The Second Covenant

So once I’d told everyone about my vision, after much growling, the mothers arrived. And not one name on their list was Andrew, Addison, Adler, or any other name you could shorten to Addy. “Great.” I muttered, my cheek resting on Tristan’s shoulder. Druex was pacing. “Don’t worry honey. We’ll keep looking.” I smiled at my mother. “You did really good though mom. Now we know who it’s not. But maybe…” I perked up a little bit. “I’ll be right back, I’ve got to get something from the attic.”

Druex frowned at me. “I can get it, you’re tired again. What do you need?” I smiled at him and stood up. “I’m fine. It’ll just take a minute.” I left, feeling myself doing that boneless glide, even my loose braid seemed to swish back and forth, like a tail. It made me smile as I climbed the stairs, and caught sight of Druex, Tristan, Riley and Peyton all leaning out the door to watch me. Walk up the stairs. “She’s never walked like that in her life.” Riley said in a whisper. “Like what?” Druex hissed back. “A woman.” Riley answered.

I rolled my eyes and heard someone’s head get whacked. “She is a woman.” Ah, Aunt Paige. “I know that, I just meant….” The rest of that was lost to my ears as I took the last flight of stairs to the attic room where I worked. I gathered up sage, a two toned blue and white candle, some salt, a bit of charcoal and a square of linen paper. I was being watched very closely when I walked back into the room, mainly by my father and Peyton.

My mother just smiled a bit mistily and I put my things down on the coffee table. “The mothers missed this mornings events. So how bout you all sit.” They raised their brows but sat and I knelt facing them, the coffee table between us. “So I’m ah…going to call up a spirit.” Aunt Lisa put her chin in her hand and narrowed her eyes at me. “Like a séance? I didn’t know that was your thing Cherish.” I smiled. “It’s not. Séance is letting the dead speak through you, this is not so dangerous. She’ll speak for herself. Maybe.”

I wrote Elizabeth Proctor’s name on the parchment and had the salt on hand, just in case. “I did this before, but it was more of a general call.” I explained for my mother and the other three. The men were all standing patiently. Waiting.

I struck a match and lit the candle, touching the corner of the paper to the flame. “Hear these words, Hear my cry. Spirit from the other side, I summon thee Cross now the Great Divide.”

The flame of the candle flickered and then light circled the candle, growing until a young woman, sweet and beautiful as ever, floated above the table, her hair blown by some invisible wind. “Elizabeth.” She nodded slowly. ‘Danvers. You’re a Danvers.’ I nodded and she sighed. ‘He’ll be so angry at you for calling me.’

I put my hands on my knees and lifted my brows. “Addy?”
Elizabeth nodded. ‘Yes, he doesn’t like it when I talk to the Others.’
“Others?”
Elizabeth looked around the room, pausing on the wolves with an unsure frown. ‘Others, psychics, witches, anyone with the power to call me.’

I wanted to reach out and touch her, comfort the sadness shining in her pretty brown eyes. “Why is your Addy after my daughter?”

Elizabeth looked at my father and lifted her thin shoulders. ‘I don’t know.’

“What’s Addy’s full name?” Pogue asked and Elizabeth’s lower lip trembled.

‘I don’t know. He was always just Addy to me. He found me playing in the meadow, I was sitting with a fox kit in my lap. He was so nice, promised not to tell anyone.’

“That you were a witch?” I asked and she nodded.

‘But he lied.’ Her eyes welled up with ghostly tears. ‘I don’t know why he wouldn’t help me. They even threw holy water on me. Nothing happened. All he had to say was, she‘s not Evil.’ Anger blossomed on the young face. ‘I’m not evil, I never was.’

I soothed her with a smile. “No, of course you weren’t. Can I ask you something?”

The ghost of Elizabeth Proctor nodded. “It sounds silly, but when Addy came to visit you, what did he wear?”
Elizabeth shrugged. ‘The robes of his office. Black with white lapels.’
“Good, was he a Magistrate?” She nodded and then a smile, a rather cold smile spread across her lips.
‘Aye, the most handsome thing you ere saw. But we cursed him. To know only suffering, only pain for the innocent lives he took. And it held true, everything he touched became swallowed by the curse. He died childless, and alone.’

Lisa was writing all of this down on a pad of paper. Her eyes fixed on the luminescent spirit, but writing furiously. “We, your Coven?”

Elizabeth nodded but got a far away look in her eyes. ’I speak the truth, I dare not tell lies…’
She sounded like she was murmuring a spell, but it was something else…
’God hates the Lords of Salem. But no one can destroy them.’
She looked down on me with that eerie smile, her eyes intently fixed on me. ‘It was his mission, to rid the world of Evil.’
Her laugh was soft and she bent to whisper, right next to my ear, sent chills racing up and down my spin.
‘No matter how many he accused, burned, killed, you and yours survived. And it galls him still. He knew who your people were, but had no means to accuse them. For they were the Lords of Salem. We fear in others, what we hate most in ourselves.’

She drew back and I sat there blinking.
‘I have to go now. If I stay any longer he’ll know. He always knows.’
She said with a grimace and in a lovely trickle of light, Elizabeth Proctor vanished.
“What’d she say to you?” Tristan asked and I looked to my father with a frown. “That whoever Addy was, knew about our Covenant. But didn’t have the proof to expose us. She called them the Lords of Salem.”