Page 1 of Discord and Cinder (Fire Witches of Salem #7)
CINDER
T wo months ago
Dear Ash,
If you’re reading this, I never made it back.
I know you planned to organize the library in Dad’s absence, so I hid your favorite sigil book next to this journal in hopes that you’d find it should I go missing too. I really did leave in search of our parents. I didn’t lie about that, but there are other things you need to know. You and Ember.
Our parents lied to you about the curse. They lied to us all. Every High Priestess that came before Mom lied too. You aren’t the miracle baby she made you out to be. There’s a reason why you’re the only third daughter to survive.
Mom didn’t have the heart to kill you.
The curse wasn’t that every third daughter of the High Priestess would die in infancy. It was that she would go insane and murder everyone in the coven.
I know it’s hard to believe, but Mom showed me the curse. It was in the dark grimoire in the safe.
The dirty secret of our coven is that if the High Priestess has a third daughter, she murders her. It has happened several times over the centuries, and the knowledge about the real curse is passed orally from the High Priestess to her oldest daughter. That’s why I now know.
Mom has been searching for a way to break the curse since you were born. She was certain she’d figured out how to end it for good without harming you. The witch who hexed us harnessed the power of three demons, and only three demons can break the curse.
Mom and Dad went into the woods to summon one.
They cut a deal with him. I overheard them talking about it.
They promised their souls in exchange for him delivering the fiends responsible.
The demon required the grimoire, so they took it back to the woods, but the one they bargained with was a trickster.
He took the book and our parents, but not before I tore out the page identifying the only demons who could break the curse. The ones who created it.
The witch who cursed us moved to Boston and joined the Magic Society there. I broke into their library, and that’s where I discovered what she had done. She had promised her own soul and her firstborn’s in exchange for the power, but she never planned to hold up her end of the deal.
She vanquished the three demon brothers but hid their skulls. Without their bodies intact, they can’t reform in Hell. They’re trapped in a dark prison and never got to collect her soul. The only way to break the curse is for us to release them. They are the only ones who can help.
I’ve located Discord’s skull, and I’m going to release him. I’ll convince him to take me into Hell so I can find Mom and Dad. I hope to bring them back right away, so you never have to read this, but if I don’t return, you have to release the other two. We can end this. I know we can.
Love, Cinder
My hand shook as I scrawled my name at the bottom of the page. Every word I’d written was true, but I never dreamed I’d have to write it down. To not only drag the morbid skeletons from my family’s closet and dance with them, but to record the evidence for anyone’s prying eyes to see.
That’s why I planned to hide the journal where only Ash could find it. If anyone else discovered what my ancestors had been doing all these years—what Ash was destined to do if we didn’t stop the curse—they’d destroy us. They’d have no other choice.
“Hey.” Chrys knocked on my open door, making me jump. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” I forced a smile and slipped the journal into my nightstand drawer before sliding it closed and resting my hand on the surface.
“I texted you twice and called when you didn’t reply.” She stepped into my bedroom and leaned against the doorjamb, tucking her jet-black hair behind her ear. She wore black jeans and a midnight blue sweater that made her eyes pop.
“We’re supposed to see a band tonight, remember?” She raised her brows, a sly smile pulling up one corner of her mouth. “Patrice is going to introduce me to the bass player.”
“Right. I’m supposed to play wing woman. Sorry, my phone must be on vibrate.” I drummed my fingers on the nightstand, contemplating how much to tell her. Chrys was my closest friend. She knew me better than anyone, and I could tell by the look on her face that she knew something was wrong.
“It might be good to get your mind off things.” She sank onto the bed next to me and bumped my shoulder with hers. “Take a break from your worries.”
I sighed, tilting my head toward the ceiling. “I can’t tonight. I… I’m going away for a while.”
She shifted her weight, curling her right leg beneath her left and angling toward me. “Your parents again?”
I nodded. “I found another lead.”
“Are you leaving tonight? I’ll go with you.” She tugged her phone from her back pocket. “I’ll just let Patrice?—”
“No.” I shot to my feet. “You’ve got a bass player ready to finger your strings. Go have fun.”
She shrugged. “He can finger me another time. If my bestie is chasing feral fowl, I want to be there. You need to stop isolating yourself, Cin. It’s not healthy.”
I paced to the closet and opened the door. “I have to do this alone.”
She returned the phone to her pocket. “No, you don’t.”
“Believe me, I do.” I grabbed a backpack and laid it on my dresser. “It’s a dangerous place, and I won’t risk another coven member’s life on my ‘wild goose chases.’”
“I didn’t mean…” She sighed and rose to her feet.
“I’m not afraid of a little danger. Besides, what could be more perilous than downtown Salem on Halloween night?
All those tourists who suddenly think they’re witches, packing into every restaurant and bar in town.
” She exaggerated a shudder. “It’s a nightmare. ”
“I’m serious.” I shoved some pants and two shirts into my bag before throwing in a pair of undies. I bit my lip and grabbed two more pairs…just in case.
“I am too.” She rested her hand on my shoulder. “If this place is as dangerous as you say, then you’ll need backup. Let me help you.”
“I’ll be fine.” I shrugged off her touch and grabbed a set of knives from my drawer. “It’ll probably turn out to be nothing, just like my other leads.”
Yes, that was a lie, but best friend or not, I couldn’t tell her I had used dark magic to bind myself to a demon, much less that I planned to summon him, follow him to Hell, and fight my way back out again.
She’d call on the roots from the nearest tree and tie me to the ground before she’d let me do something that stupid.
She narrowed her eyes, staring at me intently. “You’re doing it, aren’t you? That fake confidence thing? I swear you could convince Hecate that you’re the mother of magic if you wanted to.”
“Shh.” I glanced into the hall and lowered my voice, speaking through clenched teeth. “It’s not fake. It’s magic, and I told you that in confidence.”
“And you promised never to use it on me.” She crossed her arms.
“I’m not. I swear.” I drew an X over my heart. “If you’re convinced to let me do this alone, it’s because you know me well enough to understand I won’t do it any other way.”
Persuasive magic was a powerful ability that blurred the line between light and dark. I only ever used it passively, making myself appear confident, in control, like I knew exactly what I was doing, even when I didn’t. I never dared affect another’s free will, nor would I ever.
Chrys was the only person who even knew I had this power, and I never should have confided in her. People got weird when they knew someone could manipulate their decisions with magic. Go figure.
She dropped her arms to her sides, her features softening. “I know you’ve always been independent, but since your parents disappeared, you’ve given hard-headed a whole new meaning. Will you at least tell me the general vicinity of where you’re going in case you end up missing too?”
I opened my mouth to give her a vague response, but every smoke alarm in the house screeched in unison, saving me from adding another layer of lies.
“Sorry,” Ash called from the kitchen.
I closed my eyes for a long blink. “Let me check on her.”
My boots thudded on the hardwood as I strode down the hall and crossed the living room, passing a bookcase filled with candles and totems. My youngest sister stood in the kitchen, her blue hair tied in a knot on top of her head as she dumped an entire bag of flour into a fiery skillet on the stove.
“They weren’t kidding when they labeled this ‘all-purpose.’” She fanned the smoke away from her face and turned toward me. “You should’ve seen the flame I shot from my fingertip. It was the biggest one yet.”
“Ash.” I tilted my head and padded toward her, taking her shoulders in my hands. “You know you’re not supposed to use your fire magic unsupervised.”
“You were right down the hall.” She moved the skillet to a cool burner and dragged the trash can toward the stove. “Besides, the grease was the problem. If I’d tried to light the stove before I set the skillet down, it would have been fine.”
“You still have to be careful. We might be fireproof, but our house isn’t.” And it was time to refresh the binding spell Mom had cast on her. The last thing I needed was for her to burn the entire city to the ground before I could get back with our parents.
A pang of guilt stabbed my chest. Our mom had been binding Ash’s fire magic since she was little, trying to stop the curse from coming to fruition.
It would be easy for a deranged witch to go on a killing spree if fire were hers to command, so we tempered it.
Well, Mom did until she disappeared. She’d shown me the spell when she told me about the curse, making me promise to keep Ash’s magic at bay if anything were to happen to her.