I took a deep breath before starting. “There’s something strange going on, and I think it all connects back to why Barrett is here in Pleasant Grove. Maybe it’s fate, but it just feels like we’re supposed to figure all of this out.” I bit my lip, knowing that they would be behind me no matter what happened. And so I told them everything I knew so far.
“Basically,” I summarized at the end, “I need to find out about the ward that was placed on Pleasant Grove when it was founded. And seeing this photo made me realize that we might not know anything, but maybe our grandparents do. Anything they know about that time might be helpful. Or any old papers and books you can find.”
“Well…” Rina looked at our blonde friend. “Grandma’s still on the town council. There’s a chance her mom told her something.”
“I can ask my family,” Wendy said. “I’m sure all that junk is still somewhere in our house. They’re all incapable of getting rid of anything. My sketches from second grade are still hanging on the fridge in our house. And… I think the old Cromwell grimoire is still in the attic. I can poke around and see if I can find the original spell they cast. Maybe if there’s any old spirits still lingering about, I can ask them about it as well.” It was a big ask of her to even try, since I knew she hated using her ability.
“That would be amazing.” I had a good feeling about this.
Wendy looked at Rina, then at me. “We should tell the rest of the coven. Especially since you’re part of us now.” She reached over, squeezing my hand.
Rina nodded, rolling her straw between her fingers. “I’m sure they’d all help. It feels like we’ve been kept in the dark all ourlives, and whether or not our ancestors did this to protect us, we deserve to know the truth.”
“This all started with Willow and Luna, but it’s so much bigger than any one of us,” I said. “The whole town deserves to know the truth. All of us deserve better.”
It was time for change to come to Pleasant Grove. Somehow, I knew it was up to all of us to fix whatever had been broken. We’d been sealed off from the world for so long, unaware that people like Barrett were even real.
What else was out there?
A shiver ran down my spine at the thought. I couldn’t wait to find out.
Three nights later, the entire coven was all gathered around Willow’s kitchen table—sans Luna, of course, who couldn’t make the trip. Damien and Willow had just returned in the morning from their trip to the Demon Realm. She was snuggled up to him, wearing a dress covered in black cats and pumpkins, while he was wearing his usual outfit—all black.
When I’d first found out he was a demon, let alone the son of the demon king, it had been hard to wrap my mind around it. He seemed so normal. But slowly, he peeled that facade away, letting us get to know the real him. Honestly, until Barrett shifted before my eyes, I had struggled with understanding it. Now… I guess I understood, at least a little, why Willow had fallen in love with him.
Not that I was evencloseto falling in love with Barrett. It was way too soon for anything like that, especially considering I’d only known him for a few days. But I couldn’t help but feelhis presence in every room, like somehow my body recognized whenever he was around.
We hadn’t had sex again since that night after the bar, but he still wrapped his body around mine every night, like an unspoken agreement between the two of us. Though I was pretty sure he just didn’t want to hurt me again, considering how pained he looked when he realized how sore I’d been after the first time.
Now, I wasdyingfor him to touch me.
Every time he looked over at me, his eyes flicked to my lips, and then back up. I ran my teeth over my bottom lip, wondering if he’d give me what I wanted if I begged for it.
“This is the first time we’ve ever had men at our coven meeting,” Wendy observed in a low voice at my side.
“True,” I murmured.
Damien and Barrett looked dangerously out of place in a house full of witches, but both of them had been bound and determined to be here. Since it was obvious we weren’t going to be able to leave them out of it, we hadn’t really tried. Two overprotective alpha-males tended to get their way in the end. Maybe I should have been worried about the rest of the girls finding out about Barrett, but none of them had batted an eye.
There were fifteen of us, all witches of different shapes and sizes, plus a demon and a wolf shifter, crowded at the old, ornate table, trying to understand what had happened hundreds of years ago so we could figure out what was happeningnow.
Cait and Willow were studying the grimoire that Wendy had found in her grandma’s attic. Luckily, the woman was a hoarder, and had kept everything that she thought might be of use one day. It was truly a treasure trove of information.
“The spirits helped me find it,” Wendy had told us.
We all knew the general history of the town—after the Salem witch trials in the seventeenth century, witches had gone intohiding for fear of further persecution. That was why the wards had been created in the first place—to keep us safe from humans. Only, they’d spelled them toonlyallow witches in.
“I just can’t wrap my head around why they would have shut the rest of the paranormal world out and pretended like they didn’t exist,” Willow said again. “It’s just unbelievable to me.”
Damien chuckled, his arm wrapping around her chair. “You have to remember, little witch, when we first met, you were convinced that all demons were evil. You kept going on and on about not making a deal with me.”
“I mean, your brotherdidkidnap my sister. So maybe I had something to be worried about.”
“Semantics.” He looked over at Barrett, like he needed to defend himself. The rest of us all knew the story well. “She went willingly. And they’re very happily married.”
Barrett’s eyes caught mine and I rolled my eyes. He laughed. It felt like we were sharing our own secret, like we had our own language that was comprised of no words at all.
“Sure, it kept us safe,” Cait added, going back to the topic of conversation. She ran her fingers through her long, bright orange hair. “But at what cost? What have we lost by being so isolated from the outside world?” I’d always loved her style—she dressed like she didn’t care what the world thought of her. Tonight, she was wearing a t-shirt for the bandHEX—a girl band of witches from the eighties—with a turtleneck underneath and a pair of black, ripped jeans.
