Excerpt: The Witch’s Coven

Chapter One: Tomicka

Syracuse weather is not something I enjoy. Especially when it can’t seem to choose what it wants to do. Sophie, Salem, Kitty Sue, Dominic and Sebastian had left in a frenzy a few days before, on a mission to bring back our coven’s High Priestess, Trinity. A chill runs down my back as I think about my friend being captured by some evil psychopath. Now they’re all trying to rescue her, and left me in charge. I groan as I try to think of the next part of my current novel in progress. The stress of life makes writing extremely difficult. Usually I write some of the everyday stuff I experience with my coven. The stories my friends tell me about their magical escapades. Lately though, my muse has run away. My once feel-good tales mostly written for a younger audience giving way for a darker and more twisted story. Not my usual course of action. Lately I’ve moved into the romance genre of writing, but my current work scares even me.

“You’ve been sitting there staring at your computer for 10 minutes.” My partner in crime chimes in, handing me a cup of chai. One of my best friends, and coven mates, Josh Hamelton. Technically Salem put us both in charge of the coven, but Josh doesn’t like to be in control of other people.

“The story is not like my usual ones. I don’t know what’s happening.” I sigh, sipping the warm liquid.

“Good or bad?” He asks, sitting next to me to read the words I’ve managed.

“Not good. A little girl being held captive. The mystery to me is why. You know I hate writing about people I don’t know.” I grumble. Ever since I was young, my stories seemed to come to life… literally. Anything I would write would suddenly come true. Only my parents and Josh know of this weird quark of mine. Usually I can control the stories, creating those Happily Ever After endings. It’s also why I chose to write stories from my friends’ tales. If the event already happened, the writing wouldn’t come to life. Josh easily skims the couple pages I’ve been able to write.

“Do you think this is a past, present, or future problem?” He asks, pulling out his phone. He types something into his search engine, awaiting my response.

“I think either present or future. You know I struggle with tenses in my writing. Whoever she is though, I’m worried. I’ve never written about someone so young.” I frown at the page, reading my description of the character. A little girl, about the age of 4, and in a dark place. She’s scared, crying and calling out for her mommy.

“Nothing in missing persons yet.” Josh says, his hand caressing my knee. My cheeks blush profusely. He and I have been playing this cat and mouse game for months. I had promised myself when I joined Starlight Coven that I wouldn’t catch any feelings for any of my coven mates. Josh joined about a month after I did, and something about him just clicked with me. I’ve been fighting it for over a year, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to make me break my promise. 

“Why does this keep happening to me?” I whine, throwing my head back trying so hard to ignore the sparks I feel from where Josh’s hand is sitting.

“Is she the main character in this story?” He asks, ignoring my childish behavior.

“No.” I chuckle in irony. “You and I are the main characters. Of course I’ll have to change the names when I send it to my editor.” A frown forms on his very handsome face, his chocolate eyes scanning my short story. His long, brown hair in a cute little ponytail at the back of his neck. I adjust my glasses, trying to distract myself from checking him out.

“It would be more helpful if you could write addresses or street names.” He growls trying to find anything in the story to help.

“It’s obvious this hasn’t happened yet, so I won’t be able to write that stuff. It wasn’t even like my normal process. I don’t even remember writing half of this.” I shrug. He looks over to me, the cute frown still on his face. Kind of makes me want to kiss him and see if the frown is permanent.

“So, you stopped writing when the MC goes on a stroll and meets some mysterious creature?” He says reading the words off the screen. I shrug again. I don’t usually stroll, and the thought of going out in the cold makes me shiver. We had gotten at least 4 feet of lake effect overnight. Since writing is my main job, that doesn’t affect my work, but Josh was told not to bother going into the fire house unless he gets paged. It’s funny that a witch who specializes in fire magic works as a firefighter.

“I don’t even know why I typed that word… stroll…are we in an English romcom?” I roll my eyes. Josh moves his face from my computer, his eyes calculating.

“Should we call some of the others? We could do a small circle, or see if Mia’s scrying skills have improved.” He suggests. I can’t help the giggle that escapes. 

“No, I think I’m going to stay in my nice, warm apartment. I shouldn’t have even called you about this until I wrote more.” I sigh, wishing my fingers would start typing away again. Josh had braved the shitty roads to come over when I called him about this particular novel in progress. I’m not surprised, but I shouldn’t have wasted his time.

“You know I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to hang with you, Cupcake.” He winks. I lightly punch his shoulder at the stupid nickname. It wasn’t even meant to be cute as he gave me the nickname for eating half a dozen cupcakes in about 3 minutes once. I love cupcakes. He moves to my couch, away from my writing desk. I get up from my rolly chair to join him, cuddling up to his chest. So our cat and mouse game isn’t so much a game as it is me being stubborn. He’s patient as hell with me, knowing that all I would have to do is make one move and he’d be all in. His phone dings, ending our small cuddle session.

“Work calling?” I ask as he moves from the couch and heads to my door.

“Chief decided that we need to go in for a meeting. Since the roads are plowed and it stopped snowing.” He sighs, bundling up. “Maybe I should move to one of those Southern states that close everything if there’s a centimeter of snow.” I laugh again.

“I remember a time in high school when I swore school would be closed because there was like 6 feet of snow, and the bus still rolled down the road. I was so angry.” I smile moving to open my door for him. “Drive safe. Text me when you get to work.” I get on my tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“You only kiss me when I leave. That’s very unfair.” He says before adjusting his beanie. “One of these days you’re going to let me kiss you whenever I want.” I roll my eyes again before shoving him out my door. That boy drives me crazy. His fire boils my water. He can also do a hell of a lot better than some water witch who writes premonition novels and can’t stand working a real job. My writing pays the bills… barley. My parents have supported me my entire life with my writing. They never understood how the stories were so realistic. I move back to my computer and close my eyes, allowing my fingers to move over the keyboard.