Born to be Witchy - A.J. Macey Page 0,10

empty space until finally, I saw the reddish glow emanating from the back yard.

“Oh, so I guess we’re finally having that bonfire?” I asked as I made my way into the yard, but it wasn’t until I got closer, I really saw what was on fire. “Are those… the portraits from inside?” Holy hellsticks, they’re literally burning my family’s photos.

“Yup,” Kye exclaimed, completely unashamed, a smirk curling his lips. “I’ve wanted to set these on fire since we stayed here for a night after we got back from Aureus. Figured actually setting the people in the photos on fire would be frowned upon.” His casual shrug made me laugh.

“Hopefully, that’s okay,” Caspian murmured, his fingers fiddling with his shirt anxiously, looking as if he’d just realized I may have been upset.

“They have so many more of these back at their actual house, losing a few is nothing,” I reassured, a grin growing the more I watched the paper and canvas wilt and burn. “Besides, it’s not like you actually burned anything of value to them.”

“That’s a shame,” Torryn muttered under his breath. Chuckling, I stuck my hands out, enjoying the heat against my palms.

This certainly was one way to clear the walls for Xan’s beautiful artwork.

Torryn

“Come on, Gorgeous,” I prompted when the cart finally stopped in front of our home.

The place had such significance for us now that it no longer had the connotations it used to—an entire family missing out on the best witch I knew because they cared more about status than their own daughter. We wanted to give Aris a chance to love this place, which was why having the wedding here was such a big deal. She’d given us so much, and we wanted the future of our family to bring a new set of memories to this home as sweet as our girl. At the thought of family and memories, the imagined situations I had been daydreaming about when I didn’t have work to do came to the forefront of my mind. Fun holiday celebrations, cooking a big meal for all the families coming to visit… maybe even a little witchling or two running around. I could picture it almost as clearly as I could see my girl right next to me. I just hoped the others wanted the same.

“The other carts shouldn’t be too far behind, so while we wait, want to check out the setup out back?” I offered, shaking away the thought. There’d be time for talk of the future, holidays, and babies after the wedding.

“I’d love to,” she said, her smile brightening at the prospect. I climbed out of the cart and held the door open for her, so she wouldn’t trip. Walking hand in hand around the side of the house and into the large yard, we took time to stretch after being cramped so long in the cart.

The lake was off to one side across the flat surface of the lot, the top of the blue water sparkling in the overhead sun. On the other portion of the property, down a temporary walkway, was a line of cabins we’d ordered for our friends and family to stay in.

“Looks like they’re making good progress getting the magical cabins set up,” I noted. “I think they’re on the last one, which is good since all the guests should be arriving later today or tomorrow.”

“Hiring the company to come put up the cabins for the weekend was a good idea. Now we don’t have to worry about anyone in the house at random times,” she agreed with an eyebrow wiggle that was more adorable than sultry.

“Since when did you become the antisocial one? Is Kye rubbing off on you?” I teased, looking down at the girl I was going to marry. This time she flashed me a successfully sexy smile that had me wanting to steal her away again.

“Since I would like to be as loud as I want for our wedding night fun, without worrying that anyone could walk in or hear,” she explained, and I had to push the images it brought up far from my mind.

As we talked, we strolled the yard, moving from the temporary path to the cabins to where the wedding was going to be held on the lakeshore.

“We could just put a silencing spell on the bedroom door,” I countered, but she waved me off, not caring if I was joking.

“Who says I want to stay in the bedroom? It’s going to be our wedding