Chapter 18: Come Together

I honestly didn't know how powerful my weird, eccentric Aunt was. I mean, she was properly op to the point where it was actually stressing me out a bit. I had literally just watched her unleash her "true" power and she had caused half a dozen men to end up on the ground, rolling about in sheer agony including one of my teachers and she hadn't even physically touched any of them. And Liam, poor Liam. He was spewing up from it. I'd never seen anyone vomit as much as he did, I swear at one point I thought I saw him ease up and stop but no, he just kept going.

The fiasco had sort of died down. All of the men were looking at my Auntie M with a combination of admiration and straight up fear. The rest of our coven were standing behind my Auntie M in solidarity and doing my part; I went over and stood with them even if I was feeling a bit out of place as the resident newbie. One of the men I had noticed had helped Martin to his feet and ushered him out of the way before presenting himself to our coven, holding out his hand for my Auntie M to shake.

'Hi, my name is Adrian I'm the second in command of our coven if you will.'

Adrian was a soft spoken black fellow, taller in height than Martin but of a slightly broader build. His hair was braided in neat rows that finished at the nape of his neck and round his neck I noticed, was an NHS lanyard. He must have come straight from work or maybe he was going to work later, I don't know.

'Please,' Adrian continued. 'Allow me to apologise for what happened just then. Martin's a bit, old school in his practices.'

'And quite misogynistic.' Auntie M added as she reached for Adrian's hand. He flinched ever so slightly just before Auntie M shook his hand with a firm grip, I think he was expecting some kind of shock or something.

'Yeah well that doesn't mean to say the rest of us are the same.' Adrian smiled as he looked to the rest of his coven. 'But he was right in saying we need a new place of power.'

My Auntie M looked like she was having a good think. In the blink of an eye she had conjured up what looked like a map and started pointing out areas on it, showing them to Adrian.

I watched the others for a bit. Martin had been given a seat by one of the other men from his coven and Mr Evan's was busy chatting to the remaining guys whilst sneakily keeping an eye on my Auntie M I had noticed. The rest of the ladies in my coven had started to drag our table over with the brew making stuff on it. They were busy making up mugs of tea and coffee and handing them out, to the men as well; I saw Martin take a mug of tea too. He looked a bit shocked actually; that Mai, a female witch was asking him if he wanted sugar in his tea. One apparently, with a splash of milk. I was issued a mug and so was Liam who I felt sneak up beside me. He looked rough but I think the hot beverage was bringing him round.

'Hi.' He mumbled just as he took a sip from his mug.

'Hi.' I answered.

Then silence for what seemed to be way too many moments than what was comfortable. I dunno I think it was way more uncomfortable for Liam than what it was for me. Oh I was quite happy to just stand here and watch what was going on. Until Liam decided to break the silence.

'So you're a...' Liam blurted out.

'Yep.'

'Oh, okay.'

Silence again. I turned my head slightly to look at him.

'And that means you're also a...'

'Yes. Yes it does.' Liam confirmed my half said question.

'Is that why you've been glaring at me for weeks now?' I full on asked him directly. It had been bothering me for a while now.

'My Uncle sort of made me aware of you, this was before your Aunt started working at the school.'

That made sense as I started feeling weird and everything shortly before my Auntie M showed up and eventually explained what was happening to me.

'I couldn't really feel any energy coming from you though.' I stated. It was true though, I only ever caught Liam staring at me.

'I thought I could feel it coming from you though, sometimes anyway. I didn't really know what it was or what was happening with me till my Uncle Dan told me about my Awakening.'

'You had yours not long ago? How was it?' I asked, genuinely curious as I had gone through mine recently too. I had no idea Liam was going through the same thing.

'Awful. It happened in the week before we came back to school. Luckily my dad helped me out he was the same age as me when he had his Awakening.' Liam smiled and gulped at his tea. I took a moment longer than usual to study his face closer as this was in fact the closest I'd ever been to him, bar that time I nearly rugby tackled him in the hall a few weeks ago. He really was quite an attractive guy. Upon closer inspection, I could see why all the girls at school were mad for him. Plus he was smart and was good at sports too. Liam was like the typical cliched star boy that everybody loved and could do no wrong in every teen film ever made. And he seemed relatively normal too.

Until it turned out that he was a Warlock. So now he had a hint of weirdness about him.

'How was your Awakening?' Liam asked me, turning ever so slightly just to look me in the eyes. It caught me off guard a bit, his eyes were the strangest shade of blue from being illuminated by the bonfire; the same fire highlighting the gold tones in his hair.

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'Stop it Maddie.' I chided myself in my head. 'Don't go falling for the most popular guy in school the other girls will have your head on a pike.'

'Well it seems like your Aunt and Adrian are figuring something out.' Liam nodded over to them.

'That's good.' I replied. 'Hey, do you want a refill?' I shook my empty tea mug. Liam nodded. I took his mug off him and led him over to the table where all the tea and coffee stuff was, dumping fresh teabags in with milk, sugar and hot water from the geyser. Carmen was at the table along with my cousins Molly and Macy. I introduced them to Liam who game them a dazzling smile and a polite "How do you do?" Molly and Macy instantly started chatting with him about his Awakening and how he knew me and what he had learned so far. Carmen had opened the biscuits I had brought and gestured for us to help ourselves, I went straight in for a cheeky Custard Cream. Gradually everybody started moving over to the table, the rest of the male coven and my own coven. Mai however had parked herself down next to Martin and was busy chatting away to him. If anyone could bring Martin round after his episode then it was Mai, she was absolutely lovely.

Mr Evans kindly introduced the male coven to us. There was Evan, a young guy in his twenties with an immaculate haircut who we were told was Adrian's cousin and worked in the mental health sector like he did too. Sajid, who insisted we call him Saj was a bit older than Evan and also had an equally immaculate haircut was the owner of a local Indian catering company. Ralph sort of introduced himself to us and handed out business cards which was odd, he owned a plant nursery which was made obvious by the fact he was wearing a pair of work overalls and wellington boots. He was in his forties I think and had unruly curly strawberry blonde hair and scruffy looking fuzz on his face that was not stubble but, not quite in full on beard territory. And of course there was Martin, the head of the coven and Adrian; the second in command. That was it.

I'd noticed that my Aunt and Adrian were now talking to Martin. Mai had hurried over and refilled her mug and Martin's, then hurried back over; handing the fresh brew to the older gent. They talked for a short while before we were all summoned over.

'Everyone if I can have your attention please.' Auntie M spoke up. 'We've come to an arrangement that I hope suits everyone.'

We all stood to attention and carefully listened to what was being said. Adrian then began talking.

'So, Ms Taylor had found our coven a suitable place of our own to gather.' Adrian started. 'It's not far from here but it's a place of power situated over a deep underground spring which should suit us well.'

The Warlocks seemed to heave a group sigh of relief.

'But we have also decided that on particularly special occasions, we can share this space together.' Auntie M added. 'There are a few, not many but a few co-ed covens up and down the county that work together peacefully and I don't see why we can't.'

There were a few shocked faces in the entire group but nobody seemed to complain. I knew everyone in my coven would support my Auntie M's decisions without a doubt as she had our best interests at heart and I knew for a fact that the male coven wouldn't say a peep as they knew my Auntie M could probably vaporise them in the blink of an eye if she wanted to.

'Of course we'll let everyone know when these occasions are.' Adrian added.

I was surprised Adrian was doing all the talking for the Warlocks, Martin seemed pretty happy and content to let him do so.

'But tonight is somewhat of a special occasion. We're here to prepare our newest additions to our covens for their proper initiation on Samhain!' Auntie M exclaimed and clapped her hands together with glee. 'Maddie would you come over here please?'

'And Liam, you can come over here son.' Martin finally spoke up. He was the head of the Warlock coven I guess it was only right for him to do this part. Apparently both covens had the same procedure as both my Auntie M and Martin snapped their fingers and in a flash; large boxes appeared in their hands. Eventually they turned to face their respective covens and proceeded to address them only. I couldn't quite hear what Martin was saying to Liam but I had my Aunt to concentrate on.

'Madelyn Rose Taylor. To our sister, may I present you with your very own cloak in our covens colours. Care for it as it will care for you.'

Auntie M handed me the box which I opened up. Inside was a heavy velvet cloak with a deep violet coloured silk lining and a bright intricate silver clasp closure near the neck. I stroked the fabric and could instantly feel a warm magic emitting from it as well as the plush softness of the velvet itself. I smiled with glee and rubbed my right eye with the back of my hand catching an escaping tear. I heard everyone in my coven "aww" at me as they all walked up to give me hugs.

'Go on Maddie try it on!' Macy squealed at me with her sister nodding profusely beside her. Molly held the box for me as I gently undid the silver clasp and pull the cloak out. Gabrielle and Brianna who had been relatively quiet that evening helped me put the cloak on and straightened it out for me, tugging the hood in to place and securing the clasp. Everybody including my Auntie M bowed their head at me which made me slightly embarrassed and I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks.

'C'mon lets get a photo of you.' Auntie M said to me as she pulled her hone out. She snapped a quick shot of me stood in front of the bonfire then quickly motioned for everyone else to gather round me so she could get a group shot. The funny thing was, she set the timer on her phone then ran over to get in the shot herself. Her phone was just suspended in mid air and after five seconds the flash had gone off and she went back to it to check the photo.

I glanced over at Liam and his coven to find they were doing something similar and were busy slapping his back and taking photos.

'Liam!' Auntie M shouted. 'Why don't we get a photo of you and Maddie together? Then we can have a big group shot?'

'Yeah sure!' Liam replied and made his way over to me. He casually put an arm around my shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world and smiled as Auntie M took our photo. I was actually smiling too. It was nice now knowing there was someone else going through all this like I was. It made it all feel a little less daunting. We were then swarmed by both our covens, mingling shoulder to shoulder in some kind of unity. I don't know but my coven seemed to be taking it better than the Warlocks, I suppose they needed time to come round to the idea. But everyone put a smile on for our photo. Auntie M did her trick again with her phone and ran over, standing beside me. Mr Evans was directly behind her and I just about heard them both speaking.

'Well, nice to finally meet you properly Ms Taylor, this is an interesting development.'

'Aw come now Daniel. This is just the beginning.'

I could hear the smooth velvety tone coming out of my Aunts mouth all coy and flirty. I held back my eye roll. Be careful Mr Evans, my Aunt will probably ruin you.

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