The Uptown Witch

by Chandelle LaVaun

  “The whole point of coming here tonight was to distract her from Tennessee’s arrival tomorrow.” I frowned at her, then pointed to Emersyn. “Look at that smile. This is why I’m here. This is all I need — to see her happy.”

  Something hot and sharp shot through my hand. I flinched and looked down at my right hand…and my jaw dropped. Our soulmate glyph had now grown into the back of my hand. It was so close to complete…and I couldn’t wait.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Emersyn

  Today was the day.

  Tennessee and Tegan were coming.

  All my talk of not being concerned about my twin’s arrival vanished the second my eyes opened this morning. There was a chance Tegan would find problems we didn’t even know we had. Issues we didn’t know to look for. Because Tegan was an unpredictable force of nature.

  And then there was Tennessee.

  My stomach turned and bile rose in my throat. I wasn’t afraid of him in the way that some of my other Coven-mates were…I knew he was a big old teddy bear. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me or Deacon. I knew he wouldn’t strip our magic or our Marks. And not because his soulmate was my twin sister or that his adoptive father was my uncle. Tenn just had a big heart.

  And that was why this was so important.

  After everything he’d been through – which I now knew just what that entailed – he deserved for things to finally go his way. He was putting a lot out there for us to start this school. A lot of adults wanted us to wait and take our time, do it slowly. But not Tenn, He took a leap of faith, and I didn’t want to fail him.

  I’d been a wicked hot mess since I got his text that he was coming. Luckily, Deacon knew how to take my mind off things last night with line dancing but there was no dancing here. I sat down at the desk and tried to reign in my chaotic thoughts…except being alone in silence wasn’t helping. I was just about to get up and go sit in a classroom full of first graders when Heather and Claudia walked in.

  “Good morning, Emersyn,” Claudia said with a warm smile. She sat a big bowl down in front of me. “This is a calming potion. Disguised as soup, naturally. But having you all jumpy when he gets here is only going to make him suspicious.”

  I opened my mouth to say that wasn’t true…and then realized she was right.

  She winked at me and sat a spoon down next to the bowl. “Deacon said you’re a chicken noodle soup person, so you should like this.”

  I reached out and cupped the bowl with both hands. The warmth coming off it helped take the edge off. I sighed. “Thank you, Claudia. I’m just spazzing out.”

  “That’s understandable, dear.” Heather walked up to my desk and sat stacks of papers down. “Deacon is working with a couple of the combat classes this morning on a little field trip—”

  “Field trip?” My heart stopped. “To where?”

  “Don’t worry, within the city limits.” She pursed her lips. “I think they’re in Central Park, but they’re close by. Deacon assured me he was staying nearby.”

  The relief that hit me was so strong I actually fell back in my seat. I fanned myself and tried to slow the chaos that just went through my pulse. “Okay. Cool. Thank you. Will someone let me know the second he’s back?”

  Claudia chuckled and plopped down in a seat in front of my desk. “Oh, I put a little spell on him so that we’d be alerted as soon as he returns to school.”

  I cursed and scrubbed my face. “Goddess, I love magic.”

  “Now…” Heather sat two more papers down before she took the other empty seat in front of me. “Just so we all feel prepared for their arrival, let’s go through the checklists, shall we?”

  “Yes. Please.” I sat up straight and leaned my elbows on the desk. “Talk to me.”

  Heather licked her lips and tucked her hair behind her ears – and it was the first sign I’d ever seen that perhaps she, too, was nervous about this. She cleared her throat. “I’ve got things separated into groups. In these stacks you’ll find every single piece of documentation we have on everything we’ve done. That way, should they need to see plans or receipts – or whatever – we’re prepared.”

  “I love how organized you are,” I said in a rush.

  “Thanks.” She chuckled. “Okay, so we’ve got decorations, floor plans, tables and chairs, DJ, lighting, food, and then miscellaneous stuff.”

  I exhaled a deep breath. “God, that’s a lot.”

  “Now, a little later this morning – just before lunch, I have arranged for you and Deacon to do a food tasting with our chef.”

  “Really?” As if on cue, my stomach growled. “That’s exciting.”

  Heather shook her head and tapped on the papers. “But not until later. For now, we have work to do.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I tied my hair up on top of my head in a Tegan-inspired messy bun. “Let’s get to work.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Noah

  “Wait…what are we doing?”

  Deacon pulled a freaking lollypop out of his mouth and used it to point straight ahead of us. “Practice.”

  I frowned and looked around. We were deep in Central Park, in an area that I had somehow never seen despite being born and raised in Manhattan. This part seemed tucked away from normal human paths, like we’d wandered into another dimension or something. Which I knew wasn’t true. It still looked normal. The sky was the same pale gray, and the trees were the same wintery brown. Snow dusted the ground and was starting to pile on the leafless tree branches.

  A bitter gust of wind ripped through the dead shrubbery and pierced through my coat. I cursed and pulled the lapels of my coat tighter. It was freezing cold outside, too freaking cold to have four classes worth of students outside. Caroline groaned but with her shivering it sounded more like a growl. She wrapped her arms around mine and huddled closer.

  And in that moment, I knew exactly which of us were arcana…and which were shifters.

  The shifters all smiled and closed their eyes, holding their arms out like they were trying to dance with the wind like they were Pocahontas or some shit.

  Christian, Emersyn’s ex-boyfriend, rolled his shoulders and sighed. “Feels good out here.”

  I glared at him. “Boy, I will magically reprogram all of your electronics if you keep up with that shit.”

  Deacon shook his head. “Sick burn, bruh.”

  I shrugged. “Hey, I know I got nothin’ on a shifter in a physical fight. Gotta know your limits. Imma be like a papercut. Won’t kill ya, but painfully annoying for an extended amount of time.”

  “Describes our weekend,” Caroline mumbled, still trying to use me as a shield from the wind.

  I eyed the shifter dude in question. “Yo, Chrissy, what kind of beast are ya, anyway?”

  Christian grinned and winked one eye at me. “A lady never tells.”

  “That depends on your species, actually.” Marcy blew a big pink bubble with her chewing gum then popped it. “I’m a mountain lion and a lady. Not only will I tell, but I’ll eat ya, too.”

  Christian – or Chrissy as I liked to now call him – looked Marcy up and down and grinned. “I could be okay with that.”

  One of the younger girls, maybe ten years old, frowned and glanced back and forth between the two. “Mr. Deacon, sir, what exactly are we practicing here? Because I don’t know how to do this…”

  Deacon stuck that damn lollypop back in his mouth and laughed.

  “Bruh. The lollypop?” I mimicked him like a damn mime. “That’s not gangsta.”

  He frowned like a little kid who dropped his ice cream cone in the dirt. Then, while holding my gaze, he held his hands out to his side. Red mist pooled in his palms. He lifted his hands then thrust them forward. That red mist shot out like a fireman’s hose into the park. The air cracked around his body and then bright, neon red lightning shot out of him.

  Every single one of the students around me gasped and jumped back. Their eyes bugged out of their heads. Not that I blamed them. I’d never s
een that kind of magic until Deacon showed back up here last month.

  Deacon’s purple eyes did that pretty starlight twinkle thing. He pulled his lollypop out of his mouth and pointed at his magic. “How ‘bout now?”

  I pursed my lips and eyed his magic floating around us. “I am both terrified and turned on, sooo…”

  Deacon high-fived himself and cheered. Then he turned to the rest of the group, still laughing and shaking his head. “All right, today we’re out here to practice killing demons because you all need to learn. And we felt that classroom learning wasn’t the best way to really get the feel of it.”

  “Wait, hold up.” I pointed to his red mist and lightning. “Did you just summon demons?”

  “Get your weapons ready, my friends.” Deacon shoved his hands in his jean pockets and leaned on his heels. “This is a drill and it starts now.”

  I pulled my wand out of my coat and definitely felt exactly like Harry Potter as I did it. No big deal. Caroline dropped one of her hands but the other gripped my sleeve tighter. I was okay with this. It was nice to know she felt safe with me. She had her crystal covered wand pointed at the ground like she was waiting for something to pop up.

  All around our group, I saw wands and swords being gripped and held in the air.

  “Everyone get ready!” Deacon shouted and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Incoming in 3…2….1…”

  The ground pulsed with energy that shot into my feet and up my legs. The short bushes swayed and rustled, and my heart sank. My nerves were shot. I gripped my wand with both hands like it was Excalibur’s sword and then small brown-ish-gray creatures leapt out of the bushes.

  Except they weren’t demons at all…they were rats.

  “Bruhhhh, did you make a mistake?”

  “I’m the Devil, so…no.” He walked through the panicked group then pointed his lollypop at the rodents rushing toward us. “These are your targets. Summoned them myself.”

  A young boy about twelve scowled. “You want us to kill rats?”

  Deacon shrugged. “If you can’t kill a rat, you’ll never kill a demon.”

  Caroline cackled like Cruella De Vil learning about dalmatian spots – but then a dozen brown rats the size of her head leapt out of the bush next to her. She cursed like the pirate she was and jumped behind me.

  Oh shit. Damn it. Ew, so gross.

  Be cool, Noah. Keep your cool.

  But I didn’t. I failed. One of those fat rats waddled right over my foot and I punted it into the shrubbery. But there was more of them. The rats were everywhere. I looked up and found the other students scrambling and leaping out of the way. One of the older guys in my grade was practically tap dancing while trying to flee.

  A couple of the younger kids squealed and bounced – and then they changed into little golden retriever puppies…and immediately leapt on top of the rock nearby.

  “Come here you little shit!” A girl shouted and dove head-first into the air with her arms stretched out in front of her. Light flashed around her and then she changed mid-air into a bright green parrot. She thrusted her claws out in front of her and tried to capture one of the rats, but it slithered between two rocks and the parrot slammed into the wall.

  A big, bulking guy kept swinging his arms down to the ground and came up short each time. “Oh, come on!”

  Marcy cursed and stomped her feet. “They’re just rats,” she whined. Light flashed around her and then she morphed into a golden mountain lion.

  The rats hissed and jumped back into the bushes, but Marcy wasn’t having it. She dropped into pounce position, then dove right into the bushes.

  I stopped trying to capture the damn rats and just watched my peers. They jumped, dove, and pounced on our targets. A few of them caught the rats only to have them slip right out of their grip.

  Christian spun in a circle then leapt forward. When his feet hit the ground, he was a big fuzzy brown grizzly bear. He swatted his big fat paws at the rats like this was some kind of an arcade game.

  “Come on, y’all.” Deacon crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. “If these were demons you might’ve been dead already.”

  “But they’re slippery!” One of the guys yelled as he caught a rat only for it to drop to the ground at his feet.

  Deacon chuckled. “So are some demons.”

  One of the younger boys groaned and threw his hands up. “You kill one then, Deacon!”

  But Deacon just shook his head and smiled. He raised his hands and I felt a wave of magic roll out of him. The red mist vanished and the lightning ceased. I spun around and looked to the ground only to find the rats all scrambling to get away from us.

  Not a single one of them hurt.

  I cursed and leaned down on my knees.

  Deacon shrugged. “Nah, I just wanted to see if any of y’all would do it. I wasn’t actually going to let any of you hurt a rat…but I wanted you to see that killing something isn’t as easy as it seems.

  Well…shit.

  I needed to stay off the front lines. For everyone’s sake.

  Chapter Twenty

  Deacon

  “Is a food tasting what it sounds like?

  I opened the door that led into the kitchen area, then paused to look down at her. “What do you mean?”

  She frowned and shrugged. “Nothing in New York with your crowd is ever simple. I’m just trying to figure out what I’m getting myself into right now.”

  That made me smile. “You’re adorable, and not incorrect. Normally, the food tastings that my parents are involved with are an elaborate ordeal. It’s basically a run-through, a rehearsal type thing where we sit and are served every single item on the menu. It usually takes a couple of hours.”

  Her face fell. “I don’t want to do that.”

  I threw my head back and laughed, then took her hand and pulled her inside the kitchen area. “We’re not going to. I told them, ain’t nobody got time for that. So, we’re meeting the chef and he’s going to present everything to us at once.”

  She sighed and slipped her fingers between mine. “I love you, really.”

  “You are a breath of fresh air, my Butterberry.” I tugged on her hand, then led her around the corner into the main kitchen area. “We just need to sample a few things, look at the menu he’s proposing, and come up with a game plan for the Yule Ball Friday night. Then we can bounce.”

  “Wait, this is the kitchen?” She glanced around with wide eyes.

  “Yes?” I frowned. “Why?”

  She shook her head. “It’s so…clean.”

  I chuckled and pulled her along again. She wasn’t wrong. It was sparkling it was so clean. I probably could’ve licked the floor and not tasted a thing. “Yeah, rich people like clean kitchens.”

  “This place makes my school cafeteria kitchen look like a zombie rescue shelter.”

  “I will add that to my bucket list of things to see before I die.” I giggled at the face she made. “C’mon, we have to finish this before he has to have lunch served.”

  “Right. Boss mode. Got it.” She pushed her shoulders back and held her chin high. “Let’s go taste some edibles.”

  I arched one eyebrow at her.

  She snarled. “Yeah, I heard it.”

  My smile spread so wide it made my jaw crack. I absolutely loved when she got flustered – which sounded horrible, but she just was adorable when feisty like this. Poor Chef Jones had no idea what kind of trouble he was in for. My girl knew what she wanted and she was not afraid to fight for it. She was a force to be reckoned with and I loved the show.

  And something told me there was about to be a fight.

  Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

  I’m the Devil Card, what can I say?

  “Seriously, I can see my reflection in the floor tiles.”

  I threw my head back and laughed. Again, she wasn’t wrong. The floor tiles were a sparkling, pristine white with a glossy coat on top that reflected everything. Actually, everything was wh
ite – unless it was stainless steel. Floor, walls, ceiling, – all shiny white. All of the appliances and counters were stainless and just as shiny.

  It was a massive kitchen, too. Almost the same size as the dining hall connected to it. The text from Chef Jones said he’d be in the main section, so I dragged Emersyn along with me past the largest stovetop I’d ever seen. When we rounded the corner, my feet stopped on their own accord.

  My jaw dropped.

  Emersyn gasped.

  In front of us was a fifteen-foot table with stainless steel tabletop. And the entire surface was covered with platters of food. A wall of savory smells slammed into me harder than a tsunami and my stomach growled.

  “Please don’t all be fancy. Please don’t all be fancy,” Emersyn whispered a few times.

  I placed my hand on the small of her back and ushered her forward. Yeah, there’s definitely about to be a fight. Because I saw what was be presented and it was all, as Emersyn would say, fancy. My magic rushed to the surface and I instantly felt her desire to fight…and her hunger. A dangerous combination.

  But then I felt something else. A desire to please, the desperate and panicked need to get approval. Except it was definitely not coming from Emersyn.

  Just then a door on our left swung open and a man in a white chef’s coat and black pants came rushing out carrying a tray of something seemingly chocolate. He was a few inches shorter than me and a bit stockier, with not a strand of hair on his head. In fact, the florescent lights in the ceiling reflected off his bald head. Though, I had to admit, he rocked the look well – even in chef clothes.

  He glanced toward us then did a double take. His eyes widened. “Oh! Mister English, Miss Bishop, you’re here!”

  I cleared my throat. “Please, call me Deacon.”

  “Of course, thank you.” He sat the tray down on a nearby counter and smiled. Then he glanced to Emersyn with expectant eyes.