Juliet

It was intoxicating standing that close to him. Juliet could barely breathe. With her hand on his strong upper arm, she felt like her world was on fire. She also couldn’t believe that she’d just let it slip that she was a phantom. She wasn’t even totally sure he understood what that meant, which might be for the best. It freaked a lot of people out that phantoms tapped into their ancestors’ powers in order to use their own—dead people were never really a fun topic to talk about.

“I think you’re overreacting, Juliet. It’s not that I don’t believe you that your cousin’s into some dark stuff she probably shouldn’t be, but this is Crescent Valley. For God’s sake, we’re standing in the middle of a winter festival with candy cane lights overhead and people walking around with snow cones. Nothing bad happens here. It’s kind of the reason that the Bradwick family has stayed here so long. We’re in a bubble of complete blissful ignorance. Why would Maxine try to come here and shake that up?”

Juliet shrugged. She let go of his arm and turned away. “I don’t know. It’s just weird.” She turned back towards him, imploring him to believe her. “It’s like since I’ve been here, my magic has just been stronger. I don’t use it often enough, and I know that’s on me that it doesn’t work so great, but I get these feelings in my gut sometimes. And the thing about my gut, Cole, is it’s never wrong.” He moved closer to her and once again, she felt her breath catch in her chest. Staring into his dark gray eyes, she felt herself falling right into them.

“What does your gut tell you now?” he said, barely above a whisper.

She leaned in, hoping that their lips would brush against one another just for a moment. “A lot. So much and not enough.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, willing him to kiss her. And suddenly, his lips were on her own, but instead of the warmth of another body that she expected once again, a spark erupted between the two of them.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, biting down on her lower lip. “What the hell is up with that?”

Cole laughed, shaking his head and holding his own lip with his gloved hand. “I wish I could tell you I knew. Because all I want to do right now is kiss you. But I really don’t want to have a burn mark afterwards.”

Juliet pushed him playfully. She licked her bottom lip and felt the cold air with her tongue. It had been a fairly warm winter in Virginia, but tonight, it was oddly brisk. Like a deep chill was settling over the town. But maybe it wasn’t just the weather, maybe it was Juliet’s gut telling her more than she was willing to realize.

“Cole, we have to find Maxine.”

He sighed heavily. “Well, I was planning on eluding my family anyway. This wasn’t really what I had in mind, but I’ll follow you anywhere. Where do you think she might be?”

Juliet walked around the fountain to see Irma sitting on the bench. She had already nodded off, which wasn’t surprising, so Juliet continued to scan the crowd, looking for her cousin’s dark figure. Instead, her eyes settled on a young woman with shoulder length chestnut brown hair. While the festival was bustling around her, she seemed to be frozen in place, standing still among the rest of the crowd. She also had a panicked expression on her face that told Juliet something was very wrong with her.

She pointed her out to Cole. “Do you see that girl? Do you know her?”

Cole shook his head. “No. But what’s wrong with her?”

Juliet closed her eyes for a moment, trying to feel if there was any magic coming out of the ground. A sure sign that a spell had been cast on the woman. But they weren’t close enough. She looked around the crowd one more time to see if Maxine was watching the woman, but she couldn’t find her. Stealthily, she wove in and out of festivalgoers until she stood only a few feet from the woman. Here, the ground practically reverberated with the magic that had been done to her.

“She’s been spelled,” Juliet said just above a whisper. She turned back to see that Cole was standing behind her protectively. His eyes were constantly shifting back and forth as if he was assessing the situation.

“What does that mean?”

Juliet closed the small gap between her and the woman in front of her. The girl had on a deep burgundy coat with her hands hanging by her side. That was when Juliet followed the line of her body down to the ground, where she saw splatters of blood on the white snow. “She’s bleeding!”

Cole immediately stepped forward and scooped the girl into his arms. It looked completely effortless, but he had a pained expression on his face. “Something’s wrong. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Well, I told you she’s been spelled!”

Cole shook his head, continuing to scan the crowd around them. A couple people stopped and pointed. “Well, I don’t totally understand what that means, but it’s not good.” He raised his voice a little bit to address the Crescent Valley citizens. “She’s fine, just had a little too much of the winter festival wine! Heavy drinker, this one. We’ll just take her home.”

Juliet turned on her heel and hustled out of the town square towards a quieter alley where she could focus. Once under the twinkling lights between the market and the flower shop, she turned around to look at Cole and the girl. But suddenly, they weren’t alone.