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Taking a deep
breath, Jack pushed every ounce of strength into his hands and shot
the overwhelming power at Evander. The world shattered around him
as an explosion of light and sound battered his ears.

“
Oh my god!
Jack!”

Cora’s shout
registered through the noise and the ringing in his ears. He opened
his eyes and found himself back in the shop.

“
What’s
happening?” he croaked as Tabitha helped him to his feet. His leg
gave way beneath him, the intense throb of pain in his back and
legs made him hiss.

“
You. You are
what has happened,” Tabitha informed him.

Jack looked
around at the mayhem and found the shop window had literally
exploded. The shattered glass lay out on the street and shop floor.
Ember was brushing shards of glass from herself as she stumbled to
her feet. Tavish was lying on the floor near the door groaning as
though he was in pain. Alastair was rolling over trying to stand
up.

“
What
happened?” he asked again.

“
Jack, when
you appeared back in the shop, things exploded and we were all
pushed back, like we were literally flying.”

He looked at
Cora who had a cut above her right eyebrow.

“
Did I do
that?” he asked, feeling suddenly sick.

“
I hit the
table when things exploded. It doesn’t matter,” she said, brushing
his hand aside as he tried to look more closely at the cut. “What
matters is how you did it? What happened? Where did you
go?”

He was already
shaking his head. “I don’t know where I went. I’ve been before, but
I don’t know where it is. Things aren’t what they appear,
he-”

“
Yer will
answer me today!” Alastair boomed.

“
What is he
trying to do? Everyone will be looking!” Ember snapped.

“
No, they
won’t,” Tabitha sighed, “I’ve made sure of it.”

Alastair
stalked towards them, his eyes glaring at Jack as he walked into
the shop. “A want an answer.”

“
Where are
Ayden and Eli?” he asked.

Jack sure as
hell knew they weren’t in the same place he’d been. He’d have
pushed them back out with him if that had been the case.

“
They will
return when yer giv’ me an answer.”

He felt the
wind surge around him, the gentle caress upon his skin wouldn’t
feel the same to Alastair. It would feel more like a tidal wave of
pure, ice cold wind smashing up against him.

“
I can stop
you,” Jack hissed.

Alastair knew
he could. Jack had just escaped something, and judging by
Alastair’s shocked expression, he’d been the first.

Alastair
cocked his head to the side. “Nae, yer cannae. A huv a coven behind
me. Besides A could send more coven members yer way.”

“
What does he
mean?” Tabitha asked as Ayden groaned.

“
He uses the
Corenthio Coven to attack me when I’m there,” Jack told
them.

“
He does
what?!” Clay snapped, “What the hell are you playing at?” he
snapped at Alastair.

“
It is ma
power. A use whatever A can.”

“
You make him
face the people who killed Laura and Clio for you own enjoyment!”
Ember shouted.

Alastair
shrugged making Jack grit his teeth, trying to hold back the rage.
“It doesn’t matter, I can beat you. I’m back and I will get back
again.”

Alastair
nodded. “That might be the case, laddie, but will yer mek it back
afore they kill you?”

“
No one will
kill him!” Cora screeched as the wind pulsed around their
group.

“
I’d like to
see you try,” Jack said smugly.

Tavish ran
across the room. A second later he was holding Jack by his neck.
The hands around his throat tightened cutting off all oxygen. He
pulled at Tavish’s hands but they held.

“
Let him go!”
Cora shouted.

“
Whit is yer
decision?”

Tavish
squeezed his throat harder. His lungs convulsed as he kicked,
desperate to get air in them.

“
I’m not
making a decision right now!”

“
But yer will
make one?!”

“
Fine! I will
pick one!”

“
That wa the
right choice,” Alastair nodded.

Tavish let go
and Jack fell to the floor, coughing. His leg screamed in pain as
he rolled on it.

“
A will be by
tomorra for yer answer.”

As Alastair
left, Eli and Ayden crashed to the floor in groaning heaps. Cora
ran to Ayden’s aid. Clay was already helping Eli. He sat and held
his leg.

“
Jack, I need
to see to your injury,” Tabitha said as she knelt at his
feet.

He nodded and
accepted her help to his feet. He turned to see Tavish grinning at
them as Alastair walked past the three watchful witches standing on
the pavement. Jack knew that something had to be done about that
man. He may just have an idea.

49

REMINISCE

“
Morning,”
Ayden whispered as he edged the door open. Ayden manoeuvred over
Jack’s body as he slept on the floor at the foot of her
bed.

Cora couldn’t
believe Ayden hadn’t allowed Jack to sleep in the same bed with
her. Even Tabitha had allowed that, and nothing had happened then,
so why would it happen now? Ayden had gone with the line,
whilst you’re under my roof, you play by my
rules
. She hated that line. Add that to the
phrases she already hated meant the list was growing. Plus, this
was her house. She owned it outright.

“
Morning,” she
whispered back and took the plate he offered as he sat on the bed
beside her.

“
Did you
sleep?”

She shook her
head and pulled off a little chunk of the bagel. She didn’t feel
hungry but would eat just to appease Ayden’s worries. She knew he
worried. She hated that everyone always worried about
her.

“
Have you made
your choice yet?”

“
No.”

“
She doesn’t
want to talk about it,” Jack mumbled from his position on the
floor.

Two arms
stretched up coming in to view at the bottom of her bed. Jack’s
head popped up showing messy hair and a cheeky grin.

“
It’s not
something that is often brought up in conversation,” she moaned.
“So, Jack, lovely weather we are having today. By the way, do you
want to get married or have some hot sex today?”

Jack coughed
uncomfortably. Her reference to sex in front of Ayden made him
shift at the bottom of her bed. Ayden glared at Jack like he’d
already committed the act. She tried to hide her grin. Firstly,
there wasn’t a thing Ayden could do about it. If they chose that
option then it was going to happen. Plus she was well past the
legal age, so as two adults they could choose when or if they chose
to take that step in their relationship.

“
This is
rather a strange conversation to have, Cora. It’s not your typical
birds and the bees’ thing...”

“
Ayden, I know
it’s weird,” she sighed and couldn’t find any further words to make
the situation less stranger than what it was.

Sensing the
end of the conversation, Ayden stood up. “Well, I’m going to leave
you... Alastair will be at the shop later this afternoon for your
decision, I will be there.”

Jack pounced
onto the bed the second Ayden left the room. “Do you think he
knew?”

“
No,” she
smiled, allowing Jack to take the place he’d vacated seconds before
Ayden had walked into the room.

“
We can’t get
too comfortable in this bed. We need to head out,” Jack said
smiling.

She looked at
him with some confusion. He hadn’t mentioned anything. What did he
have planned?

“
We must stop
by the shop,” he said, answering her expression.

“
What? Why? We
are going there this afternoon.”

“
I know and
that is for something different, but we need to go,
now.”

She couldn’t
hide the smile that bloomed across her face as Jack passed and
threw her summer jacket at her. Warm weather usually meant she
could sit in the garden... the thought stopped short. She would
usually sit in the garden with her mum reading something whilst her
skin enjoyed the warm caress of the sun.

“
You thinking
about your mum?”

She nodded
feeling a tight fist hit her in the chest. It snow balled her at
times like this. The times where the little things that didn’t mean
anything then, now mean so much because you couldn’t share
them.

“
I know you
miss her, we all do.”

“
It’s
hard.”

His lips
brushed gently against her forehead as he pulled her into his warm,
solid embrace. “It is hard, but I’m here for you every step of the
way.”

He’d proven
this with everything he’d been through whilst she’d become
distracted by Quinn. Jack had fought for her. He still loved her.
There wasn’t much more you needed in a man. She could never hurt
him like she had. Never again.

“
Come on,
let’s go.”

Cora walked
alongside Jack. As he led her down the little path towards the
woods she felt her heart flutter. They were walking towards the
training ground. She hadn’t been back since that night. She hadn’t
been able to face it before now.

Jack walked
ahead into the circle, letting go of her hand as though he knew she
needed a moment to think before fully entering into the place that
signified death. It looked the same. The trunks were pushed up to
create the circle that they’d trained in. There were some trees
missing, some that had been broken by Varick. She couldn’t see a
single sign of blood. Of death. But she knew it lurked
here.

Cora walked to
Jack slowly at first. As she walked she realised that this wasn’t a
place to fear, but she feared it. It was a place that held bad
memories for her, ones she needed to come to terms with.

“
I nearly lost
you,” Jack whispered, bringing her back and cushioning her into his
arms. “This is the place I look at and experience the gut wrenching
feeling of how close I came to losing you.”

Listening to
the hurt in his voice made her see how he felt about this place.
He’d lost Clio, her mother, and then she had nearly given
up.

“
But this is
also the place where we trained, where we shared our gifts with
each other. It is also the place where I realised I was falling
deeper for you. Where we shared our first kiss...Where I punched
Clay,” he said with a grin, but it soon disappeared from his
handsome face. “I know that we lost Clio and your mum
here...”

“
Jack,
I-”

“
Shhh, let me
do the talking. You just need to listen. We cannot change what
happened here, but we can change our feelings towards it. We fought
for our lives here and against all probabilities, we won. We can
remember that as well as those we lost. We must remember who we
lost them to.”

He took her
hand and silently led her towards his cottage.

She looked
around as they left the training area. She didn’t know if she would
ever be back here, hoped that she wouldn’t have to. But if she had
to, she could do it. Jack was right, she had to think of the
positives about the training circle. That training circle had given
her a new family.

As they
approached the cottage, she noticed that fresh flowers bloomed in
the garden, a gorgeous rainbow mix of colours. Eli had obviously
kept himself busy. She saw the apple tree flourishing in the front
garden and it brought joy to her heart. That had been one of their
first jobs since recovering after the whole Quinn business. This
tree was their way of remembering Clio.

They’d also
planted a blossom tree in her garden because her mother had always
loved blossom. When she sat in the garden she could look at it and
think of her mother. He led her up the brick path and into the
cottage.

“
This was our
first meeting place when we had to be alone,” he said as he led her
through the living room and out through the kitchen. “You pushed me
so hard at that training session that I thought I was going to
throw up on you.”

“
That’s
disgusting,” she chuckled.

“
Yeah, it
would have been if I’d done it. But for some reason you pushed me
beyond anything I thought I believed I could do. I did it just so I
wouldn’t look stupid in front of you.”

“
You dropped
me out of the sky and I landed on my ankle. That was the day I saw
a change in you. I saw your heart. I remember the way you felt
against me, how strong you were... I also remember you crunching a
whole can of pop over your clothes.”

“
Yeah, the
temper...”

“
Hmmmm,” she
said with a grin.

He squeezed
her hand as they walked back through the kitchen and towards the
front door. Why did he feel he had to reminisce? Whatever he was
doing, she could feel the tension falling from her shoulders. He
was helping her heart heal. Helping her focus on the good in her
life.