Daughter of two ruthless high-Gradient telepaths, Auden Scott is not the child her Psy parents wanted or expected, even before her brain injury. Her thoughts are scattered, her memories fuzzy—or just terrifyingly blank. The only thing she knows for certain is that she must protect her unborn baby . . . a baby she has no recollection of conceiving and who draws an unnerving depth of interest from her dead mother’s closest associates.
Leopard alpha Remi Denier is a man driven by the primal instinct to protect. Protect his pack, protect his allies . . . and protect the mysterious woman who has become a most unlikely neighbor. With eerie eyes that see too much and a scent that alters in ways disturbing and impossible, Auden Scott is the enemy . . . but nothing about this strange Psy is what it seems, and Remi’s feline heart is as fascinated by her as his human half.
Then Auden asks Remi to help her shatter the wall of secrets that is the Scott bloodline. What they unearth will reveal a nightmare beyond imagination. This time, the battle is to the death. . .
PRIMAL MIRROR (Psy-Changeling Trinity Book #8) by Nalini Singh is an exciting paranormal romantic suspense which had me on the edge-of-my- seat as the leopard changeling hero and the Psy heroine go against a frightening evil. While the romance can stand on its own, the suspense plot is ongoing from previous books and there are also several characters pulled from previous books. While you do not need to go back to the beginning of the entire paranormal series, I enjoyed reading this Trinity spinoff series in order.
Psy Auden Scott suffered a terrible brain injury in an accident. While her memories are scattered or even blank, her mother has a diabolical use for her daughter. As Auden’s mind heals, she realizes she is pregnant with a child she has no recollection of conceiving. When her mother dies, Auden does not understand her mother’s associates’ intense interest in the yet to be born baby, but she vows to protect her baby at all costs.
Leopard alpha Remi Denier is working on protecting and building his fledgling pack. As he is checking his lands perimeter, he discovers a new neighbor on the adjacent land. This Psy with the unique eyes is very pregnant and has a scent that changes in disturbing ways, and he is fascinated. His alpha will do anything to protect this woman and her to be born cub.
Auden and Remi work together to uncover what Auden mother’s plans were for her that seem to be continuing even after her death as they also protect Auden’s baby. They MS. discover a nightmare even as the entire Psy race is on the brink of mass destruction.
I loved this addition to the series. It is fast paced with tension that continues to ramp up to a discovery that is severely twisted. Auden is a great powerful female heroine that you cannot help but love, not only because of her fight to regain her mental self, but also how much she will do to protect her baby. I have been waiting for Remi to finally meet his mate and this is a great pairing. I also enjoyed how this book pulls in many characters from previous books in the series not only to assist Auden and Remi, but to save the PsyNet itself.
I highly recommend this addition to the series, and I am looking forward to seeing what is in store for this paranormal world in the next book!
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Author Bio
I was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. I spent three years living and working in Japan, where I took the chance to travel around Asia. I’m back in New Zealand now, but I’m always plotting new trips. If you’d like to see some of my travel snapshots, have a look at the Travel Diary page.
I’ve worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher, but not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency, but I call it grist for the writer’s mill.
His name is Joshua Knight. Once a respected explorer, the press now calls him the Tarnished Knight. He took the fall for a disaster in the Underworld that destroyed his career. The devastating event occurred in the newly discovered sector known as Glass House—a maze of crystal that is rumored to conceal powerful Alien antiquities. The rest of the Hollister Expedition team disappeared and are presumed dead.
Whatever happened down in the tunnels scrambled Josh’s psychic senses and his memories, but he’s determined to uncover the truth. Labeled delusional and paranoid, he retreats to an abandoned mansion in the desert, a house filled with mirrors. Now a recluse, Josh spends his days trying to discover the secrets in the looking glasses that cover the walls. He knows he is running out of time.
Talented, ambitious crystal artist Molly Griffin is shocked to learn that the Tarnished Knight has been located. She drops everything and heads for the mansion to find Josh, confident she can help him regain control of his shattered senses. She has no choice—he is the key to finding her sister, Leona, a member of the vanished expedition team. Josh reluctantly allows her to stay one night but there are two rules: she must not go down into the basement, and she must not uncover the mirrors that have been draped.
But her only hope for finding her sister is to break the rules…
PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES (A Ghost Hunters/Harmony Novel Book #17) by Jayne Castle is an action filled paranormal/urban fantasy romantic suspense return to the world of Harmony and this story returns to Illusion City and the Underworld tunnels. I anxiously wait for each new book in this series to once again immerse myself in the Harmony worldbuilding, each new couple and of course, the dust bunnies.
Joshua Knight is a renowned navigator in the Underworld. On his latest trip into the tunnels, he reappears on the surface without any other members of his expedition to the Glass House and has no memory of what occurred in the tunnels. With his reputation in tatters and everyone believing him to be delusional, he disappears to the mansion in the desert where the tunnels led him to the surface to hide from the world, but the mansion full of mirrors is not benign.
Molly Griffin has finally found her true talent as a crystal artist. Her talent and abilities have led her to be chosen to provide the crystal circle for the wedding of the year in Illusion City. As she prepares for the wedding, she discovers the location of the navigator who led the team, which included her sister, Leona Griffin, underground and has been lost for a month. She knows he is the key to locating her missing sister and she is willing to face anything to help him regain his memory and find her sister.
I always love returning to Harmony! The worldbuilding immerses me into a world I feel at home in as much as this reality. The paranormal abilities are interesting and believable to the environment, as well as dust bunnies that are as individual as the people they choose to befriend. I love the dust bunnies so much! Molly and Joshua may have some communication problems at first, but Molly has had to hide portions of her and her sister’s past for so long, trust is difficult. The suspense plot has a lot of action and many twists that kept me guessing to the end. Even though it is not a cliffhanger ending to this story, you discover an overall Ghost Hunters series arc plot is carrying over to the next book featuring Molly’s sister, Leona.
If you are looking for a paranormal series that has action, romance, paranormal abilities, humor, and dust bunnies, this will be perfect for you. I highly recommend this paranormal romantic suspense, this addition to the entire series, and this author!
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About the Author
Jayne Castle, the author of Guild Boss, Illusion Town, Siren’s Call, The Hot Zone, Deception Cove, The Lost Night, Canyons of Night, Midnight Crystal, Obsidian Prey, Dark Light, Silver Master, Ghost Hunter, After Glow, and After Dark, is a pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz, the author of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers. She writes contemporary romantic suspense novels under the Krentz name, as well as historical novels under the pseudonym Amanda Quick.
I love working in a private university library with its special collection of antiquarian books and works of art. My favorite sculpture is one of the massive gargoyle statues, one that’s perched near my desk. Visitors often remark how lifelike it is, and I’ll tease, “Maybe it is.”
A frantic woman asks me to hide a book, one that’s fascinating with intricate details on the cover and spells inside. When I shelve it after hours, I hear movement in the library.
Has someone broken in?
What I discover is far more shocking…
Mated to the Gargoyleis a fated mates, protector romance.
This book is part of the Mated to the Monster multi-author monster romance series. All books can be read as standalones.
MATED TO THE GARGOYLE: Mated to the Monster by Lisa Carlisle is a steamy and fast paced gargoyle paranormal romance in the Mated to the Monster series. All the books in this series can be read as standalones, but this book will be followed by a book featuring two secondary characters from this story.
Anya is a librarian in a university library in Montreal. What she does not know is that it holds many magical secrets. She enjoys reading in the library after hours and talking to the stone gargoyle by her desk. While getting ready to close for the night, Anya finds a woman trying to unlock the door to the special collections room. When confronted she shoves an old book into Anya hands, tells her not to give it to him, and runs from the library.
When two men break in and attack Anya, demanding the book, she is rescued by the stone gargoyle when it comes to life. Hugo has been infatuated with Anya even though he and the other gargoyles have been tasked with watching over the library. She is terrified and runs towards her apartment, but Hugo must still follow her even if she does not accept him, which he is afraid may never happen.
Anya becomes more curious than afraid and learns about Hugo and the gargoyles and uncovers secrets in the ancient book and enchanted room Hugo shows her. They will need everything Anya can learn to fight the evil that has been trying to find her for years.
I enjoy all of Ms. Carlisle’s gargoyle stories and was happy to read this new one. Like the others, this is a quick read with protective gargoyles and a heroine who discovers they exist and is a destined mate for one. The romance plotline between Anya and Hugo was quick and very steamy with explicit sex in this story, but it is not gratuitous or forced. All these paranormal romances end with a HEA, but this one also has a surprise twist at the end that has me anxiously waiting for the next book, Fated to the Gargoyle, due out in October.
I enjoy reading these steamy paranormal romances for a fun change of pace and Ms. Carlisle always delivers.
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About the Author
Lisa Carlisle is a USA Today Bestselling author of paranormal romance and suspense. She loves to write about wounded, cursed, or misunderstood heroes finding their happily ever afters. They may be shifters, vampires, witches, gargoyles, or even military, first responders, and rockstars! She especially loves stories with fated mates and forbidden love, second chances, and enemies-to-lovers romance.
Her travels have provided her with inspiration for various settings in her novels. She deployed to Okinawa, Japan, while in the Marines, backpacked alone through Europe, lived in Paris, and now lives in New England with her husband, two kids, two crazy cats, and too many fish.
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Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for UMBRATE by A.D. Jones on this Black Phoenix Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Welcome to Dalton Home to Humans, Dwarves, Elves and the shadowy Umbral Populace.
Detective Vanic Bradley works hard to keep the peace, coming down hard on the criminal underbelly of the city.
After putting his life on the line multiple times in recent weeks, all he wanted was a day off work to spend time with his son, and re-evaluate his place in the world – but forces beyond his control have other ideas.
For reasons unknown, he will find himself in a race against time as two hundred innocent citizens become collateral damage in a murderous plot centered around him.
Umbrate is the debut Urban Fantasy crime thriller by A.D Jones, that will offer up his take on a fantasy setting that should be welcomed by many readers, regardless of their genre tastes.
UMBRATE by A.D. Jones is an engaging debut urban fantasy crime thriller that introduces us to a new world that is like ours but besides humans is also inhabited by dwarves, elves and a dark and shadowy species known as the Umbral. This is also a fast-paced crime thriller. While this novel is a short standalone, it could easily lead to a series.
Umbral can only come out in the night or in protected environments that will not let the sun touch them and even as the government has tried to assimilate them, there has always been a deep prejudice towards them. Detective Vanic Bradley works the dangerous night shift and does not like Umbral. After being wounded on the job, Vanic just wants a day off to enjoy with his young son. They end up at the mall and are suddenly trapped inside with a killer who is willing to turn everyone else into collateral damage to get to Vanic.
I really enjoyed this story and was easily pulled into this new urban fantasy world. The crime thriller plot is what you would find in many thrillers, but this story has distinct races from fantasy stories as well as the new Umbral race. Vanic is well developed for this shorter novel. He is divorced, but on good terms with his ex, a loving father, has a current love interest and is a rising star in law enforcement ranks, but he does have a prejudice against Umbral which goes all the way back to his youth. There is plenty of action, especially once everyone is enclosed in the mall, and this is when all the major secondary characters become known and help in the fight.
This is a fast read with an interesting new world, gripping thriller action and by a debut author. I am looking forward to seeing what will come next from this author.
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About the Author
A.D Jones lives in the North of England; where he spends his time favoring books over people and can be found writing or devouring said books to review online. He loves Coca-Cola, Twin Peaks, all things horror, and cult movies. He dislikes the movie ‘The Karate Kid’ with a passion that burns brighter than the sun.
His debut novel – Umbrate was released in October 2023 to positive feedback and his next book: Sacrificial Waters is scheduled for release sometime in 2024.
He also has multiple short stories in print through publishing houses such as Dark Village Publications and January Ember Press.
You can find him on Instagram – the_evergrowing_library
Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers, bonded by a night none of them can remember, are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what really happened to them months ago—an experience that amplified innate psychic abilities in each of them. The women suspect they were test subjects years earlier, and that there are more people like them—all they have to do is find the list of others who took that same test. When Talia follows up on a lead from Phoebe, a fan of the trio’s podcast, she discovers that the informant has vanished.
Talia isn’t the only one looking for Phoebe, however. Luke Rand, a hunted and haunted man who is chasing the same list that Talia is after, also shows up at the meeting place. It’s clear he has his own agenda, and they are instantly suspicious of each other. But when a killer begins to stalk them, they realize they have to join forces to find Phoebe and the list.
The rocky investigation leads Talia and Luke to a rustic, remote retreat on Night Island in the Pacific Northwest, where the Unplugged Experience promises to rejuvenate guests. Upon their arrival, Talia and Luke discover they are quite literally cut off from the outside world when none of their high-tech devices work on the island. It soon becomes clear that Phoebe is not the first person to disappear into the strange gardens that surround the Unplugged Experience retreat. And then the first mysterious death occurs. . . .
THE NIGHT ISLAND (The Lost Night Files Book #2) by Jayne Ann Krentz is an exciting second book in The Lost Files paranormal trilogy featuring three heroines bonded by a night none of them can remember. This book has a complete romance plot HEA, but the trilogy’s overarching suspense plotline is carried over from Sleep No More, the first book in the trilogy. I feel these books are best read in order.
Talia March has always had a knack for finding things, but since her lost night, it is like her power has been super charged, but also now includes the ability to find dead bodies. She follows a lead from the women’s podcast to find a woman who claims to have a list of all the test subjects and discovers she has vanished.
Luke Rand also shows up at the missing woman’s house. Luke is a history professor on the run for the last three months after waking up after his own lost night. While suspicious of each other, they agree to work together to find the missing woman and the list they are both after.
Talia and Luke follow the clues to the remote private Night Island, one of the San Juan islands off the Washington coast. It is a private retreat with strange vegetation covering the island and secrets below the surface. As they search for clues, their chemistry builds even though both feel they are not being completely honest with each other and neither feels they are made for lasting relationships. They discover a dead body of one of the island’s staff and soon they are caught up in a dangerous mysterious garden that may lead them to the missing woman they are searching for and answers to questions regarding their lost nights.
I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy and this one was even more engrossing. Knowing what we know about the lost nights from the first book allowed me to focus more on the overarching mystery and romance. Besides the suspense/mystery of the lost nights, I enjoyed Talia and Luke’s romance. Talia is endearing as she tries to convince Luke he has control over his powers and his fears are not true. There are sex scenes in this book, but they are neither overly graphic nor gratuitous. I loved and laughed at Talia’s ability to always put good food above all else. More is revealed regarding the antagonists and their motives in this book, which makes me want the next book sooner rather than later.
I highly recommend this addition in The Lost Night Files trilogy.
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About the Author
Jayne Ann Krentz is the author of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers. She has written contemporary romantic suspense novels under that name and futuristic and historical romance novels under the pseudonyms Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick, respectively. Jayne currently lives in Seattle, WA.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for BIG LITTLE SPELLS (Witchlore Book #2) by Hazel Beck on this HTP Books Summer 2023 Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
A smart, modern Rom-Com about a witch banished from her coven who seeks help from the only person who can prove she’s not a threat to witchkind—her annoyingly immortal childhood crush.
Rebekah Wilde was eighteen when she left St. Cyprian, officially stripped of her magic and banished from her home. Ten years later she’s forced to return to face the Joywood Coven, who preside over not just her hometown, but the whole magical world.
The Joywood are determined to prove Rebekah is a danger to witchkind, and she faces a death sentence if she can’t prove otherwise. Rebekah must seek help from the only one who knows how to stop the Joywood—the ruthless immortal Nicholas Frost. Years ago, he was her secret tutor in magic, and her secret, impossible crush. But the icy and frustratingly handsome immortal is as remote and arrogant as ever, and if he feels anything for Rebekah—or witchkind—it’s impossible to tell.Now, she’s no longer a child…and this time what sparks between Nicholas and Rebekah is more than just magic…
BIG LITTLE SPELLS (Witchlore Book #2) by Hazel Beck is an entertaining mash-up of paranormal romance and rom-com in the witchy world of St. Cyprian, Missouri. This second book in the Witchlore series picks up immediately where the first book, Small Town, Big Magic left the reader. I do feel for the best understanding of this book and the Witchlore world, it is best to read these books in order.
Rebekah Wilde is banished on what should have been the night of her acceptance into adult witch society. Ten years later, she is forced to return by the coven that banished her and while she is happy to be reunited with her older sister and friends, there is a dark plot underway to eliminate them all permanently.
Nicholas Frost is a dark and dangerous immortal who secretly tutored Rebekah before she left and while she had a schoolgirl crush on him at the time, she finds he is even more captivating now as an adult. While he remains arrogant and aloof, he does help Rebekah and her friends once more, but there will be a high price to pay.
This is an enjoyable new witchy world with good vs. evil, romance, family, forgiveness, and a good balance of dire and serious scenes vs. fun and enjoyable scenes. Rebekah is a heroine who has a lot of emotional tripwires to face as she returns home. I feel her character arc is believably written because even though she was gone for ten years, she falls back into old behavioral patterns when she returns home. Her romance with Nicholas has two broken souls accepting each other and their pasts, but there are also strong threads of sisterly love and the love between friends and family woven throughout this story.
I have enjoyed both books in this series so far and I am looking forward to following this coven of friends as they continue to fight for their town.
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Excerpt
Chapter One
You don’t have to be an exiled witch under threat of the death penalty should you cast the faintest little spell to feel the magic in Sedona, Arizona.
But it doesn’t hurt.
The full moon is shining, high and bright, making the red rocks glow outside my little bungalow. The air is soft and dry instead of swollen with Missouri’s trademark humidity, which I’m not sorry to leave behind.
If it was up to me, I would never have gone back to Missouri at all.
Because one thing exile has taught me is that magic is as much a habit as anything else. Unnecessary at best. Dangerous at worst. An addiction, in other words.
These days I am all about recovery.
Except for tonight. Tonight, admittedly, has been a bit of a relapse.
I breathe out and try to blow away the past while I do.
I’m standing out in my little yard, my head tipped toward the Arizona sky and my shoes kicked off so I can feel the earth and as many vortexes as possible. Because I’m a hippie, I tell myself. Just a run-of-the-mill Sedona hippie. Hair down, feet bare, crystals hanging all around like every other New Ager around here.
Not magic, just vibes.
But before I manage to fully ground myself here, I feel something grab me, like a huge, magical hook around the center of me—but inside out. It’s dark. Hard. Kind of slimy, really—and it makes my stomach heave.
This particular magical tug is a summons, yanking me out of the life I fought so hard to build, all on my own. Not for the first time.
Not even for the first time tonight.
Though this summons is harsher than the one before. Meaner.
I know instantly it’s not him.
Because he yanked me back to St. Cyprian too, but it didn’t hurt when he did it. It’s not supposed to hurt at all, and he made it feel almost good—
But I stop thinking about the maddeningly beautiful, impossible immortal witch who ruined my life once already, and start worrying about me.
There’s only one reason for me to be dragged back home against my will. And it’s been a long night already. My sister, Emerson, who I haven’t seen in person in a decade, formed her very own coven made up of our closest friends and one obnoxious immortal. Then, together, we all fought off a major, magic-induced flood that would have submerged the town of St. Cyprian and most of Missouri.
The final jerk makes Sedona disappear into a blur of red, then there’s a whooshing sensation while whispered words fill the air around me.
Rebekah Wilde, come before us, the voices command me.
And I’m back.
Right where I don’t want to be.
I’m standing outside a farmhouse across the river from my hometown. And instead of the terrifying wave of water and my sister ready to dive into the middle of it all like the first time I showed up here tonight, the river has settled down. The fight is over.
Or…maybe it’s only just begun.
Because a quick glance around shows me that Emerson is standing outside in the cool April night, looking like the fierce Warrior she is, her eyes blazing gold with all her newly rediscovered power. Jacob North, our old friend and a Healer—and, I think, my sister’s new love—stands with her and doesn’t look any worse for the intense healing he did when we came much too close to losing Emerson earlier.
Behind them is Zander Rivers, my cousin, looking uncharacteristically grim for a guy who used to make the role he was born into—a Guardian—seem a lot more fun than the name suggests. Next to him is Georgie Pendell, Emerson’s best friend, whose entire family has been witch Historians—and actual historians who run the town’s local-interest museum—as long as anyone can remember. And last but never least, Ellowyn Good. My best friend. And also the Summoner who helped Emerson contact me once Emerson remembered she was a witch, despite the Joywood spell that took those magic memories away from her for ten whole years.
Across from them stand all the members of the Joywood, the ruling coven based here in my hometown of St. Cyprian, MO. The authoritarian, bullying, small-minded coven that cheated me out of the life I was supposed to have.
Seven dictatorial witches I had no intention of laying eyes on again.
I feel a rush of a very old, too-dark fury inside me—but stop myself. It’s practically a reflex at this point. I don’t do outsize emotion or high drama anymore. I don’t do dark. That would lead directly to my death, and I’ve always been pretty clear about wanting to stay alive.
If I hadn’t wanted to live—my life on my terms—I would have stayed here. I would have let these petty Joywood tyrants wipe my mind the way they wiped my sister’s, taking away any hint of ever knowing magic.
I tell myself that I’ve forgiven them. I chant it inside me, not like one of the spells forbidden to me, but like a mantra. They were only doing their jobs, following their laws, as stupid as those laws might be. I forgive them because forgiveness is mine to give. I don’t need to carry the bitter taste of St. Cyprian and its ruling coven with me. I chose to leave all of this behind. I still choose it.
Something—not quite a shadow—moves in my peripheral vision, and I see him too. Nicholas Frost, the one and only immortal witch. Some people call him a traitor.
I call him all kinds of things and unlike most, have done it to his face. But now is not the time to air all my oldest grudges.
His gaze from halfway across a field makes everything inside me…change. Not so much that dangerous black fury any longer. This is something else. A different kind of heat.
I don’t want to acknowledge it. Or him. Especially not with this audience.
Even if, for a moment, it feels as if the two of us are all alone here.
I have to remind myself that we’re not.
I forgive you, I think at him, in my smuggest internal voice. The best of a decade of recovery programs right there. And even though I can’t—won’t—use a witch’s usual telepathic version of conversation, I suspect he hears me anyway. Because his dark blue eyes gleam.
From all the way across the tall grass.
“Rebekah Wilde,” booms a voice I recognize entirely too well, even though I haven’t heard it in a decade. Carol Simon, the Joywood coven’s Warrior and therefore the leader of…everything involving witches the world over.
I force myself to look at her, hopefully without my feelings all over my face, and decide that teenage me was right. Her frizzy hair really is unforgivable.
“You have been summoned here, to the site of your infraction, to answer for your offense,” she intones.
I finally take note of the fact that she and her cronies hauled me into this field, but not into the group of my friends and family who also infracted tonight. I’m standing halfway between them and the Joywood. As tempting as it is to think that’s just carelessness, I know better.
They don’t do careless.
I slouch where I stand, because even being across the river from my hometown makes me want to behave like the sulky teenager I was when I lived here. That’s what Carol and her buddies likely see anyway, so why not live down to their worst expectations? I’ve always been excellent at that.
I lock eyes with Felicia Ipswitch, the Joywood’s Diviner and my personal nemesis, and smirk a little. And just like that, it might as well be tenth grade when Felicia was the high school principal and I was a problem. A problem she thought she could solve with draconian detentions and the kind of punishments that would send human teachers to jail—but witch students heal up better.
Turns out I’m not over high school, which doesn’t really do a lot for the sullen peace and love vibe I’m trying to exude here.
I look away from that evil old hag to find Emerson looking at me like I’m an answer. That’s not unusual. My sister always thinks there is one. And better yet, that she can find it and implement it.
I know better, because I made my own way out in the world, relying on nothing and no one but me. I learned the hard way that life and the world often have no answers, no neat little bows. For anyone, witch or human.
I tell myself that it gives me great internal peace to accept this knowledge, and maybe it will, someday. I grit my teeth and think peace, please.
Especially when Carol starts to speak again. Peace, love, light, I chant inside me. No spellwork here. No witchcraft. Just words of power that anyone could use while anointing themselves in essential oils and rearranging their houses for better feng shui.
“I know you must think you did something big here tonight,” Carol is saying, as if she’s never heard anything dumber in her life. Her voice is so persuasive that I have to pinch myself to remember that no, we weren’t giggling over a Ouija board, pretending we weren’t pushing it while we clearly were. We actually fused together the way all the books say true covens should, fought some gnarly dark magic, and won. Almost at the expense of my sister’s life.
“But I’m afraid all you really did, Emerson and Rebekah, is break the terms set down before you when you failed your pubertatum.” She glances around. “And the rest of you broke several laws aiding them.”
The word pubertatum has not gotten any less obnoxious in the ten years I haven’t heard it spoken aloud. It’s an ugly Latin word for a coming-of-age ceremony where witches in their eighteenth year are required to demonstrate their powers so they might take their places in witch society. Pass the test and you answer a few questions to be herded into one of the seven witchkind designations. Warrior, Guardian, Summoner, Healer, Historian, Praeceptor, or Diviner.
Fail the test, like Emerson and I did, and you get to be a zombie or an outcast.
“I have power, Carol. You can’t deny that,” Emerson says, with her usual bouncy forthrightness, like she’s flabbergasted at the possibility that Carol would bother trying to deny such a thing. When it’s so obvious.
I really have missed my sister.
“You told me I had none.” Emerson points to me now. “You told us we have no power at all. You were wrong. And then, all this power inside me you said I didn’t have fought off your obliviscor.”
I expect rage. Carol has never been one for being told she’s wrong. Her mind wipe spell wasn’t supposed to have failed. But Carol surprises me.
She titters, and her cronies all laugh along with her. I remind myself that it’s supposed to make me feel wrong and stupid and vaguely humiliated. That’s what they do. Better to rule us by making us hate ourselves.
“And you’ve turned a simple testing error into some…nefarious plot? I do worry, Emerson, that fighting off the obliviscor addled your senses.”
“We just saved St. Cyprian and possibly all of witchkind, Carol,” my sister says, and not angrily. Just like she’s reciting facts, inviting Carol to come aboard. She even smiles. “You’re welcome.”
And I know hate is for the weak. Forgiveness is power. Blah, blah, blah.
But Carol Simon makes the case for blood feuds, forever. Especially when she rolls her eyes.
“We saved witchkind with no help from you,” Emerson continues, as if she doesn’t see any eye-rolling. Because she won’t give up. Emerson never, ever gives up.
Even when she should.
“As a concerned, dedicated St. Cyprian citizen who also happens to be chamber of commerce president, I have to wonder,” Emerson tells Carol. But she also casts an eye over the rest of them, these fixtures of St. Cyprian and my witchy past that I did not miss at all. Like Maeve Mather, the Joywood’s Summoner, who used to go out of her way to be mean to my grandmother. Just because she could. “Why, I’m asking myself, did the ruling body of all witchkind not only turn a blind eye to the obvious imbalance in our power source that’s been making the rivers rise so dangerously, but also fail to help us fix it? Why did we have to stop it?”
“I assume because you wanted attention,” Felicia says. It is a familiar sentence, meant to be pure condemnation. She used to use it all the time as a precursor to her nasty little punishments. My gaze moves across the dark field to find Ellowyn’s, and I can tell from my best friend’s expression that she’s remembering the same thing I am.
All of high school, basically. When Principal Ipswitch dedicated herself to what she called our reprehensible, attention-seeking behavior.
What amazes me is how little I’ve thought about high school since leaving Missouri. Deliberately. And tonight, it’s like I never left.
“I saw the darkness at the heart of the confluence myself,” Emerson says with a great calm I certainly don’t feel. Especially since I saw it too. That terrible, encroaching dark, eating the world whole. It had hunkered there where the three rivers meet, waiting malevolently. And then, tonight, it exploded. Emerson, with our help, destroyed it. My heart starts kicking at me again, a riot of panic, like it’s still happening.
“Are you accusing us of something?” Carol asks, and she’s scarily good at this. She sounds on the verge of laughter, yet somehow almost hurt. As if she cares deeply what Emerson thinks of her. Of them.
I worry this will work on my sister. Because the truth is, Emerson has no power here. She’s too honest, and this is politics. Power. It’s ego and control. Emerson is a lot of things I roll my eyes at all the time, but she’s never been ruled by ego or greed.
Not like these witches.
“I’m pointing out facts,” Emerson says, sounding patient now. My sister has never met a windmill she didn’t try to charge head-on. “And the facts are, we saved St. Cyprian. You could have helped us, Carol. But you didn’t.”
“Oh, Emerson.” Carol sounds sad. Legitimately sad, which would require emotions on her part. And I’m pretty sure velociraptors don’t have emotions. “Why would we deliberately choose not to help save the place where we live? How does that make sense?”
Emerson blinks. “You tell me.”
I want to give a short TED talk on gaslighting and master manipulators, but this is not the time. It’s still not clear whether this is an execution or not. Carol did mention infractions of the pubertatum rules, and last I heard, me using magic the way I did tonight is a capital offense. Emerson wasn’t supposed to be able to do it. I claimed I could do it, but was exiled because they said I had no real power—only the shameful, unsafe urge to use borrowed force. Either way, using witchcraft as an exile is about as forbidden as you can get.
I can always be counted on to rebel when it will do me the most harm.
There’s a part of me that wants to turn to Nicholas Frost, the only other being here who isn’t standing with a group. He’s the one who came up with the goddamned pubertatum back when the earth was young, or so they taught us in school. He is considered the first Praeceptor—the teacher of all teachers, but not in a safe little classroom way. Praeceptors in his day taught armies of witches, then wielded them.
But I know better than to look to him for help.
Looking at him at all is fraught enough when you were once a teenage girl with a teenage girl’s unwieldy crush. Those things are hard to vanquish.
“We saved St. Cyprian,” Emerson says again, as if saying it enough will get through to Carol when as far as I know, nothing has ever gotten through to Carol.
“Maybe you did save the town,” Felicia says, with her little sniff of disdain that I remember all too well. “But if you did, it was for your own gain and nothing more.”
I want to say that at least that’s better than doing it for attention, but I don’t, because I’m evolved as fuck.
My sister’s eyes narrow. And here’s the thing that most people don’t know about Emerson Wilde. She expends a lot of energy trying to convince the people around her to see the error of their ways. She embodies the notion that if you lead a horse to water in the right way, it really will drink.
But when she’s done, she’s done.
As her little sister, I know this better than anyone. So, I step in to stop the impending storm. “This seems straightforward to me,” I say, doing my best to sound as if all this carrying on is a waste of energy, and I low-key resent it. And as if I’m some kind of authority here. “Emerson has some magic. Let her take the test again.”
HAZEL BECK is the magical partnership of a river witch and an earth witch. Together, they have collected two husbands, three familiars, two children, five degrees, and written around 200 books. As one, their books will delight with breathtaking magic, emotional romance, and stories of witches you won’t soon forget.
