A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “My dad knows some deer hunters. I’m sure we can figure it out. ‘Mom’s back, and they eat blood sausage in the UK, got any?’ See, problem solved.”

  Montague looked at me like he had no intention on surviving with deer blood alone.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to see him again…,” Mom said, sounding nervous, but then she tossed her hair a little, running her fingers through it, trying to pretend she could handle anything. “Well, I suppose whatever happens, I’ll find a way. And you said Adia and Richard are still in the states? I do miss them… I forgot how much I missed them.”

  Dad had no idea what was coming.

  When we pulled up the driveway to our house, it was late in the afternoon and considerably colder in this part of the state. Mom’s fingernails scratched the window glass as she started tearing up. “Fuck me,” she said. “It’s all coming back now.”

  “So the Withered Lord makes you forget?” I asked.

  “Not forget, exactly. Fade. All of this seemed so dim. I’ve wasted so, so much time. I’m going to make it up to you, Charlotte. I’m going to be a proper mother to you now. I’ll take you shopping and show you how to become a wolf, maybe…”

  “Oh, yeah, proper mother stuff like that.” I laughed a tad nervously. No doubt, Mom was gorgeous and classy and worldly and boy, did she not seem like she belonged in Appalachian Georgia. “Let me warn Dad you’re here.” He was already stepping out of the front door.

  She completely ignored me and opened her door. “Evan?”

  “Emily?” He started running.

  She flung herself into his arms and held him tight and they were both crying and then I started crying too, but Montague and Firian grabbed me and Alec and Harris piled onto them. It was major hugging time all around and then we scrambled—or limped—out of the car.

  “I—I can’t believe it,” Dad said. “You haven’t even aged a day! Holy shit, you must think I look ancient.”

  “Oh no, you’re a silver fox, my love. I’m just so happy to see your face. I have so much to apologize for—to attempt to explain…”

  “Well, I just picked up some beers, come on in! I have no idea how this happened. I’m sure it’s a story. And—you brought—everyone. Come in.”

  “I appreciate your hospitality,” said Montague, always a gentleman, shaking his hand.

  “I’m sorry it’s not much. We’re not fancy around here.” Dad noticed Harris. “I haven’t met you, have I?”

  “Hey, Dad, um…this is Harris. They’re all, like, a clan. Bond brothers or whatever you call it.”

  “Like my fathers,” Mom said.

  “Oh, a…fourth…”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But that’s it. Just these four. Which I realize is a lot of boyfriends, all here at once, but, um, yeah. They’ll stay in Firian’s cabin.”

  “And you’ll stay in your own bed.”

  “Of course she’s not going to stay in her own bed, look at them, they’re bloody gorgeous,” Mom said. “Good job, my little goblin! My own mother, well, she wasn’t always the most attentive mother but she did seem like the happiest woman I ever knew.”

  Wow. Okay then. My own mom just knocked me speechless and possibly ruined my relationship with my dad forever.

  “She’s kidding, she’s kidding,” I said.

  “Do you want to just get back in the SUV and peel out?” Firian whispered.

  “Shh. It’s—it’s fine.”

  I had a vague sense of loss, that weird unsettled feeling you get when you feel like you’ve made a mistake but you’re not exactly sure what could have been different. I guess it was just how major changes felt, and I’d get used to them. We would all find a way to live a normal life in the Fixed Plane.

  I walked into my room and dumped my bag on my bed, amidst the stuffed animals. “Hmm?” I said, noticing a note addressed to me in very florid cursive on my computer desk.

  Charlotte,

  One more test for you. One chance to redeem yourself. When you have licked your wounds, come to the Wyrd tree and speak my name…

  Queen Morgana, Seventh of the House of Coral, Her Royal Majesty the Queen of all Faeries.

  I shoved the letter in a drawer. Life was complicated enough…for now.

  Battle of the Hexes

  Chapter One

  Charlotte

  “Aw yeah! Look at me! It’s happening. I’m spaaaarkliiing.” I reached over and fist bumped Firian.

  “Chou Omega mode achieved,” he said. “Just in time for the sunrise.”

  “Should we go to bed? Now that you mention it…am I blind?” I blinked at him. My eyes were dry yet watery and I was also kinda starving.

  Firian started unbuttoning his shirt. He tapped my chin and I realized I was watching him.

  “Not blind,” he said, giving me a soft kiss.

  “Good.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me up and dropped me on the bed. My sock feet caught his knees, and I arched into him.

  “This is the life,” I murmured. “Just playing video games all night with you and Alec…no worries. No technology sickness.” After some marathon sessions, we had finally achieved the big new level up feature in Fortune’s Favor.

  He paused only a second. “I’m just glad you’re safe, Charlotte. Safe from everything…but me.” He slid a hand up my t-shirt and pulled the fabric up, baring my breasts, giving my nipples a little nip, which shot eager lightning bolts down to my core. Is that why they were called nipples? Because it felt good when someone nipped them? Whoever named them that knew what was up, I thought. They would have just been called ‘suckles’ or ‘nursers’ or something.

  Firian dragged me back out of my inane thoughts, which was a necessary skill for all my boys to have, by tugging down my pajama pants and spreading my legs so he could skillfully stroke me with his tongue.

  Girls, all y’all should date a canine shifter. They love to get their tongues in there. Oh man. Oh damn, I had missed Firian for unselfish reasons but also highly selfish ones. I dug my fingers in his hair.

  I heard little “boop” sounds from the chat box as Alec was obviously trying to talk to us. He was typing from Firian’s cabin on the other ridge. I hadn’t been sleeping very well alone, so Dad said maybe Firian needed to stay with me. Probably because he’d known Firian since he was a kid, he didn’t get as weirded out by him in my room, but Alec, Montague and Harris were another matter. They were banished to the cabin and he was very firm about it, even when Mom tried to convince him otherwise.

  Mom.

  Mom was here.

  It was going to take us all a while to get used to that.

  “Char?” Dad yelled. “You up?”

  “Uhh…yeah!” I gasped.

  “Were you up all night again?”

  “No—o!”

  Firian sucked on my clit in the middle of the word so that I squeaked guiltily. I yanked on his hair. He growled at me. I cuffed his head with my sock. We started wrestling.

  “Well, I was thinking we should go out for a special day with your mom,” Dad said, in a slightly stressed out tone. “Like maybe we could drive to Helen.”

  “Oh…okay!” I said.

  I let the wrestling match play out to its natural conclusion, because priorities. I missed Firian so much, and even if he wasn’t magical anymore, he still looked and smelled magical, and I guess a part of me craved that. I wanted things to be normal. If normal had ever really existed for me. I was starting to get over the awkwardness of having sex in my childhood bed because other options were lacking. After a quickie, I hopped in the shower and then picked out a nice sweater and boots, but I was jittery.

  “Helen is the tourist town, huh?” Firian asked. “It’s like a faux German village?”

  “That’s the one. I think he should take her there alone and be romantic. Or maybe he should just take a weekend in Atlanta.”

  “Do you want to get rid of her?”

  “Ohmigod, no!” I cried. “She’s the coolest person
I’ve ever met. Do you think this sweater is…” The sweater was older and pilling and also boring. I pulled other things out of drawers. I had a kitten sweater and a gorilla sweater from the Ugly Christmas Sweater party in 10th grade. “Why did I buy so many clothes with dumb animals on them? What am I, five?”

  “Just be yourself,” Firian said. “Adorned in gorilla sweaters, fox pajama pants, llama socks and sloth shoes.”

  “Oh god, it’s even worse than I thought when you put it that way! I dress like a hipster nursery threw up on me!”

  “Or what about this one?”

  “With the Death Star?”

  “The Death Star is classic,” Firian said. “Classic design.”

  I flopped face first on the bed.

  Three days ago, my mom had been working for a high demon. I had set her free and convinced her to come home, so I should be pleased with myself. I thought she might have trouble settling in and Dad would feel awkward around her.

  It didn’t quite work out like I expected. From the first moment, my mom seemed to dominate the house. Dad brought down boxes of her old clothes from the attic. “Evan, you saved them?” she said, tearing open the boxes with excitement.

  “I knew you’d be back someday,” he said.

  Then she kissed him—deep and tongue-forward. I averted my eyes. We all needed some ground rules to help each other neatly avoid each other’s sex lives. Still, it was sweet. I was glad to see Dad’s arms go around her, and the fact that he was obviously still as attracted to her as the day they met. Like, very attracted to her. Once he got over his initial shock, he was slipping right back into acting like he was in his twenties. I heard them speaking in low voices, laughing, calling each other ‘Lightning Bug’ and ‘Firefly’—who knew?

  Don’t get me wrong. I had my own life. I wanted Dad to be happy and taken care of more than anything in the world, and especially with my own real mom, so I wasn’t jealous.

  It’s just that Mom was sooo cool.

  I had been warned. She slipped right into her early 2000s designer clothes that looked timeless anyway, when paired with perfect makeup and slightly witchy jewelry, putting out a vibe that was somewhere between Stevie Nicks and some beautiful British actress. She had an accent, of course. I worried that she wouldn’t want to be domestic but our second morning she was up at dawn, having gathered wild berries out of the woods and made fresh scones and whipped cream to accompany them.

  I loved to bake, but my baking just wasn’t this A-level.

  I threw on the gray sweater and black pants and came downstairs. “So what is the plan?” I asked.

  “Well, I thought your, um, the boys could come too,” Dad said. “If Montague can drive. They won’t all fit in the truck.”

  I suppressed my sigh of relief. “I’m sure he will.”

  “I’ll make reservations at the grill,” he said. “It’s a little fancy.”

  “Not too fancy,” Mom said. “You look beautiful, Charlotte.”

  “Oh? Oh. Yeah. My hair is still drying and, like, these shoes are old.”

  Firian elbowed me. “You do look beautiful.”

  “Don’t you have a hair dryer, love?” Mom said.

  “Nah. That’s what the air’s for,” I said. Really, I didn’t want to throw Dad under the bus, because he was the one who always said that. He didn’t want to run up the electric bill with anything, plus he didn’t buy extra stuff. Sure, there were girls in high school who got very serious about hair, but they were in a different crowd from me and my nerd friends.

  “Evan, what have you taught my daughter?” Mom laughed. “The poor thing.”

  “I taught her how to use a drill,” he said.

  “I’m staying out of this,” I said. “I’ll go wake up the guys.” I grabbed my old barn jacket and Firian and I walked down our hill and up his hill.

  I couldn’t forget that I spent my summer in these woods, learning to tune my magic to my surroundings so I could wield spells more effectively and commune with the dead. My hand itched for my wand, which made for a perfect Gandalf-style walking stick.

  Now I was just ordinary human Charlotte again. My magic was gone to save Harris’ life. A good trade. Yeah, the only trade I could have made. And I was with my perfectly normal boyfriend.

  Firian had spent so much of his life in these woods as a fox, and now he was human too. He glanced at me. He always knew what I was thinking. Then he reached in my pocket and pulled my hand out, warming it in his own.

  “It’s not the same,” he said. “But it can still be good.”

  “Yeah.” I bit my lip. “It feels really impossible to go to a normal college now. I wonder if I should just move to a city and…we could rent an apartment together. Get ourselves together first.”

  “Sure, why not,” Firian said.

  “Do you know what you would do?” I asked.

  “I’m extremely talented and charismatic,” he said. “I can do anything.”

  “Oh, okay. Sure. That’s my plan too.”

  “I don’t really like cities,” he said, a moment later. “I like…acreage.”

  “I don’t think we can afford ‘acreage’.”

  “Don’t you have inheritance money from Samuel?”

  “Yeah! But…how? Where? Where is the wizarding bank?”

  “Not sure.”

  “Still, we should have some long term goals. Dream goals. What have you always wanted to do?”

  “To be at your side,” he said.

  “That goal is achieved, so what then?”

  “I don’t need anything else,” he said. “Maybe we could start some sort of business together.”

  “I do like that idea. I just hope you’re really happy, Firian. You can be anything you want now.”

  For a brief second, I saw that look on his face that showed me he didn’t just want to be by my side. And he couldn’t be anything he wanted. In fact, he couldn’t be the one thing he actually was, besides mine. He couldn’t be a fox, or go to Etherium and see the Ethereals dance, and he couldn’t work magic.

  So, basically his entire identity…

  “Maybe like a game themed cafe,” I said. “Something fun and nerdy. We could go to Atlanta. Maybe we could find a place near a park. They have some nice woods there.” I babbled nervously until we got to the cabin, but at least Firian kept a tender hold of my hand. He wasn’t mad at me. In fact, as usual he was going out of his way to make me feel better. But…he was unhappy. I felt some responsibility.

  When Harris opened the door, I remembered what it was all for. He gave me that slow, naughty smile of his, the one that promised he was going to hassle and tease me unrelentingly. If I hadn’t given up my magic, I would have lost that forever. We would have a world without Harris in it at all.

  “How are things up at the bachelor pad?” I asked. “You’re all awake already?”

  “My dad had us all waking up on military time,” Harris said.

  “Your dad was in the military?”

  “No.”

  “I was up playing Fortune’s Favor with you,” Alec said. “Where the hell did you go?”

  “I was making up for lost time, incubus,” Firian said. “You’re not the only one who can charm the pants off our witch.”

  “Oh yeah? Well, it didn’t take very well, did it?” Alec said, snapping my waistband. “Looks like she has pants on.”

  “It’s forty degrees outside,” I said, but I knew he was just teasing anyway.

  Montague actually was sleeping on the sofa.

  “Family day trip,” I said. “This is exciting. Dad wants us all to go to Helen to eat at the grill.”

  “What is ‘the grill’?” Harris said. “That sounds…general.”

  “I don’t actually know. It’s probably not whatever salon your family eats at, whatever.”

  “We don’t eat out. We have a chef.”

  “It’s a tourist restaurant in a tourist town and I think he wants to go there so he doesn’t have to explain to Bill at t
he diner where my mom has been for twenty years, and he definitely doesn’t want to take my super glamorous Mom to the diner, and he definitely—definitely—doesn’t want explain all y’all. So we’re escaping town and having an awkward dinner at a grill, okay? Don’t dress up too fancy and make me look bad.”

  Of course, Montague and Harris still overdressed. They always did and I guess I wouldn’t really have it any other way. Alec, meanwhile, ran hot and could get away with a short sleeved shirt in the winter, showing off his toned arms. Firian was the only one slightly put out by the situation, because he had always conjured his clothes magically and now he had to actually wear real clothes. It was slim pickings where we lived so he was wearing Wal-Mart jeans and my dad’s flannel shirt, but he looked adorable.

  I had never brought all of Team HAM plus Firian out among the general public before.

  “You guys are going to be a public health hazard,” I said. “Old ladies are going to get in car crashes, tweens are going to spontaneously hit puberty; I’m not sure this is even safe.”

  Harris tugged my ponytail. “You certainly are pleased as punch with yourself, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am, actually.” I stuck my tongue out at him. “And no snarky talk from you. You live and breathe thanks to me.”

  “You all live and breathe thanks to me.”

  “Not the same and you know it.”

  “Perhaps I’ll find three sexy girlfriends in addition to you, just to even things out.”

  “Try and find three more girls that will put up with you.”

  Down the hill, Dad started yelling for us. We piled in the car for a drive through the mountains, and the conversation always turning to our future, even though it was a touchy subject. All the guys had expected to be a part of warlock society when they grew up. They all still had their magic, however; I was the only one who had given mine up, but it was dangerous for them to get involved with the magical world now that Alec was a Sinistral demon and Harris and Montague were on the wrong side of the council.