A Garden Dream

by Jea Hawkins

  Contents

  A Garden Dream

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Other Titles

  About the Author

  A Garden Dream

  The Ashland Witches, Book 2

  By Jea Hawkins

  Copyright 2017 by Jea Hawkins

  Cover Art by Satyr Designs

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and not to be construed as real.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  You can keep up with Jea’s latest releases by subscribing to her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cVU-pz or by visiting www.jeahawkins.com.

  Emma was always one to make sacrifices. The problem was the cost she, and she alone, would bear. – Fiona Shaw

  Chapter 1

  The storm lashed at the trees, whipping the branches back and forth in the wind. Emma stood at the window, watching the tree limbs sway, dark silhouettes against the sky until the lightning streaked down from the clouds. Nights like this were normal in the Midwest, especially after an intense heat wave. She welcomed the change. It would eliminate the humidity and stuffiness they had suffered through for the past two weeks.

  The interior lights flickered and she heard the telltale hum of their old refrigerator cease for a moment before resuming. So it was going to be one of those storms? Closing her eyes, Emma envisioned her roots keeping her firmly in place, emerging from her feet to curl into the warm, welcoming earth beneath the house. Just the very act of the visualization anchored her and she felt safe.

  Earth never disappointed, never failed her. It was the one constant in her life that she could trust.

  Unlike people.

  “Is it bad?” Crystal’s voice sounded far away, even though she stood in the living room just behind Emma. The scent of a lit match drifted on the air. Crystal must have been lighting candles as a precaution against a black-out. They did have a backup generator, but finding their way outside from a dark house would be tricky.

  Emma kept her arms wrapped around herself and opened her eyes. But she did not move from her place at the window. “It’s just a storm,” she answered in a monotone.

  The best thing to do was assume that Crystal’s question pertained to the weather and not to the status of their relationship. She should already know exactly how bad things were in that department. After all, she had brought months of lingering pain on the both of them with her thoughtless decision.

  “Em.” The same pleading tone that had laced Crystal’s voice for the last four months made Emma wince for a moment. If Crystal had cared so much, she wouldn’t have done it in the first place, though, would she? No. Especially not as Emma spent all that time at her mother’s side through everything she was enduring with the surgery, radiation, and chemo.

  Why didn’t Crystal just drop it? There was no point in dragging out their mutual pain. They should just pretend it never happened.

  Of course, there was no going back to the way things used to be, but Emma decided she could soldier on if Crystal would just. Stop. Reminding her.

  She smoothed out her features, finally turned to face Crystal, and reached up to sweep her long bangs off her forehead. Even gathered in a ponytail, her thick, heavy black hair refused to behave as desired.

  Like her girlfriend.

  Just how hard was it to stay faithful? Really.

  “Are we ever going to talk about what happened?” It was the first time Crystal had asked outright since confessing the truth to Emma.

  Without even blinking, Emma simply said, “No,” and turned back to watch the lightning illuminate what remained of her once-perfect life.

  ****

  The storm left everything drenched. That included Emma’s potted herbs and she shook her head. There wasn’t enough drainage for the poor things, even with the holes in the bottoms of the pots. Then again, there also wasn’t enough space for a true garden. Resorting to pots was the only solution, but it limited her stock. Many plants did not thrive in containers, even with Emma’s help. She hated feeling so constrained, especially since the earth gave her otherwise limitless power.

  And then there was the problem of her girlfriend of the past seven years. Crystal was already at the shop, which gave Emma much-needed time alone, yet the tension from the previous night lingered. The unspoken questions and answers. The accusations Emma bit her tongue against time and time again since Crystal told her the truth.

  “I cheated on you.”

  She shook the memory away and knelt before the row of pots. Emma pushed her emotions aside and focused on what the herbs needed from her. After centering herself, she waved her hands over the plants. They got plenty of sunshine and fresh air on the back porch in their postage-stamp sized yard. But Emma’s herbs were robust because she had no qualms about using her considerable talents to enhance the growing process.

  A little earth magick gave everything an extra boost. With just the gentlest touch of shimmering energy, everything looked greener and stood a little taller.

  Emma sat back on her heels and worried at her lower lip. She felt so pent-up these days, so full of energy, she thought she would burst. Of course, the one thing she wanted to do was the one thing she shouldn’t do. Or wouldn’t. How could she possibly bring herself to make love to the woman who had betrayed her? Could anything else be done about the excess energy gathering inside her? Making love was one activity that helped to siphon off the excess energy. It was especially effective for Crystal as a water witch since it was far too easy to take in all the emotions around her, but not get rid of them.

  But they hadn’t touched one another since Crystal...

  “Em, are you here?”

  Blinking, Emma leaned back and looked through the doorway. “Yes, I am. Hello, Fi.” Good. Her voice had been steady as usual. No quaver, no indication that she had been caught up in a current of confusing thoughts. She was the coven leader, after all, the earth witch and thus always had to keep her cool.

  The redhead strolled through the door onto the back porch, fluffing her short curls as she emerged from the house. As usual, she radiated a sort of relentless energy. Fiona rarely stood still and even when she planted her feet in one place, she fidgeted. It didn’t discombobulate Emma
, but her connection to earth was strong enough to withstand even the fieriest energy. It was water that proved tricky these days.

  “Did you forget about me?” Fiona asked. “I texted you twice to confirm, but I didn’t get a response.”

  Yes. “Of course not. You know me.” No one knows... “I was just busy with morning chores, seeing to these little ones. They had a bit too much water with last night’s storm.” Emma gestured to the pots with herbs in various states of growth in them.

  Fiona smiled as if reassured and said, “Of course you didn’t forget. It’s thoughtless of me to forget you have priorities other than filling my order. I don’t know why I asked. Is it ready or should I come back another time?”

  She meant the honeysuckle incense Emma mixed just for her. It wasn’t like the mass produced stuff she sold at her shop. The honeysuckle came from the plant in her yard, grown with a healthy dose of Emma’s earth magick.

  “It’s in the mud room. Come on.” Emma walked back into the house and turned toward the alcove where she kept her gardening implements. A thick, wooden shelf at waist height along the wall was the perfect place to mix incense from the dried herbs and flowers hanging from the ceiling overhead.

  It wasn’t a room, per se, but it served Emma’s purposes. Her only other option would be to bring all her work to the store, which had more space. But she’d been avoiding the store on Crystal’s work days unless her presence was absolutely necessary. No need to draw out the pain between them at every opportunity.

  Handing Fiona a small paper bag with several sticks of incense, she asked, “How is Gabe doing?”

  “Great. She’s excited that her daughter is spending the summer at home with us. She can’t wait to teach her all sorts of witchy ways. Kate is pretty talented when it comes to air magick, just like her mom.” Fiona accepted the bag and turned, but hesitated. “Are you sure you’re okay? I feel like something has been off about you since I moved home.”

  “No.” Emma waved her away. Mother figures weren’t allowed to dwell on bad feelings, especially when they led a coven that relied on their earthy strength and nurturing. At least, that was what she told herself when her friends gave her the opening she needed to tell them the truth. If only she would take it… “Don’t you have an article to write or something? I thought writers always lived on deadline.”

  Fiona hooked her thumbs in her belt loops, an affectation she had picked up from her girlfriend. Seeing the gesture made Emma’s heart twinge just a bit. “I just finished one and sent it off to my editor. There’s something awesome about that feeling of finishing a job and then taking a day or two off before moving on to the next project, you know?”

  Emma knew what Fiona meant, though she had never taken a day off in her life. “You take days off?” she asked with a lift of her eyebrow. Fiona, ever the fire witch, always seemed to be on the go. Even now her entire body radiated heat and energy. An observant person would probably notice the way Fiona shifted her weight from one foot to the other, eager to move. She might have finished her work, but that meant she would find something else to do.

  “I guess so, in my own way. Gabe and I were thinking of going to the water park this weekend.” Fiona blinked at her for a moment and then tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, you and Crystal should come with us. The relief from the storm is supposed to be short-lived. The weekend is going to be a scorcher and wicked humid.”

  There it was – one of Fiona’s favorite words, thanks to her Boston origins. Emma laughed and shook her head. “Thank you for the invitation, but I use this time of year to stock up on my herbs and flowers. Maybe another time.”

  Maybe never, especially if she would have to find an excuse for not including Crystal.

  “Jeez, Em, there will never be ‘another time’ if you use the entire growing season to work.” Fiona’s gaze softened and Emma wondered what she was thinking. Was she worried about her? Did she pity Emma? Of course, she couldn’t answer that question and she certainly couldn’t tell Fiona that there was a problem.

  She was Emma, the reliable earth witch. Steady, dependable… Hurting so much inside.

  “Maybe next time,” she finally demurred. “We’ve just been really busy with the store, so I can’t guarantee anything.”

  “Okay.” Fiona gave her a two finger salute and turned to leave the house. After a moment, she turned back once again and said, “What about our coven’s Midsummer ritual – are you up for that?”

  Emma let out the breath she’d been clinging to like a life jacket and nodded. “Midsummer ritual, yes. Tomorrow at your place.”

  “Is Crystal coming?”

  Every time their circle had a ritual, the girls wanted to know where Crystal was, why she wasn’t there. She was, after all, one of them. Or she had been until she showed Emma that her trust in her girlfriend was completely misplaced.

  “No, not this time,” Emma said softly.

  “Why not?” Fiona asked. “It seems like she’s never around and the girls said she was always at the rituals you had after we graduated from college. They want to know why she doesn’t come anymore.”

  Leave it to Fiona to ask such a sensitive question without warning. Then again, she was a fire witch – direct and to the point. Very little stood in Fiona’s way, including Emma’s reticence to tell the truth.

  Still, Emma managed to swallow the words that ached for release and simply said, “We’re just so busy with the shop.”

  A lie. The shop was even more concerning than her girlfriend’s infidelity. Summer had been slow and not in an “everyone’s on vacation” way.

  But that was another thing Emma wouldn’t burden anyone else with, another rough patch she felt she had to figure out on her own. “Maybe next time,” was all she offered.

  Chapter 2

  “Hey there. Come on in.” Gabe stepped aside and held the door open for Emma. With a smile, Emma nodded and stepped past her into the house.

  “I brought some salad.” Emma held up a lidded glass bowl. This was their first formal Sabbat celebration since high school with the original circle back together, and Fiona had suggested they treat it as a potluck. This wouldn’t just be an opportunity to celebrate the holiday, but also to eat and catch up with each other.

  “Oh, salad is perfect. Fiona made something in the crockpot that smells amazing. I’m not sure what it is because she won’t let me anywhere near it.” The stunning blonde gestured for Emma to follow her into the kitchen, where three other women were already milling around.

  Emma set the salad on the table as she picked up the scent of whatever Fiona was cooking. Gabe was right – it smelled incredible, like a sweet and spicy barbecue.

  Putting on her best “coven mom” smile, Emma turned to her friends. “Hello, ladies.”

  “Hey,” Waverly trilled, stepping around the kitchen table to hug her. “This is so exciting. Our first Sabbat together since, gosh, high school.” Waverly’s long brown hair was gathered in a messy bun and she fanned herself, each wave of her hand lifting tendrils off her neck. “Can you believe this heat?”

  “Right? I thought the storm would diminish it, but it only got worse,” Avery chimed in. Waverly’s younger sister also had her hair pulled up in a blonde twist at the back of her head. Her red sheath dress wasn’t exactly practical for an outdoor ritual, but Avery caught Emma looking at her and shrugged. “I came right from work,” she explained.

  Emma gave her a nod. “Working too hard, as usual.” It wasn’t an unkind comment. Just an observation. Avery offered another shrug and plucked a carrot off the veggie tray at the center of the table. The air witch was the most nonchalant person Emma knew. Everything seemed to roll off her back.

  Too bad Emma couldn’t be like that – let everything go. Of course, she did her best to appear to let things go. That was her job, to be the mature, dependable one, the witch everyone could count on in their times of need. Never mind that Emma herself might ever have her own time of need.

  “Okay,
Fiona has the fire lit,” Gabe said, waving toward the back door. “Let’s get out there. The sooner we circle, the sooner we eat.”

  The women laughed as they stepped through the back door, crossed the sun room, and descended the few steps into the backyard. For a moment, their chatter lifted Emma’s spirits. This was as it should be – five friends coming together in celebration of a special day.

  But she hesitated at the bottom of the steps and glanced back at the house.

  As Fiona had reminded her, Crystal used to attend the circles as well. Now Emma didn’t want her anywhere near her old friends. These women represented her own sacred space. Hers and hers alone. Crystal no longer belonged in that precious circle.

  She took her place on the north side of the circle and drew in a shuddering breath. The bonfire in the center emanated a different kind of heat than the summer solstice. It was sharp and crisp, yet it charred at the edges of Emma’s focus, rather than enhancing it.

  Closing her eyes, Emma tried to recite the usual words to open the circle. Words that lodged in her mouth and refused to be spoken.

  Why?

  Because something else was there, something that needed her to release it.

  “Crystal cheated on me.”

  ****

  They had missed Beltane and now Midsummer.

  “Don’t feel guilty about it,” Gabe chided her as they sat around the table with their meals. “If anything, you’re the last person on earth who should feel guilt over a damn thing.”

  “That’s right,” Waverly added, curling her arm around Emma’s shoulders and squeezing her tight. “Forget the ritual. We’ll do the next one. Right now you should just let it all out.”

  It was strange hearing Waverly say that. Like Crystal, she was a water sign. Unlike Crystal, Waverly lacked control of her empathy. Emma supposed that, to an extent, she blunted her own feelings, which made it easier for people like Waverly to be around her. Or buried them entirely. So whatever she had to say about how she felt usually came out measured and carefully worded.