EPILOGUE

S TASSI

“You seem to be feeling better,” Lovey said as she sat down on the blanket in front of Emorett.

Emorett decided to perform his newest trick for his adoring audience and used Lovey’s knee to help him push up to his feet. He stood there for a second until he got his balance and then let go and took a few steps toward Hadley who was laying a few feet away.

As expected, the crowd went wild, with cheers and applause followed by lots of kisses and exclamations that Emorett was the smartest and most adorable baby they’d ever seen.

Emorett basked in their praise but quickly moved on to something else. As soon as he took off crawling toward the young women who were practicing their new skills, I said, “I’m feeling a lot better, which is good because there were a few times over the last six months that I was positive Aksel was going to take off with the children in the middle of the night just so they could all get a little peace. There were other times when I considered taking off by myself and changing my name so I could get lost somewhere cold just to get away from the chaos and hopefully quench the hot flashes, which is saying something because I’m a fire witch and run hot anyway.”

“Did the hormones help level you out?”

“Finally! It took six months of adjusting the dosage, and then, all of a sudden, the night sweats got better and I stopped thinking about killing . . . well, everyone, if I’m being completely honest.”

“You won’t have a heat anymore as a bear shifter?” Lovey asked.

“No. I won’t have to deal with that, which is good because could you imagine what the house would look like if I had to leave Aksel and the children alone for a month? Absolute chaos.”

“Kiera seems happier than I’ve ever seen her,” Blair said.

“We finally got some information about her past life, and she found out that she has some cousins in Maryland who will be coming to visit over the winter holidays.”

Clarisse joined our group, taking the chair that one of the other coven members had abandoned a few minutes ago. As I stood up to go get another bottle of wine, she glanced over her shoulder at the kids and then turned back to the women and whispered, “The Hunter boy almost set my hair on fire!”

“I thought they were working on levitation,” I said, confused.

“They are!” Clarisse exclaimed as she touched the hair on top of her head. “It’s all there, isn’t it?”

“Oh, no,” I gasped, looking down at her scalp. I sucked a breath in through my teeth and whispered, “I’m sure it will grow back! We have a spell to help, don’t we?”

As I looked around at the horrified women, Clarisse covered her head and shrieked before she jumped up out of her chair and ran toward the house. I managed to hold it together until she was inside, and then I burst out laughing.

“Stassi, one of these days you’re going to play a joke on her and she’s going to do something terrible to you,” Vivienne said worriedly. “You can’t . . .”

“Anastacia Renee Yeamens!” Clarisse yelled from the doorway. As she stomped down the stairs, she growled, “How could you do that to me?”

I tried to keep the lie going and said, “It already grew back! It must be magic!” Clarisse glared at me until I started to get uncomfortable and a little scared. Then she smiled, and I really became terrified. “I”m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you that badly, I just . . .”

“I hope that your children act just like you, Anastacia.”

“What kind of curse is that?” I asked.

“The same curse that parents have been putting on their own children since the beginning of time,” Lovey said with a bark of laughter. “No magic needed, but it’s so rewarding to watch.”

“What are you ladies all aflutter about?” Aksel asked as he walked up to our group with my brother, Ramses, and Cesar, two of the witches from our coven who had been helping them put together a swing set for the kids.

“Did you just say ‘aflutter?’” I asked. I looked over at Blair and asked, “Has he always been this way?”

“Always,” Blair assured me.

“Clarisse cursed Stassi, and by association, she cursed you too,” Lovey explained.

“What did she do?” Aksel muttered before he let out a long sigh. “Stassi, apologize to your aunt before she turns you into a toad.”

“Oh, I cursed her with something much more lasting than a quick visit to the pond, my friend,” Clarisse assured him with an evil laugh.

“She said that she hoped the kids act just like me,” I explained.

With a horrified look, Aksel asked Clarisse, “How could you do something so horrible to me?”

Clarisse just laughed even harder, and I noticed that she wasn’t the only one who found the situation and Aksel’s reaction amusing.

“Do you think it would be that horrible?” I asked, more than a little upset about his reaction. “They could act like you and go left whenever someone leaves a cabinet door open or forgets to turn off the light when they leave the room.”

“Or they could be like you and accidentally set the comforter on fire when they have a bad dream.”

“It barely scorched it,” I scoffed.

“I was sleeping under it when you set it on fire!”

“Get over it already.”

“Get over it? Get over it? You could have killed us all.”

“Drama drama drama,” I mumbled as I waved his direction and rolled my eyes. “You’re immortal, remember?”

“It’s so fun to watch Mommy and Daddy fight,” Lovey teased. I looked over and found that she’d laid down on her side and propped her head up on her bent arm as she watched us argue. “Is it weird that I enjoy their arguments even though I know it’s just foreplay?”

“No. It would only be weird if they started ripping off each other’s clothes,” Hadley said from her relaxed spot near Lovey.

“That would be traumatizing,” Blair said with an exaggerated shudder.

“It’s not as if you don’t do things that are absolutely maddening, Aksel,” I told him. “The last time you popped into the kitchen, I almost sliced my finger off. I’m not sure how many times I’ve asked you not to do that to me, but you still continue to pop in unannounced at the most awkward times. It’s not like I can stop myself from dreaming, but you could easily do something normal like appear in the laundry room or the hall closet and then come out instead of showing up right behind me and scaring me half to death.”

“Are you done?” Aksel asked sarcastically. I felt my temperature rise at least ten degrees with my sudden burst of anger that question always caused. I got even hotter when I remember that he knew exactly how I felt every time he asked me that while we were arguing.

“They argue like they’ve been together for centuries,” Clarisse said.

I wasn’t sure who she was talking to until Vivienne agreed and asked, “Can you imagine what their arguments are going to be like fifty years from now?”

“Mom!” Keira yelled from out in the yard. “Look!”

She sounded excited and terrified at the same time, so I spun around to see what she was talking about and gasped.

“Keira!” Aksel yelled as he started that way, pushing past Ramses and Nicholas to get to our son.

Kiera reached for Emorett, but he giggled and went higher so I yelled, “Kiera! Put that baby down this instant. When we said to practice levitation, we meant for you to use inanimate objects, not your brother!”

“I’m not doing it!” Keira argued. “None of us are!”

“What?” Clarisse gasped as she stood up from her chair and watched Emorett float even higher.

“He’s not a witch!”

“Looks like he might be,” Lovey argued before she cackled with laughter.

“But he’s a shifter!” I whispered as I watched Aksel snatch Emorett out of the air.

Clarisse laughed so hard she stumbled into Maribel who had also stood from her chair in excitement, and within just a few seconds, the two women were laughing so hard that they had to hold each other up. I looked over at Vivienne and saw her gasping for air as she wiped the tears from her face and then at Aksel who looked angry enough to set me on fire with his gaze.

“Are you happy now?” Aksel asked. “You asked for this.”

“I thought I was getting a rook shifter, not a . . . a . . . me!” I sputtered.

“Fix it, Clarisse!” Aksel ordered. Emorett shoved his fat little hands against Aksel’s chest and managed to wiggle out of his arms, only to start floating upward again. “Clarisse! Make it stop!”

Clarisse couldn’t have helped him if she wanted to because she was laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe, right along with her sisters. I decided then and there to disown them, but I’d have to deal with that after I figured out how to tether my son to something so he didn’t float away.

“I’ll pop over to my house and get a spell bracelet I keep for the young witches so they can’t do harm with their magic before they learn to control themselves,” Blair said before she disappeared.

“Apologize to your aunt so she’ll fix this,” Aksel ordered as he held onto our child by one leg and let him float in front of him like a balloon. He pointed at me with his other hand and said, “Fix it now, Stassi!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

Blair reappeared next to Aksel and grabbed hold of Emorett who instantly started struggling. She tried to slip the bracelet on his ankle with one hand, but his struggles got even more insistent and she lost her grip.

“Do something, Aksel!” When Emorett started getting farther away, I jumped into action and grabbed him out of the air and held tight while Blair snapped the bracelet onto his ankle. “Okay. That should do it.”

“That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Hadley said as she gasped for air.

“I don’t even know what to think right now,” my brother mumbled as he looked at Emorett like he’d sprouted horns. “Do you think he’ll try to teach my children how to do that? Maybe I should take them home.”

I looked down into Emorett’s cherubic face and watched as he grinned over at Aksel and looked around at his adoring audience and somehow knew that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

“You’re the best kind of curse, little guy,” I murmured before I snuggled him close for a kiss. “You’re gonna be hell on wheels, and I’m ready for it.”

“What are we going to do, Stassi?” Aksel asked before he took Emorett and held him close to his chest.

“It looks like we’re on that roller coaster you talked about, but we’re not wearing our seatbelts, and the track is on fire,” I muttered as I watched Emorett play peek-a-boo with Ramses over Aksel’s shoulder. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“At this point, do I have a choice?” Aksel asked.

“You always have a choice,” I said grumpily.

“If that’s the case then I’ll always choose you, sweet Stassi,” Aksel said as he pulled me close with his free arm. “Through fights and arguments and wild crazy nights, I’ll always choose you.”

“What about rogue witch vampire shifter hybrid children?”

“I’ll stand by you through it all, my love, and I’ll enjoy every single second of it.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

“Please do,” Aksel said before he leaned down and gave me a kiss. “Love you.”

“Right now, I’m not sure why you do, but I love you too.”

THE END