by Ellis Marie
Magic.
“Wait,” I interrupt their huddle. “You guys are witches?” They all look at each other and then laugh.
“Of course, child. Do you think these plants would grow on just anyone?” Tia smiles at me. As she holds out her hand to me, I see that the flowers I had thought were sewn into her clothes are in fact sprouting from her skin. “There is always beauty and magic in nature. We’re just the ones it connects to most.”
The woman with hair down to her feet glances over to the rest of the guests and curls her lip at them. “Unlike some creatures, we work beside nature. We don’t become controlled by it or defy the laws of it.”
Tia shushes her quickly and throws her a glare. I’m taken aback slightly at the venom that she has shown towards my friends.
“I apologise for my friend Theodora.” Tia smiles but Theodora does not seem to want to apologise. “This is her twin sister, Myrella. We are from the Andromeda coven.”
When silence is all that greets them, they seem confused as if I am meant to react.
“The Andromeda coven?” I question hesitantly. They all share a look. “I’m sorry, I just only recently discovered that witches are real. I haven’t really done my history homework.” I motion to the burning body behind us. “I have been a little preoccupied.”
“Oh sweetheart, we know. We just thought that Maggie would have maybe mentioned us to you when she told you of her heritage.”
Maggie.
“You knew her well?” I ask. They smile, motioning for me to sit down at a wall beside us. I quickly do, eager to know how these women knows someone so important to me.
“Maggie was a part of our coven when she was young. We all grew up together and trained together for quite a while.” Myrella smiles while petting Obi, who seems to melt at her touch. “She really was a talented witch. She was the first of us that could light a candle and the first to make the perfect healing potion.”
“Not to mention the first of us to come into her power,” Theodora grumbles. “Never forgot that one.”
Tia sits beside me and takes my hand in hers, grinning from ear to ear. “Maggie was like a sister to us growing up. She always looked out for us and was set to become the leader of our coven . . .” she trails off, glancing at the other two women. “But she left because of —”
“Ernie.” I interrupt. “She left because of Ernie.”
That was after she had triggered her powers and accidentally killed Ernie’s father. She said they had had to go on the run because of his pack, but she never said anything about what she left behind. I look at how the witches keep glancing behind them and checking their backs. I notice the way Trent keeps checking up on me from across the garden.
“Is there an issue between witches and werewolves?” I ask pointedly. Theodora scoffs.
“We just lost Maggie because of Ernie’s pack and then they killed him and she almost died too and—”
“Wait, Ernie’s pack killed him?” Mrs. Grenway never told me that.
A chill runs through my skin at the information, as if it’s trying to tell me something—warning me of what’s to come.
“My dear, didn’t you ever wonder why she was so ill or her powers so weak?” Myrella asks softly, her eyes shining with melancholy.
“No, she didn’t . . . I mean, I never . . .” I didn’t think she was weak. She managed to protect Cole and me. She had healed me before too. Although, I suppose that was a potion and not magic. She had been sick for a while, and it had gotten progressively worse, but she never said what was really wrong with her.
“When they decided to settle here, they were putting themselves at risk but they wanted to stay. I believe that Maggie had met your mother and had promised to help her and help you.”
“Me?” I ask, confused. “But why would my mother need help? Why would I need help?”
Did Mrs. Grenway know something that I didn’t?
“She never really told us. She just asked us to come, visit, and put some protection spells on you when you were quite young. She had been doing it since you were a baby, but after Ernie died, she didn’t have enough power to do it herself.”
Before I can even open my mouth to ask the question, Theodora has read it from my mind and is already shooting daggers at the group of wolves.
“She didn’t have enough power because she tried to protect herself and Ernie from werewolves. Witches’ powers are limited. When they were attacked, she killed the wolves that had attacked, healed herself and then tried to bring Ernie back. That alone should have killed her, but somehow, she stayed alive. She just lost most of her powers and she slowly started to lose her health too. We made a lot of different potions for her to take to delay the inevitable, but the only real way for her to survive it was to move back to our coven . . . but she refused to.”
I look over at the dwindling fire of Margaret Grenway and know immediately why she wouldn’t go back to coven.
Because of me.
“You were the most important thing to her,” Tia whispers, stroking my hair back from my face with tears in her eyes. “She would have wanted to go out no other way than protecting you.”
“And Obi,” Myrella adds with a giggle. “The two of you were very special to her.”
I’ve always known that Mrs. Grenway loved me like I was her own, but hearing it from people who knew her and were in her life long before me just made it hit home.
“So she died because she used all her powers saving me? But she was shot—”
“She was shot years ago. Her magic was keeping the wound at bay, but when she protected you the other day, she needed all of it. So the wound finally took over her body.”
My heart breaks all over again at the thought of her in so much pain for so long and giving up her life for me . . . willingly.
“As I said, there is nothing that woman wouldn’t have done for you.” Tia smiles, handing me a photo from her pocket. “She sent us this years ago to keep us up to date with you. I thought you might like to have it.”
The photo is of myself, Mrs. Grenway, and Ernie—all three of us smiling so happily into the camera on what I remember to be a warm summer’s day. I was about six when the photo was taken, and I could remember asking her what she was going to do with it.
I carefully turn the photo over. Right enough, her perfect cursive writing is scrawled across the back of it
From one family to another. I hope someday we’ll all be together.
Family.
I find myself hugging Tia before I can even process what I’m doing, but she just as quickly hugs me back, her arms featherlight against my own.
Hugging her feels like being embraced by a field of flowers, like vines holding me in their warmth.
“We just wanted to let you know that if you need anything from us, then all you have to do is ask.” She looks behind me and stifles a chuckle. “However, I think it’s best we go now before your poor mate has a haemorrhage.”
It takes a moment for me to understand what she means as I try to forget all the questions floating in my mind. I turn to look over the garden.
She’s not wrong and it makes me laugh; Trent looks as though there’s a chain attached to him that’s stopping him from coming over. The strain in his neck is so prominent that I’m scared it’s going to burst.
“Give this to your friend Cole,” Myrella whispers, slipping a small bag into my hand with a wink. “The wolves don’t really like us interfering, but we know when we can help.”
My heart surges at the kind gesture. I squeeze her hand in return, grateful for the presence of the ladies who have managed to unravel the pain I’m feeling and replace it with a little bit of happiness.
“We’ll see you again soon, Elle—”
“Not too soon, though,” Theodora interrupts, who glares at Trent as he makes his way towards us. Tia rolls her eyes at her sister and shoots me a smile.
“Remember, anything you need, just give us a call.”
Before
I can even respond, the three of them have turned and begun to walk away, shouting goodbyes over their shoulders as they head into the forest, their bare feet not seeming to mind the hard ground.
How do I call them?
I watch as they disappear into the overgrown leaves and then are out of sight, their laughter echoing behind them. I slyly open the bag in my hands and peer inside, seeing a small vial hiding at the bottom corner of the velvet.
“Everything okay?”
I quickly shove the picture they’ve given me into the bag and shut it, hiding the real contents of it from Trent who is standing while watching me with a careful gaze. I can still sense his tension, not just from the funeral but from the events before all this even happened.
I’ve thought a lot about it since then.
There is no real way that I can stay away from him, is there?
The sun behind us is beginning to set and the rays are just making their way over the trees, the warm light glowing over the field. The sunlight makes Trent’s skin seem as though it’s glistening and his eyes shine.
God, he’s handsome, isn’t he?
“I believe this is what they call the ‘golden hour’,” I tease, lifting my face up to face the sun. “It reminds me of your eyes.”
I see his small smile as he reaches out to take my hand, our fingers intertwining as he steps closer to me, lifting his head up too. Between the sun and the heat rushing through my fingers at Trent’s touch, I no longer feel the ice-cold sadness that I have been wallowing in for days. Instead, a calmness passes over me and I don’t feel so weighed down anymore.
“I didn’t get a chance to thank Maggie’s friends for attending the funeral. They really outdid themselves with the flowers and spells.”
Trent sees my look of confusion and smiles.
“You don’t think pyres are usually that pleasant, do you? They put a lot of spells on it to make it so peaceful and beautiful. I’m grateful. Maggie deserved it.”
His words make me smile. I take a step closer to him, knowing that he has been feeling as awful as I have for the last couple days, not to mention he has been looking after Cole.
“I didn’t mean to push you away,” I whisper, not daring to look at him as our arms touch. “I just didn’t want to break down in front of you again.”
“Oh mi cielo, I know. You don’t need to explain yourself to me.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulder and comforts me just like his words. I lean into the side of him, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry that there wasn’t more that I could do.”
“There’s nothing you could have done, Trent,” I mumble, closing my eyes as I feel his lips gently press against the top of my forehead, his fingers trailing up my arm.
“I promise you,” he whispers in a breath. “I’m going to find out who tried to harm you. I won’t let them get to you.”
The fierceness in his voice catches me by surprise. I look up to see his face tense and his eyes full of anger, flaring his nostrils like a bull ready to fight.
I hold his face in my hand, softly stroking his hair away from his eyes as I look into them, pulling his attention back to me and away from the dark thoughts that he’s started to fall into.
I cannot come up with the words to tell him everything I’m feeling at the moment. My heart is so full but breaking at the same time; my anger is so high, but I feel so at peace too, and all I know is that he means to protect me and look after me.
No matter what.
My mouth moves at its own accord as I take a step closer to Trent and pull his head to mine, my lips touching his so delicately that I’m scared for a moment that he doesn’t feel them.
His arms quickly go from being at his side to wrapping around me and I want to scream at the ecstasy that I feel. Why do I keep pushing him away when he could make me feel like this? When all I can think about is the way his hands are holding me to him and the feeling of his muscles moving under my fingertips.
His steadiness brings comfort to me.
A shiver goes down my spine, my body melting into him as his arms pull me in tighter, not an inch of our bodies apart. My hands slide around his neck. I pull myself up on my toes, itching to get as close as humanly possible, just never wanting the moment to end.
Mate.
I hadn’t understood the word much before, or really had a chance to think about the meaning since I had found out about it, but I know now that he was telling the truth—that he is the missing part of myself that I have longed to find for so long. The part that I thought I had with Matt, but I couldn’t have been more wrong about.
Matt moulded me to fit the hole in his heart. Whereas I am the perfect piece to fit Trent’s.
I pull away gently, aware that the feeling that is beginning to make my toes curl is not one that is appropriate for a funeral.
I open my mouth to tell Trent and try to explain everything that I’m feeling, but he just shakes his head and smiles, tracing my bottom lip with his thumb before he kisses it again lightly.
“I know,” he whispers, his head going to the side of my neck where he places a featherlike kiss on it. My knees turn to jelly in response.
Oh my lord.
“In time, minha vida, you will not pull back when that feeling begins to overwhelm you.”
His words whisper into my ear as his nose trails along my skin.
“In time, when your knees begin to shake and your lungs cannot hold air, you will lean into it and embrace it.” He softly tucks my hair behind my ear. I close my eyes, revelling in the pure sensations that light up my body as he kisses my temple.
“In time, my goddess, you will surrender yourself to me completely, and we will both find out exactly how well we are made for each other.”
I cannot feel anything but the beating of my heart and his arm holding me up as I struggle to catch my breath, imagining his words . . . his promises.
Like a switch, he pulls me back into an upright position. I can feel my cheeks turning hot as I fall into him, pressing my hands against his chest as I look up into his eyes that are swimming with something dark.
“Until then, I will revel in your blushing cheeks and the way your breath catches at my words.” He kisses me softly on the top of my head one more time before stepping back and letting me go. “It is all I need to satisfy me. For now anyway.”
I don’t miss the wink that he finishes with. My whole body shivers in response, which only furthers to make his grin widen and my cheeks go hotter.
“W-we should go see Cole,” I stutter out, clearing my throat as I turn away from him, quickly running across the grass in an attempt to space myself from him and try to cool my body. His soft chuckle following me doesn’t allow that in the slightest.
How long am I going to be able to keep myself from losing control with Trent? I mean, not that I would entirely mind doing it, but is it not too soon to be—
“Elle!” Kristie squeals, interrupting my train of thought. I jump in surprise but quickly calm myself down, hoping she doesn’t see the blush coating me from head to toe. “So that looked like an earth-shattering kiss!”
Busted.
“I’m glad you and he are back on good terms. He really was moping about like a puppy whenever he took me up to see you.” Of course, she’s completely oblivious to the joke that she has just made, but I giggle nonetheless, making her smile. “So who were those ladies that were here? They went into the woods and everything.”
I’m dumbstruck for a moment on how to explain to her that those ‘ladies’ are in fact witches of an apparently very powerful coven who knew Mrs. Grenway from before she ran away with her werewolf husband, but returned after he was killed by his pack . . .
Oh yeah, just simple stuff.
“They are from her weird church that she was going to,” Trent intercepts before I can continue flailing. I’m relieved that he’s managed to come up with something but also concerned that I can literally feel his presence on the back of my neck.
The point is to get away from him before my body could combust.
“They’re very into nature and such, so I believe they were going to take a walk back to where they stay, do some ritual that will free Maggie’s spirit along the way.”
The ease in which he says it is a little alarming. I note that Trent is an incredibly good liar when push comes to shove. It’s clear that Kristie thinks so, too, because the suspicious look that she originally had on her face is gone. She’s shaking her head lightly at the thought with a smile.
“Elle, did you not say you were going to go and see Cole?” Trent quickly adds as Kristie begins to open her mouth, no doubt with more questions. I leap at the opportunity to escape.
“Yes, yes I did,” I agree, shooting Kristie an apologetic smile. “I really just want to see him alone and speak to him. I know he’s not awake, but I have some things I should have said a couple of days ago.”
Kristie squeezes my hand softly, understanding clear on her face as she lets me walk past her and towards the house, no doubt ready to fire a thousand more questions at Trent. For once, I’m more than fine with leaving him alone with Kristie. He would be able to answer all her questions far better than I.
Or lie to her about them, I suppose.
I turn back as I get to the house and look over at the two of them as they stand chatting with Trent’s arms folded across his chest as he listens to Kristie ramble on about something. It makes me laugh, and I can’t help but smile at the fake smile that Trent has put on to his lips as he nods at whatever she’s saying.
During her ramble, Trent looks over her shoulder and his eyes connect with mine, sending me a glare from across the grass.
“You owe me,” he mouths. I giggle at him as he turns his attention back to Kristie.
I let myself into the house and quietly make my way through the kitchen, looking up at the stunning tiles lining the walls and the gorgeous chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Across all the walls are pictures of the pack and their families—all smiling and happy in every single one, their love for each other evident through just a glance.
