When You Forget Me: Chicago Witches, #0.5

By Lorelei Johnson

She's cursed to be forgotten, but some things are more powerful than magic.

 

Elspeth has spent the last two years running from her past, drifting through life like a ghost. Unable to break her curse thanks to her wonky magic, she needs to find someone powerful enough to break it for her.

 

Not an easy feat when people forget you the moment they look away.

 

But then she meets a man who defies everything.

 

Roman is one of the vampires' top enforcers. With little else to distract him, he's thrown himself into his work. Until one night he scents his bride. Though his instincts scream that she's his, she seems to dance at the edge of his memory, threatening to vanish if he leaves her side.

 

When her past catches up with her, will they finally break her curse or will she fade from his memory forever?

 

When You Forget Me is a spellbinding novella by Lorelei Johnson that you won't soon forget. If you like fated mates, steamy romance, and powerful magic, then you'll love this captivating paranormal romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lorelei Johnson
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645837827

Book preview

Chapter 1

Elspeth

image-placeholder

The night was warm, the moon full, an auspicious sign according to my mother as she fussed with my hair for the thousandth time. Auspicious for who, I wasn’t sure, but I doubted it was for me. If I had to say I had any kind of luck, I would have said it was bad, or at least wonky. Perhaps I was paying off karma from a past life, which seemed monstrously unfair but I sure as hell hadn’t done anything in this lifetime to warrant it. The tiny town I lived in didn’t exactly present a lot of opportunities for such things.

It was the night of my twenty-first birthday, so I was now officially allowed to join the coven, something all young witches and warlocks dream about. Most counted down the days until the ceremony, wishing away the time as they anticipated the moment their life would truly begin. Not me. Every day I gave that calendar the side-eye, hoping I could ignore the impending initiation, all while praying to the goddess that my powers would finally manifest as my mother insisted they would.

I wasn’t the only one who had doubts. There was some dispute amongst the council over whether I should be initiated or whether we should wait. Because like my luck, my magic was a little wonky.

Growing up, the other kids would tease that I was a bad omen, and who could blame them, really? Whenever I tried a spell, disaster usually followed, or sometimes nothing at all. When I was eighteen, I tried a spell to turn my hair red, but what resulted was a cotton candy pink tipped with platinum blonde, making me look like a tub of ice-cream. Not even my mother had been able to change it back. My best friend, Bianca, told everyone she’d done it for me because that way it would be cool. I knew better than to think I would ever be cool, but it was better than the alternative so I agreed. If they’d known it was the result of another botched spell, they would have snickered about it incessantly.

While I secretly hoped the council would vote against me joining until my magic stabilised, my father wouldn’t hear of his only daughter being refused her right to join the coven. The Evans witches had a strong, proud history, and there was no way he could admit his daughter was a total failure as a witch. My parents were convinced that my powers simply hadn’t awakened yet. After all, great power takes time to manifest, and the prediction ceremony to assess a witch’s magical potential was never wrong. Or so they said.

They certainly clung to that belief like a lifeline.

So there I was, in my white lace dress and my hair looking like melted ice-cream—much to my mother’s dismay because her attempt to change it had failed again—being led to a ceremony I had spent the last twelve months dreading.

As my mother led me through the mansion, the entire coven was present, dressed as formally as I was, the whole place lit with candles as witches and warlocks drank the champagne on offer. They all looked at me, most with scepticism or judgement, but I was used to those looks. They all doubted the power that was predicted to reside in me. Hell, I doubted it, too. But there were a few who believed it because of who my father was. I preferred the scepticism to the expectation; at least I couldn’t disappoint those who weren’t expecting anything.

As I walked, I felt a heated gaze on me that sent a shiver down my spine, like I was being watched by a predator. I forced myself to keep my eyes forward until Bianca bounded up to us. ‘Mrs Evans, I’ll take her,’ she said with a wide smile.

‘Alright, but make sure she isn’t late,’ my mother said. She kissed me on the cheek and offered me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. My father was a stubborn proud man, and while my mother didn’t want me to be held back any more than he did, she didn’t quite share his it’ll be fine attitude. I knew she worried about me.

Bianca linked her arm with mine and steered me to a small room with hurried steps that could only mean one thing: there was gossip on the tip of her tongue. She shoved me inside and shut the door. ‘Did you see the way Chase was looking at you?’ she said, fanning her face dramatically.

‘No,’ I answered somewhat truthfully. I may not have seen it but I had felt it. And not for the first time. For the past six months I’d felt his gaze on me whenever we were in the same room. I wasn’t going to tell Bianca that, though. She’d run away with it and I’d never get her back to reality.

There were only three reasons Chase Danvers would look at a woman with any seriousness: power, money, or he hadn’t already fucked her. I satisfied two of those criteria, three if the prediction my father clung to so desperately turned out to be true. There was something about him that I didn’t trust, a darkness that made me wary. A darkness that had only seemed to grow since his own ceremony last year.

‘I wish he’d look at me the way he looked at you,’ Bianca sighed dreamily.

‘You should stay away from him.’

‘You’re not still on about that feeling he gives you? No offense, but your magic isn’t the most reliable.’

‘Well gee, tell me what you really think,’ I muttered bitterly. It was one thing for the coven to doubt and dismiss me, but she was my best friend. She could at least pretend to consider my warning.

‘Give him a chance,’ Bianca said, waving off my bitterness. ‘Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the reason he settles down.’

‘Taming the player is your dream, not mine,’ I said flatly. I was only glad that no one else had noticed his attention to me. Having Bianca berate me was one thing, but to have the pressure of the entire coven telling me to give their golden boy a chance? No thank you.

‘Well, when you reject him, steer him my way,’ she said, hiking her shoulders in a shrug that told me she was finally dropping this line of conversation.

I smiled but I had no intention of steering him towards her. I didn’t want him anywhere near her. My magic might be wonky, but that didn’t mean I should ignore my instincts entirely. Chase Danvers was bad news.

‘Alright, I’d better go join the circle. Stay here, and don’t be late or your mother will have a fit,’ Bianca said.

‘Yeah yeah, I know.’

Bianca grinned and ducked out of the room with a bounce in her step, leaving me completely alone with my anxiety. As part of the ceremony, I was supposed to do a spell to see what my affinity was. There was a fifty percent chance nothing would happen, and a fifty percent chance something would explode. Either way, it was sure to be total embarrassment.

‘I thought she’d never leave,’ a dark voice said.

My body tensed but I forced myself to turn around. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, I thought as I swallowed hard. Chase had always been the best-looking guy in our little town, it was something that ran deeper than his strong jaw and movie-star hair. Bianca had described it as confidence, but I couldn’t help feeling he had well and truly jumped over that line and into the territory of arrogance.

‘Chase, what are you doing in here?’ I asked, keeping my voice calm despite the fact that my heart was hammering against my chest.

‘So you do know who I am. You’ve been ignoring me,’ he said, a flirtatious lilt to his voice and he flashed that charming smile of his, a well-practiced move in his playbook.

‘Goddess forbid a woman should ignore you,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘You didn’t answer my question.’

‘I’ve come to see you, of course.’

‘And why would you want to see me? We’ve hardly even spoken before.’

‘You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?’ he asked, raking a hand through his hair. ‘That’s one of the things I like about you.’

I found myself analysing his every movement, wondering if it was staged or real. The smile that didn’t reach his eyes, the confidence in his shoulders that conflicted with the expression on his face. The words were perfect, too perfect, as if he was trying to herd me somewhere.

But this cat was not about to be herded anywhere. Not by him.

‘Stop trying to charm me and tell me what you want,’ I snapped. I was in no mood for games, I already wanted to run and Chase wasn’t making it any easier.

‘I knew there was something different about you. Most girls would be flattered that I’d even notice them,’ he said, and the playfulness fell from his face. He seemed almost... proud. I suddenly didn’t want to know what he wanted anymore. I just wanted him to leave.

‘Look, Chase, this isn’t a good time—’

‘Elspeth, when you go out there tonight, I want you to go out there as mine.’

I blinked. Then again. My brain scrambled to register what he’d just said. ‘You barely know me, what makes you think I’d agree to that?’ I couldn’t remember a single time we’d actually had a conversation. No doubt we’d heard plenty about each other, as one would expect in a small town and a small coven, but when we were young, he’d snickered along with the rest of them.

So what was different now? That uneasy feeling began to stir in my stomach. Whatever his reason, I doubted I was going to like it.

‘That’s my fault,’ he said, giving a small shrug as if that was a minor detail. He took a step towards me and I took one back, but he seemed unperturbed. There was a darkness slithering around him, as if the shadows around him were living beings. ‘I’m not good at... feelings, Elspeth.’

‘Feelings?’ I squeaked. Why was he talking about feelings? As far as I was aware, Chase Danvers did not have feelings, certainly not for me.

‘I’m in love with you,’ he said, something like authenticity in his voice. I blinked hard, shock rendering me speechless. What the hell was he talking about? He couldn’t love me. It was absurd and the very thought filled me with dread. What was it about him that had the hairs on my neck standing on end? I couldn’t pinpoint it but I knew that professions of love shouldn’t feel like that.

‘Chase, I don’t...’ Something flashed in his eyes that silenced me. Chase was the most powerful warlock in our coven, he was destined for a council position, no one doubted that. How could I fight against him with my abilities? I needed to get him to leave without pissing him off.

But Chase Danvers didn’t take rejection well. I wasn’t sure that he’d ever been rejected before.

He stalked towards me, his movements slow, calculated, like he was stalking prey. My heart hammered in my chest as I stepped back again but the wall met my back, giving me nowhere else to run.

‘Why would you—are you under a spell?’ I asked. None of this made any sense. He’d never shown any real interest in me before. It was some kind of prank, right? Or a potion gone awry. There had to be a logical explanation to… whatever this was.

‘Have you really not noticed?’

‘How could I notice anything when you’re with another woman every other week? This’—I waved a hand at him—’is just a little out of character.’

He reached me then, standing close. Too close. I could feel the darkness slithering across my skin. ‘Don’t you see how great we could be together? When your power manifests, there will be no stopping us.’

‘I don’t have any power.’

‘You do,’ he said gliding his fingers along my jaw and I swallowed hard. ‘I can sense it in you, lying dormant, waiting.’ I could feel his breath on my skin