Chapter 332

Tessa’s POV

“You aren’t even trying!” Esme said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Yes, I am,” I whined. “This spell is complicated.”

“It’s basic wind magic,” Esme said, rolling her eyes. “You conjured a whole twister not long ago I shall remind you. This is way simpler than that.”

“I was under a lot of pressure,” I said through my teeth. “And how do you know if it’s simple or not? You are a fire witch.”

She smirked.

“It’s a spell. I can do any spell as can any witch. Just because I have fire shooting out of my fingertips, doesn’t mean I can’t do a wind spell.”

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I had spent the last few hours practicing my magic and I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I was beyond frustrated. I thought it would have been simple because like Esme previously stated, I did conjure an entire twister. A simple wind spell shouldn’t be difficult, but it’s like my magic doesn’t want to listen to me. It wants to do whatever it likes and it’s frustrating, to say the least.

“Look,” Esme said, taking in a deep breath, before releasing it. “You just need to calm your mind. You are thinking way too much. What’s troubling you so much?”

I sat back against the nearby tree in the hard and closed my eyes.

“I’m scared,” I admitted.

It was the first time admitting my fears. The banquet was tomorrow, and Penny was hellbent on getting that last crystal so she could break my mother’s spell. Not to mention my father was still in danger. If we didn’t succeed in stopping Penny’s plans, I could lose everything in the blink of an eye.

“What if I’m not strong enough to defeat her?” I asked, opening my eyes to see Esme staring at me with a small frown.

“You are not alone in this, Tessa,” she told me, kneeling in front of me. “You have your entire coven behind you. The others have been practicing daily and are really good at what they do now. There is still room for improvements obviously, but they are strong enough to have our back.”

“I’m their leader; I need to be the strongest,” I told her, staring down at my hands.

She grasped my hands, stopping them from fidgeting.

“A leader is only as strong as their team,” she told me gently. “You are not alone so don’t think you have to do anything by yourself.”

“I’m not even sure what the plan is to defeat Penny,” I whispered, tears welling up in my eyes. “I’m not even sure I can defeat Penny.”

“You can’t defeat her. But we can,” she said firmly. “We are going to do what we can to defeat her. We don’t need a plan right now. We know she’s after that purple crystal, so we need to do what we can to prevent her from getting it. That’s our only plan for right now. We will figure out the rest once we get to it.”

I nodded, wiping away the stray tears that fell from my eyes.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

She gave me a soft smile.

“Now, let’s continue practicing,” she ordered.

I nodded and we continued to practice until the sun went down. By the time we finished, we were both beyond exhausted, but I finally felt like we had made some progress. This time tomorrow, I will be at the banquet with Joseph, and we will be keeping an eye on Amelia the entire night. If Penny knew what was good for her; she wouldn’t show up. But I wasn’t holding my breath. Something told me tomorrow night was going to be sloppy.

Esme looped her arm through mine as we made our way back into the house. Before I even walked through the back door, loud voices from the living room sounded, making my heart jump in my chest.

“You bitch! You know I like him! How dare you try to get with him. He’s mine!!”

I recognized that voice as Hannah’s. I released Esme ran through the house and barged into the living room. Hannah was fuming and she was glaring at a very red-faced Laura. Tears were in her eyes, but it was clear she was desperately trying to keep them in her eyes. She looked mortified though and my brows furrowed together as I assessed the situation.

Amy and Derek were both trying to defuse the situation. Derek was trying to retrieve the book that Hannah was waving around in the air. I recognized it as Laura’s diary and my heart sank deep into my stomach.

Laura was eyeing the book, and her face was so red; I knew it was taking everything she had not to curl up in a ball and cry.

Cole and Austin were standing at the front door, watching everything go down. Austin’s face was red, and his eyes were completely fixed on Laura. I knew he wanted to intervene too, but he was holding himself back for whatever reason.

I also knew that this whole fight was over Austin so if anyone should intervene, it’s him. I was annoyed that he was just watching everything unfold before his eyes and not saying anything.

“You had no right to look in that,” Laura said, her voice coming out breathy.

“I’m glad I did because I would have never known you were a conniving little bitch!” Hannah growled, her eyes blazing with fury. “Everybody in this house knows that I called dibs and here you are drooling over him. He’s mine!!”

Laura lowered her gaze.

“He’s not property, you can’t own him,” she murmured. “But he’s not interested in me anyway. I’m not his type so you can have him.”

Without another word, she shoved past Hannah and ran out of the room. I could hear her heavy footsteps on the stairs.

“You had no right to look in her diary, Hannah,” Amy said, her eyes narrowed and disgust clear on her face.

“What is even going on?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest. “Did you seriously look in her diary??”

“She left it out and I had a suspicion she was hiding something,” Hannah said, her eyes still blaring with anger. “I’m always talking to her about my feelings for Austin and she was silently crushing on him and writing about it? It made me feel like an idiot.”

“She was right, Austin isn’t property. He’s his own person and should be making his own decisions,” Derek stated, also looking disgusted as he finally grabbed the diary from Hannah’s grip.

I looked over at Austin to see his response; I wasn’t even sure if Laura and Hannah realized he was in the room. It looked like he had just shown up around the time we did.

But as soon as I looked in the direction of the place where he stood, he was gone.

My eyes grew wide, and I started to worry about the fate of my coven.

I walked over to Derek and grabbed the diary from him.

“Figure it out,” I ordered over my shoulder. “I won’t have this in my house.”

Without another word, I left the room and quickly ran up the stairs. My heart hurt for Laura, she looked like she was in so much pain and she was so embarrassed. I just wanted to comfort the girl, especially because it appeared nobody else was going to do it.

I was about to knock on her door, but I realized it was open a crack. I also heard some muffled voices inside the room and my heart picked up speed. I peeked my head in and I saw that Laura had her face buried in her hands and she was crying. But I also noticed Austin sitting on the bed beside her, staring at her with a look that I could only describe as compassion and maybe something more…

“Is it true?” He asked her.

“Can we not talk about this,” she whispered. “I’m embarrassed enough, Austin.”

He grabbed her arm and pulled it away from her face. She dropped her hands to her lap and her bottom lip quivered. Her cheeks were flushed and wet from crying, but Austin didn’t seem to mind it. That compassionate look never left his eyes; in fact, his face seemed to soften.

“Tell me the truth, Laura,” he said to her, keeping her hand on her arm. He was rubbing gentle circles around her arm with his thumb. “Are you into me?”

He groaned at the question.

“Why do you have to say it like that?” She murmured. “I’m so embarrassed…”

“Hey,” he said, scooting closer. “Don’t be embarrassed. I would never want to embarrass you, Laura.”

“You wouldn’t?” She asked, finally meeting his eyes.

He shook his head and the surprised me by running his hands down the side of her face, causing him to visibly tremble.

“Because if you were to ask me how I feel…I would say that I like you. More than a friend, I mean. Our lives had gotten so messy, and I was lost for a bit when we first got here. But the one thing I can honestly say is that you are kind of like the peace I’ve been needing. You have always been the peace. I’m happier when you are around. I feel better when I see you smile. I like your awkward comments and your snort when you laugh. I like that you aren't a loud party animal. You are exactly what I need in my life. To me, nobody else compares.”

She blinked at him, not believing what he was saying, and I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips.

“You like me?” She asked in a whisper. “But what about Hannah? She’s so pretty… and she really likes you.”

He smiled and then nodded.

“It’s more than that, Laura,” he said, now it was his turn for his cheeks to grow red. “I’m not interested in Hannah or anyone else because I’m already into you…”

A smile tugged at her lips, and she went to look at her hands awkwardly, but he stopped her by putting his fingers under her chin and making her look into his eyes.

“I’m not just into you and I don’t just like you, Laura,” he said, his tone dropping to a hushed tone. “I’m falling in love with you. I have for a while. But my head has been in my ass. I’m sorry it took so long to tell you. It took for a NOSEY coven leader for me to realize that.”

At that moment, I realized he knew I was watching and so did she because at the mention of nosey coven leader, Laura’s flickered to me and she grinned before looking back at Austin.

“I’m already in love with your Austin,” she whispered.

Now it was his turn to grin.

“Good,” he said. “Because I love you too.”

And then to my shock, he kissed her.