[Gideon]
I feel warm everywhere at once. I sensed that she might be the one, my Match, from that moment I felt her power at our first meeting, but to hear it confirmed, to know I was right feels validating. After years of searching, and failing, to find that one person who matches my power so completely they can be a mirror for my sword, a focus to my anchor, I never expected that person to stumble across our path. She fell right into me, and I wasn't clever enough to realize what a gift that meeting was, that she was sent to this coven as a gift from the universe. This girl from the south with her large gray eyes that always look a bit lost, has found her home within our coven, strengthening us all for the battles ahead.
The faces aroun
[Rosalynd] Gideon picks up the first item and holds it up to the moonlight. “This,” he explains as he twirls a small blade, no bigger than my palm blade around his fingers, the bone gleaming dully, “Is called an athame. It is used for preparing spell components and other ritual uses. Every member of our coven has one. It must be gifted or crafted, it cannot be bought.” “I made this blade when I was 15 years old,” he muses, “I had just come into my power. My grandmother taught me how to craft it, and how to make the bone respond to my wishes. It took me all summer to get it right.” Flipping it around in his hand, he wraps it in a silk cloth and hol
[Rosalynd]“Do we need to be this close?” I whisper, our breaths mingling as I remove my glasses.“Is this making you uncomfortable?” His deep voice echoes through me as he moves a strand of my hair behind my ear. I feel a tingle where our skin touches.“A little,” I admit, suddenly very shy. “You are awfully close.”“When we begin to cast spells together, we may occasionally be even closer than this,” the corner of his lip curls. “We will need to become a lot more comfortable with one another over time.”
[Evander]“Why hasn’t she called to check in?” the sulking pup in the corner whined, the edges of his lips curled down. “Shouldn’t she have checked in by now?”“Rosalynd is a grown woman,” I roll my eyes at him. “She doesn’t need to ‘check in’ with you just because you’re lonely.” This wolf is absolutely exasperating. "I'm sure the witches are keeping her busy."“But what if she’s hurt? What if that…coven, has done something to warp her mind?” He huffs, his mind spinning through a series of scenarios, each one more biased and neurotic than the last. “What if they’ve brainwashed her and she now never wants to see us again? What if..?”“What
[Slone]He is calling me.*thump*I just need to walk to the edge of the road, to the start of the forest beyond. Just a step, and a turn.*thump thump*The stones are crunching underneath my bare feet. I am not wearing shoes. Why am I not wearing shoes? My feet and ankles are wet with dew as I walk across Evander’s garden. The flowers are so beautiful. The glow in the moonlight.*thump*I need to find Rosalynd. I need to tell her. To warn her.*thump thump*The hounds are coming. I can feel their fiery breath on my legs, on my spine. If they catch me they will open me and I wil
[Rosalynd]I woke to the sound of rapid thumping on the door. I look over at the clock on top of the TV. It is 6:23 am.“GIDEON!!” A familiar voice bellows from outside. “WE NEED YOUR HELP! It’s URGENT”“Evander?” I scratch my head as I stand up from the futon in the living room, wrap the comforter more securely around myself, and stumble blindly through the coven house to the front door. I stand on tip toe to look through the peephole.His face angled towards the peephole, I see Evander holding a body in his hands. What I can see of her is bloody and scratched. “Please let us in, Rosalynd. I can hear your heartbeat on the other side of the door.”I turn the lo
[Vincent] “So explain to me again,” I am holding her by the neck, her face purpling beautifully under my hands as I continue to squeeze. “Why is it that I still need you?” “Master, please,” she pleads. “I don’t understand, I did everything you asked me…” “Stupid woman,” she has begun to scratch at my hand, her lacquered red nails scratching pathetically against my strength. A simple twist of my wrist and she’ll stop moving her sad little dance. “I already have what I need.” “Thanks to me,” she gargles, her lips s
[Rosalynd] Gideon rushes between us and Slone, his arms wide to his sides. “Stay back, everyone,” he warns. “Marigold, go wake the others. We are going to need the power of the coven to break this.” He then reaches out and picks up what looks like a paperweight, but I can see it is a pyramid of solid crystal. He places it on Slone’s chest and her body stills, her eyes the only thing still moving. The pyramid slowly begins to change, becoming a cloudy gray where the crystal is touching her, as if drawing some type of darkness from her body.“Hurry, this won’t hold her for long!” Marigold runs back up the stairs, knocking on doors as she makes her way down the hall. “Code Black! CODE BLA
[Axel] I feel a tension around my shoulders, a tightening of my muscles. The energy pull from that room is overwhelming as if all the life is flowing from every living thing in the room, including myself. “We need to help her,” Conner insists, “we need to help our mate!” “She doesn’t need us,” I explain silently. “You heard the elf, we’d just get in the way, or possibly even cause her harm if we were in there with her.”
[Rosalynd] I’d like to say this is a happily ever after, and I guess in some ways it is. Girl meets boy. The boy turns out to be a wolf. The girl meets another boy, who is a witch, and then another boy who happens to be a leprechaun. They all fall in love and have a lovely life full of magic and love. But fairy tales only seem simple on the outside. And our story is still beginning. Evander has been busier than ever ruling his kingdom. He spends as much time as he can here, but Tara is calling. Soon, he may need to stay there for longer. I’ll miss having him with me every day, but I understand. And It’s not like I can’t be there with him. It’s just a simple flip of a coin. Axel has taken his new duties as Guardian of the Forest very seriously. His new abilities from his time as the void have made him useful when it comes to detecting warlock mischief. Yes, we are still dealing with the warlocks, as before, but with their leader gone, they are a lot less powerful. Gideon has resum
[Evander] I’m not sure what Rosalynd is going to think when she sees this. I hope she takes it well. It’s been two months since our daughters were born and sometimes her emotions overtake her. “My Love,” I call out as I cross the threshold of our home in the woods. Today is Rosalynd’s day with me, and I can’t wait to come back to her from my dealings with the new council, even if I have some difficult news to share. My “surprise” is hidden in the satchel lying across my chest. She’s become such an intuitive witch since the babies were born that it is almost impossible to keep anything from her. She’ll likely sense the contents or see a vision or some other trick of the universe that will reveal everything before I open my mouth to tell her. Sometimes I wonder why any of us boys even bother to try. “Back here!” She responds from the kitchen, her voice strained with effort as if trying to lift something heavy. The kitchen is the last room I’d expect to find her in and prob
[Rosalynd] The chaotic hubbub that my announcement created would be comical if it weren’t happening to me. Thankfully we didn’t have to worry about much, we already had a room set up for the birth. One of the advantages of being married into a family as magical as mine, I have no shortage of highly capable hands to help me in this new adventure. This birth will be a bit more exceptional for a few reasons. Firstly, I am not entirely a wolf or even a simple hybrid. We have no idea how being part chimera is going to change things. Second, I am carrying two children fathered by two men. None of us know how the DNA was passed or what to expect. Will they be witches, leprechauns, wolves, or something else? The only thing we know for certain is that they will NOT be human. Nor will their powers be weak. They are the children born of deities and avatars, crafted from the flesh of some of the most powerfully magical beings on Earth and in Faerie. Thankfully, the Eel River pack already h
[Axel] Things have been different since we returned home. It has been months, and even though everything seems to have settled back to “normal,” there is no denying that things will never be quite the same again. Since the night I agreed to let the Void take over my body, I hear voices in my head. Sometimes I see things that others cannot see, even Rosie, our own personal goddess. I am myself, but I am also something else. Even Connor has been affected. After that night in the bunker, his coat had gone completely black, and his eyes glowed with the hot blue fire of the stars. He insists that he is an unchanged wolf, just better looking, but I would be a fool not to be disturbed by the changes. But today, I promised to put all of that aside for the sake of having one, perfect moment. “Are you ready,” Evander smiles from the doorway. His navy blue tie matches the color of my formal suit. Seeing me struggle with my own tie, he walks into the room and takes over for me. “Cousin
[Evander] I can feel the moment that Rosie gives into the Void. It feels like a cold chisel cracking into my heart, seeking to break the ties that bind me to her, that bind all three of us to her, leaving only the darkness within. Axel thinks that by welcoming the void in, he is getting his opportunity to be with her forever. But he isn't. The void does not need his soul once the darkness completes its work. As she kisses Axel, sealing their union, I know that even with the Universe’s blessing shining within me, I understand that If I do not act swiftly, we may all be tied to the void forever. Or worse, we could lose her to it. “We claimed her first and that bond cannot be broken so easily,” the Universe speaks to me, through me, filling me with the knowledge of what it sees as it fills my body, taking command. Reaching deep within myself, I can feel the truth of those words. The void tried to break us, but it failed. All three of us are still tied to her with shining cords o
[Gideon] His voice is like a cancer, rotting my soul from the inside out. Vincent. I thought I was free of him when he took Esther south when he left our coven behind. “You can never be free of me,” he laughs in my head. “We were never truly apart. Once you merge a soul with another, you are always connected. I was your coven leader. I will always be your coven leader.” “Not if I kill you,” I promise aloud, my body struggling against the magical restraints that Evander placed on me. His cackling laughter fades into the background. He is done with me for now. I can rest and regain my strength so that I can fight him off again next time. Unlike Slone, there is nothing that he can offer me that I want, so there is no way for him to find entry into the deepest parts of my soul. With Rosie and Evander in my life, I have more than I deserve. I wake up in darkness. The room is cold, colder than I expected it to be. It is like all the warmth vacated the room through every little cr
[Rosalynd] I lie there frozen as I watch the black of his eyes expand to overcome the sclera. Wide and unblinking, they stare into my own and I find myself falling into them, losing all sense of where I am. My body is present in the here and now, but my mind and soul have moved on to someplace so vast that galaxies are formed and die around me as I watch. And I remember. I remember being pulled to a place like this once before, at the moment of my almost death, when I had to make a decision. And I stand in that darkness now, the room gone, only darkness remaining. A man steps forward. Whereas before the void had no shape, now that it has a form to inhabit, he takes the shape that has become familiar and comfortable and wears my fiancé's face as he waits for me to come to him. He is still dressed for a wedding, but the clothing doesn't seem out of place here. In his natural element, the void incarnate looks regal, his body radiating power in dark waves of energy. "Do you remember me
[Evander] By the time I reached his location, it was already too late. Axel fell through the opening in the sky, hungry arms grabbing him and drawing him in. It was as if the void itself took him. I have been flitting through the shadows, looking for a trace of him. Wherever he was taken does not lie within the shadow roads. My best guess is that he is somewhere inside one of these buildings. My worst guess is that he is somewhere I cannot follow, deep in the void itself, unable to reach any of us or call out for help. “If you are listening, Universe, we could use your help.” The universe never answers, at least not with words, but my instincts are telling me to head toward the smaller of the two buildings. I cannot blink beyond the walls without knowing what is on the other side. Which means I need to get close enough, undetected, to see where I might land. And then I need to search and keep going until I find him. Until I can find both of them. Because I am not leav
[Rosalynd] The creature wearing the face of my mate walks towards me. He is dressed for a wedding. Top hat, tailcoat, white gloves, and a silk cravat and dress shirt all in varying shades of black and gray, like fog at midnight. His chestnut-colored hair has been slicked back and put into a ponytail, a ribbon of black silk tying it back. None of this feels right. It isn’t Axel’s style. Even at our true wedding, I would more likely expect him to wear designer cowboy boots and a pair of dark denim. But that isn’t the part of him that bothers me the most. It was his eyes. Black as slate, cold and dark, they are the opposite of those warm, honey-brown orbs that stole my heart all those months ago. “What are you?” I hiss, struggling against my bonds. "And where is Axel? Where is my mate?" He places a gentle hand on my cheek, making a shushing sound as he tries to soothe me. “He's still here, watching you, protecting you. Even now, he fights to be by your side," his fingers re