The Autumn Eclipse

Chapter Five

Tyrese

“Hey Tyrese,” Joanna greeted me as I came around her car.

“Joanna,” I said nodding my head to her and smiling. Still keeping my distance from her, I went round to the back of the car and popped open the trunk. We’d been on a lot better of terms, but I felt I could never be too careful with her around. You never knew when her crazy side was going to come out again. I think she liked that I kept my distance though, she still seemed nervous around me.

“Is Malia here too?” She asked me and I nodded my head..

“Irena wanted to talk,” I said and Joanna stopped what she was doing. Slowly, she turned back to me and when I met her eyes they were wide on mine.

“About?” She muttered, but I could tell she already knew as the worried looked crossed her face. “Her stupid theory?” She muttered next, her eyes turning narrow with annoyance. I nodded my head towards her once again, making her turn back rapidly to the trunk. She quickly gathered a couple bags then scurried down the driveway and towards the house. I grabbed the remaining bags then followed after her.

“Mother stop scaring the poor girl with your crazy stories,” Joanna was already shouting as she walked into the house. She set her bags on the kitchen counter first and I piled mine beside them, then followed her into the dining room where Malia and Irena still sat.

“These aren’t stories honey, now sit down and join us. I’m trying to warn them about what’s coming,” Irena tried to soothe her daughter. Honestly, I didn’t know who to believe anymore and I knew Malia was thinking the same thing. Irena’s tale was pretty eccentric, I mean a coven of witches coming to wage war or the werewolves? In my entire life I’d never met a witch until Malia and her family, I’d never even heard of any pack members running into witches in town, but now we supposedly have an entire coven out to get us? There was something in Irena’s story that didn’t make sense, like she was holding something back, and I knew I had to figure out what it was.

“Nothing is coming, you’ve lost your damn mind again. I knew coming back to this town wouldn’t be good for you, you should have just stayed in New York and let me come visit Malia on my own. Now you’re filling her head with worries for no reason,” Joanna began rambling on at her mother. Her hands flailed through the air as her frustration with her own mother built. From the corner of my eye, I caught Malia’s gaze and instantly knew we were thinking the same thing; how hilariously uncomfortable this was to witness.

“They are not without reason! We should all-“ Irena tried to speak again but with a cold wave of her arm in the air, Joanna shut her up again and continued her own ramblings.

“There are no other witches in town mother, there is no Arachnis coven out to get us. No one has heard from them in decades, this imaginary war of yours is ancient history,” Joanna argued and for the first time since meeting her I realized we finally had something we could agree upon. There hadn’t been any sightings, or even talk of witches in town for well beyond my time. The odd rumour may come up, but they were always more of a joke between friends and never a serious accusation.

“Then why did I receive this?” Irena’s voice suddenly boomed and I felt a cold breeze rush through the room as she stood from her chair. Her eyes were blazing, locked on her daughters, as she demanded the attention of the room. Then, in her hand she held up into the air a white paper with blood red writing.

Malia jumped from her chair as well, trying to create a barricade between her frustrated mother and now irritated grandmother as she only imagined the fight that was coming. To our surprise though, Joanna had entirely backed down at the sight of whatever that paper was. Slowly taking a few steps backwards, her face quickly shifted to the gaze that she had once held over me, the first time we met. A gaze that was filled with disbelief, as if terror had just struck her.

I took a step closer to Irena, focusing in on the letter and squinting my eyes as I struggled to figure out what it was. As Malia sensed my thoughts, she stepped forwards as well and snatched the letter from her grandmothers hands. I came up behind her, reading over her shoulder.

The Arachnis coven requests the presence of Irena Greystone for tea, at the witching hour of August 17th.

My heart skipped in my chest, knowing this could only be from a witch. The scent that came from it rang clear in my mind, the words written in fresh blood. My arm acted on instinct, wrapping protectively around Malia’s waist as if she were in danger. Maybe she was. Maybe we are.

“What does this mean?” Malia asked, setting the note back down on the dining table. Irena was quick to snatch it up once more, her hands gently grazing the paper as if it were valuable. She turned it slowly in her hands, mulling over her words before finally she spoke.

“It means they know we’re here. It means they’re back, and war is coming,” and for the first time since arriving, her words had my full attention. Believing everything she would say from now on, I was dying to hear more. Hoping she would have the answers for the war ahead, because in my mind I was already starting to think about my battle plans. How exactly would our pack stand up against witches when we didn’t even know what we were preparing for. Plus, if there are witches in town, I could only imagine they’d been watching us, and they already had a plan in motion.

Malia’s hand came to rest over mine, soothing my racing thoughts. I took a deep breath and willed myself to relax, hearing her thoughts meld into mine. Just because the coven is in town, doesn’t mean the supposed prophecy is real, it doesn’t mean we’re headed to war.

“So what do we do?” I asked Irena, trying my best to keep my voice calm, to hide the fear that was still lurking in my chest.

“Well, next I go to this tea, and we can form our plans from there,” she said and I nodded my head. But then as she set down the paper and began to clear the empty dishes from the table I felt the slightest doubt sneak into my mind. I could only assume that Irena had grown up a witch, and she sure did know an awful lot about this prophecy. How did I know we could trust her? How did I know she would side with the werewolves over her own kind?

“Don’t you dare,” Malia’s voice threatened in my mind, and across the dining table as she picked up the salt and pepper shakers, her eyes were narrowed on mine. I cursed myself for forgetting to block the thought from her, but I knew she was right. Of course I had to trust Irena, it’s Malia’s family. If you can’t trust family then who can we trust, so I tried to push the thought away and focus on cleaning up. Although, we hadn’t had the best luck with trusting family so far.

Irena didn’t speak of the letter again in our visit. Once the dishes were washing and the groceries put away, Irena and Joanna retired to the patio each with a cup of tea in their hands. Malia and I took this as our opportunity to leave before any other fighting ensued, each of us wanting to digest the conversation we had today. Even driving home, the ride was quiet and Malia’s thoughts drifted off to the prophecy.

“Do you think it could be true?” She finally said, but I didn’t have an answer for her. Nothing about this summer had come expectedly; finding my mate, all of the attacks, finding my brother, losing my brother. I never knew what to expect anymore. So I shrugged my shoulders at her, and gave her a sad smile, wishing I could give her the answer she wanted to hear.

We pulled in the driveway, then as we walked towards the front door I reached down to my pockets, realizing I was missing something. “Oh shoot my phone, hold on,” I said, dashing back to the car. As I opened the Audi door once again and reaching inside, Malia continued to walk to the door. Then I felt the chill that ran down her spine and the rapid shift in emotion. Fear.

“Ty,” she whispered and I was out of the car and at her side in an instant. My eyes meeting the captor of her gaze. A white card pressed against the door, held only by a single bloody arrow that had been shot directly into the wood of our front door. Fresh blood scrawled across the paper.

The Arachnis Coven requests the presence of Malia Taylor for tea, at the witching hour of August 17th.