Life's A Witch

Epilogue

I ran through the night as quickly as I could, branches hitting my face and arms as I raced against the clock. The crackle of something being broken put me on edge. I couldn't tell whether the noise was coming from me or something else lurking in the darkness. Either way, I wasn't scared. I'd learned by now that things that go bump in the night are nothing compared to real evil. And real evil? Well, I'd vanquished it.

For now.

I squinted and fought to see as I dodged trees while making my way to my destination. I knew that if I slowed down, even just a little bit, I wasn't going to make it there in time. And that wouldn't be good.

"Come on, come on," I whispered, propelling myself forward, trying to see what lay ahead.

When I caught sight of a glow of light in the near distance, I slowed my pace and chose my steps carefully, so they wouldn't hear me coming. Sneaking closer, I peered through a few branches into the clearing.

There they were. Six bodies, gathered around a roaring fire, each with their heads covered by hoods. The light cast shadows around the clearing, making it look like the whole place was teeming with spirits. They were talking in low voices now, and I strained to hear what they were saying, almost expecting the worst.

As time passed I knew I had to act, so without hesitation I burst through the bushes, landing in a fighting stance just a few feet away from the group. Several of the figures jumped, turning around quickly to stare at me in surprise, while the others just looked on with murderous expressions as they tried to decide out what to do next.

"Okay, Had. The whole jumping-out-and-scaring-us thing was fun the first hundred times, but now it's just getting old," Jasmine said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're lucky I haven't hit you with a stunning spell yet. And trust me, it wouldn't be pretty."

"Oh, come on, guys!" I said, standing up straight and placing my hands on my hips. "I'm only doing this for your own good. You need to be ready at all times. I'm just preparing you . . ."

"Preparing us for what?" Fallon asked, pulling off his hood and leaning back until he was resting on his elbows. He seemed annoyed—which was no different from any other day really, except that ever since we'd fought the Parrishables, I'd felt as if we'd gotten past our differences, or at least taken a break from torturing each other. "Samuel's gone. You blasted him like a bug zapper, remember? He's toast. Extra crispy."

"We think he's gone," I said. "We don't know for sure. That's why we have to continue to meet. To keep watch in case he comes back."

I looked around the circle until I spotted Asher and flashed him a smile. He smiled back, patting the ground next to him. As I began closing the distance between us, my stomach filled with butterflies just like it always did when his eyes met mine. I loved that even though we'd been dating for about six months now, I still got excited every time I saw him.

Once I reached him, I sat down and his hand found its way into mine. I looked down at our intertwined fingers and felt my skin grow warm. It might have been the heat coming from the fire, but I doubted it.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," I responded, a shy smile on my face.

"Do you really think he's going to come back?" Jinx asked nervously, breaking up our little moment. I forced my head to turn and focus on her.

Jinx had been released from the hospital a few weeks after we'd gotten rid of the Parrishables, but I quickly learned it was going to take her a lot longer to fully heal. When she mentioned Samuel and the Parrishables, she unconsciously touched her hand to the spot on her abdomen where she'd been stitched up. I was sure this wasn't a coincidence. Jinx may have physically healed already, but we all knew she was having a hard time dealing with the aftermath of our war. I felt badly for her, but that was sort of why I'd been insisting on us all meeting on a regular basis anyhow.