Divination (Spells and Sins)

Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

"In the dark, truth hides not from sight, but from certainty."

Elysia

I swallowed past the lump lodged in my throat. How did she know about the visions? But then again, the woman standing before me matched the silver-eyed beauty in my scrying bowl. Her long silver hair was so similar that her eyes nearly glowed as she held my gaze.

She squeezed my hand and leaned forward, her lips so close to mine as she whispered, “You’ve been in my visions, too. I don’t know why, but you have.”

Holding my breath, my thoughts raced at the speed of light. Living in a small town, you didn’t exactly explore your sexuality. I’d always wondered what it’d be like to date a woman. The men I’d had in my life were lackluster and didn’t quite know how to treat a woman.

“I—Well, how…” I sputtered as she finally drew back allowing air to enter my lungs again.

She ran her thumb over the back of my hand. “I know. It’s a lot to take in. The elders sent me to recover a powerful artifact. I think it’s somehow linked to the chaos threatening both realms.”

“Elders? Realms?” I asked.

“Oh dear.” She brought her other hand up to cup mine. “This is getting all messed up. I’ve crossed over from the land of Faerie. Our two worlds are connected and depend on each other.”

My palm sweated within the two of hers, but I resisted the urge to pull away and wipe it on my skirt. It meant losing this connection to her that I wasn’t quite ready to give up. Her skin buzzed against mine and I felt her magic swirling beneath her skin. Never in my life had I ever touched anyone and felt the sensations coursing through me that I did right now.

Was she in my vision—not as a threat to me—but as someone I was meant to find?

“Wait, you mentioned something about an artifact?” I let out a shaky breath and finally removed my hand from hers to wipe it dry. The lost contact seemed to make my magic spaz out, bouncing around within me, and zapping my insides. “Ouch!”

“Are you okay?” Lunara laid a hand on my forearm and everything calmed.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah.”

This time, when she took her hand away, my magic didn’t rebel. I still felt the loss, but my body wasn’t trying to kill me from the inside out. “So, the–uh–the artifact?”

“I’m looking for—” She bit her bottom lip, and I inwardly groaned. “I don’t even know if I’m allowed to tell you about it.”

While I could sense she didn’t quite trust me, something told me I could trust her. I didn’t want to due to all these peculiar unknowns, and I had every reason to boot her out of my cottage, but I wouldn’t. “You can trust me.”

Indecision flickered in Lunara’s eyes, but then she squared her shoulders. “I’m looking for the Starfire Orb.”

“An orb? What is it for?”

“I’m not sure. The elders told me about it and I’ve searched my realm high and low but it’s nowhere to be found.” She paced momentarily, as if something more was troubling her, but as she returned, she stopped mere feet from me. “The only logical explanation is that it was brought here and hidden from us…by witches.”

“I’ve never even heard of it.” Did Morgana know anything about it? She was our high priestess. Surely if there was an object of that much importance, she’d know something.

“I believe you.” She moved to lean her back against the kitchen counter next to me. “Something tells me that together, we can uncover whatever these visions mean and thwart this impending threat.”

I glanced over at her, letting my eyes roam up and down before settling on her gaze again. She was a few inches taller than me, but with both of us slouching against the counter, we were more eye to eye. “There’s definitely something coming and it’s already been here.”

Lunara nodded. “I could feel its presence when I stepped into this world.”

“One of my coven sisters went to warn our high priestess.” My eyes searched hers, then took in the pale, almost translucent skin, of her face. It was flawless. Her hair was tucked behind one of her ears and I could see they were somewhat pointed, but not like I’d seen in the movies. Maybe everything I’d heard about the fae from fiction didn’t have any grain of truth.

“Good. The more eyes and ears we have watching, the better chance we’ll have of figuring things out, but we’ll need to be careful.” She ran her hand through her hair, bringing a lock of it forward to toy with mindlessly. “I can feel your magic.”

“And I can feel yours when we touch.” My cheeks warmed, no doubt turning bright red. It was a simple sentence, but my mind had taken it elsewhere.

“What if—” She chewed on her bottom lip again. “I mean, if we could combine our powers, it would be legendary.”

“Why?” Witches combined powers all the time when they needed to pull more resources to finish a spell, but I wasn’t sure if combining my magic with a faerie might bring about something more sinister.

Lunara shifted and was instantly in front of me, her hands on my shoulders, eyes glowing with power. Power I could now feel humming through my body. “No fae and witch have ever worked together before.”

While that statement only added to my unease, her hands warmed my skin beneath my cardigan, soothing my nerves.

“We could work together, fight the darkness, and…” Those glowing silver eyes shifted nervously back and forth as she searched my face for the right words to say.

“And?” I asked, my mouth was suddenly dry when she ran her tongue across her lips to wet them.

“And maybe along the way we can discover whatever this is…” She leaned closer, stealing all the air from the room before she finished, “...between us.” Reaching up, she lightly ran two fingers down my cheek, sparking something low in my belly that went beyond this mission she wanted me to help her with.

Closing my eyes, I savored the contact. I couldn’t deny this connection with Lunara. She’d been in my visions and now she was flesh and blood in front of me, touching me, watching me. When I opened my eyes, I found her closer than before, noses nearly touching.

Heart pounding, I closed the distance, our lips softly touching at first. Such a simple act, yet it lit up my soul. Her hands sank into my hair and pulled me closer as she angled her head and deepened the kiss.

The temperature in the room plummeted and I pulled back on a gasp. That was not the reaction I was expecting, but then my brain caught up with the events. “Shit!”

“Did I do something wrong? I’m?—”

“We need to hide.” I frantically searched my cottage.

“What?”

Something scratched the window in the living room, and I gasped.

“Here,” I whispered. I yanked her along and then pushed her up against a wall cloaked in shadows to conceal us better. Only half the candles still burned within my circle. The other half had long since melted down and extinguished themselves.

Lunara’s teeth chattered as she tried to get out, “Is th-th-this w-what ha-happens when that th-thing is near?”

“Yes. I reinforced m-my wards, but I honestly d-don’t know what w-we’re up against.” Well, I was up against Lunara. I at least knew that much. Yet even with her body heat coalescing with mine, I couldn’t keep my teeth from chattering.

The front of her molded perfectly to my form as I pressed her into the wall. This wasn’t exactly the time nor place to be in such a compromising position, especially with the impure thoughts I had running through my head.

Her nipples must have felt the chill as well, because I could feel them through the fabric of my shirt where the cardigan didn’t meet, which did nothing to keep those lascivious thoughts at bay.

“We need to get somewhere more concealed. Somewhere warmer.” And I needed somewhere that didn’t require me to be plastered against her side. I tugged her to the coat closet, hurrying us both inside.

Lunara’s arm brushed my chest as she tried to situate herself more comfortably in the space, but with the cottage being so small, there wasn’t much room in the closet. We’d jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, but at least we were better concealed.

More scratching noises continued around the cottage.

“Ma-maybe it’s just a tree limb?” But even as she said it, I could feel her tuck herself in closer to me. Perhaps it was for warmth, but maybe it was because she was scared, too.

I shook my head only to realize she couldn’t see me in the dark. “The trees aren’t close enough to my house for that.”

“You’re right.” She wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned her head against mine. “I can feel its rage.”

“You can sense it?”

“Yes.” She shivered against me. “It’s a vile, disgusting thing, sinister enough to send a shiver up your spine.”

“Is that why our teeth are chattering?” I managed a nervous laugh at my own joke.

I felt her hair move against my skin when she must have nodded in response.

As another scritching sound reached our ears, Lunara pulled me closer. “Do you think it’ll leave soon?”

“I don’t know, but we should have a pretty good idea when things start warming up.”

Lunara wiggled against me and then her lips brushed the shell of my ear. “Well, now. I mean, I think things are kinda starting to warm up already.”

Unfamiliar with attention from the same sex, I laughed nervously. “Yeah, uh… maybe we should consult my coven to see what can be done?”

“About warming up?” Lunara ran a hand along the top of my skirt, then brushed her fingers against the skin under my shirt.

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the onslaught of images in my head. Us, in the closet, ripping clothes off and roaming each other’s bodies without breaking our kiss except to get our shirts over our heads. Were these my own thoughts or was I somehow seeing what Lunara was thinking?

I didn’t know.

Did I want to find out?

Suddenly, I was warmer, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it was because the shadow creature had left or due to Lunara’s flirtatious attention.

“No,” I finally managed to say. “We—we should ask them about this thing , but I’m not sure how we can leave when we’re trapped in the closet.”

“Elysia,” Lunara breathed against my cheek.

“Yes?” I whispered back.

“You should come out of the closet.”

I choked on a laugh. “I see what you did there. Does that mean you will, too?”

She cracked open the door, slipped out, and gestured for me to follow. “Oh, I already did … ages ago.”

“Lunara! Come back in here before you’re spotted.” The curtains on each window were practically see-through and if the enraged creature was still out there, he would easily see her.

“It’s fine.” She tucked her hand into mine, whispered a small incantation, and suddenly I could no longer see our joined hands, or even her for that matter.

Where the fuck had she gone?