Cresent Prophecy by Axelle Chandler (great reads TXT) 📕

last of the coven. He’d given me his heart the night we’d fought the craglorn. He’d given it to me.

“What did I do?” I asked the hawthorn. “I didn’t ask for any of this.” Pressing my palms against the trunk, I sobbed. “I don’t want to be alone… I want Boone…”

The world shifted, and I gasped as images began to flash through my mind. One after the other with no way for me to decipher any of them. Was the hawthorn…intelligent?

Pulling my hands away, I gasped, my head spinning. Crumpling to my knees, I sank into the hollow, the magic of the hawthorn unsettling my stomach.

The hawthorn… Was it watching? Did it know?

Closing my eyes, I tried to fight off a wave of exhaustion. The fight had hardly begun, and I was already so tired…

“Skye?”

A hand was shaking my shoulder.

“Skye?”

My eyes cracked open, and a face came into view.

Lucy.

She was kneeling in front of me, her hair pulled back in a loose plait, the freckles on her cheeks more pronounced than ever. Bright blue feathers hung from her ears, and her floral shirt was topped with a blue denim jacket.

“Are you all right?” She was frowning at me.

I wiped my hands at my eyes, then tried to straighten my hair, which was a tangled mess. I probably had a million leaves stuck in it and maybe a bug or two. Smoothing down my top, I clucked my tongue when I saw my side was covered in dirt. I hoped this wasn’t going to become a thing. Me falling asleep in odd places.

“What are you doin’ out here?” Lucy asked, helping me sit.

“I fought with Boone,” I muttered. “And I, uh…” I finished off my rambling explanation with a shrug. I couldn’t exactly tell her a magical hawthorn tree showed me a million visions I didn’t have a hope of understanding.

“And you fell asleep in the woods?” She raised her eyebrows but thankfully wasn’t patronizing about it. “You’re going to catch a cold bein’ out here like this.”

What was I doing out here? What was she doing lurking around the hawthorn? Thinking about what Boone said, about being so worried about her magical orientation, my hackles rose. Without thinking, I reached out and grasped her arm, then touched her with my magic.

Immediately, I was zapped with static electricity. I pulled away sharply, not knowing what it meant—if it meant anything at all.

“Ow,” Lucy exclaimed, shivering.

“Sorry…”

“Good ol’ static electricity,” she said with a wink. “It gets the best of all of us at some point. Do you want some company on the walk home?”

“What are you doing out here?” I asked, rising to my feet and picking leaves out of my hair.

“Just walkin’,” she replied. “I wanted to see the tower house. After seeing it, I wandered down here for a bit, then I found you.”

I narrowed my eyes and nodded. What could I say to that?

If she were out here to try to take advantage of my fragile state, you know, being a spy for Carman and all, I would have to take drastic measures. That would be a shame because I kind of liked her and her bohemian attitude. I had to deliver a passive-aggressive thinly veiled warning in lieu of the spell I’d been working on—that wouldn’t confuse her if she weren’t at all magically inclined—and it was going to suck.

“Lucy, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but…” I sighed, knowing she would take it like a cat took a thermometer up the bum. “It’s just… I don’t need another complication right now. Things are messy, I’m still trying to settle, and—”

Lucy made a face and laughed. “Hey, you’re me boss. I’m the one who has to impress you. Not the other way around.”

I snorted. “I suppose so.”

“You want me to walk with you?” she asked again.

“No, it’s fine. I don’t have far to go.”

“Okay, well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded. “See ya.”

In all the chaos, I’d forgotten about the spell I’d been working on to verify her magical affiliation. I suppose protecting the magical people of Ireland was still important even when I was the subject of a love triangle.

“Hey, Lucy?” I called out. “Can I have a strand of your hair?”

“Huh?” She turned and waited.

“I said, watch your step over there.” So lame.

“Oh.” She smiled and waved. “Thanks.”

I watched her walk away, and the moment she’d left the clearing, I took the opposite path and headed home, my mind swimming. The argument with Boone was still tumbling through my head, and it ached after the strange communion I’d shared with the hawthorn. I knew the tree was full of magic but memories, as well? I suppose it was a possibility considering it was the ancestral home of the Crescent Witches. Still, it freaked me out.

As I walked back toward the village, I felt the presence of the hawthorn subside behind me, and as it did, it took the soothing balm touching its trunk had given me, and loneliness opened up in my heart once more.

Chapter 7

Sleep didn’t come easy that night.

Images flashed through my mind, making it impossible to drift off. My heart ached, my eyes were puffy and full of grit, and the encounter with the hawthorn was really bothering me. I knew I should’ve been trying to focus on the message it was trying to shove into my brain, but I was too focused on the argument with Boone.

I knew this Crescent Witch thing wasn’t supposed to be easy, but I thought I would have him there to help. Maybe I was being selfish. Or maybe I was expecting too much from him. He didn’t know much about anything when I took his amnesia into account. All he knew was what Aileen had taught him when he landed in Derrydun almost four years ago.

Rolling over, I glanced at the alarm clock and groaned. The time flicked over to eight a.m. and instantly began to flash as the alarm blared. Buzz, buzz,