BriThey had effortlessly handed over the trinkets that protected them from other witches meddling. Left themselves vulnerable to the tyrant who was their mistress of dark and light. I picked up the trinkets and closed my palm over them, enforcing the talismans and strengthening their power. Before I offered them back. The men looked at me questioningly.“Don’t lose them, I know I forget to tell you, but I’m thankful for your friendship, I will protect you and yours and I expect the same in return,” I offered. They reached out tentatively as if I would smite them and took the items returning them to their persons.“As you all know I don’t know my origins, I was a foundling. I buried a lot of what I was after my father died. The girl's memories started coming to me the night I was forced to sign the contract. Whenever the anxiety ran too high her memories were my escape. I don't know who she is but I'm tied to her. When the Depression ran too deep, the peace she granted me, stayed my h
WyattThe alarm drew me out of provocative dreams of her. I groaned, clicking the phone off. I could feel the absence of her in my arms and I let out a heavy sigh. Then I remembered what today was. Bastian’s graduation. I pushed the deep longing aside and forced myself out of bed. “Up and at em boys, we have a big day today,” I reached out to the groggy sleepy minds of the boys. As I dressed I heard Beau moving around glad I wouldn’t have to force his ass out of bed. I found him in the kitchen sporting a new black eye and busted lip.“Don’t look at me like that,” Beau said, reaching for the cornflakes.“I suppose you couldn’t pause your quarrelsome thoughts for one night, you knew what today is?” He just shrugged in response.“Today is not about me so who cares, but you should have seen the other guy when I was done with him,” he said dryly. I missed the flirtatious, jubilant Beau but I wasn’t selfish enough to not allow him to grieve in whatever way this was anymore. I didn’t have t
BriHolding the boys to me my facade cracked, and the tears rolled free. I blinked up and found Wyatt and Beau coming towards me. My heart which had been icy in New Orleans warmed thawing simply by their presence. The boys parted and the men and I stared at each other. They were unsure, and so was I. Wyatt broke the silence.“You came for Bastian’s graduation?” his words were careful, testing my intentions.“I was invited and I made a promise I intend to keep,” Bas walked up and hugged me, lifting me off my feet as he spun me around. He crinkled up his nose.“I knew you’d make it, It’s a good thing I conned you into making my favorite dinner cuz they ain’t feeding you right In NOLA,” Bas said as he set me down. I felt Wyatt and Beau’s eyes as if they could see me naked through the dress. The weight loss would be obvious to them, but it would be just another thing for them to fret over later. I just huffed.“And y’all have grown a foot taller since I last saw you,” I said looking over
BriWhen we reached the parking lot of the small school, Bas threw his graduation cape over his shoulders and began fumbling with his tie. I took it from him and walked him through the steps as I tied it for him, just as my father had taught me. Why he taught me such a thing, I didn’t know, but right now I was glad for it. He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Thanks, Mama,” he whispered before he took off to take his place. I stood stunned at the sentiment he offered me of all people. Even Wyatt and Beau paused with me before they guided me into a random spot on the bleachers. We didn’t comment on what Bas said, but my chest radiated warmth and longing. I saw Zoey and Trent eyeing the proceeds from down below and Boo sat dutifully at my feet. We sat through the ceremony in alphabetic order. With each name called the faster my foot tapped in anticipation and the closer Beau and Wyatt seemed to curl closer into me as we awaited Bastian’s name. When they called his name we all stood, ye
BriMy mind had raced since the encounter but the moment I’d stepped foot on the island the core within me had settled and the magic sang as it coursed relentlessly in my veins. Though I couldn’t get the girl’s eyes out of my mind, the act of making dinner relaxed me, allowing the fog I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying with me to ease. Out in the open with so many people there wasn’t much any of us could do. I’d bring it up after, well, everything else.Zoey and Trent sat at the kitchen table and Wyatt and Beau stood at my beck and call. Yet I moved through the kitchen, all eyes upon me not missing a beat as the heavy silence made the room suffocating for the rest.“I wouldn’t have believed it if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes,” Trent mused. Breaking the silence. I peered over my shoulder.“You should think before you ever doubt me,” I said, rolling my eyes. Wyatt’s and Beau’s brows raised.“They didn’t believe I could cook,” I let them know. They snorted in response.“Bri cooks
Chapter 15BriWe watched Zoey and Trent leave with a boat and I shook my head, she left me with no vices to get through this with them. In her mind, there was only succeeding. I felt that deep down though they had expressed their love I didn’t feel like I deserved it. We had piles of shit to weed through until I could allow them to make the final call but I caved once. Could I maintain the cage over my soul with the bond alive and in such close proximity? I was a ticking time bomb of spreading my legs and begging them to bite me. I didn’t know what to think of myself, or what they expected of me after a year. It had taken us so long to get to the point of intimacy and we hadn’t been together physically in over a year. I suppose honesty was the best policy. I had secrets that haunted me, I wasn’t the same woman who they left in New Orleans.I turned and walked inside, they trailed me and we all stood silent for a moment. I found myself fiddling with the folds of my dress, then I remem
BriWyatt and Beau chose to sit on the couch, leaving me space between them but I chose the old armchair that sat across from them. Where to start? I suppose the beginning would be best.“The day I sent you away, I knew what had happened shortly after I woke, our hearts, synced together. I sent you away knowing if you stayed any longer, if I told you, you would have solidified the bond and I couldn’t risk that, risk you and the boys not with the turmoil I knew the next months would wield. I felt the tether between us and though you accepted me the bonds were incomplete. As the central bond, I felt every feeling that spilled through you as if it were mine. When you exited New Orleans, My Chi exploded in a rage and agony at my betrayal of you and burnt my room to ash, the only remnants that remained were pieces of you. The clothes I kept, the bags we brought, the bed. If not for Zoey, I may have ignited the entire city.” I paused blinking back tears. “I could have killed everyone.”Wyat
BeauI meant what I told Wyatt, I had blamed him, where it wasn’t due. Right now all that mattered was her. Her healing, her working through everything she had suppressed alone without us over the last several months. She needed both of us and we had to be united together before she accepted us as hers fully. She had stripped herself before us admitting her guilt, and when her light had flooded me all I could remember was my love for her, for my brother, for our family. I had fallen to my knees and wept over her letter, over the life she wanted… with us. I had been such a stupid man and in the end, none of my bullshit mattered. My foul moods my victims at the underground fights or bars. I'd become a completely different animal. Not the man she knew, the man she loved. I should have known my woman, I'd been such a couyon, this last year being angry at the world she loved. It had just been too dim without her in it to see clearly. She'd been trying to protect her joy and I’d just said