Bound by Shadows

Magic confers an unnatural beauty on everyone with talent. Everyone except me, that is. I’m a witch, to be sure. No doubt about my birthright. When I was young, Mother hid me away until I was old enough to hold a glamour to conceal my flaws.

And hold it I did for many a long year until I grew sick of siphoning off that amount of magic on something stupid. I was a valued Coven member. Surely, they’d accept me. And my wolfie familiar. All witches have them, except most are cats or birds. Something small, manageable.

Eh. Getting off track here. The unpleasant truth was the moment I sloughed my glamour, the council held an emergency meeting. The next day, I was out on the streets. They booted wolfie along with me.

No more home. No more sisterhood. Hah. What a joke all those of years of bonhomie turned out to be. If I sound bitter, darned right I am. Bitter and moving forward.

I’ll show them if it’s the last thing I do.

Actually, these days nothing is enough. I’ve done a fine job alienating everyone who ever cared about me, from the witches in my Coven to the man I love to my wolfie familiar. Mother’s familiar left, winging a path to Faery. My wolf made it abundantly clear he’d have gone with her except the familiar bond doesn’t allow that level of latitude.

He howled up a storm about being stuck with me, and then quit talking.

Meanwhile, the babe growing within me is equally silent. He misses Damien’s soothing voice, mandolin, and Fae love. I’m under a geas to return my son to Faery the second he’s born. Ha! They’ll have to find me first. No power words in the universe will make me relinquish my boy.

Hecate still rattles around in my mind. I’m done with her. If I hadn’t allowed her in, I’d still be in Faery with Damien’s arms around me.

Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda. Talk is cheap.

Pregnant. Nowhere to call home. No money. Nothing but my magic. Somehow, it will have to carry us through.