CHAPTERONE
Istirred the cauldron with bated breath, waiting for the moment that Morgan assured me was coming.
“Any second now,” my ancestor repeated, her twinkling eyes glued on the potion. The scent of bitter nettles and mushrooms wafted off the boiling liquid, herbaceous and earthy.
“Three, two, . . . Stir a little slower, Odette. You’re going too fast.” Diana paused, her lips parting in rapt anticipation.
Behind her, I caught a flash of motion, and dragged my gaze from the brew. Hunter had snuck back inside and was poking his head into the room. He caught my gaze, and with a trickster wink, pointed at Diana’s back and pressed his finger to his lips.
I smothered a laugh. It was official, a week in such close quarters was too long. Hunter never would have dared to screw with Diana back home—in the future—where we lived in an expansive magical academy most of the year. But after three days of monsoon-like rains and being stuck inside a tiny cottage, it appeared that Hunter couldn’t help but cause a bit of mischief.
“Almoooost,” Diana cooed, her blue eyes locked on the bubbling, yellow liquid. “It’s going to change n—”
“Now!” Hunter leapt into the room at the exact instant that the potion turned neon green.
Diana let out a strangled screech, and purple magic shot from her fingers as she whipped around.
“Dammit, Wardwell!” She batted at his shoulder as if he was a gross spider, which only made Hunter laugh harder. “I nearly jinxed you!”
“You should have,” he replied, wiggling his fingers at her and shaking his hips in a way that made me snort out a laugh. “I need to practice my counter-jinxes.”
“That can be arranged.” A man with a long, brown beard shot through with white strode into the kitchen, his arms full of herbs.
A beaming Eva trailed behind him, her copper hair damp and arms laden with bits and pieces of artifacts she’d picked up. The relics were from a nearby Roman site that she’d been begging Merlin to show her since he’d mentioned it two days ago. The girl looked like she’d won the lottery.
“It’s been far too long since I jinxed anyone.” Merlin twisted to face Hunter. “Morgan can practice too. She always came up with the best, most original jinxes. She’s so clever.”
“I have a few untested ones.” Morgan’s cheeks had pinked at her paramour’s flattery, making the freckles that smattered the bridge of her nose stand out more. Usually, she appeared goddess-like and wise, but in that moment she was just a girl enjoying the praise of her loved one.
Hunter paled, and I wrapped my arms around my stomach and dissolved into full blown laughter.
“Not what you meant, my boy?” Alex’s ancestor arched a bushy eyebrow.
“He can’t handle you or Morgan,” Eva teased.
For once, her beau didn’t provide a snappy rebuttal.
Merlin’s bright blue eyes ran up and down Hunter. “Not now, but perhaps one day he will be able to.”
I stopped laughing and straightened to stand. Eva and Hunter blinked, stunned. The compliment was huge—even if it was a ‘perhaps’. We were talking abouttheMerlin andtheMorgan Le Fay, two of the most legendary witches in history. The witches who would eventually seal the Hellgate that I had unwittingly split wide open.
The room stilled for a second, before Morgan broke the quiet, scooping a ladle of potion into a mug. “What do you lot say we get this to Alex? After that, we’ll start lessons. The day is clearing up, and we should use the light while we have it.”
“I’ll take it to him.” I held out my hand, and Morgan passed me the cup.
As I left the room, conversation began to flow again, and my lips quirked up. No matter what happened, how shocked or out of place we were in this era, M&M’s cottage never stayed quiet for long.
I stepped outside and covered my head with my arm only to find that the springtime drizzle I’d expected had ceased. Morgan had called it.
A smile bloomed on my face as I approached the small outbuilding, excited to see my man for a moment. The main cottage was where we hung out and ate our meals with M&M. Like most homes of its time, the dwelling was basically one room with a small section partitioned for sleeping. The older witches stayed in the cottage while the rest of us shared the shack that the legends had built after Merlin experienced a vision of us arriving.
Our quarters were about the size of a large backyard shed. A tight fit, but preferable to squeezing all seven of us in the cottage. And since it was too dangerous for us to rent rooms in the nearby village, we made it work.
I knocked on the door. “Alex? Are you awake?”
“Yeah.” His tone was lower than usual.
I repressed a sigh. He’d been grumpy since we arrived in the past, and understandably so. He was stuck in a room that reeked of hay and too many bodies packed in tight. All I could do was try to be a bright spot in his day.
