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When I believe enough magic has been harvested, I release the threads and open my eyes.
Mei looks around with a bewildered frown. “I expected a little, I don’t know… oomph.”
“I’m sure there will be plenty of oomph when the spell actually starts,” I assure her with a crooked smile.
She stands up and dusts off her butt to remove any potential dirt. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road and save your man. Well, one of your men.”
“Speaking of my men, how do I break the news to the others that I’m no longer a virgin?” I ask, my smile shifting into a baiting grin.
“What?” she screeches, running up to me so she can give me a hard shake. “You’ve been holding out on me. Who? When? Where?” She shakes me again, like I’m a vending machine holding her snack hostage.
“Nolan. On my birthday. In his room,” I answer, giggling as I watch shock and excitement take over her features.
“Oh. My. Goddess! After all of this” —she waves her arm in an exaggerated circle in the direction of the clearing— “we’re having a besties’ night. Just you, me, and all the details.” She gives me one final shake before marching back toward the crowd, calling over her shoulder, “You seriously need some kind of newsletter or something. Stuff keeps happening to you all the time.”
“That’s what I said!” I shout, jogging to catch up to her. She’s surprisingly fast for being even shorter than I am. “I hope after this, my life can be boring for a little while.”
Mei snorts. “Good luck with that, Ms. Matriarch-in-waiting.”
Groaning, I follow her the rest of the way. The crowd seems to zero in on me, and all my earlier calm nearly goes up in smoke under their speculative stares.
My nan breaks through the crowd and pulls me into a hug. “It’s going to be alright. You can do this.”
I return her hug, again taking strength from the ones I love, and then pull away. “I know I can do this.”
“That’s my girl.” She smiles down at me before turning toward the crowd. “Everything is prepared. It’s time to take your places. If you’re not participating in the spell, please fall back to a safe distance. This is complex and will require our full attention, so please remain silent until everything is complete.”
Mei gives me a quick hug and then scurries off to find her spot among the rest of the coven that now surrounds the clearing in a somewhat imperfect circle. At the apex are Gina and her mother, tight-lipped and angry, as Connor, Sam, and Rand keep watch in their human forms.
“What are they doing here?” I hiss, hating that Nolan has to be anywhere near his tormentor.
“They are the last component for the spell to work,” Carlotta answers, approaching on my other side. “Their family blood was the catalyst for the spell that consumes your paramour, so it will be their blood that will finally break it.”
“You know you can say boyfriend, right?” I comment, crossing my arms. “Also, how much blood are we talking?”
“Quite a bit,” my grandmother answers like she’s talking about the number of eggs she needs to bake a cake. “It’s part of the reason it took so long to prepare.”
“Too bad you didn’t take it all at once,” I grumble, hunching my shoulders.
“We need them alive to speak their parts of the spell,” my nan interjects, giving me a hard parental stare. “Besides, we don’t take lives to perform magic.” Her lips purse with disdain. “Even if they are despicable people.”
“I’ve concluded that there are worse things than death,” Nolan’s grandmother croons, scaring the crap out of me with her sudden appearance. “I plan to systematically strip away all they hold dear, until there’s nothing left but pitiful husks. Then we will ensure they never know a moment’s peace.”
“Let me know if you need assistance in that endeavor,” Mildred offers, her voice cold as she observes the Reyes women.
“I believe I’ll take you up on that offer,” Dalia replies, her piercing blue eyes filled with a promise of warfare the world has not yet seen.
Unsure what to think of the new, devious bond these women have developed, I search the crowd for the man of the hour.
He sits on his walker with Donovan and Kaleb on either side, rubbing his face as he talks on the phone. “Dude, it’s fine. You know you can’t be here, so stop feeling guilty.”
“Fe—James?” I whisper when I’m in range, aware that even at my quietest, you never know whose super hearing will catch something.
“He feels bad that he can’t be here for Nolan’s… operation,” Kaleb supplies, also fully aware of listening ears. Living a double life is hard. “We told him it was an out-of-state procedure.”
I know they told Felix no such thing, but that’s the lie everyone else has to believe. This whole thing is exhausting, and I vow to find some loophole besides marriage that allows humans to know about the supernatural world. This is getting ridiculous.
Donovan nabs the phone from Nolan and holds it up to his ear. “Look, you can have babysitting duties once he’s back. Now stop guilt-tripping yourself.” He promptly hangs up with a roll of his eyes.
