by S. L. Baum
“How horrid, Miss Anne. Him’s just ruint me letters. Me name peers to be E-L-I-Z-A cos him’s ruint me B-E-T-H! Lookie, Miss Anne!” she exclaimed and turned her doll around to face the smudged earth.
Silas stopped in his tracks. The child couldn’t have been more than four or five years old. She had a drunk for a father, no mother in sight, but was quite obviously bright beyond her years. It was then that he received the first flash. Not only was the child extraordinary with her mind, she would become a powerful Witch.
“Our apologies, Eliza,” Percy chuckled.
“Elizabeth,” she corrected in a huff, turning her back to the two companions in indignation. “Miss Anne, sing me a song,” she whispered to her doll while she placed it in her lap.
The child reached behind her head to straighten the faded blue ribbon holding her messy hair back from her face; all thoughts of her ruined handiwork seemed banished from her mind.
As the two men continued on their way down the street, Silas noted that she was humming a familiar melody. He suddenly remembered his own mother singing the very same song to him as a young boy.
Cast your cares away, my child.
Cast your cares away.
Be merry, eat, and drink, my child.
‘Tis time to dance and play.
But ‘member when the wind is wild,
The Caster’s not far away.
Silas told himself to watch Elizabeth and to find out more about her worthless father and her absent mother. His one flash of her future glimpsed a scene from years in the future, with the little girl having grown into a beautiful young woman. In the vision she was practicing her powers with Silas at her side. And a gratified smile was spread across both of the Witches’ faces. Their future was intertwined somehow, but he wouldn’t know the details until future visions arrived.
***
Read an excerpt from:
Our Summer of Discontent
(The Immortal Ones – Book Three)
chapter one
STARTING POINT
“C’mon, Marcus, will you just do me? You know you are amazing at it. Just… Please!”
We could all hear Eve’s desperate plea, from down the hall.
“Why do I always have to do you?” Marcus shot back. “You can do yourself better than I can.”
“Liar. Plus, it makes my arms ache. Please, baby, just do it,” Eve begged.
“Ugh! Fine. Come here. The things I do for love,” Marcus groaned.
“Can you do me next?” Catherine called out.
“Then me,” Lizabelle chimed in.
“Me too,” Summer giggled, beside me.
“And me,” I finished, snorting loudly.
I covered my mouth with both hands in an attempt to muffle the sound of my amusement, but Catherine, Lizabelle, and Summer quickly joined in. Our uncontrolled laughter drifted down the hall and echoed throughout the house.
Summer gripped her chest, trying to catch her breath. “He is sooo gonna kill us.”
At that same moment, Marcus came charging down the hall, pointing a finger at me. “Charity, love,” he sneered. “I would like to tell you how very much I despise you at this moment. You grabbed this particular power on purpose… to torment me,” Marcus accused.
“Oh, yeah, right! I’m half out of my mind, desperately trying to keep everyone I love alive, knowing that I have to get your powers back inside you, before you DIE, and I stopped to think… Hmmm which powers should I grab? Oh, I know, the hair curling power, because that’ll drive Marcus crazy. Yeah, that sounds about right!” I raised my eyebrows, and nodded my head.
“Whatever!” Marcus exasperated.
“Marcus, darling, love of my life, it takes you less than two minutes to do my hair. In the time it took you to argue and stomp your feet like a child you could have curled every strand of hair in this room. Now be a good boy and make us pretty,” Eve scolded him with a soothing tone.
“Fine. But I am not touching your hair, Charity. You know, as well as I do, and everyone else here for that matter, that you can change your appearance in the blink of an eye. Curl your own hair,” Marcus groused.
“Somebody’s crabby today,” Summer whispered.
Marcus cut his eyes at Summer. “May I remind you, mortal, that somebody is not a hair dresser?”
“Ah, but the first time you curled all of our hair and we loved it, you became one,” Catherine reasoned.
I closed my eyes and whispered a spell, quietly repeated the phrase that had popped into my head, like so many others had during the past few months since I’d become The Caster. Summer stared at me with amazement shining in her eyes as the strands of my hair turned from the blue-black color, which had come with the role of Caster, to a bright, pale shade of blonde… it started at my scalp and cascaded down to the tip of each and every strand. She clapped her hands in delight as I smoothed my newly colored coif.
I winked at Marcus, who was still scowling at me. “I didn’t want it curled, anyway,” I smiled. “And, I’ve decided to test the blonde theory.”
“Big, bouncy spirals,” Eve instructed, as she tugged Marcus’s arm and dragged him back to their bedroom.
**********
Table of Contents
prologue
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter one
chapter one
