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“We’re just all dealing with the Jax thing differently.”

“That’s the problem,” I said. “We shouldn’t be dealing with it differently or separately. We’re a team, we’re a coven,” I said, whispering the last part. “We need to be in this together.” I didn’t know why but ever since Travis moved in front of Jax, I’d felt separated from all of them. I was still connected to them each individually, but maybe there was just something about what he did or having to place the Akasha mark on him. In a way, it blew up what we had until we were all just separate pieces trying to make things work again. “We need to go home.”

“Right now?” Gabe asked.

I nodded. “Right now. Please?”

He nodded, then threw down a ten to cover what the waitress had done for us already before getting up and holding his hand out to me. I took it, and he pulled me close. “Whatever you need, Norah. Always.”

2

Gabe side-eyed me as we pulled up to what looked like a vacant building on the wharf. “I don’t know why you seem so giddy. I don’t think I’ve seen Travis and Randy talk to one another since that night other than to make sure everyone was okay.”

I shrugged. I really didn’t care what they wanted at the moment. We all had to grow up. “Too bad.”

“Sometimes forcing it isn’t good.”

Even though he still had his sexy accent, Gabe’s words were grating on me. “Look where that’s gotten us in the past. Travis couldn’t even talk to me without saying something nasty.”

“But he figured his stuff out…in time.”

“Listen, Brit,” I said, glaring at him from the passenger seat as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the side door. “I think this is a fantastic idea. And I’m sick and tired of everyone acting like the other doesn’t exist. It’s time for a change.”

I threw the door open and unlatched my seatbelt. Next to me, I heard him take in a deep breath. He wasn’t going to discourage me though. I knew what I was doing in my heart. I didn’t even need Granny’s next life knowledge to understand that staying quiet about all this wasn’t good for us. Especially since we knew that Jax wasn’t done with us. He certainly wasn’t going to let it go, and we needed to be ready…as a team…when that happened.

I yanked open the side door and waltzed right up the stairway next to it. Up there were offices that we’d turned into makeshift bedrooms. Sure, we were all pretty much sleeping on couches or pull-out couches, but it was what we had at the moment. Because this was a sacred place to the Order, our magic was stronger here. It just made sense to stay here while there was a demon inside Jax. Call me crazy, but I liked the idea of having any help we could get.

Besides, Liam promised that when we got to move back into his parents’ house, he’d buy me a hot tub. I could put up with this until I got my hot tub.

Gabe was behind me as I ran up the stairs. Like usual, all the offices/bedrooms were closed. Maybe that was part of the problem. This place wasn’t set up like a house. There were no communal areas that we could all hang out in unless we wanted to go downstairs and hang out in the big room where the Order determined Travis wasn’t a bad witch. We’d all pass on that.

I walked down the hallway, knocking on each of their doors. It was a Saturday evening, so I knew they were all in. “Get up. Get out here. Coven meeting.”

Gabe snickered behind me.

When I got to Randy’s room, I kept going. I went all the way down to the very end of the building and opened that door. The room was dingy, but I went over to the window and looked outside. It had a view of the ocean at least. This was now going to be the temporary living room.

Down the hall, I heard doors open. Gabe leaned against the doorjamb to the temporary living room smirking at all the guys. “Yes, Mates. You heard that right. Norah wants a coven meeting.”

As each of them walked in, my heart lurched. Liam looked as if he’d had his nose stuck in a web page for hours. The back of his hair stood straight up. Travis moped in. His eyes were far away, as if his mind was displaced from his body. Randy…. well, Randy had a sneer on his face that immediately raised my hackles. “What’s this about, Norah?”

“Coven meeting.”

“Did you guys find something out about Jax?” Liam asked.

Travis immediately perked up.

“No, nothing like that.”

Randy rolled his eyes.

“Simmer down, big boy,” I said. “This is all more important than that. This is about all of us getting our shit together.”

Gabe stood in the back, his eyebrows raised high over his eyes. “Um, Norah?” Liam said. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how the last week or so we haven’t done one thing together. We may as well be living in an apartment building where each of us don’t know the other. All we do is say hi when we pass in the hall.”

“I think everyone’s had their mind on different stuff,” Liam said. He came forward. Out of all of them, I expected that he would be worried. That somehow me getting mad about this meant that our relationship was in jeopardy.