Unexpected Allies

  Unexpected Allies

  Cheryllynn Dyess

  Copyright © 2019 by Cheryllynn Dyess

  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.

  Contents

  Dedication

  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

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Cheryllynn Dyess

  Note from the author

  No matter what struggles life throws at you, never give up. For the moment you do, you will never know what could’ve been.~Cheryllynn Dyess

  Prologue

  Elizabeth accepted her fate as the one witch who was to stop her father and his followers from breaking the vows made with the Seraphim that originally created them.

  Edom, her father, lost his life battling his daughter and Sari, her mother, is working hard to ensure that Elizabeth understands why she covered her powers for all those years. Mistrust and secrets haunt the young witch as she continues to learn magic, her innate power, and what she must do.

  Learning to trust her family, specifically her mother after so much has passed, Elizabeth knows that while her mother meant to protect her, she only ended up hindering her. Had she learned magic from childhood she would have been better prepared to deal with the emotional and supernatural battles that she now fights.

  With Jeremy and Devlon still in the picture, Elizabeth is forever on edge. She just wants a normal day where magic isn’t ruling the outcome and she can just be a young adult with normal human dramas. What she doesn’t know... is that time will come but first she must help her people and the others balance the scales and recommit them all to the Seraphim’s vow.

  While she has so many people against her, it’s hard to always trust who should be on her side when they’ve lied and hidden so much all of her life. Her best friend, Sara, who is a non-magic user and not an other has shown her the acceptance and loyalty that has managed to keep Elizabeth grounded but now the young witch must take chances and let her inner grow some more.

  1

  “Did your mom put you up to this?” Raina hissed from her seat behind the table covered in herbs. The air became humid as the woman’s temper flared and her magic reacted.

  Glancing around at all the women, Devlon stuttered, “No. She actually advised against it. She said it was a ridiculous and dangerous attempt to make.” The young man shrugged as if he had nothing better to do than insert himself into a situation where he knew the stakes were high.

  Reba, who sat next to her twin sister, gave a ‘humph’ in response before patting her sister's leg in an attempt to calm her. Looking toward the fairy who stood behind the two younger witches, she asked, “What do you think of,” she waved her hand in the air towards Devlon, “all this?”

  Jewell had been looking down at her phone intensely when Reba spoke to her, so she didn’t realize the question was directed toward her until Elizabeth glanced back and cleared her throat. Looking up, the beautiful young woman paused before replying. Glancing between all the pairs of eyes who now settled on her, Jewell swallowed, then replied, “I don’t like it. While his aura says he is telling the truth, my gut says he’s not.” Her phone, now hanging at her side in her left hand, buzzed hard. Glancing down so she could see who was calling, Jewell looked up at no one and said, “I have to take this. I’ll be in the other room. “Turning away, she walked out into the front sitting room for privacy.

  Sari looked at her sister and asked, “What now?”

  “Do I get a say in any of this?” The young man asked.

  “NO!” All three Fairbairn sisters shouted in unison as they glared at him.

  With his hands raised in a surrender gesture, he replied, “Fine. I’ll just stand here and wait for you to decide my fate.”

  Punching him in the arm, Elizabeth sneered, “Sarcasm gets you nowhere. You did a lot of damage and when it came to take a stand, you ran like a coward. Stand there and shut up.” The heat emanating off of Elizabeth made Devlon shudder. He knew what she was capable of and didn’t want to face that horror again, it was why he ran when he faced off with her the last time.

  Jewel walks in and asks, “what’s going on?”

  Elizabeth turns back looking over her shoulder towards Jewel and replies, “he is pushing his luck.”

  “Just got off the phone with my father,” Jewel looked at the women across the room, and continued, “he said that we should trust him because his aura cannot lie.” Pushing past Elizabeth and Devlon, Jewel walked up to the table where the three Fairbairn sisters sat. Leaning on the table the young fairy looked them all in the eyes, and said, “I don’t think we should. I still feel it’s a risk. But I can’t go against my father, not on something like this.” Hanging her head slightly, Jewel continued, “Devlon has caused a lot of trouble in the past. He’s manipulated Elizabeth. He has rivaled against your coven. But his aura shows he has changed and is telling the truth. It’s up to you three to decide.”

  Sari looked down at her hands, turned her head slightly towards her sisters, and asked, “What do you think?”

  “We’ve always trusted the fairies before so while I don’t want to trust them now, I feel we have no reason not to,” said Reba.

  Raina stood pushing her stool away from the table abruptly, and hissed, “I don’t have to trust anyone. And I sure as hell don’t trust him!” She you pointed at Devlon while speaking.

  Jewel had not moved an inch during this interaction, but now turned her head slightly backward toward Elizabeth. Raising one brow, she asked, “Do you really trust him enough to bring him in for help?”

  Looking around nervously, Elizabeth replied, “I don’t know if we can trust him. But he wants to help, and we need the help.” Her voice sounded urgent, something told her they needed to make this decision quickly.

  “I’m standing right here y’all,” Devlon said while looking around hands in air shrugging, “I have information. I can help you, if you really want it. I know what the sisters are up to.”

  All five woman slowly turn their heads towards him as Jewel asked, “What do you know?”

  Hands behind his back, Devlon replied, “I know how Jeremy got his magic back. I know how he got his voice back. I know what they are up to.”

  The green room that is filled with plants of various types suddenly filled with the scent of lavender. Elizabeth immediately knew whose magic was being used and looked toward her mom. She had used her air magic to help spread the scent of the calming herb. Giving a slight nod, Elizabeth let her mother know she appreciated her gesture.

  With her hand at the small of his back, Elizabeth pushed Devlon into the room closer to her mom and aunts. Stumbling forward, Devlon cut his eyes at Elizabeth. She sneered before saying, “tell them everything. Tell them now!”

  Adjusting his shoulders, straightening out his clothes, and trying to compose himself, Dev
lon began, “The Charles sisters are the ones who gave Jeremy has voice back. They have some dark magic and was even able to restore some of his magic back, even though it was only minor.” Shoving his hands into his pockets, hesitantly he continued, “They want to join your coven. And thought that if they helped to do something good it would make you see that they were good themselves.”

  Jewel’s eyes narrowed as she watched the man’s aura flicker. Sliding herself up onto the table with her feet dangling, Jewel tried to decide whether he was telling the truth or not. She had never heard of someone being able to manipulate their aura, but she wasn’t willing to put it past the man standing in front of her. His story made no sense.

  “So, they thought that helping Jeremy get back his magic and his voice, which is something we took from him, would be a good thing?” Reba asked hesitantly.

  Elizabeth turned towards Devlon, and repeated his statement, “They want to join our coven and this makes sense, how?”

  Devlon responded, “I tried to tell them it was a bad idea. For all the above.” He shrugged.

  Raina walked around the table directly up to Devlon, took a fistful of his shirt in her hands, and hissed, “If this is some sort of the game you’ll pay dearly.”

  Reba quickly came around the table and set a hand on her sister's shoulder, trying to speak in a calming voice, she said, “Let him go. This does us no good. We either trust him or we don’t. That’s the decision we have to make right now.” She turns and looks at the rest of the women in the room. Raina was usually the calmest of the twins and it disturbed everyone to see her in such an uproar.

  The memories of everything that has happened in the past year and a half-flooded Elizabeth’s mind. Her heart broke knowing that she let a man manipulate her the way Devlon had. An inner struggle of wanting to believe she had not truly made a huge mistake in the past with wanting to make sure she did the right thing now swirled inside of her like a brewing storm while she considered what is going on. Taking a moment to look at everyone in the room, Elizabeth carefully considered the choices ahead of her. She so badly wanted to believe that Devlon had changed and wanted something better for himself even though she would never want him for herself again. She wasn’t sure if the pull was from the witch's bond that they had once shared between their amulets or just girlish hope. Chewing on the inside of her lip, “I say we trust him for now. Although, I do believe we should keep a close eye on him.” Glancing towards Devlon, she continued, “if we trust you and you fool us into more trouble just know that you will pay dearly!” Just as she finished speaking, Elizabeth felt a wave of weakness all over her. She began to fan herself and stumble backwards.

  Devlon reached out to support her, “Are you okay?” All four women across from her jumped up at the same time.

  Holding her hand out to stop everyone for coming toward her, Elizabeth replied, “I think I’m okay. I’m not sure what that was, but it fell like some of my magic was being depleted.” All the Fairbairn sisters and the young fairy exchanged glances. It was uncommon for a witch to feel her magic being depleted unless something sinister was afoot.

  2

  After three days of closely working with the Devlon, Elizabeth began to trust him again. No one understood why exactly, especially the young witch. They had spent several hours each day working on the details of what the Charles sisters were up to. Sari contacted Wesley and let him know that Elizabeth had decided to trust Devlon, even though she didn’t. She asked Wesley to keep an eye on Devlon and make sure that he wasn’t up to something nefarious. Each time that Devlon was around Elizabeth Wesley made sure that he was there as well. Sitting in the corner, Wesley played on his phone while Elizabeth and Devlon spoke about the magic used by the Charles sisters to revive Jeremy’s voice and magic.

  A new message scrolled across his screen, saying the elves had eyes on the Charles sisters. Glancing up quickly and then back down to his phone, Wesley clicked on the message to reply. Typing quickly, he replied, ‘don’t let them out of your sight, and keep me updated.’

  Thumbing through some old grimoires, Elizabeth and Devlon searched for the spells used by the Charles sisters. Each on either side of the table in the greenroom, the young witches searched in near silence. As Elizabeth skimmed through the current book she was in, she tapped a page and spoke to no one in particular, “I think I have something here. These two pages shows a spell that can help someone get back and restore magic if it’s been removed. But you have to be extremely powerful to be able to manipulate the spell.” Pushing the book across the table towards Devlon, she demanded, “Read this tell me what you think.”

  Devlon spun the book around and read the two pages that Elizabeth pointed to. His brows creased and his pulse raced. He never expected them to find the spell in the grimoires that the women had in their library. His eyes shifted left, then right, then left again; he knew he had to think fast. Elizabeth was a smart young woman, but he knew more about magic than she did, he hoped that would work in his favor. Looking up slowly at the woman across from him, he replied, “I don’t think this is the one. I don’t remember these words being used.”

  Elizabeth leaned back on the stool, watching Devlon from across the table. His mind was racing, she could tell. She didn’t immediately respond when he spoke, thinking he was lying to her. “Are you sure? Can you be absolutely one-hundred percent sure this is not the spell?” She asked as she pointed towards the book. Arms crossed; Elizabeth glared at Devlon as she waited for his response.

  Devlon flinched when Elizabeth questioned him. Not sure how he was going to get out of this, he glanced quickly back toward Wesley before looking at Elizabeth once again. Swallowing slowly, he replied, “I can only say I don’t recognize the words used in this spell.”

  Wesley sat straight up in his seat. While he had only been half listening to the previous conversation, this last portion got his attention. Wesley had known about Devlon long before they ever met in that café when he first spoke to Elizabeth telepathically. Even though they had never met, Wesley knew that Devlon was trouble. He paid attention to Devlon’s body language while speaking to Elizabeth and it told him to be cautious. His phone buzzed once more, the message read: ‘they aren’t doing much, just sitting around their house.’ Closing out the message, Wesley noted the time, look towards Elizabeth and said, “You should have him leave and let’s go get some dinner. I’m starved and I know you have to be as well.”

  Devlon turned to look at Wesley as he spoke, raised a brow then look towards Elizabeth. The beautiful young witch nodded in agreement and began closing the books on the table and stacking them up. “You’re right it’s getting late. We should eat and you,” Elizabeth look towards Devlon, then continued, “should go home.”

  Devlon cleared his throat, stood up, and stretched. “Alright. Same time tomorrow?”

  Now standing behind him, Wesley softly replied, “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

  Trying not to act startled by the elf’s silent movement, Devlon sneered, “Elizabeth, you know my number. Text or call me anytime.”

  Elizabeth gave Wesley a knowing look, then spoke to Devlon trying not to laugh at his obvious discomfort, “I’ll let you know when we need to meet again.”

  Once Devlon was gone, Elizabeth began putting the books back on their shelves. Silently Wesley walked up behind Elizabeth, sliding his arms around her waist he leaned into her hair and neck, “I don’t like it when he’s around.”

  “You have me here to yourself, and that is all you have to say,” Elizabeth teased.

  They stood silently for a few moments without moving. Wesley turned her around, gazing deep into her eyes, he said, “there are many things I can say, but I’d rather do this.” He leaned in and gave her a soft loving kiss. Elizabeth allowed herself to melt into him. His touch was warm and soft, it seemed to reach inside her soul with a gentle caress. She opened herself to him and they took advantage of the quiet moments alone.

  Not long after, so
meone cleared her throat in the doorway. Blushing, Elizabeth looked up and saw her mother standing in that threshold. “Hey mom. What’s up?” Both Elizabeth and Wesley tried to hide their embarrassment for being caught making out, as they made their way around the shelves to the front of the room.

  “Dinner is ready. I just thought I would see if you wanted to eat. But I can see you’re a little busy,” teased Sari.

  Wesley glance between the two women, before replying, “I had wanted to take her out to eat but what do you have in the kitchen?”

  “We made fried pork chops, rice, gravy, and lima beans. You’re welcome to dinner Wesley, you always are,” Sari said kindly.

  Elizabeth walked up to her mother, smiling she said, “I think that sounds like the perfect dinner,” she turned to Wesley and smiled, “don’t you?”

  At the table Wesley was surrounded by beautiful, strong women as he enjoyed a delicious meal and great company. While on the second serving, he asked to no one in particular, “Do you really trust Devlon? He seems sneaky and untrustworthy. I feel like he’s hiding something.”

  Raina dropped her fork on her plate and sat back in her seat with a sigh. Looking over at Wesley, she responded, “not completely. Unless he’s found a way to manipulate his aura, I’m not sure we have any reason to not believe him, though, deep down it just feels off.”

  “Is that entirely impossible?” Wesley asked.