“If you take this job, I can’t promise your old one at The Ledger will be here when you return, and of course you can forget about the paid leave. That offer was conditional on your taking a sabbatical.”
My mentor’s unexpectedly harsh words sting, but that won’t deter me. “I understand. Do what you have to do, but I’m taking this job. I need it.” Especially now I know it’s in Crystal Lake.
“This is a mistake, Jared. You’re really going to throw away your career to be anentertainmentreporter for the paper in a town so small nobody has heard of it? Nobody will take you seriously after this.”
“Look, I appreciate you going out on a limb in offering me a sabbatical, and everything else you’ve done for me over the years, but this is my decision. This move is the best thing for me right now. I actually have you to thank for it—if you’d not told me to leave The Ledger, I would never have gone looking for another job.”
“You’ll regret this,” Corbin replies, his tone laden with disapproval.
“Maybe.” I shrug even though he can’t see it. “But at this point, I think I’d regret not going even more. I hope you’ll come to understand my decision.”
There’s a long stretch of silence, then my phone beeps, and I realise he’s ended the call. His disappointment makes my gut churn. Despite how angry I was with him for taking my choice away, I never wanted our relationship to end like this. I’d planned to call Corbin later to update him. Finding out about my new job through his connections instead of hearing the news directly from me likely hurt his feelings.
It’s upsetting that Corbin doesn’t understand my decision to leave London, but if nothing else, our conversation has only made me more sure it’s the right choice. If he really wanted me to stay, he could have offered me my job back. The fact he didn’t speaks volumes. Sighing, I turn back to the stack of plates and begin wrapping each one carefully. A clean break then. Perhaps that’s for the best.
Chapter 5
Selene
“You look like crap.”
“Thanks,” I reply, following my sister inside the shop.
“Did you have the dream again?” Gwyn asks, hazel eyes dark with worry.
“Yep.” Just like every night for the past few weeks, my sleep was once again disrupted by the vision of the blonde guy I’d taken to calling ‘Golden Boy’—at least in my head.
“I don’t like it. Your visions have never behaved this way.” I follow Gwyn across the dark wooden floor of the shop towards the office in the back. “Maybe we should tell someone about them, there has to be something we can do so you can get a real night’s sleep.”
“I’m the only moon witch in town. There’s nobodytoask,” I reply, hanging my coat and bag on the back of the office door.
“I know.” Gwyn sighs and bends to get the cash drawer for the till out of the safe. “I love this town, but sometimes I wish it was bigger—then there’d be more room for witches like you and Eve.” I hear what she’s not saying. There would be someone to help her daughter once she fully comes into her card’s power. As things stand, Eve will have no choice but to leave town and go toan academy to train—the rules are stricter for her than they were for me.
“I wish Esmeray were still here. She’d know what it meant.”
Joining my sister and her family in Crystal Lake the moment I finished secondary school was the best decision I ever made. I lived with them for a few years while working at Threads of Magic to save for my academy tuition. All supernaturals are expected to begin intensive formal training from the age of twenty, either at an academy or virtually with private practical lessons. After finally finding a home I in a town I felt comfortable in, I’d dreaded having to leave Crystal Lake to complete my training. But then Esmeray, an ancient moon witch, offered to help with the practical elements of my training. I jumped at the chance not only to stay in town but to learn from someone so experienced. Then she died just weeks before my final academy assessment. At several hundred years-old it wasn’t exactly a surprise she passed away in her sleep one night, but it was still sad. She was an amazing woman and a truly gifted witch, and I still had so much to learn from her beyond what I needed to learn for my academy qualifications. If anyone would have been able to tell me what this reoccurring vision means, it would have been Esmeray.
“I’m sorry.” She squeezes my arm. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. We can have a sister date at the library—one of those musty old books must have something we can use.”
“Maybe.” I take the cash drawer and head back out to the shop floor. It’s not that I don’t want answers, of course I do, but if the community weren’t such dicks about having the ‘right’ kind of magic this kind of thing would have been included in my Academy level training. Instead, I’m once again being punished for something beyond my control, left to fumble around in the dark searching for information that could, andshould, have been part of my magical training.
I shut the till drawer a little harder than necessary, and Gwyn raises a dark brow at me from the door where she’s flipping the sign to ‘open’. “Sorry.”
She waves me off. “It’s OK, I get it.”
I bite my tongue before this tired and cranky version of myself says something I’ll regret. Gwyn saw how I was treated growing up, and now she’s got Eve she once again has a front-row seat to the crap witches with too much free time and self-importance pull. Shedoesget it. But the closest she’s come to experiencing what it’s like first-hand was when she and Brooks realised they were mates and the same idiots disapproved of their mating. It’s similar, but it’s not the same. I’m glad she’ll never truly know what it was like to be hated from birth—Gwyn got an ‘acceptable’ card at her Naming, meaning she also received comprehensive training. Still, no matter how much I love her, it’s hard not to feel a little jealous of her at times like this.
Smoothing down the pleats of my tartan skirt, I put a lid on my simmering frustration. It’s fine. I don’t need a bunch of stuck-up witches telling me what I do and don’t deserve to know about my own damn abilities. If anyone can find a book with the information I need it’s Giles the town librarian. He’s intense but smart as hell.
“I’ll stop by the library later. Don’t worry, you don’t need to come with me.”
Gwyn looks up from the jumper she’s refolding. “You sure? I really don’t mind.”
“Yeah, thanks though. I’m not sure why, but this feels like something I need to do on my own.”
Battling with the heavy wooden door to the library as my handbag strap slides down my shoulder, I trip on the edge of the entrance mat, nearly spilling the coffee I picked up from Sweet Dreams across the foyer. The thick door slams shut behind me, the sound echoing in the cavernous space, earning me several dirty looks.Whoops.
I wipe my boots on the mat and then do my best to keep my footsteps quiet as I walk to the help desk. Of course luck is not on my side, and my rain-damp soles squeak on the hardwood floor despite my best efforts. Someone tuts while Giles scowls at me from behind the ornately carved wooden desk.
