Paranormal Word Series Box Set (Books 1-3 and Novella)

by CC Solomon

  Erik was dressed only in his sweatpants. His back muscles flexed as he balanced his hands on the railing. I was dressed in only a T-shirt and shorts but it was at least 80 degrees out this early so I’d be comfortable.

  I opened the sliding-glass doors. “What are you doing out here?” I asked.

  He didn’t turn towards me. I looked down to his lower right side, at the bullet wound in his back he’d received in the Pre-world, probably during battle as a soldier.

  “I thought about your request,” he said in a low voice.

  I tensed, waiting for his answer. “Yes?” I said, my voice barely audible.

  “I can’t.”

  I sighed. “I can ask someone else. Maybe Faith.”

  “She’s not as tough as you think.” Erik straightened up and turned around to face me.

  His body was distractingly defined. All hardness and cuts of muscle, marred only by the bullet wound and four-inch claw marks on the left side of his stomach. I’d never asked him where they came from. Now wasn’t the time.

  “Henry maybe,” I replied.

  “Amina, if you lose, no one is going to kill you. I won’t let them and I don’t think Charles would either.”

  My shoulders slumped. “Then we’re screwed. He tore someone’s tongue out of their mouth with just his mind. Erik, if I have to bow down to Phillip, with our combined power…he could do anything. Be anything.” I shivered thinking of the possible horrors Phillip could do. My imagination knew no limits, thanks to years of horror movie watching.

  “It’s the only way to stop Phillip.” I wrapped my arms around myself. It was too warm to be cold but there was an uncomfortable chill spreading inside of me. “He’s a monster but he can’t keep going. If you kill me, you kill him. If he wins, this is all for nothing.”

  Erik shook his head. “There are other ways. Mae said some other things were meant to happen.”

  I gave my head a hard shake before pushing my fingers through my curls and scratching my scalp in frustration. “Yeah, and she didn’t say when. She didn’t say who else would get hurt until those other things occurred. If I lose and you fight him, he won’t hesitate to kill any of you, and you won’t be able to get close enough to him to do anything.”

  Erik sighed. “I can promise not to fight him, for now. But the other thing…no.”

  “What if he hurts some other innocent person?”

  “But that person won’t be you, according to Mae, and it won’t be the Six. That’s all I can afford to care about right now.”

  “I don’t believe you. You care about other people. That’s why you moved back here. Are our lives more important than anyone else’s?”

  “If we kill you, then no one wins.”

  “Then put a sleeping spell on me. Like the fairytale. Only your kiss can awaken me. Who knows? Maybe me being in a coma will put Phillip in one too or at least make him weaker. But you won’t ever have to kiss him.”

  Erik turned and looked at me. “You aren’t funny. Do me a favor and stop talking like you are going to lose. If you don’t have faith in yourself you won’t win this. Didn’t I say you were a bad ass? When are you going to believe it?”

  I looked up at him and smiled. I was scared, there was no doubt about that. I believed in my abilities but the evil in Phillip seemed overwhelming. All I knew was that Phillip had to be stopped, even if it meant I had to die.

  I pounded my chest again with a closed fist in an attempt to hold back silly tears and slow my constricting heart. It wasn’t helping.

  Erik opened his arms. “Come here,” he said.

  I remained where I was, shaking my head. I couldn’t hug him. I would never want to let go because then it would be that much harder if I lost him. I backed away, re-entering the living area.

  “Woman, stop running from me,” he ordered in a low voice.

  “I can’t. I can’t. I have to focus. I have to win.” I closed my eyes and covered my face with both my hands.

  “Come here,” he said again. His voice was still gentle.

  I uncovered my face, ready to argue, but paused. His arms were open again and he smiled at me with soft eyes. My heart tugged once more and I let out a deep sigh before walking over to him. As much as I tried to push him away I couldn’t. I really didn’t want to even though I knew it was the right thing to do.

  I moved my arms around his waist and laid my head on his bare chest. He was warm and his skin felt hard and yet smooth. I missed the feel of him. He wrapped his strong arms around me and I felt so protected. It made no sense to me. He couldn’t stop any bad from coming my way but his presence made me believe he could. Instantly, my heart began to slow down and the itch of uneasiness that constantly plagued me faded away.

  He inhaled deeply. “I missed your smell,” he whispered before kissing the top of my head. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I can sa—”

  “Save me?” I cut him off. “You can’t rescue every female you come across.” I tried to push away from him, but he held me to him. I barely put up any resistance. Despite my words, I wanted to be in his arms.

  “You aren’t a victim, Mina. Never were. I forget that sometimes. I just want to protect you.”

  I looked up to him. For the first time since I’d agreed to this challenge with Phillip, I noticed real fear from him. He was scared for me.

  “Erik.”

  “You aren’t the only one who doesn’t like getting hurt. I’ve suffered loss before. Men in my unit in war. My daugh…”

  He trailed off. He’d never told me about his daughter. However, Lisa had shared that he’d once had a seven-year-old who hadn’t survived the shift into a werejackal. Yes, he knew pain and he’d still opened himself up to save Lisa when she might have been killed by weres and saved me when David tried to kidnap me again. And now, he still wanted to save me. Me, with all my psycho soulmate baggage.

  “Mina, I know this is all a lot for you. Have you considered that maybe you might have some PTSD from all that’s happened to you? You don’t have to do this challenge.”

  “You think I’m going crazy?”

  I felt him shake his head above me. “No. That’s not what that means. I do think you are really stressed, maybe even traumatized, and you’re making some rash decisions.”

  “I have to do this. I really don’t have time to talk to some therapist, even if we had one in town.” I leaned into him. “I’ll win and things will get better for me. I’ll be fine again. It’s just a little stress from the challenge. And then…” I stopped speaking. And then I would tell him I loved him and everything would be okay.

  Erik had called me naive when we first met. Somedays I thought he was right but hope was all I had to keep me going.

  The challenge was held in a high school gymnasium that now housed all grade levels of education. It seemed an innocent place to host such a dark battle but our magic had to be in a contained space.

  We had an audience of witches and specially invited guests who sat on the bleachers near the west side of the room. In front of the bleachers were four desks. Our judges, all witches, were seated there. Two judges were from Silver Spring and two were from Hagerstown. I knew the Hagerstown judges well and thought they were good people. One was a forty-something woman named Danielle and the other was a fifty-something man named Brad. The Silver Spring judges looked vaguely familiar but I didn’t know them. To the left of my judges was a woman with a short bob. I couldn’t tell her age. Maybe thirties or forties. Next to her was a man in his late fifties or early sixties with balding, gray hair.

  Behind the judges I spotted Charles and the others. I also saw Raya, Seth, Blake, Carter, Mae, Bill, and Grace Sarin. Grace was someone I could call a friend in Silver Spring. She was also a siren who could control people with the melody in her voice. She was not susceptible to our mind control. The beautiful Indian woman with tailbone-length, dark-brown hair and enviable thick, well-shaped eyebrows, gave me a sympathetic smile.

  Suddenly, nerves hit my
stomach hard. I turned slightly and fanned a hand in front of my face as if to swipe the growing nervous nausea away. Erik, who had been standing beside me, leaned over and whispered in my ear. “It’s not too late to change your mind,” he stated.

  I turned to face him as we stood at the entrance of the gym. “Yes, it is,” I replied. I patted his arm. “I’ll be okay. It’s just hot in here.”

  “If it looks like you’re losing, don’t do anything crazy. Promise me that.” He scrunched his eyebrows together and gazed at me intently.

  I didn’t answer.

  “Welcome, everyone!” cried a voice. It was Phillip.

  “We’ve got to go in.” I walked forward but Erik caught my wrist.

  “Promise me.”

  “Is Amina Langston here?” Phillip shouted through a microphone.

  “She’s here!” I heard my mentor shout. A look of pure irritation spread across her cocoa-colored face and she crossed her arms as she stood in the left center of the room.

  I turned to Erik. “Fine, I promise.” I won’t kill myself, but I won’t fall in line with Phillip either.

  Erik’s eyes seemed to droop. He knew I wasn’t telling the truth. I could never deceive him, especially now as his mate. However, he let my wrist go and we both headed into the gym. Erik climbed the benches to join the others. I stopped beside Shayla.

  “God forgive me, but I do not like this man. I don’t know him but I don’t like him,” Shayla said in a harsh whisper. She frowned in anger and the wrinkles between her eyes marred her deceptively-youthful face. She was just shy of forty years of age, which I only knew because she told me. Actually, she looked almost a decade younger. Her long braids were piled to the top of her head in a bun and she was dressed in workout clothes, as if she were going to compete in a marathon.

  I had on dark-blue capri jeans, a black, short-sleeved T-shirt, and red Converse low top sneakers. I wondered if I’d mistaken how I should have prepared for today.

  “I know, Shay,” I replied. “Listen, I want to thank you for all that you’ve done to prepare me for this.”

  She shook her head. “Oh, girl, not a problem. Now, let me give you my pep talk.” She grabbed me by the shoulders. “You got this. You are strong, powerful, smart, and an overall good person. You envision kicking his behind and you will. Don’t think about anything negative. Just believe in yourself. You got a slew of folks who believe in you too. So, with all that, this should be easy.” She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. “Go kick his ass.”

  She seemed as emotionally invested in this as me. She’d never been to Silver Spring but during the time I’d spent training under her, I’d shared a lot of stories of my short time here and of Phillip.

  Shayla patted my shoulders again and ran to the bleachers to sit with Team Amina.

  I turned back to the center of the room and looked at Phillip. A male in his thirties with shoulder-length, brown hair stood next to him and was now holding the microphone.

  “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” said the man. “For those who don’t know me, I’m Ron.”

  “Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie,” called some people in the crowd. Apparently, this dude was popular.

  “Settle down now folks. I’ll be your hosts for our first ever witchcraft challenge. The goal of this is to establish the top witch in the area. There will be a series of five timed challenges. The one who passes the most challenges or passes the most challenges first, wins. To help ensure integrity of the process and to measure success, we have four judges experienced in magic. To the far left is John. Beside him is Tessa. Then joining us from Hagerstown are Danielle and Brad.

  “Our challenges will be, in the following order: One, multiple magic use; two, break a ward; three, break a curse; four, follow a potion that gives life; and five, create a spell on something no one has done before. You will only be given fifteen minutes per challenge. There will be no cheating. We will sense it. In addition, you will not see what the other is doing for most challenges. We will put up a visual barrier spell between the two of you that you will not be allowed to break. You will also not know how much time you have left for each challenge. When I call stop. You will stop.” Ron looked at us. “Good luck to you both.”

  Seeing as Ronnie was a member of Silver Spring, I didn’t think he meant me any luck.

  “Now, this first challenge is open so you will be able to see each other. You have fifteen minutes to get as much magic as possible going. If you’ve both reached your capacity before the conclusion of time, then we will end there.” Ron looked to a blue-haired woman with glasses who sat in a chair near the judges. I assumed she was the time and scorekeeper.

  I looked back at Ron. He gave a curt nod to the woman. “Begin.”

  Phillip and I walked to separate parts of the gym and began. The space had a few items we could work with for our magic. A trash bin, desk, containers, and utensils. I stood in front of the trash bin and closed my eyes, not wanting to distract my energy with any use of senses that I did not need.

  I pictured the trash bin in my mind and muttered a spell of fire. I pictured the papers inside burning. Seconds later, I felt a warmth in front of me. I opened one eye and saw the fire. I smiled. Shayla taught me that staying positive and remaining calm would keep me at full strength. She believed that anger and nervousness would require too much energy and take away from my power, so I wouldn’t be getting in my head today.

  I closed my eyes again and whispered another spell. Soon, I felt drips of cold touch my arms and the crowd whispered, “Ahh.”

  I’d made snowflakes fall from the ceiling, not disturbing my fire. I dropped to my knees and touched the floor. I heard more murmurs from the crowd from what I assumed was Phillip’s magical showcase but did not get tempted or distracted by opening my eyes.

  For the next display of magic, I wouldn’t need a spell. This would be of my own life mage magic. I splayed my fingers wide on the floor and a slight rumbling shook the ground under my hands. The floor tile broke and I brushed rubble away with my hands. Soon I felt dirt and quickly smoothed a patch of ground two feet wide. The feel of grass and flowers splayed through my fingers. I adjusted and crossed my legs yoga style. I smiled as the sound of birds chirping filled the room. I had no idea where they came from but they were part of nature, life, and they would come when I wanted them.

  By now sweat prickled my skin and dripped down my back, however, I hadn’t reached my limit and continued on.

  Next, the smell of baked apple pie filled my nostrils. I inhaled deeply, a memory of my grandmother playing in my mind. She was in the kitchen baking and humming an old jazz tune. Charles and I were sitting at the kitchen table laughing and eating pie. The buttery crust and sweet cinnamon baked apples came to my tongue.

  I heard a few confused voices in the crowd murmur about the taste and smell of pie. It wasn’t real but humans, like the birds, were of nature, and I could control their minds to believe that what they were smelling and tasting actually existed. All the fun without the calories.

  I stood up on shaky legs and opened my eyes. I heard what sounded like a bear and the crowd went into excited screams. My bonfire briefly wavered but I caught it before it disappeared.

  I had five bits of magic going right now. I looked at my creations. A small patch of the gym floor was a garden of roses. Snow continued to fall and birds fluttered over our heads. A few people ducked as the birds flew too close.

  I was sweating and feeling nauseous. I had never gone past five before but there was something in me that pushed for more. It told me I had to try to get out one more bit of magic. At this point I was struggling to remain standing.

  I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath. I had never had six bits of magic going at once. Whenever I tried to go past it in practice, I had a nice little fainting spell. That could very well happen now but I still had the five.

  If this was the edge I needed to beat Phillip then I wouldn’t hold back. I threw my hands up and tilted
my head back. Large booms filled the room and I opened my eyes to see fireworks play above me. Again, they were merely false images to the eyes of the audience that I controlled but they sure were pretty.

  I smiled as my legs gave out and I dropped to my knees. I stayed upright and looked around to make sure all my other magic was still working. The snow had stopped and I grinned to calm my nerves and pushed forward. Snow began to fall again through the colorful explosions.

  A loud alarm buzzed. “Stop!” Ron shouted.

  I exhaled and my magic disappeared. The birds flew out of the gym, the fire and snow died, and illusions left. All that remained was my miniature garden. I panted, wondering if I had made enough of an effort to win. I also hoped that I hadn’t exhausted myself too much since I had four more challenges to go.

  “We have taken notice of both magic occurrences and have determined that this round goes to…Amina!” Ron called.

  The crowd did a polite clap. I didn’t expect them to cheer. I wasn’t exactly in friendly territory. I looked over to my group and Charles gave me a thumbs up, his eyes behind sunglasses. Erik grinned at me and mouthed, “Yes.”

  There was a small cheering section, screaming and whistling. Shayla stood up with her fist in the air and the rest of my support around her whooped it up as well.

  Let’s not get too confident, I thought.

  “For the rest of the challenges we will have a visual barrier. Moving on to challenge two. We have two boxes which my assistant will provide you with. Each box is warded. You must break the ward to get the box to open.”

  Blue-Haired Woman walked over to Phillip and then to me.

  Wards. It should have been an easy one for me. I escaped the prison, which was surrounded by a ward. I put up my own strong wards all the time. This should have been a piece of cake. And because I was so cocky the fates decided to have Phillip break the ward before I could even determine the type of ward I was trying to break.

  I panicked. It hadn’t even felt like five minutes! I had wrongly assumed that because we had fifteen minutes for each challenge, the tests would be difficult enough to require that full time to succeed. How else would that make one a top witch?