Enchantress (Witches Academy #8) - Tamara Ferguson Page 0,4

body of water.

She was a dragonfly. And he was too.

“Ariella?” Her mother said softly. “Are you alright?”

Ariella heaved a sigh. “No, Mother, I’m not. I’m feeling lightheaded and having strange thoughts about another world. I see myself as a Dragonfly.”

Aunt Serena gasped. “You’re recalling another past.” She turned to Ariella’s mother. “Gwen – you understand what this means?”

Ariella’s mother nodded her head in agreement. “There’s no time to lose. Ariella must travel to Dragonfly Ridge, so that the island can be awakened.”

Ariella looked at her mother, agreeing with no hesitation. “You’d better cancel my reservations, Mother.”

“Yes, dear. How will you travel?”

“I guess I’d better drive my jeep. I imagine I’ll need transportation where I’m going. At least my bags are already packed.”

“You’ll need some form of occupation while you’re residing on the island.”

Ariella became thoughtful. “Why not just be an artist? I have the oils I’ve painted during the last several years up in the attic. I’ll take along a dozen or two and then you can have the remainder shipped to me.”

“And then there’s all that lovely jewelry you’ve made,” Aunt Serena murmured.

“Yes. I can take some of that along. Maybe I can open up a small shop so that I appear as a member of the community. But is there any call for my work in a place like Wisconsin?”

“My dear,” Aunt Serena said dryly. “You know you have the powers to make it so once you arrive.”

“Well, call me crazy, Aunt Serena, but I’d kind of like to be wanted for my talent instead of conjuring a spell to make it so.”

Mother scrunched her nose. “You’ll figure it out Ariella. Let’s go upstairs and decide what pieces you’d like to take along with you. Luckily, your supplies are packed as well.”

* * *

A half hour later, Ariella was staring in astonishment at a portrait of a man she’d painted nearly four years earlier.

“Mother? Come look at this portrait.”

Her mother’s jaw dropped as she glanced at the painting. “Oh, Ariella. I don’t even remember you showing me this. This must be him. Isn’t he handsome?”

Ariella felt like she was in a daze. He looked so familiar and she instinctively that he was the one.

“There’s an entire series here that I painted while I was going to school. I must have packed them up and just left them here. I have a feeling these are the ones I should take along with me.”

“Look at all the pine trees and snow. I have a feeling you were seeing Dragonfly Ridge in your mind much longer than you even realized.”

Ariella grimaced. “I think you’re right. I’ve been having strange dreams for most of my life, but I kind of tamped down on my powers after deciding to go to Paris so that I’d have a better chance of fitting in.”

“When you arrive at the island, you must practice, Ariella,” Mother said firmly.

“You’re right, of course.”

Another half an hour later, the car was loaded up, and Ariella studied her mother and aunt, who obviously had something else to tell her.

“Okay. Fess up – what haven’t you told me yet?”

Aunt Serena cleared her throat. “There’s a time crunch involved.”

*“For what?” Ariella asked, looking at her aunt first, and then her mother as he took a sip of water from the water from the bottle she was taking along.

“For consummation with your mate,” her aunt responded.

Ariella began coughing, gagging on the water going down her throat.

“Oh, dear,” Mother said, slapping her on the back. “It must happen before your twenty-sixth birthday, Ariella, otherwise your powers will be taken anyway.”

When Ariella was finally able to speak, she looked at her mother in disbelief. “But why?”

Mother shrugged. “Because you are the family Enchantress, which gives you powers beyond your belief. But those powers must be shared with someone with no evil intentions so that they remain only in our family’s bloodlines. If you mate with the wrong man, it could create chaos.”

After Ariella had said her goodbyes to her mother and aunt, she was on her way. She had a straight shot from New Orleans to Crystal Rock, Wisconsin along 1-55 and I-39 N. She could probably cut back the trip during the night and arrive there in the morning instead of the usual seventeen or eighteen hours by using a spell.

Something suddenly occurred to her as she traveled along the road.

“It’s a good thing I’m still a virgin,” she muttered under her breath, snorting.

Chapter Three

Birch sat at a table in the Dragonfly Pointe Inn Restaurant