Page 77 of Bewitched By the Voodoo King
Rune’s gaze was stormy, but his words were the opposite. “You are welcome in my coven, but we have rules.”
My grandfather wrapped his arm around my grandmother’s shoulders. “Curses aren’t in our cards. We lost entirely too much when we took your magic from you.”
Grandmother’s face fell. “We lost you, and we want nothing more than to get some time back, if we can.”
I blinked back the moisture in my eyes. It was another step toward forgiveness and a better future. I didn’t trust myself to speak, so instead I nodded.
My parents hugged me goodbye and promised to call more often. I didn’t know how much I believed them, and I told myself that I wouldn’t hold my breath, but at least it was something.
An Uber pulled up and took my parents away, all while we watched them go. Rune pulled me to the side and hunched down to my eye level.
“There’s still time for you to go,” he whispered.
I frowned, and my stomach lurched. Did he not want me? “What?”
“If you want to go, I will release you from the contract. The last thing I want is for you to feel trapped. You fulfilled your end of the contract, but all I want is for you to be happy. If that means you going back with your parents, I don’t blame you.”
All the moisture in my eyes that I had been holding back came flooding forward. I threw my arms around his neck and shook my head. “Rune, I don’t want to leave you. They aren’t going back tomyhome. They’re going back to theirs.”I peppered kisses against his jaw. “Who would have thought I would have been bewitched by the Voodoo King?” A small giggle escaped me.
He pulled away from my face and grinned. “I guess we need to tell the rest of the coven then.”
All I could do was press my lips to his.
Enchantedlight pink petals fell from the sky as we were paraded down the Quarter. All of our friends and close family were right on our heels as the Jazz Band before us played a lively tune. It was the best way to end the happiest day of my life.
Though we’d beenmarriedper contract for a year now, Rune told me countless times that I deserved more than a piece of paper. I argued him up and down over it, that I didn’t need anything special to commemorate our union, but he wouldn’t hear it.
With Adelle and Rene’s help, they planned a wedding I never knew I needed. Tears blurred my vision as I held a white parasolover our heads. Rune wore an old school suit, and my wedding gown was a flowing boho masterpiece that kept me cool but still hugged my curves in all the right places.
Even though Rune insisted I didn’t need to make my own wedding cakes, I was insistent that I needed to. They were waiting for us at the end of the first line we were dancing in. Maggie was a force to be reckoned with as she flew about the kitchen all week preparing for this exact moment. She was putting on a feast, and my mouth watered just thinking about it.
Rune’s dark shadows and my golden light stayed woven together. No matter how far apart we were, our magic was always together. It was honestly a testament of how far we’d come and a pillar to look to when we had our disagreements. Though there weren’t many, they did come every once in a while.
My family and grandparents marched behind us in the second line, their faces lit with joy and wonder at the life I’d created for myself. The last year with my grandparents living in the coven wasn’t easy, but it was needed. We met to learn about my magic each morning over beignets and coffee. We often talked about the things I’d endured because of mylackof magic, and I saw the guilt that weighed them down. With each meeting, my shoulders grew lighter and my resentment began to fade. I was healing.
Rune ran the coven with an iron fist, looking for the ones that still wanted Babette to be a part of the coven even though the ancestors took her back into the earth. I pleaded with Rune to tell the coven what really happened in the swamp that day, but he wasn’t ready. He didn’t want to hurt her family, even though they left the coven soon after she didn’t return. He was a good man who put me over everything else. His heart was always in the right place, and I was beyond thankful for his kindness. Now that we’d gotten past his broody exterior, I found that he was just a big cinnamon roll on the inside. He loved me fiercely andhardly ever left my side, and when I went to visit my nieces and nephews, he gave me my space to love my family, but when I returned, the passion ignited like we’d been separated for years.
The New Orleans coven accepted me as Rune’s wife with open arms, and though I wondered sometimes if it was because of my magic… I had more friends than I ever had before. Genuine friendships formed out of hobbies I picked up or through introductions made by Adelle and the twins.
Rune talked about kids often, and it made me giddy, but I knew neither one of us was ready for that. I wanted a few more years of getting to know him and this new home of mine.
The jazz march stopped at the coven house, and Rune leaned down to press a kiss to my lips. Joy radiated from him, and his eyes shone with love. If someone had told me this would be my life, a year ago when I showed up here, I would have never believed it. Cheers rang up behind us and I twirled my parasol around us in excitement.
Rune leaned down and his lips ghosted over the side of my neck as he whispered, “I can’t wait to peel this dress off of you later.”
Excitement ran through me at the thought. Did we really need a reception that badly?
