I sat up.
Aiden was sprawled in a chair tucked into the corner of the room. He was sleeping with his head cranked back, resting against the window casing. He looked exhausted, haggard. Crumpled T-shirt and jeans. Days’ worth of stubble darkening his jaw.
I couldn’t feel his magic — or any magic — over the intense hum vibrating all around me.
I swung my leg off the bed, hesitating as my gaze fell to the edge of a large pentagram. It had been inscribed around the entire bed, creating a wall of vibrant magic that I could feel in my bones but not see. Runes I didn’t recognize were twined all around the symbol’s sharp edges and points.
Changing course, I crawled to the bottom corner of the bed. Then I saw the young witch sleeping in a bundle of blankets and couch cushions on the floor next to Aiden’s chair. Her hand rested on top of the sorcerer’s bare foot.
Opal.
My heart pinched. And for a moment, all I could do was perch on the corner of the bed, absorbing the pain, recognizing it as joy.
I had scared Aiden. Scared Opal.
I’d almost gotten lost, wielding magic I had no capacity to wield. I hadn’t had any other choice. I was never going to relent, to be controlled by anyone ever again, but …
I hadn’t thought about who I would have left behind if I’d managed to free the others but not myself from the mystic’s hold.
Aiden’s eyes flicked open. But he just sat there, caught between sleep and reality. His bright-blue gaze was soul piercing. Whatever he’d been dreaming had made his expression grim, terrible. Then realization flooded through him. His eyes widened, his lips parted. He slowly leaned forward in the chair, rising to his feet as if he was scared I’d disappear if he moved too quickly.
“Hi,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
He lunged forward, leaving the foot Opal was grasping behind him. The thrumming energy of the pentagram dissipated as he effortlessly broke through the boundary. He grabbed my shoulders, jerking me against him, hard. Desperate.
Then he checked himself, stilling, easing his grip. Inhaling deeply, then exhaling fully, steadily. He pressed his lips to my temple, tangling his hands in my hair. “Emma.”
“Yes. Aiden.” I wrapped my arms around him, holding him as tightly as he was holding me.
“I thought … you found me, but …” He eased back to look at me, scanning my face, then cupping it in his hands. “I was worried you wouldn’t find your way back. That I couldn’t do the same for you.”
I smiled. “I never left. I wouldn’t leave. Not as long as it’s in my power to stay.”
He nodded, brushing a tender kiss against my forehead, then tilting my head up so my lips could meet his — his gentleness completely at odds with the tension radiating through his body.
“I’m here,” I said, realizing he hadn’t quite absorbed that yet. I knew how he felt. Less than a week before, I’d thought he was dead.
His lips crashed into mine, hard, harsh. His heart was pounding under my palm, magic swelling between us. My empathy picked up his residual terror, and I just held on to him, just matched his fierce passion until it eased under a rising desire.
“Emma,” he murmured.
I smiled against his lips. “Aiden.”
Then Opal was on her feet, pressing herself against the both of us. Her face against my stomach.
Aiden laid his hand on her head, something dark hidden in his expression — a determined grimness. “The perimeter wards weren’t strong enough.”
“Aiden,” I whispered, hugging Opal to me but keeping my gaze on the sorcerer. “We wouldn’t have had any wards without you.”
“The mystic couldn’t have breached a ward constructed by Daniel.”
“According to who? Christopher?”
Aiden nodded, once. Tension etched through his jaw.
“Christopher is an idiot. Chenda used our blood, the blood of the Five, to anchor her spell. To hold me. Then she somehow harvested my amplification to trap you all. Christopher should have felt that himself when she got hold of him. Even Daniel’s wards couldn’t have withstood a spell activated with his own blood, amplified by me.”
Aiden exhaled a harsh breath.
“This was me,” I said. “My past coming back to hurt you, to hurt Opal. My fault.”
“Let’s just agree that the actual blame doesn’t fall on anyone currently in this room. For now?”
I nodded, understanding that he wanted to continue the conversation later, out of Opal’s earshot.
Aiden kissed me lightly. “You need to drink and eat. Christopher and Samantha were convinced your magic would sustain you …” He trailed off, checking himself. Again. He brushed his hand lightly across Opal’s head. “You haven’t eaten for three days.”
I scrubbed my hand over my forehead. My fingers came away crusted with blood. I gave Aiden a look. “Tell me there isn’t a rune scrawled in black marker across my forehead.”
He grinned. “Just blood. Yours and mine. Along with the runes on your heart, rib cage, and lower abdomen.”
“To anchor you here,” Opal said, tipping her head up to look at me, but not easing her grip on my torso. “To help you find your way back.”
I smiled at her. “It worked.”
“Food,” Aiden said. “And the others would probably like to know you’ve woken.”
“And everyone else?” I asked.
“Everyone who matters is okay,” he said, obviously hiding something he didn’t want to tell me yet. Or again, maybe not in Opal’s earshot.
“Paisley and Samantha are guarding the mystic,” the young witch said brightly. “Aiden trapped her in the pentagram in the loft.”
Aiden’s shoulders slumped. “Damn it.”
Opal peeked at him, then up at me. Her cheek was still firmly pressed to my torso. “He thought I didn’t know.”
I quashed a smile at Aiden’s distress over failing to insulate the young witch from the situation. “Okay. I need a shower first. Then … grilled cheese sandwiches?”
“Yes!” Opal crowed, though she still didn’t let go of me.
Aiden ran his fingers through my hair, stepping back with obvious reluctance. “Ten minutes. Max. Then I’m coming looking for you.”
I laughed quietly. “I see. And then you’ll demand I never put myself in harm’s way again?”
His grin was sharply edged. “Just because I think it doesn’t mean I’m stupid enough to actually say it.” He stared at me hard for a moment, then nodded to himself. “I’m here for as long as you are, Emma.” His gaze fell to Opal, and his tone became tinged with sadness and a sense of promise. “Maybe longer.”
Then he shook his head, crossing to the door without looking back. “Grilled cheese, coming up!”
I tracked his magic down the stairs. He was drained from having held a pentagram around me for three days — while apparently keeping the mystic contained in the barn at the same time.
Opal crawled up onto the bed beside me, hands folded, head bowed. I settled beside her, giving her time to sort through her thoughts.
She glanced over at me, then away. Her bottom lip was trembling, her eyes red.
I quashed the urge to clutch her to me. She didn’t need to be smothered, or to have her own feelings superseded by my own.
“I ran away.”
“I see that. From the Academy?”
She shook her head. “Vancouver. But it took me too long to get back. So I wasn’t any help at all.”
“Weren’t you?” I smiled. “Didn’t you just visit me in my dream?”
A sob escaped Opal. She curled in on herself, like she was struggling to avoid breaking down.
I offered her my hand. She tucked her fist within my palm.
“I thought that was just a dream,” she whispered.
“I can’t believe two witches couldn’t keep track of you,” I said peevishly.
Opal laughed, then bounced off the bed and started digging through the cocoon of blankets against the wal
l. Grinning wickedly, she pulled a slim, fabric-bound green book from the depths of the quilts and cushions. “I borrowed this from Aiden.”
“Borrowed?”
Looking guilty, she said, “Well, he was teaching me how to read it. So I thought he wouldn’t mind. It took me the entire trip to get the duplicate rune to work. I had to pretend I had a stomach ache, and I missed the cupcakes.”
“Duplicate rune?”
She bit her lip, turning her left foot in awkwardly. “Aiden already helped me work the masking rune. So all I had to do was make Ember and Capri think I was still in the car.”
She looked at me, narrowing her eyes as if anticipating my reaction. My censure.
“How long did it hold?” I asked instead.
She blinked. “Oh …” Then she smiled, displaying her crooked eye teeth. “Like, at least an hour! I confused them even more by heading for the ferry instead of the plane.”
“Easier to sneak onto.”
“Yep. And …” She lowered her voice. “Aiden seriously lost it on Capri and Ember when they showed up a couple of hours after me. Like, he told them that they had to stay in a hotel and everything. He totally interrogated both of them, and I heard Ember say that they took too long to admit they’d lost me to the coven witches, the ones at the cupcake bakery. Otherwise they would have found me quicker.”
I kept my voice casual, though my insides were suddenly churning. “And the Godfreys? You didn’t meet them?”
“Nope. But the magic there was cool. Like super powerful.”
“At the bakery? You could feel it? Like a ward?”
“Yep.” Opal eyed me. “Aren’t you mad at me?”
“Sure,” I said, reasonably. “I imagine we all are, yes?”
Opal grimaced. “Christopher is livid. He banned me from the barn, so I can’t check on the chicks. Samantha just frowns at me. She shouted. A lot. About risk and responsibility, and now she refuses to acknowledge me. Like, not even when I try to talk to her.”
I struggled to not smile. Zans’s ability to maintain a cold shoulder was legendary. “When we were younger, she didn’t speak to me unless under orders for over three months once.”
Opal’s jaw dropped. “Three months!”
“It was blissful,” I said.
Opal frowned. Then she looked down at the book she was still holding. “Capri was the worst.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. She didn’t say anything, really. Just that she was glad I was okay. And then she left.”
“She … left?”
Opal shrugged, still keeping her gaze averted. “She said goodbye and everything, just … I guess I’m … not … I guess I’m too difficult.”
“You definitely are,” I said. “Most certainly. Barely worth the trouble of loving.”
Opal looked up, eyes narrowed in distrust. “You are mad.”
“I am. You promised you’d return to the Academy.”
She grinned. “But I didn’t specify a timeline. And you needed me here. What if Aiden’s anchor spell wasn’t enough to pull you back? Christopher said you were lost in your head, like your mind might have been wiped. Damaged beyond repair, even if they found Bee.” Her tone became stressed.
“He said those things to you?”
She clutched the spellbook to her chest, whispering, “No. I overheard.”
“There’s a rune for that, I suppose.”
She nodded.
I reached for her and she stepped closer. I ran my hands down her arms, feeling the strong hum of her magic. “I’m going to have a shower. Then we will eat grilled cheese.”
“Okay.”
“And you will give the spellbook back to Aiden.”
She grimaced.
“What are the chances that the Academy is going to be happy with you working from a spellbook that isn’t in the … curriculum?” I had to search for that last word, hoping it was the correct usage.
Opal mumbled.
I caught it, but I made her repeat herself anyway. “Louder please.”
“Not very happy.”
“So the spellbook is safer here, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And to answer your first question, if Aiden couldn’t bring me back, then Samantha would have found Amanda. She’s blood tied to me, like Christopher and Zans.”
“And if that didn’t work?”
“If that didn’t work, then Aiden would have come and gotten you from school and brought you home.”
Her lips quivered. “Really?”
“Really. But you can ask him yourself.” I squeezed her shoulders, then stood, crossing toward my bathroom. A little shaky on my feet. “Shower, then food.”
“Is that it?” she asked. “That’s my punishment? Giving back the book?”
I turned back. “Not even remotely. But we’ll have lots of time to sort out the house rules and expectations.”
“We will? Like, I’ll have some say?”
I laughed. “No. You won’t have any say at all. But you already chose me to look out for you, so now you’re stuck with it.”
She grinned, then covered it with an overblown scowl. “Fine, then.”
“Go help Aiden with the grilled cheese, please.”
“Okay.” Opal crossed to the door, then looked back at me. “I’m glad you woke up, Emma.”
“Me too. Thank you.”
She bobbed her head, then took off full speed down the stairs. I allowed myself to slump against the doorframe, allowed myself a moment to acknowledge how shaken I felt.
I really hadn’t been certain I was going to make it back. And now that I was, I found myself suddenly fearful that I might still be simply trapped in my mind. That the mystic had finally found a way to keep me boxed up. Contained.
I took a deep breath, reminding myself that the mental projection the mystic had tried to encase me in had been flawed. It hadn’t felt right. Blurred around the edges, wrong temperature. I’d seen and acknowledged those flaws. I knew the difference.
This was real.
Aiden and Opal.
My bedroom.
My house.
My home.
My family.
Samantha and Opal were perched on stools by the kitchen island when I wandered downstairs. Aiden was systematically slicing through a block of white cheddar cheese. Christopher was working the stove and the frying pan. I’d only towel dried my hair, finding I didn’t want to be alone long enough to blow-dry it.
“The mystic,” I said without preamble. “Report.”
“Ember and Paisley are guarding her,” Samantha said. “I’ll relieve them after I have a bite.”
Christopher spun around, frying pan in hand, sliding two grilled cheese sandwiches onto the edge of Aiden’s cutting board. His gaze flicked to me, white edging his light-gray eyes. He turned back to the stove, placing two slices of buttered bread in the pan, then layering each with slices of cheese.
Aiden halved the hot grilled cheese sandwiches, lifting them on the flat edge of the chef’s knife and sliding the first two sections onto Opal’s plate. He deposited the second two halves on Samantha’s plate.
“Thank you,” Opal said quietly.
Magic writhed through the kitchen, riding the tension. I stifled a sigh. I wasn’t going to play peacemaker. The adults in the house were going to have to sort out their own issues.
I settled on the empty stool beside Opal. Nibbling on one half of her grilled cheese, she bumped me with her shoulder. Aiden watched her, his eyes crinkled around the edges.
Then, looking at me, he curled his lips in a soft smile. “I almost had to come collect you.” His tone was teasing, though his shoulders were tense and his magic was tightly coiled.
“I’m here,” I said, reminding myself.
“Gave us a scare,” Samantha drawled.
I snorted, stealing a miniature pickle off Opal’s plate. “Really?”
The telekinetic laughed. “Well, someone needs to sort us out before more bodies
start hitting the ground.”
“More bodies?” I asked.
No one answered me. They all also looked pointedly away from Opal.
The young witch took a sip from her milk. The glass looked too big in her hand. “They killed the twin black witches,” she said conversationally. “Decapitated them, burned them, and everything.”
Aiden winced, grimacing.
Christopher dropped his head in exasperation.
Samantha started laughing.
I’d only been unconscious for three days. Opal was running circles around all three of them, and they hadn’t figured it out. Or how she was doing it.
“Did you give the spellbook back to Aiden?” I asked.
Opal gave a long-suffering sigh. “I was going to.” She wiped her fingers on her napkin then tugged the book from behind her, where I was fairly certain she’d had it under her sweater and wedged against the small of her back.
She held the book across the speckled quartz counter, offering it to Aiden.
He blinked at it, then swore under his breath. He shook his head as he took the spellbook from her. “The eavesdropping rune?”
Samantha started banging her hand on the counter, laughing harder.
Christopher spun around, brandishing the flipper in his hand at Aiden. “You gave her a book of runes?! So typical, sorcerer.”
Aiden set the book down on the corner of the island, well away from the food prep. His expression blanked.
So the bulk of the stifling tension in the kitchen was emanating between the clairvoyant and the sorcerer.
“I stole it,” Opal snarled. “You can stop being a complete jerk anytime, Christopher!”
The clairvoyant’s jaw dropped. “Me?!”
Opal pointed her finger at him. “You put everyone in jeopardy. You. No one else!”
Christopher gestured to Samantha incredulously, opening his mouth to protest.
“No!” Opal cut him off. “I’ve been listening. I put it all together. If you want us to forgive you, you apologize. And we’ll forgive you. That’s how a real family works.”
I smiled, angling my head so Opal didn’t think I was laughing at her. Or disagreeing with her. Aiden returned to cutting thin, perfectly uniform slices of cheese. He was also hiding his reaction to the young witch’s attempt at playing peacemaker.
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