by Lisa Ladew
Antimony was glowing. A pink, her normal pink, which was different than the other Blood switches, and threaded through with black, a twisting and limitless black that almost matched the black of vampire magicks. Anna whipped her head back so she could see the switches behind her again. Three still did not glow at all, in fact were looking curiously at the others as if trying to figure out what in the hell was going on. Both Blood switches and one Bone switch were the ones not glowing.
Anna faced front again, scowling, magic fizzling in her palms. She faced off with Antimony, bitterness in her heart at the indignity of it all. The utter bullshit Antimony had always spouted. “Your glow,” Anna said strongly, her voice bouncing off the trees all around and the sunset to the west. “The black. Whatever could it mean?”
Antimony cut off more words with a glare, throwing her hand to the sky, pink magic shooting out in all directions and disappearing. Anna threw her own hands up, ready, magic spraying everywhere. But no, Antimony had only called the Keeper’s book to her. It flew from somewhere, into her hand, glowing pink with her magic.
This was the book that Antimony would have used to decree their banishment. The book Antimony had written her name in all those years before. Anna of the Forest, admitted to the cosh. Anna stood tall, shoulders back, magic at the ready, waiting for Antimony’s next move. Anna no longer feared banishment because she would not go. Power pulsed through her, telling her Antimony no longer held sway over her future.
Antimony, the cosh-switch who could be a god or an angel, stood wild in front of her, her face unreadable. Orange magicks swirled in Anna’s hands but no spell of defense or offense filled her thoughts. Antimony’s face crumpled and she flung the Keeper’s book into the flowers between them. “You want it, you take it, Anna. I’ll be back in ten years to see what’s left of it.”
When Antimony’s pink magic released the book, Anna’s eyes went wide, her legs weakening at the new color of the book. The keeper’s book did not order Fate, only indicated Fate’s choices. The color the book glowed meant one thing. The book glowed with the elemental color of the switch that was the cosh-switch, so declared by Fate, so recognized by everyone, shifter and switch alike. It had come in glowing pink as it had always been. Antimony was the cosh-switch, and had been for all days the cosh had existed.
But now, lying quietly in the flowers, the cover flipped open, the vellum pages dirty and in need of a magical cleaning and keeping, the book glowed a different color.
The book glowed orange.
Anna was the new cosh-switch.
She had been declared so by Fate. There had been no fight and there was no one to stop. The struggle was gone, evaporated like morning mist. She, Anna, sweet, strong, maypoled Anna who had never been able to fix anything for anyone in her life was now the cosh-switch and could fix all. One swoop. It was already done, because all knew where she stood. Mating was now allowed. Claiming considered natural. No one would decide for anyone else on that matter again.
Antimony stared at the book, then stared at Anna, a tired realization in her eyes. Could she feel the power stripped from her? What did it feel like? To Anna, the power leaving Antimony and flowing into Anna felt sublime, like a hot pond dip on a cold morning. Ahhh. She leaned her head back and let it flow.
Antimony’s face tightened and she revealed nothing. Without a noise, she disappeared, phazing like a vampire into pink light, all trace of black gone, beaten back. The last remaining twirls of her pink magic invoked hate in Anna like a vampire did. Which to Anna meant one thing. Antimony was no longer part of their cosh, no longer gifted special power in the pursuit of the vampire, and Fate had wanted Anna to know.
Antimony would still kill vampires, even if the members of the cosh never saw her again. But she was no longer as strong.
Thoughts whirled. Anna let them be, turned away from them. Fate would bring what it brought, they would do what was in front of them to do.
Antimony was gone. Scattered to the four winds in that manner the vampires alone could do, they had all thought. But now Anna knew better. Would Antimony be a fight for another time? Anna would be ready but would not seek it. She had Theresa to worry for her and Growler to lead for her. Anna would be strong in the way leaders had to be, pecking at everything, but mastering only one thing. Killing vampires. Which she could not do without her shifters. None of them could. She lifted her hand and pulled the Keeper’s book into it with magic, feeling stronger than she had ever been, a woman of 42, starting her life over, again. Anna’s resynynt weighted lightly between her breasts. Comforting.
Anna tucked the Keeper’s book under her arm and turned decisively, her eyes traveling over the coshtwined, the shifters and switches who had lived in the cosh with her, who would be with her while they figured out what the cosh looked like now, who backed her and flanked her. They were all there. But now they were only fourteen. The cosh was short one Blood switch. Fate would bring one to them, wild and bold and luscious on the outside, savage on the inside, even when doubts crowded. Blood switches were dark and shuttered and even Bond switches had trouble breaching their walls, but Anna looked forward to Fate pulling the woman to them, whoever she was. A cosh that was not full was a weak cosh. Especially if it were light a Blood switch, especially if the hole that needed to be filled was of the strongest Blood switch who had ever existed.
Anna lifted her chin to her mate, her Growler, tears welling in her throat but not her eyes. It was over with nary a blow. She hadn’t fought, and still she felt like an iron weight had been lifted from her, then smashed back down ten times heavier. The switches and shifters, her friends and sisters, all stood there, the acceptance of her leadership written on their faces.
Antimony was an unknown. Vant was dead. The cosh was in change which brought turmoil. And yet it was all very good.
She saw the road ahead clearly, at least the next ten years, until Antimony’s promised return. Anna raised her hands over her head as a cheer went up from her shifters and her sisters, a quiet but righteous cheer, like they could not quite believe what had happened. Like they accepted Anna’s leadership, but feared the future without Antimony’s strength to protect them. Anna felt the fear also, but let it flow through and around her. Things were different in all ways, and if mating one male made a switch weaker in one way, Anna had no doubt it made her stronger in another. Balance was all they ever had, could ever depend on. Switch and shifter. No better balance existed anywhere in the universe.
Anna touched the mark from her bear on her shoulder, and her body burst into a brighter campfire glow, amplified by her dress of magicks. The color built and built in the orange of the setting sun and their magicks. Growler grabbed her around the waist before it died, pulled her in close for a kiss on the edge of the meadow, so close to the coven he had built for her, his own glow converging with hers and blinding them in their tender moment.
When her mate finally released her, Anna recovered for only a moment before she faced her sisters and the cosh shifters, arms spread wide this time.
“Find your children,” she decreed in a voice she had never before used. “Start your bonfires. Build your elemental houses, shape your covens in the manner of your elements. Spill your magicks across your floors. We celebrate until the covens are built. Then we celebrate again.”
Her words were pulled by the breeze, but all heard them. Sisters and shifters hugged and whispered and drifted away, leaving her a moment with her Growler.
Anna turned to Growler, waiting until everyone was too far away to see her face. Some things were for him alone to see. Her rock. The very earth she walked on, he supported her so. “Everything, Growler, you managed all of it.”
Growler growled. Anna pouted. He growled again, his face hard. Her mark and core pulsed hotly. So staffbound, she was, maypoled forevermore. She dropped her eyes. Because now she could call herself what she really was. In love. And because her male loved her back, he knew she knew she had been the one to manage it and he wouldn’t
make her say it.
Her tears spilled. He wiped them away, his entire body glowing orange, his eyes promising he would always fight side by side with her, that he would always be there, no matter what came. That she was strong enough to lead, strong enough to win.
She believed him. Because it was him.
<<<<<<<<<<< End >>>>>>>>>
See Book 1 in the switch of Fate Series here.
Notes from Lisa XOXOXO
Wow, what a fun one! I really really like Anna and Growler and hope to write more of their story someday. Right now I am working exclusively on One True Mate while Grace writes Book 3 of Switch of Fate (SOF).
I had written this and released it for free, but after Grace and I finished SOF2, I decided this book needed to be edited and expanded, and so I removed a lot of thys and thines and doths and added about 16,000 words and that’s what you just read.
Grace and I are just going there, writing this series the way we want to write it. We’re having a lot of fun with it and hope you are too. <3 <3 <3
