Page 111 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

“You’re the first, handsome. The last too. I was saving it for someone special.”

“This is one of the weirdest fucking conversations I’ve ever heard,” Corey muttered.

He stood between Sven and Rooke, watching our exchange.

Wild stopped touching my weenus, and I lowered my arm. Maybe that interaction was… unusual.

Sven clapped Corey between the shoulder blades. “That might be the first time you’ve sworn since becoming Positive Patrick, man. I feel like I have my friend back.”

“You don’t. It takes two to be friends.”

Sven’s grin widened. “He’s still wearing linen pants,” he confided to the rest of us. “But he’s getting there.”

Rooke moved forward to hug me. “I’m sorry about everything.”

“How did the chat go?”

She drew back, and her expression was sad. “He’s pretty closed off about it. He’ll come around.”

After that, there were only hundreds of other coven members to go through the same process with. Then magus from other covens when Frond told the original coven. Then the supernaturals I was in alliance with.

Everything could fall apart because of what I was. This coven could be slaughtered or enslaved because of my secret.

Varden’s voice floated across the knolls. “Please meet in the meadow for our group healing.”

Wild took my hand, and we walked down the slope to where the coven and our guests had congregated. Once there, Rooke took my other hand, and peace trickled through me. I shared bonds with these magus, and I was touching them both. If anything could settle my discomfort, this was it.

“High Esteemed,” Varden said from the opposite side of the circle. “Might you do us the honor of selecting minerals for this healing?”

I wasn’t picking moss agate again, that was for fucking sure. That mineral did shit all for my negative energy last esbat.

Summoning salt, I surrounded the entire coven in a ring of it; then I placed a Howlite to the north, chosen for its ability to calm the mind and bring clarity, comfort, and balance. A black tourmaline went to the south—protection of our home. Rose quartz went to the east for instilling loving energy in the coven.

On a whim, I called forth one of my four relics—the unidentified gem. The gem hummed at my touch, calling to my magic, and I realized anew how much there could be to explore with Ryzika’s relics. For instance, I felt certain on an untapped level that using the divination gem tonight would help to shift the energy in the coven from stagnant and chaotic to harmonious. The relics could probably do a whole bunch of stuff.

When I found time—if that ever happened—then I needed to play around with these things.

I set the gem at my feet on the west side of the circle.

There were murmurs at my choice.

“Let us begin,” Varden said.

The coven and our guests were joined together. We were one, and I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the positive of that occurrence. A lot of people in this coven didn’t agree with me, but even Spyne had attended tonight.

I started the process of drawing my magic into my center. Our center.

Once that was achieved, I found doing that much wasn’t enough. Looking to my bond with Wild, I discovered him waiting on the other end for me to join him. We began the walk to center our mating bond too.

Existing in that space didn’t come with a sense of passing time, and when I retreated to myself again and opened my eyes, it was to find Wild and me bathed in the moon’s light. The rest of the coven and our guests had finished some time ago, by the looks, but everyone continued holding hands, watching our display. Unlike before the Mother’s healing, I didn’t feel bothered by their perusal. If the first mated magus couple was standing in front of me, I’d look too.

I should be more understanding of their interest.

The coven remained still in the light of the Mother and her moon for a while longer before Varden’s soft words filtered across the meadow. “A beautiful esbat. One to remember. And now, we celebrate who we are and what we have been gifted with, our treasured guests alongside us. Let us eat, drink, and be merry.”

Rooke squeezed my hand before leaving for the food tables with Sven. Most here wouldn’t have eaten all day as part of purification.

“You feel better,” Wild stated.

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