Greetings to my fellow fans of reading and writing!
I got a lot of positive comments while writing The Art of Mending Memories. When I first started writing it I never imagined people would like it so much. Inspired by all of you, I decided to write a sequel.
But then I came across this problem: what would I write? Kaelyn and Aaron’s story is over. If I were to write a sequel, who would it be about? The first thing I did was write a list of possibilities. I thought about a prequel, but the idea didn’t really stick in my mind. I wanted something fresh, but I also wanted to keep the characters. Then I had to figure out the plot. This took me a while, only because I kept changing my minds on the details. Lastly, a title. Nothing seemed to fit, but eventually I decided on Dance of the Moons. I still feel iffy about it.
Now I write. I don’t know how this story is going to turn out, or how it will compare with AMM. I hope you all like it.
Thanks for sticking with me.
Chapter 1
“It’s so beautiful today,” Kaelyn said with a smile and a dreamy look outside the café windows. Her hand moved a damp cloth in circles, cleaning the countertop. “I can’t believe I’m stuck inside with you.”
“Oh, please,” I replied in a light tone, “you just want to be free to see your mutt boy.”
She smiled, her aura staying in its content state, despite my jibe. It was always content these days. Kaelyn was used to my poking fun at her relationship with Aaron. I had been doing so for months.
“He might drop by,” she added casually.
I rolled my eyes and muttered “He always drops by.”
On cue, two men walked into the café, both werewolves. The first one was Aaron, Kaelyn’s boyfriend. The second was another pack member, one of the few Shifter regulars at the café.
The pack had moved in seven months ago. At the time, Kaelyn had shared our fear of the werewolves. Something happened, however, that helped her come to peace with them. She and Aaron were a couple ever since.
Kaelyn leaned over the counter she had just cleaned and met Aaron’s lips with a quick greeting kiss. Aaron turned and nodded at me. “Hello, Leila.”
“Hello,” I replied coolly and politely.
Kaelyn frowned but said nothing about our distance. Aaron and I got along well, all things considered. Witches and Shifters were not known for getting along well with each other. There was too much bad history between them. They were on opposite sides of the spectrum, one could say.
I turned my attention to the second werewolf. He was one of the few Shifters who ever entered the café. I knew, from what Kaelyn had told me, his name was David, and he was a year older than Aaron. His dad died right before the pack moved.
He inclined his head to me in a silent greeting, his brown eyes never leaving mine. The air around him shimmered, as it often did when I saw him in the shop. It made him difficult to read, as I did not know the reason for his shimmering aura.
“If I order tea,” he asked while still making eye contact with me, “will you read my destiny in the tea leaves?”
“Only for a great tip,” I replied with a fake smile. There was bitterness to my tone.
“Okay,” Kaelyn injected as David was opening his mouth, “I’m going to stop this before it starts and turns dangerous.”
“Don’t worry,” I said in a syrupy voice, my gaze fixed on David, “he knows he would never stand a chance against me.”
The werewolf laughed. “It’s not my intent to attack you. All I want is a cup of tea.”
Something in his gaze put me on edge, as if he were playing a game with me. Still, I couldn’t let him see any weakness in me, so I smiled and played along.
“What’s your type?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Surprise me.”
With a stiff back, I turned and walked over the to tea section. I heard Kaelyn chatting with the two werewolf customers as she pulled treats from the display case for them, but I didn’t bother trying to listen. I was aware of eyes on me—David’s eyes I was sure. I prepared tea without realizing which kind. I inhaled the steam. It was honeybush vanilla herbal. Not that it mattered, since he hadn’t ordered a specific tea.
I placed the tea on the counter less gently than normal. Kaelyn had already rung up the charges.
With my sweetest voice I said “Have a nice day.”
David laughed quietly and picked up the tea. Aaron thanked me and the two took their food and drinks over to a table and sat down.
I looked over at my coworker. She was looking at me with hesitance and biting her lip. I knew this could only mean one thing.
“You’re going to ask me to cover for you so you can leave early, aren’t you?”
She flashed a hopeful smile. “Please?”
“Keep leaving early and my aunt is going to fire you for choosing the mutts over her,” I warned in a light tone. We both knew Jaquie would never fire her.
When my family first came to this town, my mother was still a child. Jaquie’s the oldest sibling, my mother’s the second youngest. Jaquie was fifteen at the time of the move, six years older than my mother. Venezuelawas a dangerous place for witches at the time. There was a small coven starting up in this area, so my family moved here. My grandparents started this café selling teas, coffees, and assorted baked goods. It wasn’t big, but neither was the town, and we got by, mostly because the workers were part of the family. Kaelyn was the only outside worker.
“I could never leave this shop,” Kaelyn joked lightly. “I like it far too much.”
I rolled my eyes. “You like it so much you ask to leave early everyday?”
“I don’t ask every day.”
I sighed. “Yes, I’ll cover for me. But you own me. Again,” I added quietly.
“I’ll make it up to you, Leila, I promise.”
She sent a thumbs-up to Aaron. I turned around and began cleaning up the counters from the day’s work. It wouldn’t be hard closing on my own, just lonely. But I was Kaelyn was going to have a nice night. At least one of us would. I glanced sideways at my smiling coworker. That was more than I could give myself.
I arrived home at eight that night. I had taken my time clothing the café. I always did, when I was the only one closing. I liked the time alone.
“You took your time at the café,” my mother commented as soon as she closed the door. “I conjured an image of you to make sure you were okay.”
Of course she did. My mother was the definition of paranoid and over protective. I couldn’t go anywhere without being sure my mother wasn’t watching. Not that I went many places—she doesn’t let me out often. It was the only reason why I lived at home. She nearly locked me in the basement for all eternity—as in she would bespell the basement forever—when I brought up the subject of moving out.
“Kaelyn left early, so it was just me.”
“I know,” she replied, “but I was worried something might have happened.
My mother was always worried something would happen. Even before the pack moved in she had been worried I would be kidnapped by someone out for revenge or killed by a witch hunter. After the pack moved in, she only got more paranoid. I couldn’t count the times she tole me not to turn my back for an instant around them.
I smiled to placate her. It was strained, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to tell. “I’m fine, mom.” Just like always, I refrained from adding. That would just lead to an argument, and I was in no mood for a fight with my mother. They usually ended in me covered in warts or muted.
She smiled back, fooled. “Dinner’s on the stove.”
“I’m not hungry.” What I meant was I’m not in the mood for dinner conversation. “I ate at the café.” It was two bites of a blueberry muffin that was two days old, but she didn’t need to know that. I knew she would want me to join dinner, and I needed an excuse not to. I could never lie to my mother. No one could. She could always sense a lie. It made growing up hell. I could keep no secrets from her.
Her face fell. “Do you want to join us anyway?”
“No thanks,” I mumbled, already halfway up the stairs. “I have a lot of work to do.”
I dropped my bag on the floor as soon as my bedroom door was shut. I leaned against the door, my eyes closed. Breathing slowly, I set up guards around my room. No one—meaning my mother—would be able to hear or see anything in my room by any witchy method. It was something I had only recently figured out how to do flawlessly. I was working on a way to work the guards so they were always surrounding me, but it was difficult to work a spell that moved. Not only did it take more concentration to conjure, it also took more effort and energy to maintain it. But I was determined; I couldn’t have my mother conjuring images on me forever.
As I concentrated, I could feel the energy solidifying against the walls of my room. Most people thought spells were just pure magic—and they were, in the same sense that the magic in the Shifters’ DNA allowed them to change—but more of the magic was simply manipulation of free energy and molecules. At least the spellwork was that. Aura reading and other mental abilities were a completely different and, as of yet, unexplainable phenomena.
Sighing, I sat down at my desk. I slid the textbook over, opened it, and emerged myself in the psychology of the human mind. I may have been stuck at home for the time being, but some day I would get out; this I told myself every day. One day it would finally prove true.