Aqueous: The Teen Witch Chronicles, #5

By Laura Marie

A knock on my door sends shivers down my spine – the last person I ever expected to need my help stands at my threshold. Do I let the bitter past control my actions, or do I extend a helping hand?
 

Since my arrival in Safety Beach, the elusive water Fae have remained a mysterious presence. But now, they're teetering on the brink of extinction, caught in the crosshairs of a threat too vast, too powerful.

 

Jasmine, sister to my only ally in the Windermere Witches coven, Calder, pleads for my aid. She implores me to forget our bygone conflicts and join forces to save the Fae. However, with a threat so immense, I worry that even my growing magic might not be enough to turn the tide.

 

Will we be too late to stave off the darkness looming over the water Fae, or will the fusion of witchcraft and a dire need for survival reignite the flame of hope? This is a tale of friendship, courage, and the unparalleled power of unity against adversity.

 

Fans of 'Teen Wolf' and 'The Vampire Diaries' will be captivated by this thrilling instalment of 'The Teen Witch Chronicles'. A young adult urban fantasy series that merges spellbinding magic with dark intrigue, and questions the power of the past to shape our futures. Dive into the enigmatic world of Safety Beach and experience the allure of the water Fae. The saga continues; don't miss out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Marie
• Release date: Oct 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386791096

Book preview

Prologue

Istood in the forest, alone. Trees reached up all around me, their barks dark and straight as they loomed over me like sentries in the night. I looked around. Where was I? I didn’t recognize the forest, the trees were foreign, and the sense of magic in the air was riddled with foreboding .

And it was growing stronger.

A twig snapped behind me, and I spun around. I strained my eyes to see through the trees in the darkness, but there was nothing there. At least, not what my eyes could see. But my magic was going haywire, my survival instinct was screaming at me that I wasn’t alone, that there was a monster out there and I had to run.

And I was going to listen.

I spun around and headed through the trees, weaving so that I didn’t run into anything. The mulch felt like it was quicksand. My feet were sinking into the ground and it was harder to take every step. The roots of the trees seemed to reach up and wrap around my ankles, and I fell. I scrambled to get back onto my feet, to keep running, but I hit something solid like a wall.

Where do you think you’re going, little witch? A deep growling voice said close to my ear, and I screamed.

Fear stretched over me like a blanket and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I felt like I was drowning.

The deep voice laughed, and I looked up into black eyes, eyes that held the promise of death.

It was Dagger. He grabbed my arms, his fingers biting into my skin, and it hurt like hell.

How was he here? He should have been locked up with his twin brother after they had killed people in Safety Beach. They should have been taken care of. How had they gotten out?

Do you know what I do to people like you, people who can’t mind their own business? Dagger asked, his voice dripping with menace. I didn’t need him to tell me, I didn’t need to ask to know what the answer would be.

The fear grew around me, and the more scared I became, the bigger and scarier Dagger grew. It was like he was feeding on my fear, using it as a substance to make himself stronger, faster, more deadly. But I couldn’t help myself. I knew I had to get away, save myself so that it didn’t affect him like this, but the more I thought about it, the more my fear crippled me until my body was numb and all I could do was whimper.

Dagger lifted one of his hands, and it transformed into a claw, furry with long black nails that were so sharp there was no question in my mind how long it would take him to kill me. He lifted his arm and with a horrible smile on his face, he slashed his claw down toward my throat.

I sat up in bed and the darkness in my room wrapped around me, warm and comforting compared to the darkness in my dream. I was breathing hard, and my pajamas were soaked in sweat, my hair clinging to my face.

When was I going to stop having nightmares about the twins? When were they going to stop haunting me? In my dreams, they always caught me and as they were about to kill me, I’d wake up.

I slipped out of bed and walked to my bathroom. Turning on the faucet, I splashed water on my face. I tried to calm down, telling myself that it was only a dream. But the fear was still a cold fist at the pit of my stomach, and I couldn’t shake it off.

I didn’t want to get back into bed. I didn’t want to risk going back to sleep and seeing that awful face again.

It was still early, a short while until dawn, and the rest of the world was still asleep. But I needed to get out of the house, somewhere where I could clear my mind and breathe again without feeling like it was going to be my last.

I dressed warmly and slipped out of the house, walking through the inky night toward Pebble Beach. The moon was heading toward being full, the clouds hung like shadows in the sky and the world around me was quiet. The night tasted fresh and safe on my tongue.

What a pleasant contrast to what I had been dreaming about.

When I arrived at Pebble Beach, I sat down on the patch of sand where I always sat. The ocean was a dark expanse that stretched toward the horizon, the sound of the waves breaking a whisper that soothed me. I took a deep breath and let it out, focusing on every muscle in my body, trying to get the tension to bleed out.

My mom wouldn’t have been happy that I had come here in the middle of the night, even though it was perfectly safe. Pebble Beach had become a kind of safe haven to me in the time I had lived in Safety Beach, and it was the one place I liked to go when it felt like my life was falling apart or I didn’t have a handle on things. It was also where I liked to escape to when I just needed to be alone.

And tonight was no different – being here made me feel calmer, better about what had happened. Being here reminded me of my reality, and the dream became nothing more than a bad memory.

I looked out over the ocean. I let my mind wander, thinking about all the things that had happened until now – the werewolves and their predicament about Reece mating with Ramona had really caused trouble for a while. I was relieved that it was over and I looked forward to some time where everything was just normal.

The rocky landscape that created the Cove that was Pebble Beach was dark in the night, and I traced the outline with my eyes against the inky blue sky. I followed the contour of the rocks down to the water and picked out the large boulders that were scattered here and there on the beach itself, even around the abandoned house that sat quietly against the tree line at the back of the beach.

A dark object on the beach drew my attention. At first, I thought it was another rock, but I didn’t remember there being a rock in the middle of everything, and when the next wave washed onto the rocky shore, the shadow moved a little.

It wasn’t a rock at all. I frowned and stood up to investigate, walking carefully toward the dark mass that lay on the sand now.

It only took me a moment to make sense of what I was seeing and recognize that it was a body.

My own body ran cold, and I shivered. I didn’t want to have to deal with a dead body on top of everything, now. But as I thought it, I heard the light, scraping cough, and it sounded like a woman. And she was alive.

I stepped closer and kneeled next to the body. She had blonde hair that had washed over her face, and I scraped it away with my fingers, trying to open her face up enough that she could at least breathe. I tried to drag her out of the surf a little, and when she rolled onto her back, I recognized her.

Jasmine? I asked, shocked.

Jasmine was Calder’s sister and one of the members of the coven. I had met her a couple of times, but she had always been very hostile toward me.

When I said her name, her eyes blinked open, eyes the color of the night, just like Calder’s.

Oh, my God, what happened? I asked. I looked down at her clothes and realized that they were torn, ripped by something as if she had narrowly escaped claws. She had been attacked or something, there was no other explanation. You need help.

No, Jasmine said, and she grabbed a handful of my hoodie. Don’t call for help. You can’t tell anyone.

She coughed again. Her eyes rolled back in her head and closed, and she was unconscious.

Shit, shit, shit. What was I supposed to do now?

Jasmine’s hand was close to her face, and when she had fainted, her fingers had uncurled. I frowned and looked a little closer – in her palm was a crystal, glittering in the night. As her hand relaxed, the crystal fell out of her palm and onto the sand. It glowed purple, and it was beautiful as if a galaxy was caught inside it.

I reached for the crystal and picked it up. Immediately, my Pyrokinesis flared, and fire danced on my skin. Usually, I was immune to flames, but this time it seared my skin, and I dropped the crystal, yelping.

What the hell was that? And why did it activate my magic? I reached into my pocket and pulled out a tissue. Carefully, I wrapped the crystal in the tissue, not touching it again, and I put it in my pocket so that it wouldn’t get lost.

After pocketing the crystal, I looked a little closer at Jasmine’s hand. Her palm seemed to be burned, although the skin didn’t seem to be broken. Obviously, it had burned her as well.

The night had started off strange, and it was only getting more so.

For a moment, I wondered if I should call an ambulance or something – maybe the police? – to help Jasmine. But her intensity when she had told me not to call for help told me that something was up. And I knew from experience that it wasn’t always the best idea to tell the adults what was going on. The same had happened when Chloe had needed to run away from home because of her bloodlust getting out of control. Instead of turning to her clan or her parents, she had hidden at the abandoned house, and everything had turned out for the best in the end.

Sometimes, the adults didn’t quite know how to handle things the right way.

So, instead of calling for help the way I had thought to, I stood and reached down deep for my Atmo Kinesis. With the help of my air magic, I lifted Jasmine. There was no way I would have been able to take her home myself – she would have been far too heavy to carry – but I was a witch, and I would use my resources.

Slowly, with Jasmine floating on air next to me, I carried her back to my place. I managed to sneak into the house without being caught by anyone. My mother and Victor were still asleep. I took Jasmine to my room and put her on my bed.

I would find out what had happened when she woke up. After I had helped her here and not called the police or the hospital, she owed me that much at least.

Chapter One

Isat in my room, on the edge of the bed where Jasmine still lay asleep, or unconscious. I was on the edge of the bed, cross-legged, and in front of me, the tissue with the crystal was spread open. I studied the glittering rock .

It was beautiful.

When I had seen it on the beach after it had fallen out of Jasmine’s hand, it had glowed a bright purple with something magical swirling inside, as if a galaxy was hosted inside the crystal. Now, in daylight, the crystal seemed mostly black, but when I held it up to the lights, it had the same purple sheen to it. It didn’t seem magical, though. Just another normal rock.

But I wasn’t taking chances. I was careful never to touch it with my bare skin. Whatever this crystal was, it reacted to my magic somehow, and I wasn’t going to let it burn me another time.

When I glanced at Jasmine again, I wondered if I should try to wake her up. I wasn’t sure if she was unconscious because she had been injured somehow. If that were the case, maybe it would have been better if I called an ambulance. But she had asked me specifically not to do that.

And I didn’t even know exactly what was wrong with her. But looking at the crystal and the fact that Jasmine had washed up on Pebble Beach, I