Winter's Awakening (Light Coven Chronicles Book 1)

by Alessandra Jay

  Evan

  It’s harder than I thought to pull myself off of Scarlet’s lips. Once I do, I still can’t find the words to speak. She looks beautiful and enchanting with the light from the stars shining on her face. What she just did, it was marvelous. I have never seen anything like it, especially for it being her first-time casting. We are both struggling to breathe, and I see Scarlet shiver, throwing me into overdrive. I focus all of my energy to stop her magic. With a light clap of my hands, the shooting stars disappear. And the chandelier turns on. “Scarlet. Wow. I can’t…I can’t believe what you just did.” I feel terrible. She looks like she just saw a ghost. Except her skin isn't pale. It looks as if it’s glistening. She looks like she’s of another world, not even of the caster world. Something more.

  She looks like an Elder but more powerful. Once that thought enters my mind, I instantly suck in a breath. If she looks afraid before, now she looks terrified. I step towards her to take her in my arms. Pulling her to my chest, she just stands there like she’s frozen. “Love, are you all right?” She nods her head in my chest as I lift her up and carry her to the couch in the corner of the room. I sit down with her head still on my chest, and we stay that way for a long while. Just when I think she fell asleep, she mumbles something quietly.

  “I'm going to have to go to Eden now, aren't I?” She asks with dread in her tone. “Yes, love. What do you think about going to your dad’s in the morning, so we can explain what is going on to them first? I have a whole floor here that we can stay in for the night. But if you want to go see them now, we can.” She looks up at me, and I can see all of the worry in her eyes. It is heartbreaking. I never want her to look so afraid again. I feel as if I'm meant to make sure she is always happy and, most important, safe. “I’d like to just have this one night of only you and me before everything erupts into chaos.” She says softly.

  “You know, technically we’re still on our date,” I say, with the smirk that turns her cheeks red. It is so innocent. And, ironically, it turns me on. She nods her head and stands up. “How does a movie sound? I know you're probably itching to bake, and I think you're going to love the kitchen in my suite.” I know it makes her relax when she’s stressed, so I offer the mortal solution. Now that she does have her power, there are easier ways to relax. But I don't think she’s ready to try more casts. I see her face light up, and it instantly warms me to my core. She nods her head, and we grab our things to head upstairs. I see some hesitation in her face and stop walking, and I can see her biting her lip. “Scarlet, I know this is a lot to take in. Are you sure you're okay?” Beginning to worry about her, I take a step closer.

  She looks down and quietly says, “Surprisingly, I'm okay. I just…” she pauses. I take her hands in mine, and she looks up at me. It’s as if a magnet is placed between us because instantly my lips are covering hers. I feel her smile under my lips. And I have to pull away, so I can see it. “Just what, Scar?”

  “Um…would it be okay if maybe we could…try some more casts, too?” She says, surprising me.

  I was wrong. She is ready. That causes me to laugh, and she turns red again. I kiss each cheek then her lips, and I lift my hand that carries the satchel of the tools I grabbed on our way in here. Already, I can already tell this is going to be one hell of a night. With a smile, I tell her, “What do you think these are for?”

  Scarlet

  Everything feels so raw, my feelings for Evan, feeling magic for the first time, and knowing I’ll be going to Eden soon. So much is crashing down on me. And I know after tonight my life will turn hectic. But I refuse to let it ruin this night. Aside from the waitress, our dinner was amazing. I’ve never tasted anything like the food I ate here. Would I have known about my magic if Kristy wasn't flirting with Evan? I almost can’t hate her anymore. I do actually hope her hand is okay. The elevator opens, and he steps aside, gesturing for me to exit before him.

  How did I get so lucky to have a guy who's so chivalrous? Evan leads us to the lone door on the entire floor and opens it for me. I walk through, and I'm instantly stunned at how modern and neat everything is. It looks like those hotel penthouses you only see in movies. The walls are painted a beautiful burgundy, with white baseboards throughout the entire floor. Every table, desk, and cabinet is made of glass. And the furniture is a light gray.

  Evan takes my hand and walks me past the huge and comfortable living room, with its fluffy rugs and blankets and cozy leather couch. We walk through the hallway, and it opens up to the kitchen, a library, and a closed door. The library is quaint and snug, with big shelves placed inside of the walls, reminding me of my cave. There is even one of those ladders with wheels on the bottom to slide along. Evan drops the satchel full of casting tools, and he takes off his tie, unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his sexy abs.

  Instinctively, I spin around, and thankfully, the beautiful kitchen is enough to distract me from my naughty thoughts. The kitchen is completely covered in dark wood, the furniture, the sleek wooden countertops, the cabinets, and even the appliances. The silver handles on each cabinet and drawer pop out with the silver sink. The pantry is glass, like the ones in our dorms, but it goes far deeper. He must have every ingredient in there. I begin to walk forward to check, when Evan grabs my hand. He spins me around like a dancer, and I twirl right into his embrace as he bends down to place a soft kiss on my lips.

  “Would you like to change?” He sweetly suggests. I nod my head, and he leads me into the door between the library and the kitchen. When we walk in, I know we’re in his bedroom. Everything is black, the bed, the sheets on the bed, the pillows, the rug. Even the furniture is black. The only thing white in here are the paintings on the walls, similar to the ones in his house by the campus. I walk up to one full of curiosity. “Do you know this artist? These remind me of the ones in your house.” He walks up behind me and moans. “Yes, love. I painted them.” he admits.

  Taking me completely by surprise, I spin around with wide eyes. “You did this?” He chuckles and nods his head. “They're beautiful, Evan. I would love one.” He smiles and kisses me. “Anything for you, Scarlet,” I savor his voice as I go in for a deep kiss. When he pulls away, he snaps his fingers and gestures to his king-size bed. “I casted these from your townhouse. Change and meet me in the kitchen when you're done.” With another kiss, he leaves, giving me my privacy, like a true gentleman.

  ***

  Evan hops up onto the counter, “So what would you like to do first, dessert, magic, or a movie?” He asks with a wink. I take a second to think and decide baking will relax me, which I know will be vital when we try casting again. So I say “Baking, magic, movie. Just like you said.” He hops down and claps his hands. “What are we baking?” I haven't thought of what I wanted to bake yet, but Evan just leaned over me to wash his hands, and I smelled apples so strongly. Snickering to myself, I look at him and say, “Mini apple pies.”

  Evan squints his eyes at me, trying to figure out why I find this so amusing. “Has anyone ever told you that you smell like apples?” I say as he raises his eyebrows. “Has anyone ever told you you smell like lavender?” He asks me. Now eager to bake so we can try some more casts, I lean over Evan, just like he did to me, and I wash my hands. I giggle and roll my eyes when all the ingredients magically appear in front of me. He sticks his tongue out as he begins to peel the apples for me. I am falling more in love with him with every second that passes.

  Dessert is done, and I'm happily not freaking out anymore. Although, I am very anxious to try to cast again. I take the tray of the delicious mini apple pies, and I follow Evan into the living room. He snaps a finger, and what has to be at least 100 pillows are covering the entire living room floor. He waits for me to place the dessert down, so he can tackle me into the pillow ground. I act like he hurt me and grab the pillow under my hand.

  Evan crouches down and has a look of regret on his face, causing me to giggle even more. I lift the pillow and sucker punch him in the face with it, as it takes him
a minute to realize what I just did. But as soon as he realized I played him, he lifted his fingers. I look around and see four pillows floating in the air around me. Before I can run or duck, all four pillows hit me at the same time. They continue to lightly hit me until I'm on the ground, with tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

  Evan throws himself on top of me, and without a second thought, his lips are on mine, and his hair is in my hands as I lightly tug on it. I don’t think we can get any closer than we are now. It’s taking everything inside of me to not rip his clothes off. He pulls away just as I was about to lose control. As I try to catch my breath, he walks over to the couch behind me and grabs the satchel of casting tools. I feel my heart skip a beat. I want this. I want this so bad. He chuckles seeing the eagerness in my face and begins pulling the tools out of the bag, explaining one after the other. “Candle, feather, seed.” Okay. That seems simple enough. But I know better. Casting is never simple. “Got it,” I say. “Good. Which would you like to try first?” He asks, giving me full control.

  “Well, I don't know what I would do with any of those objects. But that feather is calling out to me for some reason,” I say, pointing to it. He lifts the feather that is half torn. There are hairs missing from it, and the stem is broken in half, leaving only a stub of a stem to hold. “Good choice. As you can tell, the feather is broken. What I want you to try doing with this is healing it back to life.” He says, as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. “Okay. I'm ready.” I say with confidence. Sure enough, I was ready, readier than Evan and I would have ever thought.

  Chapter 22

  Unexpected Surprise

  “Close your eyes and open your hand,” Evan instructs me. “I'm going to place the feather in the middle of your palm. With your other hand, place it over the hand with the feather, creating a circle. Breathe in and out a few times until you feel completely relaxed, like you did earlier in the training room. The energy should be right here, by your heart. Can you feel it, love?” He asks in his soothing voice. Immediately I felt the heat sitting in my chest. Without him telling me what to do next, I turn the energy into a ball and control it to flow down my shoulder, to my hand that is holding the feather. And I think of what the feather would look like in its healthy state, covered in white, with a few gray and black strands of hair and a stem long enough to hold. I focus on repairing the broken feather back to life. When I feel my power escaping my fingertips, I give it one last push and, again, what felt like an invisible sonic boom, threw me backwards. I opened my eyes just as confused as before. I don't see Evan sitting where we just were, so I frantically look around. He pops his head out from under a pile of pillows. And if I wasn't so flustered, I would be laughing at him. The fact that he looks just as startled and confused as I do does not make it any easier to control.

  I make my way back to where we were just sitting, and I collapse to the ground when I see the feather. Every single strand on the feather was a full-length neon blue color. It looked to be glowing. The stem was the size of my entire hand. And it was the softest and fluffiest feather I have ever seen or felt. I slowly pick it up and look up to see Evan’s wide eyes. He kneels down beside me as I pick a few of the feathers from the pillows that fell out of his hair.

  But these feathers aren't white, like they should be. They're blue, like the feather I casted back to health. When Evan sees the feathers, he grabs the closest pillow to us and rips it open. Every single feather inside of it is neon blue. “Evan, what’s going on?” I ask, afraid of the answer. “I don't know. I have never felt magic like that. That force that throws you back has never happened before. I can’t even explain what it is. And you had one feather in your hand. How did every feather in here change?” He begins, talking more to himself than to me.

  Now I'm nervous. If Evan doesn't know what’s going on, then who will? Trying to cast isn't what I expected it to be. I thought it would be more fun, I guess. Evan looks more freaked out now than he did in the training room. Maybe we should stop. I don't want to chase him away. But that feeling of my magic is addicting. I want more. I want to feel it again. I guess I'm wearing my emotions on my face because Evan comes to kneel next to me and takes me in his arms, holding me tight. “I'm sorry, Scarlet. I'm not trying to make this harder for you. And no matter what this means, like I’ve said, I will always be here for you.” I give him a small smile, and he returns it as he tries to lighten up the mood. “How about we try something fun? And if anything weird happens again, we just move on and try something else,” he suggests.

  “Thank you.” I squeeze him tighter for a moment. He grabs both of my cheeks and leans in for the softest kiss he’s ever given me. His lips are barely touching mine, and it still affects me the way our steamier kisses do. He pulls away and gives me that knee-weakening smirk. Between that smirk and his closeness, I can hardly keep away from him. I jump up into his arms, and he falls back onto a mound of pillows. I'm on top of him, and my legs are hooked around his waist. I crash down on his lips and can’t stop my hands from touching every inch of him. I melt into his body as I feel my lips getting numb. The tingles and electricity from our skin touching is driving me mad. I want more of him.

  I reach for his shirt and pull it up over his head. And once that happens, all the electricity I felt before becomes unbearable, and I feel like I'm going to burst. He rolls us over and ends up on top of me. He takes a moment to look at me, and I see the hunger in his eyes, making me want his lips on mine even more. He flicks his wrist, and my shirt disappears off my body. I hear an approving moan as he gently takes my bottom lip and lightly sucks on it, causing a moan to come out of me this time. The tension is suffocating. I want us to be one. I need it. I feel the same electricity down my spine as I always feel, but this time it’s more chaotic. He moans again and causes me to completely lose control. I feel my power expand until it’s too late. He has become completely silent as I watch his eyes get wide. Before either of us can act, I'm being thrown back as I'm rolling off of his bed. His bed? When did we move to his bed?

  I hear a thump, and I get to my feet faster than I thought I could. I jump on the bed to peek over the other side, only to see Evan laying there on his back, frozen in shock and completely naked. His hands seem to be having trouble covering his swollen privates. I must be really crazy now because I fall back on the bed and can’t stop laughing. Seeing Evan struggling and frightened was something I never thought I would see. Evan pops up with both of his hands hiding his package, squinting his eyes at me. “If you could take a second to hold your laughter and return my boxers, at least, I would be forever thankful,” he says, teasing me. “Well, can’t you do it yourself, Mr. White?” I say, amused. His smirk grows and I can’t believe my eyes.

  Is he turning red? A blushing Evan is a sight to see. He sees I noticed, and he straightens his shoulders, drops both of his hands, revealing his well-endowed parts and hesitates just long enough for me to obviously gawk. He then snaps his fingers and his boxers, unfortunately, cover him up. I bravely lift my eyes to find his, and when I do, it’s now me that is beat red. With one eyebrow lifted and his smirk looking more devious than ever, he claps his hands and suddenly I feel a chill. I look down to see my naked body, aside from my lacy underwear that I bought just for him. I suck in a breath and hurriedly reach for the blanket, pulling it over my head and hearing Evan’s deep laughter. The next second, I hear another clap and the blanket disappears.

  Game on. I close my eyes and quickly find my power. I will it to my fingertips at double the speed and cast it out, thinking only of the matching bra I had worn tonight. And for the first time I snap my fingers. I did it! My bra is on my body, and I'm ready for war. I snap my head in Evan’s direction and see him with the same smirk. But this time his eyes look different. I can see the hunger in them again, the raw desire he has for me. It’s as if he’s taking a mental picture of these last few moments. Before I can retaliate and try to make his shorts disappear again, he’s on the bed, kneeling i
n front of me.

  He softly runs his fingers from my shoulders to my hands and brings them up to his mouth, kissing each of my palms and sending goose bumps all over my body. “Scarlet, you are the most beautiful and enchanting caster I have ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. I knew I loved you the moment I saw you. But now, I know that I have to have you. I don’t think I can live without you. I want you to be mine, forever. I can feel it in my soul. I know you feel it, too. I love you, more than I’ve ever loved anything or anyone.”

  I didn't realize I was tearing until Evan reached up to wipe them away. He takes my cheeks in his hands and lifts my lips to reach his. The second they do, I feel the electricity go from our kiss straight to my soul. He’s right. We’re made for each other. I can feel it. I deepen our kiss, fully understanding everything he just confessed and pull away to look into his eyes. “Always and forever, Evan. I love you, too.” He kisses me gently and for a long time. I could stay like this for all of eternity. But when he regrettably pulls away and sits up, he snaps his fingers and both of our shirts return to our bodies. “As much as I would like to keep you shirtless, we should get back to casting.”

  Without a word, I put my hands behind my head, and I watch him. I watch his eyes, how they're only looking at me. Nothing else seems to have his attention. I can tell he’s thinking hard. But still, his eyes never leave mine. I turn on my side to rest my head on my hand, “Will you tell me what you're thinking so hard about?” It takes him a second to answer. And before he does, he takes my hand and pulls me to sit on top of him.