My mother and sisters texted and called all the witches in the coven. Iona brought her kids and husband Shane, the tech witch who’d invented the witch network. Bear arrived and Raven not long after him. The witches and shamans who made up our coven quickly filled the house.

Fifteen witches, men and women of varying and various powers, filed into the backyard. There were new witches I’d never seen before: a man in a sleek business suit in his late thirties, a college girl in a form-fitting pink dress and kitten heels, and a grandmother with long dreadlocks and a patchwork skirt.

And witches I’d known my whole life, like the women my mother had surrounded herself with from the time I was a child. Including Fox Hunter, Raven and Bear’s mother. The women had moved from the aspect of the mother to the aspect of the crone. Wise women. Healers, seers, with power over the earth and fire, water, and air.

Everyone stood in a circle around the central fire pit, humming, holding hands. I stood with them too. Even as an Executioner, I was still a hereditary member of the coven. With Raven to my left and Twyla to my right, I started to hum.

The mature weeping willow blew in the slight breeze as the golden glow of sunset cast orange light on everyone. Mature flowers and beds of wildflowers grew at the edges of the massive backyard.

The witches in the circle began to chant softly as my mother, Fox Hunter, and a third man I didn’t know drew symbols in the air with the glowing ends of burning sticks. The simple chant basically just meant “draw power” over and over again.

We channeled that energy into the witches at the center who were preforming the spell. My mother began to draw a map on the ground, as the other two continued to draw symbols—geometric signs of power.

They were trying to pinpoint a connection to the wendigo and find its hiding place. My mother etched a rough outline of our area of Oregon and pulled a heavy pendulum over the map.   

The pendulum began to swing in a tight circle over the map. The chanting grew into a crescendo as the pendulum dropped. Everyone went silent. My mother’s eyes were tightly shut. She said in a clear voice the address of the burned out house Raven had showed me.

“Underground,” my mother said. “In the darkness. Shadows. A cavern hidden under the hillside.”

Her eyes snapped open. I glanced over at Raven. “We were already there today,” I muttered, irritated that he’d distracted us from our mission.

“I know,” he said, letting go of my hand and stepping away as the circle broke and the coven began to close down the magic opened during the spell.

When the circle was completely closed, I caught Raven on the way out the side gate in the yard. The rest of the coven meandered inside to take part in the abundance of tea and desserts in my mother’s kitchen.

“Where are you going?” I asked him as I grabbed his arm. He turned to me, looking angry and distant.

“Home,” he said. “It’s late. I have work in the morning.”

“What about the wendigo?” I asked him.

“You know where it is. Go find it, Lone Ranger.” He pulled his arm away and pushed open the gate.

“Raven, come on.”

“What?”

“I need your help,” I said, weakly. Help. That was not a thing I was used to asking for. His eyebrows raised and he moved in to look at me closer.

“Did you get mesmerized during the ritual?”

“Don’t make this harder for me. Look. I told you. I got kicked out of the Executioners. I’m gimped. All I have is my natural skills.”

“So, you are asking me to help you fight a paranormal beast? You, Olivia bad-ass Fanning, is asking the squawking birdbrain to help her in a fight?”

“Raven, we used to do shit like this all the time when we were kids. Do you remember the time we pulled that prank on the werewolf pack’s alpha? Or the time we stole those totems back from that hill troll?”

He sighed. “That was a long time ago.”

“I need you now, Raven.”

He fisted his waist and stared at me, pursing his lips. “Fine,” he finally said, tossing his hand in the air. “But I’m driving.”

I followed him to his truck, texting my mother as we walked, letting her know we were going after it.

It’s dark. She texted.

I have a flashlight. I texted back.

I got into the passenger seat of Raven’s black SUV and buckled my seatbelt. Mother didn’t text again.

“They know we’re going after it.”

“Good,” he said in a low voice, turning the key in the ignition. He pulled into the road and quickly made it to the highway out of town. “About earlier,” he started.

“It’s fine. We don’t have to talk about it.”

“I’m sorry, Olivia. I’ve never been good at saying how I feel. It usually comes out all wrong.”

“How do you feel Raven?” I prodded. I knew I shouldn’t start this again. We had a mission, but part of me liked to poke at him.

“I think we have to make a decision once and for all.”

“About our bond?” I said. I looked at him in the darkness of the cab, the headlights the only thing illuminating his face as he drove. His expression didn’t change. He just picked up a cold cup of coffee from the drink holder and took a sip.

“Just tell me what you want, Olivia,” he said.

“Are you still waiting for me, Raven?” I mocked.

“I’m not waiting for anything, Livi.” His voice trailed off.

He parked off the road in front of the burned-out house and slid into the night, slamming the truck door behind him. I followed, gripping the flashlight I’d retrieved from my car. I gritted my teeth in the darkness, following Raven up the hillside into the forest. I’d been pushing him too far. I couldn’t help it. He’d kissed me.

Maybe it was the sick streak in me that wanted to taunt him or maybe it was the fact that I didn’t want to let him go. I couldn’t say out loud. I couldn’t even admit it to myself.

“Mother said there was a hidden cavern.”

“Yeah. I think I might have seen something like that the last time we were here. Come on.” He hurried down the hillside into the clearing, where only a few spindly trees grew and rocks piled under the mossy ground. “Give me your flashlight,” he said, taking it from my hand. “Look here. See the impression in the rock?”

He moved forward, and I drew my sword, taking the flashlight with me. As I entered the cave, I opened my warrior scenes, ready for any sign of my foe. Raven’s boots crunched on the rocks behind me as we entered a narrow channel that was just high enough to walk through.

The air blew past me from deep in the cave, but I continued forward, stepping over slick, jagged rocks. We emerged at the end of the channel in what appeared to be a wide cavern that tumbled off into darkness. The wind blew past me, and I heard a squealing shriek several yards away to my right.

Sinking into my fighting stance, I examined the room with the flashlight, knowing this had to be it. Grunting squeals charged at me, and I caught a glimpse of it before it smashed into my left arm and made me drop the light. It spun on the ground and smashed against the rocky wall, sending light spilling across the cave floor.

The shadow of his legs ran across the ground in front of me back and forth. With each pass, I was getting a better idea of his movement patterns. It blinked in and out as it shifted through space.

I saw a snouted face and antlers flashing in the flashlight. Raven made a chanting sound behind me, and a sharp gust of wind sailed from behind toward the beast. I snapped my head to see Raven with his hands up in the air in casting position. 

“What is that?” I said in the darkness.

“Whirlwind trap. Almost got it,” he said, his voice echoing in the cave.

I gripped my sword and readied myself to take advantage of Raven’s spell. The wendigo sped by, slashing through the leather on my arm. Fuck. Blood welled and began to trickle down my sword arm. I circled around, gritting my teeth.

“Any day now, Hunter,” I said, the wound already beginning to sting like some kind of poison.

A rushing sound whooshed past me and into a high-pitched whirl. The beast was caught. I sliced forward, but it twisted out of the trap too quickly. I’d hit it this time, nicked its arm.

Raven called as he moved forward, speaking his chant. This hands thrust forward and he caught the beast again. This time I lunged, piercing it in its side. Raven’s spell couldn’t hold it long, but it was holding it.

If I could just get a better shot at its head. I had wounded it, slowing it down. The beast burst back into form, jumping at Raven, its claws exposed. He cast his spell at exactly the right moment, and I spun around, striking its neck before it had a chance to blink out again.

Its head tumbled to the ground and the body slapped on the stone floor. Raven grabbed the flashlight from where it lay and shined it on the dead creature.

“Look at that thing,” he said, kicking the head over with the toe of his boot.

“So that was a human,” I said, not able to believe the man I’d seen at Aster’s house had turned into this.

“Haven’t had a dangerous paranormal creature like this in Portland in a long time.”

“We should bury it,” I said.

“I’ve got shovels in the car.”

He led the way out of the tunnel and into the open air. The moon shown above, casting blue light over the forest. Raven charged up the hillside, flashlight in hand. Following closely behind, I watched him as he walked through the dense forest.

Out of nowhere, he turned and stopped, stepping in front of me in the path. I nearly smashed into him but stopped short. He covered the distance between us and crushed me against a narrow tree. His breath blew hot on my skin.

Without a word, his lips pressed down on mine. His hot, hard body pushed against me, pinning me to the tree. An eruption of emotion and desire burst in my belly. Raven curled his fingers around the back of my head and angled my face up to kiss him more deeply.

I raised my arms around his shoulders as his shaft pressed against my desire. “Raven,” I whispered. His hand ran over my hips and under my shirt. He gripped me between the legs, palming my dampening heat in his grip.

“I know what you want, Olivia,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ll always know what you want.”

I whimpered and Raven slid his hand down the front of my pants, the tips of his fingers curled into my pussy. His middle finger found my nub, flicking it as his tongue flicked over mine. My nipples hardened and ached to be touched. Raven slid his hand inside my bra and squeezed, pinching my nipple between his fingers.

His stroke intensified, as did his magic flowing through his body. I could feel it like an electric charge in his fingertips and his tongue. It only made me want to kiss him harder and open just a little bit more to his stroking hands.

The well of desire inside me gushed and I moaned, wanting release. Wanting to forget the last five years of my life, the guilt, the shame. I wanted this to be like it used to be, when we were kids and everything was easy. He’d done this to me back then. God it felt so right.

I let out a shuttering moan as his fingers drew me to climax. My nipples burst with pleasure as I came all over his hand. I stuttered his name as I came, looking into his eyes as they shone in the moonlight.

My head slumped forward against his chest as he pulled his hands from inside my clothes and put them around me, holding me close to him. I could feel his heartbeat on my cheek, smell the scent of his skin. Suddenly, I felt like I’d been cold without his arms around me.

I wanted to give in, let him hold me. But even the beautiful release Raven had given me didn’t make it okay for me to stay here. I’d betrayed everyone, myself included. No one could come home after that.

“We need to bury that body,” I whispered, pulling away but wanting to stay. I slid from between him and the tree and continued up the trail to where the SUV was parked on the road.

After we buried and consecrated the body, the car ride home was all but silent, save for the classic rock on the radio. Raven dropped me off at my mother’s house. I stood with the Sword of the Dawn in my scabbard. I’d protected my family. I’d paid my dues.

I stood in front of my Camaro and knew I could leave now with a clear conscience. It was time to go.