The Empress: A Cards of Love Story

by Paige, Rochelle

  “Are you trying to tell me I’m supposed to be counting calories?” I elbowed him in the side. “You better be careful what you say, or else I’m going to start to think that you don’t like my curves.”

  “I love them!” he insisted, one of his hands sliding up to palm my boob. “That’s why I’m trying to talk you into staying here with me.”

  “Nope. Sorry, you’re going to have to do without me until I get my pie fix.” I tilted my head back and winked up at him. “It isn’t easy keeping all these curves, after all.”

  “I could always just bake you one instead,” he offered.

  “Do you even know how to bake?” I asked.

  Instead of answering right away, he turned me in his arms and claimed my lips for a quick, but deep, kiss. I was already starting to reconsider how badly I wanted to go to the diner when he lifted his head. “Of course, I can bake. You’ve met my mom...do you think she would let me get away with not learning how to fend for myself in the kitchen?”

  “I know you can do stuff like eggs for breakfast because you’ve made those for me a few times. But it’s not like you’ve cooked me a gourmet meal or dessert since I’ve been here.” I grinned up at him as I remembered how sweet it had been when he woke me up with breakfast in bed the morning after we’d slept together the first time, only a little more than a week ago. “Can you really blame me for doubting your ability to bake a pie from scratch?”

  “Do you want me to take over in the kitchen more often?” His brow furrowed in concern. “The only reason I haven’t so far is that you seem to really enjoy whipping stuff up in here.”

  I ducked my head as I admitted, “Yeah, but that’s because I’ve never really had a nice kitchen, with a fully stocked refrigerator and pantry, and someone willing to teach me how to cook.”

  “Then please continue thinking of the kitchen as your domain,” he offered. “I’ll only cook when I’ve worn you out so much that you don’t want to leave our bed, and I can bring breakfast up to you.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it since it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn.” I tilted my head to the side as I thought about how much fun I’d had in the kitchen so far. “I think I might actually be more grateful to your mom for the cooking lessons than all of the magic stuff.”

  His head jerked back in surprise. “Really? Don’t get me wrong; you’re a great cook. But you’re already turning into an amazing witch. You’ve mastered skills in only a couple of weeks that take other witches years to learn.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not like I could’ve dreamed about learning how to become a witch. Not when I never knew magic was real.”

  “True,” he conceded.

  “You know what I’ve dreamed about lately?” I reluctantly pulled out of his hold. “Pie.”

  Warren’s lips turned down in a super cute pout. “Damn, I thought for sure you were going to say me.”

  “I probably would’ve, except I can get my fill of you anytime I want,” I pointed out after giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “But the only way I’m going to get some apple pie right now is if I go visit Mabel at the diner.”

  I smiled at Warren’s grumbled complaint as I left the house and headed into town, driving the “extra” Mercedes that magically appeared in the garage about a week ago when I complained that my car wasn’t repaired yet. Imagine my surprise when Warren informed me that the mechanic hadn’t bothered to start since he’d apparently had an inkling that it was important for me to stay in town as long as possible when I’d first walked into his repair shop. He wasn’t a witch, but he’d settled in Ashburn because people here were accepting of the flashes of insight he sometimes had.

  I understood his decision since Ashburn had quickly turned into my safe place, with the vast majority of the town being super welcoming to me because of my connection to Warren. And I couldn’t be too mad at him about the car repair thing since I much preferred driving the Mercedes to my old rust bucket.

  After I pulled into a spot in front of the diner, I patted the steering wheel in appreciation. But my smile disappeared as I stepped out of the car. A shiver raced up my spine, and it felt like someone had walked over my grave. I had the eerie sensation of being watched as I walked into the diner, and it didn’t go away when I was inside.

  “Hey, Opal! It’s nice to see you,” Mabel called out. “Go ahead and grab any seat you want, and I’ll bring you some coffee.”

  “Actually, can I take it to go? I just remembered something I forgot to do at home, and it’s kind of time-sensitive.”

  “Sure.” She grabbed a to-go cup and filled it with coffee before setting it in front of me, along with a container of cream. “Can I get you anything else?”

  “I’ll take an apple pie, too. A whole one if you can spare it.”

  “For you?” She beamed a smile at me. “Of course.”

  I fixed my coffee the way I liked it while she boxed up the pie. After she handed it to me, I gave her a twenty. “Keep the change.”

  Acting like I hadn’t noticed anything weird, I walked back out to the car and carefully set the pie in the passenger seat. Dropping the coffee into the cup holder, I reversed out of my spot and raced back to the house.

  “That was fast.” Warren’s gaze dropped to the box I was carrying. “Did you decide your pie would be better if you ate it off my abs?”

  If I hadn’t been so freaked out, I would’ve given his suggestion some serious thought. Instead, I asked, “Remember when we met at the diner? My first day in Ashburn?”

  Warren brushed a kiss over my forehead. I sighed at how comforted the familiar gesture made me feel. “Of course, I do. How could I ever forget one of the best things that’s ever happened to me?”

  “Okay. Well. Umm,” I mumbled, trying to come up with a good way to explain what’d happened the day I left my old life behind me. When I couldn’t come up with one that wouldn’t freak Warren out, I just blurted, “The break-in that I mentioned back then and didn’t want to talk about? It was at my apartment, and the only reason I knew about it was because all of the candles I owned spontaneously lit when I walked through the door.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Warren

  After listening to Opal explain why she’d run from her old life, I wished like hell that I’d forced the issue before now. I knew something bad had to have happened, but at first I’d been too damn relieved to have found her to push for details she didn’t want to give. And then later, I’d been wrapped up in her and building our relationship. I’d do whatever it took to make sure that Opal wasn’t the one who paid the price for my inattentiveness.

  Guiding her over to the table, I helped her into a chair before crouching down and pulling her hands into mine. “Don’t be scared. We’re going to figure this out. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You can’t make promises like that, not when we have no idea who it might have been.”

  It didn’t matter who it was, Opal was mine to protect. I’d do it or die trying. “Worst case scenario, it’s dark practitioners.”

  “Dark practitioners? Like bad guys with magic powers?”

  “Yes, it’s possible that they were drawn to you because you were a witch with strong powers who hadn’t been trained and had no coven to protect you,” I explained.

  “But now they might back off?” she asked hopefully. “Since your mom has been training me, and I’m part of the Ainsley coven?”

  “If that’s who was after you, I’d be surprised if they tried anything while you’re in Ashburn. You aren’t easy pickings for them anymore,” I confirmed.

  “Huh.” Her head tilted to the side, and her brow wrinkled in confusion. “Okay, but easy pickings for what exactly? If it was dark practitioners, what would they have done with me if I hadn’t run?”

  I sat down on the chair next to her and pulled her onto my lap. “They would have used dark magic to steal your powers.”

  Her body trembled, and I pressed a kiss to her cheek in a gest
ure of comfort. “And what would have happened to me then?”

  I didn’t want to answer her. But if dark practitioners really were after her, I couldn’t afford to keep her in the dark about anything. “You probably would have died.”

  She sagged against me and rested her head on my shoulder. “What if they’ve already tracked me here?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When I got to the diner, I felt like someone was watching me and it totally creeped me out.” She pointed at the pie that she’d set on the counter. “That’s why I took everything to-go. If someone followed me all the way to Ashburn, I didn’t want to give them a heads-up to the fact that I suspected they were here.”

  I gave her a quick squeeze before lifting her off my lap and getting up to grab my phone from the counter. “It’s a good thing you grabbed the pie because you’re not going anywhere until I get to the bottom of all this. And just in case it’s the worst-case scenario, I’m going to call any Ainsley witches who are traveling back into town and ask the covens closest to us if they can lend us some assistance.”

  The doorbell rang, and I reached for Opal’s hand when she took a couple of steps towards the front of the house. She stopped and looked up at me, catching my frown. “It couldn’t be the bad guys, right? It’s not like they’d come up to your door and ring the bell.”

  “Maybe not, but there’s still no way in hell you’re going to be the one who answers the door when we have no idea what kind of danger you’re in or where it’s coming from.”

  Opal huffed and rolled her eyes in exasperation, but I didn’t mind since she didn’t argue with me. Instead, she followed me to the door and stepped out of sight behind the wood barrier when I opened it. I didn’t recognize the guy standing there, although there was something slightly familiar about his dark hair, square jaw, and pale skin. “Warren Ainsley?”

  “Yes.”

  His gaze darted over my shoulder like he’d expected someone else to be standing there even though he knew me by name. If he was a dark practitioner, he was ballsy as fuck. “I’m Brock Aldebrand. I think you’ve met my grandfather, Blake?”

  The Aldebrands were a well-known coven made up of mostly fire witches. They had a solid reputation, and I had met Blake Aldebrand a few times over the years, which was probably why his grandson looked so familiar. “Yes, how is he doing?”

  “He’d be doing a lot better if I could solve a mystery for him, but I need your help to do it.”

  Our covens were friendly, but I still hesitated before allowing Brock Aldebrand into my home. When I spotted Opal gesturing with her hands, I worried that she was getting the wrong impression and was about to set the guy on fire because she thought he was a dark practitioner. Forcing a smile, I let the door open wide enough for him to come inside. Opal dropped her hands and flashed me a disappointed look, startling a chuckle out of me. I hadn’t realized my consort was such a brutal little thing, but it was good to know that she wouldn’t hesitate to protect herself if she was ever forced to do so.

  Brock looked over my shoulder to figure out what I found so funny, and his jaw dropped when he saw Opal standing there. “It’s really true. The missing Aldebrand heiress is alive.”

  “The missing Aldebrand heiress?” I echoed. The phrase was a blast from the past since I hadn’t heard anything about the search for her in at least fifteen years.

  “Yes,” Brock confirmed, his gaze never leaving Opal. “My family has been looking for her for more than twenty-one years. We’d given up hope until we got our first solid lead in more than a decade on the morning of her birthday when her affinity must have kicked in. It sparked the curiosity of a fire witch who lived a town over, but she wasn’t able to give us much information before Opal disappeared into thin air.”

  “I’m surprised she didn’t have more to say about me since she broke into my apartment,” Opal muttered.

  Brock rubbed his hands over his face and grimaced. “Uh, sorry. She didn’t mention that part.”

  “I’m assuming there’s still a significant sum of money available to anyone who provides information that leads to the whereabouts of the Aldebrand heiress?” Brock nodded in answer to my question. “I’m sure that’s why she didn’t say anything. She didn’t want you to know she’d sent Opal running.”

  “If there’s such a big reward for finding me, why was I abandoned at a fire station when I was a tiny baby?” Opal asked, her voice quivering at the end.

  I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my side as Brock explained, “The Aldebrands are the strongest fire coven in the world. When you were born, we were in the middle of a dispute with a clan of air witches.”

  Opal shot me a concerned glance, and I shook my head to let her know that it hadn’t been the Ainsleys.

  “Your father was my dad’s oldest brother; next in line to take over the coven. He’d only met your mother about ten months before you were born. She was a human, totally new to the world of magic.” Brock looked down at the floor, and I braced myself for Opal’s reaction to the next part of his story since I already knew how it went. “Your father died in a plane crash about a week before you were due, and there were rumors that it had been a deliberate act by an air witch. It took us four days to confirm that the crash had actually been due to mechanical failure, but by then your mother was already on the run. By the time we tracked her down, it was a year later and she’d died in a car wreck. But there was no sign of you, and none of her neighbors or co-workers had ever seen her with a baby.”

  “Because she surrendered me at a fire station shortly after I was born.” A tear slid down Opal’s cheek, and I used a small spell to whisk it away. “I’ve always been so angry and hurt, but she must have been terrified.”

  “I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to Opal’s forehead.

  She offered me a watery smile. “At least now I know what happened.”

  “I’m sorry to be the bearer of such sad news, but I’m thrilled to be the one to have finally found you. Our grandfather has been looking forward to meeting you since the first time your father told him your mother was pregnant. Is there anything you want to bring home with you?” Brock asked.

  Home with her? What in the ever-loving fuck did he think was going to happen here? I stepped forward and to the side, blocking his view of Opal. “You have no power here. Ashburn belongs to the Ainsley witches, and I’m the high priest of my coven. Opal isn’t going anywhere unless she wants to.”

  Brock quirked a dark eyebrow at me, seemingly unimpressed. “Our grandfather represents the fire witches on the Council of Four.”

  Now it was my turn to be unimpressed. “And my mother serves as the air witches’ representative on the council with him.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Opal

  “Okay, boys. There’s no need to get into a pissing match over me.” I tugged on Warren’s arm. “You’re family now. Act like it.”

  “The Ainsleys aren’t related to our family,” my newly discovered cousin disagreed.

  “Sure, you are.” I pointed my thumb at Warren before showing off the mark on my wrist. “He’s my consort. So if I’m the missing Aldebrand heiress, then he’s now related to you, too.”

  “Well, fuck,” Brock groaned. “Grandfather is going to be disappointed when he finds out that you’re happily settled here in Ashburn. He had his heart set on you moving onto the family compound.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Warren growled.

  “Of course, it isn’t,” I reassured him before turning back to Brock to suggest, “Have him ask Rowenna about grandbabies, or great-grandbabies in his case, the next time they’re at a council meeting. Maybe that’ll cheer him up.”

  Brock grumbled about that too before heading out after letting us know my grandfather would be in touch soon. As soon as he was gone, I threw myself into Warren’s arms. “I have more family.”

  Warren’s eyes widened in surprise, and his hold on me tightened. �
��More family?” he asked.

  “Well, yeah. I kind of thought that you and your mom were my family now. Was I wrong?”

  He claimed my mouth in a deep kiss before answering, “Not even a tiny bit, baby.”

  “Good, because family sticks together and there’s no getting rid of me now.”

  “As long as you’re not planning to go anywhere.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black velvet jewelry box. Using his thumb, he flipped open the top to reveal a ring with a huge fire opal set in the center. “Marry me.”

  He didn’t give me the chance to answer—not that he’d actually worded it as a question—before he pulled the ring from the box and slipped it on my finger.

  “It’s so pretty.” I turned my hand this way and that to stare at the opal. “But I always told myself I wouldn’t accept a proposal until I heard a certain four-letter word from the right man.”

  “I’d better be the right man,” he growled, nipping at the tips of my fingers. “And although I haven’t said it yet, I love you more than I ever thought possible.”

  My heart raced so hard, it felt like it was going to leap out of my chest, while my eyes filled with happy tears. “You love me?”

  “So much that I’ll thank the goddess each and every day for bringing you to me.”

  He didn’t try to hide what he was feeling from me, his love shining brightly from his gorgeous green eyes. I’d never seen anyone look at me like that before, and I hoped he could see the same in my eyes. “I love you, too.”

  “You’d better, because you’re mine forever now.” He brushed a kiss against my forehead. “You and those grandbabies you just mentioned to your cousin.”

  “You only have yourself to blame. I learned how to handle my relatives from watching you with yours.” I grinned up at him without an ounce of shame. “But we should probably make sure I’m pregnant before everyone starts pestering about it.”