Page 73 of The 13th Daughter
"What?"
"Don't sound so shocked girl," he laughed and settled himself onto the couch with a grunt. "We Warren men have been trying to capture a Bishop woman for ages."
"Why didn't you marry her?" Curiosity blazed through me.
He sighed heavily. "She and I didn't see eye to eye on the Coven. She was caught up in the foolishness of the past and I wanted to look forward into the future. We couldn't get past it and in the end and she ended up marrying Ben McKay. She died a few months later."
"You sound like you loved her a great deal." I took a seat beside of him. His eyes looked very sad as he remembered her.
"I knew I loved my Suzie the first time I laid eyes on her." He closed his eyes. "She meant everything to me."
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing you can do, girlie." He sat up. "I suppose you're here for the book."
"The book?"
His eyes turned sharper. "Your book, girl."
My eyes narrowed and a wave of rage swelled up again. It overpowered me. I got lost in it for a second. "YOU! YOU STOLE MY BOOK?"
He grinned. "You bet your ass I did, girlie. Did you want me to leave it there for those idiots to use against you?"
Use my own Book against me? No. That's not right. It wasn't my Book. I'd never even seen it. Why did I think it was mine? Why was I so possessive and where had this rage come from?
"I'm sorry, Mr. Warren," I told him. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I don't know what came over me."
"Perfectly normal reaction, girlie," he assured me. "It is your book. You know that deep down. The book chose you. It became a part of you when it did. That's why you're so angry about someone stealing it."
"It chose me?" I frowned. "How could it choose me? I've never even seen it."
His smile widened. "Course you have."
"I have?"
"Your Daddy, he brought you down to the meeting hall when you were round three or so. One of the Coven members had been looking something up and left it just lying there on the table. You wandered in and walked over to the book. I tried to grab you before you touched it, but I wasn't fast enough. As soon as you laid a hand on it, it grew. It held about four hundred and fifty pages or so, but it tripled in size. Damndest thing I ever saw."
"Tripled in size?" How was that possible?
"The book has secrets that she doesn't reveal to everyone. Only a few have been able to learn its secrets since we stole it from the bastards in Salem. I don't think anyone's ever been ableto read all of it, except maybe Sara Bishop. She was the last true Coven leader we had."
Sara Bishop. I'd looked into her eyes, saw her lips move as she cried out her own spell. She was the last true Coven leader. Had she cursed the Book as well that night? Did she make sure no one could use it for purposes it wasn't meant for?
Jeff said I was born to be a true Coven leader. Is that why I felt like the Book was mine?
"But how did you steal it? Mr. Martin said no one but him or my dad could get past the wards."
"Them fools never suspected me," he laughed. "They think I'm just some grumpy old man that'll snap their heads off if they look at me wrong."
Well, I'd thought the same thing too. The thought of Old Man Warren stealing my Book had never occurred to me either. I really needed to pay more attention to detail.
"Can I see it?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't sure I wanted to, but I needed to.
"Course, girlie. I kept it safe for you. I knew eventually the book would pull you here."
But it hadn't. I'd come looking for Ethan.
He went over to one of the bookshelves lining the walls and pulled out an old leather bound book. It was small and fragile and could have fit in my purse. This was the Book everyone was flipping out over? Including me? Ridiculous. The old man dropped the book into my hand and I very nearly threw it across the room.
