Chapter Five

Emira

The warmth coming from the large bonfire wraps around me as Kalum pulls me towards The Fifteen. My aunt Luna stands up and all eyes turn to her.

"First of all, I want to welcome back my brother-in-law, David, and my sweet niece, Emira." Kalum squeezes my hand. "Secondly, the demons have been more aggressive lately, one even went to New York. Therefore, no one is to be wandering off alone. Stay in pairs and, preferably, in groups of three or more. Tomorrow, all of The Fifteen, under the age of 20, will report to the Moon Field for practice. Bring your weapons and your training armor. That's all. Good night." Slowly, The Fifteen start to pack into separate cars and head their own ways. Hanna, Natsuko, and Stella all jump to my side.

"Come with us!" They say in one voice. I laugh at their unison.

"Ok, now I'm scared!" I raise my hands in surrender. They roll their eyes at me and grab my hands, pulling up with them.

"We are having a sleepover at Hanna's tonight and it has been absolutely too long since we saw each other!" Natsuko wraps her arm across my shoulders. "So come on. You don't really have a choice." She moves behind me and places both of her hands against my shoulder blades and pushes me forwards. Kalum lets out a low chuckle that has my stomach doing all sorts of crazy flips as well as sets my whole body aflame. He doesn't let go of my hand, instead, he walks with us. Hanna and Stella lead us past my family and they each wave at me.

"Your bags are in their car. We'll see you tomorrow after practice!" They laugh as I am propelled towards a large white jeep. Hanna jumps behind the wheel with Stella in the passenger seat. Natsuko pushes me in front of her and then slides onto the backseat with me. Hanna doesn't hesitate. She reverses out of the parking lot and heads down a row of houses. After three minutes in the car, Hanna pulls up to a white one-story house. She parks the car and we all walk up to the dark brown door. Hanna opens the door and calls out.

"Mom? We're home!" We walk into a long hallway and head towards the sounds of a TV.

"We?" A woman identical to Hanna with a few added wrinkles steps around the corner. She smiles at us. "Hello Natsuko, Stella! How are you-" Her gaze lands on me. "Emira? Is that you?" I smile and nod.

"Hi, Mrs. Brane!" Mrs. Brane wraps around me in a warm embrace.

"I would love to catch up, but it is late and I fear that there won't be much sleep tonight." She arches an eyebrow and looks at each in turn. We each snicker and chuckle, trying to look innocent. Mrs. Brane shrugs and dramatically places her hand over her eyes. "What I don't know won't hurt me! So run along and have fun girls." We rush past her and run through another hallway into a room with mattresses covering every surface. Natsuko slams the door closed behind her and we burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter that goes on for a long time. Soon enough we lay sprawled in a circle on the ground in our pajamas.

"So then, Eddie took me to the Moon Field in the middle of the forest and he had created this wonderful picnic spread and we spent the entire day there. And night." Stella pulls a blanket over her head to avoid our gentle swats and gasps. She laughs. "We didn't do anything! Just lay there and cuddled." More swats and gasps. I lean back on my hands.

"So, let me get this straight." I lean forward and point my finger at Hanna. "You are dating Jake," I turn to Natsuko. "And you, Natsu, are dating my cousin Ben." I look down at Stella lying in my lap. "You twin, are dating Eddie!" They all nod and giggle. "Alright. Anything else that I should know about?" They share a look. "Girls?" Even more giggles escape them as they each hold out their right arm. I gasp as I stare at the vines wrapping around their wrists below their Witches Mark. Hanna's is purple, Stella's is gold, and Natsuko's is fiery red like her hair. I feign shock and horror as I look at them. "Do your boyfriends know that you have soulmates?" They roll their eyes at me and Stella playfully wacks my arm. More laughter follows. I laugh with them and hold out my right arm to reveal my vines. We all turn our wrists so that our Witches Marks are visible. I open my hand and they take turns placing their open hands in mine. The laughter leaves the room as I raise my left hand and pour my magic over our joined right hands. My shimmering pink magic rains onto our hands. It circles around each of our wrists like a bracelet. Once it touches our Witches Mark, the mark lights up in our colors. Hanna's purple, Stella's gold, Natsuko's red, and mine pink. My magic fades away and I smile at my friends.

"What was that?" Hanna looks up at me.

"I have never felt anything like that before." Natsuko cradles her arm.

"Em?" Stella sits up and looks at me.

"I don't know, I felt like that was the right thing to do. Kind of like a sign that we have been reunited again? I don't know! Magic!" I throw my hands in the air. They smile at me.

"Alright!" Hanna jumps up and rushes to her desk opposite the door. She grabs a plastic bag and walks towards us. "I wanted to celebrate Em's homecoming and what better way to celebrate than with makeovers!" She dumps the contents of the bag onto the mattresses in front of us. Four color bombs fall out of the bag, one fuschia, one gold, one purple, and one red. "Who's first?"