Wayward Magic (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 2)

by Melinda Kucsera

  Braxton tensed behind me and pointed with his other hand. “Look.”

  My eyes moved to the direction he pointed to find Willow rushing across the lawn, a confident look on her face as she made her way to join Nick’s side.

  “What in the ever-loving shades of h—” I started, but my mother’s hiss cut me off, making me look at the darkening skies.

  Well, dang. Not good. She got to me.

  The looks on both Nick’s and Willow’s face reminded me of contented cats licking warm milk. They had definitely both wanted this, wanted me to show how little control I had over my powers. Not going to happen.

  “They hold no power over us, Sky,” Braxton said, tightening his grip on my hand.

  I turned my head, letting my eyes land on his. The love and devotion shining from his made me realize as long as he stood with me, I’d never lose control. Because of him, the coven elders also wouldn’t slaughter me that night. I didn’t think I could ever love someone as much as I did him.

  Nick actually growled, but somehow he kept a smile plastered on his face as he tugged Willow closer. She snuggled into his side.

  “You stay out of this, new guy,” he grumbled, and hate rattled his words.

  “New guy, eh? That would make you yesterday’s news, wouldn’t it?” Braxton replied, his tone conversational. The group around me chuckled.

  “Whatever! I was here first. You’re nothing but a substitute,” Nick spouted, the bitterness in his voice strong. Even though he held Willow at his side, his stance was stiff, his arms around her rigid. It looked forced and uncomfortable, although she didn’t seem to mind. I guessed she was enjoying the show too much.

  “Oh, please. At least I’m not a two-timing scoundrel like you are. What do I care about anything you have to say right now, Nick? You need to take your little jezebel there and trot your unwanted behind out of here before I allow these guys to joyfully kick you both out.” I gave him a pointed look, not backing down or letting him bother me anymore.

  At being called out, their features twisted in anger. Standing straighter, Willow jerked away from Nick. It definitely hadn’t gone as she’d planned, and I couldn’t care less.

  “Leave now bro. I don’t want to have to do this.” Jordan sounded almost crestfallen at the idea of having to throw down with his own brother again.

  Nick turned to look at his twin. “My own flesh and blood turning against me.” He scoffed.

  “I’m not turning against anything. You’re the one who started this. You never should have come here, and you definitely shouldn’t have brought Willow. That is just poor judgment and poor taste.” Jordan shook his head in disappointment.

  Nick waved his hand at him, like he didn’t care what his brother had just told him. Although the stiffness in his movements told a different story.

  “Fine, I’ll say what I came here to say and then get out of everyone’s hair.” His eyes circled the garden, making sure he had everyone’s attention before he stepped even closer to me.

  “Sky Stratan deserves to be stripped of power and bound forevermore,” he shouted, but the garden was so quiet that if a pin fell right now everyone would have heard it loud and clear.

  What in the Great Divine? He wants me to be bound and stripped of power? To not be a witch anymore? That is like castrating someone, no longer being whole anymore. Why would he even suggest something like this? Braxton held me closer, pulling me out of my thoughts and reminding me to breathe.

  “What are you talking about Nicholas Cromwell? Speak, now. You’ve disrupted this party long enough,” Becca Churchill said as she came to stand beside my parents. With her steel-grey hair up in a tight bun, she looked like she was going to a board meeting instead of a party in her knee-length, black-pinstripe skirt and white blouse.

  Willow seemed to perk up at seeing the oldest coven elder. She wanted Becca to know exactly what was going on. Becca Churchill would have the final say in what would happen with coven decisions. If Nick managed to get the coven to turn against me, it would’ve been up to Becca to enforce it all. Not that my parents couldn’t take her on because they definitely could. It was actually spoken that my father might take her seat on the coven council.

  “Sky Stratan, Ms. Churchill”—He paused for dramatic effect, looking out over the crowd of people—“is a weather witch and hiding from the coven.”

  The look of pure evil in his eyes made me gasp. Just when I thought he couldn’t break my heart any further, he did. This person in front of me was not someone I recognized anymore. He had been someone I had grown up with, loved, and even thought I would marry once. That man, though, was long gone.

  The garden was now a buzz of chatter and the word weather witch was growing in volume, along with phrases like “binding and stripping powers” and “too old to be trained as a proper weather witch.”

  “Silence!” Becca spoke the single word with such power that it was exactly what she got. When she did, she frowned as she looked back and forth between me and my parents.

  “Do you have something to tell the coven, Stratan?” She eyed my father.

  My father straightened, the look on his face stern. My mother matched him, both looking as if they were ready to throw their magic at the first person who tried to hurt me. The love they had for me gathered in my chest and I almost exploded with it.

  “Bring out the great book. Let it show and decide,” my father said with unbroken confidence.

  Becca paused, assessing, finding no fault in his request. It was one of the reasons she was here anyway. To present the book and have me drop my blood upon the pages.

  “Bind her! Strip her power now before none of us can control her!” Nick shouted.

  Becca glanced at Nick and with that one look, he shut up, a sullen look upon his face.

  “Vincent Cromwell, you need to teach your son better manners. Your oldest seems to be well-groomed like his mother, so what happened with this one?” she queried. “Because if you can’t keep him under control, then I shall do it for you and you will not like the consequences. Do I make myself understood?”

  Vincent blanched, and it kind of seemed like he was choking on something. Maybe his own pride? Either way, he knew he couldn’t compete with the coven elder so he dared not make a move against her.

  “Stop this now, Nicholas!” Vincent hissed, rushing forward and grabbing Nick’s forearm. "It's time to leave.”

  Nick ripped away from his father’s grasp. “Not until the book shows exactly what an abomination she is.”

  “Let me kill him,” Braxton seethed.

  “He’s my brother, so I’m first in line. But you can hold him,” Jordan snarled.

  “I’ll help,” Baxter quipped. “He needs to be taken down a peg or three.”

  “Bring me the book!” Becca’s voice rose above the quarrel.

  I was still struck numb by every venomous word that dropped from Nick’s mouth. I had no emotion right now, had no idea what to feel. Shock held me in its clutches, which was probably why the weather hadn’t changed. My jaw slack, I stared at both Nick and Willow, my eyes moving to her hold on him. Nick had never been cruel, not in his whole life. It just wasn’t in him. What had changed him so much in such a short amount of time?

  Then I saw the shadow of blackness flowing from Willow to Nick. It connected them somehow, but I didn’t know the “how” of it. Had she turned him into a shadow puppet? Was Nick even aware of what he was doing right now? I hoped so. I would hate to have been so wrong about someone I cared about.

  With a snap of magic, someone walked forward with the great coven book in their hands and presented it to Becca. She nodded to them as she took the book and opened it.

  “This is not how I wanted to do this, but why not? Everything else is going rather unusually. Let’s settle this and get you out of here.” She looked pointedly at Nick. “On this day of August fourth, two thousand nineteen, what does the book say?”

  My parents followed behind her, my mother brand
ishing the family dagger that would be used to prick my finger and drop my blood into the book.

  Braxton held my left hand as I nodded to my mother, holding out my right to her and holding it over the book that Becca was holding. It was a quick pinch of pain, but still I hissed while watching in fascination as a single drop of blood dripped on the blank page of the ancient tome.

  Words appeared and the magic rippled like a skipped stone in water. My name appeared, then my birthday, followed by other vital information. Finally, what kind of witch I was sprinkled the page.

  Sky Stratan of Fall River, born on the Sturgeon Moon of August 2001 on Saturday the fourth, born of Brantlee and Wynter Stratan.

  Strength and power set as a witch, all elements, governed as a Weather Witch.

  There were gasps from the crowd, evil giggling coming from Willow and Nick. But another ripple of power rose from the book. It wasn’t done yet. More words appeared.

  Let it be known that Braxton Conrad is the Balance of Power for the Weather Witch known as Sky Stratan. They are the next chosen Elemental Royals.

  “What?” Willow screeched. “No! No! This isn’t happening! This can’t be!”

  She made a grab for the book, ripping it from Becca’s hands. It exploded into flames, burning her. She screamed, dropping the book but it vanished back into the hands of my father, completely untarnished.

  “What’s going on? How can this be?” Nick hissed at Willow. “You said this would be easy. That we’d take her power.” Stunned and shocked looks from everyone were aimed at Nick as he spoke.

  “Evil. The book only goes up in flames at the touch of evil.” Becca smirked. “You have been touched by evil, Nicholas Cromwell. May the Great Divine grant you peace.”

  Nick looked panicked at that. He hadn’t thought about what might happen if he’d been wrong.

  Willow's hands were black, bent like claws. She tilted her head to look at everyone, hissing as she did. Her eyes were red.

  “Demon,” my mother rasped.

  All the elders froze, stunned and obviously shaken. Some tried to cast, but nothing seemed to be working. In fact, magic seemed to be blocked entirely. My adrenaline spiked and I gulped, sweat beading my forehead. Willow’s father appeared out of thin air in the far corner of the garden. Perhaps he had, but I couldn’t even speak to shout a warning.

  “It’s just a word,” the southern belle accent was gone now as she glanced at my mother and back to me. “You should have just lost control of your power. This could have been so much easier. Why did you have to go find your balance in the world? Of all the darn places, a weather witch here in Fall River and her balance not that far away. What are the chances?”

  She cackled cruelly, her pretty girl facade fading as if it had never existed. She ran a hand over her blonde curls, the magic dissipating to show the real her, with long, black hair falling down her back. She grew taller almost as tall as Nick himself at six foot one, which gave even more proof that she was a demon. Even Nick seemed awestruck by the transformation.

  “It was so easy to get close to you. I broke your heart and then you had to find him!” she screeched, pointing a claw in our direction. “Well then, this changes things.” She sighed dramatically, then snapped her fingers. The great coven book disappeared from my father’s hands and appeared in Nick’s. Willow smirked, grabbing Nick. “Now, if you want your book back or even this lovely boy …” She leaned closer to him, licking a line up his cheek.

  He actually shuddered in revulsion. As soon as she released the magic holding her disguise, the power over him had snapped. It seemed like he had woken from a nightmare, and the look on his face promised he would be sick any moment.

  “Sky,” he whispered to me, pleading.

  “Then you will come to me and relinquish your powers. Easy peasy.” She smiled, revealing rows of tiny, razor-sharp teeth. “You have twenty-four hours. I’m being kind since it’s your birthday.”

  A crack of thunder that hadn’t come from me split the air, a whirlwind of black smoke surrounding them.

  “Sky! Sky help me!” Nick screamed. The man I had once loved was back. Or was he?

  The black smoke enveloped them, and with a snap they vanished. So did her father. He had never said a word, but I knew he’d been responsible for holding the coven hostage and blocking any magic from being used.

  “Nick!” Jordan and I both screamed.

  I may not have loved him anymore, and I certainly had never wanted to see him again, but I wouldn’t have wished this on him. Being taken by a demon … I wouldn’t have wished that on even my worst enemy.

  There was a flurry of movement, people running and screaming to get away. Demons were not something that witches dealt with, the last time so long ago nobody had been alive to remember what had happened. It was only written in the history books. Witches thought they were protected from evil, yet two beings had been within our midst for months, and they’d just held us all captive. Made us all defenseless against them.

  “Please settle down,” a soft, melodic voice said above the chaos.

  Everything slowed down. Everyone seemed to look drowsy and content.

  The cherry tree was bursting with blooms and, amidst the swirl of petals, a feminine figure appeared.

  “Divine,” almost every mouth whispered.

  “Children, be at peace. All will be well.” A serene smile stretched over her lips.

  She stepped in front of Braxton and me; reaching out she cupped both our cheeks in either of her hands.

  “My new chosen Elemental Royals,” she breathed, her magic rolling over us. It made us both shudder and sigh at the pleasurable feeling. “I am sorry this has happened this way. But since it has and everything needs to stay in balance, you must get the book back. You shall have to find the charms of the ancient royals to be able to defeat this demon-spawn and her father. Then and only then will you retrieve the book and get the young Nicholas Cromwell back.”

  “In twenty-four hours? Can we do this? Is there enough time?" Braxton stammered.

  The Divine patted his cheek. “There will always be time. It just runs differently.”

  “What are the charms and how do we find them?” I asked through the haze of shock still gripping me.

  “The charms change for each new couple. What you seek is here in Fall River, for the last destined weather witch lived here but did not have her balance and gave up her powers. Find where she left the charms and you will right this wrong. I have faith.” She turned to Becca.

  “Great Divine.” Becca bowed her head.

  “You will see that these two are trained properly. They are the next great elemental royals.”

  “It will be done.”

  “Brantlee and Wynter, you have an amazing daughter. You have done well by her. Just as your parents, Braxton, have tried to do well by you even when you thought they weren’t. Things are changing and will only get better. But the road to get there might not be so pleasant. Are you both willing to take this journey?” She faced Braxton and me again.

  “Of course,” we answered in unison as if there couldn’t have been any other option.

  “Then you have my blessings,” she said, and with a gust of wind the petals that formed to make her spread through the air.

  “Well, this is worrisome. Some birthday. Do I still get cake?” I muttered, cuddling into Braxton as he held me close.

  Sky hasn't even blown out the candles on her cake and has already dealt with more than a teen should, from demons, the Great Divine and been given a quest. Crowned the new Elemental Royals, Sky and Braxton have twenty-four hours to regain the great book of the covens, find the charms of a former weather witch to defeat the demons, and save Sky’s ex-boyfriend Nick.

  Find out what happens to Sky and Braxton in the stunning conclusion, “Weather Witch Weapon,” part of Forgotten Magic, the next book in the Magic Underground trilogy of anthologies.

  About the Author

  International bestselling author,
A. R. Johnston is just a small-town girl from Nova Scotia, Canada, looking to share her tales with others. She is known to write mostly urban fantasy, though she goes where the muses lead her and you never know where that may be. She is a lover of coffee, good TV shows, horror flicks, and a reader of good books. She pretends to be a writer when real life doesn’t get in the way. Pesky full-time job and adulting! Sign up for her newsletter at

  arjohnstonauthor.wordpress.com.

  Don’t forget to grab your copy of the next anthology in this amazing set, Forgotten Magic, now!

  The Lair of the Red God

  Majanka Verstraete

  All mages of the Seven Kingdoms have been branded with a rune that makes it impossible for them to access their magic. Despite the mark, Saleyna Loxley, a sixteen-year-old girl from a small town, still has access to some of her powers. As an Empath, she can connect with other people and sense their emotions. Sometimes, she can even influence other people’s emotions. However, as the Red Priests are keen to destroy any magic-wielder, Saleyna must hide her magic at all costs.

  Majanka Verstraete

  Saleyna Loxley was branded with the mark of the Red Priests, like all mages in the Seven Kingdoms. These marks should make it impossible for them to access their magic, but Saleyna’s powers refuse to be bound by the mark burned into her skin. As an Empath witch, she can sense other people’s emotions and intentions, and influence them, for good or for bad.

  Now, Saleyna entered the lion’s den, the home of the Red Priests keen on destroying her kind. If Saleyna is to survive, she must hide her magic at all costs. But at night, she’s haunted by dreams about the mysterious Veritas, a stranger locked in an infernal cage, who tells her that her magic will only grow stronger and more uncontrollable. If she doesn’t learn to control her wayward magic, it will destroy her from the inside out.

  But if she learns to control it, her magic could be strong enough to stop the Red Priests once and for all, and change the Seven Kingdoms forever…