“He’s fine. Stop worrying about it. I don’t regret letting him move in so quickly.” Heath was trying to shut me down. I decided for now I would let him but I was going to keep an eye on Rathe.

SIX: THE COUSIN

Six

The Cousin

Twinkling lights covered almost every inch of our backyard, and it was a massive backyard. The only spot spared from my Aunt Marigold’s favorite decorative enchantment was my small garden. Simply because her powers couldn’t manifest there. Only I could enter it, only I could cast within it. This evening only the casters present would be able to see my garden, although they wouldn’t go near it. I’d protected it from others a long time ago.

The guests would be amazed by the fantasyland this place now appeared to be. Purple passion flowers covered every chair, archway, fence line and even the tree trunks. It was past the season for the Passion flower to bloom. Had my aunt thought of that while covering the place with my mother’s favorite flower? Obviously not. The black Hollyhocks were also something she didn’t think about. At least they were used for decoration and she didn’t have them growing from the soil. This wasn’t a British garden. We were in Savannah, Georgia, and it was October.

I admitted the purple intertwined with the black was striking, but if anyone with a green thumb came tonight, they’d know exactly how rare the flowers were, and mother would have to explain that. A large white tent sat in the middle of it all and like everything else was covered in twinkling lights. Bunches of passion flowers hung from the ceiling of the tent, giving the covering its fairytale like appearance.

“Leaving me here all day with these witches was a bitch move.” My cousin Duely’s voice came from behind me, and I turned around to see him standing just outside the tent with his hands in the front pockets of his suit pants.

“I’m sorry. Was it awful?” I asked him.

“You know it was a fucking circus.”

I laughed and walked over to hug him. Before Heath and Margo moved next door, Duely had been my only playmate as a child. Maybe it was because he hadn’t been born female that made him the only Kamlock without a blackheart. He was three years older than me, and until three years ago, he’d lived two hours away from Savannah, but our mothers visited each other often. Now, Duely owned a bar in Savannah, but I didn’t see him as much as I had when we were younger. I missed him.

“Your weather is perfect,” he added, as he took his right hand out of his pocket and waved it at the clear evening sky.

“It was my summons this morning,” I assured him.