Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Well, each person gets a gourd and a candle,” I explained. “That’s very important.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen actual black pumpkins before. I’ve only seen them made out of other things, like yarn or pottery.”
“Those are Dark Knight gourds,” Jake told him, using his best Batman voice.
Finn squinted at him.
“They are,” Harper apprised him as he poured himself a glass of apple juice. “But why Jake has to say it like that every single time is beyond me.”
“They’re a type of heirloom gourd,” I clarified for Finn. “And Hannah grows them in the back left corner of the yard. They hold that color if you pick them early, which she does.”
“Seems like a lot of work.”
“Yes, but this is for Samhain, the most important sabbat for witches.”
He scrutinized me.
“You have a question?”
“Her being a witch doesn’t concern you?”
“She’s a good witch,” I informed him.
“No doubt,” he said with a smile. “And she must have cast some kind of spell on Kola to get him to wear that labradorite pendant she got him for his birthday.”
“Had to get him a pendant because he kept taking off his bracelets,” she said, walking by on her way out the front door. She was putting up more wreaths and her besoms. “And I need him to have that stone on his body.”
“You need any help?” Jake called after her.
“No, love, that’s okay,” she answered before closing the door behind her.
“Why didn’t you get up?” Finn asked. “Maybe if she saw you moving, she would have said yes on the assistance.”
Jake scoffed. “Absolutely not.”
“She doesn’t want his help,” Harper assured him. “He has too much frenetic energy.”
“What?”
“It comes from being an Aquarius,” Harper went on. “Hannah needs someone more steady, soothing. Someone more calm and meticulous and…”
We all watched as he cupped his hand to his ear.
The front door opened, and Hannah leaned in. “Harper, I need you, please.”
His smile was evil, the lift of his eyebrow rakish, and Jake crossed his arms right after he flipped his oldest, dearest friend off.
As Harper disappeared out the front door, Kola came in the back with a large wooden basket full of leaves.
“Why does she want Harper and not you?” Finn asked Jake.
Kola chuckled before he answered for his friend. “Because Jake likes to do things fast and make everything all flash and fire and sparkle and boom.”
“What?” Finn asked, pushing Kola’s hair out of his face and curling some wayward pieces around his ear.
“You know, like kapow,” he said, grinning before leaning forward and kissing Finn. It was quick before he stepped back and walked over to the counter to put the basket down. “Jake has big ideas.”
“That’s his Aquarian nature,” I chimed in.
“You lost me,” he murmured, his eyes moving from my son to me.
“That’s why she’s got him wearing all that citrine and lapis.”
Poor Finn, he threw up his hands.
“Listen,” I began, “we all wear stones she picked for us.”
“You do?”
I lifted my right wrist so he could see the three bracelets I was wearing. “I’ve got tourmaline, amethyst, obsidian, and tiger’s eye. I also have sodalite for more than one reason, and aventurine, all for protection and creativity. Harper wears two on his wrist, and as you can see, Jake has four.”
“Why four?” Finn asked him.
He pointed at the first one. “I’ve got citrine for happiness, clear quartz for healing, amethyst for calm, and this blue one is lapis and helps me not talk too much.”
“That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?”
“Lapis is supposed to make you talk less and think, be more deliberate if you’re a yapper like me, and make you speak up and share if you’re normally quiet.”
“So you all have bracelets, but you won’t wear them?” he asked my son.
Kola shrugged. “I just—they bug me. I can’t have them next to my watch, and if they hit something when I’m writing…forget it.”
“That would be the same for me.”
“But on a chain is good,” he said, smiling at Finn, pulling something from the back pocket of his jeans. “And this way, you can wear my eye of Horus.”
I was surprised. Kola had worn that for years, the simple but solid, stamped in silver symbol on the heavy rolo chain. For him, it symbolized his dedication to becoming a doctor, the pursuit of healing and knowledge. There were other things in there too, like restoration, and I knew it was one of a kind, as Aaron had brought it back from Egypt for him. But right then, in my kitchen, he unhooked the clasp that I knew from firsthand experience was hard to find and even more difficult to maneuver, and placed the pendant around Finn’s neck. He then leaned out, checked the fit, saw that it hung comfortably, and then met his boyfriend’s eyes.
“Do you want to wear that?”
Finn only nodded.