Chapter 3 - Sean #2
“Ritual?” Arianna asks, echoing my thoughts, to which Emily nods.
“Please forgive me for being so sneaky about it, but I really wanted to be sure that I actually had magic before telling you guys about it. That’s why, when Delphine showed you your grandmother’s book, I sneaked a peek at it and found a ritual to unlock my powers.”
“That’s so sneaky,” Gwen says, then grins. “But I love it!”
“So, did the ritual work?” Delilah asks as she takes Emily’s hand and leads her to the couch.
Emily glances over her shoulder at me, then shivers. “I don’t know. I just performed it last night, and I was…” her voice tapers off as she turns back to Delilah. “I was interrupted.”
“I had no idea you were performing a ritual to unlock your gifts, Em,” I say in defense, raising my hands in a show of surrender, and everyone turns to me. “I thought it was…some kind of medicine.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Arianna assures me, then turns back to Emily. “All that matters is that it worked.”
Emily hangs her head to stare at her palms. “I don’t think it did,” she murmurs disappointedly. “Well, not as quickly as I was hoping it would.”
“Donna’s grandmother’s book, you said?” Delilah asks, nodding at Gwen, who sifts through the pile of books they’d brought along that lies heaped on the coffee table now.
“Maybe we can perform the ritual together this time,” Delilah suggests as Gwen passes her the old leather-bound journal.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Emily concedes, and Delilah goes through the book, searching for the particular ritual.
“Yo, Em, this is great!” Hunter beams at Emily. “You’re a witch, too! Now the group is complete.”
I smile, my chest filling with that same pride, along with the intense need to keep Emily safe. I know it’s my inner wolf encouraging this feeling, but it’s too intense, and I’m mentally swearing to protect her at all costs.
“I always knew Em was special…” I praise, the words filling my chest and reaching my lips. “This just proves it.”
Emily avidly averts her eyes, not meeting mine, and instead turns to the book Delilah is paging through.
“Wait!” she squeals with a hint of excitement as she presses a finger onto a particular page.
“Here it is! The ritual I found. Nettle tea brewed with cinnamon bark, and hibiscus waimeae tea steeped for a week,” she reads from the book.
“Add honey, and seven rose petals crushed under the full moon. Mix and drink the potion, and the magic will be unlocked.”
Emily looks up with an eager smile, but Delilah continues to read the page, a frown growing on her face.
She turns to the previous page, then gasps.
“Em…?” Delilah turns her head slowly, shock widening her eyes and paling her face. “You used this ritual to unlock your powers?”
“Yeah. Why?” Emily turns to the page Delilah has open, her face paling too as she lifts her head slowly, eyes meeting Delilah’s.
“Shit….”
“Shit,” Delilah agrees with her, then turns her attention to me. Hazel brown eyes pin me in place as if I’m a culprit of some heinous crime.
“You said you interrupted Em while she was performing the ritual last night,” Delilah says to me, and I nod slowly, confused as a frown knits my brows.
“Yeah, I did interrupt, but it wasn’t on purpose,” I say defensively, taking a step forward and glancing at the guys in confusion. They seem equally confused.
“It didn’t have to be on purpose,” Delilah sighs, and turns to Emily, who still looks like she’d seen a ghost. “Did you, at any moment since you drank the potion, have any physical contact with Sean?”
Emily looks up, her eyes blank as she stares at me and blinks. “Y-yes.”
“I took the vial out of her hands. I was curious to know what she was doing. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” I raise my brows at Delilah. “Did I?”
Delilah stands up and swiftly moves toward me, lifting my hand while placing the back of hers on my forehead. “Are you feeling fine? Do you feel any different? Have you had any weird sensations since last night?”
I frown at Delilah. “I feel fine, D. What are you on about?”
“Maybe it didn’t work. Maybe—”
Delilah cuts Emily off, even as she stares into my eyes. “It did work, Em. I can sense it on him.” She turns back to Emily then, and hangs her head. “Unfortunately, he’s bound to you.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on?” I ask, stepping between Delilah and Emily.
Emily drops her hand into her hands, and Delilah places a hand on my shoulder.
“The ritual Em performed wasn’t to unlock her magic,” Delilah explains, but it still makes no sense, so I shake my head.
“I don’t understand. She just said ‘drink the potion, and—'”
“The magic will be unlocked,” Delilah finishes for me. “But not that kind of magic. Not in the literal sense, anyway.”
Arianna shifts toward Emily on the couch, then lifts the book from her lap.
“Oh.”
Behind them, Gwen and Donna peek into the book from over Arianna’s head, and both say, “Oh.”
Emily finally lifts her head and meets my eyes for the first time this morning, and my heart skips a beat. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s as if everything around us fades into a blur, and the only thing I can see is Emily.
“The ritual I performed was a binding spell,” Emily whispers, and Delilah pats my shoulder.
“It’s called the lunar binding spell, performed on the night of a full moon.”
“Binding spell?” I ask with my frown so deep, it might well become a permanent fixture on my face.
Emily shoots to her feet in front of me. “I’m sorry. I must have been in such a hurry that day that I didn’t realize I was looking at the wrong spell.”
“I still don’t understand what the fuss is about,” I direct at Emily. “Can someone please explain what’s really going on?”
“The lunar binding spell is a love spell of sorts,” Gwen explains, standing up beside Emily. “It’s meant to bind two souls together. I’ve heard about it before.”
My breath catches in my throat as I stare at Emily, but again, she can’t look at me.
“Can it be undone?” Emily asks, to which Gwen shakes her head slowly.
“My grandmother didn’t write a counter spell for this one…” Donna says as she flips through the book.
“We can figure something out,” Delilah assures her, but Emily is on the brink of tears now.
“What does this mean for my powers?’
“Well, considering you’re a wolf, whose soul is now bound to Sean’s, you’ll need him to activate your powers. Think of it like the fated mate bond,” Delilah explains, and Emily’s face turns white.
Neither of us has ever mentioned the history we share to any of our friends, even when Emily joined black ops a year after I did. That night in the woods—the night of Mother’s funeral—became a silent oath between us to keep our history a secret.
They have no idea that we once shared a bond.
A bond so strong, I could have sworn it was the fated mate bond, until I rejected it by rejecting Emily as my mate.
I see the horror in Emily’s face, the pain contorting and twisting her face, and I can’t stand it. I wish there was something I could do to take it away, to take her worries away.
“How long will it take to figure out a way to undo the spell?” I ask the witches, hoping this will remove Emily’s worries.
Gwen replies, “A week or two.”
“But in order to successfully break it, Emily won’t be able to use her powers until then,” Delilah says.
“Yes,” Arianna agrees. “If she does, it will only strengthen the bond between you two, and it’ll make it harder to break.”
Dominic steps in then. “We don’t have time for this. We need Emily. We can’t wait that long.”
“Dom is right,” Nicholas agrees. “Time isn’t on our side. We need Em more than ever.”
An anguished squeal escapes Emily’s lips as she sinks onto the couch. “I can’t believe I made such a huge mistake. I’m an idiot,” she groans, throwing her head back into her hands.
I know Dominic is right, but if Emily uses her powers right now, our bond will be stronger.
It’s not like they know we already have a fated mate bond that’s been rejected. It’s like a double-whammy, and we’re caught in the middle of this terrible mess.
As I stare at Emily, who looks defeated, a realization hits me out of nowhere.
Wait.
What if I can use this to my advantage?
I know…I know…
It’s a dick move to make, considering she made it abundantly clear she doesn’t care that I’m crazy about her.
But apart from having this binding spell cast on me, I wanted a second chance with Emily as soon as I was sober the next morning, five years ago.
It was always out of reach, naturally, because there’s no coming back from the things I said to her that night.
Now, the opportunity has presented itself for a second chance, and I can’t let it slip away.
Not like I let her slip away from me before.
“I think there’s only one obvious solution,” I say with a firm tone, and everyone turns to me. Standing tall, bold, and certain—perhaps because of the binding spell that’s forcing me to see only one clear path—my eyes go to Emily.
She lifts her head slowly, eyes disoriented as she meets mine. Perhaps it’s her sadness, that desolate look of defeat in her blue eyes, that has me agreeing with my inner wolf.
“If there’s no time to figure out a way to break the spell, and if Emily needs me to unlock her powers, then I think it’s pretty obvious. Emily and I will get married.”
Silence falls over the room, but it’s only Emily’s reaction that I’m concerned about.
And she is spooked again.