Exhaustion pulled on every facet of her body, but she pushed the feeling away and focused on what she was going to say when she got to the store.She was a misfit, like the broken toys in that one holiday cartoon, and there was a chance that the Corners would turn her away.Her own coven—herformercoven—wouldn’t have accepted a random witch with out-of-control powers showing up and asking for help, so why had they thought the Cleveland coven would?
The only bonus of her current situation, if there was one, was that she wasn’t destitute.She had money in the bank, and whoever had packed her suitcase had done a decent job of gathering much of what she’d need to start over—the one photo album from her childhood, her spellbook, some clothes, makeup, and toiletries.It was a little disheartening to realize her whole life was mostly enclosed in a suitcase, which made her feel like she’d never really settled in the place she’d called home.
Had it ever been home?Or was it simply a house?
Hell, she was forty-one by human standards.But because she was a supernatural person and had along life,she had aged to eighteen, and then her body had slowed down, aging only one year for every twelve that passed.Supernaturals didn’t count age the way humans did—by their measure, she was twenty-plus-one, not forty-one.She looked like a college kid, but with the number of years she had been on earth, she should have had a lot more going for her.Like a real home, a mate, and a kid or two.
All she had was a suitcase and an ache in her chest about where she’d end up when all was said and done.
“Here ya go,” the man said when he stopped the big yellow car.
She blinked, not realizing how much time had passed.She opened her wallet, peered at the screen to confirm her fare, and handed him the payment with a generous tip.
“You need me to stick around?”he asked.
“No, thank you.Have a good night.”
“You, too.”
She got out, pulled her suitcase off the seat, let it drop to the pavement, and then she closed the door, straightened her shoulders, and headed inside.
A bell jingled when she opened the door, and a sweetly scented warmth met her immediately, with notes of citrus, sage, and smoke.The interior was as she’d expected of a witch-run store—dark wood shelves lined the walls and were filled with books and containers of various ingredients, tables were draped with silk fabric and covered with candles, empty spellbooks, and other items witches and those who wanted to be like them might find useful.
Two women behind the counter looked up when Kaeli walked in.The younger-looking of the two smiled brightly.“Hi and welcome in!Can we help you?”
She’d memorized the names of the Corners and knew that asking for the head of the coven was a good place to start.“I’d like to speak with Lorene.I don’t have an appointment, but I need help.”
The older woman tilted her head slightly.“She’s in the back.I can get her for you.Who should I say is here, and what do you need?”
“My name is Kaeli Shaw, and there’s something wrong with my magic.”
“Oh, crap,” the younger one said.“That sucks.”
The older woman elbowed her, and she smiled warmly.“I’ll go speak with her.”
“My name is Lulu,” the younger one said when the other had left the room.“I’m an unnatural witch.”
Unnatural witch.That was a term that Kaeli hadn’t heard in a long time.There were two kinds of witches—those born with magic were called natural witches—and those who had a propensity toward magic but were generally considered human were called unnatural witches.Often, unnatural witches had natural witches in their family history, but for one reason or another, the witches had turned away from their magic, and eventually, it would not appear in the next generation.She didn’t know any unnatural witches because her former coven had only allowed natural witches to be part of it.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Kaeli said.“Do you like working here?”
“Oh yeah, I’ve been here for years.I started stocking shelves when I was in high school.My great-great-great grandma was a natural witch, but she turned from her magic because she wanted to marry a human, and so she kind of screwed things up for the rest of us.”
Before Kaeli could comment, a woman appeared wearing a flowing dark red dress that skimmed the floor and a long, thick braid over her shoulder.“Hello Kaeli, I’m Lorene.Come with me, child.I saw in my tea leaves this morning that something new was coming in from the West, and I think that might be you.”
“I’m from Illinois.”
“That explains it,” she said with a smile.
Kaeli waved at Lulu and the other witch, and joined Lorene, walking down a long hall and into a circular room with a large rug in the center, a big wooden table with chairs, and walls lined with overstuffed bookshelves.Three other women were in the room, and Lorene introduced them as the other Corners: Bitty the East Corner, Gwen the West Corner, and Maritza the South Corner.
Kaeli shook each woman’s hand, feeling the warmth and pulse of their magic.
“So tell us what brings you to Cleveland,” Lorene said as she gestured to the table, and they all took their seats.
So she did.She told them about the Corners’ request for her to cast a spell that was actually a test, that went terribly wrong, and how they’d had her bag already packed and a bus ticket to Cleveland ready to go.She left out how she didn’t have anyone to really say goodbye to, because the woman who’d taken her in when she was sixteen, after her mom ran off, had passed away, and Kaeli had never really found true friendship with anyone else in the coven.
What a sad testament to the life she’d left behind.