“Oh, come on, guys!” I said, standing up straight and placing my hands on my hips. “I’m only doing this for your own good. You need to be ready at all times. I’m just preparing you… .”
“Preparing us for what?” Fallon asked, pulling off his hood and leaning back until he was resting on his elbows. He seemed annoyed—which was no different from any other day really, except that ever since we’d fought the Parrishables, I’d felt as if we’d gotten past our differences, or at least taken a break from torturing each other. “Samuel’s gone. You blasted him like a bug zapper, remember? He’s toast. Extra crispy.”
“We think he’s gone,” I said. “We don’t know for sure. That’s why we have to continue to meet. To keep watch in case he comes back.”
I looked around the circle until I spotted Asher and flashed him a smile. He smiled back, patting the ground next to him. As I began closing the distance between us, my stomach filled with butterflies just like it always did when his eyes met mine. I loved that even though we’d been dating for about six months now, I still got excited every time I saw him.
Once I reached him, I sat down and his hand found its way into mine. I looked down at our intertwined fingers and felt my skin grow warm. It might have been the heat coming from the fire, but I doubted it.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I responded, a shy smile on my face.
“Do you really think he’s going to come back?” Jinx asked nervously, breaking up our little moment. I forced my head to turn and focus on her.
Jinx had been released from the hospital a few weeks after we’d gotten rid of the Parrishables, but I quickly learned it was going to take her a lot longer to fully heal. When she mentioned Samuel and the Parrishables, she unconsciously touched her hand to the spot on her abdomen where she’d been stitched up. I was sure this wasn’t a coincidence. Jinx may have physically healed already, but we all knew she was having a hard time dealing with the aftermath of our war. I felt badly for her, but that was sort of why I’d been insisting on us all meeting on a regular basis anyhow.
“I don’t know, Jinx,” I said softly. “I hope not. But that’s why we’re doing all of this. To make sure he never comes back. And that if he does, we’ll be ready for him.”
Everyone grew silent, my words hanging in the air as we thought about all the things we didn’t want to actually say out loud. Finally, Sascha cleared her throat.
“Hey, at least this time you get to do magic with us,” she said, shrugging. “You sort of missed it all the first time around, you know?”
“Tell me about it,” Jinx said slowly. “I can’t believe I didn’t get to see everyone. That must have been crazy cool.”
I smiled as I thought back to the moment when I laid eyes on all our relatives standing behind us as we vanquished Samuel. The scene was pretty epic and I didn’t want to admit it to Jinx, but I hadn’t been able to get it out of my mind since.
“You’re not the only one who missed it,” Asher reminded her, a hint of jealousy in his voice. Asher still didn’t remember much of anything that happened after the shed blew to bits that night. I think it had something to do with him taking the hit from Samuel—the blast must have scrambled his brain or something. Good thing, too, because almost dying could be a pretty traumatic experience.
“That’s just because someone was busy being a hero and all,” I said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek in front of everyone. His scowl turned into a goofy grin and he leaned into me so our shoulders were touching. I caught Fallon rolling his eyes but ignored him.
The truth was, things between Asher and me had been amazing since everything had been brought out into the open. We’d fallen into the habit of spending most of our free time together, which was nice since we were still getting to know each other in a way. I’d begun to forgive him for lying to me, and he chose to ignore the fact that I’d left him locked up when Samuel attacked. Now that we were finally being honest with each other, our relationship was really starting to get good.
“That’s sweet—and I’m bored,” Jasmine said abruptly. “Can we talk about the fact that our families are trying to send us away for the summer? Has anyone else figured out where they’re carting us off to?”
“No clue,” Sascha answered as she inspected her nails. “But I highly doubt it’s model boot camp like I requested. I’ve wanted to go there for years, you know? I was born to be on the catwalk.”
“Catwalk, streetwalk, all the same if you ask me,” Jasmine muttered, before flashing Sascha a grin to show she was just joking.
“You’re hil-a-rious. Glad to see your humor wasn’t beaten out of you during the fight.”
“Nope. Still intact,” Jasmine said, grinning deviously.
“My dad still won’t talk,” I interrupted, in an attempt to stop the bickering. “But since school just ended, I figure they’ve gotta tell us soon. And as long as we’re all headed to the same place, we’ll be fine.”
When we’d arrived back home after the fight with Samuel, our group had been broken up for the first time in weeks. Some of us had family members or friends of our parents come to stay with us while we looked for more permanent places to stay, while others, like Peter, had been sent to live with nearby relatives. Not everyone went to live with a magicking family—but the civilians were close enough relatives that they could be trusted with our secret. Regardless, we were all still adjusting to our new living situations, but we always felt safer when we were together. Defeating an evil coven will do that to you.
But then about two weeks ago, the adults started hinting that they were sending us away for the summer, information most of us weren’t too excited about. Besides the fact that it had taken so long for life to get back to normal, we’d grown rather resistant to surprises. I wonder why. At least it appeared like we’d be going away together. We just had no idea where or what we’d be doing. I, for one, hoped that wherever it was, there was electricity. I was not the kind of girl who liked to rough it.
“I can’t believe you’re all leaving and I have to stay here and go to summer school,” Peter said, whining.
“It’s not our fault you’re not as quick as the rest of us,” Fallon said snarkily. I frowned. It was true: Pete had been the only one of us who hadn’t been able to get back on track once we’d eventually gone back to school. As time had wound down, his teachers decided he would be better off taking his classes over again than receiving such low grades for the year. His aunt and uncle had agreed and signed him up for the summer. Still, that was no reason to make fun of him.
“Can it, Fallon,” I warned. Turning back to Peter, I gave him a sympathetic look. “Pete, I’m sure you’ll have more fun here than wherever we’re going.”
“Yeah, right,” he muttered miserably.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I said, trying to convince both of us of this fact. I looked down at my cell phone to check the time. “It’s getting late, why don’t we start this thing?”
Everyone slowly got up from their places on the ground and stood together in a circle. I could tell a few of them were tired or possibly even bored. Then again, we’d been doing the same thing every week since we’d gotten back to town. We’d meet up late at night when the adults thought we were tucked away in bed, and that’s when we’d do it.
From location spells to binding spells to ill-intention-detecting spells, we’d cast just about anything that might tell us that Samuel was alive. But so far, we’d come up empty. That didn’t mean we were going to stop, though. No way was I letting anything sneak up on us again. Nope, next time we’d be ready—no matter what the evil was.
“Okay, gather hands and cast with me,” I said, looking around at my coven members with a hint of magic in my eyes before starting the first incantation.