Serendipity (Bayou Magic 3)

The field behind Miss Sophia’s house is alive with activity. Two big, white tents have been set up with tables and chairs, and each is full of supplies for the dozens—maybe a hundred?—witches who’ve come from all over to help us.

Lucy stands next to a table with Mallory Boudreaux. They managed to accumulate hundreds of pieces of black tourmaline, and Lucy is busy casting her immortality spell on all of them.

When she’s finished, she turns and yells so everyone can hear her.

“I want you all to come and choose a piece of this schorl. You can have any piece that speaks to you. It will protect you tonight. Don’t lose it.”

I brush my fingers over the auralite stone that Daphne gave me just a couple of weeks ago. Has it only been that long? It feels like months.

Where are you?

I smile at the sound of Daphne’s voice in my head. This morning, after meditation and coffee, Lucien led us in the spell that opened our minds to each other. It’s better than any cell phone service.

In the farthest tent. Headed back toward the house now.

I walk past several people I used to know when I was a child and stop to say hello, shaking hands and offering hugs.

I’m grateful. That’s what it boils down to. All of these people took time out of their lives, some even traveled thousands of miles to be here with the six of us. To help us face the toughest battle of our lives.

How do you repay something like that?

“I know you have plenty of pieces of protection on you,” Miss Claudette, an elderly woman who has to be in her nineties says as I pass. “But I put some extra blessings on this worry stone. Just tuck it into your pocket.”

“Thank you, Miss Claudette.” I lean down and kiss her wrinkled cheek, slipping the smooth stone into my pocket as I turn to go and find my love.

Suddenly, the edges of my sight turn gray, and I know I’m being sucked into a vision—a premonition.

Wind. So much wind, I can hardly catch my breath. He’s trying to fight us, to keep us from being able to defend ourselves against him. I hear screams, but they’re not human.

So many spirits rush around us—his army, doing their best to frighten and disarm.

But we’re not in Miss Sophia’s field. We’re standing before Daphne’s childhood home. Lights flash like lightning inside the house. Shutters fling about, and shadow spirits float in and out, all around the old house.

“The new moon phase is here,” I hear Lucien shout. “Everyone, take your marks!”

Suddenly, we’re plunged into darkness when the shadow of the Earth completely covers the moon, turning it an ominous red.

Lucien lights the torches with the wave of his arms, Millie raises her hands high and directs the wind.

We hear a horrible scream, and then, suddenly, we’re under attack by wolves, ravens, and bats. I watch in horror as an enormous gray wolf charges Daphne and bites her throat, tackling her to the ground.

“Jackson?”

I blink and frown at Lucien.

“We need to talk with the others,” I say immediately. God, my heart is hammering, and I’ve broken out in a sweat. “We have this all wrong, Lucien.”

“We have two hours,” he says, his voice full of frustration. “What do you mean we have it wrong?”

“Wait. We’re linked, but you couldn’t see the premonition?”

He just shakes his head in frustration.

I need all of you. I reach out with my mind, calling to the others. Meet me at the house.

Lucien and I jog across the field and meet up with Cash and the women.

“It’s damn weird having y’all in my head,” Cash says and props his hands on his hips.

“What’s wrong?” Daphne asks.

“You look horrible,” Brielle adds, scowling at me.

“I had a vision.” I take a deep breath, trying to calm my heart rate. “We can’t do this here. Not here. Not at Miss Sophia’s. It has to be at the old house. At your childhood house.”

Daphne goes pale and shakes her head. “No.”

“It makes sense,” Lucien says. “It started there. It should end there.”

“I hate that you’re right,” Millie says and shares a look with her sisters. She reaches for Daphne’s hand. “We can do this. It’s going to be okay. We have to alert the others. We have to get over there right away and set up. I think the sound system is ready to go.”

“Someone brought a sound system?” I ask Cash as Millie rushes away.

“It’s easier to talk to a hundred witches with a microphone,” he says with a nod.

“I need your attention,” Millie says. She holds a black mic and waves her free arm to get everyone’s attention. “We have to move our location.”

She explains what needs to happen, and I expect everyone to groan and be irritated, but that’s not the case at all.