The Magic Of Discovery
Emerald Lakes Book One
Britt Andrews
Copyright © 2020 Britt Andrews
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover by: Quirah Casey- Salvation Creations
Formatting by: Inked Imagination Author Services
Editing By: Michelle Motyczka with Inked Imagination Author Services
Proofreading by: PollyAné Nichols
Contents
Trigger Warning
Prologue
1. Saige
2. Sloane
3. Saige
4. Kaito
5. Saige
6. Fischer
7. Saige
8. Sloane
9. Saige
10. Cam
11. Saige
12. Kaito
13. Saige
14. Fischer
15. Saige
16. Sloane
17. Saige
18. Cam
19. Saige
Epilogue - Khol
Coming soon
Want More?
Acknowledgments
Stalk Me!
This book goes out to all the thirsty people out there who enjoy stories that make you laugh out loud and give you the urge to live life on the spicy side.
Trigger Warning
This is a full-length RH romance, which includes MMFMM content. It ends on a cliffhanger and contains brief references to domestic violence and other themes that readers may find triggering.
*This is the first book in a paranormal RH series.*
It had been twenty-seven years, but the anger I experienced at Laura’s betrayal felt like it had just happened yesterday. So help me, when I got my hands on her...
Love. Fucking pathetic. I should have known my black heart had no business delving into such pleasures. She had gotten under my skin, wormed her way into my veins, and given me hope for a future that I would never have. I was furious every single time her face flashed in my mind.
I’d told Cam’s team that she’d stolen from me, and she had. She’d stolen whatever decency I’d had left in my body. When I met her, I’d had hope, something that I never would have given a second thought if she hadn’t fucking pushed me. Then she humiliated me. Broke me. Now, I was going to find her and break her. The final conversation we had face to face constantly played over and over in my head, and I couldn’t just banish it and move on with my life, my never-ending existence.
“Khol.” Laura looked up at me when I entered our bedroom. She’d moved in with me only six months ago, but now a suitcase was open on the bed, almost full of her clothing and toiletries.
“Where are you going, darling?” Walking around the king-sized bed, I reached out for her, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her into me. She melted against me like butter, and my heart warmed. I loved this woman. I dropped a chaste kiss on the top of her strawberry blonde head.
“I have a business trip I have to take. My boss called, and while it’s been fine working remotely for the last several months, I’m needed in person for this job,” she explained, running her fingernails down my back. “I wish I didn’t have to go. I’ll miss you. And I’ll miss this.” She cupped my erection with her palm and squeezed, summoning a moan from deep within my chest.
“How long will you be? Don’t forget we have our engagement party in two weeks. It would be a bitch to have to reschedule at this point,” I reminded her, my hands kneading her voluptuous ass. Gods, the woman was sculpted.
“I could never forget, Khol. It should take four to five days, tops,” she reassured me as she closed the lid on her suitcase and zipped it up. I lifted it off the bed and put it on the floor for her.
“I’ve gotta get down to the airfield. My jet is waiting. I’ll let you know when I land.” She wrapped her lean arms around my neck, rose onto her toes, and planted her lips on mine.
That was the last time I saw her in person. The other five times had been through shitty camera snapshots using facial recognition software. I’d never come close to catching her slippery ass, but now I knew she was keeping secrets. Someone had put protection spells down to keep me out of that town. The guys had had no problem crossing that imaginary boundary, which just backed up my suspicions that this particular spell was keyed to me.
Or others like me. Now that’s an interesting thought.
Sloane had texted me earlier to let me know they’d arrived, gotten settled, and were coming up with a game plan to tackle this mission. The kid was hardworking, one of the best I’d ever employed, but so was every single spy in my company. He was just easier to manipulate into doing this for me. He constantly sought approval, fame, and glory. He didn’t do anything just to conquer it; he wanted to be the fucking legend. I’d read his file.
I knew everything there was to know about all of my elites.
Sloane Sullivan, thirty years old. Pyro mage. Top ten percent of his training class. Anger issues, loyal, broken family, only child. Master of wards.
Fischer Bahri, thirty years old. Cognitive mage. Interrogator, ability to not only read emotions but also push them, alter memories, hypnotize. Valedictorian of his training class. Loving family, one sister and two nieces.
Cameron Jacobs, thirty-one years old. Storm mage. Protector, fierce fighter, relentless. Can manipulate weather within a seventy-five mile radius with the ability to create more localized storms. Generates lightning from hands. Severe childhood trauma. Fear of loss.
Kaito Mori, twenty-nine years old. Shifter mage. Black panther: Bagheera. Heightened sense of smell, vision, and hearing. Oldest of five children. Struggled with depression in the past.
Pacing around my apartment, I swirled my glass of whiskey. Finding out about this town had me completely obsessed. I’d yet to have a lead this promising, and it was all I could think about. Once I found her, I could be free of this fucking weight.
Come out, come out wherever you are.
The Devil. I was staring down at the Devil. Well, that’s just a fantastic start to my Saturday.
At least he’s in tarot form and not an actual manifestation of the dark lord?
Gran had insisted she do a three card tarot reading for me this morning before I left for the shop, so I indulged her request as I finished drinking my coffee. Ah, sweet coffee, the root of every witch’s power supply.
“I knew something was brewing! I felt it throughout my body from the moment these starry eyes opened this morning,” Gran proclaimed. She slammed her tiny hand down on the table for emphasis, causing me and our filled to the brim coffee cups to jump.
I gave Gran a killer side-eye, but she was much too far down her own rabbit hole to pay any attention to my facial expressions. She started
clapping her hands together, squealing like she did every time a man stepped foot on our property. Any man. Even her ex-husband who she momentarily forgets that she can’t fucking stand. Gran has got mad love for the ‘D.’
“Your emotional body is the Fool. Are you ready to take new chances? Experience change? Find a new man?” Gran’s eyebrows rose up so high at the end of her question I thought they were going to blend right in with her wild and curly copper hair. Even her fine wrinkles seemed to be trembling with excitement. That’s just how she was though, eccentric and unapologetically free. I wouldn't change her for the world.
“Gran! You know there isn’t anyone in this town that I’m interested in. Even if there were, that piece of shit Bryce would do nothing but cause all kinds of drama just to make sure that I never got laid again so long as I live in Emerald Lakes,” I retorted, stirring sugar into my liquid gold. My ex, Bryce, had been a two-year complete waste of time that I had only freed myself from six months ago. He was a total shithead. I’d taken my dear friends, Frank and Arlo, with me when I’d ended things, just in case.
“I’m so glad you’re out of his clutches, but you don’t need to kill the coffee mug, dear,” Gran replied as she reached out and grabbed my hand to stop my violent cycloning motions. “And fuck Bryce, he’s nothing but a limp dick noodle wand.”
I laughed suddenly, startling my pet arctic fox, Maven. He released a low angry growl and lifted his head from his bed in the corner of the kitchen. I could always tell when he was pissed because his tail fluffed up to three times its size.
“Aww, don’t be mad, Mave. Come over here, boy,” I called out to him as I patted my thigh in encouragement. He hopped up and lazily meandered over to where Gran and I were sitting at the breakfast table. My long red hair spilled over my shoulders as I bent over to scoop him up. He nuzzled into my chest as I ran my fingers through his thick, silky, white and gray-streaked fur. Lifting my mug to my lips, I sipped the warm liquid and settled into the wave of contentment that burrowed deep in my heart. Gran, Mave, coffee... the three loves of my life.
“The Sun is lining up with your spiritual body. Positive outcomes, child. Success and optimism! Today is going to be a star-blessed day,” Gran continued, moving down the line of cards, not fazed by Maven’s antics at all. They didn’t always see eye to eye anyway, so if they wanted to ignore one another, that was totally fine by me.
“And as for your... physical body…” She waggled her eyebrows and pinned me with her cornflower blue eyes. “We have the Devil. Sexual. Lust.” Gran enunciated the last two words as she jammed her one hundred percent non-threatening index finger down onto the face of the card.
“Yeah, or materialism or envy or obsession and addiction. I highly doubt I’ll be getting lusty over anybody, Gran.” I stood up and took my empty mug to the sink to rinse it out.
“Dick addiction is a real affliction, Saige,” Gran said in a serious voice.
By the stars, what is she? A rapper?
“You’d know since you’re the Queen of Dick Addiction. If there was a figurehead for Dick Addiction, your face would be on it. The Twelve Steps of Dick Addiction with Bette Wildes,” I bantered back at her, chuckling as I continued cleaning up breakfast.
“More like,” Gran paused, already laughing her ass off at her coming joke, “The Twelve Inches of Dick Addiction, heyoooo!”
We both were dying now, and I felt fortunate that I had such a witty and fun grandma in my life. Wiping my eyes, I scolded her, “Gran. You’re going to make me late to the shop. No more dick jokes.”
“Awwww, man. You’re no fun. But fine, I’ll put a lid on it,” she gave in with an eye roll, standing up from her chair. “But only until I see you for dinner.”
She had raised me and was truly more of a mother to me than my actual birth mother, who had last blessed us with her presence about two months ago. It was the first visit in two years, but that wasn’t unusual at all since she worked for a big magical firm on the other side of the country. Regardless of the physical distance, we’d just never had the typical mother-daughter relationship. My birth mother had only been nineteen years old when she’d gotten pregnant with me. My biological father was your stereotypical deadbeat, a one night stand. Laurie (yes, I call her Laurie) always told me that she didn’t know who he was. They’d hooked up at a party, and she’d had no way of contacting him after that night. Lucky for me, my gran was an out of this world person, and I never found myself lacking when it came to feeling loved or taken care of.
I turned to put my mug back in the cupboard and caught my reflection in the glass of the large window that ran the length of my countertop. High cheekbones, full lips, and a slight upward turn on the end of my nose... those were all my features. Not Laurie’s and not some sperm donor I’d never met. I’d always been relieved that I wasn’t a carbon copy of Laurie, looks or otherwise. I mean, sure, we shared some things like our red hair, the arch of our eyebrows, and the shape of our faces, but that was where the similarities ended.
Movement outside broke me from my thoughts, and I watched a handful of baby bunnies hopping and playing in the yard. Scanning our wide property, I took in all of the different gardens that covered most of the acreage, ending with the large flowerbed closer to the house. That was when I noticed a row of my tulips had wilted, the blooms sagging so low they were brushing the dirt. What the hell? Those were in absolutely perfect condition last evening! I’d been planning to give them a couple more days to grow before I cut them to sell at my magic shop, The Mystical Piglet or The Pig, as the locals had so lovingly shortened it. I’ll have to remember to check on them when I get home from work later.
Hearing Gran shuffling away since she knew I would be taking off soon for work, I continued to maneuver around my eat-in kitchen, grabbing some snacks to bring with me. Fishing my phone out, I checked the weather forecast for the day. Perfect. Seventy degrees and sunny.
“Oh, damn it.” The sound of Gran’s exasperated voice drew my attention as I walked around the kitchen table and took a right, intending to meet her on the back porch where she always entered and exited my cottage. She had her own sweet set-up along the back tree line. “I completely forgot that I got a phone call yesterday after dinner from a man who wants to rent the apartment above the shop. He already paid the first three months’ rent and the security deposit. He’s due to arrive at The Pig at ten. Here, take these herbs with you.” Gran picked up an overflowing bag that was sitting on the countertop and shoved it at me. Fresh greenery peeked over the top of the bag, the scents of basil, sage, and oregano mixing together.
“A heads up would’ve been nice, Gran. I’m going to have to rush now,” I huffed with fake annoyance, heading back to gather the rest of my things.
Following me, she chuckled. “Just keeping you on your toes, child.” Her phone started ringing, and she silenced it with a curse. “I’ve got to get home. Had a bit of a rager last night, so there are streamers all over the living room and that lightweight Randy Roger passed out in my bathtub. This is the third time! No more tequila for him. I’m the umpire of drinking and questionable decisions, and I call them like I see them. Three strikes, you’re out!”
The dude’s name was not Randy Roger. It was Roger, and I’ll let you guess why she threw the other name in there. In any case, Gran had bequeathed that name unto the man, and thus, he was now Randy Roger to everyone in town.
Throwing everything I needed into my backpack, I slipped it onto my shoulders. Glancing at the black cat clock that was ticking happily along on my kitchen wall, I groaned when I realized I really was going to have to rush.
“It’s already 9:45! I’ll be back later, and I’ll call if there are any questions,” I called out as I slipped my feet into my favorite pair of shoes. “Come on, Maven! We gotta hurry,” I yelled to my little furry friend as I ran out the old screen door.
I could hear Gran cackling as the screen door slammed shut behind us. Sick woman laughing at how much I’m going to be sweating
by the time I get down there. Shaking my head, I hopped on my pastel blue bicycle while Maven leapt into the large wicker basket attached to the handlebars. He never missed an opportunity to freeload, and my gods, he looked cute doing it.
“Maven, don’t crush those herbs! Watch your tail, son!” He gave a chirp in response and then squirmed down into the basket, that damn tail now pulsating like a pissed off squirrel. Sometimes he can be such a moody little bastard. I pushed off of the brick pathway that led to the main road in front of my cottage. It was a beautiful day for gardening and witching, which happened to be two of my top five favorite things. Frank and Arlo, my two handymen who hauled our items down to our shop, had already been by and picked up today’s fresh supplies. We typically left a clipboard on the side of the shed and marked things that needed to be loaded up and taken into town each day. It was mid-May, so most of our produce wouldn’t be ready for several weeks yet. Good thing we had more than just your usual vegetable fanfare at The Pig.
A grocery store, we were not. I carried everything from smudge sticks, to moonstones, crystals, bulk spell supplies, tonics, elixirs, and I did tarot readings here and there. Selling in-season produce was just a little extra income for me, and it always sold extremely well. Fresh-cut flowers were also a hot commodity, and in a couple of months, I would be up to my tits in blooms.
The Magic of Discovery: Emerald Lakes Book One Page 1