Magick (Book 3 in the Coven Series)

by Trish Milburn

  With a deep breath, I turn to face the battlefield. There are some dead lying in the winter mud. Other newly converted witches stagger and hang on to each other. The hunters look stunned, but Milo meets my gaze and nods his acceptance of this ending.

  I stare at the exhausted, injured, filthy combatants as the rain finally lessens to a bone-chilling mist. Sarah and the Bane are tending to injuries. Toni’s hair is so plastered and dirty that no one would ever know she’s blond. Egan stands with his feet spread as if ready for another attacker to race out of the encroaching fog. I’m happy to see my friends still standing, alive, but I can’t find Keller.

  I stagger forward, my feet slipping in the mud, frantic to find him. I can’t have gone through all this to lose the one person I want to be standing by now at the end of the fight. As I search faces and don’t find him, a scream builds inside me. A scream so horrible it will make Fate hold her ears. But suddenly I feel Keller’s presence and turn to my right. Part of the wandering crowd parts, and there he is. He’s mud-covered, cut and dripping, but he’s never looked so good to me. His chest heaves as he sucks in air.

  From somewhere, I find the energy to run. Not witch speed running but a slipping, sliding, desperate human run to get to him. He catches me against him and immediately brings his lips down hard on mine in the kind of kiss you give someone at the end of the world.

  Light spills out of me, happiness that we’ve survived and that this isn’t the end of the world. It’s the beginning.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I sleep nearly solid for two days. When I do wake, someone is always in the room with me. Mostly it’s Keller, looking concerned. Other times it’s Sarah, Toni, Rule, Piper, even Marissa. Once it’s Sean, who looks every bit as haunted as he did the day I drained him. If I could drain away his pain as easily, I would. Yes, he did awful things, took lives. But unlike my father, he’s swamped with remorse and for things over which he had very little control. Over the past several days, I’ve come to look at the dark magic less as power and more like a curse.

  Finally, after two days of being in and out of consciousness, I wake and feel like I might stay that way for a while. While I still feel the aching effects of the fight, I sense that my magic has recovered and settled. Keller is sitting on Toni’s bed, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. His cheek is bruised, and he has a cut through his left eyebrow. He’s battle-scarred but alive.

  Keller must sense a change in me because he opens his eyes. “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself.” I throw back the covers and sit on the side of the bed.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Much better, though judging from you I’ve got to wonder what I look like.”

  He smiles as he scoots to the edge of Toni’s bed. “Beautiful.” He leans across the space separating us and plants a soft kiss on my lips. “There are a lot of people who will be glad to see you up and about.”

  I run my fingertip gently over his bruise. “We made it through.”

  “Yes, we did.”

  After a bit more kissing, I send him off to tell everyone I’ll be out after I shower and get dressed. When I make it to the dining room, the large table is surrounded by people. There are the usual faces, but they’ve been joined by Sean, Marissa and even Rev. Dawes. When Marissa sees me, she jumps up and races to me. When she wraps her arms around me, I tear up at all the time we’ve lost with each other because of dark magic. I notice a flicker of longing in Toni’s gaze, and I know it’s because she misses her younger sisters.

  “I’m going to guess you’re hungry,” Sarah says.

  The mention of food makes my stomach growl, eliciting some laughs from around the table. “Starving.”

  Talk of the battle waits until we’re all done eating. Then I feel a lot of eyes turned toward me. “What was the final tally?”

  “Three hunters dead, two witches,” Egan says.

  Horrible, but I’m surprised the totals aren’t much worse.

  “And thanks to the rain, people who live anywhere nearby are swearing the noise and flashes of light were caused by a freak winter thunderstorm,” Sarah adds.

  “The bodies?” I ask.

  “Taken care of,” Caren says. “Along with any other evidence of what happened.”

  “The problem witches were taken back by their covens to be dealt with,” Sean says.

  I look around the table. “Rinna, Caleb and Adam?”

  “Rinna and Caleb went back with their covens,” Piper says. “Adam had too many bad memories of his and chose to strike out on his own. He left for California yesterday.”

  I stare down at my now empty plate for a moment, thoughts settling into place in my mind. “This was a huge victory, and I couldn’t have done it without all of you. I’ll be forever grateful. But there’s more to be done. Witches in other parts of the world to deal with, making sure witches can never draw dark magic back out of the earth again.”

  “But we have a lot more help on our side now,” Sarah says. “We can deal with the rest in due time. But for now, you have to make sure you’re fully recovered. It does us no good if the white witch burns herself out.”

  “We can make plans to deal with the others in a way that is safer for you,” Hope says. “Fewer at a time.”

  “Are you coming home?” Marissa asks me. I hear the longing in her voice, but I can never go back to the coven compound in Miami. That isn’t my home anymore.

  “I talked to my mother,” Toni says, drawing my attention. “She says you both can come live with us.”

  Her offer takes my breath away.

  “And Egan can stay with us,” Rev. Dawes says. “After everything you all have been through, I can’t imagine any of you consenting to being too far apart.” He shrugs. “Plus, might be handy adding a couple of witches to the hunting patrols.”

  “Sure. We’ve taken on dark witches,” Egan says. “What are a few vengeful spirits and other supernatural baddies?”

  I laugh, and so do the others around the table. I look at Marissa next to me. “What do you think about giving North Carolina a try?”

  “Sounds good to me.” She leans close to me and whispers, “Especially if they have more boys as cute as your boyfriend.”

  I laugh again and pull her into an affectionate embrace.

  Over the next day, we make plans to head to Baker Gap. I’m excited to go back, to resume that normal life I so want. Well, normal except for hunting spirits and periodically converting witches. I’m carrying my bag toward the exit when I pass Sean’s open doorway. He’s sitting on his bed staring at the wall. He looks lost, and I realize I haven’t heard him say what his plans are. I seriously doubt he’s headed back to Miami.

  I pause in the door. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  “All packed?”

  He nods at the small backpack next to his feet. “Don’t have much.”

  I lean against the doorframe. “Why don’t you come with us? Baker Gap is a nice place to start over.”

  He shakes his head. “Thank you, but I need to figure out some things. Maybe try to find a way to make amends, like you said.”

  “Okay. But you’re welcome any time.” I pause. “I’ll miss you.”

  He couldn’t look more shocked if I’d told him I was the Dalai Lama.

  “With all the darkness stripped away, I can see who you are at your core,” I say. “And we’re family. It’s good to have that really mean something now.”

  He nods. “I’ll visit. I promise.”

  “You better. And stay in touch. Remember, I can kick your ass now.”

  That draws a laugh from him, and it’s a very good sound to hear.

  I manage to get through all the good-byes without tears until we stop by Wiccan Good Herbs. I even make it through saying farewell to Adele. But when she walks away from me to say good-bye to Toni, Keller and Egan, I’m faced with Rule. Tears pool in my eyes, making it difficult to see clearly.

  “I don’t want to say good-by
e to you,” I say.

  “Then don’t, silly,” he says. “It’s not like you’re headed to the ends of the earth. And they have these things called cars and planes and trains.”

  I laugh, but a tear spills from my eye anyway. Rule pulls me into his arms, and I hug him close. “You’re a good friend,” I say.

  “So are you. Not only are you a good kisser, but a very good matchmaker, too.”

  I pull back and wipe my cheeks but don’t let him go. “I’m happy you and Piper have each other.”

  He glances past me. “If we can be half as happy as you and Keller are together, I’ll be a very lucky guy.” He leans forward and kisses my cheek. “Now go on before your boyfriend decides he needs to throw me against another tree.”

  This time I kiss him on the cheek then turn away before I start to bawl like a baby.

  When we return to Baker Gap, it feels like ages since we left. Marissa and I get settled at Toni’s house while Egan takes up residence at Keller’s. After the weeks of being together whenever we wanted, being apart from Keller and having adults watch us closely takes some getting used to. I have to remind myself that this is part of a normal teenager’s life, and that’s what I’ve been telling myself for years that I want.

  I’m faced with another slice of normality as the early days of January arrive with abnormal warmth and bright, sunny skies. It’s like Mother Nature is trying to apologize for that dreadful weather during the fight with the covens. I soak in the relative warmth and take Keller’s hand as we stand outside of Baker Gap High School on the first day back after the Christmas break.

  “I still can’t believe I let you all talk me into this,” Egan says.

  “Hey, if I have to go to school, so do you,” Toni says.

  I smile that Egan is so in love with her that he’s consented to darken the halls of a plain old American high school. When he leans down to kiss her, I see the astonished looks on the faces of a group of girls close to the school entrance.

  By contrast, Marissa was beside herself with excitement when I dropped her off at the middle school. She’s had nightmares about Mom a few times since her conversion, but overall she’s happy about beginning her new life here. And Mrs. Dawes finally has a girl who is all about pretty clothes and literature.

  The warning bell rings, and our fellow students begin filing into the building. Toni tugs on Egan’s hand, and he follows with a groan. Keller holds me back.

  “You sure this isn’t going to be too boring after everything else that’s happened?” he asks.

  “I could stand some boring in my life.” I take his hand in mine and face him. “Of course, that’s never going to happen.” I take a step closer to him. “Not when my boyfriend is a big, bad supernatural hunter.”

  I feel the surge of male pride in him, and it does funny things to my heart. He pulls me to him and kisses me, not caring that it’s probably breaking about a dozen school PDA rules.

  “Come on, little white witch,” he says as he entwines his fingers with mine. “We’re going to be late for class.”

  We walk toward the school, and as odd as it might seem I don’t think I’ve ever had a happier moment in my life. My normal isn’t the same as most people’s, but to me it’s perfect.

  (Continue reading for information about the author

  Author Biography

  The first book Trish Milburn ever wrote was a romance. She just didn’t know it yet. That book, Land of the Misty Gems, was a class project way back in the sixth grade. She wrote the text, illustrated the book with colored pencils, even bound it with twine and pasted a fabric cover on her creation. And now—mumble-mumble years later—she still has that book. It was the beginning of her writing career, even if until the early 1990s that writing consisted mainly of research papers and essay test questions and then newspaper articles.

  Trish was born and grew up in Western Kentucky and began reading so long ago she doesn’t really remember how it all started. She does remember loving a little book called The Runaway Pancake, then the regular treasures that would appear in her mailbox from the Weekly Reader Book Club, then books like the Little House on the Prairie series. The library was one of her favorite places. And even though being a bookworm didn’t do wonders for her social life when she was in her teens, she wouldn’t trade her love of books for the world.

  After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor and still does some freelance writing and copy editing. But most of her writing now is fiction, and no matter what kind of story it is she can’t resist putting at least some romance in it alongside the paranormal or suspense elements. Her writing has finaled in Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Contest eight times, winning twice. White Witch, her February 2012 release from Bell Bridge Books, was the 2007 Golden Heart winner in the Young Adult category.

  In her free time, she loves watching movies and TV (she bought herself a TiVo when she made her first sale), hiking, reading and road trips.