by Eva Chase
“I suppose I could be,” Celestine said, “but I’m not. If you’ve read the contract, you know it refers to the Hallowell ‘elders,’ not just to me. It was drawn up right in his home office, you know. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize that linen paper he’s so fond of.”
I wasn’t going to pull the contract out to check it now. “That doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “You could have taken a piece of paper from his office easily enough.”
“But why would I write in a clause that gives him any authority over the matter if I was trying to do this behind his back?”
I didn’t know. I just hadn’t had enough time to think it through. I wavered on my feet, uncertainty twisting through my magic—and my stepmother lunged.
The bindings holding her wrists and ankles had faded with my confidence. She wrenched free with a sizzle. Slamming into me, she tackled me to the ground. The barrier I’d placed against her magic crumbled too.
My tailbone jarred against the floor. I shoved away from the slam of her elbow and a smack of magic from her hand. With a sweep of my arm, I propelled her backward.
Celestine skidded on her feet and spun around. A wave of magical energy crashed through the room toward me. Books tumbled from my shelves. My bed frame rattled. On instinct alone, I waved my hands over my head and huddled in a protective ball.
Her magic shook me but bounced off my shell. The family photo of me and my parents fell from the wall. It hit the floor with a cracking of broken glass.
I scrambled up before Celestine could attack again and hurled a blanket of magic at her with all my strength. It slammed tight around her, pinning her arms to her sides and her magic back inside her chest to smolder with her spark. She froze in place.
Celestine’s gaze smoldered too as I walked up to her. My chest squeezed with my ragged breaths, and not just from the effort.
I didn’t know if she was telling the truth. But even as my heart ached at the thought that Dad might have orchestrated this scheme, I couldn’t rush ahead blindly. I’d gotten this far, protected myself this much, by waiting and watching until I understood. What if I did turn her over to him, and he only turned on me? What if I brought her all the way to the Assembly and came home to find him waiting with some other trap I wouldn’t see in time?
I could get my own sort of retribution. And I could make sure Celestine never interfered with my life again.
“These are my conditions,” I said to my stepmother, pressing every ounce of power I had into the words. Pressing those words into her, into her mind, into her will. A blunt hammering, an illegal magicking—but she was the one who’d crossed that line first.
“You will gather your things and go within the hour. You will not speak—no, you will not communicate in any way about me or my family to anyone. You will not communicate to anyone from this household or come within a hundred miles of it or anywhere else my father or I might be, unless I allow it. Do you agree?”
Her eyes narrowed, but I wasn’t giving her a choice. She nodded.
“Say it,” I demanded. “Show me that you mean it.”
I didn’t need to explain what I wanted more than that. She spoke with a thready voice that carried a hum of magic. As binding as the contract she’d signed.
“I, Celestine Hallowell, will leave this estate in the next hour. I will not convey any information about you or your family to anyone. I will not communicate with anyone from this household or come within a hundred miles of your properties or where you or your father travel without your permission. I agree.”
She grimaced. “I wouldn’t want to anyway,” she added in her usual voice. “Not when I know how angry your father is going to be when he finds out what a catastrophe this has turned into. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have made me swear the same thing and banished me just as quickly. Like father, like daughter?”
The words were sneering, but her chin wobbled, just for a second. Her eyes twitched when I studied her. And in that second I believed her a little more than I wanted to.
“You’re afraid of him,” I said. “With all your magic—”
“There are forces other than magic in this world, Rosalind,” my stepmother said. Her stance had started to deflate, her shoulders sagging. “You’ll find that out soon enough. Now will you release me? My hour is passing.”
She didn’t look like the powerful, haughty witch I’d always seen her as anymore. She looked like a sad, beaten woman.
My stomach churned. “Go on,” I said, motioning to dispel the magic holding her. “Don’t forget you’re not allowed to speak to anyone. And I want my phone back.”
Celestine bowed her head and slunk out the door. I followed her into the hall, watching to make sure she went to her room. She emerged a moment later to give me the prepaid phone she’d taken. Then she ducked back in. A suitcase thumped onto the bed. Clothes hangers clinked.
I’d put everything I had into that last, psychological binding. My spark still danced in my chest, but the roar of its earlier fire had dimmed. I’d needed to be sure that the magic I’d woven with hers to bind her to the oath would last for a long, long time.
Derek must be out by the garden, waiting. Well, he could stay there until he gave up. I expected he’d wait until well after Celestine left, but even if he saw her, she wouldn’t be able to tell him where she was going or why. Let him wonder if it came to that.
I’d thought I was going to go back to my bedroom and pretend nothing had happened that involved me. But my feet carried me in the other direction, to the office Dad kept here in the manor.
I stood outside the door for a long moment. Then I flicked my fingers by the knob to release the lock with my magic.
The office was the same as I remembered it from my childhood: the tall shelves packed with books and charts, the big mahogany desk, the looming leather armchair. The smell of polished wood and black licorice, from the candies Dad liked to chew on when he was thinking an issue through.
How many nights had I slipped in here when I was little, before Celestine, before even my boys, to curl up on his lap and beg him away from his work?
He’d always come. No matter what else he’d been doing, he’d always come when I’d asked him. He’d always been there for me. My little lamb.
My fingers dug into my pocket as I approached the desk. Dad had taken his laptop with him on his trip, but the printer sat in its usual station in the corner. I laid the contract on the desk, unfolded it flat, and tugged open the printer’s paper drawer.
The page I drew out felt exactly the same to my fingertips as the paper the contract was written on. I set it right beside. The ache inside me spread right through my ribcage.
The color was the same. The faint texturing of the fibers—Real paper shouldn’t be smooth as plastic, I’d heard him say more than once. It should look like what it is.
The paper didn’t mean anything. Celestine could have stolen it as easily as I’d taken this page right now.
But I stood there studying them for long enough that my head started to ache too. And when I left the room, I didn’t have any more answers than I’d come in with.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Rose
I woke up to bright morning sun streaming through my bedroom window. I’d slept in.
No wonder, after that late, crazy night. My whole body ached, head to toe. I rubbed my forehead as I pushed back the covers.
I’d put the books back on my shelves. The family photo Celestine’s magic had knocked from the wall lay on my bedside table. The glass had fractured with a dozen cracks, segmenting my face and my mother’s and father’s into jagged pieces. Looking at it, a deeper pain pierced through my chest. I wet my lips.
Today, Dad would be back. Today I could start to discover how true my stepmother’s words had been.
Until I was sure, I had to keep pretending everything was normal. If this scheme had started with him, at least I knew she hadn’t let on to him that I’d been causing her any
trouble. She’d wanted to maintain the illusion that she had everything under control.
I had a month. A month until my consorting with Derek was supposed to happen, as far as Dad knew. A month to uncover the entire truth.
But he wasn’t due home until the late afternoon, which mean I had the rest of the day to do what I wanted without worrying about what he’d see. The tug in my heart told me exactly where I needed to go.
Philomena sashayed over as I was pawing through the clothes in my closet. “Well,” she said. “Look at you, Rose. You conquered the witch and sent her fleeing.”
I restrained myself from reminding Phil that I was a witch myself. “And I have my guys,” I said with a smile I suspected looked a little goofy.
“Yes.” She looked down at her hands, uncharacteristically awkward. “I suppose you won’t be needing my company anymore then.”
My head jerked around. I stared at her. “What?”
“I mean, now that you have so many fine gentlemen offering their attentions… And I can’t exactly be there the way a real friend would be…”
“Phil,” I said firmly if only in my head. “You have been every bit a real friend to me. And I absolutely still need you. A girl still needs her girlfriends, no matter how many guys she’s got. Now get over here and help me figure out what I can wear that says, ‘I just got magically married’ without actually saying, ‘I just got magically married.’”
Phil laughed and leaned past me. In an instant, she’d laid her hand on the perfect dress.
I practically flew down the stairs on my way out. Not quite fast enough to avoid Derek, though.
“Rose!” he called out as I reached for the front door. My shoulders stiffened at his voice. I breathed into the glow of the spark in my chest and turned to face him with an even smile.
I was a witch now. I had more power in my body than he’d ever hold in one finger. He couldn’t hurt me. He was nothing to me.
My unknowingly former fiancé stopped and looked me up and down. The pale yellow summer dress was like a slightly fancier version of the robe I’d worn for the ceremony last night, but casual enough that it didn’t look odd for a stroll into town. “You look nice,” he said, but his expression stayed tense. “Is everything all right?”
Feeling me out. Celestine had gotten him wondering how much I might know. But from what I’d heard yesterday as I crouched in his closet, she’d kept him mostly in the dark about the details. So I just kept smiling. “As far as I know. It looks like a beautiful day, doesn’t it?”
He studied me, his mouth forming a slightly uncertain smile. “It does. Have you seen your stepmother by any chance?”
This morning? “No,” I said truthfully. “Why?”
“I just— I haven’t run into her all morning. Usually we cross paths at breakfast, at least. The staff don’t seem to know where she is either.”
He raked a nervous hand through his ash blond hair. How long had he waited out in the darkness last night before he’d realized she wasn’t coming? That he wasn’t gaining his consort and slave quite yet, if ever?
Part of me wanted to boot him out of here like I had Celestine. But her disappearance was going to raise enough questions. I could play the long game and see him brought to justice properly.
“I don’t know where she might have gone,” I said, also truthfully. “I’m sure she’s fine, wherever she is. Maybe she went to arrange something for my father’s return home.”
“Yes, of course, that would make sense.”
He wandered back down the hall without even asking me where I was going. Too much on his mind, I guessed, with his co-conspirator mysteriously vanished. Let him go soothe his worries with Polly if he wanted to.
I strode out into the warm May sunlight. The wind picked up, teasing through my hair and tickling my nose with a bouquet of floral scents. I slipped past the gate and walked as fast as my feet would carry me into town.
I’d already texted my guys to tell them I was okay and coming to meet them. No, not just my guys. My consorts. A real smile stretched across my face that even my uncertainties about my father couldn’t shake. I could spend a few hours where I was meant to be, with them all around me.
We’d agreed to meet at Jin’s gallery, since that offered the best balance between being a public and private space. I glanced through the first-floor window as I came around to the front door and saw all four of the guys had already gathered.
Damon was pointing at one of the paintings and making a skeptical face, but amusement danced in his eyes. Jin was laughing and shaking his head. Kyler jumped in between them, pointing to that painting and then another across the room, maybe to indicate some connection he saw between them. Seth stood back, watching the others with his arms folded over his chest, but even he looked relaxed and happy. My heart swelled with affection for all of them.
The closed sign was showing, but the door was unlocked. I flipped the deadbolt over as I came in. Whatever the guys had been talking about, the conversation stopped the second they saw me.
Jin leapt to lower the shade over the window. “Rose!” Ky said, striding to meet me, but his twin beat him there. Seth pulled me into his arms and kissed me soundly.
I lingered there, enjoying the combined gentleness and power of his embrace. He eased back reluctantly. I turned and opened my arms to Ky, who claimed my mouth and swung me around at the same time. I giggled as he released me.
Damon caught me from behind. I tipped my head back to meet his lips. He kissed me hard, his hand stroking down my side with a hunger that promised more to come.
Jin didn’t wait for Damon to let me go. When I looked to him with the other guy’s arm still around my waist, my artist teased his fingers over my cheek into my hair and leaned in. His sure and steady kiss combined with Damon’s determined heat behind me left my body melting.
When I’d had a proper greeting from all of my consorts, Ky stepped forward again, his gaze concerned. “Is your father already back? Everything’s taken care of with your stepmother?”
I hesitated. I didn’t want to ruin this reunion with all the complications last night’s confrontation had revealed. Not yet. We’d have to talk about it soon, but it could wait a little while.
“She’s gone,” I said. “She won’t be coming back.”
He beamed and kissed me again, so thoroughly I went weak in the knees. As Ky pulled back, Damon cleared his throat. “I say we take this upstairs.”
“Mmm,” Jin said agreeably. “I think our consort deserves a bed when we can give her one.”
A flush spread over my skin. Oh, yes, I was going to enjoy the next few hours very much. “Lead the way,” I said.
We were just heading to the stairs at the back when a faint sound from outside tugged at my awareness. The distant rumble of an engine. I paused and felt the tug again. Just a slight nudge in the middle of my chest. My spark jittered with it.
“What?” Seth said, following my gaze with a frown. “Do you think you were followed?”
“It’s not that.” But I didn’t know what it was. Only that I needed to find out.
My body moved of its own accord. I hurried to the door and opened it. The sunlight spilled over me just as a motorcycle came to a stop by the sidewalk outside. My heart skipped a beat before the figure who stepped off it even reached for his helmet. Some part of me, deep down, already knew.
“What—” Ky said behind me.
The guy pulled off his helmet and slung it under his well-muscled arm. His dark red hair gleamed in the sun, falling in a loose wave to just past his ears. His bright blue eyes caught mine. He smiled, slow and easy like he always used to, and plucked a folded scrap of paper from the pocket of his motorcycle vest.
The page I’d torn from my favorite book, years and years ago.
“Hey, Sprout,” Gabriel said. “Something told me I’d find you here.”
* * *
How will Rose and her new consorts adapt to Gabriel’s arrival? Will they free he
r from the plot to enslave her magic once and for all? Find out in Consort of Thorns, the second book in the Witch’s Consorts series. Click here to get it now!
Want a glimpse into the history between Rose and her guys? You can grab, Rose’s Boys, the Witch’s Consorts prequel story FREE here!
Next in the Witch’s Consorts series
Consort of Thorns (The Witch’s Consorts #2)
No more quiet, obedient Rose Hallowell. Every witch knows the rules—and I've broken them all to save myself and win my happiness.
I thought my troubles would be over once I had my magic and my men by my side. Apparently I was a little too optimistic. My stepmother left me with a seed of doubt I can't shake. I may have more enemies in my home than I ever imagined.
My guys say they'll do anything for me, but they couldn't have been prepared for the twisted secrets of the witching world. Or for an old friend to unexpectedly show up in town, with who knows what complications for our newfound connection.
The thorns are closing in around us. Will my unpracticed magic and my consorts' love be enough to guide us through?
Get it now!
Dragon’s Guard excerpt
Did you know I have another reverse harem paranormal romance series, full of shifters and steam and mystery? Here’s a sneak peek inside the first book, Dragon’s Guard.
The last dragon shifter meets her four hot alpha mates—and life is about to get dangerous.
DRAGON’S GUARD
1
Ren
“Are you waiting for someone, honey?” the bartender asked.
It was a reasonable question, considering that I’d been perched on one of the leather-cushioned seats at the bar for ten minutes without ordering anything. If the place had been any busier, he’d probably have pushed me a lot sooner. But there was only one other patron down the counter from me, a grizzled dude who was glued to his beer and the burble of the football game, and a handful of people scattered around the wooden tables in the rest of the room.