After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) by Patricia Proctor

evil.
    Brianna slows enough to
step behind Xavier and says, “Stop talking with us for now. You know how she
hates it when we all get along. We’ll figure out a plan later… when she
isn’t watching every little thing. We need you, Xavier. We need you a hell of
a lot more than she does.”
    Cian nods his head slightly
so only his brother and sister can see it. Not for the first time since his dad
died, Xavier feels like he is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
    Selene is fuming when
she sees the kids walking out together all chummy. Well, isn’t that nice? she thinks to herself. What the hell do they have to be so
happy about anyway? Pulling herself together before they see her fury, she
thinks how glad she is that she took the time to come up with a plan for the
evening, which will definitely wipe away those chummy smiles.

Chapter 16
    Chloe, Kaiden, and
Rowan can barely wait for Liam to get home to practice casting spells. As soon
as they hear the jeep pull in they run out the door to meet him in
the driveway.
    “Hey Dad, we want to
practice some spells in the clearing,” Kaiden says enthusiastically.
    Maybe a little too
enthusiastically, Chloe thinks to herself. Since she already has some experience
with spells and Rowan is… well, Rowan, they agreed beforehand that Kaiden
should be the one to enthusiastically suggest it, but he went a bit overboard with his enthusiasm, which might make their
dad suspicious.
    “I brought dinner… and pie,” Liam says, hoping that he can sway
them to stay and talk to him about their day, and if he is being totally honest
with himself, he is also hoping to deter them from casting spells so soon.
    “ Oooh ,
what’s for dinner? And what kind of pie?” Kaiden asks, quickly losing his focus
on casting spells when dinner is right in front of him.
    Rowan and Chloe look at
each other, willing each other to speak up, until finally Chloe says, “Well, I
think we should go to the clearing first, before nightfall, which at this time
of year is early. We can have dinner as soon as we are done. We’ll probably
work up an appetite anyway.” She looks pointedly at Kaiden, hoping he’ll
stop thinking about his stomach for a minute.
    “Alright,” Liam agrees.
“But let me put all of this away first,” he says while holding up the familiar
Lucky Diner take-out bags, “and then I’ll come back there with you.”
    “Dad, we can go ahead
without you and then you can meet us back there after you eat… if you want,” Rowan says, knowing that
Liam is just as obsessed with food as Kaiden. She grabs the backpack with everything
they need for the spell that they are going to cast tonight and hands it to Kaiden
to carry.
    He shoulders the bag,
and taking the hint, starts walking toward the clearing. Rowan and Chloe follow
close behind and almost bump into him when he stops suddenly, turns around,
and says, “And Dad, save some pie for me.”
    “You don’t even know
what kind I bought,” Liam replies as he watches his kids move farther away from
him.
    Kaiden turns around and
throws up his arms, “Does it matter?” he asks with a big smile.
    Liam knows they need
their space and decides to take his time eating dinner and changing out of his
uniform. They’re good kids and I should probably be more thankful that they
waited until I got home before casting spells, he thinks. He can only imagine what
they are thinking, what they have learned, and what they will discover about
themselves in the next couple of hours.
    Rowan sneezes loudly,
sending a flock of birds flying from their perches above. “Ugh, I don’t know
why we couldn’t do our first spell a little closer to home, or even in the
kitchen where we had to gather this stuff anyway,” she complains.
    “Ro, you are going to have to
get used to the great outdoors,” Chloe calls back to her sister. “In fact,
maybe you should consider casting a spell that makes you enjoy it more,” she
says teasingly as she breaks into a