“I love you too,” I whispered back.
I wasn’t sure the smile on his face could have gotten any brighter. He leaned forward and I met him halfway, our lips brushing against each other’s in a sweeping kiss. Magic encompassed us, and it was absolutely breathtaking.
“Wow.” The word was like an exhale.
“Mmhmm,” I said in a haze.
“Umm … I’m going to try and let you get ready for the party,” he said, letting go of my hands and standing up.
“Yeah, get ready for the party. Do I have to?” I asked pleadingly.
“Darn right you have to!” Bess flounced into the room, grabbing Braxton by the arm. “You scram! I need to get my girl ready. Baxter is downstairs waiting for you.”
I shrugged at him, and he shook his head, rolled his eyes, then blew me a kiss before shutting the door behind him.
“Let’s get you ready!” Bess beamed at me.
I couldn’t help but smile back at her. Braxton loves me, and nothing else matters right now
Chapter Seven
The party was slow at first, just like most others. The backyard of my parents’ property had been transformed into a garden paradise. Trellises with gorgeous blooming flowers of protection—digitalis, hoya, and malva—created such a beautiful array of colors everywhere, the fragrant scent they gave off soothing to the soul.
There were beautifully dressed tables scattered about, along with a big white tent with a hint of blue running through it, which happened to be my favorite color. The tent housed the food and drink buffet, but it was also where the coven elders would gather with the great book of the coven, and where I would sign it.
Bess had finished pinning my hair up with silver crystal pins, did my make-up, and helped me into my vest pantsuit. The pants felt like they could have been tailored just for me, and the raw silk material fell in perfect lines. The vest top fit like a glove and wrapped around my neck, leaving my upper back bare and reconnecting at the middle of it. Bess had made sure to find another extra-long silver chain with white moonstones to drape along the showing skin, making it shimmer and sparkle.
She had her arm looped through mine when we made it to the back door of the house before stepping out on the patio. The heels I wore made it difficult to keep my balance, although they glittered in all the right places.
“Are you ready birthday girl?” she whispered, trying to contain her excitement but not able to keep it all in.
Straightening my spine so I stood even taller, I nodded. “Let’s go.”
People paused to pay attention, and applause rang out when we arrived. It almost overwhelmed me, and I felt my magic kindling as I searched for my parents and Braxton. As soon as my eyes met his, the calm feeling he induced washed over me. His eyes twinkled with a touch of heat, so I had a feeling Bess had dolled me up just enough to do the trick. Heat climbed into my cheeks, making me regret the small amount of blush I’d let Bess brush on them.
My parents made their way over to me, giving me huge hugs. The love and acceptance that filled the air was blissful. It made the sky brighter. I honestly didn’t think I could have had more happiness inside me than in that moment, and that included when I signed the great book. It just didn’t seem as important to me as my family, friends, and ones I loved.
Braxton finally made his way past my family. I sidestepped my aunt to step toward him.
“You look stunning Sky,” he said in a soft voice as he took my hands in his.
I squeezed his hands. “Thanks. Bess can take the credit for that one. She knows her way around the makeup and hairspray scene.” I chuckled.
He lifted a hand and twirled one of the loose curls around his finger. “Bess can’t take all the credit. You were already a beauty to begin with.”
“I keep telling her that, but she never listens!” Bess came from behind to squeeze my shoulders. “My beautiful bestie on her birthday!”
Baxter almost looked uncomfortable as he tugged at the top button of his dress shirt, trying to be good and not undo the tie that Bess had painstakingly done up for him. I giggled at him.
“You two gentleman look rather dapper.” I beamed at them both.
That had both of them puffing up like peacocks.
“What about me?” Jordan literally slid across the grass as if doing a dance move. His arms out for balance, he rolled the fedora he was wearing down his arm, tipping it to me before he repeated the move up his arm and placed it on his head. Then bouncing his head in a nod, he gave me a wink.
We all applauded.
“Most handsome indeed.” I took a few steps and gave him a hug.
I hadn’t seen a whole lot of him this summer, so I had a feeling he thought he wouldn’t be welcome, especially since I used to date his brother. Although that wasn’t the case at all. I actually missed his silly face. Plus, he was nothing like his brother, so seeing him didn’t trigger me in any way.
“Thank you for coming, Jordan.” I squeezed him tighter. “I’ve missed you.”
He held me close. “Missed you too, Sky. But enough sap! Let’s party!” he crowed. He gave me one last squeeze before he snatched Bess and lifted her, twirling her around in a circle.
“You have amazing friends,” Braxton whispered in my ear as he stepped behind me and draped his arms around my middle. “I’m happy to get to be part of this group.”
“Happy to have you man.” Baxter slapped him on the shoulder.
“Replacing me so soon?” a deep voice asked, one that I had not thought to hear again for a long time.
Everything seemed to come to a standstill. My breath caught in my throat and shock paralyzed me as Nick came into view. Gasps rang out from all over the garden. It was as if they came through a speaker as quiet as it had gotten at the sight of Nick being here.
I couldn’t believe he’d shown up after my father had run him off so many times.
“I had no idea he was going to crash your party Sky. I am so sorry,” Jordan said, the sincerity real in his tone, although his voice also shook with anger so I knew how upset he was with his twin.
“Stop apologizing Jordan. I was invited, remember?” Nick’s cruel smirk made me wonder what I’d ever seen in him.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted my parents making their way toward us, my father looking to be on a warpath.
“You were invited and uninvited the moment you started kissing Willow.” I stepped out of Braxton’s hold and inched toward Nick.
Being in heels, I was almost the same height as him. Still, he sneered at me.
“Oh yeah? And how was I to know something like that? I figured it was your eighteenth birthday and I just had to come and wish you a happy one,” he said, the cruel undertones in his voice sending shivers down my spine.
“You should have known better after my father told you to get lost. What made you think you would be welcome in any possible way to this party is beyond me.” My voice rose with my agitation. He was actually here, and he was ruining my birthday. I wanted to stomp my foot because of the anger swirling through me, but I was more mature than that. However, I couldn’t help it when dark clouds developed in the sky, which only made him quirk his lips. That was what he wanted. Of course it was …
“Yes, get upset Sky. Get upset. Show everyone here what you really are.” His eyes were almost manic because he wanted me to lose control. There was a moment of glee that he thought I was about to lose control of my power.
Stumbling in my heels to get away from him, Braxton caught me before I could fall, which made us a united front. My friends flanked us and so did my parents, but they left some space, telling me they were close enough to help if I needed them to but would let me handle things if I didn’t. I appreciated that more than they’d ever know.
“You need to leave Nick. This isn’t cool at all,” Bess hissed at him. Baxter grabbed her around the waist, holding her back as she struggled to move forward probably to slap Nick right across the face. After what happened last time, it
wouldn’t surprise me.
“If you want it cool, why don’t you just ask Sky? I’m sure she could handle that for you?” he taunted, waving his hand at me.
That had everyone’s attention. My eyes went wide. I knew that everyone was going to find out that I was a weather witch after I signed the book of the covens but that was on my terms, not on this idiot’s. What is he really trying to pull here? I paused considering my thought. Thankfully, the weather hadn’t gotten any worse since Braxton held my hand, which sent soothing magic my way.
Then it hit me. “You want me to lose control.” The words were just above a whisper, only loud enough for the people close to us to hear. “Why? What have I ever done to you to make you want to hurt me like this?”
The thought that he wanted to cause me so much pain made my heart ache. As if he understood my hurt, Braxton squeezed my hand.
Braxton tensed behind me and pointed with his other hand. “Look.”
My eyes moved to the direction he pointed to find Willow rushing across the lawn, a confident look on her face as she made her way to join Nick’s side.
“What in the ever-loving shades of h—” I started, but my mother’s hiss cut me off, making me look at the darkening skies.
Well, dang. Not good. She got to me.
The looks on both Nick’s and Willow’s face reminded me of contented cats licking warm milk. They had definitely both wanted this, wanted me to show how little control I had over my powers. Not going to happen.
“They hold no power over us, Sky,” Braxton said, tightening his grip on my hand.
I turned my head, letting my eyes land on his. The love and devotion shining from his made me realize as long as he stood with me, I’d never lose control. Because of him, the coven elders also wouldn’t slaughter me that night. I didn’t think I could ever love someone as much as I did him.
Nick actually growled, but somehow he kept a smile plastered on his face as he tugged Willow closer. She snuggled into his side.
“You stay out of this, new guy,” he grumbled, and hate rattled his words.
“New guy, eh? That would make you yesterday’s news, wouldn’t it?” Braxton replied, his tone conversational. The group around me chuckled.
“Whatever! I was here first. You’re nothing but a substitute,” Nick spouted, the bitterness in his voice strong. Even though he held Willow at his side, his stance was stiff, his arms around her rigid. It looked forced and uncomfortable, although she didn’t seem to mind. I guessed she was enjoying the show too much.
“Oh, please. At least I’m not a two-timing scoundrel like you are. What do I care about anything you have to say right now, Nick? You need to take your little jezebel there and trot your unwanted behind out of here before I allow these guys to joyfully kick you both out.” I gave him a pointed look, not backing down or letting him bother me anymore.
At being called out, their features twisted in anger. Standing straighter, Willow jerked away from Nick. It definitely hadn’t gone as she’d planned, and I couldn’t care less.
“Leave now bro. I don’t want to have to do this.” Jordan sounded almost crestfallen at the idea of having to throw down with his own brother again.
Nick turned to look at his twin. “My own flesh and blood turning against me.” He scoffed.
“I’m not turning against anything. You’re the one who started this. You never should have come here, and you definitely shouldn’t have brought Willow. That is just poor judgment and poor taste.” Jordan shook his head in disappointment.
Nick waved his hand at him, like he didn’t care what his brother had just told him. Although the stiffness in his movements told a different story.
“Fine, I’ll say what I came here to say and then get out of everyone’s hair.” His eyes circled the garden, making sure he had everyone’s attention before he stepped even closer to me.
“Sky Stratan deserves to be stripped of power and bound forevermore,” he shouted, but the garden was so quiet that if a pin fell right now everyone would have heard it loud and clear.
What in the Great Divine? He wants me to be bound and stripped of power? To not be a witch anymore? That is like castrating someone, no longer being whole anymore. Why would he even suggest something like this? Braxton held me closer, pulling me out of my thoughts and reminding me to breathe.
“What are you talking about Nicholas Cromwell? Speak, now. You’ve disrupted this party long enough,” Becca Churchill said as she came to stand beside my parents. With her steel-grey hair up in a tight bun, she looked like she was going to a board meeting instead of a party in her knee-length, black-pinstripe skirt and white blouse.
Willow seemed to perk up at seeing the oldest coven elder. She wanted Becca to know exactly what was going on. Becca Churchill would have the final say in what would happen with coven decisions. If Nick managed to get the coven to turn against me, it would’ve been up to Becca to enforce it all. Not that my parents couldn’t take her on because they definitely could. It was actually spoken that my father might take her seat on the coven council.
“Sky Stratan, Ms. Churchill”—He paused for dramatic effect, looking out over the crowd of people—“is a weather witch and hiding from the coven.”
The look of pure evil in his eyes made me gasp. Just when I thought he couldn’t break my heart any further, he did. This person in front of me was not someone I recognized anymore. He had been someone I had grown up with, loved, and even thought I would marry once. That man, though, was long gone.
The garden was now a buzz of chatter and the word weather witch was growing in volume, along with phrases like “binding and stripping powers” and “too old to be trained as a proper weather witch.”
“Silence!” Becca spoke the single word with such power that it was exactly what she got. When she did, she frowned as she looked back and forth between me and my parents.
“Do you have something to tell the coven, Stratan?” She eyed my father.
My father straightened, the look on his face stern. My mother matched him, both looking as if they were ready to throw their magic at the first person who tried to hurt me. The love they had for me gathered in my chest and I almost exploded with it.
“Bring out the great book. Let it show and decide,” my father said with unbroken confidence.
Becca paused, assessing, finding no fault in his request. It was one of the reasons she was here anyway. To present the book and have me drop my blood upon the pages.
“Bind her! Strip her power now before none of us can control her!” Nick shouted.
Becca glanced at Nick and with that one look, he shut up, a sullen look upon his face.
“Vincent Cromwell, you need to teach your son better manners. Your oldest seems to be well-groomed like his mother, so what happened with this one?” she queried. “Because if you can’t keep him under control, then I shall do it for you and you will not like the consequences. Do I make myself understood?”
Vincent blanched, and it kind of seemed like he was choking on something. Maybe his own pride? Either way, he knew he couldn’t compete with the coven elder so he dared not make a move against her.
“Stop this now, Nicholas!” Vincent hissed, rushing forward and grabbing Nick’s forearm. "It's time to leave.”
Nick ripped away from his father’s grasp. “Not until the book shows exactly what an abomination she is.”
“Let me kill him,” Braxton seethed.
“He’s my brother, so I’m first in line. But you can hold him,” Jordan snarled.
“I’ll help,” Baxter quipped. “He needs to be taken down a peg or three.”
“Bring me the book!” Becca’s voice rose above the quarrel.
I was still struck numb by every venomous word that dropped from Nick’s mouth. I had no emotion right now, had no idea what to feel. Shock held me in its clutches, which was probably why the weather hadn’t changed. My jaw slack, I stared at both Nick and Willow, my eyes moving to her hold on him. Nick had ne
ver been cruel, not in his whole life. It just wasn’t in him. What had changed him so much in such a short amount of time?
Then I saw the shadow of blackness flowing from Willow to Nick. It connected them somehow, but I didn’t know the “how” of it. Had she turned him into a shadow puppet? Was Nick even aware of what he was doing right now? I hoped so. I would hate to have been so wrong about someone I cared about.
With a snap of magic, someone walked forward with the great coven book in their hands and presented it to Becca. She nodded to them as she took the book and opened it.
“This is not how I wanted to do this, but why not? Everything else is going rather unusually. Let’s settle this and get you out of here.” She looked pointedly at Nick. “On this day of August fourth, two thousand nineteen, what does the book say?”
My parents followed behind her, my mother brandishing the family dagger that would be used to prick my finger and drop my blood into the book.
Braxton held my left hand as I nodded to my mother, holding out my right to her and holding it over the book that Becca was holding. It was a quick pinch of pain, but still I hissed while watching in fascination as a single drop of blood dripped on the blank page of the ancient tome.
Words appeared and the magic rippled like a skipped stone in water. My name appeared, then my birthday, followed by other vital information. Finally, what kind of witch I was sprinkled the page.
Sky Stratan of Fall River, born on the Sturgeon Moon of August 2001 on Saturday the fourth, born of Brantlee and Wynter Stratan.
Strength and power set as a witch, all elements, governed as a Weather Witch.
There were gasps from the crowd, evil giggling coming from Willow and Nick. But another ripple of power rose from the book. It wasn’t done yet. More words appeared.
Let it be known that Braxton Conrad is the Balance of Power for the Weather Witch known as Sky Stratan. They are the next chosen Elemental Royals.
Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4) Page 91