SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER 7
Raegan is practically drowning in her smile, it’s so big! I am dumbfounded to see her standing on my doorstep, Devon is standing behind me, trying to nudge me in the ribs wanting to know who she is, but I manage to swat him away as I stare at her. Her red hair is being tousled by the crisp cold wind blowing and it looks like wildfire as she looks at me. “May I come in?” Not wanting to be rude, I stepped aside to let her pass by. She begins to look about her as soon as she enters, and I lead her into the family room, and then turning I spin on her so I can look into her blue eyes.
“Seriously, what are you doing here?” Not able to keep the shock from my eyes, I looked at her and ran my hands through my black hair again, waiting for her answer. I mean I didn’t think I flirted with her in any way that would have given her any ideas about me actually wanting her to come here.
She shrugs her shoulders, “you said if I ever decided to visit Cape Cod that I should come visit you. So, here I am!” I want nothing more than to face-palm myself at the moment. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything about visiting here. But then again, how she phrased what I had said, isn’t exactly right either. She twisted my words around a bit.
Crossing my arms over my chest I rephrase my question; “Um, okay. So, what brings you to the Cape? Visiting family, going sight-seeing?” As she shakes her head no to my questions, I begin to feel nervous about what her answer will end up being. Please don’t be me, please…
“I came to see you silly.” My eyes go wide. Damn! I knew it. Now I’m going to have to tell her that there will only be one girl that I will ever love and in turn hurt Raegan’s feelings. Hanging my head, I take a deep breath, ready to explain when she continues to speak, not giving me a chance to say anything. “Yeah, I think there is a way we can bring Alina back from the spirit realm for you.”
My head snaps up instantly. “W-what did you just say?” I stammer over the words. I couldn’t have heard her correctly and even if I did, I still needed to hear her say it again, so my brain could process the sentence. She nods her head excitedly and says the words one more time. Tears well in the corner of my eyes, my voice hitches, and I end up just staring at her in stunned silence.
“H-h-how? When?” I feel like I should pinch myself. I mean really, do I dare hope?
“Well, I’m still trying to sort a few things out, but I know we will have to do it during the hibernal solstice (winter solstice).”
“Oh, wow. That’s just two weeks from now. Do you think we’ll be prepared in time?” I think my heart just started to beat again for the first time in over a week, metaphorically speaking.
“Yes, I think it is highly probable. I am hoping to have a visit with your Elder Crone though, to see if she would be able to decipher a few words from the spell I want to try and where I might be able to pick up a few ingredients as well.
“I know it won’t be an issue to see the Elder Crone because she’s my Grandma Jean.” Just then mom, dad, and Devon came into the room. They all look at me expectantly wanting to know who this girl is. Sighing, because they are too nosey for their own good, I begin introductions. “Hey guys, I’d like you to meet Raegan Knight. Raegan, I would like you to meet my parents, Lisa and Steven Salvino and my brother Devon Salvino.”
“So,” mom begins, and I groan internally because I’m sure she is thinking ‘potential girlfriend’, and so I give her a look that says tread carefully with your questions. She of course just raises her eyebrows at me and smiles, “how did you two manage to meet?”
I rolled my eyes at her, but Raegan just rolls with it. “I have a shop in New Orleans that me and some of my Coven run for tourists. He recognized our Coven symbol and popped in the day I was working. With the rest of Night-Sky Circle, we decided to take Dominic under our wing in hopes of maybe mending his broken soul.
That was before we learned why his soul is so shattered though. But we were able to ease his pain somewhat.” She ends her little speech with another huge smile directed at my mom this time.
Mom returns the smile and thanks her for her efforts in trying to heal me while discretely wiping a tear from her eye. I looked over at my brother and asked, “hey Dev I was thinking of taking Raegan over to meet Grandma Jean. You want to tag along?”
Dev shrugged his shoulders, “sure” and then with a nod from mom we headed out the door to visit Grandma Jean.
*
Roughly ten minutes later we pulled into grandma’s driveway. Her house is a typical Cape Cod cottage on the edge of the Silver-Heart community nestled amongst oak trees that currently have no leaves. As we exit my Jeep, Raegan looks up and smiles in appreciation of the quaintness that is grandma’s home. We walked up to Jean’s front door and as we went to enter, grandma opened the door from the inside, smiling at all of us. “It took you three long enough to get here,” she states.
I looked back at Devon; yep, same expression of shock is on his face as well. “You were expecting us?” I looked at Raegan but noticed she was smiling, unphased by grandma’s words. She nods her head, but I feel like I needed to be clearer in my question, “All three of us?”
“Yes, yes, dear. All three of you. Raegan and I spoke to each other in a dream two nights ago.”
My eyes bounced back and forth between Jean and Raegan, “so then, you already know why we are here?” I asked baffled. Sometimes my grandmother truly astounds me in her magical abilities. She just looks at me and grins. The sneaky old bat!
“Raegan dear, I’ve readied the spare bedroom for you. If I have a good grasp of what the spell entails, you and I will be working closely together for a while to be able to prepare everything. I hope that is okay.”
“Thank you, Jean. I sincerely appreciate the kindness. I’ll be right back.” She had gone and returned seconds later with a black duffle bag in her hand that I didn’t even know she had placed in my car.
“What can I and Devon do, grandma?” I looked at her questioningly because currently I feel overwhelmed yet useless by what has been organized without my knowledge.
“Nothing to be done right now dear.” Grandma says as she places a hand against my arm. “However, I do want you to talk with Chris, Riley and Jessica and let them know what we will be attempting to do come solstice time. We will need them to participate when we do the circle.”
Anxiety starts to rise within me at realizing Jessica needs to be included to be able to bring Alina back to me. She absolutely hated Alina and I haven’t seen her since Ali passed away. I looked at Devon to see if he wanted to go gather the others and let them know what was going on. “Yeah, where do you want to start?”
“I thought I saw Riley’s truck parked in his driveway, we can start with him and go from there. He might already know where Chris and Jessica are anyway.” Dev gives a nod of agreement. We say goodbye to Jean, leaving her to get acquainted with Raegan and hopped into my Jeep.