Chapter One
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“Change is coming,” Eloise Goodnight said to her sisters. “There was blood on the moon last night.”
As the oldest of the three, even if only by a few seconds, she’d always considered herself the caretaker of the group. Minerva had a tendency to leap first and look later, and Lily was so sweet Eloise was always afraid someone would take advantage of her. So the responsibility fell to her to keep her family safe above all else.
“I saw it in the scrying mirror last week,” Minerva piped in, stocking pumpkin scented bath salts onto the shelf.
Even on a casual Sunday morning, Minerva looked paparazzi ready in black leather pants and knee-high boots with wicked heels. Her raven-colored hair was parted down the middle and fell to her waist, and her snug top showed an impressive amount of cleavage. A complete waste in Eloise’s opinion since Minerva would have to go into the city for anyone to notice her cleavage at all. Of the three of them, her middle sister was the one who got a kick out of looking the part of a witch. At least the commercialized version of it.
The fall was a busy time of year for Witch Hazel, and though Cauldron’s Hollow didn’t have the kind of population that would normally support a specialty bath and body shop, their online orders more than made up for it. And it was Eloise’s job to make sure the supply met the demand. The shop was her baby—her creation—and the products she sold made from a combination of her own hands and magic.
She mentally calculated how much more of the fall themed salts and lotions she’d have to make to fill all the orders and started a new list on the inventory sheet attached to the clipboard in her hand.
“Minerva, if you saw the blood moon last week why didn’t you say something?” Lily said, admonishing her gently. “You know how Eloise worries.” She softened the statement by handing Minerva two more glass jars of bath salts out of the box on the floor so she wouldn’t have to bend down.
Lily wasn’t quite as tall as Minerva’s six-feet, but she wasn’t far off. But where Minerva was statuesque, Lily was built like a dancer. Her white-blonde was pulled back into a ponytail and her jeans and Boston University sweatshirt had both seen better days. She wore no makeup, but she didn’t need it.
Eloise had always thought it dreadfully unfair that as the oldest she hadn’t inherited height nor an ample bust size. Her sisters had gotten her share in both departments.
Minerva shrugged and kept stocking. “Sorry. I’ve been distracted lately. Something is weird with my magic. I’m not seeing things how I have in the past. It’s like there’s a thin film over everything, so I can only make out shadows and shapes.” She admitted it nonchalantly, but Eloise could tell she was genuinely upset over the changes in her magic.
“Sometimes seeing things differently isn’t a bad thing,” Lily said with encouragement. “Maybe your magic is growing and you just haven’t gotten a grasp on it yet. Mom always said it would change as we age.”
Eloise looked up from her inventory list when she felt Lily’s magic reach out and brush across her skin, soothing them with a feeling of peace and happiness. This was Lily’s gift—taking away the hurts and disappointments from every day life—but in Eloise’s opinion, sometimes the hurt was necessary to forge the correct paths in the road ahead. It wasn’t an opinion in which Lily agreed with her. But still, it was hard to fight the gentle balm of Lily’s magic.
“Well, the blood moon was clear enough through the haze,” Minerva said, straightening her spine. “Something is coming to Cauldron’s Hollow. But I don’t think it’s all bad. Like I said, the vision was hazy. Which is why I didn’t bring it up.”
“Perfectly understandable,” Lily agreed, her dimples fluttering.
“Hazy or not, it won’t hurt to do a protection ritual,” Eloise said, practical as always. “Better safe than sorry.”
“Agreed.”
“It’s another week until the full moon.” Eloise went back to her inventory list, making another list for the supplies she’d need to gather for the ritual. “And another week of cooling temperatures. There was frost on the ground this morning.”
She shuddered at the thought of performing the protection ritual when the moon was at its highest and the night at its coldest. “There’s nothing I like better than standing outside naked and getting frostbite on my nipples.”
Minerva snickered and dusted her hands off, and then hauled the empty boxes back behind the counter.
“If it makes you feel better I think those nipples are going to be getting warmed up pretty soon.” She waggled her eyebrows playfully and Eloise put her head back down to make her lists, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks. Minerva was always trying to set her up with someone. Unfortunately, Cauldron’s Hollow wasn’t exactly teeming with single men under the age of forty. Or hell, even fifty. She wasn’t so picky about age.
“Good grief, Minerva,” Lily said. “That is not a mental image I needed to see. Though I’m very happy your dry spell will be coming to an end, Eloise. Mom always said sex was like magic. If you don’t practice then you eventually lose the ability all together.”
“Oh, she’s going to be getting a lot of practice,” Minerva smirked. “But word of advice. You might want to start growing your hair out. Otherwise it’s going to be really hard to cover the beard burn. Thank goddess it’s scarf weather.
“I thought your visions were hazy,” Eloise said, raising a brow. “That seems like a very specific detail to me. Or maybe your magic is rising to a whole new level. Maybe you’re going to become the equivalent of a magical peeping Tom. Women will be coming from miles around just to see when their dry spells are going to end.”
“Shut up, Eloise,” Minerva said. “And make fun all you want, but I know what I know. Along with the shadows that are hovering over Cauldron’s Hollow, I also saw love and light. And you were right at the center of it all. And it’s about damned time if you ask me.”
“I’m pretty sure no one asked you. I don’t have time for any of that nonsense. The potential threat to Cauldron’s Hollow should be our first and only priority.”
“She’s not saying it’s not,” Lily interjected, playing peacemaker as usual. “But there’s no harm in opening yourself up to something that could bring you happiness. What happened with Sam is well in the past. But you’re living in fear of what was instead of looking to the future.”
Eloise cocked a hand on her hip and stared down her sisters. “Spend the day with Minerva and Lily, Eloise. It’ll be soooo much fun.” She rolled her eyes and dragged the empty boxes back into the storeroom just to escape for a moment.
The mention of Sam’s name still brought grief and fear into her heart. Which was why if there was any chance another man might get in between her and the safety of the people she’d sworn to protect, she had to cut it off before it began. The last time she’d fallen in love she’d come too close to losing everything she held most dear. And that included her meddlesome sisters.
When Eloise came back from the storeroom she was composed and had her shields wrapped tight around her. She knew how to control her emotions. With her kind of power she’d had to.
Minerva and Lily both looked at her with mirroring guilty glances and she felt bad for being abrupt with them. They only had her best interests at heart. Maybe they were right. Maybe she was still living with the fear of the past. But those mistakes were what made for a cautious and protected future.
“Listen,” Eloise said. “All we need to worry about is the blood moon and anything else that might seem out of place. We need to stay focused and keep our eyes open. The anniversary of The Reckoning is only a couple of months away. We don’t want to get caught off guard like our ancestors were. You guys and this community will always be my priority, no matter what the scrying mirror says. You know as well as I do that free will can change the course of what you see in the mirror.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s right,” Minerva said. “Just make sure that hard head of yours knows what its doing. You have an awful lot of life left to live with regrets.”
“I already have a lifetime full of them. I know what I’m doing.” Eloise ignored the sad and somber stares from her sisters and smiled. “Now who wants lunch? I’m starving.”