In the Company of Witches (Evenfall Witches B&B, #1)

by Auralee Wallace

I didn’t feel up to yet another discussion about how I was doing. Besides, this was very cozy, the three of us listening to the wind whistle outside while the firelight danced over the dark honeyed walls of the parlor. It was a nice moment.

Nora’s garden was a sanctuary. There was no better word to describe it. Even though she tended to it daily, it had a wild feel, lush and overgrown. It was the type of place where you wanted to dance in the moonlight, trailing your fingers over flowers, or laze away a hot summer’s day listening to the wind rustle in the trees.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You know, you act like you’re a good witch, but sometimes I wonder.” “Don’t be silly,” Izzy said cheerily.

Izzy’s face crumpled with sympathy. I knew she meant well, but I hated that look.

But even though the pain that came with the memory was very real, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I lived with that pain every day. I just needed to keep on putting one foot in front of the other. I was fine.

The intermingled smells of orange peel, cloves, tea, and old books instantly filled me with a happiness I hadn’t realized I’d been missing.

And perhaps even more importantly, there would be nothing strong enough to compel the departed to step into the light. It had always made sense to me, and I had simply accepted it as fact. But facts have a way of providing cold comfort when you’re the one experiencing loss.

You think you can simply stop being who you are? It’s not that easy, Niece. Your magic doesn’t just die. It fights to live. But I suspect at some level you already know that.”

The memory warmed me a moment before it was washed away by the pain that always seemed to follow. I didn’t have time for that today.

“You’ve been cooking up a storm I see.” She sighed and looked around at all the dishes she had going. “Truth be told, I miss having guests. Cooking is such a simple way to make people happy, and everything is so complicated right now.”

I almost tossed the photo away, but the pull to look was too strong. I knew how much it would hurt to see it again, and normally I would have had the strength to turn away, but tonight the desire to see him was stronger than my need to protect myself from the pain.

For a moment I stood where I was. I couldn’t understand what was happening, and at the same time, I must have already known. That’s why I froze. I didn’t want to leave the moment where he was still with me to go to the next, where nothing made sense. But it did only last a moment, and then I was running. There was no thinking about it, my body just went to him. He was gone before I could get there.

Brynn, sometimes the sun lifts you up, sometimes the clouds bring you down, but if you’re a smart witch, you’ll ignore all that and ride the wind.

I had to admit my aunts were right, not about the magic, but about having a purpose. Despite how truly awful the circumstances were, I was doing something, and that felt good.

“My daughter thinks I’ve been spending too much time at the graveyard.” She looked in the direction of the gates. “I usually visit once in the morning and once at night. I like to sit with him. Keep his site clean. Let people know he was loved. Is loved.”

but there was something a bit magical about the silence of a room filled with books. You could almost feel the stories reaching out to you with romance and adventure. I smiled at the thought.

I won’t spoil the ending, but the idea behind it is that it’s hard—almost impossible really—to ever fully know someone. One person’s monster is another person’s angel.

This was the kind of gossip people spread hundreds of years ago.

I know what people think of Connie, but who she became, it wasn’t who she was. Not in her heart.

Maybe I could find my way back to that place. Losing my gift along with Adam had driven me to cut myself off from everything. But maybe my aunts were right. Maybe there was a way I could reclaim what I had lost.

“Whatever the case may be, change in families, even the good kind, can cause pain.

In the mind horrid fascinations churn In the wildfire the guilty burn.

True esteem and self-respect come from achieving something on your own. I will not limit you further by gifting you unearned respect.

It suddenly felt too quiet. Too ordinary. It was as though I couldn’t quite fathom how the earth kept on spinning when there was such tragedy playing out in the lives of everyday people.

“That’s what other people can’t understand. When you have a love like that, it never lets you go. There is no moving on. Others want you to be whole again, but it’s not that simple.” She shook her head.

“I was so angry when I was alive, and now all I can think is, what a waste.”

she always looked at me with a warm, motherly gaze. I had missed that look.

How was I going to do this? Where would I find the strength? Why did I want to do this? I didn’t get married to say goodbye.

That was the thing about grief I had come to know so well. It was always too much. The loss always too big. The pain always takes up too much space. It takes all the room you have until there is nothing left, and then it takes even more.