Crescent Legacy Nicole Taylor (top young adult novels .TXT) 📖

twisting to the point I wasn’t sure there was any blood left in it.

“Can we go outside?” he asked, nodding toward the door.

“Please, do,” Mairead declared. “I don’t want to go out there again while you have secret conversations. It’s freezin’.”

“Fine.” My lip curled, and I stood, dropping the tarot card.

Picking up my jacket, I shoved my arms into it as I strode outside. We had to have the talk sooner or later, and I had a terrible poker face. Keeping my witchy abilities from the village was different. I wasn’t hurting anyone because my mission in life was to protect, but this… Cac. Cac-itty McCac!

Boone closed the shop door behind him as the cold bit into my exposed fingers. I couldn’t even bring myself to wear the gloves he’d given me.

Pressing my palm against my forehead, I was sure I was burning up. I felt sick. I wasn’t going to faint, was I? Maybe if I puked, it would freeze solid on the footpath. I breathed out a plume of vaporized air.

“Skye, you’ve been… Ever since Christmas when I asked you to marry me…” Boone shoved a hand through his unruly hair. “It was too soon, wasn’t it? I just thought, with everythin’ that’s going on…” He trailed off and glanced at the hawthorn. The scene of the crime.

“That we better have our white picket fence moment before we all die?” I felt like slapping him with my magic. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to marry him, but not like this. Not when he couldn’t tell me the truth. Not when I didn’t know whose side he was on.

Looking over my shoulder, I spotted Mairead staring at us through the window. Grabbing Boone’s arm, I dragged him down the lane and behind the shop.

“Skye…” he said, dragging his heels. “What’s goin’ on?”

The longer he was here, the riskier it became. Super-creepy one-eyed Dub may have unlocked his memories, but who knew what else he’d done. Boone was half witch, that much was clear. Now he knew he had magic of his own, and possibly had a billion years to master it, there was no telling what he could do.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I didn’t trust him. The man I loved and wanted to marry. I didn’t trust him.

The only place I felt safe was at the ancient hawthorn even though it was the exact spot his mother wanted to get to. If I stood with the hawthorn and called on the Crescent ancestors, maybe his true intentions would be revealed. That was if those pesky spirits showed up in the first place. They were the definition of unreliable.

The forest felt charged like something forbidden had walked into it. It was a strange sensation like awareness had brought some ancient defense mechanism to life.

Boone didn’t say anything as I led him down the path toward the clearing. His mood was sour, but mine was worse. My magic was flaring hotter with each step. He would have to sense it and wonder what had me so worked up. Dammit, now I was overthinking everything. I was a doer, usually, not a worrywart.

Stepping into the clearing, I let go of Boone’s arm and approached the hawthorn. Placing my hand on its trunk, I closed my eyes, but all I felt was scratchy bark underneath my palm.

“Skye? Why are we here?”

C’mon, I pleaded. I need you. Please…

“Skye?”

“I can’t do this…” I turned, knowing I was in this on my own. As usual. Is this what betrayal felt like? Complete and total abandonment? Without Boone, I was alone, and Mairead… Mairead couldn’t help. It was selfish to even ask after what she’d been through because of me.

“Can’t do what? Marry me?”

“I saw you,” I blurted, unable to hold it in anymore. “I saw you.”

All the color drained from Boone’s cheeks, and he stood there like a lump, staring at me in shock. I was a Crescent Witch, the last of the most badass coven there ever was, so of course, I would find out. I wished he would wipe that dumb look off his face.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” I whispered, fighting back tears.

“I don’t know.”

I shook my head, my thoughts jumbled.

“If I’d known…”

“If you’d known, then what?” I demanded. “Pretended you cared? Went on playing the secret agent?”

“No!”

“Why were you being chased by your brothers the night you came to Derrydun? Why did she take your memories?”

Boone’s jaw tightened, and he didn’t say anything. He knew all his buried secrets now, but he was conspicuously tight-lipped about what they revealed. It only solidified his guilt in my mind.

“Was it all an elaborate scam to get to the Crescent Witches?” I demanded. “You got Aileen killed, and now you’re—”

“It wasn’t me fault,” he declared. “It wasn’t me fault. Carman wanted me, too.”

“Yeah, because you’re her kid, Boone. Is she using you, or was it your idea?”

He shook his head like his headaches were piercing his brain.

“When Aileen told you she had a daughter, did you decide to stay so you could worm your way into my life?”

“If that were true, then why did I stop the ritual?” he asked thinly. “Why was there a block on me memories? You felt it, Skye.”

“The ritual that was stopped too late,” I scoffed and shook my head. “The block pushed me away when I tried to break it open. You didn’t want me in there.”

“What?”

“And when she came, which side were you going to fight on?” It took all my strength, but I glanced up and met his gaze. “Hers or mine?”

“Skye, you’ve got to understand. I didn’t know who I was.”

“And you do now,” I snapped. “You’re Carman’s son.”

“I can’t help who I am!” he roared.

“And neither can I.”

“So this is it?” he asked. “You’re drawin’ a battle line between us?”

“I have to. You weren’t going to tell me, Boone.” Before he could open his mouth to argue, I added, “Don’t deny it. How could I trust you now?”

“You