Haven: A Paranormal Urban Fantasy Series: Daughters of Hecate, #4

By Meredith Medina

After what I've been through in the last year, there's nothing I'd like better than for everyone to leave me the hell alone so I can figure out what's going on. Sure, things have calmed down a little. Haven is mine and Lacey and Maia are settling into their new lives. Well, for the most part anyway.

The only problem is that I can't seem to shake off the feeling that something big is coming, and if I take my exorcist's word for it, it's something I might not be ready to deal with. Yeah, I said exorcist. A bad feeling isn't the only thing I can't shake, the fingerprints of an older magic are still lingering on my soul, and I don't like admitting that I need help… but I need some serious help.

Ophelia Turner is still feeling the effects of her brush with an ancient Daughter, and her attempts to have the malevolent presence exorcised from her life are taking more of a toll than she's willing to admit. After a brush with Meridian in New Orleans, Ophelia begins to realize that there is something bigger being planned, and the safest place for her and her friends is as far away from New York as possible.  But sometimes, the best plans are entirely impractical. 

Trapped between a Laudan civil war, a moody teenager, and a baby bat that has bitten off more than she can handle, Ophelia will have to make hard decisions and split second choices that will affect not only her life, but the lives of everyone she's ever loved.

And she might not survive it. 

 

Join Ophelia Turner and her friends in the fourth installment of the Daughters of Hecate series. Contemporary Urban Fantasy, with a mythological twist!

*DAUGHTERS OF HECATE SERIES*
PROLOGUE ~ Witchmark
PROLOGUE ~ Vampire Punk: A Daughters of Hecate Companion Novella
BOOK 1 ~ Sticks & Stones
BOOK 2 ~ Moonlight Burns
BOOK 3 ~ Power of Three
BOOK 4 ~ Haven
BOOK 5 ~ Sands of Time 

• Language: English
• Publisher: FireHive Media
• Release date: Aug 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393738138

Book preview

1

Ophelia

"A re you really taking another selfie?" Maia snapped.

Yes! But now I can’t decide... do I use the filter with the deer antlers or the bear ears... Oooo what about the kitty nose?

I groaned and kicked my office door shut. It never ended. Lacey and Maia were on the counter today and their sibling-level arguments were starting to grate on me. Maia had finally stopped resisting what I was trying to teach her and was now able to make a passable cappuccino without too much fallout. They were a long way from perfect, but they were a damn sight better than the ones that came out of the automated devil machines that our customers complained about so often.

Lacey, however, had leapt at the chance to work with me again. After she’d been turned, I didn’t think she’d be happy at Spiral, but it was the easiest option available at the time, and at least when she was there I knew that someone would be watching her... at least that’s what they were supposed to be doing. After New Orleans, I wanted Lacey right where I could see her.

If you want something done right, do it yourself.

Now that Haven was mine, Lacey had moved out of my living room, into the apartment upstairs with Maia as her roommate, and worked in the café at night. Maia was the perfect person to keep an eye on Lacey when I couldn’t.

Their relationship had changed over the last few months, and I didn’t want to ruin it by treating them like children. They needed each other, and I could see how desperately Maia had needed someone steady in her life.

Not that Lacey was ‘steady’ in the traditional sense—but her love was steady, and she was a passionately loyal friend, something I’d taken for granted after so many years of being alone. I needed something different... and I still wasn’t sure what that might be.

The last six months should have given me the opportunity to breathe again. I had a business to run, re-brand, and re-protect. Vivienne had come up from New Orleans; she and a surly Maia had helped me lay new wards and spells over Haven and the surrounding block. Even if the Malleus had finally gotten the hint, there was no way those assholes were getting anywhere near me, or my friends.

Suki stretched and flopped down on the pile of papers on my desk. Oh, really, decided to pull your weight around here? I said with a raised eyebrow. Suki yawned and patted at the pen in my hand. Fine, fine... I’m done.

Since I was in charge, I’d decided to bring Suki to work like I’d always wanted to. It was hard to be away from her all day and having her around made me more content. She usually stayed in my office, but sometimes I’d find her sleeping on the corner of the front counter keeping Lacey company – every coffee shop needed a mascot, and the Haven’s Instagram account was full of photos of her. I’m going to make her fayyymous, Lacey crooned every time she took another photo.

There was a CRASH in the hallway outside my office. I flipped my hand at the door and it slammed open to reveal a very sheepish looking Lacey.

I thought I could carry four... she said quickly. I looked at the shattered milk bottles on the tiled floor.

I told her she couldn’t do it! Maia’s voice floated down the hallway. Lacey made a face and almost dropped the other bottles she was holding.

If you’d helped me like I’d asked you to—

You asked me to use my magic, Maia retorted. "You know I’m not allowed."

The emphasis on that last word was enough to make me roll my eyes. Maia was chafing against the minimal guidelines I’d given her for exploring her powers. We might be safe here, but I didn’t like tempting Fate, she had a way of giving you exactly what you deserved.

You sound like children. How the hell am I supposed to get anything done with you bickering like this? It’s late and I want to go home, and this hallways smells like a dairy. I looked down at the milk that had splashed onto the floor an up the walls. You two are going to have a long night ahead of you.

Lacey groaned and lifted her dripping feet. These are new, she whined. They just came today...

Maia plucked the intact milk bottles out of her friend’s hands and disappeared around the corner. Lacey pouted briefly before two towels hit her in the face in quick succession.

See, I’m helping! Maia crowed.

I pulled my jacket off the back of my chair and shrugged into it. Suki stretched, yawned and jumped up on my shoulder. She rubbed her face briefly against my cheek before burrowing into my jacket and settling herself for the walk home, her purr vibrating against my back.

I’m leaving, I announced. Clean this shit up, I pointed at Maia, and no Sorcerer’s Apprentice style funny business. If I smell sour milk when I come back you’re bleaching the entire building.

You’re leaving? Maia blurted out.

She already said she was going home, Lacey said grumpily, slopping a milk-soaked towel in the white puddle on the floor.

No, Maia poked Lacey with the toe of her boot. She’s leaving for longer than that. She looked at me carefully, her eyes narrowed. I could feel her reaching out with her magic, looking for the truth. I usually resisted her efforts, but this time I could feel the strength behind the question.

Maia’s eyes widened, she hadn’t expected to get through my defenses so quickly. Let her have one little win.

The feeling of her magic stealing into my thoughts wasn’t an unpleasant one—more like an itch than anything. Maia’s powers had grown exponentially since she’d come into my life, and her hunger for knowledge was almost too much to keep up with.

I’d also found it difficult not to be angry with her. Still a teenager, barely into the first of her nine lives, and being able to learn so much... It was an opportunity that I would have given anything for. But that wasn’t my path, and I had to leave that bitterness behind. But it was hard.

The itch only lasted a moment as Maia found what she wanted. You’re going back to New Orleans, Maia stammered as she tried to make sense of the images she’d seen. You’re going back to Vivienne. She shook her head and gasped. What does Magdalena de Leon have to do with this?

The excited squeal that had begun to escape Lacey’s lips at the mention of New Orleans died away almost instantly at the memory of the ancient Daughter we had faced in Santiago de Compostela. I knew that the brief flash of guilt that crossed Maia’s face was because of the tattered leather-bound book she had taken from the witch’s house. She’d told me that she destroyed it after we’d gotten back from New Orleans, but she was still a shitty liar.

Why are you going to see Vivienne? You told me I couldn’t go!

No, I said you couldn’t go alone. I was tired, and this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have right now.

Road trip! Lacey shrieked,. She dropped her wet towel in the milk puddle and clapped her hands gleefully.

No. No road trip, I said sternly. Maia was still staring at me. What? I don’t have to explain myself. I’m going to New Orleans to see Vivienne. End of story.

Bullshit, Maia snapped. This isn’t the first time you’ve left us here while you go off to see Viv.

It’s not? Lacey looked shocked. I shrugged.

I don’t have to tell you where I’m going, I said. Besides, it’s not like you noticed. Stop making a big deal out of it.

"It’s a big deal because we have to tell you when we want to go somewhere, and you always say no!" Maia crossed her arms over her chest.

"Let’s see, the last time you took off on your own, you both almost died, or did you forget that tiny detail?" I’d had enough of this shit. I was their friend, sure, but I was also Maia’s teacher and Lacey’s guardian... in a way. They didn’t have to like what I said, but they did have to listen.

I’m leaving in the morning, but I’ll be back before the Monday morning rush. Remember what I said about the sour milk, and don’t let Genevieve leave her shift early, she’s getting on my nerves with that shit.

Maia and Lacey didn’t say anything as I walked past them and closed my office door with a flick of my fingers.

Why did you get mad at her? Now we’ll never be able to leave New York, Lacey said quietly.

Shut up, she can still hear us, Maia snapped. I smiled just a little as I walked through the café and out the front door... she was learning.

The glittery bats Lacey had hung on the doorframe twirled and swung as the door closed behind me. I didn’t regret anything that had happened in the last year. All that danger and bullshit, everything I’d been hiding from, it had brought me so much that I wondered why I’d been hiding in the first place. I’d wasted so much time.

Maia wasn’t wrong to be angry. I had been keeping secrets from her. From both of them. It was the only way to keep them safe. This wasn’t my first trip to New Orleans, but I hoped that it would be one of my last.

Vivienne had proven more useful than I had expected. Not only was she a deep well of learning and history, she was also working to pull that vile old woman from my consciousness. Vivienne told me that Magdalena had left fingerprints on my soul; dark and oily... hard to clean off.

The old woman had wanted immortality, and she was trying to piggyback off my lives—if I hadn’t met Vivienne, she might have gotten her way.

After every session, every exorcism, I felt lighter and I could breathe deeper.

Her grip is weakening, Vivienne had said after our last meeting. I can feel her anger, her sense of betrayal.

At the time, I’d snorted when she said that. Betrayal. Ridiculous. But now that I’d had a chance to really think about it, I understood some of Magdalena’s pain. Not all of it... but the major bits.

Suki purred on my shoulder and I reached up to rub her nose with the tip of my finger. I wasn’t looking forward to this trip. As well meaning as Vivienne was, I couldn’t help but feel a little judgment in her replies to what must have seemed like endless questions. Maia was learning fast, and her hunger for knowledge about her powers, and about the Daughters, had gone beyond what I could provide.

I really should have just sent her to Vivienne for proper training, but I couldn’t do that to Lacey, and I couldn’t do that to myself either. Maybe it was harder to