ChapterOne
Kaeli Shaw tasted salt and copper before she even realized the spell had gone awry.
The salt circle was still humming, the tiny grains glowing like twinkle lights.A dull red haze shimmered like a heat wave on asphalt for a brief moment, and just beyond it, a vase lay shattered against the far wall, the flowers singed, curtains smoldering.
Her chest hurt, like something had tried to claw out of her heart.
Four witches stared at her across the polished wood floor of the North Corner’s home, their faces void of emotion.
They weren’t shocked that the spell had gone haywire.They didn’t even seem disappointed.
They just looked exhausted, so veryoverKaeli and her brand of non-magic that never did what it was supposed to.She was a north power, and that meant the element of earth.But not even a tiny earthquake shudder had happened when she’d cast the spell.Instead, she’d set a flaming vase of flowers careening into the far wall and cracked the old stained-glass windows.
“Utterly, utterly unstable,” Elle, the West Corner, said with a dismissive sigh as she rubbed her temples like Kaeli was a stubborn headache.
Next to her, Gretchen, the South Corner, waved her hand, and the smoldering curtain stopped smoking.“We’ve tried everything.”
Kaeli swallowed hard, her mind spinning.“My north magic shouldn’t flame out like that.I don’t know what happened.”
North Corner Lydia, the most powerful witch in their coven, cut Kaeli off coldly.“It shouldn’t, but here we are.”
Kaeli’s pulse stuttered.Lydia was the head of the coven for a reason.She drew power around herself like a cloak, and she never had spells go bad.She was the kind of witch that Kaeli had once dreamed of becoming.
Her gray eyes pinned Kaeli in place.“You know what this means.”
She knew.Deep in her bones, she knew this call to cast a spell for the Corners had been a test, and she’d failed.Spectacularly.
“You’re sending me away.”
The words carried a finality of sorts, like the nails in a coffin lid.
Lydia didn’t bat an eye.“We can’t risk the coven’s safety any longer.You were warned to get your magic under control.Severaltimes.We’ve been more than generous, but someone we care about will get hurt because you can’t control the magic you were born with.”
She wanted to fight for herself, but the words stung deep.The Corners were worried someonetheycared about would get hurt, and that didn’t include Kaeli.“I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Irrelevant,” Carmen, the East Corner, said.“You could kill someone.”
“What am I supposed to do?”Kaeli asked as she slowly rose to her feet and scrubbed the toe of her shoe through the salt circle to open it.
“Maybe the coven in Northern Ohio will take you.They take anyone,” Gretchen said.
Kaeli knew just how far they were suggesting she go.From Illinois—the only home she’d ever known—to Northern Ohio, a place that witches whispered about with pity or disgust.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she realized that Elle had her phone in her hand.The screen on Kaeli’s phone showed a bus ticket to Cleveland.One way.
One of the other witches in the coven walked in, pulling a rolling suitcase behind her, and Kaeli realized it was the suitcase from her bedroom closet.
“You set me up,” she said, staring at Lydia.“It was a test, and I failed, but you already had my bag packed and a freaking bus ticket ready to go.Why test me at all?Why not just exile me?”
Lydia gave her a cold look that would have made Jack Frost shiver.“I don’t owe you an explanation; however, I will say that we gave you one last chance to prove you could master your magic.You are no North power wielder, you are the burden of the coven, a disgrace just like your mother.”
Now that hurt like a son of a bitch.
Lifting her chin slightly and tightening her emotions so she didn’t cry in front of them, she grabbed her suitcase and walked out of the room.When she was outside in the crisp September air, she used her phone to order a car and walked toward the outskirts of town to wait for it.
Alone.
As she waited for the car to pick her up to take her to the bus station, a memory surfaced: of another bag packed and another goodbye she didn’t choose.
