The Coven: Book 1 | ✔️

Chapter 21 - Alchemy and Tarot

Taehyung was furious at the whole situation. The house used to be quiet and calm before Amelia. Now, it was starting to be too loud for him.

He hated how Jin so simply had given all his trust to Lucy. And Taehyung wasn’t dumb, his brother’s looks towards the Witch were pretty obvious. The man was balls deep in love with her and it made Taehyung want to leave the place. That whole concept of Witches being their mates was complete bullshit to him…

Besides, the place was starting to get crowded. If this kept on, might as well turn the house into a hotel.

He didn’t hang out much with the girls, probably only involuntarily spending time with the girl in glasses, Emily, since she was almost always in the office, reading. Mina was a bit too quirky for him, so he distanced himself. And Lucy… well, that one just stayed in the library. She was mysterious as hell.

For now, all he could really do was deal with it. Not like he had anywhere else to go anyway. Might as well stay for now.

Right now, he was in the game room, just watching a random movie. Oddly enough, Mina was in the small table in the center, seated on top of the dark blue carpet, leaned over a beautiful set of Tarot cards. He saw her taking notes once in a while, so he guessed Mina was doing a pretty serious reading.
He remembered Seulgi doing Tarot readings…

For the hundredth time this month, the doorbell rang.

Taehyung rolled his eyes and groaned, turning off the TV and getting up. Mina, from her place, giggled.

“I think you’ll like this visit more than you think, Taehyung.” The redhead said, not taking her eyes off the cards.

“The hell does that mean?” He grumbled.

“You'll see. And you’ll be grateful for it.”

Taehyung simply rolled his eyes and left, seeing Lucy reach the door on the foyer and open it. That was when he stopped walking.

He actually had to check twice.

At the door was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen… The woman was of small stature, with dainty, delicate curves, her hair a soft caramel like color, falling in soft, natural waves all the way to the small of her back and hips. He noticed in a daze that she had a little, small braid falling on her shoulder with a red feather tied to it. Her features were almost pixie like, with a small button nose and small mouth, her lips perfectly even and with a brown tint to it.

Her eyes were violet… a soft tone of amethyst.

Taehyung was awestruck, even bumping into one of the columns near the stairs because he wouldn’t stop staring.

“Lucy!!” The new arrival squealed happily, lunging forward and wrapping her arms around the much taller woman.

Lucy froze and went stiff, a little uncomfortable with the sudden, unwelcome hug. The guys started to pool out of the living room and the kitchen.

“Oh, Luna’s here!” Emily perked up from behind Yoongi, leaving the office.

Lucy stiffly patted the back of the girl and cleared her throat. Luna, it seemed, let go of the Witch and smiled wide while almost bouncing in her feet. She seemed the very enthusiastic type, full of energy. Her amethyst eyes turned to the rest of the people.

“Everyone, this is Luna!” Lucy said, still a little uncomfortable that Luna had hugged her so suddenly “She’s a hugger… And she’s also the Alchemist we were waiting for.”

Luna looked around for a second and then slightly bowed and waved. As soon as she saw Jin, though, Luna went wide eyed, mouth dropping in surprise. She squealed again and ran off to the guy, hugging him tightly.

“Ha! Now, that is the proper way to greet me!!” Jin replied, hugging the woman back, lifting her up slightly.

From the office, Emily showed her tongue to Jin and Mina flashed him the middle finger.

“I haven’t seen you in so long!” Luna said, her voice melodic and singsong like, with an elegant British accent “Why didn’t you tell me you've been living so close to me?!”

“I didn’t even know you were in America, how was I supposed to do that?”

Jin started to introduce the guys to her, with Taehyung finally coming out of his trance and moving to go upstairs, after nodding at her.

“Nice to meet you all! So! Why was I requested?” Luna happily started, shifting to turn to Lucy.

“I need you to make a big batch of a specific potion.” Lucy replied, her tone serious “We need Moon Flare.”

“Right away- “ Luna’s smile disappeared instantly, growing concerned when the realization of Lucy’s request dawned and her, looking over at Emily and Mina “Who…?”

“Amelia.”

“Oh, no… Alright, I have the ingredients, I'll start right away. I need a few drops of her blood, if you please. Can I use the kitchen, Jin?” Luna turned to Jin and then followed him when the vampire directed her there.

“Huh! So, that was the person we were looking for?” Yoongi asked, looking at the newcomer, curious “No wonder we couldn’t find her, she’s tiny as hell!”

“Oh, don’t comment on her height, my guy. Unless you want her to poison your food so you'll shit fire for a week!” Mina said, giggling and turning to go back to her cards in the game room.

“Uh… Would she do that?” Yoongi turned to Emily.

“Yes. Yes, she would.” Emily smiled at his reaction and went back to her book in the office.

Mina settled in the game room again, laying out the cards one more time. At this point, the readings were too jumbled up to make sense. She was laying them out mostly for fun, now, the last one she had made being on Taehyung. It had been confusing… except for Luna in his near future. Movement by her side, on the couch made her look beside herself, growing surprised when seeing Jimin sitting down.

“Hi.” He mumbled, a little flustered and uncomfortable.

“Hi yourself!” Mina smiled up at him and then turned back at her laid out cards.

“Uh… What are you doing?” Jimin asked, peering to look over her shoulder and look at the beautiful golden and navy blue cards.

“Doing a Tarot reading. It’s not very reliable, though, I've done a few already and they kind of mess up together.” She explained, hovering one hand over the card before turning it.

Jimin was a little fascinated. The cards had beautiful drawings on them. He had a little notion of what Tarot was, but no idea what it meant or what it implied. The fact that Mina knew of it and could do readings actually made her even more fascinating in his eyes.

“I didn’t know Witches had to know these things.” He murmured, looking at her flip another one and an angel like figure appear.

“Not that we do.” Mina leaned back on the couch, taking a break from the cards and leaving some unread “Amelia doesn’t like Tarot, for example. She couldn’t do a reading. However, she learned how to read tea leaves and a little bit about runes and crystals. She’s also very good at offensive spells and curses. Emily is good at spell casting, and also knows a lot about runes. But, well, Em is basically the brain between the two of us.”

Jimin was suddenly entranced in her voice. Hearing her speak was fascinating. He was drinking in the information, wanting to learn as much as he could from her. About her.

“What about you?” He asked, his curiosity growing.

“Me… My magic is very temperamental, like my personality. I'm a bit of hot head, in case you haven’t noticed.” She smiled and Jimin couldn’t help but smile along with her, lowering himself so he was sitting on the floor beside her “It took a lot for me to be able to get some sort of control over my powers. Lucy discovered that rituals were a way for me to channel my powers and help keeping them controlled. That made me get really good at them. And I'm a Tarot nerd! Oh, and I can read your coffee grinds!”

She raised an eyebrow and nodded, as if mockingly bragging about it.

“What can you see in the cards?” Jimin asked, loving the way she sounded so enthusiastic about the matter.

“Well, you can’t see the future. They are a way to see guidance in your life, a way to see your path. They are influenced by the way your life is at the moment, so if you’re going through some sort of big change, the cards will be like a spiritual guide to you. It's not like you can ask what will happen in the future or if you'll meet your soulmate tomorrow.”

Jimin was slowly getting more and more interested, listening to her ramble about how the cards worked, what some of them meant. Mina didn’t let him touch the cards yet, saying they would be influenced by his presence.
He also learned that Mina owned a Tarot card set that had three hundred years… and they still looked good and proper.

“Do you think you could do a reading for me?” Jimin asked, growing hopeful and smiling at her.

Mina gave him a little resentful smile.

“No, sorry. I've done too many, today. I would only mix your reading up with mine and then nothing makes sense.” Mina replied, bringing her hand up to his hair and combing the silky strands once. When Jimin pouted, she released a breathy laughter “Don’t do that, I'll feel bad.”

“Don’t, it’s okay.” Jimin quickly answered, leaning in a little bit to feel more of her skin.

“I can do a reading another day. I went a little ham, just now. Maybe in two days, I think?” Mina stretched her arms above her head, stretching herself languidly.

“That’s fine.” Jimin observed the column of her neck, the soft, silky skin stretching all the way down to her chest. She wasn’t wearing his sweater today, sticking to a loose black shirt with a v neck and a little pocket on the left breast, along with comfortable jeans.

And she was always barefoot.

“Can I ask you something?” He asked, now feeling more comfortable around her.

“Of course!”

Mina began to gather her cards from the table, quickly gathering them and piling them up on top of each other. She threw him a soft smile, waiting for him to speak.

“Are you okay? After yesterday, I mean. Emily…” Jimin trailed off, seeing Mina slow down her movements “Em told me you were crying.”

Mina sighed and leaned back against the couch again.

“I… I was okay, after a while. I kept thinking that I was the one that made you like that, that you stopped because of me. And I never consider people’s feelings for me.” Mina looked down at her cards, starting to shuffle them mindlessly “I’ve also never been rejected by someone, so to speak.”

That made Jimin go a little stiff.

“You didn’t hurt me, Mina. You didn’t do anything.” Jimin said, frowning a bit “What happened wasn’t because of you.”

“You looked terrified, Jimin.” She whispered, looking at him with a sad expression.

“I can’t tell.” He stiffly let out, immediately regretting it when she nodded and looked away “No, I can’t, yet... I don’t like talking about it. I want to. With you, I want to tell you, just not now.”

Mina smirked a bit and shifted so her body was facing him, one arm on the pillow of the couch, temple supported on her hand.

“You really wanna tell me?” Jimin nodded, maybe a little too quickly, and Mina giggled, lifting her hand to pass it over his hair again. Jimin seemed to lean towards her hand again “When you’re ready, I'd like to hear all about it.”

He smiled, blushing slightly and nodding. Finally, some sort of relief in his chest.

Amelia rolled her shoulder for the hundredth time. Her body was sore again. It was starting to become stiffer as well. She hadn’t been coughing out blood or throwing up these past two days, but Amelia knew for a fact that sooner or later it would happen again. And much worse too. She still hadn’t told anyone, and it seemed Taehyung didn’t either.

Coming down the stairs, Amelia noticed a funny smell coming from the kitchen. Well, if Jin was experimenting again she was okay with trying it out… although the smell wasn’t the best.
Getting close to the kitchen, she heard a soft hum. Luna.

The Alchemist was in the kitchen, her utensils, cauldron, herbs, jars with shifty contents and small crystals were taking over the island counter. The smell was coming from her cauldron, which she was stirring mindlessly, while humming softly to an ancient song. Like usual, the girl was wearing casual funny clothing, this time with a brick red dress that reached her feet and a sleeveless wool cardigan. She looked like a miniature hippie.

“Amelia!” Luna called, her voice soft and warm.

“Hi, Luna.”

“Oh, my little sweet bee!” She said, coming over quickly to wrap Amelia in a big hug.

At the same time Luna started to distribute little pecks all around Amelia’s face, Jungkook arrived, frowning slightly and smiling at the scene.

“Jungkook- Oh, my God, Luna, let me breathe! This is Luna, she’s the Alchemist!” Amelia said, interrupted by Luna’s constant kissing.

“Yeah, I met her when she arrived.” He answered, reaching for the fridge and then smelling the air, scrunching his nose “What’s that smell, though?”

“That is the potion for Amelia!” Luna quirkily replied, smiling and hugging Amelia again, her cheek squished against the girl’s “It will help slow down the decaying progress for her.”

“Okay… it smells bad.” Jungkook unceremoniously said, scrunching his nose again.

Luna giggled “It does, but it sure is effective. It's almost done, don’t worry.”

The girl finally released Amelia and went back to her concoction in the cauldron, stirring it again. Amelia eventually sat with her, on one of the high stools with Jungkook casually asking questions about what the Alchemist was doing.

It was always kind of fun to see Luna working, seeing it was so different from what Lucy had taught her. Luna drew her powers from the Earth. She was what people would call a druid, maybe a Wiccan, to be more modern. She had no actual magic like a Witch, her potions were composed of ingredients given by nature.

While Alchemy used Nature to its advantage, Magic distorted Nature. Both still depended on it.

Amelia ended up being called by Lucy and Luna was left alone in the kitchen again. She moved a little, singing to her crystals while she waited for the potion to hit it’s perfect point. Luna had felt good energies from each and everyone in the house. Jin knew how to pick them well, that was for sure. And she also had felt how strong Jungkook’s bond was with Amelia, just now.

Ah, about time for her girls to start to settle. Especially Mina… that one really needed it.

Luna took a whiff of the liquid in the cauldron, growing slightly nauseous. Bloody hell, this potion smelled horrendous! But it was done… and now she kind of felt bad for poor Amelia, who had to drink it.

After extinguishing the fire that kept the cauldron boiling, Luna began to open the cabinets, looking for a mug or glass. She hated kitchens she didn’t know. Her own was always neater and much easier to find things in to. It also didn’t help that Jin’s ceilings were tall and all his cabinets were made for his own height. Meaning… she could barely reach them.

“Can I help?”

The deep, smooth and low baritone voice at the door of the kitchen startled her. Luna almost slipped when being caught off guard, quickly turning to the door, only to have a little brain fart.
The man at the door was beautiful… Taehyung, the vampire she'd barely seen at the entrance, was standing at the door, one hand in his pocket and the other with his phone, a curious expression on his eyes. Icy blue eyes staring at her intensely. Luna almost shrank in size right then and there. Those were the most intense blue she’d ever laid eyes on.

“Oh… Uh, a glass?” She managed to mumble, still a little awestruck.

“Last cabinet to your right.” He answered, nodding gently towards said cabinet.

Luna did a little ‘oh’ and was quickly moving to said cabinet, opening it and humming at the sight of the glasses. And next she was hopelessly reaching for them, standing on her tippy toes and stretching all her body to be able to merely graze the base of them with the tips of her fingers.

Steps alerted her, hearing them get closer and then stop just beside herself.

The presence and strong scent just beside Luna was enough to tell her it was him, Taehyung. He smelled of dark wood, spices and a sweetness she couldn’t quite pinpoint. Like his scent was matching his aura. It was a dark, indigo blue, thick and foggy. A dark secret surrounding him, like a shield, but that managed to pull her in, at the same time.

It was like being lured in by the beautiful, fascinating predator.
Luna had time to look up and see him a bit closer, noticing the perfect heart shape of his lips, the gold tone of his skin-

Her stupor was interrupted by the sound of the glass being put down on the counter.

“Sorry for the trouble.” She found herself whispering, stiff as a board and with her hands close to her body, almost trying to keep them from reaching out to him.

“No problem.”

A string of goosebumps and tingles erupted all over her skin, reacting to the sound of his voice. It was a deep, smooth baritone, warm and sensual, that had her blinking a couple of times before nodding.

He nodded once in response and moved swiftly to go to the fridge, promptly choosing to ignore her presence. But the moment he passed by the island counter, his nose picked up on the ghastly smell of the potion brewing inside her cauldron. Luna saw him turn to look at the source of the smell, nose scrunched and a look of disgust twisting his beautiful features.

“What on Earth… What the hell is that?” He asked, bringing one hand to his mouth to block out the smell.

Luna approached the island counter and covered the potion, a little nervous when being so close to him.

“That… is the potion for Amelia.” She cautiously mumbled, starting to tidy up some of the stuff that was still laid out on the kitchen island.

“That? What even is in there?” Taehyung asked, a little fazed with the putrid smell coming from the very dubious liquid content that was in the cauldron.

Luna tilted her head “It’s probably best you don’t know.”

“And that’s going to help her?”

He seemed a bit skeptical about it, frowning at Luna. She shrugged a little, closing her book of notes and making the place a bit neater.

“Well, that aren’t many illnesses that can struck a Witch, but the few that do, are fatal. And not very pretty. My grandmother made Moon Flare for a Witch that was dying of Bloody Fever, and when it helped with her pain and decaying, my grandmother thought it could help with other diseases.”

To the explanation, he seemed to be pensive. Taehyung glanced at the cauldron before looking at her again, still skeptical.

“You spoke of diseases. Amelia isn’t sick, she had her powers stolen.”

“But her body is reacting the same way as if it was sick. The potion will help her either way.” Luna smiled a little to how curious his eyes seemed to get.

Taehyung was definitely smarter than what met the eye. His eyes had knowledge in them, probably much different that Luna’s, but still. And he looked quite curious about her words.

“Hum… I didn’t know Witches could get illnesses.” He finally mumbled, moving to open the fridge and get a soda out.

“Not human diseases. Their genes are different.”

Taehyung hummed again, then raising a perfectly shaped brow.

"As long as it helps her, right?”

“And it will, I know it.”

He actually stopped midway to bringing his soda to his lips to glance at Luna a bit properly. Taehyung was a tad confused with himself. Luna’s presence was… soft. It was like the woman herself was made of a soothing balm that helped his anxiety and had him feeling calmer. And he had noticed how her scent was beginning to feel appealing and alluring, a sweet mixture of chamomile and sage, with other herbs he was able to identify as rosemary and lavender. He could guess she always smelled of one herb in particular, depending on the herb or tea Luna had been working on.

And it was hard to understand why Taehyung indeed liked the very presence of Luna right beside him. All things considered, he was determined in his feelings of wanting her, along with her Witch friends, gone and far away from his home.

He saw Luna sniff a couple of times, her nostrils flaring up only slightly as she took in several the smell of something.

“Do you paint?”

Luna’s question pulled him out of his trance, blinking a couple of times before locking his eyes on her amethyst ones. He cleared his throat.

“Y- Yeah, I do. Why?” He replied, now wanting to avert her stare.

Those amethyst eyes were much more intimidating than he expected. It was like Luna was glancing into his very own soul.

“Hum. I thought you did.”

Taehyung was mildly confused, tilting his head at her “What do you mean?”

“I could smell it on you, turpentine and pigments.” She said, grabbing a couple of jars and opening them to grab a few leaves and place them inside a small little pouch that Taehyung hadn’t seen her grab “It could help with the smell of the chemicals if you burn incense, but some have a strong smell, so this is better.”

With very expert hands, she quickly, moved from jar to jar, picking a few leaves and petals to place them inside the pouch. When she was done, Luna used twine to close the little pouch and then proceeded to give it to Taehyung.

“What’s that?”

“Sage, rosemary, rose and bay leaves. Burn some in your room when you paint, that way you won’t feel the smell of chemicals as much.” She extended the little object to him, eyes still attentive and serious.

“Why would I need that?”

“Well, if I can smell it, imagine your brothers. And, it’s good for banning bad energies and protecting too, so that’s a plus.”

Not only were her eyes captivating, but her voice was keeping him from wanting to leave. It was like the soft summer breeze that swept your hair gently, leaving warmth behind on top of your skin.

He hummed, accepting the little pouch, from where a soft and appealing scent of herbs and flowers. It almost smelled like Luna…

“Right. Thanks, I guess.” Taehyung mumbled, beginning to make his way out of the kitchen.

“You’re most welcome. Oh, and Taehyung?” To her call, he looked back, frowning a little “Do you think I can see one of your paintings, one day?”

He blinked, confused at the question, before his brain began to form an answer.

“The library. The painting with the vase of peonies and lavender. I painted that one.”

Luna smiled… her face lit up with a delicate blush, amethyst eyes brilliant as she nodded in response. For some reason, that made his chest strange, stuffy and heavy, like his heart was suddenly weighing a little more in its place.

This was wrong. He didn’t like Luna in his home, nor did he like to have the Witches here. Taehyung just wanted them gone. Luna, in particular. He didn’t trust her.

~Sass 😘
(Why is dialogue between Luna and Taehyung so hard?!)