Solstice Magic & Mayhem (Book Three Magic & Mayhem Series) Read online

  Solstice Magic & Mayhem

  Book Three in the Magic & Mayhem Series

  by

  Stella Wilkinson

  Books by Stella Wilkinson

  The Flirting Games

  More Flirting Games

  Further Flirting Games

  The Flirting Games Trilogy, Books 1 - 3

  Good @ Games

  Flirting with Friends

  Halloween Magic & Mayhem

  Werewolf Magic & Mayhem

  Solstice Magic & Mayhem

  Notice Me

  A Christmas Gift

  All Hallows EVE

  Romancing the Stove

  Bend it like a Bookworm

  If you would like to be informed immediately when future books by this author are released then please sign up to the mailing list at: http://eepurl.com/wEMmD

  Copyright Stella Wilkinson 2015

  All characters herein are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher or author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book was written, produced and edited in the UK, where some spelling, grammar and word usage will vary from US English

  Chapter One

  I paced up and down in my bedroom, hardly able to believe that at long last, after all these months of staying away from each other, and only having an email relationship, I was finally going to see Fletch again.

  Being apart was slow torture as far as I was concerned, and Fletch seemed to feel the same, but we are simply not allowed to be together. Not only were our parents determined to keep us well away from each other, but there could be disastrous consequences to our relationship, we might literally be the death of each other, and possibly blow up the world, or England anyway, at the same time.

  Because we are not normal - I, Emily Rand, am a witch; and the gorgeous Aaron Fletcher is a werewolf.

  So we are apparently fated to have to stay apart. Witches bond with an animal Familiar, werewolves are part-human, part-animal; thus if we get too intimate we could trigger the bond.

  Being bonded is bad news for Fletch because he would basically be “mated” to me for life. His wolf wouldn’t accept anyone but me after we bonded. Bad news for me because wolves like to claim their mate with their bite, and the majority of people don’t survive the transformation. Then the wolf dies of heartbreak. We don’t know if there would be much more effect on Fletch than the desire to bite me. But the real danger to life as we know it is me.

  I’m a Natural Witch, which means that I don’t have any specialist skills per se: I’m not a Fire Witch like my aunt, or a Kitchen Witch like my mother was; instead as a Natural Witch my powers are completely tied to my emotions and I can, apparently, pretty much do anything if I want it enough and channel my magic correctly.

  But from what little we know, if I took a werewolf as a Familiar then my magic would become too powerful for me to control. Major damage time.

  Thankfully society is currently completely safe from my particular brand of magic. Nine times out of ten, I can’t seem to do anything at all! I’m a total duffer as a witch; the only problem is that when I do manage some magic it never works out the way I want it to. My control is pretty crummy, so I have been sticking to very small things.

  In the five months since I last saw Fletch I have been exercising my magic “muscle” and trying to learn to control my spells, but I’m still all over the show. I can now create a wind, which is totally useless, but rather exciting. It isn’t a strong wind or anything, but I can blow over a stack of papers. I can also make objects glow, though they get too hot to hold after a while; again, this has no practical use, but I’m thrilled to be able to do it. And finally I can make a small spring of water bubble out of the ground. Which apparently combines both water and earth magic.

  This magic might sound impressive, but apparently it isn’t. It is the very simple basics of any Elemental Witch. The only thing that makes me special is that most Elemental Witches have control of only one of the four elements, whereas being a Natural Witch means I can access all four. I guess that’s cool.

  But Iris, my aunt, is a Fire Witch, and watching her makes me feel totally inadequate; she can do anything with fire, from blowing on a candle to call a flame, to full-on head-high walls of fire, simply by rubbing her hands vigorously together. I realise that it takes some practise (as well as taking it out of you physically) but I would have thought I would be a lot further along by now.

  Spell casting with a wand is still pretty hit and miss too. Basically I can do it, but it always seems to go wrong. I’ve tried writing spells, and put a lot of work into getting the wording right, but there are always bad consequences. Maybe my karma is just too murky for a decent spell cast to work. I don’t know, but it’s like some imp is throwing in extra spice to mix it all up.

  Like the time I tried to use magic to put cyan streaks in my hair. I had to wear a hat for nearly a month to cover all the blue polka dots. Or when I tried to levitate a pen into my hand and it flew across the room and stabbed me in the leg. That’s the kind of thing, so you can probably understand when I say I stick to very small things. Imagine how bad it would be if I tried to do something big like, oh, I don’t know, trying to help Fletch not to be a werewolf?

  That was pretty much where we left things between us. I tried to “cast out” his wolf for him. He ended up becoming a wolf, and we very nearly didn’t put it right in time to stop him being one forever. His parents freaked, my dad freaked, and we were banned from communicating.

  I think we would have ignored them if it hadn’t also been the safest option all round.

  There was a weird pull between Fletch and me. I would guess it was somehow connected to the paranormal because the air literally crackled when we touched. But a lot of it was emotional too, and my emotions could cause magical problems. Basically I thought I might be in love with him, and his wolf seemed to have already chosen me for his mate, but I’m only sixteen and Fletch has only just turned eighteen, so it’s kind of early to be making those kind of decisions. Especially as they can never be undone as far as we know.

  The rest of the history lesson came from a Welsh Wizard, also known at The Wolf Whisperer, because he’s fascinated with werewolves, and being psychic he can understand them, and other animals too. He told us the information about how dangerous it was for a witch and a wolf to ever bond. He had some old books with some rather scary stories, and so Fletch and I had reluctantly agreed that it was safer if we stayed apart. Far apart.

  But what was the harm in a few emails, right? As long as we didn’t actually see each other. The harm was that it just wasn’t enough. I seemed to yearn for him all the time. His emails were the highlight of my everyday life. How sad is that?

  I last saw him in November, and for nearly six long months we’ve stayed away from each other, but it just hasn’t gotten any easier!

  So when Fletch emailed and asked if he could come and see me on his way back from Wales after the May full moon, I caved in and said yes.

  Last night was the full moon. Every month Fletch drives from London to Wales and goes to stay with Brian (the Welsh Wizard) for the full moon change, and “runs” with the Black Mountain Pack.

  Dremouth, where I live in Devon, isn’t exactly on his way back; in fact it’s over two hours out of his way and then the same again back to the motorway afterwards. But
he said he didn’t care. He said he would happily add the almost five hours to his journey just to spend an hour together… how could I say no?

  It had taken some planning, but it was finally going to happen. I didn’t want my family to know I was seeing Fletch, and luckily my Dad and Claire, his girlfriend, were visiting her parents for Sunday lunch, and they were taking Duncan, Claire’s son, with them, much to his obvious reluctance. So I had the house to myself for at least a few hours.

  I had actually tidied up, especially in my room, and I had taken a really long bath, and buffed every inch of my skin out of nerves, before eventually settling on an outfit that covered more than it revealed anyway. I was dressed very casually in a long baggy jumper and leggings, because I didn’t want Fletch to think I was all dolled up just for him. But I couldn’t help filing my nails and polishing them, and fussing over my hair and makeup the whole morning, trying to look the best I possibly could without looking like I was trying too hard.

  Annoyingly, just before Fletch was due to arrive, my Familiar, Bob, turned up at my window.

  Bob is a crow, and normally I adore him. He had offered himself as my Familiar when I first got my powers, and now that we were bonded he could sense what I was feeling or if I needed him even if we were apart. Unfortunately this meant that he could also sense my excited nerves as I waited for Fletch, and had come to see what was wrong.

  The trouble was that Bob also disapproved of Fletch. He disapproved of boys in general, but since Fletch had the added disadvantage of being a werewolf, Bob disapproved all the more. I sometimes wondered if it was more than my safety that bothered him about Fletch; if perhaps he secretly feared I might bond with the wolf and not need him as my Familiar anymore.

  But I knew I would always need Bob. His presence added a great deal to my spell-casting abilities, plus he could fly around for me super fast, and he was also fun company most of the time.

  But not at this time.

  I’m not much of a liar, so when he came tapping at my bedroom window, I sighed and knew I’d have to face him at some point.

  “Hello, Bob,” I said, opening the window so he could fly in.

  “Good morning, Mistress. Why do you smell funny?” He flew to his cushion on my dresser and then cocked his head at me questioningly.

  I sniffed at my jumper and my sleeve. “I don’t smell funny, do I? Do you mean my perfume?”

  “Is that what it is?” He looked slightly disgusted, so I grabbed a wipe and rubbed my neck and wrists vigorously.

  Being a werewolf, Fletch also had a very acute sense of smell, and if Bob didn’t like the smell, then maybe Fletch wouldn’t either? Thankfully I had only used a very small amount with this in mind.

  “Is that better?” I asked Bob.

  He hunched his shoulders, which I think meant No, but it would have to do.

  “So why are you wearing the smell, Mistress? Are you seeing that boy again?”

  “Which boy?” I said, feigning ignorance. But actually he could mean either one of two boys. I had, until recently, been dating a nice normal boy called Sean Carrey. But things had tailed off between us, mainly, I would guess, because I was clearly not that into him. I wanted to be. Sean was perfect boyfriend material, but he wasn’t Aaron Fletcher, and that was enough to make me feel rather lacklustre about our relationship. Sean had tried to keep things going at first, but after a few months of half-hearted dates, he had stopped calling me and I had never called him.

  “The Cowan,” Bob said disdainfully.

  Ah, he meant Sean. Cowan is a rather derogatory word for non-magical being.

  “Don’t call him that,” I said, playing for time, “it’s not nice.”

  Bob gave me a look that could only be called cheeky, but that was promptly wiped off his face when I finally gave in and said, “Not Sean, no. Fletcher is stopping in for a visit.”

  “The wolf? But I thought you promised your aunt you wouldn’t see him again.”

  “I didn’t promise. I was very careful not to promise that actually. Not that it is any of her business anyway. Or yours either, come to that!”

  “It’s my job to advise you. And I certainly advise against seeing that… that…” Words seemed to fail him and he just looked outraged.

  “Thanks for sharing your feelings and everything, Bob. But would you mind pushing off now? Fletch is due any minute.”

  “I think it is a good idea if I stay, Mistress.” Bob sat firmly down on his cushion.

  “No chance, thanks anyway.” I opened the window and gestured he should go through it. He looked mutinous, but eventually flew out.

  “And no sneaking to Iris,” I called after him. “That’s an order!”

  I knew I wouldn’t hear the last of this from Bob, but at least he would never disobey a direct order from me, even if he wanted to. Having Iris turn up was the last thing we needed. She didn’t approve of Fletcher any more than Bob did.

  Bob’s visit had at least distracted me for a while and stopped me from brushing my teeth again for the thirtieth time (just on the very remote chance that Fletch did actually kiss me). And so I was slightly calmer than I had been, when the doorbell went.

  I took one last frantic look in the mirror, then ran downstairs to open the door.

  I had meant to be really cool and collected when I saw him. I had planned to calmly invite him in and offer him tea, but instead I skidded into the door, swore, and then wrenched it open so it banged against the wall.

  Fletch took full advantage of my lack of balance to pull me into his arms; and then kissed me before I had even focussed on his handsome face.

  And then, just like last time, the whole world slid sideways in my brain. I had forgotten the truly devastating effect his touch had on me. My lips practically burned where his mouth moved against mine. My hands on his forearms tingled with electric sensation as I grabbed him to steady myself, and I got light-headed and dizzy within seconds.

  It was officially our third kiss. The first time he kissed me I had been angry, and accidentally started a fire; the second time I had been happy and we had sort of levitated! This time I pulled away before anything could happen, just in case, and then really wished I hadn’t.

  I instantly wanted more. More of that hot spark that ignited between us, more of the very scent and feel of Fletch. It was painful to take my hands off his perfect biceps and put even a small amount of distance between us.

  Fletch, darn him, grinned at me like a Cheshire cat. He had very clearly made his point; I was not remotely immune to him, as I had pretended to be, and now he full well knew it.

  I took in his brown “bed head” hair, his green eyes, his dazzling smile and his broad shoulders, and knew I was a total goner. The time we had spent apart had done absolutely nothing to diminish my feelings for him.

  I suspected I had a bad case of lust, followed by an even worse case of love. I was going to have to move to a new continent or something to escape it. Maybe another planet.

  “The world is doomed,” Fletch commented as if reading my mind.

  I nodded wryly. I knew exactly what he meant. He meant that it was going to be near impossible to stay away from each other, but that being together could cause mass destruction.

  One of my “accidental” spells had once re-animated all the dead men in Dremouth; if Fletch and I had been bonded, then the spell would have been much, much bigger. Dead men all over the country would probably have been climbing out of their graves that night. It would have been mass hysteria on an epic scale.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to block out his image. But I could feel his presence no matter what; I was just too aware of him, in both a female and a witchy way.

  I carefully avoided touching him again as I gestured him inside. I decided against inviting him up to my room. It was just too dangerous. So instead, I led the way into the kitchen, and put the kettle on.

  “Tea, coffee, juice?” I offered.

  “Tea is fine.”

  We
sat opposite each other at the kitchen table and sipped the hot tea in awkward silence. I nibbled on a chocolate digestive biscuit, but then struggled to swallow it and returned it to the plate.

  “So how have you been?” he said at last. “From your last email it sounds like you’re getting your magic under control a bit?”

  “Not really. Not as much as I’d like. But I only try and do small things. If you need me to warm your tea up a little, I could probably do that, but not without casting a circle and having Bob with me, so I’m still pretty limited. I did accidentally make a handkerchief fly out a drawer yesterday when I was sneezing, but moving objects with my mind seems to be very hit and miss, not to mention dangerous.” I rubbed my hand over my leg at the point where I had been stabbed with the flying pen.

  “How about you? Are you fully at one with your wolf now?”

  Fletch smiled, (and my heart melted some more). “Yeah, it’s great. I’m actually starting to enjoy the whole full moon thing. Embracing the wolf has given me a sort of freedom to be more instinctual and not think about stuff so much. Plus, even though the change is hard, my senses are so acute when I’m him that I can literally feel the trees growing and the moon shining, and I feel so alive.”

  “I’m glad.” I resisted the urge to reach for his hand. “So you still go and stay with the wizard every month?”

  “Yeah, The Black Mountain Pack are a good bunch. I’ve even made some friends that I keep in touch with through the rest of the month…” His voice trailed off and a shadow crossed his face.

  “But?” I urged.

  “It’s the pack Alpha, Hywel; I can’t bring myself to swear fealty to him. It’s not something I can undertake lightly, because there is a ceremony and pack magic that holds me to it. But for some reason I’m just not comfortable with him yet. The wizard says it doesn’t matter, because I don’t have to join that pack if I don’t want to, and that maybe when I’m a little more experienced I should try out some of the packs nearer to home.”