by Amber Lynn
Amber Lynn
Copyright © 2015 Amber Lynn
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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 Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Warning: Reader discretion is advised due to sexual content.
Table of Contents
Prologue
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
Epilogue
Prologue
Five years ago
From a young age, I was different and essentially alone in the world. At one point in my life, a bit after I’d turned thirty, I started to feel a pull. By that point, I’d burned every bridge I’d crossed, some quite literally, and the tug to travel in a certain direction seemed like the only thing I had going for me.
That was how I ended up in my late forties in a town next to a big lake. I wasn’t particularly fond of water, but something about the place settled something inside of me. I still felt the urges to bring the power fighting for control to the surface, but I held back.
I’d been fighting it since I realized it wasn’t right to be able to move things with your mind or see things before they happened. There were other things I could do, but those were the ones people noticed. Well, those and the way I played with fire. People didn’t like being around me when a fire was involved.
I’d been in town for a few weeks, but I hadn’t spoken to anyone other than the real estate agent who’d helped me buy my house and cashiers at the various stores I had to visit to furnish said house. Not hitting it off with people was something I was used to.
In fact, I’d never had a real friend, only the poor kids growing up who my parents forced to come to birthday parties. I always felt sorry for those kids. I wouldn’t have wanted to be friends with me either.
Sitting alone in a small courtyard next to the library in town, I pondered where my life was going. Libraries were like second homes to me. I loved reading, and the help wanted sign on the front door had brought me straight to that one. I didn’t even have to do any convincing with the older woman who’d been interviewing people for the job.
She pretty much hired me without asking a single question other than my name. It made me feel a little bit like destiny was at play, making me notice the sign. I’d never bothered establishing roots, because I’d always let my emotions take over and cause accidents that made it imperative that I find a new location. I imagined if people got to know me, they’d consider me a gypsy of sorts.
During my more reckless days with the powers inside of me running strong, I’d accumulated enough money that I didn’t need to work. I didn’t like thinking about exactly what that meant, but when I got bored, things like robbing banks seemed like fun diversions.
With that kind of money, I didn’t have to think about settling down and planning out a life. When you couldn’t be around people without eventually hurting them, you didn’t really have much of a life to consider.
In the quiet little courtyard, I wondered if it was possible for me to actually make a new life for myself. There had to be rules in place to make sure I kept under control. I couldn’t tell myself that using my magic abilities was off limits. I’d tried that before, and not using them only made things worse.
So I told myself that I could use them on Fridays, with the goal in mind to not use them at all. That was a good first step. My mind began turning to other things I could do, but I was interrupted from my train of thought.
“Something told me I was going to meet you today. I’ve known you moved to town for a week, but pinning down where you were hiding has been difficult. Thankfully, the cards told me today was the day, and the cards never lie.”
I looked up at the women who’d dared disturb my planning session. The first thing I noticed was that she wasn’t very tall, so I didn’t have to look very far. The next thing that stuck out was a little kink in her nose. Her otherwise flawless face made the imperfection stick out a little. In my opinion it made something that could’ve been boring interesting.
“Can I help you?”
I was sure she had the wrong person, and I had no clue what cards she was talking about. The fact that I’d recently moved was the only part of her statement that could’ve indicated she’d found the right person.
Being new to town, I hadn’t taken a lot of notice of the other residents. I was fairly certain we hadn’t crossed paths, but there was a chance I’d smiled at her in the grocery store. I found quite a few people took the action to mean we were suddenly acquaintances.
“I’m Abigail, but since we’re going to be best friends, you can call me Abbie. Your name is a little less clear, but I’m thinking it’s Karen or maybe Kendra. I know it starts with a K.”
“How do you know that?” I asked as I studied her some more.
Unless the mousy colored hair woman was best friends with the real estate agent I’d used, or the librarian I’d just met, there was no reason for her to know my name. It wasn’t Friday, and I’d just made myself a promise, so I didn’t use my abilities to try to figure out who was spreading around information about me.
“You can feel that I’m not a human, right? I mean I can tell you most definitely aren’t. You’re the strongest witch I’ve ever met.”
I looked around the area to see if anyone else could’ve heard what she said. The area was clear of any passersby, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one. Chances were I needed someone else to witness her craziness.
Concentrating back on her, I conceded that she felt different, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t human. As far as I knew, I was human. I was just a very messed up version of the species.
“I’m not a witch.”
It’d been a while since anyone had called me that. My adoptive mother had proclaimed that was what I was the day I left her home. There wasn’t a single tear shed from her as she shut the door behind me. Once I graduated high school, her obligation to me was over.
I always felt my adoptive father wouldn’t have minded keeping me around for a little while longer, but I’d decided he was nothing but a sleaze at a young age. There’d been a few times that I had to remind him I wasn’t normal. No fires for him, but I had thrown him across the room a couple of times without touching him to get my point across.
“Do you have something else you like to call yourself? Like I said, you are stronger than any other witch I’ve met, and in my fifty plus years on this planet, I’ve met a few.”
I’d been studying her, so hearing that the woman who looked twenty-something was over twice that age caused me to raise an eyebrow. I knew it wasn’t impossible for her to age that gracefully, but I hadn’t met another person who pulled it off as well as I did.
“Is there a particular reason
you call those people witches? I assume you include yourself in that.”
She’d piqued my interest. I knew absolutely nothing about her, but within two minutes, she was the first person to make me feel almost normal. Not that she’d really said anything to make me think we were truly alike. She was leading down a road I wanted to follow, though.
“Yeah, but I’m just a card reader. I can take a deck of cards and answer questions a person asks me about their future by reading the cards. It’s pretty simple stuff. I’m guessing that’s child’s play for you.”
“I’ve never tried to read cards, but I imagine I could do it.”
I didn’t want to say I didn’t need cards to answer questions about the future. If that was all she could do, I didn’t want to rain on her parade.
“Why would you want to do that? I’m the town fortune teller, and I prefer not to have competition if I can help it. Are you going to share what it is you can do?”
“Do I have to? I’m trying to restart my life, and I’m going to try to be as normal as possible.”
“Again, why would you want to do that? From what I can tell, you could rule this world if you wanted to. I know some pretty powerful witches, and I wouldn’t say that about them, even after seeing demonstrations of what they can do.”
“Can you introduce me to these other witches? I’ve never met anyone who was like me.”
She looked at me like I’d grown another head. I didn’t think there was anything crazy about what I’d said.
“How can I be the first person who’s come across you? Your power should call anyone like us straight to you.”
I shrugged my shoulders. No one had ever confronted me, and I’d never felt the little tingle of power I felt from her on anyone else.
“Evidently I’ve been able to hide it over the years. I’ve always thought I was a freak of nature.”
“I don’t doubt you are, but there are other freaks out there who would love to get to know you. I’ll make sure to introduce you to some of them, but for now, I’d really like to do a reading on you. We could head over to my house and grab some food while I get the cards out. Do you mind?”
“I don’t think I really want to know my future. If it’s anything like my past, it’s better that I don’t know the crap that’s going to happen.”
I could tell by the look in her eyes that no wasn’t going to be a response she’d take lightly. Her blue eyes started shining with determination the second I hesitated.
“It’s not like I’m going to be able to tell you every single detail of what’s going to happen the rest of your life. How old are you anyway? It’s so hard to tell when we spend all of our time around the humans. I’m guessing maybe forty.”
She’d been close on my name and age, the latter couldn’t have come from my home purchase or job application. No one would believe that I was over forty, so I had a driver’s license that said otherwise.
“A little older, but you’re close. How long have you lived here? You sound like you know the area a little bit, as far as knowing others like us, but if you’re as old as you say, you couldn’t have lived here long. If you have, it’s silly to introduce yourself if you’re getting ready to move.”
“I’m a social butterfly, so I’m quick to get around. I moved here about six months ago. I’m used to the move every five years or so game. How about you?”
“This is the first house I’ve bought that I’m actually planning on staying in for more than a few months. Things tend to happen around me that necessitate moving often.”
“Don’t worry, honey. Those things happen to us all from time to time. If you’re not sure about the reading, why don’t you come over and have lunch. As I already told you, we’re going to be best friends.”
I’d never had an issue telling when someone was lying to me, even if I didn’t actively use my abilities. I could just tell when something was off. Little white lies didn’t get by me.
That fact made me wonder if she’d downplayed what she could do. Friends wasn’t a word in my vocabulary, and I wasn’t sure there was room for it.
“Have your visions, or whatever you have about the future ever been wrong?”
She thought for a second and shook her head.
“I don’t really see things, even if I describe it that way. I get really strong feelings and sometimes I hear names and different information. That information has never been wrong.”
That was interesting. I usually saw events if I got a glimpse of the future. There were times I saw things I didn’t really understand. For those particular times, I wasn’t sure when the events happened, but I knew they were in the past. Seeing stuff like that was weird, and I was a little sad she didn’t have the same experience so I could compare.
“I should warn you that I’m probably the worst friend you could have.”
“And I’m the best friend you could have. Look, I was serious about getting something to eat. Since you’re a little hesitant to take my word that I won’t bite you, why don’t we grab something from that deli across the street. I’ve wandered in there a few times and have had some really good sandwiches.”
I looked over to the building she was pointing at. Nothing looked scary about the brick building. It had a friendly sign that was nothing but a giant hoagie, so I assumed it was a deli and not a front for something nefarious.
“I could probably eat something. Do they make the bread fresh daily?”
It didn’t matter if it was fresh, I was just making conversation as I stood up and prepared to walk across the street. It was midday, and I wasn’t sure where the street traffic was hiding. I hadn’t spent much time watching people come and go, but I would’ve thought lunchtime was normally busy.
“I eat anything that gets close to me, so I don’t waste time asking silly questions like that. It smells like a bakery in there, though, so there’s a good chance it’s fresh.”
“Good. I just got a job at the library and may have to make Thursday lunch at the deli day.”
“That sounds like a great idea. Speaking of bakeries, there’s a really good one a couple blocks down that makes amazing pies. Maybe we can institute a bakery Monday to go along with deli Thursday.”
“Do they have just regular rolls? I’ve decided to give up sweets.”
She looked at me sideways, and I knew what she was thinking. There was no reason for me not to eat gobs of sugar. I’d always been skinny, and eating a whole cake didn’t seem to change that.
If I was cutting magic from my life, something else had to go and I decided in the moment that sugar was the item getting the ax. I wasn’t sure which would be harder to give up, because I had a really vicious sweet tooth.
“I’d rather pluck out my right eye than give up sweets, but they do happen to have bagels and muffins and what not that won’t send you into sugar shock.”
“Perfect, then bakery Monday may just be in order.”
When we walked into the deli, I was surprised to find it full of people. Clearly I’d missed everyone going in while I’d been pondering life.
A few eyes moved our way, but for the most part everyone went about their business. My eyes went to a chalkboard behind the counter with the various items the deli offered. There were sandwiches, wraps, salads, soups and various sides.
They also had a variety of milkshakes, and it was hard to pass up a butterscotch milkshake, but I focused on the sandwiches. When our time came to order, I opted for a veggie sandwich, which raised my new friend’s eyebrows.
“Have you decided to give up meat too? I thought sugar was bad enough, but both of them is leading me to think you’re having a mid-life crisis.”
I shook my head, and grabbed the tray with my finished sandwich. She’d already gotten hers, so we made our way over to one of the small tables. Getting four people around a table would be a stretch, but there were that many chairs.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll live, so calling it mid-life may be far-fetched. I’m making some chang
es, but the meat thing isn’t one of them. I just prefer not to eat meat.”
“Noted. No bacon of the month club subscription for your birthday. So, you said you’re going to be a librarian. I’m not aware of any hot guys hanging out there. Is there a secret I haven’t learned lurking in the stacks of books?”
“I think the hot guys would be a turn off. I’ve definitely sworn off them. I just like being around books. Something about reading history calms me down. I read everything, but I really love books that tell about ancient Greek culture.”
“I’m not the reading type, but you look kind of like you’d fit right in with a group of goddesses. You’ve got the tall, long haired beauty look about you, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen someone whose eyes look like emeralds. Is your hair naturally black, or is that a dye job to hide your identity?”
I focused on eating a little of my sandwich before I answered. It was a bit dry, so if I planned on making a tradition of eating there, I was going to add a little mayonnaise. Usually tomatoes and avocados provided enough moisture, but the tomatoes weren’t quite as fresh as I liked them.
“I’m not hiding from anyone. Everyone I’ve ever known has been happy to see me leave.”
“Even your family? I’m sure they’re out looking for you if you’ve run away from them.”
“Why?”
Her statement completely confused me based on the facts I knew. My real parents had left me in a forest, so they clearly didn’t want me. I’d been shipped around three times before a family finally decided I could live with them. That decision was more than likely one that ranked right up at the top when they thought about their worst decisions.
I just had that effect on people.
“If you’re asking why, I’m obviously wrong. I just thought someone with your strength would be considered a treasure.”
“That’s probably the furthest from what anyone who’s attempted to raise me thought. There’s no chance anyone’s coming for me, so I’ve decided to try to enjoy the time I have here while I’ve got it.”
