The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga by Taliesin Govannon (important books to read .txt) 📕

                Stained shirt, long skirt, body that’s already bore children… it’s another peasant life! I thought.  I noticed, however, that I had a bright red ribbon woven into my long, dark braids.  I relaxed and let my old memories flood in…

                The ribbon is from my love I thought.  My dark Angel, my salvation!

                She had already given me so much… a release from the hell that an abusive husband could make a woman’s life, a cure for the disease that had taken three of my five children, and protection from the Lord’s men who always lusted after unprotected women. She had even obtained this shack, a place we could meet far away from prying ears.

                She’s also given me a reason, aside from my children, to go on.

                I heard her steps leading up to the door, and my heart skipped a beat as it swung open.

                A part that was still modern-day Annabelle gasped.  It was Angelique!                 Angelique, in her long, tight gown and slim, graceful figure!  I wasn’t sure if it was because I was so tuned in to past-me’s feelings or not, but when her heart skipped a beat and her body grew warm with arousal, mine followed suit.

                “Hilde.” Angelique smiled, and my heart skipped a beat again.  “My love.”

                “Angelique.” I answered in Hilde’s voice.  “You’re here!”

                “How could I stay away?” she said, gliding into the cabin and closing the door.  “Now that you remember.”

                Just then I saw a blinding series of images fly by… Angelique and I in a dozen different bodies, all wrapped around each other.  After a few, my face started to change while Angelique’s stayed the same.”

                So many! Now-me thought.  Far more than I've seen with Vincent and me!

                Angelique wrapped Hilde-me in her arms.  “Now you know how long I’ve loved you.”

                “And I’ve loved you!” I said, staring into those so-familiar eyes.

                And I knew it was true.

Chapter Nine

                From the Diaries of Angelique Dupre

                04/07/1589

                Roanoke Colony

                Sarah came into her power last night.

                It was just past midnight when she awoke, sweating, head pounding.  It’s always like that at first, their bodies not ready for the change.

                I inserted myself into her home for the evening.  I had to… none of them could have cleared the way for her.  A sleeping spell for the local medical woman and a simple enchantment later, and nobody was the wiser that I wasn’t her.

                I can’t do this too often, lest people notice the odd, dreamy feelings that such spells engender. However, I guided her through the final change, and she came through quite well.

                She’s sleeping now.  At times like this, I wish that I still could.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                I had never seen such a sunset.  The reds, yellows, and oranges burned like fire as they touched the horizon, the ocean stretching seemingly into infinity.

                My eyes registered the sight, but my mind was elsewhere.

                I can feel it.  Deep inside, crying to get out.

                My love for Angelique.

                The strangest thing was that I felt no deficit of emotion for Vincent. I still loved him as fiercely as before, and my desire for him hadn’t changed either.

                I always assumed that having feelings for another would dilute the feelings I had for everybody I thought.  And yet, it just feels like tapping an endless well of feelings.

                I knew that love didn’t have to be romantic love.  I loved Raina and Jack dearly and would be devastated if anything happened to them. I could love Angelique like that with no complication or stress.

                But what I felt in the last past life regression, in the Twilight Fae realm… it was powerful.  In a ‘sweep me up in the experience and who knows what will happen’ powerful.

                I didn't want to hurt Vincent and thus had kept everything to myself.  I knew I was acting like an idiot in a sit-com, but that was just one more element of stress on my plate.

                Everything’s bloody new I thought.  My powers and allies to be sure, but also having a real-life relationship with real-life emotions… something I do NOT want to screw up!

                At least I didn’t need to worry about any undue awkwardness at the Samhain ritual. Vincent and Angelique were looking into the border incursion on the Twilight Fae realm, and Trevor and Evelyn were still poking around South Africa. The Botan Doro had headed back to the mansion early, both to check on the house’s security as well as for Katsu to start doing more intensive data sweeps on Vincent’s setup.

                That left Raina, Jack, and I to observe the ancient holiday of Samhain together.

                “Annabelle? Are you OK?”

                Make that Raina, Jack, Gaia, and I.

                When I had finally decided that I wanted to head back into my own realm, preferably somewhere warm, Raina and Jack voted to head out to Vincent and Angelique’s hide-a-way in Hawaii.  Gaia, still holding on to her pledge to watch over my safety, would only stop arguing against it if we let her come along.  I didn't mind… it had been a while since I had gone anywhere without a non-human bodyguard, and even I wasn't sure about starting now, with so much still unknown.

                Raina’s becoming a great magick user, I thought, but she can't materialize a sword seemingly out of mid-air yet.  Gaia can.

                I turned around and put on my best simulated smile.  “Yeah, sure.”

                “Ready to go to ritual?” she asked, the green of her skin almost blending into the green of the vegetation surrounding her.

                I looked back as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon.  “Yeah, let’s go.”

                We walked back along the small path through the tropical forest that occupied seventy-five percent of the compound.  It was surrounded by a fifteen-foot tall privacy fence, a new addition, on three sides, with the high cliff