Stalking Magic

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Mystical energy swirled around Vi, and she let it sink into her as she guided it to the coven’s will. Rosalie, the coven leader, chanted the incantation. Incense tickled her nose and the energy tickled behind her ear, but she kept still. It had been a while since she’d participated in a ritual like this.

She’d missed it.

Going on tour as a roadie for Mercy, one of the biggest rock stars in the world, had been the experience of a lifetime. But now it was good to be home.

Rosalie ended the chant and pulled all the magic toward herself before it released with a shock of power that broke the circle. Vi stumbled back, and she wasn’t the only one.

She shot a questioning look at Darnell, but he didn’t seem shocked. Apparently, things had changed in the months she’d been away. Rosalie hadn’t been that powerful before Vi left.

“You’re going to get in,” Rosalie told Deliana, the daughter of Delia, one of Vi’s coven mates. She was sitting in the center of the circle dressed in all white with a wreath of greenery around her neck. “No school could resist you.”

The girl smiled, though she still looked a bit shell shocked. “Let’s be realistic. My SAT score wasn’t that great.”

But Rosalie was shaking her head with an indulgent smile. She stepped forward and led the girl away, all the while reassuring her with comforting words.

“I could have used a spell like this when I was going to school.” Mara bumped her shoulder against Vi’s. “There’s drinks in the cooler.” She nodded back towards where they’d parked their cars.

Was it cliché to do magic by moonlight at the edge of the woods? Perhaps. But at least there were snacks. And the sun was already starting to kiss the horizon. This was an early morning rather than a late night.

“When did Rosalie come up with this one?” Vi followed Mara towards the cooler, careful not to trip over the woman’s flowy dress. Thankfully there wasn’t a dress code. Vi was more of a tight jeans and leather jackets sort of woman.

Mara pulled out two water bottles and tossed one to Vi. “Last year, maybe? She’s had her head in those new books for a while. We’ve been doing things you wouldn’t imagine.”

That was certainly true. Though Vi’s imagination was expanding all on its own. “Let’s just hope she doesn’t start summoning magical shadow beasts.” Vi shuddered at the memory.

Mara looked confused. “Why would she?”

Right. Vi hadn’t been sworn to secrecy after helping out Mercy—Em to her friends—and her new mate, but she wasn’t one to spread rumors. “No reason.”

“Are we going to need to do one of these for you?” Mara asked.

“What? Why?” Vi could see that Deliana and her mom were still talking to Rosalie and Deliana hadn’t taken off the wreath.

“Weren’t you thinking about grad school?”

“I don’t think that’s for me.” Once upon a time, Vi had imagined a career in academia, burying her head in musty old tomes and eking out the secrets of the past. Then the realities of school slammed over her and she’d rather be any place but that.

Mara let it go, but only to drop another bomb. “Noah is back in town.”

“Is he?” Her voice was even. That was good. She hadn’t thought about Noah in weeks. Most days she was sure she was over him. It had been more than a year since the break up. And, coincidentally, about a year since she’d started wandering away from the coven.

So had he. They both needed the break.

She couldn’t quite explain what went wrong between them. One day it seemed like all was well. The next Noah was calling her a liar and insisting she was keeping things from him. She knew she wasn’t. Everything went downhill from there.

There were worse ways for relationships to end, she supposed. But the failure stung.

Mara kept talking like Vi wasn’t reeling. “Yes! Katrina and I had him over for dinner the other night. He’s travelled so much. You two will need to swap stories. Between the two of you, you’ve probably covered half of the world.”

“Right.” Vi took a deep swig of her water and searched desperately for an excuse to leave. Rosalie caught her eye and nodded for her to come over. Vi made her excuses and went.

Deliana gave Rosalie a hug before she and her mom shuffled off to their car.

“It’s good to have you back,” Rosalie said. She was on the other side of fifty and had been a good friend of Vi’s aunt. Vi couldn’t remember a time when Rosalie hadn’t been an honorary aunt, and she’d been so happy when she was voted in as coven leader five years before.

"It's good to be back. I missed this." She was a little surprised at how true it was. When Vi had walked away, she was ready to be an independent witch with no need for a coven and the camaraderie it provided.

She'd been wrong.

Rosalie gave her shoulder a squeeze and then tugged her toward the parked cars. Vi followed until they were standing in the small lot, far enough away that they couldn't hear the murmuring voices of the rest of the coven. And no one could hear them.

"Is something wrong?" Vi asked, suddenly worried. Her eyes flicked up and down, taking in Rosalie, but the woman looked healthier than ever.

Rosalie gave her a reassuring smile. "No, no, nothing to be worried about. But there is a… concern… I wanted to discuss with you.”

"Of course." Vi leaned against the trunk of Rosalie's old silver sedan and waited.

Rosalie glanced at the rest of the coven as if she was checking to make sure they were still far away. "You know about our meeting next week. You're coming, right?"

"With Audra Palmer's coven?"

Rosalie nodded in confirmation.

"Yes, I'm honored to be invited." Vi had expected to be at the bottom of the hierarchy when she came back, but Rosalie and the others treated her like the worldly witch she was. No hazing here.

"Palmer and I have a… history. She… well, it doesn't matter. But it means that I don't want us going in unprotected."

"Unprotected? We have magic." Vi let off a puff of fire and smoke, an old parlor trick young witches learned to show off.

Rosalie, unsurprisingly, wasn't impressed. "I'd call in an allied coven for support, but I'm concerned that will only make things worse. Do you have any ideas?"

"Vampires?" The bloodsuckers could be creepy, but they were great in a fight. Something about vampirism made them less susceptible to magic than humans, witches, or shifters.

Rosalie shook her head. "Sunlight may be an issue."

"They just get weak, it's not like they burn up." But her coven leader was right, they didn't want to bring someone with such an obvious weakness.

"No, I don't think vampires. But I think you know someone who will be perfect." Rosalie looked at her expectantly.

Vi wracked her brain, but she wasn't sure who Rosalie was talking about.

"You met one on that music tour," Rosalie prompted.

Vi was already shaking her head. "No, no. Absolutely not. They're a terrible choice." Andre had been a hell of a bodyguard, but he didn't know the first thing about magic. "Andre won't want to leave his mate, and his pack is completely ignorant, not only of the magical world, but of what it means to be shifters. We can't expect them to protect us against a coven."

Rosalie got all cryptic and smiled in a way that made Vi uneasy. "Ignorance has its advantages."

"Does it?"

Rosalie kept smiling.

This couldn't happen. "One shot of power and they'll go down. A single witch almost killed Andre and his mate. A whole coven will flatten them."

"We can prepare them, explain the situation. And I highly doubt Palmer will actually cause them harm. I simply want the… option to defend ourselves if things come to a head."

Vi couldn't win this fight. Rosalie had made the decision before she called her over, that was obvious now. And it wasn't something so egregious that Vi was about to walk away from the coven again. So her shoulders slumped and she nodded. "I'll call Andre and see what he and his people can do."

Rosalie grinned. "It's good to have you back." She kissed Vi on the forehead and walked away.

Vi pulled her phone out of her pocket and glared at it. She hoped this didn't blow up in her face.