soft strength…and a shift in someone’s spirit. Something huge had just changed for someone— I gasped.
Someone’s been Marked.
I eyed the group looking for someone not celebrating…and then I spotted Timothy. He stood a little ways away from the group but with his back to them. The air around him was dark, like maybe he was about to be deeply emotional.
“Timothy?” I cleared my throat. “Timothy, are you okay?”
Nothing. He didn’t even flinch. But the rest of the group all froze and spun toward him.
“Timothy, what’s wrong?” I pushed.
Silence.
Tenn and Bettina exchanged worried glances. They both looked near ready to be sick.
Tennessee took a step toward him. “Uncle Tim?”
Timothy turned, holding his left arm out – I looked down and gasped.
On his arm, written in bold black script over his faded gray XX Mark were the letters IX.
Timothy was the new Hermit Card.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Savannah
“WHAT?!” Everyone screamed at the same time, except for me and Gigi.
Gigi jumped — then turned into a penguin.
They all tackled him. In the blink of an eye this poor man had the entire Coven, plus a few extras, on top of him. I couldn’t even see him. There was so much shouting I felt like I was back home at a college football game.
Olli, Safferella’s adorable puppy, sat on my feet and cocked his head to the side. Same, bruh. Same. Olli barked and then jumped away from me. I started to grab for him when a large hand with an amethyst ring scooped under his butt and lifted the little hound up. Riah held Olli in the cradle of his arms all cuddled up to his chest. Olli definitely hated it. I looked up, expecting to see the same awkwardness I felt in him…but he was smiling.
Without looking, he threw his other hand out and lightly tapped on Gigi’s penguin back.
Silver magic burst under his hand.
Gigi squawked and flapped her wings and then changed back. “Shit.”
I shook my head. “Girl, you need to get control of that. You’re gonna get hurt one of these days if you don’t.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not that easy, Savannah.”
“Neither is controlling my magic from exploding out of me every time I get startled, but I went to school and learned how to do it,” I hissed.
“All right, all right,” Hunter shouted with a chuckle. “Give the man some room to breathe. Back up, y’all.”
“WOOOO,” Easton cheered and clapped his hands as he leapt back. “The legend has returnedddd!”
Willow stepped back from the huddle with her hands shoved in her hair and tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe this!”
Chutney bounced over to her. “I’ve never heard of this happening!”
The rest of the herd moved away and I cringed. There was a shit ton of emotions going down here and I did not know what to do with myself. It wasn’t that I was cold hearted to what just happened…I got it. Timothy had lost his Mark and now had been given a new one. That was amazing. Incredible. I didn’t think it’d ever happened before. I was happy for him.
I just didn’t really know any of these people so I did not know what to do.
That was what made me uncomfortable. I felt like I did not belong here.
Well, actually, that wasn’t quite true. I knew Cooper.
I’d been doing a pretty damn good job of not looking at him since I embarrassed myself so I wasn’t sure where exactly he —
“Savannah.”
I choked on a gasp at the sound of his voice right behind me.
“Gigi.” Cooper nodded his head toward her.
“Cooper…”
He gave me a smirk. “You look uncomfortable.”
YOU HAVE NO IDEA. “I’m just…I can’t believe this just happened. Has this ever happened?”
He glanced down at me and gave me a grin that was too much for people watching. “Not that I’ve heard of.”
I nodded. “Shouldn’t you be over there?”
“I was, but then I saw you over here and well…” His one blond eyebrow arched. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Yeah. Mmhmmm. Totally.”
“Savannah?”
I sighed. “I’m not about to do any black magic.”
He chuckled. “Good girl.”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. “You can go be with them, I’ll be here still.”
He grinned and bumped his shoulder into me and my stomach tightened. He winked then hopped over toward Tennessee.
More of The Coven moved away from Timothy and I honestly felt a little bad for the dude. He seemed to be about to lose it and that was probably not the norm for this big burly man. His whole face was red and his eyes