His green eyes were dark and flat. It was hard to tell where his emotions were at.

“So, we agree?” Liam asked. “We’ll draw him out. We’ll cast the demon out and save Jennie.”

Walter walked out of one of their rooms. He shuffled out to us, his face pinched in concern. “This is too much. We’ve never dealt with anything like this before, and now that I’ve seen all the power you hold…” he trailed off, just shaking his head.

“We talked about that already,” I said. “We’re going to do what needs to be done. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine. There will be no imploding here.”

Randy nodded first. He’d be the first to follow me into a bad situation that could only get worse. Not because he cared about me most, but because he was a risk taker. I’d already known that. Gabe was next, giving me a small half smile that melted my heart. Liam, too, eventually nodded. He’d always be on board after he thought things through in his own head. But still, it was Travis who was late to the party.

“Just help us do what we need to do,” I said, looking away from Travis to Walter.

He nodded once. Though his face still said he’d worry about us, I was hoping he wouldn’t bring it up again. We didn’t need to focus on negative thoughts right now. The demon would latch onto those with its claws and hold on, drawing out every little inch of bad thoughts with it.

“We’ll invite all the witches in Salem together again when we’re ready,” Walter said.

I looked at Travis, hoping he would speak up, but his head was down. I wasn’t even sure he was listening anymore. “When we give them a signal,” Liam said. “We’ll meet…”

“In the woods…next to headquarters?”

“It would be easier,” Gabe spoke up, “If we go somewhere where I would have access to water in case I need to draw on my element.”

“Gabe has a point,” Walter said. “We should go somewhere like Norah suggests, somewhere with power, but also have access to all the elements that you guys can use in case we need to fight.”

“By the ocean then,” Randy said. “Gabe can use the ocean. I can find ground anywhere. Liam can draw on fire, and Travis is good to go. There’s always wind around us.”

“The wharf then,” Travis said, finally speaking up. “We’ll meet by the wharf when the time comes.”

“Now we’ll just have to hope the demon comes out,” Liam said, the gears in his head already turning.