Artemis was busying herself in the kitchen preparing dinner. She loved those rare occasions when company came. It gave her a good opportunity to use the many recipes she learned while in culinary school. It had always been her dream to be a chef, and she might have achieved that dream had her powers not gotten in the way back then. Artemis had the ability to will things to happen just by thinking them. It was a strong power which had taken half her life to learn to control.

  Once, long ago, when she’d been training with a renowned chef in Birmingham, she’d been undergoing a test—a test which would determine whether or not she’d be awarded a permanent position at the restaurant. She labored hours at home concocting the perfect meal to prepare on test day. When test day came, she was doing pretty well until she overheard two nearby restaurant employees discussing their recent trip to the coast. Their conversation caused Artemis to think about sandy beaches and the taste of salty ocean water. That brief mental flight of fancy ruined her meal. When the chef tasted her food, it was drenched with salt and gritty sand particles.

  Whatever her mind thought manifested itself in those days. If she thought of rain, a sprinkler system might activate. If she felt hot, a fire might break out. In her family, Artemis’ power was one of the strongest abilities, but it was also the most difficult to master. It caused her much grief over the years. She’d never married. At fifty-one years old she wondered what life might have been like had she not been born a witch. She might have found the right man and settled down. Of course, there was still time. Her face looked like it was in its early thirties. She might still find the right guy one day. As for having children, that wasn’t very important. She’d raised her fair share already despite never being a mother. After her brother-in-law Larry died, she helped Demitra bring up Beryl and Fable. And after what happened to her other sister Nacaria, Artemis raised Salem and Seth as if they were her own. Artemis’ life was far from empty, even if some of her dreams may not have come true.

  Footsteps clambered on the wooden kitchen stairs as Fable bolted down. “What smells so good?” She lifted the lid on one of the pots atop the stove and breathed in the aroma.

  “Get out of that before I smack your behind,” Artemis warned.

  “Smells great, whatever it is,” Fable replied. Hopping up to sit on the kitchen counter, she looked at her aunt with a serious face and asked, “How do you think it’ll go tonight?”

  “Badly.”

  “Me too!” Fable confided with a smirk.

  The kitchen was well-lit from recessed lighting mixing with the afternoon sun shining through the bank of windows over the large farm sink and counter. But the light infiltrating the room only made the shadow passing over the far wall that much more noticeable.

  “How do we explain that?” Fable said with an eye roll.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Maybe they won’t notice,” Artemis answered.

  “Oh, she’ll make sure they notice.”

  Artemis lifted the lid to stir its contents and said, “We’ll just have to deal with it. After all, if that girl ends up marrying Seth and comes here to live, she’ll have to be told eventually.”

  The kitchen door swung open as Yasmine and Howard walked inside. “My, my,” Howard chuckled. “A witch and her cauldron. I love a woman who cooks. Say, Artemis, why don’t you marry me? I’m tired of ordering take-out every night.”

  Artemis gave him a knowing smile and said, “As I recall, we tried that once and it didn’t turn out so well.”

  “True, true,” Howard recalled. “Your mother wasn’t on board.”

  “I didn’t know that’s why you two broke up back in the day!” Fable exclaimed. “Hecate was against it? That’s crazy. Howard, she adores you.”

  “Maybe so, but she wasn’t a fan of your aunt and me getting hitched. But I always felt like it was more as a protection to me. Your aunt was a pretty dangerous witch to be around in her younger days. If I said I thought I had a cold, her wacky power turned it into hypothermia.”

  “See what agonies you were spared not marrying me!” Artemis laughed, nudging him out of her way so that she could grab a wooden spoon from a drawer.

  “Maybe so,” Howard smiled, giving his friend a kiss on the forehead as she reached past him for the spoon. “But you still look the same as you did back then, and I am old and bald. Or did you do that to me?”

  “Well,” Artemis grinned returning to her saucepan, “I may have once thought to myself that your hair was beginning to thin—but I can’t be sure.”

  The laughter from the kitchen brought Seth bounding down the stairs to join them. “Hey Howie! Here to meet my girl tonight?”

  Yasmine grimaced. Only Howard noticed.

  “Yep, maybe I can keep things on an even keel for you.”

  The shadow passed across the floor again.

  “Damn it!” Seth shouted. “That thing is going to ruin everything tonight.”

  “That thing has a name, Seth,” Artemis scolded.

  For a moment Seth recoiled in shame, then he said, “I’m sorry, but everything has to go just right tonight. How’s it going to look when a phantom shadow hovers along the dining room wall?”

  “I’ll talk to her,” Artemis promised. “You need to relax. But you also should probably face that your girlfriend will need to be told sooner than later if the idea is to see whether or not she is able to join this family.”

  “Seth,” Yasmine said softly, touching his arm, “Granddaddy and I weren’t afraid. I’m sure Vanessa won’t be either.”

  Howard watched silently as Yasmine’s index finger lightly stroked the bicep of Seth’s muscled arm. The way she looked at him made Howard’s heart ache for her. She loved Seth and it was obvious to Howard but didn’t seem to be to anyone else.

  “Don’t be so sure, Yazzy,” Fable laughed. “We’re an awful lot to take on.”

  Demitra suddenly rushed into the room. “I just had a vision of them! They’re almost here. I saw their car coming through town. They’ll be here in around ten minutes.”

  “Damn! They’re early,” Seth cried. “Where are they now?”

  Demitra closed her eyes and let her inner eye run through the streets to find them. “Elm and Madison.”

  “I have to change,” Seth said looking down at his musty tank top and gym shorts. “Can you stall them Aunt Artemis?”

  Artemis gave him a quick nod as she poured a jar of broth into a pot of simmering beans. “I’ll hold up the traffic light at Elm and Brady. That’ll buy you a few minutes. Maybe I’ll even roll a stray garbage can into the street. That’s always fun.”

  Seth leapt up the stairs, skipping two at a time. Fable hopped off the kitchen counter to look at the bread baking in the oven. “This is going to be quite an evening.”