The warmth filled me until I lifted from the ground for only a few moments then lowered again until I was back on the grass that awaited me. Like always, I was drained but not completely. I wanted to go back to bed, but I wouldn’t. At least not here. I’d done what they needed from me, and there would be no rain.

“Did you do it?” my mother’s voice asked, breaking my beautiful silence.

I opened my eyes and turned around to see her standing several feet away outside my private garden, watching me with a diet soda in one hand and a long skinny cigarette in the other. She knew it was done. She just hated that I had this power and she never would. Her long red hair was pulled up on top of her head in a messy bun, and the silver nightgown that barely covered her bottom was all she was wearing.

“Yes,” I said but didn’t leave the circle.

“Geneva said you’re leaving for the day.” She sounded amused as if that was a joke.

“Yes,” I replied.

“You’re wasting time. For your sisters and yourself. This stubbornness is getting to be annoying as hell. When are you going to stop being a little shit and accept what you were born for?” She took a long drag from her cigarette and scowled at me.

“I make my own decisions,” I said simply. Just because she’d had the three daughters like one in three Kamlock sisters do every generation didn’t mean she controlled me.

“We’ll see about that,” she drawled then turned away from me and strolled back toward the house.

I wasn’t scared of many things but becoming my mother was at the top of that short list.

FOUR: THE OTHER SISTER

Four

The Other Sister

Margo was hungover, but she still answered my call. My friends were few or just two. I could either call Margo or Heath. The older we had gotten, I’d drawn closer to Margo simply because she was a female. Heath had been around during my childhood, and like Margo, he didn’t know my family was a household of witches. He did know they were all complete bitches. He would be there to help me escape from them when needed.

Today, it was needed. With Geneva acting like she was celebrating a festive occasion and that the world revolved around her, I had to find some sanity. When she’d brought home her fiancé the first time, I had wanted to yell at the wealthy Miles Dartmore to run away as fast as he could.