Page 33

This was my calling.

On the way to the park where the equinox festival would be held, a surge of hope sprang through me. The way the guys talked about it, this would be a mass convergence of people who were like me. Not everyone would be a Natural, but everyone would understand what it was like to be a witch, no matter how much power they had. That’s where Jax had gone wrong. It wasn’t about how much power you had; it was about who you surrounded yourself with that gave you the feeling of having power. It was hard to explain. And I had a feeling that even if Jax was in front of me and I tried to, he wouldn’t get it. I didn’t want to say anything to Travis, but I was pretty sure Jax was already gone. Any shred of the person he once was would’ve been eaten up by the demon. Even Liam with just the familiar on him had been a different person, and that was just a fraction of the energy an actual demon had.

But since he had hope, I would too.

I got out of the Jeep and stretched my legs. Tourists as well as Wiccans and witches—some dressed normally, some dressed as if they’d just returned from a wood fairy convention—walked toward the square. Tents were set up all the way around, and it dawned on me then that I’d heard of this festival even before we thought of coming here. I’d gotten a letter from the Salem Business Administration at the shop about buying a table here to sell some of my goods. I’d just tossed it aside, knowing that I would be too wrapped up in other things to do it.

When all this was over, it would be nice to just worry about how to grow the shop and explore my life with the guys without having to worry about a demon taking over the entire city of Salem and me being only one of a few people in the world who could do anything about it. Talk about pressure.

Jennie stuck close to Travis as we crossed the street by the Hawthorn Hotel. That was another place I hadn’t been in yet since coming here. I heard it was haunted, which gave me the chills to even think about, but people flocked there nonetheless. It could be an interesting thing to do with one of the guys over a weekend, maybe. See what spooky fun we could get into.

“Welcome to the Equinox Festival,” Jennie said, throwing her hands out wide as we hit the sidewalk that crisscrossed through the park. The whole area was lined with tents with different shops from the area. Just looking around, I saw several names I recognized. Some who just sold Salem trinkets while others were psychics and well-known witches from the area. This was the place to be if we wanted to reach people who were like us.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Walter scan the crowd. His gaze was sharp and beady. With all these thoughts in my head about the future, I shouldn’t forget what we were actually here for. There was a very real possibility that the demon and Jax would target this place. Especially if they knew we were coming here.

Over to an open grassy area to our left, someone had set up an altar. Candles flickered there with bouquets of flowers resting at their base. Liam leaned over. “Someone set up an area to mourn what’s been going on around here.”

My heart felt heavy in my chest. It was difficult to process everything going on. Even more so when you knew what the actual cause of it was. It only renewed inside me that we needed to find Jax and the demon immediately. No more innocent people should die just because people were determined to be evil.

Mr. Reid and Dean started walking toward us. Dean’s sister was in tow, already staring straight at where I knew Gabe was standing to my right. I didn’t know why, but it made me smile. Pride, maybe? I knew what I had. I was very lucky that they only had eyes for me.

“This is interesting,” Travis said, keeping his voice low.

“We did say we needed everyone’s help,” Gabe said. His cheeks were pink, and he tried to avoid the girl’s gaze.

“I’m with Travis,” Randy said. “I’m glad they’re here, just surprised.”

Liam went out to greet them as Travis reminded Walter and his coven as to who they were. Owen was with them too. Other guards also flanked them. I gave Owen a short wave. More and more people started to gather around us. Most of them, I didn’t recognize, but they must have at least known some in our party. Girls Jennie’s age came around directly to her, giving her hugs. Old friends who probably hadn’t seen her in a long time. My heart hurt for her when I thought about it. She’d left Salem after Travis accidently stripped her. She was so mad that she gave up everything here. She’d lost her boyfriend, her home, her friends, her brother. I could see why she came back. Maybe that same hope I had that she could put all this behind her. That she could once again return to Salem and at least have some closure about the events in her past.

Walter and Travis spoke amongst one another. None of us had a clear-cut idea of what we were going to do once we got here. We had our target audience in front of us, but how to get to them all without alerting the outsiders as to what was really going on. There were always tourists in Salem. Always. There was no getting around them which was good for some things, like business, but bad when you needed to talk about a demon terrifying Salem.

No one wanted to believe that bad things like this existed. They just liked the promise of the magic, not the flip side that went with it.

And the truth was, most people didn’t need to know about it. That’s why we were here: The Enforcers.

I took a deep breath and settled on Travis and Walter. My coven and his coven had converged on the same area, all waiting for what to do. “I say we put everyone who’s non-magical in a sleep spell. That way we can talk to anyone who is magical without fear of being overheard.”

Travis nodded. “Walter and I were just discussing something similar. I told him how good you were at sleep spells.”

I shrugged. “The thing is, I’ve never targeted it before.”

Walter looked me square in the face. “I don’t think you’ll have a problem doing that. Think about where your powers come from inside you.” He gazed at me intently as if he was trying to say something without saying it.

Gabe leaned over. “He’s talking about tapping into your element, Love.”

Right. Spirit. I’d done some research this morning with Liam, looking up what I could do with my newfound power. The guys’ powers were obvious. Spirit was a little more out there. I could mess with people’s emotions, for one. I was used as a lightning rod, that we already knew. If I thought about the purple tether inside me, I could focus on that and search within everyone to see if they were magic, letting those that were stay awake.

“Just be careful,” Walter warned, his face grave.Not too much, he mouthed.

I had a feeling that I wouldn’t know if it was too much until it was too late. I didn’t bother saying that to him though.

My coven and I all joined hands. When Liam reached out for Gabe’s hand though, Walter interceded. He stepped in, then we made the circle bigger to accommodate his coven as well as ours. When we were all linked, a buzz ran through the air. Magic escalated all around us, causing the hair on my arms to rise and goosebumps spread over my body. Those magical and non-magical turned our way. Anyone could sense something was up. Electricity was in the air, sparking this way and that.

The wind picked up, and I glanced at Travis. I didn’t think he was intentionally doing it or if he was even doing it at all. I could have been nature responding to us, to the strength we all had. The ground vibrated.

I was taken aback by all this that I’d almost forgotten why we were even doing this at all. Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and started the search. I tagged those who I couldn’t find any magic in whatsoever. I gave them a quick tap to fall into sleep, knowing I would just have to say ‘wake’ when I wanted them to be conscious again. Easily, I spread through the whole park differentiating between magic or not. Then, at the last second, I put a barrier around the park. We didn’t need anyone coming in at the last second wondering what the hell was going on while we were talking. Why some people were sprawled out on the ground and the remaining people were talking about demon possession.

“It’s done,” I said simply, after I’d tagged the last remaining person in the square.