Blood Witch_ Book Three - Cate Tiernan [29]
Robbie nodded. “I will.”
11
The Council
“I tried to call you last night,” I told Cal, pressing my face against his warm coat. The chill air swept across the parking lot, rustling my hair. I shivered. His hand stroked my back.
The morning bell was about to ring, but I didn’t feel like sharing Cal with the others right now. I didn’t want to see Matt and Jenna, either. My nerves felt jangled—both from the bizarre events of yesterday and from the awful dreams I’d had last night. Dreams of a dark cloud, like a swarm of black insects, that was chasing me, suffocating me. I’d woken up sweating and shaking, and I hadn’t fallen back asleep until dawn. And then Mary K. had woken me up barely an hour later.
“I know,” Cal whispered, kissing my temple. “I got your message. But I got back too late to call you. Was it important? I figured if you really needed me, you’d send a witch message.”
I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist. “It was just . . . a bunch of weird stuff I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Like what?”
For an instant I hesitated. We were leaning against his car, across the street from school, and it felt almost private. Not private enough, though. I glanced around to make sure we were alone. “Well, first I overheard Raven and Bree talking in the girls’ bathroom. They were talking about trying to get Matt and Robbie to join their coven. I think they want to split us up. Sky is their leader. They meet at her place, wherever that is. Then Bree said something about how she found some of my hair to give to Sky. I was kind of . . . freaked out,” I confessed. “I mean, what does Sky want with my hair?”
Cal’s golden eyes narrowed. “I don’t know—but I plan to find out.” He took a deep breath. “Don’t worry. No one is going to interfere with you, Morgan. Not while I’m around.”
I was amazed at how comforting I found his words. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
“There’s more,” I told him. “Later, Robbie and I were in the park, and we saw Raven and Matt actually making out.”
Cal’s eyebrows rose. “Oh,” he said.
“Yeah. It was totally by accident. Robbie and I were walking around, gathering pinecones and stuff, and we saw Raven practically roping and tying Matt, trying to get him to break up with Jenna and join their coven.”
“Man,” Cal said, frowning. “So you were right—Matt is acting squirrelly, and now we know why.”
“Yep.”
A thoughtful expression crossed Cal’s face. “And Sky’s definitely the leader of their coven? That makes sense since you saw her meeting with Bree and Raven.”
I nodded. But I couldn’t help wondering . . . if Sky was their leader, then what had she been doing at Cal’s house with Selene, participating in one of Selene’s circles the night I’d found Maeve’s Book of Shadows? Was she some kind of Wiccan spy? Did Selene know Sky had her own coven? Did it even matter? My head was spinning. There was so much I didn’t understand, so much I had to find out.
At that moment we heard the distant ringing of the homeroom bell, and we both groaned. Going to classes was not my number-one priority today.
With our arms around each other, we started slogging across the dead brown grass toward school. “Let me think about this,” said Cal. “I need to talk to Sky, obviously. But I also need to figure out if I should talk to Raven, or Matt, or both.”
I nodded. Part of me felt like a tattler. But mostly I was just relieved that Cal knew. I was thinking about talking to Matt myself, but I felt certain that Cal would take care of anything bigger, like with Sky. As we climbed the stone steps of the back entrance, I squeezed his hand good-bye. Yes, I would have to talk to Matt. He was a friend and still a part of our circle. I owed it to him.
“Matt?” I called down the hall. “Do you have a minute?”
It was after lunch and almost time to head to class. My lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. My feet were definitely starting to drag. I would have given