by Tasha Black
“We’re not kidding, Cori,” Esme said. “We would never kid about the ghosts.”
“It wasn’t a ghost,” I said, taking a sip of coffee and grimacing at the bitterness. Whatever magic they were using to keep the bread fresh, it must have been all used up by the time they got around to the coffee.
“What exactly did you see?” Kendall asked.
“There are claw marks on the door,” I told her. “Other than that, I didn’t actually see anything. But I heard roars. And when I got up there, something flung itself against the door. Something big.”
“That’s the ghost alright,” Esme said, nodding wisely to herself.
“Sounds like the man,” Dozie said. “He flings himself against the door to get to his lost love.”
“The lost love is the other ghost?” I asked, unable to help myself. The business of flinging himself against the door to get to his love actually seemed accurate. The noises had been filled with just that kind of anguish.
“She was a student, and now she wanders the staircases of the school, looking for him,” Esme said, her eyes wide. “But because the tower is off limits to students, she never finds him.”
My face must have given away the fact that I was considering this scenario. After all, I was surrounded by witches, and my best friend’s boyfriend was practically a werewolf. Was believing in ghosts really that much of a stretch?
“Ha,” Kendall barked. “She believed it. You really had her going there, Esme.”
“Jesus, Kendall,” Dozie said moodily. “You weren’t supposed to give it away like that. We could have played with her all year.”
Esme giggled and wiped her mouth daintily. “You really are very gullible, Cori,” she said.
“That was fun,” I said sarcastically. “Well, I’ve got to get moving. Glad you could entertain yourselves at my expense.”
“Get over yourself, Cori,” Dozie said. “It was just a joke.”
I turned to Kendall, but she didn’t meet my eye.
Her shame didn’t matter though, if it didn’t change her behavior. It was clear that being one of the legacies was more important to her than being a friend to me.
I dumped my uneaten breakfast into the trash and headed to the auditorium for morning meeting.
I was surprised to find Headmistress Hart was there already, pacing the floor. Most mornings she swept in after everyone was seated and shouted out a few words of admonishment or encouragement before leaving the school secretary, Miss Twillbottom to very slowly read off the day’s announcements.
More students were filing in now. Anya headed my way, and we sat together in the front row.
“Why is she so freaked out?” Anya whispered without even saying hello.
“No idea,” I said. “But I’m guessing it’s not good.”
By now the auditorium was full. Thankfully, Anya had put her books in the seat next to hers to reserve it, so there was still a seat when Bella dashed in just as the lights were dimming. She spotted us right away and moved to join us.
“Women of Primrose Academy,” Headmistress Hart said in her loud, clear voice. “As you may have noticed, there have been some changes in our agreement with the guardians.”
I could feel all the eyes on Bella. But she sat tall and proud, unembarrassed to be bonded to a guardian and back at school. I smiled, trying to memorize her happy confidence so I could learn to emulate it.
“From now on,” Headmistress Hart continued, “any witch chosen for the honor of the mating may choose to continue attending school if that is her desire.”
A murmur went through the gathered witches. And although this should have been fantastic news to all of us, there was still a salacious quality to those whispers.
“Furthermore,” the headmistress continued, “there have been some other changes. Because of the recent break-in, there will be a guardian on duty in the tower every night, until we get to the bottom of who broke into the library and why.”
She went on, but the world seemed to fade away around me as I took in this news.
There was a guardian in the tower.
I pictured the man with the golden eyes and the huge muscular frame.
Was he the one who had called on my in my dreams, pulled me up to the top of the tower in the night and tried to break down the door between us?
I knew that he was here to guard the library, but was he also here… for me?
Thanks for reading this sample of Bear Charm!
Are you dying to find out what happens when Cori suddenly finds out that the mysterious shifter she can’t stop dreaming about is a whole lot closer that she thinks? Do you want to see what happens when Cori and Reed have to team up to stop the Order of the Broken Blade from gathering the rare components for their spell to bring back the Raven King? Do you want to know if Cori can keep her desire in check long enough to master her powerful magic for the sake of the ones she loves?
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Bear Charm
https://www.tashablack.com/shiftersbewitched.html
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About the Author
Tasha Black lives in a big old Victorian in a tiny college town. She loves reading anything she can get her hands on, writing paranormal romance, and sipping pumpkin spice lattes.
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