Dirt and gravel spun up in a cloud around the car as we opened the doors and I grabbed the spell book. Together, we walked towards the church.
“Why here?” Darren asked.
“This church is abandoned now, well, for religious purposes anyway. My Coven owns it, and although it was once a Catholic church, it was built on sacred grounds.”
I walked around the church and made my way into the graveyard, to the tree that was planted at the very center of our power.
There was no-one around anymore, although I was pretty sure that this place had been hopping all day.
I looked up at the full moon and closed my eyes, feeling the waves of intense power permeating through my skin and body.
“But why here? Why now?” Darren persisted.
I opened the book I’d carried from the car and opened up the spell book to the page my friends and I had used last Halloween.
“Here, because the power in the earth, in this place will help amplify my power. And now, same reason. Halloween, my birthday, the same day we conducted the spell last year.”
I placed the spell book at my feet and flicked to the next page.
Now to reverse it.
“Why do you need more power, Ruby?” Darren asked, and once again I could hear the worry in his voice.
I closed my eyes and placed my hands out in front of me. I was lucky that Darren wasn’t trained in the art of magic or he would realize that this spell was too much for me.
“Because last year I had Bella and Tiffany with me to carry some of the spell. This time I’m doing it on my own. Now shh… I need to concentrate.”
I began to chant and the winds around me picked up. I opened my eyes to see the spell book rising off the ground in front of me, open to the page I needed, the words highlighted for me to read.
The magic of Halloween coursed through me, from the ground. I felt the earth move, heat, strengthen me.
I began the spell to reverse what I’d done last year. It wasn’t easy.
I was asking the laws of attraction, of fate, of love, to no longer be in play. Last year, I had yearned for this spell to give me what I needed. Now, my heart was full to the breaking point.
Tears coursed down my cheeks as I said the spell in reverse. From the last line to the top.
Pain charged through my body. My gaze clung to the words, to the lines on the page. I had to finish it.
My arms shook with the strain, my back cramping as I stood straight.
The pain turned from an ache into something sharp. Fire like burning lit up my muscles, my belly heaving as my body rejected the spell I was trying to cast.
I groaned and retched, but still the book stayed in the air, helping me finish what I’d started.
I didn’t want to give up; I didn’t want to stop.
This was the only way I could prove to my soul mates, to my men, that what they felt for me, and me for them, was real.
The pain raced up my arms, up my spine, and would soon reach my head.
Darren was calling out to me, but he couldn’t get to me. Even behind my barely open eyes I could see the white light, feel the un-natural wind. I was surrounded in magic.
There was only one line left.
One line of the spell to finish.
I spoke those last few words with my last breath, falling to my knees on the final word, and then everything went black.
Darren
When Ruby fainted, I barely managed to get my hand under her head before she hit the ground. The magic that had been holding me at bay while she’d conducted her spell had dissipated just in time for me to dive to catch her.
She hadn’t woken up.
I put her in the car and drove her back to her mother’s empty house. Luckily it was unlocked when I’d tried the handle, and I’d brought Ruby straight in.
So there I sat, waiting for her mother to come home. Or for Ruby to wake up. Whatever came first.
I sat on a lounge chair next to an unconscious Ruby, staring at my beautiful mate and sick to my stomach. The front door opened and female voices chattering away burst into the silence.
They were home. Ruby’s mother and her two friends.
The three women stepped into the room, smiling and laughing. They the moment they saw me.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Ruby’s mother growled at me, her eyebrows drawing together.
I jumped to my feet and indicated to Ruby, “Well, ah…”
The atmosphere switch instantly to one of concern.
“What happened to her?” Ruby’s mother rushed to kneel beside her daughter. She put a hand to her forehead and looked at both of her palms. “She’s in a magical sleep.”
Ruby’s mother, who looked uncannily like my mate, jumped to her feet and scowled at me, hands on her hips.
Obviously, the red hair and temper ran in the family.
“What did you do to her, wolf?”
I’d never heard the word wolf used as an accusation before.
I swallowed against the feelings of being overwhelmed, bullied by a woman with red hair and fiery green eyes. “I didn’t do anything. Ruby wanted to conduct a spell and I went with her.”
“Where did you go?” she asked.
“To the church.”
There was deathly silence as the three older witches looked amongst themselves.
Ruby’s mother lifted her gaze to me, swallowing hard, her eyes shadowed with worries. “And what sort of spell did she cast?”
I inhaled sharply. “You don’t know what they did last year?”
“Who?” one of the other women asked.
“Ruby and her two friends…” I began to tell them, then found my instincts flaring up saying to stop. I flicked my wrist. “Doesn’t matter. Anyway. Ruby said that her and her two friends cast a spell that would make their soul mates find them. And when she told us about it tonight, Jackson flipped out and Ruby decided she wanted to undo the spell.”
Her mother’s eyes had gotten wider and wider, then she turned to her friends and said, “They did what? Holy shit on a stick… what are we going to do?”
“It’s not a bad thing, is it?” I asked. “Surely…”
A cold dread washed over me as the witches turned to me.
Was Jackson right? Had Ruby and her friends messed with Fate? Or had they done something worse?
I glanced down at Ruby, lying unconscious on the couch.
Her mother bit her lip, tears forming in her eyes. “That spell is banned for a reason. It has brought heart ache to anyone who’s ever performed it, and it’s an extremely difficult spell. I don’t even know how the girls managed it in the first place.”
I knew the answer to that. They’d used their birthdays, Halloween, and the pure strength of three witches who didn’t want to be abandoned by their husbands, the way they had been by their fathers.
But I didn’t say that.
I only wanted to know one thing. “Is Ruby going to be okay, Mrs…?”
“Ah.. It’s Sherie.” Ruby’s mother answered, but she didn’t answer my actual question, instead going to assess Ruby on the couch once again and the three witches talking amongst themselves.
I collapsed into the couch, my throat tight and my heart breaking. How cruel a world would it be to both find my mate and lose her in the same week?
Billy
“You know the elders are biased, right?” I asked Jackson as we walked out of his father’s house and back towards his large home.
I didn’t want to go back to my own bed. I’d realized I’d rather sleep on Jackson’s couch that be anywhere else.
Why was that?
Unfortunately, I knew the answer. I’d mated to Ruby tonight, and therefore had bonded to the men she was mated to as well.
My home was now with them. With Jackson. And the warlock wolf.
“They told us the truth.” Jackson grunted. “I was right. There’s no such thing as three mates for one woman. We’ve been tricked.”
&n
bsp; I sighed as I walked alongside him.
We’d gone to his parents’ house and they’d called several other Alpha wolves in for the discussion.
All of them had said that a harem of men for a woman was un-natural. Wrong. Impossible.
And when Jackson had told them about Ruby’s spell… well, they’d gone off the rails.
We entered Jackson’s house and he went straight for the beer.
“You want one?” he called out, already grabbing one for me.
I shook my head. I still hadn’t recovered from our drinking session a few nights ago. “Nah. I’m good. I think I’ll just go to bed. You still okay if I crash?”
Jackson took a swig of his beer and nodded. “Yeah. But you know there’s three bedrooms upstairs. I’ve set one of them up for visitors. Help yourself.”
I frowned at him. Visitors? Since when did he get visitors?
“Okay. Thanks.”
I took a step towards the staircase.
The ground shook.
“Woah.” I darted for the banister, grabbing onto it as the whole house moved on its foundations.
“Earthquake,” Jackson declared, gripping the countertop.
I braced, waiting for another tremble.
Nothing happened.
“Damn.” I ran a hand through my hair and shook myself. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know but…” Jackson put his hand over his heart and grimaced as though in pain.
I inhaled sharply, finding it harder to breathe. “What’s happening? This isn’t normal.”
Something was wrong.
I met Jackson’s confused gaze. “Do you think something’s wrong? With Ruby? Or Darren?”
Jackson straightened up with a belligerent set to his jaw. “What do I care?”
“What do you care?” I repeated with a growl. “You’re not serious, are you?”
He couldn’t be.
Jackson frowned. “Billy, what you’re feeling isn’t real. It’s a spell.”
I shook my head, my wolf rising up inside of me hard and fast. Something was wrong. Very wrong. I could feel it. Ruby was in trouble.
“Ruby needs me. I’m going.”
I charged for the front door.
Jackson grabbed my arm, halting me. “Stay here. There’s no reason to chase after her.”
I could feel the command in his words. My wolf wanted to submit to my Alpha.
I wrenched my arm out of his grip. Not today.
“Get this straight, Jackson. I don’t care if she cast a spell on us. And I don’t care if what I’m feeling isn’t real. There are only three wolf shifter females in the whole pack of breeding age, so although you may get one of them, I’m not.”
Jackson winced.
“Yeah, you don’t want any of them, do you?” I demanded. “Your father and all the other Alphas have their head in the sand. Grandma is right. We either group up or breed outside the pack. Or we’re going to live our lives alone. A week ago, I was okay with that, now… I’m not. If Ruby will still have me, I’m going to beg for forgiveness and get back with her.”
Jackson frowned at me, conflict in his gaze. “You can’t do that.”
I laughed at him. He wasn’t kidding me. “Get over your ego, Jackson, and your pride, or you’re gonna end up miserable and alone. I’m going to get our mate. You coming?”
I could see the conflict, the worry and ego fighting. Then finally Jackson shook his head. “No. No way.”
I shrugged. “Fine by me.”
I had my keys in my pocket, so I jogged out the front door, ran to my place, and jumped in my old truck.
It was late, well past midnight, so if nothing was wrong and Ruby was simply asleep, I would wait in the truck until morning.
And then I would beg for forgiveness.
If something was wrong… I may need to beg for more than that.
Darren.
I glared at Ruby’s mother from my place on her sofa.
“For the last time, I am not leaving,” I repeated for what felt like the thousandth time. Sherie lifted her hand and I growled in my throat. “Don’t even think about it.”
If she dared to transport me home again, I would only return.
She looked me in the eye, then nodded and went back to reading the spell book that Ruby had been doing a spell from when she passed out.
After being unable to rouse her with any of their magic, Tiffany and Bella’s moms had gone home.
I began to pace. “Could Bella or Tiffany help, do you think? They were, after all, part of the spell from last year.”
Sherie bit her lip. “If I can’t find a way out of this by morning, then I’ll contact them. But I don’t want to endanger them if I don’t have to.”
“I still don’t understand why this was dangerous,” I said. I knew a little about magic, but this was out of my sphere of knowledge.
Sherie sighed and looked up at me. “Because Ruby didn’t have the magical ability to form such a powerful spell on her own in the beginning. I’m amazed they managed it at their age. But to take it back, to take that in on herself… that would take more power than the original spell—and she didn’t have it.”
Tears welled in her eyes.
I swallowed hard. This was bad.
“So, does that mean that she won’t come out of this?” I gestured to where Ruby lay comatose of the sofa.
Had the spell seriously taken her strength? Like, all her strength?
A tear slipped down Sherie’s cheek and my heart broke.
“It’s possible,” she said, a quiver to her voice. “Definitely possible.”
I couldn’t stand it. “No. That can’t happen.”
She sobbed, no longer holding back her emotions. She closed the book on her lap as she leaned forward, consumed by tears.
“Yes. It can.” She placed a hand over her mouth.
I shook my head, frustration and impotence making my muscles shake.
“No. No. We need to do something.”
All I could think of was to take her back to the church yard. To where her magic had imploded on here and ask whoever was out there responsible for this, to give her back to us.
“You can’t do anything,” she whispered, drying her eyes.
I stared at Sherie, then at my mate. “Yes, I can.”
I walked over to the couch and scooped up Ruby. “Let’s take her back to the church. I’m sure the power there will help her.”
Sherie jumped to her feet. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“I don’t care.”
I carried my witch to the front door and nodded towards it. “Open it up. Please.”
Sherie hesitated, then opened the door. As I stepped out, she ducked around me and hurried down the driveway for her own car. She opened up the back for me to put Ruby in.
Another truck pulled up outside Ruby’s house. One I recognized.
Billy jumped out of the cabin and when I glanced to the other side of the truck, there was no-one.
“Where’s Jackson?” I called out as I slid Ruby into the car.
Billy jogged over to me. “He’s not coming.” He frowned at me and looked over my shoulder at our comatose mate. “What happened?”
“Get in and I’ll explain.” I jumped in the back with Ruby.
Sherie and Billy got in the front, her mother behind the wheel.
We took off to the churchyard and Billy glanced over his shoulder, a look of worry in his face. “What happened?”
I stroked Ruby’s hair where her head lay in my lap. “She reversed the spell they cast last year.”
Billy’s mouth dropped open. “But… why?”
I glared at him. “What do you mean, why! You know why! To prove to us, and to herself, that we want her because she really is our mate—not because she put a spell on us.”
From the look of shock on Billy’s face, I was pretty sure he still felt the same way I did: totally and utterly mated to her.
“How’d you kn
ow to come here?” I asked.
Billy grimaced. “Something happened. When I was at Jackson’s. The whole house shook, like an earthquake, or something. Practically knocked us both over.”
Sherie said, “That was Ruby, or moreover, the effect of her spell. You should be completely cured of it now, if it was the reason you wanted her.”
I glanced at Billy and he looked back.
“Well?” I asked him. “Feeling cured?”
Billy turned back around and faced the road. “What do we need to do to wake her up?”
Sherie turned the car onto the road that would take us to the church and shrugged. “Ask Darren. This isn’t my idea. I have no idea what we’re going to do when we get there.”
Billy waited and I didn’t answer, just clung to my mate. I didn’t know what we were going to do when we arrived, but I knew we had to do something.
Before the sun came up again and this Halloween night was officially over once more.
Jackson
After Billy left, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t even finish my beer.
I paced my large, empty house feeling sick to my stomach, my father’s words whirling around in my head.
He’d said that it had to be magic to cause the three of us to want Ruby. That it couldn’t be real.
But damn, it felt real.
I missed her so much my heart hurt. My ribs felt like they were crushing my lungs.
I shook my arms and growled out my frustration. Maybe I should go for another run? That usually sorted me out. But two in one night? That would be a first.
I began to strip, feeling the unstoppable urge to go.
I dropped to the ground and let my wolf take over, the massive body ripping through mine. Fur sprouted through my skin, and my eyesight turned to night vision.
I growled, loudly, feeling the prickle of premonition on the back of my neck.
I had to go. Now.
I ran for the back door, bursting through it, and headed for the woods. I went straight for town.
When I reached the edge of town, I sniffed the air.
Wrong way. Keep going.
I turned towards the woods once again, towards the church, the hallowed grounds of the coven.
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