Casted (Casted series)

by Sonya Loveday

  I held my arm out. “How come only part of the spell translated?”

  “I wondered about that, too.” Edge paused. He looked away from me before continuing. “I think it’s because of the way everything happened.”

  ”So you think that it didn’t complete because it wasn’t done out of love? That because she interfered with her own spell, it somehow backfired on her?”

  Edge winced. It still bothered him that we’d shared such an intimate moment and he was the only one that remembered anything.

  “You have to stop feeling so guilty. It happened and there’s nothing we can do about it. Especially with the way these feelings are between us. She tricked you, she tricked me, and now we have to live with it. I just wish I could remember.”

  I don’t know how many times I’d closed my eyes and forced myself to try and remember. Nothing, there was always going to be that missing memory because of her.

  “Will you tell me about it?”

  “No, I don’t want anything to change the road we’re headed down right now. I won’t push you to be with me until you are ready. And when you’re ready, all you need to do is reach out for me.”

  Edge pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. His fingers softly glided down my neck. Little sparks of electricity danced along my skin where he touched. I may never remember our first time, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make more of those kinds of memories with him. What was the real reason I was holding myself back from him?

  Edge stuck his hand out to help me up. I slipped my fingers though his and we went to join the others.

  I left Edge with the guys and went to the kitchen to see if I could help Julie with dinner. I found all the girls gathered in the kitchen chatting away. I leaned against the doorframe watching them. Jessa was standing with her back to me at the cutting board. The knife she wielded was being used to emphasize whatever witty comeback she’d just tossed out. Rainy tossed her head back with a burst of laughter, when Julie turned with a wooden spoon in her hand.

  “I’ll have you know…oh, hey there Jade,” Julie said when she saw me.

  “Why are you standing over there by the door? These vegetables aren’t going to chop themselves,” Jessa said, motioning me over with the knife.

  Rainy tossed some peeled carrots down on the counter. “You can start with these,” she said, winking at me. Her eyes danced in merriment.

  “You do realize we could cut this time in half right? I mean, you all have the power to do it,” I said.

  Julie wheeled around from her place at the stove. “And what fun would that be? In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re having a good time here.” Her serious face split with a wide grin.

  “Speak for yourself,” Jessa said.

  Rainy grabbed a dishtowel and snapped it at her. Jessa squealed when it connected with her leg. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding, no need to get rowdy.”

  The happiness surrounding us carried over to dinner. More than a few odd looks were tossed our way when we sat down to eat. By the end of the meal, even the men were joining in on the fun.

  We’d needed that little bit of normalcy to drown out all the bad things that had befallen us lately. Even Micah, who was usually very quiet, joined in on conversations and relaxed.

  Edge had chosen a seat across from me in the living room. His hooded gaze never wandered too far from me, even if he was speaking to someone else. I envied his relaxed posture especially since he had me tied in knots. He sat comfortably, with one arm resting on his stomach. His other arm was propped up on the arm of the chair, allowing his hand to hover in front of his mouth. He would catch me watching him and burn me with a smoldering look. At times his thumb would rub against his fingers in constant motion, than stop to rest his knuckles against his mouth.

  The conversations started dwindling down as it got late. Matheson excused himself and shortly after that others started heading to bed too. I was glad for the reprieve. Edge watched me get up as I excused myself as well. Of all the looks he’d tossed at me tonight the one he delivered at that moment made me stagger a little.

  He made no move to help me. He just watched as my cheeks burned and I shuddered.

  “You okay?” he asked. His voice low enough for only me to hear.

  “Yes,” I said. The breathlessness of my voice made his eyes glaze over.

  He stood and said goodnight to an empty room, so lost in watching me that neither of us had noticed we were alone.

  “I’ll be up in a minute,” he said. His hands pulled through his hair. The vein in his neck throbbed.

  I knew in that moment just how much I wanted him.

  My heart galloped in my chest as I turned and made my way up the stairs, leaving Edge in the living room.

  When I got to the top of the stairs, he was still standing at the bottom. One foot propped on the first step. His chest heaved in and out. His eyes pinched tightly like he was trying to get himself under control before he walked up the stairs.

  I called out to him. His head snapped up; his eyes searched my face like a man looking for some kind of salvation.

  I stretched my hand out, reaching for him. He tilted his head in question. I answered with a nod. He shot up the stairs and we collided with the wall. His lips devoured me as he kicked the bedroom door closed. I wrapped my arms around him as we fell to the bed.

  I woke to Edge running his fingers along my arms. He had the sexiest smile on his face. “Good morning. Did you know you snore?”

  “No, I don’t!” I shoved him on his back and laid my head on his chest.

  “Yes. You. Do. You could compete with a chainsaw,” he laughed.

  I shot up and grabbed my pillow and brought it down with a dull thud on his chest. He just kept laughing as he snatched it away and stuffed it under his head.

  “I’m kidding…I’m kidding,” he said as he continued to chuckle.

  “Remind me to laugh later,” I said, trying to sound mad. It fell short when my lips curved into a grin that mimicked his. He clasped my arm and ran his fingers over the fully translated spell.

  “We did it,” I said, turning my arm so I could read the words.

  “Yes, we did,” Edge said, wiggling his eyebrows.

  I rolled my eyes at his innuendo as I grabbed his discarded t-shirt and pulled it over my head.

  “What do you think will happen if I say this out loud?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but can you at least wait until we’re both dressed before you try? I really don’t want that crazy woman appearing while I’m…” He gestured to his sheet-draped body.

  He was right.

  “Let’s get some breakfast and then head to the beach. I’d rather be outside of the house just in case something happens,” he said, tossing the sheet aside.

  I turned away and grabbed some clothes to throw on. When I turned back Edge was watching me. He was holding his pants in one hand - they fell to the floor. I launched myself at him. We weren’t going anywhere right then.

  Julie was putting cinnamon rolls on a plate when we finally arrived in the kitchen. The scent of warm cinnamon and sugar danced in the air, making my mouth water and my stomach grumble. I grabbed two and wrapped them up as Edge poured coffee into a travel mug.

  “We’re headed down to the beach,” I told Julie as I bit off a huge piece of the fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon roll. I’d almost devoured it in three bites, so I pilfered two more before heading out.

  “Hey! Leave some for everyone else,” Julie said, swatting at my hand.

  I looked at Edge and grinned. “We better get out of here before the cook quits.”

  When we got down by the water, Edge handed me the coffee. With his hands free, he summoned a blanket and laid it out for us to sit on.

  “Couldn’t you have just put it there to begin with?” I laughed at his antics of getting the blanket just right. In a way, it was like he was dragging out the inevitable. Giving us seconds here and there to keep us from doing what we came down here to do. I didn’t
blame him.

  I handed him the cinnamon buns and the coffee and we sat in silence while we stuffed our faces.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “As I’ll ever be.” I hesitated, thinking of all the bad stuff that could happen. But if we didn’t do this, we’d never know if I could get rid of the book, get rid of her.

  I stood up and put some space between Edge and I before I let my eyes drift over the words and began to speak.

  Bound and freed by blood of me

  to which the spell is countered.

  I release thy pages

  for mortal placement of the spirit,

  of dark and light the blood of mine

  and mine’s enemies.

  Bring forth mortality of

  words spoken of the chosen one

  to set to rights of blood unbound

  I release thee.

  We waited as the gentle breeze blew softly against us. Pages fluttered in my mind lazily as if waking from a long nap. The book vibrated like a kitten purring inside my head. The woman stayed quiet.

  “Well?” Edge slid his fingers along my cheek. “Anything happening up there?” he asked.

  Images began to flash in my mind. Of when I was a child, my parents, all the things I had tried so hard to remember but couldn’t. Moment by moment passed, until the last hidden memory of the first night Edge and I were together. Those memories were the most intense because I could remember it all. It had been me. I had done all those crazy, out of control things that Edge spoke of. The woman of the book had definitely taken over using my body to lash out at the others. After that, she’d stepped back with the warning that I wouldn’t remember anything in the morning.

  My face blazed with heat at the memories.

  “I remember,” I said, snapping my eyes open to meet his.

  “Everything, I remember everything.” I staggered over to the blanket and collapsed. Edge was right there, catching my head before it smacked against the hard-packed sand. It was a good thing, too, because my brain was overwhelmed from the rush of memories. Blips of my mom braiding my hair, my dad pulling me up onto his lap to read a book, Edge’s body hovering over mine, on and on it went until it played itself out, leaving me with a headache that blinded my vision.

  Edge didn’t barrage me with questions. Instead, he picked me up and carried me back to the house and tucked me in under the covers. The bed dipped as he stretched out beside me and placed a cool washcloth over my eyes. My head was pounding. Waves of nausea battered at me as I tried to ride out the aftermath of receiving my memories.

  I remembered back to when Dagger and I had been running. He’d collapsed and grabbed my hand. The difference in him was instant, he’d called it a backlash, or something like that, of power. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was going though the same thing.

  I blindly reached for Edge and grasped his hand. I had no idea how to do this, so I just focused on the undercurrent of electricity that spiked along my skin and willed it to travel down my arm and into our connected fingers. Edge gasped and I broke the connection by snatching my hand away.

  He grabbed my hand and forced his fingers between mine again. “You’re not hurting me.” He squeezed my fingers, urging me to keep channeling the energy to him.

  “You have to get some of that out before it consumes you,” he urged.

  He was right, what little I’d managed to channel into him barely made a dent in the raging storm battering at my senses.

  I focused again. This time, the connection was instant and the energy flowed out of me quickly. So quickly, that I snatched my hand away from Edge before he was the one consumed with it all.

  I slumped against him and he tucked me close against his chest. My head still hurt, but nothing like it was before he took in what might have killed me.

  I drifted off as the book settled in snugly and started turning its pages one by one. With each page came spells. The book was opening up to me and giving me access to the power it contained. I wanted to pull myself from the heavy slumber it had me under, but the book wasn’t ready to stop showing me just what I’d be capable of.

  When the last spell was shown to me, the pages flipped back to the middle and the woman’s vaporous form shimmered before me.

  Knowing the spells that the book contained were hers, I felt a jolt of fear that she was now here before me. This woman was very powerful, and very determined.

  “You don’t need to fear me. In fact, I owe you a great deal of gratitude for what you have done.” She ruffled the pages lovingly as her form began to waver.

  “Wait! That’s it? You haven’t even given me your name. I know you didn’t go through all of this just for you to hand over your spells.” It made no sense. There had to be more to it than this.

  “Clever girl, I’ve done what I can, the rest is up to the book,” she said, pausing. I don’t know if it was for effect or if she was deciding on how much she was going to tell me.

  “Those who covet the book will not give up and you must be ready. When the time comes, I will help you destroy those who seek us.”

  “How will you be able to help me?”

  “When the time comes, and it will come soon, I will be there.” Her wispy body disappeared back into the book, leaving me with no idea what she meant. How could she just be there? It wasn’t like she was out of my head. Was she planning on taking over my body again?

  My cheek vibrated on Edge’s chest. His soft words rumbled against me, pulling me from the deep sleep I had been in.

  He was talking with Rainy, filling her in on what had happened. I cracked my eyes open and willed my body to wake up so that I could process what they were saying.

  “How long has she been out?” Rainy asked.

  “A few hours. If she doesn’t wake up on her own soon…I’m worried about all the power she has now,” Edge said. His thoughts were so scattered that he was talking about two different things at a time.

  “Maybe you should just wake her up,” Rainy told him.

  I shifted my body, putting every ounce of energy into trying to communicate that I was awake. I managed to keep my eyes open as I sought out Edge’s hand.

  “Look who’s finally decided to join us,” he said as he helped me sit up. He stacked pillows behind me and I fell back into them. My body felt so weighted down that the mere movement tired me out.

  The faucet in the bathroom turned on and I could hear Rainy rummaging around in the cabinets. “Here,” she said, holding out two little white pills in one hand and a glass of water in another.

  “I have a headache, not a hangover, Rainy.”

  “For once, could you try not to be so stubborn,” she said, placing the cool glass in my hands.

  “I’m going to go let the others know you’re awake,” Rainy said as she waited for me to take the pills. I handed her back the empty glass.

  “Hang on, before you go I want to tell you guys something,” I said.

  Rainy settled down at the foot of the bed as I began telling them about the spell book and what the woman had said about helping me when the time came. I showed Rainy my arms and watched her eyebrows disappear into her hairline.

  “So all of that appeared because you…oh man, yeah, not going there,” she said. Her cheeks turned bright red and she avoided looking me in the eyes.

  “Did you hear what I said? My brain is on information overload with all the spells in the book, and I can use them…I can use my magic.”

  “Do you think Lorenzo thought that he’d be able to do that–unbind the book and get the spells?” Rainy asked.

  “Edge, what if he didn’t just walk away from us? What if he was just giving us enough time to unbind it?”

  “It makes sense. If he couldn’t touch the book, he’d need you to do it. And if the woman of the book placed the spell on her bloodline, then it eliminated his chances of being the one to unbind it,” Edge said.

  “You know what this means right?” I asked him.

  “You’re
going to need a lot more training,” he replied.

  “If I can get a handle on my power and the spells from the book, we could take him out.” I couldn’t help the jolt of excitement coursing through my veins. To beat Lorenzo at his own game and not have to run and hide in fear anymore…it was more than I could hope for.

  “I want to learn as quickly as possible. Maybe we can fight back. The Covens’ numbers are dwindling. Every time he and his merry gang of murderers pay them a visit, people die.”

  “Jade, you can’t just go in there and start fighting back. What if you are captured or worse, killed?” Rainy said.

  “We can’t just sit here and wait for him to find us. I’ve been given the means to stop him, Rainy! I owe it to the Covens to at least try. How many years have they been attacked by the Triad because I was hiding, unaware of what my part in all of this was?”

  “Let’s just focus on getting you some training. You can’t go out and fight if you have no idea just what you’re capable of,” Edge said as he squeezed my hand in assurance. He was pacifying me at best and that was okay because I would be getting my way whether they liked it or not.

  “First things first, you need to rest. We can start training tomorrow if you’re up for it.” Edge helped me get settled and kissed me on the forehead. “I’m going to go with Rainy and fill everyone in on what’s going on,” he said, placing his finger over my lips to stop me from arguing with him.

  Stubborn man, I thought. I’d rest alright, but he had better be ready come tomorrow because I wasn’t going to be placated anymore after today.

  I woke to the soft sounds of Edge’s deep slumber and turned over to face him. His midnight hair was covering his eyes, so I gently swept it back to get a better look at him. His eyes fluttered open and blinked to focus on me.

  “I’m sorry I woke you.”

  “S’okay,” he murmured. “What time is it?”

  I darted a glance at the alarm clock and winced. “It’s still early, go back to sleep.”

  His eyes closed and a sleepy smile spread across his lips before he soundly fell back to sleep. I got out of bed in small increments so I wouldn’t wake him back up and stepped out on to the balcony. The stars were almost gone as the sun started to peek its way over the water. A cup of coffee seemed like a good idea, so I crept quietly down the stairs and stood in front of the pot while it brewed. When I made it back upstairs, Edge was slipping a t-shirt over his head.