Page 17 of Spirit Witch

I didn’t know how much of this I had, but I was going to damn well find out.I was tired of being a coward and the sixth wheel in our group of non-conventional witches.If Rio could figure out how to use her powers after life as a normal, and Mabe could overcome her hunger, and the others with all the trials they had to face could pull through, then I could and I would do my damn well best to find out how I fit in to the grand scheme of things.

Everyone had a purpose, right?

But sometimes, it wasn’t easy to see.Sometimes a witch had to go on a journey of self-discovery, something they had to see through before that purpose became clear.This was my time and my mission.

Chills danced up my spine that had nothing to do with the flurries on the ground or the bite in the air.

This part of the Winter Forest looked like something out of a storybook.And not necessarily a nice one.The trees here were tall, and mostly bare since it was the dead of winter.A few mountainous pines hovered on the periphery, but it was mostly black walnuts, oaks, and the like.

I’d been walking for about half an hour, following the little dot on my phone that told me where my destination was.It didn’t operate on cellular data or satellite, but on some magical network we used here on campus and in the surrounding woods.I was just lucky the thing still worked with all the strain on magic lately.

I stopped when I got to the largest and prettiest tree in the area.My breath got caught in my lungs and a smile crept over my face.

“An everbloom tree,” I whispered to myself, afraid I would break something by speaking too loudly.

It was the first time I’d seen one this big, and I meant big.A truly magnificent specimen, way bigger than the towering redwood trees I’d seen through pictures of California.

Everblooms were like evergreens in that they never lost their needles or leaves, or the fat, pink blossoms that dotted every branch.With the smattering of snow and ice covering it, it looked almost made of glass.The only colorful thing in the quiet forest that was mostly white during this time of year.

I wondered if dream boy had seen it and winced at the ridiculous nickname I still sometimes called him by, even if only inside my head.My throat tightened and my mouth went dry.There was definitely something between us, but I couldn’t quite grasp what it was.It should have been impossible.I mean, I had surely never met him before.

How could I have forgotten someone like him?

I couldn’t deny he was the boy from my dreams.Just like I couldn’t deny seeing him stirred feelings I didn’t know if I’d ever felt for anyone else.I was drawn to him, curious, but inside of that desire was also pain.Like looking at him made me sad for all the time I’d spent without him—which, for all intents and purposes, was my whole fucking life.

I felt a little crazy, to be honest, and wary, as I walked closer to the assigned meeting place.After weeks of Fin sending out feelers to his Enforcer connections looking for the Lorekeeper, he’d been completely shocked when the Dusek family had reached out.Enok confirmed the Dusek Clan had produced the most powerful and reliable Lorekeepers in all the magical world.I had no idea what a Lorekeeper was until Maia explained it to me.

“Picture a recorder, like a digital recorder, that just takes everything down and keeps records for future generations, except this recorder is living.Lorekeepers keep records of everything within their reach for the magical world.The title is held by certain supernatural families, and the position is handed down from one generation to the next, though sometimes it skips a generation.”

“So, you’re saying Judge is like a giant tape recorder?”I asked dumbly.

“I would have said digital recorder,” Rio mumbled.

“Or like a GoPro,” Jade added.

“Really?You guys are lame.I would have said he was a fuckable recorder.A leather wearing, tattooed, long-haired, totally fuckable recorder,” Tana replied.

Her words were followed by the unmistakable roar of her mate, and a hastysorryfrom Tana soon after Brandon came storming in to take his mate and toss her over his shoulder before heading to their bedroom, where he undoubtedly showed her just who was fuckable.

Everyone erupted into fits of giggles.I discovered Judge was not just a figment of my overactive and undersexed imagination.He was, in fact, the new Lorekeeper of the Dusek Clan, grandson and successor to Roald Dusek, who I then learned was infamous for his role in recording both Witch Wars.

“Who’s that?”I’d asked after Jade made the announcement.

“Fuck, I keep forgetting you were raised among humans,” she mumbled.“The Dusek Clan can trace their roots back to ancient native Leni Lenape tribe sorcerers who inhabited this area long before Europeans came here with their own brand of witchcraft and wizardry.There is a legend about a tribal elder and a Celtic witch falling in love and claiming each other under the red full moon.It caused quite a scandal back then, so big was the spike in magic, it was said to have attracted the angels themselves down from the heavens.”

“Angels?”

“I know!Isn’t that something?I mean, at this point we’re crossing cultural, ethnic, religious, and magical barriers, and this was way back, like when the Nina, the Pinta, and Santa Maria touched ground here!”

“So, that couple were Judge’s ancestors?”

“Yep.And ever since, the Dusek Clan have been their own entity, separate from the Council of Covens and beyond our laws.They are known as the Lorekeepers because their history spans centuries before the Europeans arrived, and they’d managed to save and collect all those stories passed down through oral traditions for future generations to learn and inherit.Isn’t that incredible?”Jade asked, practically vibrating in her seat.

It was truly amazing, and for the first time I was confronted with the very real power I’d felt emanating from Judge, even when I thought he was just a figment of my imagination.I’d never purposely tried to use my magic.That was simply a fact, and I was not out for sympathy or a hall pass on why I sucked at controlling my powers.I just didn’t know what they were.

My friends were much better at all this witch stuff than I was.I mean, as far as they were concerned, I was just a girl from the human world who’d seemingly lived her whole life thinking she was a normal.They knew about the whole foster home situation and that I had issues with my memory.But they didn’t know about my secret ability to see fades, or to remember my dreams.

The other thing I learned was the Dusek Clan was famous for its Spiritwalkers.That was a sort of witch or wizard who had the ability to walk between different realms of existence.My heart pounded so hard inside my chest when Maia had shared that bit of news.It was like I had heard that term before, and more than that, I felt a deep affinity toward it.

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