Marked By Masks and Secrets (Everlasting Possession #1)

8

EVIE

“ E vie,” Jacob muttered. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, um, I was just going to set my plate down somewhere…” I said lamely.

Jacob stared down at my untouched miniature sandwich and pastry. He grabbed the plate and snapped his fingers at a meandering attendant. He wordlessly handed the plate to the stone-faced man dressed in server attire before walking with me to his group of friends.

“There he is!” Farleigh said, pulling Jacob in for a hug and clapping his back.

I waved hello to Georgia and Mikki, pretending as though I hadn’t overheard their hurtful conversation about me. I worried my back was too stiff, my smile too forced.

“Hi Evie,” Georgia said cheerfully, her auburn hair glowing red under the glimmering orbs above. “How are you? Still selling those flowers?”

A flicker of annoyance scorched my stomach at the sound of her condescension.

Jacob scratched his head. “She sells more than just flowers, Georgia.”

My smile transformed into something more genuine, grateful he was sticking up for me.

“What else do you sell?” Mikki offered, her smile not quite reaching her dark brown eyes. Her long black hair was in dozens of braids, and she twisted one around her finger as she stared at me intently.

I shifted on my feet. “Herb bundles, oils, candles, teas…” I trailed off, struggling to remember what I’d already mentioned.

My crafting was a creative, intuitive process, and I was grateful to the owners of Celeste’s for allowing me to follow where the magick led me. I brought entirely new products each time, and it apparently only bolstered the hype around my mysterious, potent magick.

“And they’re all enchanted. Word around town is that her shit is powerful, too,” Jacob said, words slightly slurred, as if he was already tipsy.

Still, his praise warmed my skin. My lips crept into a smile.

“Jacob said you were a chaos witch,” Mikki said.

Georgia’s eyes widened, and Farleigh’s narrowed.

My stomach dropped. My smile evaporated. Everyone went silent. All eyes landed heavily on me.

I felt the color drain from my skin. I’d asked Jacob to keep that fact to himself. It wasn’t something I advertised, especially as a witch without a coven. Chaos witches were met with a great deal of suspicion, even more so if they were solitary practitioners.

Chaos witches weren’t gifted in one particular form of magick. Witches like me had all available currents open to us. We were in tune with the flow of the universe, connected to the spirit realm and the world of the gods, pulling from this natural order to concoct our own spells and magickal creations. We were necessary. We were the reason for innovation and change, new grimoires and covens, the keeping of balance and the communication with the powerful forces that ruled us all.

But we were also volatile. Powerful. Unpredictable. Some of us got lost along the way if we didn’t have a moral compass and greater purpose to focus and ground our workings.

As more and more turned vampires appeared all over the realm, it was clear that chaos witches were responsible.

Who else could birth an entirely new species?

In my blood was the potential for blasphemy and destruction, chaos and catastrophe, monsters and plagues.

I’d made a vow long ago to only use my gift of creation for good. Just as many other chaos witches had pledged before me. I was a creator. An artist. A healer.

I was good.

I repeated that familiar mantra over and over, stunned and hurt by Jacob’s breach of trust. On multiple counts, now.

“You better be careful, my friend. Looks like she’s scheming ways to hex you as we speak,” Farleigh joked, breaking the awkward silence as everyone burst into laughter.

Jacob slung his arm around me, and I stumbled with the sudden weight of him leaning against me.

He waved his other hand dismissively. “Evie sticks to her little earth spells and flower-picking. She’s only a half-witch. She’s basically harmless.”

I deflated. Stupid, useless tears threatened to form.

They were just joking. It was fine. At least they knew I wasn’t dangerous.

Like Jacob said, I was only half a witch. Too witch to fit in with humans, and too different to fit in with my fellow witches.

I had a foot in every door of the cosmos, and yet I belonged nowhere at all.

Something vicious flitted over Mikki’s features. “I think I figured it out.” Everyone looked at her with anticipation, as if hungry for the next dose of cruelty. She twirled a braid around her finger as her eyes found mine. “What do you know about love spells, Evie?”

Georgia smiled at first and then shook her head. “Mikki…”

I stared up at Jacob, who bit his lip as if holding back laughter. He looked nearly flattered by the suggestion that someone would go to such lengths to be with him.

“Clearly not much,” I said.

I thought it would come out venomous and strong, like a dose of their own medicine. But instead of being a poisoned dart, my words came out all sad and puny.

I shrugged out of Jacob’s hold and walked away, listening to Georgia quietly tell Mikki she’d gone too far.

As I walked back to the house, a pretty blonde woman approached, tall and thin. She moved with grace, her black dress mature and oozing old money. When she saw me, her eyes hardened to the coldest, meanest ice.

Kailey, Jacob’s ex, stared forward, toward Jacob and his friends.

While her eyes remained cruel and calculated, a smile formed on her red lips as she brushed past me.

For a moment, I stood in the entrance hall, half out of my body as all of my repressed emotions rose to the surface. I’d wanted to be the perfect girlfriend tonight. Cool and unbothered, perfectly happy and agreeable.

That vision had been robbed from me. I’d been set up to fail.

I stood there motionless under another grand crystal chandelier. People laughed all around me, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was the punchline of everyone’s joke.

When, in reality, it was more likely that no one noticed me standing there at all.

“I heard the entire administration condones the masked thugs,” a voice said loudly. “And there are feeding and sex clubs on campus now for these heretical abominations.”

“There have always been salacious clubs on campus, Randall. You just weren’t cool enough to be invited.”

More uproarious laughter echoed through the hall.

I didn’t have the bandwidth to process this loud political discussion as I waited for Jacob to catch up with me. I didn’t even search for the source of these commanding voices.

“This is serious. They’re a criminal organization preying off our youth. Etherdale University has officially gone to shit. They’ve given in to extremist propaganda. Something must be done.”

I slowly turned to look out at the back lawn. I couldn’t see the group I’d just escaped, as they stood too far in the distance.

But it was clear Jacob wasn’t coming to find me, as he was nowhere in sight.

Kailey would keep him company.

Disoriented and far too raw, rare anger coiled up my spine like a snake. This was not a safe emotion for me to feel. I had to get out of here. The lights above flickered, and I held my breath.

I walked quickly through the house, terror pounding in my blood. Whispers tickled my eardrums, quiet enough for me to convince myself they were imagined.

When I was almost to the front foyer, a hand shot out and stopped me.

“Are you all right, dear?”

Roger Whitfield looked exactly like his son, but older. His blond hair was shorter and thinner, but his hazel eyes and strong nose were replicas. The smile lines around his lips made him appear more genuine, even as my witchy senses recoiled.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Just need to get some air.”

A lie. I was about to pull the Valentin goodbye of the century. Mena would be proud.

“He’s young,” Roger said, speaking low as he stepped away from the group at his back and looked down at me intently. “He’ll be a good man one day. But right now, he’s a boy. Boys are easily distracted and don’t know what’s good for them. They don’t know what they want, and they’re too busy figuring themselves out to realize the consequences of their actions.”

Roger sipped from his whiskey, taking another step toward me so that we were uncomfortably close.

“Why don’t we go somewhere private, so you can compose yourself, hmm?”

His smile was disarming, all warmth and paternal care.

I wanted to believe the surface, but when his hand brushed mine, the jolt of intuition was too strong to ignore.

This man wanted me alone with him for far different reasons than comfort.

Horror and disgust were rancid poisons in my gut. And the sudden disillusionment slammed into me from all directions, all at once.

This place was filled with sparkles and light and money and magick.

But underneath the glamorous facade was a sinister darkness that was all too familiar.

“Thank you, Roger,” I forced out. “I’m going to use the bathroom first,” I lied. Anything to get him to let me go.

“I’ll find you after.”

I wasn’t sure if I smiled or not. I didn’t care anymore about politeness. This time, when I made my dash to the door, I didn’t stop for anything. Not when the lights flickered again, or when people stared at me like I was some kind of strange bird in an exhibit.

I didn’t stop until I was off the property and onto the cobblestone street, my lungs tight, my hands shaking. I rushed to the nearest shrub. I threw up water and stomach acid from my empty, sickened gut.

I wiped a stray tear from my face as emotions spilled from the cracks of my mental dams, untethered and volatile.

“No, no, no.”

I stumbled back as the shrub shriveled like I’d sucked the life out of it. The bright green leaves darkened and then fell to the ground, dry and lifeless.

I blinked once before turning away and slipping out of my shoes. I didn’t walk.

I fucking ran.

There was something rotten inside me. If I stopped running from it for even a second, I knew in my bones it would swallow me whole.