A Match Made in Spell (Fate Weaver Book 1)

by ReGina Welling

  I forced my gaze back to the casting circle where Evian, Terra, and Soleil stood in a group facing Vaeta, hurling insults back and forth and beginning to whip up a storm that was sure to tear the roof from the rafters if I didn't get involved.

  "Stop," I whispered, and the room turned completely silent. Terra rushed to my side and Flix stepped away, patting my arm to let me know he wouldn't venture far.

  "Are you all right?" She asked, attempting to wrap her arms around me lovingly. I pulled away, and even though the hurt that crossed her face felt as real to me as it did to her, I couldn't bring myself to be touched by any of them until I got some answers.

  "I want to know everything. Now." I looked past Terra and fixed my gaze on Vaeta. "Is this why you called me fate weaver before? You knew, didn't you." My gaze now shifted, piercing the others each in turn. "Did all of you know?"

  The four of them all started yelling at each other at once, and I realized why the energy in the room was so volatile. They had been having this fight since we left Serena's. It seemed like a million years ago now.

  "Silence. That's enough." Vaeta stepped forward and spoke at a volume that could have shattered glass. "Don't take it out on them. They had no idea. But I knew exactly who you were from the moment I laid eyes on you."

  "How could you?" Soleil stepped from the fray toward Vaeta with a look of malice more fierce than any I had ever seen her display. "Six months. You've been back for six months, lecturing us on the many MANY reasons we should have come looking for you. I fought for you; I went nearly to hell and back to bring you home, and the very first thing you do is lie to all of us? I understand why you might not have wanted to tell Lexi about this, but keeping a secret so big from your own sisters...you know what Lexi means to us. What explanation do you have?"

  Evian practically spit, "None. She never has an explanation. Airy faerie, just running around not caring how many truths she has to twist to get what she wants. Always leaving us to clean up after her. This is her M.O. I told you both she'd ruin everything if she stuck around."

  "Your sisterly love is touching, Evian. So sorry it was such an inconvenience to your perfect little lives to come rescue me! Did it ever occur to you that maybe the world doesn't revolve around you? Of course not, this planet is 70% water, so you get 70% of the attention--it's always been like that!"

  Terra, who had allowed the fight to go on around her long enough suddenly stood to her full height, stretched out her arms, and shook the earth beneath the house until everyone was silent.

  "Vaeta, answer the question." Terra crossed her arms and waited while Vaeta muttered under her breath and finally, with a toss of her head and a roll of her eyes, agreed to explain her motives.

  "I know none of you ever agreed with my lifestyle or the company I chose to keep, but I've come across many types of beings over the years. Some good, some bad, some downright evil. There are plenty of halflings out there, as you probably realize." She turned to face Flix as she continued. "I don't like that term; never have. It's offensive and closed-minded."

  Flix nodded, and I could tell he appreciated the sentiment, but wouldn't be letting Vaeta off quite that easily.

  "When I first came here, I thought you all knew about Lexi. I didn't understand your relationship, or why you were still here when she clearly didn't need you anymore. And then I realized it wasn't just Lexi who didn't know her own heritage; you were all in the dark and seemed content to keep it that way. So I didn't say anything." Vaeta sighed. "I didn't want to do anything that would disrupt your lives. You were already so angry with me."

  Vaeta looked down at the floor, her toe tracing an invisible shape on the weathered wood planks. "I thought I would hate Lexi. I thought she was a replacement for me, but it turns out I understand why you love her so much." Vaeta turned to me. "Lexi, my sisters and I can hash this out on our own. It's more about us than you, anyway. I want you to know that I didn't mean any ill will toward you. I wanted to tell you, but I just...couldn't."

  Vaeta's words, save for the way she said "couldn't" at the end, rang true. I didn't have time to parse the meaning, and I realized I didn't care. Vaeta had no way of knowing what kind of minefield she had walked into, and as long as my family hadn't deceived me, I could process the rest at a much, much later date.

  "I can forgive you, Vaeta. But that doesn't mean I'll forget, or fully trust you. At least not yet."

  Vaeta nodded, a painful smile etching the contours of her face; for a moment, she looked older and more drawn than I had ever seen a faerie look before, and I realized I might have misjudged the toll of a long existence. A thousand years of pleasure, and a thousand years of pain. I somehow doubted there was a faerie psychiatrist out there, and vowed to be a little easier on them from now on.

  "I understand," Vaeta replied quietly and turned toward her sisters. "We can discuss this later. Right now we need to help Lexi break Jett's spell on that guitar."

  ***

  I excused myself with a lie about needing to use the bathroom, trusting the faeries to keep the peace between the three men in my life while I took a much-needed few moments for myself. Gazing into the mirror at my windblown hair and tear-stained cheeks, I searched for some resemblance to the face that was now seared permanently into my memory; perhaps the line of my jaw or even the shape of my earlobes would provide physical proof of my lineage. Nope, I still looked, for all the world, exactly like my grandmother.

  Suddenly I was overwhelmed with the desire to cleanse myself and decided the others would just have to wait a few more minutes. I turned the tap to the hottest setting, got undressed save for the bloodstone pendant hanging heavily around my neck, and willed the water to wash away all of my fear and pain. When I finally pulled the lever and returned to the sanctum, my head was clearer than it had been in weeks.

  Salem, having returned to his human form in favor of the opposable thumb, was flipping through a stack of dusty volumes belonging to the shelves above the dais. Where he had plucked them from exactly, I couldn't be sure; no spaces in the stacks stuck out like missing teeth, and I vowed to clean and organize the space as soon as possible.

  "Lexi, it says here that Cupid is the god of both true love and passion, and that he works by manipulating and enhancing the connection between two people in order to bring soul mates together." Salem read from one of the books.

  Vaeta snorted. "What's that you've got, a Valentine's Day card? Cupid does more than just bring soul mates together; he is the ultimate Fate Weaver." A glance at everyone's confused faces prompted an eye roll before she continued. "So while you have no problem whatsoever accepting that some people are destined to be together, it never occurred to you that there might be other couples out there who shouldn't be together? That sometimes, love is volatile and that certain matches might affect the fate of the world itself?"

  Everyone started talking at once, and I began to pace, finally shouting for quiet while I processed Vaeta's revelation. So that was how Jett and I could be cut from the same cloth, but use our gifts in entirely different ways. It was becoming abundantly clear to me that what little power had been at my disposal thus far was only distantly related to my witch genes; it was Cupid's influence I had been tapping into all along.

  I began to rant as I paced, working out the problem while the others let me stew. "This wizard--the one who cast the original spell--just meant to amplify Skip Stark's talent by adding the power of attraction to the guitar. The fact that Stark was able to move on to a place of light tells me it wasn't malevolent in nature. Jett took that energy and twisted it into a love spell--or rather, a lust spell; his intention to screw with the hands of fate turned the magic dark."

  "Just like his heart." Kin spat, his voice touched with bitterness. "I can feel it seeping into me. Lexi, I'm scared. We don't have much time."

  "Just like his heart. Just like his heart. That's it! Jett has only known sadness, anger, and hatred, so that's what he uses to fuel his power. Misery loves company. But I've ha
d you all in my life; I've known happiness and love, and fostering love has always been my objective. So if I can figure out how to infuse the guitar with my own magic, it should negate Jett's curse and cancel out the spell entirely!"

  I grabbed the guitar and shooed everyone else away from the casting circle. "I saw what he did; I think I understand it, but I need a little boost." Jett might have years of knowledge on his side, but he was still less than I--I was as much a blood witch as I was a demi-god, and if there was any way I could use that to my advantage, it was worth a shot.

  Sliding a finger up the spine of the Grimoire, I watched as the pages flipped, noting that more spells had appeared on the once-blank sheets. I caught the name of one in particular, and shoved a finger in between two pages to get a better look: To Awaken the Initiate was scrawled across the top. This must have been the original version of the spell I had been toting around for years; my eyes flicked through the list of familiar ingredients, but before I could begin to read the instructions the pages flipped and fell open to what I had been searching for to begin with.

  "Here, this one says it will amplify the intention bound to any spell." The ritual called for several ingredients, and again everyone pitched in to bring me what I needed. With a light breath of air, each of the five candles blazed with white light, symbolizing the pure, benevolent intention in my heart. Without missing a beat, I laid my hands against the body of Kin's guitar and thought about every pair of soul mates I had ever brought together. Symbols, the same ones I had been seeing around people since the bakery, blazed against eyelids I didn't remember closing. Heat followed the path they traced down my arms, through my fingers, and into the polished wood.

  I felt a surge of power and heard a chorus of gasps that caused me to open my eyes, and a quick glance down at my hands offered ample explanation. The symbols had merged into a golden glow that made my skin shine brightly with the same light I had seen in Jett's shared memory. This was it; my father's essence--the very thing I had been looking for in the mirror less than an hour ago. The experience lasted a few seconds, and then everything--the candles, my skin, the ringing in my ears--returned to normal.

  "Kin, you need to play it now. We need to know if it worked." I held my breath as he entered the circle, slung the strap over his back, and began to pluck away. The room filled with the notes of the song Kin wrote for me, but I couldn't enjoy the music. Moons of dark fire floated into the air.

  As my eyes widened, so did Kin's. "Lexi, I can't stop playing. Help!" His fingers began to move faster, his eyes tearing up as each string sharpened into a tiny blade, cutting into his flesh and drawing blood that spattered onto the floor. His gasps of pain were like needles piercing my heart and, without thinking, I sprang to my feet and rushed forward, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him with all of the abandon of a woman in love.

  The second our lips touched, my body began to hum, and the same pure light from before enveloped us both. In a rush, the black moon symbols streamed out of the guitar along with the last of Jett's twisted magic, and the white light of my benevolent intention coursed into the void left behind. Kin finally stopped playing, and when he raised his arms to embrace me, his hands were clean and the cuts had faded to white lines.

  "Wow, what happened?" Kin sighed with relief and tossed the guitar aside to pull me closer to him. I fit against the contours of his body as if intention had shaped me that way. His or mine made no matter to me. I felt the beat of his heart against my still glowing hand--strong and steady, just like Kin. When I dared raise my eyes to his face, there were tears. Not from the momentary pain of his brush with darkness, but from knowing how close he had come to losing me.

  If I had had any doubts before, they were gone now along with the last of those pesky symbols--washed away in the dark fire of banished magic. Jett had told the truth, I was a Child of Cupid with the inheritance of love coursing through my veins.

  "Lexi." Kin breathed my name. "What happened?" His hands lifted to cup my face and he leaned close. "Tell me."

  "True love's kiss."

  "You mean like the happily ever after, fairytale kind?" Kin seemed entirely too pleased with the notion.

  "Don't get too excited. The kiss always happens there, but it's not the end of the story; it's just the beginning."

  And then I burst his bubble. "And I'm still mad at you."

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  For the love of designer shoes, can't I just have one day to sleep in? I thought to myself as I woke once again to the sound of my personal phone ringing.

  "Hello?" I tried to keep my voice even and mildly pleasant, even though I had wanted to answer with as rude a "what?" as I could possibly manage.

  "Lexi? It's Lemon. You won't believe what I've gone through over the last 12 hours!" Wanna bet?

  "I woke up in the middle of the night and it was like I had been trapped in a nightmare. I don't know what got into me, but I can't live without Harry. The wedding is back on!"

  "That's wonderful, Lemon." What did this have to do with me?

  "Well, it would be, if I hadn't canceled the venue. Or the caterer. Or the cake." I had a feeling there was more. "You know absolutely everybody. You're my only hope!" Lemon cried.

  Part of me wanted to tell her to go take a flying leap. I was just about done dealing with the soon-to-be Tarts, and would really love to wash my hands of the whole situation, but something--probably the fate weaver in me--compelled me to help. If Harry hadn't been a client of mine, I might never have found out about Kin's guitar, and his soul might not be safe and sound at the moment, so in a way I owed Lemon more than she knew. Besides, it would take the faeries and me one-tenth of the time it would take Lemon and Harry to put an entire wedding together.

  "Text me a list of what hasn't been canceled; you're in charge of those elements. I'll take care of the rest, but it's going to cost you."

  "I'll pay anything, just name your price."

  "Let me out of giving the toast."

  "Done."

  It turned out all Lemon had retained was the photographer, the dresses and tuxedos, and the favors and decorations she hadn't had time to shred. I asked her to bring the lot over to the office, asked Flix to meet her there, and then demanded he pop over to my place for a much-needed pow-wow.

  In the meantime, I made a few calls, got dressed, and grabbed a cup of coffee before rallying the troops. By the time we all settled around the kitchen island, I was fresh as a daisy and my head was clear of the stuffing that had been all but coming out of my ears. All four faeries, Flix, Salem, and even Kin were present, and I knew all manner of creatures could be called upon at a moment's notice just as soon as our plan was in place.

  I'm not going to pretend I had processed a fraction of what had transpired the evening before, but somehow the revelation that I was part god--a Daughter of Cupid, no less--filled a hole I hadn't even known had been present. I felt like the Grinch; like my heart had grown two sizes and if I tried to stuff anything else inside I'd blow that little measuring device to smithereens. My entire life had been full of unanswered questions. Adding another to the list wasn't exactly devastating, even if the implications were life-changing. Maybe dealing with strange and unusual things was part of my gift, but something also whispered that I'd barely scratched the surface and there were plenty more land mines ahead of me.

  "Okay, everyone, here's the deal. We have T-minus 48 hours to whip up a fabulous wedding for Harry and Lemon. Stop snickering, Salem, or I'll turn you into a cater waiter, force you to serve tuna tartare, and hex you so you can't eat any." Salem blanched and shut his trap.

  "Obviously, Flix, you're on hair, makeup, and tending to the bridal parties. Does that work?" Flix stood at attention and aimed a sarcastic salute and a "yes, ma'am" in my direction before disappearing in a flash.

  I turned to the faeries. "I've already reached out to several of the event directors across the city, and nobody has an opening. It's the first weekend of the warm season, and ev
en I don't have enough clout to bump another event at the last minute like this. That means we have no venue, so I'm counting on the four of you to get creative. The guest list has been whittled down to only about 150, and the weather is supposed to be sublime. That should give you plenty of options. You'll be handling the decor, too. Simple but elegant." It was a warning, not a suggestion.

  Evian and Vaeta exchanged a glance that I interpreted as hurt over my lack of trust. Too bad, I've seen their handiwork in the past. Over the top is their baseline.

  "Leave it to me," Terra assured, "We'll give your friends a wedding to remember."

  And that was exactly what I was afraid of.

  "Kin, I need you to call that DJ friend of yours and make him an offer he can't refuse. Whatever it takes."

  "Is that it?" He asked, his expression hopeful. I knew he was itching to discuss our relationship, and even though I knew it wasn't fair to be mad that a regular guy had needed more than two seconds to process the idea that his girlfriend was a witch, and even though we had shared true love's kiss, I wasn't ready to make up just yet.

  "Can you make sure he plays "Can't Help Falling In Love?" I asked. "It's their song."

  "Why don't you let me play it for them; I'll brush up on my Elvis Presley impersonation."

  "I'm sure you would do a bang up job, but I doubt Harry would appreciate the gesture." I tossed him a small smile and sent him on his way looking slightly more hopeful than he had when he entered.