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  Bound

  Book Three in the Witches of Coventry House

  Christina Garner

  cWc Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 by Christina Garner

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover by Deranged Doctor Design

  Contents

  Bound

  Join Me

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Epilogue

  Thanks for reading Bound

  Also by Christina Garner

  About the Author

  Bound

  You’ve just killed the most deadly demon on Earth. Now what?

  Beating Bes’tal came at a price, and the sisters of Coventry House may pay with their lives.

  Now a prison for lost souls, Eden is tormented by their terrible hunger. They crave power, but Eden is cut off from magic, and syphoning from her sisters is forbidden.

  With Eden unable to perform spells, the new High Priestess is questioning her place at Coventry House. And if the Council of Magic learns the truth, they may strip her of magic forever. Only Sarah knows Eden's secret, but with a rift forming between them, it may not stay hidden for long. Desperate for a cure and running out of time, they find themselves in danger at the black market and with each other.

  But soon a new threat arises, and Eden discovers being stripped of magic is the least of her worries.

  A storm is brewing, and Eden is the center of it all.

  Loyalties will be tested and lives may be lost in Bound, the spellbinding continuation of The Witches of Coventry House.

  Join Me

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  “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m complex.”

  ~ Eden

  Prologue

  Agamon touched the mind of one of his acolytes, basking in the man’s devotion.

  If his unjust imprisonment had taught him anything, it was the profound difference between knowing he had followers and directly experiencing their reverence. Being denied access to their worship had left him a desiccated shell of his former greatness, but now he drank deep. The man’s adoration was complete, but not enough to sate Agamon. He would have reached out to all of his followers if he could have, but his touch on the world was tenuous, so this would have to do. For now.

  A seal had been broken, and somehow, she was involved. How Agamon longed to touch her, but she was a human uninitiated into the way of The Blackest Sun, and so she remained out of reach.

  Soon.

  He had resigned himself to another year of waiting—until the next Samhain—when he would once again sense the final piece of a puzzle made millennia ago by those lesser than he.

  But now he would not need to wait. He knew that as surely as he sensed the black clouds of a tempest gathering.

  When he had been corporeal, he’d hated rain. But now?

  Now, I am the storm.

  Chapter 1

  Barely dawn, yet the light was too bright to bear. Eden shut her eyes against its intrusion.

  In her mind, darkness stretched like a gaping maw, threatening to swallow her. But it had been she, desperate to save her friends and herself, who had done the consuming.

  Instinct had driven her to take Bes’tal’s power and with it, the souls he’d consumed over the centuries. Had she had time to think, to contemplate the consequences…

  I’d have done it the same way.

  If the choice had been between life with hundreds of voices howling inside of her—and death—she might have chosen the peace of death. But Bes’tal was hellbent on imprisoning her essence inside of him for all eternity. He was an Av Rek demon. Stolen souls were the source of his power. With that much power, he’d been impossible to kill. Too many of her sisters had died while she’d tried.

  Even an eternity of torment would have been a reasonable sacrifice if it would have saved her friends. But it wouldn’t have. Bes’tal had made his plans for Sarah, Quinn, and Kai quite clear.

  The choice had not been between her own life and death. And even as the dead haunted Eden from the inside, she knew she’d make the same choice again, only sooner. Before Carolyn had died. And Jules, and Rebecca, and Haley, and…

  Eden pressed a hand to her mouth, stifling the sobs before they overtook her.

  Quinn shifted in bed next to her, and she froze, praying she hadn’t woken him.

  The burn on his arm was a gruesome thing—sustained while he and Kai had saved Sarah from the fire that had ravaged Coventry House. And he’d been beaten—first by Bes’tal, then by her while under his control. She’d been too weak to stop herself—to stop Bes’tal as he punched and kicked and… Tears leaked down Eden’s cheeks and onto the pillow. How was Quinn even still talking to her?

  If she were stronger, she’d have refused his invitation to stay at his place. She’d tried, but not hard enough. All the strength she had was reserved for keeping her sanity. She’d had none left over to insist it was too dangerous, that she was too dangerous, and he’d be better off forgetting he’d ever met her.

  Lying beside him, she wanted to run. To scream. To hide. Do anything but be in these agonizing moments. Waves of grief and remorse crashed over her, a tsunami of pain that hollowed her out and left nothing but the wreckage of her former life and the souls of the dead.

  Carolyn would have admonished her for wanting to flee. Would have told her to face her problems head-on. But Carolyn was gone.

  She was gone like so many sisters, and it was Eden’s fault. There was no sugarcoating it, no pretending it wasn’t true. Even accidents have causes, and whatever else she might long to escape, she could never—would never—allow herself to escape that truth.

  Quinn’s breath remained steady, and he settled, his back pressing against hers. The warmth of his body, once a comfort, now only intensified her guilt.

  Her own breath felt ragged. Sarah’s binding spell had physical weight, and it pressed down upon her.

  Thirty-two hours.


  Thirty-two hours had elapsed since the world had shifted on its axis, never to fully right itself again.

  The test had started like any other, the entire coven present to raise the energy. All except Rebecca, but even skipping the ritual hadn’t been enough to save her life.

  The circle had paid respect to the elements and the four directions, asking for power and protection. Salt had been poured, the incense lit, but that too…wasn’t enough.

  One by one, sisters stepped forward, and as the time stretched, Eden’s fear grew.

  Her heart was in her throat by the time she approached the center of the circle. For her, it wasn’t just a test. Carolyn had threatened to bind her from using magic unless she proved her worthiness. She had to pass; magic was everything to her. It was all that gave her hope the world could be a better place.

  That was the weight Eden had carried as she’d begun to weave. That, and the horrible stone in her pocket. Its gaping mouth and clawing hands had filled her vision, and she’d pushed it aside, unwilling to embrace the shadow.

  In ways she still didn’t understand, it was that unwillingness that had unleashed darkness upon them all.

  Thirty-two hours had passed since Carolyn had been murdered trying to protect Coventry House. Thirty-one since Rebecca had succumbed to Bes’tal’s charms. Twenty-nine since Jules had fallen victim to false hope and then fallen for good.

  Thirty-two hours…but it felt like thirty-two seconds. Eden could still smell the fragrant smoke of the ceremony, could hear Carolyn calling her forward into the circle.

  Voices that weren’t hers droned in her head, and Eden fought the urge to claw them out. At least she could no longer make out the words. There were no more demands to feed them. Not since Davida.

  Hot shame coursed through her at the memory of what she’d done. It had been wrong—so wrong. Taking a tiny fraction of Davida’s essence hadn’t been her choice, but she was still responsible. Eden had to be stronger. She had to keep the voices and their ravenous hunger at bay until she and Sarah could find the Wiccan version of an exorcism.

  An oil slick churned in her belly, and Eden slipped from the bed and bolted to the bathroom. She retched as quietly as she could, nothing but bile swirling away when she flushed.

  The linoleum was cold but somehow more comforting than Quinn’s heat. She didn’t deserve warmth, least of all his.

  She hadn’t slept for a day and a half, but she didn’t dare. Bes’tal lurked inside of her, waiting. If she fell asleep, she might wake to find him in charge. Sarah’s binding would prevent either of them from doing much magic but couldn’t prevent Bes’tal from taking over. He’d been silent since she’d wrestled back control of her body, but she would be crazy to think he would stay quiet forever. The threat of Bes’tal finishing what he’d started was more powerful than caffeine.

  Bella, Quinn’s elderly shepherd mix, nosed open the door, her head tilted as though with question.

  How do animals always know when something is wrong?

  Eden patted the floor beside her, and Bella approached then stopped, fur bristling and eyes narrowing.

  “What is it, girl?” Eden reached out to pet her.

  Bella let out a low growl. Eden flinched and drew her hand back. She’d never seen the dog be anything but sweet and gentle.

  “What’s wrong, Bel?”

  And then she knew. It wasn’t what had gotten into Bella, but what Bella sensed inside of Eden.

  Bella advanced, snarling. Eden’s pulse raced, and she slid backward on the floor until she was pressed against the tub.

  “Shh, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” But her eyes darted, looking for something she could use to defend herself.

  Another step and Bella’s face was inches from her own. Eden’s heart hammered. She was frozen in place, locked in a stare with a dog who might rip out her throat.

  For a long moment, neither of them blinked nor moved. And then Bella was backing up, whimpering as she bowed her head in submission.With a cautious hand, Eden stroked her soft fur, fighting back the tears threatening to spill anew.

  When she’d finally managed to quiet her racing heart, Eden crept back to Quinn’s bedroom. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. She wanted to slide in next to him. To feel his warmth and breathe his scent and just for five minutes pretend the world was different than it was. But she didn’t deserve to pretend, and she didn’t want to wake him.

  She reached for her phone, planning to take it to the living room and continue her search for a spell that would free her. As she picked it up, it vibrated with a text from Courtney, one of her sisters who had escaped the carnage last night and run into the woods behind Coventry House.

  Courtney—Alex is awake.

  Chapter 2

  The sun was just peeking out above the hills as Eden approached Somerland Hospital.

  When she’d left yesterday, Alex had been unconscious but stable. While one council member had dealt with the fire department and rounded up sisters, two others, Mikel and Davida, had come to the hospital. It was here they’d questioned Eden about what had happened. She’d managed to hold back the truth, but she hadn’t been able to restrain her hunger. It was their hunger, but for now, it lived in her body, and she’d given Davida a nosebleed when she’d taken enough of her power to silence the voices.

  To do that to anyone—but especially a member of the Council of Magic—was not just wrong but insanely dangerous. She planned to avoid the Council as much as possible and prayed they left soon.

  Eden steered clear of the hospital’s main entrance and slipped in through a side door. Some of her sisters would be in the waiting room, and she couldn’t bear their accusatory looks.

  They didn’t know what she’d done to defeat Bes’tal. Only Quinn, Sarah, and Kai held that secret. If it ever got out, Eden wouldn’t just be kicked out of Coventry House, she would be stripped of magic and held on charges by the Council. Bes’tal was a self-made demon—a side effect of consuming countless souls. He was an abomination in the Council’s eyes, as well as her own. What did it make her that she’d consumed half of his essence?

  The answer wasn’t something she’d allow herself to consider, but she couldn’t say the same for the Council. In Eden’s mind, she was still herself, just…infected. And she would do whatever it took to get well again.

  Her sisters didn’t know everything, but they knew she was the only one who’d been standing in the center of that circle when Bes’tal had appeared. Some of them thought she’d brought him on purpose, and that cut deep.

  Eden feared being forced to leave Coventry House, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t also afraid of staying.

  The corridors were empty as she made her way to Alex’s room. She paused at the door, gathering courage. She’d faced Alex’s wrath before, but this time, Eden knew she deserved it. She gave a quiet knock and opened the door.

  Alex lay motionless. Eden’s heart seized. Had she fallen back into a coma?

  Courtney sat in the corner holding a finger to her lips.

  “She’s sleeping.” Her voice was melodic even when whispering. “Want to take my place? I could use some coffee, and she says you’re the only one she’s going to talk to anyway.”

  The only one?

  Eden didn’t like the sound of that.

  Courtney rose. As Eden stepped toward the now-vacant chair, Courtney laid her hands on her Eden’s shoulders. “How are you?”

  Even when Eden had been nothing but a pledge, Courtney was kind to her. That she still cared, after all that had happened, was a soothing balm to Eden’s broken heart.

  “I’m…” She always replied, “fine” when someone asked, even when she wasn’t. But uttering those words here seemed a betrayal to everyone who had fallen. “Trying to keep it together.”

  Courtney nodded. “It’s all we can do.” She glanced back at Alex. “Brush with death or not, she’s still Alex. Don’t let her bully you.”

  Even fresh from a coma, Ede
n couldn’t think of a way to stop Alex from doing anything.

  Courtney left the room, and Eden stared down at the chair beside the bed. Had she ever sat next to Alex? She couldn’t remember a time.

  “You gonna stand there all day?”

  Eden jumped and glanced up. Alex looked…different. Her coloring ashen, her emerald eyes, dulled.

  “I-I didn’t want to wake you.” Eden’s legs shook as she lowered herself to the chair.

  “I’ve been awake since Davida healed me.”

  “Oh.” Eden’s eyes found the pink skin peeking out from Alex’s hospital gown where earlier there had been bandages. Where a fireball had put a hole in her chest.

  As if reading her thoughts, Alex said, “Haven’t you heard? I’m a freaking miracle. Four out of five doctors agree.”

  “And the fifth?”

  Alex waggled her fingers. “Two minutes with Davida and she doesn’t remember I exist.”

  “Those mind wipes come in handy, I guess.”

  “They do.” Alex’s green eyes bore into hers. “And the Council might not be done.”