POV
Adam

"Holy shit. Mosh is gonna be pissed at me." I laughed as Avery and I got off the turnpike, heading outside of New Orleans and into the small town of Derwin.

That town was wiped away during hurricane Katrina, but it's been rebuilt, shit was still a small backwater ghost town.

Avery and I talked while we were on our way, he was being strange, he had a huge leather purse, you know the kind you see women carrying and you wonder what the fuck is in that bag.

He was dressed all in black, wearing a wide-brimmed hat. He wouldn't tell me where we were going, but I got the feeling it was to see his so-called conjurer friends.

He'd already so much as told me, he was in a practicing coven. While he was talking, I reached under the seat and pulled out one of my stashes.

"Y-you're still a ch-chimney?" He asked, as I opened my ziplock and pulled out one of sixteen pre-rolled dutches.

"Man I need to blow this Dutch, this training shit has me stressed, Alice expects me to memorize every Luna the packs had for the last century or so. It's a lot to handle." I said, dragging from my blunt and holding it in my lungs.

I dragged it a few more times, before passing it to Avery. "O-only a few pulls, I need to have a clear mind." He said, taking the dutch.

"Where's this shop at?" I asked as we entered the town of Derwin. "It's on the ma-main street, j-just keep driving." He said, choking on smoke.

We drove along, me following his half-assed direction until we came to a stretch of road that had stores on each side.

The spiritual emporium stood out, amongst the old run-down general store, Bumpy's liquors and a hollowed-out church.

It was a big store, with wide front windows, that showed off a weirdo's assortment of weirdness. Hanging dried bones, dream catchers, a thousand different crystals.

If the outside was bad, the inside was worst, packed from end to end in clutter.

One side of the space was set up like an altar, filled with statues of many different deities. Candles and incense we're everywhere.

Throughout the store, there were a bunch of books and other stuff, piles of candles and dried herbs

Funny Halloween witch decorations were all over, broomsticks and warty witches, but the store was really empty.

With the number of oils and paraphilia, it was understandable that the place wasn't packed.

In the south, outside of the hotspots, like New Orleans, people don't just practice witchcraft, at least not publicly enough to shop in a place like the spiritual emporium.

As I looked around, a tall brown skin shirtless guy came walking through a beaded curtain, from the back part of the store.

He was maybe nineteen or twenty, cute and tall, and surprisingly I felt no sexual attraction for him, I knew he couldn't do anything for me.

I liked his tattoos and his naturally arched eyebrows.

I watched as he and Avery nodded, at one another, before greeting each other.

"H-hey this is my brother Adam," Avery said, and I caught on when he blushed, looking down when the guy smiled at him.

"Hello, Adam. My name's Da'marius, Marius for short. Ave has told me and the coven so much about you." The tall cute guy said, stretching out his hand.

I shook his hand, "So you're a witch?" I asked. "No, but I know a few. Witches are born with their ma'jik. I am a conjurer, my ma'jik is given by the spirits and energies I conjure up." He answered.

"Where have you been Witts?!" Another more brassy voice yelled, the voice belonging to a blonde girl, around my age.

She walked fully naked from the beaded curtain.

"What the hell is this?" I asked Avery. "We're ab-about to convene." He answered, "Yes, so if you aren't participating, please keep quiet." Added the blonde nudist.

Avery, Marius and I followed the girl, through the beaded carpet and into a hallway, down the hall and about thirteen steps, there was a bigger space. It was not what I expected.

The room had hardwood floors, there were chairs lining the walls, and five mats with five pillows atop each one.

There was a tiny alter at the back of the room, it was covered in shining candles and incense.

It stood beneath a window that looked up onto the sidewalk of the street.

At one wall there was a mound of books, that just slightly reached the ceiling. What put me on pause, was the fact that the two other people in the room were seated on the pillows naked.

"Merry meet Avery!" A dark-haired girl, who's shy looking squealed from the pillow on the floor. "Merry meet Amber," Avery responded.

"Hey Ave." The last person called, pretty girl with long dark brown hair, and skin like melted chocolate. "Hey, Nikki." He called back to her.

"Avery, Marius, if you guys would strip down, I'd like to begin. There's this spell I wanna try, I found it in my granny's library. It's dated seventeen eighty-two. It summons something called a light spirit." The blonde girl said.

"I-I read about those, t-they're suppose to be the next thing to angel's, re-really powerful." Avery stuttered, stripping down, and showing his friends what we look like naked.

I sat at one of the chairs, keeping quiet, as Avery and Marius sat on their respective pillows, the blonde leader dimming the lights and lighting more candles.

"I don't know baby, powerful means dangerous," Amber said when the blonde sat back down. "Amber sweetie, powerful means limitless possibility. Don't you want real power, real ma'jik?" (energy) The blonde asked.

"Athena's right," Marius said. "What's the p-price of the spell?" Avery asked, "Energy and focus, that's it. It's an evocation." Athena answered, sitting down on her mat and pillow.

"Evoc-evoking means to take something in. I-I'm n-not sure about that." Avery muttered, and Athena and Amber sighed. "Vote," Athena said, and I didn't altogether like her attitude.

Four yes' rang out, but my twin remained silent.
...

...

...

"O-okay." He agreed. The small group started laughing and chattering until Athena organized them. "Before we begin... Adam is it?" She asked, swinging the blonde from her face.

"Yup," I answered, popping the p... Letting her know she didn't intimidate me. "We need concentration, meaning you need to be totally quiet. If you have a phone turn it off. And stay silent no matter what you see." Athena said.

"Got it," I said, not totally sure I was comfortable. 

"Each of us needs to be open, join hands. The invocation chant is strange, I don't know the language, but I have the pronunciation I believe. Worked on it all week." Athena said.

"We start by calling the elements, then we'll call forth Lumen, the king of the lights." She added

#   #   #

"Earth to air, fire to water, spirit to spirit. Earth to air, fire to water, spirit to spirit. Earth to air, fire to water, spirit to spirit. Gather and guard, gather and guard." Their chanting went on and on, slowly giving me a headache.

But I sat silently, slowly understanding what A'mosh's mom meant when she said magic was dead.

Yet they wouldn't give up, they just kept going and going.

The room seemed to spin as their voices spun around me, irritating me, aggravating me. Nothing was happening.

Then they stopped chanting, when Athena changed her words, speaking in a language I'd never heard, speaking in what sounded like tongues.

Take it from a guy who went to church every Sunday until I was fifteen, she was speaking in tongues.

"Ad garum ba sigo Lumen. Repeat it!" She demanded, her voice strong and confident. They repeated her, and I watched, feeling like something special was finally going to happen.

"Ad garum ba sigo Lumen! Ad garum ba sigo Lumen! Ad garum ba sigo Lumen! Ad garum ba sigo Lumen!" As the group repeated her, something miraculous happened.

The five of them slowly lifted from their pillows, their heads falling back on their shoulders. In the center of their circle, a small light appeared.

My breath hitched as the light grew, seeming to dim the candlelight. "We invoke you Lumen, king of the lights, share our essences, lend us your power!" Athena spoke proudly.

The light shone on them, making their skin radiate from without and within.

As quick as it was there it was gone, and they were dropped. From where I sat, their eyes were blown open and glowing faintly with that light.

I watched in awe and fear, as they each started laughing. I wanted to run as the laughter grew, as it became insane.

An hour later, they were up, walking around and talking. I was still sitting in the corner, quietly shaking.

I was still in shock, magic or ma'jik, as they called it was real and clearly powerful enough to lift five people six feet in the air.

Then the shock was made worst when Athena waved a hand while laughing, and the candles blew out, and the light in the ceiling turned on.

"Oh my God, did you see that? I feel so strong like I can do anything ... Like I could fly if I wanted." Avery said, bounding up to me excitedly.

"Dude... no stutter." I said, and he looked at me in surprise, not realizing he wasn't stumbling over his words.

I quickly grew to miss his quiet stutter, as we made our way back to the packhouse, and he wouldn't shut up.

It was like when we were kids, before the attack, when he was so hyper and talkative.

#   #   #

Of course, we both fell silent as we pulled up to the packhouse.

Driving up the driveway, we spotted A'mosh and Shawn standing side by side, scowls gracing their faces in the glow of the headlights of the truck.

"Are we in trouble?" Avery asked. "Fuck yeah, but just relax, I'll get us out of it," I said, putting the car in park and climbing out.

Immediately Shawn started going off, yelling about Avery moving into his suite, and how disrespectful and irresponsible I was for taking his mate against his wishes.

"Hey don't yell at my brother, maybe he wouldn't have had to sneak me away if I was free to go. You don't own me you know!" Avery sassed.

Shawn went silent staring in shock at my twin, who was clearly upset, and definitely no longer afraid of Shawn.

A'mosh on the other hand was silent, he was fuming quietly, his rage pouring off him like a heatwave.

"Mosh are yo..." He walked away, just going back inside. I threw a look at Shawn and Avery who were going back and forth. Before heading into the house, chasing my mate.

"A'mosh... A'mosh I'm serious!" I yelled, watching his back as it headed up the stairs. "Please baby, I'll do anything!" I called, and he stopped walking.

"What hurts the most is that you didn't care how I would feel. You just did what you wanted... The same way you just decided to leave and run off to Mexico." He said, and I sighed.

"You're right, but Avery needed a bre..."

"No, I don't give a damn about what Avery needed. We are mates, you can't just keep behaving like a child... You're a Luna now, you have responsibilities. Including ones you refuse to do anymore." He added.

"Wait, is this about me not spreading my legs for you? Do I look like a whore to you? Mate my ass, you only care about fuckin me... Manipulative bastard!" I shrieked, shoving past him and heading up the stairs.

I walked into our room and proceeded to get ready for bed. "No, no Adam, you don't get to be the victim. You left and didn't tell me where you were going, what if something had happened to you?" He asked, shutting our door.

"Please, cut the shit. You just want me to feel bad, so you can guilt me into sex. You're sad." I snapped, snatching off my clothes, and climbing into bed with only my briefs on.

"Fine, so what? I think you should make it up to me." He admitted. "Well I would have, but not when you're manipulating me. That's why we aren't fuckin now because you refuse to see me as your equal." I spat.

"You know what fine? Be petty. I want to be with my mate, but if you don't want that, so be it." He growled, walking out of our room, slamming the door shut.

Fuck I thought. What were we even fighting about, why was I keeping it going.

I don't know why, but I couldn't seem to let it go. He kept demanding me to do things, and now he's trying to manipulate me. If I let it slide, where would it end?

I don't know but I wasn't going to find out.

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