Willow touched her hand.“You walked in here like you were pulled by a string.That’s no accident.”
Brielle shook her head.“Look, I’m just ...me.I work at a charity.I do spreadsheets.My life is boring.Whatever you think I am, I’m not.”
“That’s what I thought once, too,” Willow said.“Boring, until it wasn’t.”
Ursula leaned in, blunt as always.“Brielle.You’re a witch.”
Silence.Then Brielle barked a laugh.“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Ursula said.“You’re marked.The dream was a calling that you answered and the timing, the pull that brought you here—it’s all the proof you need.”
Brielle flushed.“No.This is insane.I think I should leave, I kinda feel like I have walked into the middle of some crazy melodrama that has absolutely nothing to do with me.”
“Then how do you explain this?”Saffron lifted her hand.A thread of magic curled, invisible but present, and before Brielle could protest, she rose from her chair, floating a foot above the floor.
Her gasp was sharp and human, her legs kicking uselessly.“What the fuck—put me down!”
“Relax,” Saffron said, palms open, then placed her gently on the floor.“Just showing you, giving the proof you said you needed.”
Brielle’s face cycled through shock, disbelief, then fury.“You can’t just—” Her voice cracked into anger, and something inside her appeared to snap.Her curls lifted as if in a storm, her eyes flickering green, then violet.The air tasted of copper.And then, raw and wild, she threw a bolt of purple fire straight at Saffron.
Saffron ducked.The flame sizzled past her cheek, leaving a scorch mark on the wall.Instantly, the kitchen door burst open.Isaac and Nolan stormed in, wolves barely leashed, growls tearing from their throats, Jacob and Liam right behind them.Her mates placed themselves between Saffron and Brielle, their presence a wall of protection.
“Back off,” Nolan snarled.
“We will not allow you to harm our mate,” Isaac growled.
Saffron raised her hands and placed them on their backs.“It’s fine.She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Brielle stared at her own hands, horrified.Then, shaking, she backed to the wall and slid down until she was sitting, knees tight to her chest.“Oh, my god.What was that?”
Ursula sighed.“Your awakening.Stress and anger can trigger latent magic.It’s messy the first time.”She launched into her long-winded lecture about bloodlines and reincarnation, but Brielle seemed to barely hear.Her wide eyes locked on Saffron.
Saffron crouched in front of her.“You’re a witch.A reincarnated one, two hundred years waiting for this moment.And you’re the fourth piece we’ve been searching for.”
Brielle’s laugh was sharp, disbelieving.Then it softened, turned wicked.“Well.Wish I’d known that back when my ex was beating the shit out of me.Would’ve loved to fry his ass with purple flame.”
The room exploded in laughter.Even Brielle cracked a smile, tension breaking.
Willow sat beside her, squeezing her hand.“You’re not alone now.Ursula and Saffie are teaching me, so they will be able to teach you, too.”
Brielle blew out a shaky breath, then nodded.“Okay.Then let’s do this.Because I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and am on the magic witch train!”
Ursula’s smile was fierce.“Welcome, Brielle.You may not have chosen this, but it chose you.And we’ve been waiting.”
For the first time in two centuries, the circle felt closer to whole.
****
The kitchen table wascrowded, mugs of tea half-drained, plates of toast pushed to the side as the weight of history settled in around them.Isaac leaned back in his chair, one arm stretched over the back of Saffron’s, eyes drifting to Brielle.She looked smaller than the rest of them, shoulders tense, but there was a humming energy about her, like a storm barely contained.She fiddled with her mug, eyes darting between Ursula, Willow, and Saffron as though waiting for permission.
He remembered that look.Questions stacked up behind her lips, unsure if she dared to ask them.He gave her a small nod.“Go on, Brielle.Ask what you need to.You’re safe here.”
Her gaze flicked to him, then to Saffron, then back.She swallowed.“Who was I?Before this ...before Brielle Johnson.You all talk about reincarnation like it’s Tuesday.If I’ve been here before, I want to know who I was.”
The table went still.Ursula’s eyes softened, Willow bit her lip, and Saffron reached across to rest her hand over Brielle’s.
“Your name was Marion Cloughson, and you werefierce,” Saffron said quietly.“An orphan who never bent to anyone’s will.You found your power young—too young—and you didn’t wait for permission to use it.The first time you truly unleashed it, you were just a girl, and Marcus’s men had cornered another young witch.They meant to beat her, break her, worse.”
