A Witch's Fate: Witches of Lane County

by Jody A. Kessler

  “He’s,” Tori started to say, and then a long deflating breath left her lungs. “He’s doing his job. And he’s an ass. And he’s really sweet, sometimes,” she said through gritted teeth. She yanked on the gloves. No matter what he said in his office, he still helped her on the terrifying flights to and from the Ukraine. Even after their disagreement about Weston, Leif had seen her safely back to the States. Not to mention the other more sensual things he did to her during their extremely hot night together.

  Tori turned around to lay a fast hard right to his nose for being such an upstanding guy, but he was gone.

  “The bag knows who you’re angry with,” Jet called over from near the bench.

  “But I wasn’t done with Leif. He deserves at least a little more of my wrath.” Tori screwed up her face, pouting and disappointed with the bag.

  “The magic bag doesn’t think so.”

  “Well, it’s wrong,” she said and delivered the punch anyway.

  That’s when Gerard appeared. She was so focused on getting back at Leif that seeing Gerard temporarily paralyzed her.

  “You’re looking shabby these days. You should visit the beauty salon soon, babe. Better yet, I have the phone number for an excellent plastic surgeon. You’re sagging in areas and it’s not flattering.”

  Tori wanted to crawl in a hole or claw his eyes out. Standing there like a daft mannequin wasn’t a great solution either. She held up her fists in front of her chin and kicked as hard as she could.

  Gerard leaned forward and turned an evil eye on her. “Did you like my welcome home present?”

  Tori went to town until she could no longer lift a leg or throw a punch. To her satisfaction, Gerard’s image bled from a broken nose, had two black eyes, and he cried like a defeated bully. Tori all but fell to the floor, but she felt like a new person as she caught her breath.

  Aunt Jet sank down to the floor next to her and handed over a bottle of flavored water. Tori unscrewed the cap and drank. The light cherry and lime flavor tantalized her taste buds, but the vitality in the water refreshed her body and mind more than any “normal” sports drink. She swallowed more, letting the elixir work its magic on her system.

  “Feel better?” Aunt Jet asked after a few more minutes of silence.

  “Maybe,” Tori said.

  “Of course you do. Your aura is nearly back to normal already. I bet your mom has quite the dinner planned for tonight. And your cousin is having her own emotional drama today.”

  “Aspen? What’s wrong? Do I need to go talk to her?”

  “Probably, but it can wait. You won’t be able to help her if your own mind is out of sorts.”

  “There you go again with the sound advice,” Tori said sarcastically, though it was actually true.

  “What can I say, it slips out when needed,” Jet said with a wink.

  Tori finished the bottle of revitalizing elixir and took a deep breath and then another. “I was thinking about my childhood and how I never really belonged in this family.”

  “That could possibly be the stupidest thing you have ever said.”

  A huff of air burst through her nostrils, and it wasn’t from the boxing. “I’m serious,” she started again.

  Aunt Jet interrupted again. “I understand you’re being serious, but what you probably don’t know, is we all feel the same. We all feel separate in some way, and that’s just the truth of things.”

  “You don’t think you fit into this family?” Tori asked, making sure her aunt understood her correctly.

  “Now, I do. When I was young, I was positive, that my mother found me on the side of the road and brought me home like a stray dog.”

  “But I don’t have anything in common with any of you. I’m a totally different kind of witch. I mean, look at my life. Not only that, but everything. My style, my magical abilities, my interests. I’m not like any of you.”

  Aunt Jet placed her palms on Tori’s cheeks and stared into her niece’s eyes. Eyes so much like her own. “We’re more alike than you’re able to see right now. You have to trust me on this, but I swear it’s true. The differences you see at this time in your life are merely on the surface. Your blood is my blood and mine is yours. Our magic is the magic of millennia and holds us together. Our unique gifts are for celebrating and sharing. And we don’t let these things separate us in fear of our differences. Do you understand me? We are all different, and we are all the same. The balance is a secret of life.” She kissed Tori’s forehead and lowered her hands, a peaceful smile on her lips.

  “That sounded an awful lot like my mother just now.”

  “Then so be it. Universal truths never waver.”

  The edge of Tori’s lip curled, and she turned away, temporarily resigned to accept her aunt’s words of wisdom. The workout calmed her body, mind, and spirit to roughly resemble the consistency of a brainless wet noodle. She felt great. “So mote it be,” she said and picked herself up from the floor and retrieved a towel from a storage cubby.

  “I’m back to my gear box. You good?” Aunt Jet asked.

  “I’m good, thanks. Now it’s time to face the rest of the Morgan crew.”

  Jet winked and grinned. “They’ll be thrilled you’re home.” She sauntered across her office and back into the garage, whistling a tune Tori didn’t recognize.

  Chapter Fifteen

  RETURNING HOME WAS the best decision Tori had made in a long time. Her mother, aunt, and cousin worked a kind of magic on her well-being that she didn’t expect. Tori felt safe in ways she’d never needed before. Aspen’s personal distraction—one which remained elusive—provided Tori with something to do, albeit peculiar and challenging. Catching a bird in the woods and delivering it to Aspen passed the time and took her mind off her problems. With that chore completed, and Aspen refusing to give up any details about her spell casting errand, Tori had to spy on her cousin—for Aspen’s own safety of course. It had nothing to do with Tori’s insatiable thirst to find out what the big secret was. And, watching out for her cousin came as naturally as breathing. They’d taken care of each other since day one. Mere babies crawling around on the floor together. As often causing trouble when the situation called for it, as protecting each other from it. Keeping an eye on Aspen was in the “cousin” job description as far as Tori was concerned.

  As for her mother, Ivy, Aunt Jet was one-hundred percent correct. Her mom was thrilled with Tori’s unannounced arrival. Blackberry turnovers, carrot cake muffins, pots of herbal tea, and Goddess knew what else appeared from nowhere once Ivy welcomed Tori home. She even refrained from asking too many questions or applying her other means of prying into Tori’s life. The treatment Aunt Jet provided with the kickboxing workout and the revitalizing elixir had worked wonders. Over the past twenty-four hours, Tori was truly grateful for her mom, family members, old bedroom, and a house that Gerard couldn’t intrude on. She even had time to catch up with the clients waiting for a phone appointment.

  The Pacific Ocean spread before for her in a velvet black swath that met a terrific and terrifying night sky on the far horizon. Both sea and sky were a force that only a troglodyte would venture out into this night. An inky roiling mass of immeasurable size and power held her in awe. Tori retained the utmost respect for Mother Nature on a daily basis, but nights like tonight required silent reverence and keeping a respectable distance from the epicenter of her wrath. Or she would have kept her distance if not for her normally well-grounded and responsible cousin greeting the storm at the borderline of its turmoil. She promised Aspen she wouldn’t interfere in her undertakings, but she’d be damned if she sat inside and did nothing. Tori left the house shortly after Aspen packed her gear and led her horses toward the beach. It’d taken Tori some time to find a location to watch Aspen without being seen… or she hoped she wouldn’t be seen.

  Standing at the Pacific Rim Overlook afforded her a decent view of the beach by their house. The distance from Aspen and the horses wouldn’t help much, or at all, if an emergency
arose, but it was the best she could do. The magic in the atmosphere radiated power. Aspen’s spell held a formidable force field over most of the beach and part way up the dunes. Tori drove to the overlook to find any place to view the proceedings at all.

  Aspen’s bonfire started small but quickly grew in size. The ingredients Aspen had collected during the day fueled the fire and kept it lit in the mist and rain. Yellow flames changed to red and then a brilliant white. Aspen moved quickly as she added another ingredient and the fire suddenly flared with a topaz blue core. The magic in the air crackled against the electricity from the lightning overhead. Tori lowered her binoculars and stared up at the dense cloud cover. Damned if she’d be struck tonight, she thought and hunkered deeper into her coat.

  It wasn’t every day, or ever, that Aspen acted so covertly. She didn’t want to miss a minute of whatever was happening down on the beach.

  She peered once more through the binoculars and found the view of the fire easily enough, but lost sight of Aspen. With little to no natural light to work with, the binoculars were enhanced with a night vision charm. The charm worked by picking up traces of magic and illuminating the surrounding area. Tori scanned the beach and the waves crashing against the shore but didn’t see her cousin. Where did she go? Panic thoughts niggled at her. She eased forward, moving closer to the edge of the cliff and kept scanning. She refused to give into the fear. Aspen had been adamant about the need to conduct the spell tonight in private. She trusted her cousin more than anyone else in the world, that is until she caught the flash of light in the lenses and saw her cousin scrambling over the jetty. What the freaking hell is she doing! Every instinct and nerve ending in her body lit with anxiety. Her cousin was going to kill herself on those rocks. Tori homed in on Aspen and saw the meager flashlight doing almost no good. She carried the birdcage in front of her. Aspen slipped once, her foot shooting out to the side, and Tori gasped.

  She was about to spin around, dash to her car and go after Aspen, but her inner voice screamed at her to wait. The promises she made to not interfere with the spellcasting rang out on the highest volume. Then she sensed—maybe with her sixth sense—movement or a shift in the magic over the beach. She zeroed in on the feeling and found the source. Rook, Aspen’s boyfriend, moved down the dune closest to the jetty. Although she had not met him in person, she knew it was him. Aspen had shared pictures of Rook with her online. Even bundled up in rain gear and in the dark, she could tell it was him. Relief moved through her and the tightness in her chest eased. She returned to watching Aspen, transfixed by her fearlessness... or stupidity. It was hard to gauge which one currently ruled Aspen at the moment. Rook climbed out onto the jetty and words passed between them. Lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear at such a distance.

  Thunder and lightning increased with a vengeance that only the Gods understood. Tori’s magical drying powder was wearing off, and the lenses on the binoculars were now getting wet. In hindsight, it would have been wise of her to bring the magical drying powder with her, but Tori wasn’t always the best at planning ahead or being prepared. She understood it as a fault in herself, and one of the reasons she paid Willow so well.

  She excavated the dry shirt beneath her jacket and wiped the lenses. When she found Aspen and Rook on the jetty again, she gasped in horror as Rook fell into the churning ocean and Aspen went in right behind him. Tori stumbled forward, the panic attack real this time. She had to do something, but by the time she made it to the beach they would both be drowned. She mentally prayed for help and reached into her pocket for her cell phone, ready to dial emergency services. Another nudge of her sixth sense told her to keep watching. She lifted the binoculars and found Rook swimming away from the rocky breakwater with an arm wrapped around Aspen.

  Goddess Almighty! Had Tori known in advance what she was in for tonight, she would have stayed indoors with her mom, sipped tea, and eaten all the chocolate croissants and turnovers. That wasn’t actually true, she definitely wouldn’t have missed this! Rook pulled Aspen from the sea, and Tori’s lenses became obstructed with raindrops again. She lowered the binoculars and tried to steady her pounding heart by placing a hand on her chest.

  Regaining self-possession and feeling somewhat better—at least her cousin and Rook were both out of the water—she realized how dangerously close to the cliff edge she’d wandered. Tori licked rainwater from her lips and leaned away from the hazard at the tips of her shoes. Not only was she on the very edge, but lightning continued to strike in every direction. A bolt snapped like a whip from the heavens. Her body jolted in reflex and the ground shook. Crumbling earth fell away, and she lurched toward safety but hit a patch of slippery mud. She was falling and flailing toward death with the grace of a lame duck with clipped wings. Tori never imagined she’d be reunited with Delana quite this soon.

  * * * *

  “Tori!” Leif yelled, but the storm must have been conspiring against him. At the exact same moment, ear-blistering claps of thunder broke the night sky and drowned his voice.

  She stood on a precipice that looked as substantial as a chalk cliff. The safety rail and the signs stating the obvious danger past the designated viewing area obviously meant nothing to her. The Pacific roiled and churned a hundred feet below the cliff where she stood. What was she doing out here? Leif glanced up and down the coastline looking for a possible answer to his question. A flicker of blue and white light like a chemical fire gleamed about seventy-five yards to the south where the cliff dropped down to a beach. The light extinguished as he squinted to see it better. Leif peered into the rain-drenched night harder, but the storm made visibility difficult. Refocusing on Tori, he called out to her again to be rewarded with the same thunderous effect. Only this time, a lightning bolt struck so close to where he stood the hairs on his body rose with the current of electricity coursing through the air. “Christ!” he cursed.

  Tori jumped with the proximity of the strike. In the momentary flashing brilliance, Leif watched in horror as her foot slipped and he saw her go down in a flail of panicked limbs. His reaction was immediate and without conscious effort. Surging forward, he threw himself to the ground flat on his stomach reaching for any of those flying parts. A hand, an arm, ankle, or calf, it didn’t matter, he couldn’t let her tumble away over the edge. As angry as he had been with her for what she did to his office, and for lying to him, and for distracting him from his work, he could never live with himself if he let her fall.

  His hand found the fabric of her jacket and his fingers gripped with near superhuman strength. The seconds that followed were of the sort that are crystal clear and eternal and at the same time a blur of incomprehension. Fabric tore, the muscles of his arms, shoulders, and back bunched and strained to secure his hold on Tori’s wrists. Leif heaved and pulled her to relatively solid ground. They scrambled away from the crumbling cliff and regained their feet.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  Leif blinked rainwater from his eyes. Still recovering from a moment of disbelief that he’d just rescued her from plummeting over the edge, he wasn’t sure he heard her correctly. “Not me. What the hell are you doing out here?” He swiped a hand across his brow to clear the rain. Surprise and irritation crossed her face. He tried a different tactic with her. “Try saying, thank you,” he suggested.

  Tori glanced over at the spot where she’d been standing. Had been. It was now a tumbled mess of rocks, sand, dirt, and tufts of grass scattered over a hundred feet of Oregon vertical ocean front property.

  “Do you have a death wish? Suicidal Tendencies?” Tori scowled, turned, and slogged up the slope toward the parking area.

  “Me?” he asked. An incredulous sound erupted out of him. It was a cross between a snort and a grunt. “I’m not the one standing at the top of a cliff, in the middle of the night, in a thunderstorm.”

  Tori spun around and placed fists against her hips. She looked pointedly around at their surroundings. “Apparently you are.”

&n
bsp; He started to reply, but the storm raged on. Being heard over Mother Nature’s ferocity wasn’t worth his life. Apparently, Tori was of a similar mind because she started trudging toward the cars. Frenzied bursts of lightning blazed inside angry storm clouds. Snaking tendrils of light branched across the sky, random and deadly. The electric phenomenon zapped the surface of the ocean while simultaneously reaching for the shore. Leif was less than comfortable with the proximity of the lightning, or the persistent rain running down his neck. He may as well be under water, he thought. His nostrils flared for a beat, not only to get a decent breath of air through the moisture-heavy atmosphere but also because of the woman arguing with him. Did she ever concede to anyone else’s viewpoint? He knew she didn’t, or wouldn’t.

  “Obstinate, argumentative, ungrateful piece of work. You need a sign,” he said to her back. He didn’t care if she heard him or not. Leif climbed the slope behind her with the intention of returning to the city and never looking back. Coming here was a mistake, and he would fix it by going home and forgetting about Tori Morgan.

  The going wasn’t easy, and he watched his footing over the uneven, slick surface of broken rock mixed with sedge, beach knotweed, and other ground covers. He yanked the truck door open and climbed inside. Leif twisted in the seat reaching over the console to the backseat in search of anything to use as a towel. The heart attack moment should have been when Tori nearly tumbled to her death. Instead, his heart decided to leap to the top of Mount Hood when she appeared in the passenger seat next to him, holding a small green and orange fire in her open palm. Had she been there and he didn’t see her until she lit the fire? The maddening frustration coursing through him could easily cloud his vision and the dome light inside his vehicle hadn’t come on when he opened the door. She’d been inside, and he hadn’t noticed, he decided. It was unlike him to not notice, but then again, being frazzled was also unlike him. Tori brought out his undesirable personality traits, but she also woke dormant and suppressed emotions that he hadn’t been willing to unearth since Brittany. Part of him wanted to shut down what was happening inside of him, and part of him longed to come alive again. The latter part of this acknowledgment was what drove him, literally and figuratively, to find her tonight.