Page 16 of Our Covenant

“Or it’s the hidden third option.” I lean over the small table and clasp my hands.

“Which is?”

“That I’ve been eyeing that book but now you’ve spoiled it for me. Very disappointing.”

She laughs, and I can’t stop the goofy smile from spreading across my face.

“Toasted maple and pastry for Maddox on the bar!” the heavily tattooed barista calls from behind me, and I’m instantly torn. Do I even need caffeine or a sugary scone now that Elsbeth has lit my senses on fire?

“Order for Maddox on the bar,” he repeats.

“I’ll be right back, then you can ruin Titanic for me.” I get to my feet and take a step back, worried she’ll vanish into thin air if I lose sight of her.

“Okay.” She takes a slow, shallow sip of the ceramic coffee mug in front of her, and I’m convinced I’ll have time to sweep her off her feet.

The sudden urgency to hold onto someone that I’ve never met engulfs me. It’s as if we should’ve known each other our entire lives and fate has finally intervened. I’ve never felt like this before. She’s not even out of sight before the ache in my chest starts and my stomach twists into knots.

Maybe I’m sick?

Have I contracted a virus during class that’s being super charged by the flood of magic in my nervous system? That’s the only explanation for the chaos wrecking my senses right now.

I take up my coffee and scone, both in takeaway containers, before turning back around. She’s still there, proving she isn’t some apparition or phantom my psyche has come up with to test me. She’s real and she’s waiting for me to sit back down. Her oversized, dark green sweater complements her fair complexion, but the black miniskirt and stockings leading into sleek boots gives her an unexpected edge that I don’t see often with women on campus. Not that I’m picky or truly have a type.

Women are lustrous, ethereal beings in my eyes. How our society has mistreated them for all recorded history is enough to prove how badly men have failed. Our coven was founded, cultivated, and nurtured by powerful women. Though it’s always the male heirs who take up the positions of legacies, we’ve been taught that our place is to serve our sacrifices. Our protection over the coven is to ensure our lines may continue through the women who carry our children.

I wonder what my and Elsbeth’s children would look like. My genes diluting any of hers would be a tragedy.

“Do you go to school here?” she asks, not at all scared away by my inability to have an intelligent conversation. Six years of higher education are worthless to me now.

“Yeah, do you?” I take a sip of my coffee and watch her over the rim of the white paper cup.

She nods. “I’m just about to finish my degree, but I wish I would have stuck with my minor in history for fun.”

I smile, choking down the hot latte to speak. “You find history fun?”

“Parts of it. You don’t like history?”

“Studying texts that have been whitewashed and bastardized by men who only aimed to brainwash the generations that came after them to believe that the atrocities that were committed on this land and many others were some form of divine prophecy? No, not a big fan.”

“You’re either trying really hard to impress me, are a raging feminist, or are really into NPR.”

“Potentially, it’s all three.”

“I’m flattered . . . and a little impressed.”

“My plan’s working then.”

She huffs a laugh and that warmth in my gut starts to spread again.

“What are you studying?”

I want to tell her that it doesn’t matter what I’ve spent my time doing before this moment, but that may come off a bit intense.

“I’m finishing my masters in English lit, with a dual minor in modern sociology and anthropology.”

Her lips form an “O” to sing a soft whistle. “Well, your thoughts on history make sense now.”

Does that mean she thinks I’m a pretentious prick? She’s not far off. Being raised as coven royalty, attending prep school from kindergarten through high school, and always having a safety net have an impact. But field and social work through university have broken down many of those disillusions. Not that I’ll ever know what the people I’m working to help have ever had to persevere through, but change needs money and humanity. I like to think I have both.