Page 27
Story: The Witch’s Fate (Hidden Legends: College of Witchcraft #6)
NADINE
S aying goodbye to Octavia Falls once was hard enough, when we’d been forced by the priestesses to flee town. We’d spent a year living in the safe house, and while I cherished our time there, I’d always known it wasn’t permanent. Back then, we all had an understanding that we would one day return to Octavia Falls, to either defeat the priestesses and live out the rest of our happy lives here, or die trying. Either way, I always assumed I’d be put to rest somewhere in this town. Never did I imagine that we’d leave forever. Once we fled Octavia Falls this time, there’d be no coming back.
We’d overstayed our time in this town. We told ourselves it was to help get everyone else out, but in truth, we hung around a few weeks longer because we didn’t want to say goodbye for good.
We couldn’t put it off any longer. By Monday, our bags were packed and ready to be loaded in the cars. We had plans to meet Headmistress Verla and Professors Warren and Wykoff tonight for dinner to say our final goodbyes. Then we’d all go our separate ways.
Lucas and I were headed across the country with Marcus, where our allies in Hok’evale had a room for us to stay in temporarily. We didn’t know how long we’d be there, but we hoped it wouldn’t be more than a few weeks before we found something more permanent. It was certainly going to take some adjusting to, because I couldn’t imagine a permanent solution, honestly.
Talia and Grant were headed to New York, where they could follow their dreams. Grant would find a job at a restaurant there, working his way up to become a chef, while Talia would pursue her music career. I was glad they still had the chance to pursue their dreams, but it didn’t make it easier to say goodbye.
Miles and Chloe planned to travel to other supernatural communities, taking odd jobs and living a nomad life. I knew it wasn’t what either of them wanted. They were both leaders, but they needed the time and space to figure out where they belonged after this.
Professor Wykoff was headed back to Paris. Even though she had no magic, her knowledge of magical societies was extensive, and she wanted to find a teaching job somewhere within the supernatural community there.
Professor Warren said he needed some time to himself for introspection. He was going to take a few months to backpack the Appalachian Trail, with the hopes that when he finished, he’d know where to go next.
Headmistress Verla had found a job at a law firm somewhere in the Midwest that specialized in domestic abuse cases. We’d invited her to come to Hok’evale with us, but she was very attached to this job offer. It was a good, high paying job, and Clarice Verla was the kind of career-driven woman who needed to throw herself into her work to process things. I recalled what she said about her sister, and how Nicole had been a lawyer who prosecuted similar cases. It was clear this was Verla’s way of connecting back to what she’d lost and trying to do good in the world despite everything else.
I was happy for her, because I knew she’d be good at it and make a positive impact. She’d been so wrapped up in her career for so long that this could be the fresh start she needed to put all this behind her. I hoped she found someone to settle down with, who admired her ambition and perseverance, because I didn’t want her going through this alone.
I trusted she would find her healing, as we all would. She just had to go about it her own way.
Apart from our closest friends, there were still a few hundred townsfolk who still hadn’t evacuated. I didn’t know what they’d do once we left, but sooner or later, they’d all have to move on as we did. We’d done all we could to help relocate townspeople, and now, it was time to say goodbye.
“Everybody ready?” Talia asked as we gathered in the living room that morning.
I strapped Marcus in his stroller, then slipped my leather jacket on. Lucas tucked a blanket around our son, making sure his feet were covered to keep him warm. It was our last day in Octavia Falls, and we were going to make the most of it before we bid farewell to our former mentors tonight.
“We’re all set,” Lucas said.
Grant cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted to the other side of the house. “Miles, Chloe. Time to go!”
When they didn’t respond, Lucas cocked an eyebrow. “Pretty sure they’re fucking again.”
“Hey, hermano ,” Grant called. “Wrap it up.”
Miles and Chloe appeared around the corner. Chloe ran her fingers through her hair to straighten the strands, then hoisted her purse further up her shoulder. Yep, definitely fucking.
Miles wiggled his eyebrows. “You don’t have to remind me. I always wrap it up .”
Grant groaned. “Not what I meant.”
Miles nudged his brother playfully with his good arm. His broken arm was in a cast, which we had all signed as soon as he got it. Grant had drawn a penis near Miles’s elbow, and he still hadn’t noticed.
“Wrapping it up is important, though!” Talia piped up.
“Though not always effective,” Lucas joked. “Marcus is proof of that.”
Marcus let out a big belly laugh. I’d never heard him laugh so hard, and it made my insides melt. His laugh was full of pure joy, which made the day easier to face.
“That’s the sound of a guilty child,” Miles cracked. “He might as well be saying, Te he, I escaped your latex prison. Look at me now! ”
“I for one am very glad to be harboring a fugitive,” I said proudly.
“If Marcus is an escapee, then I consider it to be fate,” my husband added cheerfully.
Marcus laughed again, and I placed my hand on my heart. “Aw… Lucas. I want another one.”
Miles pretended to check an imaginary watch on his wrist. “It’ll make us a few minutes late.”
Everyone roared in laughter, and it felt good to be laughing again. Even Lucas chuckled at the jab. I swore I’d never heard a sound more beautiful than my friends’ collective laughter. That’s what today was about—finding the beauty in the midst of our melancholy goodbye.
Our friends turned toward the door, but Lucas paused for a second. He wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned in to whisper. “We’ll start planning our future again soon, Nad. I promise.”
I leaned into him, enjoying the warmth of his body next to mine. “I like the sound of that.”
We followed our friends outside, and our cats prowled along at our feet. It was a mild autumn day, warm for this time of year. Orange leaves tumbled in the soft breeze, and the sun shone down on us to warm our faces. It was certainly a day to remember here in Octavia Falls. We walked the deserted streets, breathing in the crisp air as we shared our most treasured memories with one another.
Miles pointed to a run-down shop on Main Street. “Grant, remember the Halloween I dared you to go inside that old wand shop? You nearly pissed your pants!”
“Yes, you remind me of it often,” Grant said flatly. “There was a real ghost in there!”
“Oh, there’s Starlight!” Talia exclaimed, pointing out the local performing arts center. “Grant took me there all the time. They were the best dates. Once, after we saw a musical review of Wicked , he took me home to put on his own rendition of Dancing Through Life .”
“I bet the Ozdust Ballroom got a little freaky that night,” Chloe teased. “Less of a ballroom and more of a… club?”
“Of the stripping variety,” Miles added.
Talia cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, Miles, I know what she meant. And she is… not wrong.”
“Oh, The Pie Shack!” I pointed to the abandoned restaurant. “Lucas took me there on Halloween one year. Their pies were delicious.”
Grant rubbed his belly. “The best. Do you think there’s some leftovers in their freezers?”
Talia frowned at him. “Is that how you plan on saying goodbye to Octavia Falls—in a diabetic coma?”
Grant smiled proudly. “It’d be a great way to go!”
Talia gasped and stopped in the middle of the street. “Winefred’s! They have the cutest dresses. Would it be wrong to see if they have any left in stock?”
“Clearly I’m dying of a diabetic coma, and you will suffocate in a pile of fabric,” Grant joked.
Talia’s shoulders slumped. “I’m really going to miss shopping here. We had Cornerstone Antiques and Hallowed Harmonica. Those were my favorite hang-out spots.”
“Don’t forget The Jolly Pumpkin,” I added. “Hattie’s little shop was the cutest.”
We hadn’t seen Hattie since the wedding, as she had evacuated town and moved on with the others.
“I liked that shop on the next block that Everly Hall owned,” Chloe said. “She was a really talented Seer. She let me stay there for a bit after my grandma arrested me for protesting. That was awesome!”
Everly Hall had been the one to write my prophecy, the one that foretold the witch hunts.
By fire and noose
The coven will fall
Division and suffering
Destruction to all
Great power of the chosen
The coven be made whole
By the only witch of her kind
And a reaper bound to her soul
At the time, the outcome seemed so certain. The coven would fall, and Lucas and I were supposed to be there to make it whole once again. But that phrase could be interpreted in so many different ways. At the time, I thought it meant we would be the ones to restore people’s magic. Now I realized that wholeness was something meant to exist without our powers.
Lucas and I were never meant to bring magic back to the coven. Our job had been to fulfill the first half of the prophecy, in which the coven would be destroyed. All along, we were fated to let our magic fade so that people could learn who they were without it.
It was a somber, twisted reality I didn’t want to accept, but one I had to. This was how things were now, and at some point, I had to admit that I couldn’t do anything more to change it. I could wallow in the failure, or pick up the pieces of our shattered hope and mold it into a new mosaic. It wouldn’t be what I’d hoped for, but I had to believe it would be its own kind of wonderful.
We continued through the streets of Octavia Falls until we reached Miriam College of Witchcraft. My friends and I stopped on the grounds of the school. I pulled a blanket from the basket at the bottom of the stroller and spread it out in the grass. Lucas unstrapped Marcus and placed him on his belly for tummy time. We gathered on the lawn for a picnic underneath the peaks of Miriam Mansion.
We’d brought along the last of our fresh apples from Blossom Orchards, along with a bottle of non-alcoholic cider. Talia had made popcorn trail mix with pretzels, roasted nuts, and candy corn mixed in. Chloe had brought maple candies and passed them around to everyone. They were like creamy caramels that melted in my mouth.
Our cats spotted a chipmunk running up a tree and went chasing it across the lawn. Isa climbed the tree to the first branch, while Oliver whined from the ground and watched her tail swish. Bella and Gus got distracted by a bug in the grass and started fighting over it, while Marley challenged Kiki to a wrestling match. Rishi rolled around, nipping at long blades of grass.
“Rishi, stop it,” I scolded. “You’re going to puke that up.”
Rishi started gagging, because he shoved a grass blade so far into his mouth it hit the back of his throat. That humbled him real quick, and he came to sit beside us on the blanket.
Talia leaned back on her hands, letting the sun beat down on her face. “I’m going to miss this place. I loved Miriam College of Witchcraft. My favorite thing to do was go to the music room, where Professor Warbright had this piano that displayed colorful streams of magic with every note you played. It was really fun coming up with new songs and coordinating them to the colors.”
“Coach Cambell did something similar during swim practice,” Grant said. “If you beat your time from the last meet, he’d put a potion in your lane that made the water sparkle different colors depending on the stroke you swam. It was always a fun motivator. Sometimes, if I knew I was in the lead, I’d just barely beat my last time so I didn’t have to compete so hard against myself at the next meet. I was always getting the potion in my lane.”
“So the pineapple-printed Speedos weren’t fun enough for you?” I teased.
“I like to swim in style ,” Grant laughed.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “You guys were all so academically motivated . My favorite thing to do was send unexpecting freshmen to the basement when they asked me for directions. Once you passed the Alchemy labs, that place was a labyrinth. I used to sit in a study area at the top of the stairs and see how many hours it took for them to find their way out.”
Miles frowned, appearing disgruntled. “That prank cost me over an hour. I missed my first class!”
Chloe ran her fingers through his hair. “Yours was the record, hun. Most kids took at least three hours.”
Miles puffed his chest out. “The record, huh?”
“That’s what you want,” Lucas quipped sarcastically. “The record for finishing the fastest .”
We shared a collective laugh, and Miles rolled his eyes. “Ha ha,” he said dryly. “Though, I suppose I deserved that.”
The two shook hands to call a truce.
“My favorite place at school was the astrology classroom,” I said. “There was something about that tower that was just… magical.”
“Yeah, because that’s where you lost your virginity!” Talia snickered.
“It was a beautiful experience,” I insisted.
“Is this all we talk about now, is sex?” Grant asked.
Lucas shrugged as he tossed some popcorn in his mouth. “It was college. You were either in classrooms sitting at a desk… or in classrooms boning on a desk.”
Chloe laughed. “Dear Goddess, how many classrooms did you and Nadine fuck in?”
“A couple,” Lucas said nonchalantly. “You guys are the ones who wanted to walk down memory lane, and those happen to be my favorite memories of this place.”
Chloe took a bite of apple. “My favorite memory is when I jumped off the balcony in the Main Foyer and made it look like I’d been hanged. It was pure art.”
Miles gave a fake pout. “You mean, that time in the Gravestone when you accidentally tripped and landed on my dick isn’t your favorite memory?”
We all started laughing, and Chloe’s jaw dropped. “It’s not what it sounds like! I did trip and fall in his lap, but we only made out.”
“A lot ,” Miles bragged.
“It was a forbidden, sexy love, and I wouldn’t have our love story any other way,” Chloe said.
We must’ve sat on the lawn in front of the school for hours, sharing memories of our favorite classes and trying to one-up each other on how many places we’d slept with our significant other inside the school.
Marcus drifted off, and we strapped him back into his stroller as we continued our walk. The Black Circle Trail, which looped through miles of Octavia Falls, wasn’t far from here. We followed the trail to the cemetery. The dirt path was smooth from decades of foot traffic. We had to push the stroller over a couple of small rocks and roots, but Marcus seemed perfectly content with the bumpy ride.
Lucas approached the iron gates surrounding the cemetery. There were several upturned graves from the bodies he’d reanimated during the Golem War. A number of zombies had been too damaged to return to their graves, but most had been reburied, and now those coven members could truly rest in peace.
“A lot happened to me here at this graveyard,” Lucas said softly. “Those things seemed bad or insignificant at the time, but I didn’t realize how many memories I was making.”
“What are some of your favorite memories?” Talia asked gently.
Lucas drew a deep breath. “That’s complicated, because each one of them has something good and bad about it. Like the night of my Evoking Ceremony. It was the night I lost Eric—worst night of my life, honestly. But when I look back on the ceremony itself, I see Grant, Chloe, and me joking around and having a good time.”
Chloe burst into laughter. “That’s right! I almost forgot about the tramp stamp.”
“Wait, hold on. I haven’t heard this story,” Miles said.
Lucas sighed and reached for the hem of his jacket. He lifted the fabric a few inches to show Miles the skull tattoo located on his lower back. All our magic had vanished, but our tattoos indicating our Cast hadn’t faded. They were permanent reminders of what we once had.
“Oh, wow. That is a tramp stamp!” Miles joked.
Lucas looked back over the cemetery. “I thought being the Reaper’s Apprentice was so awful at the time, but then I think of the night of the Reaper Moon, when I summoned Edgar Nowak right here in this cemetery. That was the night I saved Nadine’s life… put her spirit right back into her body. I couldn’t have done it without my powers. That night sucked, but it was beautiful, too.”
I grew sad watching Lucas peer over the graveyard. While this place was sentimental to him for many reasons, I also witnessed pain in his eyes. But he didn’t seem bothered by that, and I realized maybe it didn’t have to be one or the other.
I glanced toward the small oak tree at the edge of the cemetery, where we’d placed a memorial stone for Grammy and Dean. As the inscription on their memorial read, Grief and death are ephemeral, but love lasts forever .
It was something Grammy once said, and what a wise woman she was. This town and coven weren’t permanent, either, but we could take the love we found in it with us wherever we went.
Watching Lucas now, I saw so much growth in him, which I greatly admired. He’d been able to walk away from his parents, even though he still cared for them and wanted the best for them. It took an immense amount of strength to do that. Perhaps our coven was like Lucas’s family—Mother Miriam loved us, and we would always be her children, but maybe stepping away from one another was the best thing for all of us. We didn’t have to suffer in this parting from our home, but thank it for all the love and joy it provided us.
I laced my fingers through his. “There really was so much beauty here.”
“Easy for you two to say,” Talia said. “Didn’t you screw on a gravestone somewhere over there?”
“You two fucked in a graveyard!?” Chloe cried. “You nasty, kinky sluts. Miles, I want to fuck in a graveyard.”
Miles’s eyebrows shot up approvingly. “Sure, I’ll try anything once. So did you guys do it like on the grave itself or on the gravestone .”
“We weren’t technically here ,” Lucas admitted. “We were astral traveling.”
Talia looked impressed. “I hear astral sex is quite good.”
Chloe frowned skeptically. “Like you two haven’t tried it.”
“A couple of times,” Grant admitted. “But never in a graveyard.”
“What have you done in a graveyard?” Chloe asked.
“We fought off a zombie once,” Talia said. “But you knew that, because it was your dumb prank. I’ve always meant to ask—who’d you get to reanimate the body?”
Chloe furrowed her brow. “I didn’t do that.”
“Of course it was you. It was Halloween our freshman year,” Talia prompted. “We came to do a séance for one of Lucas’s classes, but you sent a zombie to scare us. It was a classic Halloween prank.”
“A classic, maybe, but not mine,” Chloe said.
“Huh,” Talia said thoughtfully. “Must’ve been Ryan trying to sabotage Lucas’s assignment.”
“It’s strange how many memories I have here,” Lucas said fondly. “It’s a graveyard—not exactly a place meant for the living.”
“Well, you are a Death warlock,” Chloe pointed out. “It’s kind of your thing.”
Lucas dropped his gaze, then turned away from the cemetery. “Not anymore.”
Everyone kept quiet as we continued down the trail. For every memory I wanted to leave back here and forget, there was something good in each of them—stolen moments of passion with Lucas, nights of laughter with my friends, and heart-pounding thrills of solving mysteries and casting powerful spells. Even the worst of times held moments of beauty.
My friends and I found our way to the edge of Lake Santos, to a tiny secluded beach only a few yards from the forest. From here, we could see the decimated remains of the Catwalk in the distance, as well as the debris that used to be Pinewood Manor.
That evil, horrible place had been where Chloe and I broke our family curse, where we planted the seeds of the friendship that we shared now. The Catwalk had been where Lucas and I broke up, but it was also where Grant’s ear got pinched by a zombie crab, and where my friends and I had indulged in sweets and took home magical potions.
Grant sat down in the sand, looking over the water. The sun had dipped low in the sky, and its light shimmered beautifully off the soft waves. “Do you guys remember this beach? We brought Nadine out here to initiate her when she moved here. She got tipsy off my Fizzy Bubbly.”
“Yeah, and we went skinny dipping!” Talia exclaimed.
“Good times.” Lucas wrapped an arm around my waist and lowered his voice. “I remember that night, when you dragged me into the water. I wanted so badly to be close to you. I was really stupid back then. I wish I never pushed you away.”
“ I was the idiot,” I said. “Thinking back on it makes me cringe. I did and said a lot of really dumb things. But some of those dumb things really, really made me happy.”
“I have an idea,” Chloe announced as she plopped onto the ground. She pulled a deck of cards out of her purse. “Who wants to pull tarot cards?”
“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Grant asked.
Chloe shrugged. “Why not? We keep saying we’re not going to be witches anymore because we don’t have our magic, but you know what? There are parts of this town that we get to keep—all these memories that have made us who we are today. Losing our magic doesn’t undo everything we went through. And I say that still makes us witches. We may not be able to cast spells and perform enchantments anymore, but we’re still us , and we should take as much of ourselves with us as we can. We still have tarot cards and our intuition. Hell, we don’t even need magic to astral travel—even a basic non-supernatural can do that. I may have to give up this town, but I’m not giving up who this town made me.”
She shuffled her deck while she spoke, then spread the cards out in Grant’s direction. “So pull two cards, and tell me what you’re taking with you… and what you’re leaving behind.”
Grant drew two cards from the deck, then held them up for everyone to see. “Temperance and Ten of Wands. I’m leaving behind a burden, taking the weight of the Ten of Wands off my shoulders. I don’t have to be a priest who’s worried about taking care of anyone anymore, because that time of struggle is over. I’m going forward into the next chapter having learned how to approach life with balance, patience, and purpose. Maybe once we get settled I can start a bakery and teach nutrition classes, because I think culinary arts is where my purpose really lies.”
“That’s really insightful,” Talia praised.
Grant stared down at his cards a moment longer. “The Ten of Wands can stay here.”
He tossed the card into the lake, letting the waves carry it from shore, before it sank beneath the surface. He placed the Temperance card in his pocket, to take it with him once we left.
Talia drew her cards next. “Eight of Pentacles and Five of Cups. I’m walking away from disappointment, so that I can start new and work toward goals that really light me up. In the Five of Cups, the figure is focused on the three cups that are knocked over, not looking to see the potential in the other two cups still standing at his feet. I know we failed at our goal, but there’s still hope in these two standing cups. I was glad to step in and be a priestess when I needed to be, but it’s never been my calling. I want to make music and fill people’s lives with joy, and with the Eight of Pentacles—a card of mastery and skill—I can do that now. And I get to take everything we learned along the way to make people’s lives better through my music.”
Talia tossed the Five of Cups into the lake, keeping the Eight of Pentacles with her.
Miles picked two cards from the top of the deck—The Hierophant and the Knight of Wands. He clicked his tongue, not quite sure what to make of the pair.
“The Knight of Wands is a card of impulsiveness, while The Hierophant is a card of spiritual wisdom,” Talia offered. “Maybe this means you’re leaving your impulsivity behind to gain a deeper spiritual understanding of yourself.”
Miles shook his head. “I think it’s the other way around, actually. The Hierophant isn’t just spiritual wisdom. He’s a religious teacher, and with that comes tradition and conformity. I never had a problem following Mother Miriam, but I wasn’t the kind of person to do stuff the way everyone else did. I couldn’t, not with a chronic illness like rheumatoid arthritis. I always had to get creative to get things done my way. But in the midst of conflict, you sort of have to fit this certain mold, especially as a police officer, and then as sheriff.”
Miles furrowed his brow thoughtfully as he stared down at the Knight of Wands. “But this Knight… he’s spiritual too. He has to be, because that’s what the Wands suit represents. But he has this more young, carefree nature about him. He’s ready to fight, but in a more energetic, passionate, and adventurous way. I did enjoy being sheriff, and I think I’d like to continue pursuing law enforcement, but I want to make it fun. I want to be the cop who’s cracking jokes and dripping donut jelly on his badge. Life can be so serious sometimes, and there’s gotta be someone in the station to laugh at. I want to be that guy who’s ready to jump into action, but who also gives people something to smile about when life gets too serious.”
Chloe stared at her husband fondly. “If I could fall in love with you any more than I already have, that just did it.”
Miles threw The Hierophant into the lake, before turning to Chloe. “What do your cards say?”
Chloe picked the King of Swords and the Two of Wands. “The Two of Wands is all about future planning and foresight. I spent so much of my life focusing on what I could become in the future, what I could plan for and how I could make progress. All I ever wanted was to be a priestess, but even when I was, I never really sat with it. I was still so focused on where we were going that I was never really present with where I am . The King of Swords is confident on his throne. He knows he’s made it, and he doesn’t have to keep trying to get somewhere else. He represents mental clarity and authority, and if I just trust my inner guidance, I can progress from a place of truth and in knowing myself, rather than from a place of trying to control the future. I don’t have to know where I’m going yet. I just have to be this king who trusts that it’s all going to work out.”
She tucked the King of Swords into her purse, then tossed the Two of Wands into the lake. Then she held the deck out to Lucas.
He stepped forward and withdrew two cards—the Page of Wands and Justice. He stared down at the cards for a long time, before finally deciding on his interpretation. “I’m leaving behind Justice. For so long we fought for what we thought was just and right. Justice was served in the end, but we were never the judges of it. I need to leave behind this rigidity I have about what’s right and wrong, and step into the free spirit and limitless potential of the Page of Wands. He’s just standing there with his wand, ready to move in any direction, and I need to be willing to get curious about the paths before me, knowing there isn’t one singular right and just answer, but so many possibilities. I don’t have to make any decisions yet, but I can be excited about anything that may come my way.”
Lucas approached the edge of the water, then set the Justice card into the lake with reverence. The waves carried it away from shore, before it disappeared beneath the surface like the others.
Chloe held the deck out to me last. I withdrew the Six of Wands and The High Priestess. The Six of Wands depicted a man on horseback, riding through a crowd with his head held high. It was a card of success, progress, and self-confidence. The High Priestess sat in front of two columns, one light and one dark to represent the duality of darkness and light. Hers was a card of intuition, divine feminism, and the subconscious mind.
At first, I thought I was going to let The High Priestess go. She was, after all, a representation of my place on the Imperium Council, which simply didn’t exist anymore. I could step into the energy of the Six of Wands, knowing that I learned many lessons of self-confidence here in Octavia Falls.
But instead, I found myself dropping the Six of Wands into the water. “The Six of Wands is a card of success and self-confidence, but it also represents public recognition. I fought so long for the coven to see me for who I really was, to prove to them that the lies that had been told about me weren’t true. I wanted people to see me for my authentic self, but I never needed to prove myself to anyone. I just needed to accept my own authenticity.”
My breath shuddered as the resounding truth of my statement settled into my bones. “The High Priestess is not a position on a council, or a seat in government. She’s simply a master of intuition and sacred knowledge. Even though I won’t be a high priestess of the Miriamic Coven anymore, I can take the woman I became through that experience with me. She’s a guardian of hidden mysteries, a message that things aren’t always as they seem. She’s the card that encourages you to look within yourself for answers and attune to your own inner wisdom. I don’t have to keep looking outside of myself as with the Six of Wands. I just have to trust that I know myself and where I’m going.”
I placed the card to my heart, and though there was no real magic in the tarot deck, my heart gave a jolt as if there was. Maybe in some way, it was Mother Miriam’s final message, showing me that even without her, we could still find magic in our lives. It wouldn’t come in the form of alchemy or levitation, but it still existed in some form as love, gratitude, and peace.
I placed the card in my pocket, beside my phone. We sat on the rocky beach until late in the afternoon. Marcus was asleep in his stroller, and the cats lazed around in the sand. Talia and Grant skipped rocks across the lake, and Chloe and Miles went looking for mussel shells to take with them. Lucas sat beside me near the water with his arm draped around me. I rested my head on his shoulder and stared over the calm water.
“I don’t want to leave,” I whispered.
He dragged me closer and placed a kiss on the top of my head. “I know, but maybe this isn’t such a bad thing. Our family can find happiness anywhere. It doesn’t have to be here.”
I appreciated that he was trying to lift my spirits, but it didn’t make me any less sad. Lucas could walk away happily because he still had hope for greener pastures. I couldn’t, because I’d already lived outside Octavia Falls and knew there was nothing out there for me. Everything I loved had been here. I’d leave because we didn’t have any other choice, but that didn’t mean I wanted this.
“I must sound like a lunatic,” I said. “Who else could go through everything we have and still want to stay? I know what happened here was awful, and people were absolutely horrendous to us, but this is where we fell in love and built a family. It’s where you stood on stage and shook your ass in my dress because you wanted to give some asshole something to talk about. You didn’t care if they made fun of you, as long as they stopped picking on your friend. It’s where Chloe got Talia her birth control when the school wouldn’t fill her prescription, and where Talia came barging into the courtroom at the end of our trial with final evidence that saved our lives. Octavia Falls is the place where Grant rescued you and the other hostages the night of the Burning, and where Miles infiltrated the Executors to funnel us information. Bad things happened, but through it all, we stuck by each other and became a family.”
I sighed heavily. “A part of me enjoyed the haunted houses even when we were being chased by a ghost with a knife. I didn’t love the part where I got possessed and our friend was stabbed, but I loved astral traveling the halls of Miriam Mansion with you and dancing with skeletons at the Midnight Formal. I made love to you in the Penthouse Suite, and these last few months, as stressful as they’ve been, have been wonderful making crafts with our friends and performing wedding rituals. I loved all the potions we brewed and all the puzzles we solved.”
I chuckled lightly. “Call me crazy, but I liked tracking the Tarantulas down to their drug hideout and running away from them in the woods with Grant. It was thrilling, stealing all their supplies and returning them to the Alchemy lab. I loved investigating crimes with you, and I know you loved writing your news articles. Caesar Peppertrine is a legend!”
Lucas laughed. “Yeah, he is.”
“I’m sad that we never got to experience all Octavia Falls had to offer without the threat of a noose. We have to give up a future we fought for but will never have. I'm so glad I get to take you all with me, but I don’t get to take this place.”
“We still have a bit of time left,” Lucas said gently. “We can enjoy it for as long as we have.”
I splayed my fingers in the sand and closed my eyes. There was no more magic pulsing through this town, but this town was magical all the same. I was really going to miss it.
Talia walked over to us, shaking lake water off her hands. “We should get going soon. It’s time to start on dinner.”
“We’re right behind you,” Lucas said.
Talia must’ve noticed the sadness in my gaze, because she gestured toward the stroller. “Do you want me to take Marcus?”
“Sure, Tal,” I replied. “We’ll catch up with you.”
Talia unlocked the stroller wheels and pushed Marcus back toward the trail. The cats followed, along with the rest of our friends.
“You two be quick about it!” Miles cracked, before they all disappeared into the trees.
I turned my gaze back toward the water. Lucas caught a strand of my hair in the breeze and tucked it behind my ear. “I’ll stay with you as long as you’d like,” he offered.
“I’m just… not sure I’m making the right choice,” I mused. “Once we leave, there’s no coming back. Even if I found a spark of magic to fuel a spell—something that could bridge our connection to Alora again—it’d be useless once the coven forgets about this place. People will find new homes, and they’ll start their own families. They may never want to come back. Am I being selfish by not even trying because I don’t want to lose everyone I have left… or am I doing what’s right for everyone?”
Lucas squeezed my hand. “I believe that whatever you decide is the right choice for everyone. I know this is a massive decision to put on your shoulders, but we’ve never had to go at it alone, and you don’t have to now, either. You’ve been there for me through everything, and now, I can be there for you.”
I curled into him, burying my face in his chest. “My choice is to keep you with me. I don’t care where that is, as long as we’re together.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” he promised. “We’ll leave Octavia Falls in the morning, and wherever we go, we go together.”
I lifted my chin, and he slowly leaned down to press his lips to mine. Sorrow and devastation swirled in my gut, but with his kiss also came immense passion and desire. He must’ve felt it too, because his hands tangled in my hair as he dragged me onto his lap. We kissed each other over and over again, desperately clinging to the one thing we couldn’t bear to ever give up. We were losing Octavia Falls, but Lucas was my real home, and I was never going to let him go.
He reached for the zipper of my jacket and slowly pulled it down. I shrugged the sleeves off my shoulders. The air was cold, but the red-hot passion surging through my veins kept me warm. There was a strange comfort in the chilly autumn air biting at my skin. The cold kept me grounded in the present. I didn’t have to think about what would happen when we left town, because right now I wasn’t living in the future. I was here in my body, taking in the sensations of the cold air on my skin and my husband’s lips against mine.
His touch contained something enchanting that could whisk all my worries away. I wanted this so badly, because this final moment together was the last bit of magic we’d ever get before we left, and we both needed something magical to take with us. I was taking him, he was taking me, and together, we would take one last cherished memory from this place.
Lucas’s hands inched up my shirt, and mine teased the button on his trousers. Heart pounding, I slid my hands past the fabric and curled my fingers around his cock. Lucas gasped in elation. He grabbed me by the ass and dragged me even closer. Neither of us said a thing, and we didn’t have to. We knew each other’s bodies so well by now that we moved in a beautiful, synchronous rhythm.
Lucas undressed me, then I helped him out of his clothes. My nipples hardened in the cold, and I found that I enjoyed the sensation. He took my hand and slowly led me toward the water. The setting sun glittered off its surface, and I paused for a moment just to take in the shadows of his abs and the impressive length of his cock. He smiled at me, then playfully yanked me into the water, just like I’d done to him the first time we’d been to this beach all those years ago.
I landed on top of him. The icy chill of the water splashing into my face turned out to be immensely pleasant. Lucas thrust upward. With no effort at all, he slid inside of me. I gasped, my heart hammering wildly as he filled me up. The lake was cold, but it didn’t matter once our bodies were bound together, because the passion that blazed between us was enough to warm the entire lake for miles.
Lucas kissed me all over my body like he craved my taste, and I rode him until the sun disappeared below the horizon. The stars came out and twinkled above us, shining down on us like magical sparkling orbs.
We found ourselves drifting away from shore, descending deeper into the depths of the lake. My legs wrapped around Lucas’s middle as the water reached our shoulders. One hand cupped my ass, while the other cradled the back of my neck. His tongue slid in and out of my mouth with every thrust of his hips. I panted in fervent wanting.
This moment was every delirious daydream I ever had of kissing him here in Lake Santos where it all started, only immensely more passionate and delicious than I ever thought possible. The water might as well have swelled into waves that crested over us and submerged us beneath the lake’s depths, because I found myself gasping for breath. Lake Santos swirled around our bodies to envelop us in a safe, erotic embrace where time itself seemed to stop, pausing briefly for just the two of us.
Lucas rolled my nipple between his fingers, and that was my undoing. My cry of ecstasy echoed across the lake as my intense desire swelled to a marvelous peak. I contracted around him, feeling as if I was melting into the lake itself—becoming one with the water and sand—before the wave of euphoria receded, gently bringing me back to myself.
“Fuck, Nadine,” he moaned irresistibly.
He buried himself deep inside of me one last time as he reached his own peak. His eager gasps of wanting as he came inside me filled me with complete bliss.
As we came down from the high, I rested my head on his shoulder and placed a soft kiss on his neck. He tilted his head back to welcome in my affection. I sighed happily as I felt his pounding heart sync with mine.
“What a way to tell this place goodbye,” he whispered.
I smirked lightly. “We aren’t the kind of people to go out without a bang.”
Lucas smiled, and to hear him laugh made me giddy all over again.
We emerged from the lake shivering and put our clothes back on. Lucas wrapped me in his arms, bringing warmth back to my skin. Being in his arms brought tears to my eyes, not of sorrow this time, but from an immense outpouring of love.
“Thank you for showing me that I don’t have to do everything by myself,” I whispered. “Like my mother’s stash, not every door is meant for me to open. Sometimes I need to ask for help getting there, and that’s okay, because the people who love me will show up to support me when I can’t do it myself.”
He pushed wet strands of hair over my shoulder. “Of course, Nad. I’m not going anywhere… not unless it’s with you.”
Then I closed my eyes and whispered one final prayer to the ether. Perhaps like my mother, our goddess couldn’t be here for me anymore, not in the way I wished. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still out there somewhere watching over us. The door on Octavia Falls had closed. Whatever came next was not my door to open… I merely had to find the door that had already opened for me and step through it.
Mother Miriam, show me where to go next , I prayed.
My phone rang then, and I pulled it out of my pocket to answer. The High Priestess tarot card I’d tucked in there fell out and fluttered to the ground.
“Hello?” I answered, leaning down to pick up the card.
“The Oaken Wands are gone!” Chloe barked into the phone.
All the warmth that had risen to my skin at Lucas’s touch disappeared in an instant, and an icy chill akin to a ghostly haunting crept over me. Lucas heard Chloe, and his features paled in panic.
It didn’t make any sense. The Oaken Wands were useless without witch magic. I couldn’t imagine who would possibly want them now.
“What do you mean the Oaken Wands are gone?” I demanded.
“I’m telling you, we arrived home and the Wands are gone,” Chloe insisted. “Someone broke in and took them.”
“They didn’t get them all.” Lucas pulled the Mortana Wand from his pocket. “I always keep mine on me. Whoever did this must know they’re useless now, though.”
“But are they?” I wondered. “If someone wants the Wands, that means they intend to use them, and we have no idea what for.”
“They can’t use them, right!?” Chloe questioned.
My fingers froze against The High Priestess tarot card I’d bent to pick up. “They can’t… unless they know how to access magic we don’t.”
I stood and showed Lucas the card. “My tarot reading told me something isn’t as it seems. The High Priestess is a card of intuition. I said I didn’t want to leave, and I need to trust my gut on that.”
“What are we going to do?” he asked.
“We’re going to figure out who took the Wands and what they intend to do with them,” I stated. “Then we’re either going to help them… or stop them.”
Until we identified the culprit, there was no telling if the thief was trying to help our people… or bring the cataclysm of our divided coven to its bitter end.
Table of Contents
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- Page 27 (Reading here)
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