by Liz Schulte
She sighed. “Probably not. I’ll get it tomorrow.”
Cheney helped me to my feet while Sebastian helped Katrina, who looked stricken, and Sy helped Leslie, who was still inconsolable. “The Pole is back in the underworld and the priestess is dead,” I told Frost. “Thank you for your help.”
Cheney squeezed his arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go home.”
“What about my payment?” Frost said before we could transport.
I looked over my shoulder. “The book’s gone, too.”
Her face fell. “What do you mean it’s gone?”
“Jessica took it. She’s possessed or evil or…I don’t know. But she has the book and the voice of one of the spirits who spoke to me in the crypt. They’re gone.”
Frost looked down at her hands. “I was going to heal myself, take the curse away.”
I looked at her. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that wasn’t how it worked. Dark magic was strong, but not stronger than blood magic. She couldn’t change being a necromancer. She was born that way. I closed my eyes for a moment and nodded my sympathy to her. If only she had told me that days ago rather than allowing her pride to hide it. “I’m sorry,” I said.
With that, we all went home, leaving Frost and Corbin to fend for themselves.
We couldn’t find Jessica. She was gone. It took a while to figure out what she said, but our best and only guess was that she had cast a spell to do some sort of transportation and used Devin’s life to fuel it. My instinct was to go after her, but judging by the tired, run-down faces surrounding me we wouldn’t stand a chance—not to mention I wasn’t sure I could capture her without killing her, and we had lost enough people tonight.
Cheney held me and I tried to sleep, but it was no good. My mind wouldn’t rest. I slipped from the bed and out the door. I roamed the castle, but the more I thought about what happened tonight the more I felt like I was suffocating. We sacrificed my grandmother. Who does that? One of my best friends killed the other. I had betrayed in, one way or another, just about everyone who had set out to help me.
I made my way into the garden and sat on the bench with my knees under my chin.
“You didn’t uphold your end of the deal,” Corbin said behind me. “The necromancer is still alive.”
“And she’s going to stay that way,” I said.
He sat down next to me. “You’re feeling what I’m feeling, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve been making some of these decisions, like letting your grandmother sacrifice herself.”
“I wish I could blame that on you, Corbin, but I’m not.”
“You’re lying,” he said softly. “Apparently to yourself. You were half dead when the Erlking helped you back to the priestess. You were barely standing on your own, but when I touched the Pole, you healed. I was conduit. The connection does go both ways.”
Oh crap. Was he right? I replayed the moment in my head. When he took the Pole I suddenly felt stronger, more powerful. I thought of all the other moments and changes I had been feeling. I was angrier, more prone to violence. I blamed it on my exposure to the book, but maybe it had nothing to do with the book at all. Maybe it was Corbin I was channeling and mistaking for my own emotions. I looked at him and he nodded. “This sucks.”
“It’s not so bad,” he said.
“I don’t want you in my head, Corbin. I want to just be me. I want to get married to Cheney, have our baby, and live happily ever after. Do you honestly see a place for you in that plan if you don’t want to just be friends? Because I can’t and I’m not willing to give up the rest.”
“I can’t imagine you living that life, pet. You’re too strong, too free of spirit to do it. You’ll hate it and yourself for what you have become. Let me save you from that.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to be saved. This is the life I choose.”
We sat next to each other as the crickets chirped and the whippoorwills sang.
“If that’s what you want, I won’t stand in your way. If you marry the elf tomorrow and our bond breaks, I’ll accept that the only thing we will ever be is friends.”
“Deal,” I told him, but he was already gone.
Cheney came out of the darkness. “Sneaking out to meet with Corbin?” His voice was quiet and too calm.
I laid my head against my knees again. I didn’t have it in me to fight. “No. He was here, but I didn’t know he would be.”
“What happened at his house?” he asked.
“He made me mad.” When Cheney didn’t respond I continued. “He told me in exchange for his help, he wanted me to not marry you. He’s worried it will break whatever bond I have with him.”
“Did you agree?” Cheney asked moving closer.
I nodded. “Today I did, but I never intended to keep my word.” I looked up at Cheney. “Nothing will stop me from marrying you tomorrow. Certainly not Corbin.”
“Why?” he asked.
My eyes once again filled with tears. “Because since I broke the bond, a piece of me has been missing. I think that piece is you. I am not whole without you.”
Cheney sat down next to me. “Did you tell the vampire that?”
I wiped my nose on my sleeve. “No. I told him all I wanted was to marry you, raise our child together, and live happily ever after.”
Cheney kissed the side of my head. “I’m sorry Devin won’t be at our wedding tomorrow.”
A fresh burst of tears spilled from my eyes. “Me too.”
THE DRESS I CHOSE wasn’t the one laying on my bed the next morning when I got out of the shower. Leslie and Katrina’s eyes matched my own, puffy and rimmed in red, as they waited for me in their bridesmaid dresses.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Devin found it in the attic and she thought it would be the perfect dress for you. She couldn’t wait to give it to you.” Leslie dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
What was I doing? This was ridiculous. I couldn’t have a wedding like this. I shook my head. “Maybe we should cancel this.”
“No,” Leslie and Katrina said at the same time.
“This wedding meant so much to Devin. She would be mad if you didn’t go through with it,” said Leslie. “She pretty much planned everything.” She sniffled. “It’s her last gift to you.”
I wiped away my tears and unzipped the garment bag. Inside was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. While the other dress was just my style, this dress took my breath away. It was made of silk, beading, and lace that looked so old I was afraid to touch it, let alone put it on. But I pulled the perfectly preserved dress from the bag and let the girls help me into it. I stood in front of the full-length mirror and took it in. Thin shoulder straps of finely spun silver as thin and soft as thread hung from it, making capped sleeves that covered my shoulders. From the sweetheart neckline to just above my knee the bodice was a beaded masterpiece of lace and glass beads that caught the light and didn’t let it go. From the knee down the silk hung in soft folds to my feet. I slipped on a pair of heels and took one more look in the mirror before I turned back to them.
They both had watery smiles on their face. “You look so beautiful,” Katrina said, and Leslie hugged me.
After my hair and makeup were done, it was time. So many emotions fought for my attention, but I focused on only one: love. Sy met me at the door to the castle.
“Would you do me the honor of letting me escort you?” he asked.
I bit my lip, trying to hold back tears. He was so sweet to offer now that Grandma wasn’t here to do it. “I would be honored.”
He looked dapper in his tuxedo, though the bow tie was slightly crooked. I reached up and straightened it.
“You clean up pretty well,” I told him.
“You aren’t too hideous, either,” he told me and I chuckled. “Nervous?”
I shook my head. “I have never been surer of anything.”
“Then let’s do it.” He took me to the entrance of the garden on the south side of the house. Inside, orbs of li
ght floated above the entire clearing with sprigs of lavender hanging down between them. Alana was waiting there with a smile.
“That’s not one of the dresses I picked out,” she said.
“It was a gift from a friend,” I said.
“It’s perfect.” She handed me my bouquet and the music started.
Sy walked me down the aisle on a path of white rose petals past a lot of people I didn’t know, but there were a few faces I recognized: Aunt Lorelei, Lily, Beleg, Adan, Turin, and, of course, Corbin. But the only face I cared about seeing was waiting for me at the end of the aisle.
His gold eyes were soft and filled with love as he took my arm from Sy.
“That’s my mother’s dress,” he said softly. “It looks like it was made for you.”
We went through the entire ceremony, which pretty much followed the typical human wedding traditional, never breaking eye contact with one another. Then it came time for the bonding ceremony.
Cheney took both of my hands. “My life to yours and your life to mine, two hearts born apart forever bound in time.”
“My life to yours and your life to mine, never shall they part, two halves of the same kind,” I replied.
The words were simple, but the magic wasn’t fueled by them. It was fueled by us and our feelings for one another. When our lips touched the world exploded around us. Strips of light and color weaved around us and through us until we were encased in our bond. Two souls made one, whole at last.
Thank you to all of my wonderful friends, family, and readers. You guys are all the best and I cherish you.
A special thanks to Alana Devers who won the contest to choose Selene’s wedding dress. I hope you like your character. Thank you for being such a devoted reader.
Please stay tuned for the fifth and final Easy Bake Coven book this summer: Ollie, Ollie Hex ‘n Free.
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URBAN FANTASY/PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The Guardian Trilogy: Secrets
Choices
Consequences
Easy Bake Coven
Hungry, Hungry Hoodoo
Pickup Styx
Tiddly Jinx
Ollie, Ollie Hex ‘n Free (coming this summer)
The Jinn Trilogy: Ember
Inferno (coming soon)
Vestige (coming soon)
MYSTERY
Dark Corners
Dark Passing
Dark Obsession (coming soon)
The Ninth Floor
ANTHOLOGIES
Cupid Painted Blind (Femi Short Story)
Once Upon A Midnight Dreary (Stand alone mystery short story)
Eternal Summer (Ella Reynolds short story)
Naughty or Nice Christmas Anthology (Ella Reynolds Christmas short story)
Christmas Yet to Come (Baker Christmas short story)
Meet the authors of Romantic Edge Books: Eight Authors Writing Romance with an Edge
If you have enjoyed Tiddly Jinx by Liz Schulte, here are some other authors you may enjoy:
Olivia Hardin
Liz Schulte
C. G. Powell
Stephanie Nelson
Melissa Lummis
Tawdra Kandle
MANY AUTHORS CLAIM to have known their calling from a young age. Liz Schulte, however, didn't always want to be an author. In fact, she had no clue. Liz wanted to be a veterinarian, then she wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to be a criminal profiler. In a valiant effort to keep from becoming Walter Mitty, Liz put pen to paper and began writing her first novel. It was at that moment she realized this is what she was meant to do. As a scribe she could be all of those things and so much more.
When Liz isn’t writing or on social networks she is inflicting movie quotes and trivia on people, reading, traveling, and hanging out with friends and family. Liz is a Midwest girl through and through, though she would be perfectly happy never having to shovel her driveway again. She has a love for all things spooky, supernatural, and snarky. Her favorite authors range from Edgar Allen Poe to Joseph Heller to Jane Austen to Jim Butcher and everything in between.