AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He flicked his wrist, and the ghosts all came to a complete halt. The anger melted off their faces. Their features turned blank, and not a single ghost moved. Leto was strong enough to control them all.
“I must say, I’m impressed with your magic, Priestess,” Leto practically sang to Charlotte. “My spells tend to make my puppets a bit stronger than average. It takes an impressive spell to take them down.”
“I won’t let you keep doing this,” Charlotte said in a strained voice.
Leto laughed. “Break your contract all you want. I have others in place that will ensure I can continue my work here.”
“You told Lilian the old contract was void,” Charlotte accused. “You tricked us into a new contract, so that if one was broken, the other remained.”
“I’m a man of my word,” Leto said. “I believe I mentioned there were certain aspects that had been voided. Jebediah, for instance… well, that man unlocked a lot of potential for me. When Lilian found out the Oaken Wands were missing all those years ago, she summoned me to track them down. I found the Mentalist Wand and a man to wield its power.”
I eyed the wand he held, and I noticed a familiar symbol on the handle—the twisted tree of a Mentalist. He’d had an Oaken Wand all this time!
“When he killed that priest, I was golden,” Leto continued. “The contract stated I was free to do as the coven would do against its own. If they were capable of murder, well… so was I.”
“That’s how Jeb got his hands on the Mentalist Wand that killed my grandfather,” I accused. “You gave it to him.”
“Of course I did.” Leto laughed. “He was intent on killing the man, and I was hungry for death.”
“You’ve had it all along,” Chloe said in a strained voice as she fought against the spell. “Everyone thought my family kept the Wand after the murder, but you took it! That’s why the Olsons never knew what happened to it.”
Leto smiled proudly. “Yes. This Wand and I have been working together for quite some time.”
“Your contract requires you to hand that over to the priestesses,” Charlotte said.
Leto smirked. “I was contracted to unite the Oaken Wands. I didn’t have to hand over anything until all five Wands were found. And of course, I was going to hold on to this one for as long as I could. This wand is mine. It chose me.”
“Oaken Wands can’t choose demons!” Grant spat. “You’re not a Mentalist. You can’t use it!”
“What do you know of Oaken Wands?” Leto demanded. “You forget that your power originated from demons themselves. My magic is compatible as long as the Wand wants to work with me.”
“You talk as if the Wands are sentient,” Chloe said. “How could they choose someone who would hurt the coven the way you have?”
“You think they owe allegiance to you just because you created them?” Leto laughed. “This Wand knew I was of exceptional power. It wanted to be used. And used her, I did.”
The Alchemy Wand and the Seer Wand may have only chosen those with good intentions—those who’d proven themselves—but if the Wands were sentient, it meant they had different motives.
“The Mentalist Wand messes with the mind,” Leto continued. “She likes getting into the heads of my little puppets. She wanted me to influence them. And the way she did it was so… powerful. Your professor here had no idea what he was doing. The only one who really caught on was that student years ago… what was his name? Walsh?”
“Clyde Walsh?” Lucas asked through gritted teeth. I recognized the name. He’d been driving The Hearse the night it crashed.
“Yes,” Leto said brightly. He was enjoying parading his pride. “After Jeb murdered that priest, it unlocked a few things in my contract. I was able to kill as I pleased. Clyde was merely an innocent student who needed materials for his wand class. I gave him the wand with the inscription on it, and he carried out my will to perfection. He killed that awful female professor, who’d been working with the priest to hide the Oaken Wands. She wouldn’t tell me where he’d hidden them, so of course she had to go. Poisoned, by the student’s own brew! He must’ve realized something was wrong, because he pawned the wand to that shop owner.”
“And you killed Adrik for kicks!” Talia shouted.
Leto flicked his Wand again, forcing Talia’s jaw shut. “I took advantage of an opportunity! Walsh figured out the wand was cursed and that the priestesses were involved, so he stole it from the shop and mailed it to the priestess to send a message. It’s his fault I was ever banished, so I had to deal with him when I returned.”
“You killed all those people in The Hearse Tragedy to get to one man,” Lucas spat.
Leto laughed. “I killed those people because it was fun!”
“You never should’ve been able to kill so many people,” Charlotte growled.
“I knew what I was doing when we struck a deal,” Leto said proudly. “Lilian summoned me because she knew I’d found the Mentalist Wand before, and she knew I could do it again. You priestesses were so desperate for the Wands that you’d risk any number of lives. And you could, because you preside over the coven and could make a deal for them all. You had the power to trade for the coven’s souls, and you just gave them up freely.”
Leto approached Lucas and ran the tip of the Wand over his jawline. It was a threat that he could end him at any second. “I’ve had so much fun playing with the coven—and you especially, Lucas. Watching you scramble to find clues was entertaining. I watched you struggle to fix that music box of yours, which I’d cast a curse on—thank you again, Professor Warbright. I especially loved when you tried tracking down my contract. What a pathetic little spell that was. But I’m bored now, and I’m ready to ascend to my full power. The entire coven shall die at my hand, and I will possess all five Oaken Wands. All the power of the Miriamic Coven will be mine. The gods will welcome me into their ranks, and Octavia Falls will be nothing more than a forgotten ghost town.”
Leto took a step back and pointed the Mentalist Wand at Lucas’s chest.
