Autumn Storm (The Witchling #2)(17)

“You okay?” she asked. Autumn studied him. Something she said upset him. She had no idea what.

“Yeah.” He forced a smile.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No.”

“Are you going to be washing your hair on Sunday?”

He laughed. “No. We’ll hang out. Promise.”





Chapter Five





Could she tell how freaked out he was? Beck tried to keep smiling and talking. Autumn was eyeing him, though. He thought it strange she showed up to the boarding school with an amulet already but dismissed his instinct. There was no way his mother wouldn’t warn him, right? Weren’t they all in this mess together?

Maybe it was a huge coincidence. He desperately hoped so. He didn’t know how to use his magick anymore than he had almost two months ago. He wasn’t ready for the reincarnated Summer to appear.

“When was your accident?” he asked. “You seem to have healed quickly. I mean, if it was recent.” Nothing he said came out right around her. He wasn’t certain if it was nerves or simply trying to be a decent person. He’d been happy being a semi-normal teen obsessed with blond girls and music. The transition into a protector hadn’t yet clicked like he hoped it would.

“You’re so odd,” Autumn murmured. “Three months this weekend.”

It wasn’t a coincidence. Summer went off a cliff three months ago on Sunday. The placement of her scars, the orphan story, déjà vu … hell, even her name!

The damn former Mistress of Dark kept her secrets too well.

“You’re doing it again!” Autumn exclaimed. “I swear, I’ll walk home, if you don’t stop it.”

Beck almost laughed at her threat, aware she wasn’t going to walk anywhere with her leg like it was. For once, he didn’t say what he thought.

“Did you have fun at the game?” he asked after a long pause. If he didn’t get his mind off his discovery, he was going to go as crazy as Decker.

“I did, thanks. Adam and Jenna will make such a cute couple.”

“Didn’t she just get here?”

“I don’t think that matters to guys like you.”

Beck did laugh at this. He wasn’t sure what to think, knowing Summer was sitting in the car with him. It was exhilarating to know she was alive. She was also very different than the timid, impressionable girl he remembered, and that made him want to doubt she and Autumn were the same person. He rather liked talking to her, which was a first for him. Normally, he wasn’t as interested in talking to a girl as much as he was figuring out how to get her pants off.

Since breaking up with Dawn, he’d kept his pants on. His father advised him to be more careful, but it was a combination of getting Dawn pregnant and his new role that made him more cautious. He hadn’t come to grips with the idea of being a father and the protector of all Light witchlings.

It was a lot to ask, considering the importance of both to someone who hadn’t wanted to deal with reality before a few weeks ago.

“It sorta sucks,” he voiced out loud.

“Adam and Jenna?” Autumn asked.

“Oh, no. Growing up, I guess.”

“It does. I want to be normal.”

“You’re too cute,” he replied with a grin. “And special.”

“All of us are,” she said. “I mean, we have weird superpowers, right?”

That part of Summer remained, the one that had no idea how beautiful she was. If not for Dawn, Beck might’ve broken his blonds-only rule when Summer arrived to the school a few months ago. Expressive brown eyes, milky skin, hourglass shape and huge breasts. She’d been innocent and sweet. Yeah, he saw what drew Decker to her.

Autumn had a different kind of beauty. She had a delicate build with large, striking blue eyes, long hair that formed natural corkscrews, and a rounder face than Summer’s. She was shorter and slender with a touch of olive to her skin that made her white-blond hair stand out. While gentle, Autumn possessed a more critical eye and thicker skin. She wouldn’t let someone like Dawn push her around, as Summer had.

“None of us will ever be normal,” he said with a snort, mind on the night he made a deal with the forest creatures to reincarnate Summer.

“Keeps things interesting.” Autumn shifted her leg.

Beck wanted to curse. His earth magick was sometimes a little too subtle. It had been warning him Autumn was in pain all night, and he hadn’t paid attention. One day, he’d be able to respond to his instincts better.

“Here. You’re hurting.” He held out his hand.

“I’m not hurting.”

“Whatever,” he said, amused at her arch tone. “Take it, woman.”

Autumn did so grudgingly. Summer wasn’t stubborn, either. Autumn’s body pulled at his magick and relaxed as it spread through her. She sighed.

“I don’t know how you do it,” he said, listening to what the magick told him about her injuries. “You’re in a lot of pain.”

“You grow a tolerance to it.”

Beck glanced at her, dismayed to see she was serious. His sense of excitement at Summer surviving faded, replaced by the reality that she’d probably suffer the rest of her life. Was a second trial worth it?