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The pulse of a white aura hovered over him like a blissful halo. So peaceful. So warm and inviting. Was this the ancestor’s blessing?
Strong hands reached out and pulled me into a solid barrel-shaped chest, flush against a heated body, taut with muscles, that smelled as familiar as home. Rugged man, earth, animal, and spice. A shifter. The unique scent of his wolf engulfed my brain and swept me away in wistful desires. “I’ve got you. I’ll never let go,” he promised.
“Gabriel.” There were so many questions I wanted to ask. Why did he lie? Why did he keep secrets?
“Not now, sweetness. We’ll have time later.”
“I’m so tired,” I admitted, grateful when I realized he lifted me, cradling my head against his shoulder.
“I know. Stay with me, Cas. I won’t let anything harm you. I swear.”
“Gabriel,” I repeated, clutching his shirt with desperate fingers. Surrounded by his embrace, I settled into his warmth, which quickly replaced the bitter chill in the air.
Safety and security blanketed my spirit. I felt at peace.
The ancestors were right. Gabriel carried their blessing. Even more astounding, his power and strength seemed magnified in ways that defied logic. They chose him. Brought him to me. My anchor.
“My Cas, never leave me,” he whispered after a tender kiss pressed to my head.
MY EYES FLUTTERED OPENas I squinted into the darkness. Directly above, a moonlit sky filled with puffy gray clouds obscured most of the glow. Stars scattered about and twinkled sporadically in little bursts of sparkling white.
Beneath my head, fallen leaves and spongy moss provided a pillow, contrasting the brittle crunch and the soft texture and irritating my skin. Gothic wrought iron gates surrounded the trees and disappeared into the night.
The familiar scene conjured a plethora of memories—my backyard.
Tall trees hovered above as their boughs sagged, limbs twisted and gnarled but robust as they reached upward and grasped at the nearly full moon. These trees were deeply rooted and held many secrets. Some were as old as the land before pilgrims ever settled in this country. If you listened quietly, you could hear them whisper into the wind, chanting their ancient words of wisdom and power. Endless energy circled their limbs, shifting the roots in the ground as they changed positions. Never leaving our vast property, they rearranged themselves like humans switching around furniture in the same room—a break from monotony.
Raised voices snared my attention.
“Hurry! The moon is at the highest point.” Aunt Gwen’s words barely registered in my brain.
I had no memory of returning home.
“Spread the black salt evenly,” she ordered. “Make sure the circles are unbroken while I finish with the chalk.”
My vision began to fade in and out as I heard Gypsy moan from my right side, close but not touching. Willow held her hand, squeezing it once before she released it. Aunt Gwen must have asked for her help.
“Set the candles in the same rotation. Use sage. Bind the herbs. Quickly now!”
Ryder, Gabriel, and Damian scurried to follow my Aunt Gwen’s directions. They lit candles at the five points of each pentagram drawn around mine and Gypsy’s bodies. We must have been placed down the second my aunt finished. The entire experience was surreal. My consciousness floated around my body, my thoughts murky and unfocused.
Aunt Gwen and Willow began to chant as I stared at the moon; my strength zapped, and my body aching and sore like I had just finished running a marathon. Each muscle strained and throbbed with pain, too weakened to move.
Fighting off the witch left my spirit vulnerable and weak. I knew my aunt could sense the drain on my aura. Gypsy didn’t feel much better.
“Fire hot, fire bright, I cast this spell to candle’s light.”
The flames of the candles began to flicker and move as a breeze picked up and swept across my body.
“Threads of flames, tendrils of power, weave a protection cloak made of earth’s fire.”
The flames of the candles grew higher, the light brightening around us and casting strange shadows across the leaves and grass.
“Around Gypsy and Cassie, I wrap this cloak to shelter and protect in the day and the night.”
The flames leaped from the candles and singed the ground around my body, tracing each contour and angle and burning my shape into the ground. I could feel the heat as it blazed close but never harmed an inch of my skin. The same flames burned around Gypsy’s body.
Seconds later, sparks jumped into the air before they exploded into additional flames, billowing in the wind in a subtle display of power. I blinked as they settled back onto the wicks of the candles, steady in the wind that brushed across my skin.
