Faithless

Chapter Thirteen

Jasmina felt the withdrawals from the necklace for weeks after Aiden had taken it off her. She was quieter than she had ever been as she came to terms with the loss of her new found confidence. Ruby must have apologised over a hundred times to Jasmina for the spell backfiring. She had no idea the necklaces would have that big of an effect on any of them. Jasmina told her over and over again that everything was fine, but she was having a hard time to make it sound convincing.

When it came to apologising to Logan and Candice, Jasmina had no idea what to say. In the end she told them she was under a lot of stress with her home life and it had all boiled over. Candice was quick to forgive her, giving Jasmina one of the biggest hugs she could muster, but Logan on the other hand was less enthusiastic to accept her apology. Jasmina felt horrible for potentially ruining a friendship over something so stupid and she just hoped that one day he would forgive her and ideally before their final exams as Jasmina wasn't sure if she would ever see them again after they sat those.

Luckily for Jasmina, Cam understood what she had gone through, so he accepted her apology straight away. He wasn't happy with Aiden for how he had gotten the necklace off her, but he didn't say anything about it. At least the necklace was gone, that was the main thing. Jasmina still wasn't happy with Aiden either and she avoided him as much as possible.

The rest of the term felt like it dragged on forever for Jasmina and she was glad when they finally reached the Easter holidays. Some students were still gossiping about the mysterious broken window and Jasmina was glad she wouldn't have to listen to all the conspiracy theories that were now floating around the school. There wasn’t any CCTV in the dorm, except for one the main entrance, although something told Jasmina that was now about to change in the very near future, which meant that she would need to be even more careful with her growing powers.

Her main aim for the holidays was to stay out of the family house as much as possible. Cam told her that he would help her do just that, but it would mean meeting the rest of the coven. Ruby was already moving in, ready to join up with the coven as soon as she finished school. Her parents had been thrilled when they realised that Ruby was finally joining a coven of her own. They knew it was the best thing for her, especially when they heard about the hunters in town. Maxine’s parents on the other hand took a little more convincing, but they understood in the end. They hadn’t known anything about magic, but there still had to have been a witch or warlock in Maxine’s family somewhere who she was related to by blood, otherwise she wouldn’t be a witch at all.

Jasmina's family wouldn’t need to be spoken to, if she did choose to move out, she wasn’t entirely convinced they would even notice that she was gone, let alone if they would care. Her dad was the only one who might question it, but he would feel too guilty to try and stop her. Jasmina didn't blame him for having such a hard time being around her. She had seen pictures of her mother and knew they were exactly alike, right down to the violet-coloured eyes.

Jasmina had her stuff all packed, ready to be picked up by her aunt Edith. She was an impatient woman who hated being delayed. Jasmina got to the main gate, carrying all her stuff and waited there. Cam had offered to give her a lift, but she didn’t want to have to explain who he was.

Once she saw the familiar, old grey car pull up, she grabbed her bags. Her aunt parked up and got out to open the boot, but she didn’t say anything to Jasmina and Jasmina didn’t want to talk to her either. She loaded her stuff into the boot then got in. During the week off Jasmina was just staying with her aunt, but normally she was at her nan’s where all the aunts, uncles and cousins liked to gather. She hated it because it was like she was trapped. At least if she was at her aunt’s she didn’t have to go with her to see the rest of the family.

“Your father is waiting at home.” Edith said, as they sat in the car.

“Okay.” Jasmina replied.

“He is expecting you to be around during these holidays. It will not be like Christmas.” She scolded. Jasmina just gritted her teeth.

“Okay.” She muttered.

“Watch your tone.” Edith snapped. Jasmina didn’t bother replying. There was no point in trying to win or anything.

The drive felt long and uncomfortable, but realistically it was only around thirty minutes. Edith carried on to lecture Jasmina about her poor behaviour, but in the end she just zoned out completely. Once they reached her house, Jasmina's dad stepped outside and carried her suitcase in. Jasmina put her other bag over her shoulder, then followed him up the drive and inside. They took her stuff into the spare room. And she dumped it on the floor.

“Aren’t you going to unpack?” Her dad asked.

“I won’t be here long.” Jasmina shrugged.

“Well actually Jasmina… You will after your exams I mean.”

“What?”

“We’ve been talking, and the family has decided that it would be best if you moved here after you finish school.” He explained.

“That is not happening!” Jasmina snapped. “She hates me! You all do!”

“Jasmina I don’t hate you, I’m sorry I can’t be here that often.”

“I don’t care where you are! I can sort myself out after my final exams! I’m sure as hell not living here!”

“What do you mean you can sort yourself out? You’re sixteen Jasmina you can’t go off on your own, you're meant to be under my care.”

“Meant to be, but like you said, you’re not here that often. If you want to do what’s best for me, get me out of this damn family. I hate them and I hate you!” Jasmina muttered. She could feel her head aching, just like it had done before she blew up the window. She kept her hands down and shut her eyes tight, trying to calm down. “I’m staying with friends.” She said grabbing her bag and running out of the room and down the stairs. She got out the front door before anyone could stop her, and then she ran.

Jasmina didn’t know where she was going. She just kept running until she was too out of breath to run anymore. She had her phone, but she didn’t know who to call. She couldn’t get Cam to pick her up, it was an hours drive to his house and she wouldn't ask that of him. Candice couldn’t do anything, and neither could Logan. Which just left the option of going home after a few more hours of wandering around. She sighed to herself and kept walking until she found a small park. She went in and sat down on a bench. There were only a few people in the park, which wasn’t surprising, considering it was meant to rain any minute. Jasmina looked up at the dark clouds which matched her gloomy mood perfectly. She wished she had a stable home and a stable life. But it was pretty clear that was never going to happen.

Sure enough, after twenty more minutes, it was completely tipping it down. Jasmina didn’t bother moving though. Her clothes were soaked through already, as well as her bag and all its contents. She kept unlocking, then locking her phone, still trying to decide what to do.

“Jasmina?”

“Ca… You’re not Cam.” She said dumbly, looking up. He was probably the last person she wanted to see right now, but it looked like she didn't have much choice. “Aiden. What are you doing here?”

“Tyler was looking for you, keeping track ‘cause of the whole hunter thing. He saw you running and everyone has been looking for you since. Guess I just looked in the right place, huh?” He shrugged, grabbing her bag. “Come on, you can come back to the coven for now. It’s safe and warm… And dry.” He frowned. Jasmina nodded, standing up. Aiden led the way back to his car and put her backpack on the back seat. They got in and he cranked the heat up as high as it would go.

“Thanks.” Jasmina said quietly. Aiden just nodded. She knew he wasn’t paying attention really. He was too busy calling off the search party on his phone.

“Okay.” He mused. “So what were you doing anyway?”

“I just… Couldn’t handle being at home.”

“And yet here you are kicking up a fuss about leaving home to join the coven.”

“Yeah I guess I didn’t think that part through.” She mumbled.

“Does this mean you’re leaning towards joining now?” Aiden asked, raising an eyebrow. It was unnerving when he looked at her instead of the road, but she didn’t say anything.

“I guess so.” Jasmina smirked. Aiden just chuckled to himself.

“Let’s just hope you don’t change your mind when you meet the rest of us.”

“Great. You really know how to fill a girl with confidence.” She muttered sarcastically.

“Well there’s only four you need to meet, if that helps. Two of those aren't actually in our coven; they're in the other one, that Maxine is joining. Plus you already know of Tyler, you just haven’t actually met him yet.” Aiden shrugged. Jasmina just nodded, looking down. “Hey. It’s not going to be that bad.” He frowned.

“It’s not the meeting them that I care about. It’s all the rest of it. It kind of sucks.” She sighed. Her hair was stuck to her face and she wiped it away, along with the excess water still on her face. Her clothes clung to her skin uncomfortably and she did her best to ignore how itchy it made her feel.

“Well I guess it must for you. But I was raised in this, so it's kind of different.” He shrugged. “You should really take that jacket off.”

“What?” Jasmina asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s soaked through. You’ll be better off without it. There’s my one on the back seat, you can use that if you want.” He explained smirking.

“Oh.” She mumbled, shifting in her seat to take her sopping wet jacket off and then reached for Aiden’s on the back seat. Instead of putting it on, she just used it like a blanket, covering her shoulders to keep the shivers away.

“We moved back to our old house.”

“Even though I saw Cam die in that house?”

“Yeah. He wasn’t happy about it either, but there aren’t many other places we can go and the hunters were closing in again.” Aiden sighed. “It’s bad, I know. But you did say it was a cold night that you saw, and we are out of the cold weather now, so he should be fine.”

“I wouldn’t take that chance. That’s one tiny detail. We don’t know how accurate I actually am.” Jasmina mumbled.

The rest of the journey they made small talk but it was pretty quiet. Aiden had taken the long way home to give everyone else a chance to get there first. He reckoned it was best to let them get in and settle before taking Jasmina there. Her powers were pretty rare, so they were all highly interested in meeting her. Even Ruby wanted to learn more about them, she just resisted questioning Jasmina because she knew how much she was struggling to adjust.

They drove down numerous country lanes before finally reaching the house. The route felt like a giant maze to Jasmina and she knew there was no way she would be able to find the house on her own. It was bigger than a normal home but not quite a mansion. The walls were a grey stone, rather than normal bricks, which made it look old, but still nice. There were bushes growing either side of the front door. The ones on the left went right up to the garage, which looked big enough to fit at least three cars. The path leading up to the house was just a dirt road, but there were tiles at the bottom of the steps in front of the door. Cam was waiting on the steps outside. He stood up when he saw the car. As soon as Aiden stopped Jasmina was about to get out, but he caught her arm, pulling her closer.

“It’ll be okay.” He whispered in her ear.

"We should..."

"You don't need to be scared. Not of me, or anyone else here. You could back out now if you wanted to. Just make sure you're okay with all of this, before you join a coven." Aiden carried on. Jasmina just nodded slightly, keeping her eyes down.

"We should go." She frowned, taking her arm out of his grip. She didn’t get why he needed to invade her personal space and whisper while they were in a car. Jasmina looked at Cam, but he just stood there, staring blankly. It was then that she realised what Aiden was doing. Jasmina rolled her eyes and got out of the car. She grabbed her bag before Aiden could, then walked over to Cam.

“You okay?” He asked. She nodded, stepping closer.

“I was going to text you in the first place but I figured I was too far out, it wouldn't be fair to guilt you into picking me up or something. I guess that I should have just let you know in the first place huh? Would have saved a lot of energy.” Jasmina explained. He nodded, smiling slightly.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re here now. You want to change or anything or are you just going to jump right in?”

“Change. I’m delaying... And I'm soaked.” Jasmina smirked.

“In that case, come right this way.” He took her bag then put his hand on her back, guiding her indoors. The hall had cream walls and wooden floors. It looked very basic but it was still nice. To the right there was a staircase, leading upstairs, while dead in front was an archway. Jasmina could see a dining table inside, but she couldn’t see anything else. To the left there was a passageway and Jasmina could hear voices being carried down from there to where she and Cam stood, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Cam led her upstairs, showing her to his room. He waited outside while Jasmina got changed. His room, like the hallway, was pretty basic. He had a wardrobe, a bed, a nightstand and a small TV in the corner. The walls were a pale blue, while the carpet was brown.

Once Jasmina was done changing, she pulled her wet hair back into a messy bun, then, she left her stuff in Cam’s room and they headed downstairs. Jasmina tried to ignore the sick feeling she had in her stomach, but it wasn’t working too well. Cam held her hand, guiding her into what she guessed was the living room. It was the first door on the left as they went down the passageway. Inside, eight people gathered, four of them being Aiden, Maxine, Ruby, and Ewan. Jasmina recognised the man who was sitting, watching her intently, but she wasn't quite sure how. The more she looked at him the more it bothered her that she couldn't place his face. The two other girls and the other man, however, were complete strangers. One of the girls was the first to stand up and walk over to Jasmina. She had dark ginger hair that shined in the light, and pale freckles covered her face. She had thin pink lips and pale skin, like Jasmina. She was smiling brightly and before Jasmina had a chance to understand what was happening, she pulled Jasmina into a bear hug.

"Welcome to the family!" She grinned, pulling back as quickly as she had hugged Jasmina in the first place. "You'll fit in perfectly, I'm sure. My name's Ashleigh, I’ll be running the other coven, once it actually gets started. We'll be travelling to try and complete our own coven, but when that happens, I’m sure we will be coming back here to live with you guys." She explained. Jasmina just nodded.

"I'm Jasmina." She said dumbly, looking over to Ruby, who was grinning from ear to ear. She got up and stood beside Jasmina, nudging her shoulder lightly, making her smile. Cam was still standing close by, but he was now leaning on the wall behind them, leaving Jasmina completely exposed, or so she felt.

"We all know who you are, and you'll get used to my fiance's attacks." The man stood up, pulling Ashleigh backwards, into his arms. "I'm Tyler." He introduced. Jasmina c****d her head sideways slightly. He was over six foot, with brown hair and hazel eyes. There was something about him that was almost relaxing.

"I remember you. You helped me at the parents' evening at my school." Jasmina said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, well, I needed to make sure you were the real deal."

"Real deal?"

"Yeah. The frickin' chosen one. Big deal." The other girl whom Jasmina didn't know stood up, glaring at her.

"Sarah!" Ewan hissed, glaring at her. "That is not how you welcome a new witch!"

"Whatever." She muttered, flicking her bleach blond hair behind her shoulder. She had deep blue eyes and thin pink lips. Her nose was slightly pointed, and she was glaring at Jasmina with such an intensity, Jasmina couldn't help but wonder if she was trying to turn her into a frog or something. She was lightly tanned on her arms and face and Jasmina guessed she either used magic to tan or a sunbed, because there was no way she could tan like that at this time of year.

"Sarah, just leave if you can't play nice for five minutes. This process is hard enough as it is." Tyler scolded. She sighed loudly and walked out.

"Don't we need her for the process to work?" Ruby asked, looking at Tyler.

"No it's fine, we don't need everyone for a sixth witch. We will do it for the seventh one." Tyler explained, still holding Ashleigh.

"What process?" Jasmina asked, looking around at everyone's faces. Aiden looked a little grim, while mostly everyone else was gleaming.

"The process of you joining the coven." Tyler smiled.

"What no I..." Jasmina froze, trying to think of a reason why she couldn't join yet.

“She’s just visiting.” Cam explained. Tyler nodded.

“Good idea, I guess. I suppose it would help for you to actually know us first.” Tyler mused. Jasmina just smiled politely but she could feel she was physically shaking. She couldn't even hold a smile for that long. The last man stood up and stepped next to Tyler.

“I’m Dylan. I’m in Ashleigh’s coven.” He said. He was tall, but not as tall as Tyler. He had dark brown hair and was very tanned, which was unusual for this time of year.

“You’re lucky to meet him, he’s only just made it back home.” Ashleigh beamed. Dylan just shrugged. He didn’t seem to automatically hate Jasmina like Sarah clearly did, but he didn’t seem to care all that much either.

“I’ll give her a tour of the house.” Cam offered, catching Jasmina's arm and gently pulling her towards the door.

“Good idea.” Ewan nodded.

“It was nice to meet you." Jasmina smiled. Ashleigh just grinned, then Jasmina and Cam left.

“Wasn’t that bad was it?” He asked, keeping his voice low. "I mean you didn't blow out any windows at least."

“Shut up.” Jasmina mumbled, burying her head in his shoulder. “So are they all expecting me to join up now?”

“Yeah pretty much. When Aiden said he had you and was bringing you here, I think they all jumped to the conclusion that you were going to join today. Don’t worry though. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. It’s a big ask, I know.”

“Yeah. Well, I guess I can use this week to decide. But I’m still finishing my last exams before I do anything.” Jasmina shrugged. Cam nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, so is Ruby, but she has moved in all her stuff from her old home. You could too if you wanted.” He offered. Jasmina sighed lightly, frowning at the idea. At the end of the passage there was a huge study, which had a door into the garage. “This is pretty much Tyler’s unofficial room. He uses it to do his own thing.” Cam explained.

“What is that exactly?” Jasmina asked.

“His powers are Catoptromancy, knowledge absorption and literacy manipulation.”

“In English?”

“Well Catoptromancy is the ability to see other witches or warlocks through mirrors. He’s even learning how to do the same thing through water. Knowledge absorption is the ability to absorb information from people and literacy manipulation is the ability to absorb all the information that a book contains.”

“Sounds cooler than my gift. Why aren’t you chasing him around?” Jasmina teased.

“Because we already have him.” Cam smirked, shaking his head.

"Well, I think I could do with that power in my final exams." Jasmina sighed dramatically.

"How'd you think I got all A's?" Tyler grinned.

"So you used your powers?"

"Not according to Ewan." Tyler winked, causing Jasmina to laugh.

“Come on, it’s a pretty big house and there’s a lot more of it you haven’t seen.” Cam smirked.