by L. A. Boruff
Will
I glare down at the tablecloth with the little cows on it. Has this kitchen always had so many cows all over it? I kind of hate them. All they do is stare up at me, looking like idiots. Idiot cows.
“What are you doing?” Hank asks, sounding annoyed.
“Glaring at these damn cows,” I mumble.
Hank makes an angry sound. “You aren’t mad at the cows, you’re mad at yourself for acting like an asshole.”
I did not act like an asshole. I acted like any guy would’ve if he walked into a room and found some other man holding his girl. Especially a hot man with an accent.
I’ve never had a woman cheat on me before. Hell, I’ve only had one other woman I cared enough about to mind if she cheated. But Callie? I fucking love Callie. Love. With a capital L.
And there she was with some douche bag, while we were out risking our lives.
"You fix this," James says. "We could've talked through it if you hadn't lost your head."
I turn my glare on him across the kitchen table. “She’s in the wrong here, not me.”
Hank sighs like a jerk. “Doesn’t matter. Happy wife, happy life, or girlfriend or whatever.”
I want to stomp away from them all, but Lola and Hank’s dad are in the living room, along with half a dozen other people. Theresa and her guys are upstairs, more people are in every other freaking corner of the house. So, it’s sit here with these jerks, or have to make chit chat.
Iris suddenly walks into the kitchen. “You boys look better after your showers.”
I grunt. My attempt at small talk.
Her face gentles. “You know what might make you feel better? The chocolate cake I made earlier. Want a slice?”
I look at Hank and James. Chocolate cake does sound good. Damn them.
“That would be wonderful!” Hank says, answering for all of us.
Iris smiles, grabs her cake out of the fridge, and cuts us each a huge piece. We all thank her, then snag our plates and forks and dig in. She watches us eat with a look of pride for one long minute before excusing herself back to the living room. Begrudgingly, I realize that I feel a little bit better as I eat.
I finish my last bite of my big slice and lean back in my chair. Now that we’ve showered off the soot and ash from the fire, changed, and eaten, I’m feeling a bit calmer. "If Iris always cooks like this, I'm keeping her."
Hank snorts. "Callie might have something to say about that."
"If things are the same after I blew up at her."
I can't help the sinking feeling going through me. What a mess my life is. I'm probably enemy number two, second after Callie, of the King. Well, I guess I am. Surely, he’s got other enemies higher on his shit list than me.
I could go to another coven, but that would mean leaving my mother and the woman I'm falling in love with. Or taking them both with me.
At least having my mother under the roof with me kept her sober and me from worrying about her.
A thump on the porch has us all throwing down our forks and peering out the back door. Callie sits on the back stoop. The sight of her blond head sends a rush of relief through me, and some of the tension eases from my back.
Now I just have to see if she’s still pissed at me, or if I can make things better.
"She's safe," James whispers, then pokes me in the back. "Go fix this."
I stand and take a step toward the back door, then turn and look at the two guys behind me. "You know, I lost my temper, but you two didn't make it any better."
They'll have their own apologies to give, but I don't mind going first. I care enough about Callie to swallow my pride and apologize to her. I open the door and step onto the back porch. The night air still holds the scents of the fire we so recently put out, and the smoky scent calls to my tired magic. I’d spent so long in that burning building just trying to control the damn flames, to keep them from killing people or spreading to other structures.
So as much as my flames always want to be released, for once I’m too tired to even consider playing with them. Besides, there’s the whole, apology thing I need to focus on.
Not that Callie has even bothered to turn around and look at me.
"Hey." I pause a sec to see if she's going to shut me down.
"Hey." She still doesn't turn around, but that's enough to make me confident I can sit beside her. She didn't tell me to get lost or anything, so that's hopeful.
"I'm sorry." Best to lead with the apology.
She sighs and looks at me out of the corner of her eyes. "Me too."
That surprises me. I assumed she was still mad. "I jumped the gun."
"I realize how it looked." She bumps her shoulder into mine. "But it wasn't like that. And when he took me to the Circle, he was a perfect gentleman."
"Benny went with you?" I hadn't known that. I try to push the anger aside that bubbles up when I hear that news.
"He did. He said he'd protect me, and I believed him. And my magic likes him."
Is she fucking kidding me? Part of me wants to start fighting again. Part of me wants to tell her that if her magic likes him so damn much, then what the hell am I here for? But I don’t say any of that, because if I do, I’m risking her actually turning around and taking off with him. Even if there’s only a small chance, that’s too much for me.
So, I just sit there burning up inside, angry and jealous to my core, but too afraid to talk and lose her. Her magic likes him. How damn nice.
She must sense my emotions.
"Unclench. My magic doesn't like him the way it—and I—like you. And Hank and James. It's different. Benny is a friend. There's nothing sexual between us."
I want to believe her, but when it boils right down to it, we haven't known each other long. What if she's mistaken?
Callie sighs and shakes her head. "Will, you either trust me or you don't. That's a choice you have to make right now. If you trust me, then you trust there is nothing to worry about with Benny."
My gut says it isn’t that simple. That it isn’t about trust. It’s about the woman of my dreams meeting another guy who might be better suited for her and choosing him instead of me.
But I can’t think of a way to say that that won’t lead to me losing Callie. So, I answer her the way she wants. The way I have to, if I want to keep her.
"Okay. You're right."
Callie looks at me in surprise. "Yeah?"
“Yeah,” I say, but I don’t meet her gaze.
She reaches out and takes my hand, and just the feel of her warm skin against mine is reassuring. It awakens a tiny part of me that might believe that even with her magic liking him, she could still like me. She might still choose to be with us.
I squeeze her hand and pull her close. Wrapping my arms around her, I press my nose and lips to her hair and breathe deep. "I’m glad you’re back." I know it doesn't work like that, but it almost feels like I'm covering her with my love.
"What happened at the Circle?"
"Oh, Will, it was magical." She laughs at her choice of words. "I felt connected there. Like I belong."
"You're going to be the best Queen. The Magic wants you, doesn't it?"
Tears glitter in her eyes as she turns her head and looks at me. "I think so."
After a few minutes, sitting together in silence, Callie sighs. "Go in. Tell the guys I'm not mad and I'll be in to make up with them soon. I just need a few minutes to wrap my head around what's coming."
She's a little forlorn, but at least I feel like we're on solid ground again. "Whatever happens, we're here for you."
With a kiss, I go back inside.
When I go inside, the guys aren’t in the kitchen anymore. I move through the kitchen and into the living room. Most of the people are already in their cots asleep or are settling in for the night. I know they aren’t used to using their magic to put out fires, so most of them are probably feeling pretty damned drained.
Which makes me glad they’re getting some sleep.
Unable to help myself, my gaze goes to my mom. She sits at the edge of her cot, staring down at her hands. She’s showered since the fire, so her long hair hangs wet down her back. In her bowered pajamas, she looks small and alone.
Going across the room, I kneel down in front of her. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah,” she says, too quickly.
“Mom, I know it’s hard not to drink—”
Her gaze moves up and meets mine. “It is, but I swear I’m really going to try this time.”
I’ve heard that before. Too many times. But I nod. “You’ll do great.”
She touches my face lightly. “You’ve always been a good boy.”
I smile. “Lay down and I’ll tuck you in, like old times.”
She does as I say, but as I draw the blankets up to her chin, she speaks, her voice soft and sad. “I should’ve been the one tucking you in.”
I look down at her. If she has any chance of staying sober, she can’t feel guilty. Guilt has a way of breaking her down. “And yet, it was one of my favorite times of the day. Thanks for giving that to me.”
To my surprise, she smiles. “Good night.”
“Good night,” I say, and my chest aches a little as I stand and walk away from her. Around the room, I see so many people. People I care about.
My chest aches even more, and I rub it as I walk up the stairs, still looking for the guys. My mind turns with each stair I take, but the central thought is that I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know when I started to care so much about all these people.
I find the guys in Callie's bedroom, flipping through an old magazine. "Well?" James jumps up when he sees me, and there’s tension in his face. "What did she say?"
"She said she overreacted. She wants us to trust her. And she says Benny is someone she likes, but not in the same way she does us."
James nods and sits down. I know the guy probably has as many worries as I do when it comes to Callie and the asshole, but he doesn’t speak them aloud. "She’s okay?”
"She's dealing with the enormity of what's coming.” Then, I take a deep breath before adding. “Benny took her to the Circle."
Hank's jaw dropped. "Why?"
Why is a good question. The Circle isn’t exactly the safest place for her to go right now. None of us would risk her life by taking her there, but then, Benny doesn’t care about her. He just did whatever she wanted, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter to him one way or another what happened to her.
But instead of saying all that, I shrug. "I don't know him. I don't know his angle. But Callie is convinced she can trust him."
James licks his lips and sighs. "Okay. We trust Callie, right?"
Hank nods, and I shrug. "I'm all in."
"Then for now, we trust Benny."
I sit down and snag the magazine. None of us will be truly comfortable until Callie comes up.
This fast, she's become that important to us. We're not the same without her anymore.
We have to keep her safe, no matter what.
Chapter Eighteen
Callie
I drop my head on my knees. "I wish you were here," I whisper. I'm talking to both my mom and grandmother. I never knew them but having them here would make everything so much easier. "You'd know exactly what to do." A few tears slip out of my eyes and down my nose. “Why does this have to be so hard?”
I don’t know why I’m out here in the dark whispering to myself. I feel like a little girl again, lost and scared.
“Because anything worth doing can’t be easy, or everyone would do it.”
I hadn’t heard the back door open. Fran must’ve heard at least my last sentence. I wipe my face and twist around to look at her. She looks fierce, her long dark hair tied back in a bun, her eyes blazing, and the light streaming out of the kitchen behind her. “Come on in. Have cake.”
Oh, I didn’t know there was cake. I am a sucker for cake. “Is there coffee?”
Fran snorts and leaves the doorway. I’ll take that as a yes.
The smells of the kitchen hit me when I walk into the light. The rich velvety scent of cake and chocolate. I’m not ashamed to say my mouth starts watering.
Fran’s in the middle of cutting off a slice from a massive cake when I close the door and move to stand behind her.
“Bigger,” I mutter. She repositions the knife. “Bigger,” I urge.
She slides the knife over a few millimeters. “What are you worried about my waistline? Cut me a real piece.”
Fran cackles as she carves off a big hunk of the cake. It’s already half gone anyway, so what does it matter if I eat my feelings?
I pour two cups of coffee, fresh by the smell, and set one down in front of her before taking my first bite of cake. “This is heavenly. Did you make it?”
“I couldn’t boil water if there wasn’t a potion needed. Your grandmother used to marvel over it. She said I could make a potion better than anyone she’d ever seen, including her. But put a recipe in front of me and I’m useless.”
I nod. “I can cook, with a recipe, and I can wing a few things. I’m not particularly fond of it, however.”
She winks. “You gotta train those boys of yours to enjoy cooking. The next time they make something, rave over it. Compliment them repeatedly. Maybe give them a little something extra after dinner.” She winks and takes a bite of her cake.
Giggles roll up my throat. “Fran! I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable about so many different, uh, areas of life.” I give her a wink.
“The things you don’t know vastly outnumber the things you do.” She shakes her fork at me.
Well, that’s a buzzkill. “Yeah. That’s why I was talking to my mom and grandmother.”
Fran’s face softens in sympathy. “You’ve got a lot of help here. I’m not going anywhere, for one.”
“I appreciate that. But I don’t know how to get everything where it needs to be. I know I need to claim the throne and go to The Designation, but how do I get there? What happens in the meantime? I mean, I’m powerful, sure. More powerful than I expected to be. But I’m not all powerful! I’m still a baby in terms of skill.”
“We’ll help you.” Fran watches me polish off another big bite of cake.
“A handful of people. Good people, yeah. Strong and capable, mostly. But still a handful against the King. And since he’s already the catalyst, that gives him an enormous advantage right off the bat. How do we go up against that?” Not to mention the power he could command in the coven.
“Many of the people that he commands will be doing it against their will,” Fran says. “That will give you an advantage.”
That cuts. I want to help them before they’re forced to perform magic they don’t want to. It’s a violation. A breaking of trust. I have to stop it somehow.
“Don’t look so forlorn.” She smiles and looks like she’s got all the secrets in the world. “Don’t forget. You can command as much power as the King. Sure, he’s the catalyst now. But you’re far more powerful than he is. And the Magic will listen to you. Your grandmother believed, and I do as well, that it wants you to replace Robert. Who knows what it might do?”
My jaw drops. “How?”
“Call a town meeting. Claim your inheritance. Many people will follow you. They will declare their allegiance to you. The King has many enemies, especially with all the kidnapping he’s been doing.”
“Won’t he kill me if I reveal myself?”
“No. He won’t be able to in a situation like that.”
I breathe deep, then gobble up the rest of my cake. “Let’s do it.”
“When, child?” Fran’s eyes light up like it’s Christmas morning.
“As soon as possible.”
Fran jumps to her feet. “As you wish.” Then, turns, grabs her coat and puts it
on, and heads out the back door before it hits me what she’s doing.
I guess it’s going to be soon.
Chapter Nineteen
Hank
Callie’s steps on the stairs have all of us sitting up straight. Will said she wasn’t mad, and we’d made the decision to trust her. We’d long ago decided we are on her side and would see this through, but this is more personal. We’re trusting her with our hearts.
Ugh, so corny. But true.
“Fran left,” Callie says. She walks into the room. “To arrange a town meeting at the Circle.”
James and Will look as shocked as I feel. “When?”
She shrugs. “I just told her as soon as possible.”
All three of us try to speak at once. “It’s too dangerous,” I say. “It’s too soon.”
She holds up her hands. “The solstice is a few weeks away. What better time?”
“But you’ll be exposed!” James looks terrified. I can’t blame him.
“That has to happen. We have to go head-to-head eventually. I can’t hide forever, or what’s the point of all this?”
She’s right, of course, but that doesn’t mean it has to happen now. “Callie, think about the timing. Shouldn’t you do it sooner to the solstice? Like the day before?”
Her tinkling laugh fills the room. We scoot around on the bed so she can climb up with us. We’re all cross-legged, in a circle. I lean forward and take her hand. “We don’t want you hurt.”
She looks more confident than she has so far as she squeezes my hand and takes Hank’s. “If I wait too long, it won’t give the coven time to choose a side. It’s going to help me tremendously, help me survive, if I have people on my side.”
I believe most of the coven will want her as the Catalyst. They hate the King. “It’s happening so fast; I don’t know how to react.”
“Guys, this boils down to one thing. It’s my choice. Not yours. You’re by my side, and I don’t take that lightly, but I believe this is right. It feels right.”
We’re all silent for a long minute. I know they want to argue more as badly as I do, but the problem is that she’s right. If she’s going to be queen, she’s going to have to learn how to make her own decisions, and to deal with the consequences.
