chapter one

STARTING POINT

 

“C’mon, Marcus, will you just do me? You know you are amazing at it. Just… Please!”

We could all hear Eve’s desperate plea, from down the hall.

“Why do I always have to do you?” Marcus shot back. “You can do yourself better than I can.”

“Liar. Plus, it makes my arms ache. Please, baby, just do it,” Eve begged.

“Ugh! Fine. Come here. The things I do for love,” Marcus groaned.

“Can you do me next?” Catherine called out.

“Then me,” Lizabelle chimed in.

“Me too,” Summer giggled, beside me.

“And me,” I finished, snorting loudly.

I covered my mouth with both hands in an attempt to muffle the sound of my amusement, but Catherine, Lizabelle, and Summer quickly joined in. Our uncontrolled laughter drifted down the hall and echoed throughout the house.

Summer gripped her chest, trying to catch her breath. “He is sooo gonna kill us.”

At that same moment, Marcus came charging down the hall, pointing a finger at me. “Charity, love,” he sneered. “I would like to tell you how very much I despise you at this moment. You grabbed this particular power on purpose… to torment me,” Marcus accused.

“Oh, yeah, right! I’m half out of my mind, desperately trying to keep everyone I love alive, knowing that I have to get your powers back inside you, before you DIE, and I stopped to think… Hmmm which powers should I grab? Oh, I know, the hair curling power, because that’ll drive Marcus crazy. Yeah, that sounds about right!” I raised my eyebrows, and nodded my head.

“Whatever!” Marcus exasperated.

“Marcus, darling, love of my life, it takes you less than two minutes to do my hair. In the time it took you to argue and stomp your feet like a child you could have curled every strand of hair in this room. Now be a good boy and make us pretty,” Eve scolded him with a soothing tone.

“Fine. But I am not touching your hair, Charity. You know, as well as I do, and everyone else here for that matter, that you can change your appearance in the blink of an eye. Curl your own hair,” Marcus groused.

“Somebody’s crabby today,” Summer whispered.

Marcus cut his eyes at Summer. “May I remind you, mortal, that somebody is not a hair dresser?”

“Ah, but the first time you curled all of our hair and we loved it, you became one,” Catherine reasoned.

I closed my eyes and whispered a spell, quietly repeated the phrase that had popped into my head, like so many others had during the past few months since I’d become The Caster. Summer stared at me with amazement shining in her eyes as the strands of my hair turned from the blue-black color, which had come with the role of Caster, to a bright, pale shade of blonde… it started at my scalp and cascaded down to the tip of each and every strand. She clapped her hands in delight as I smoothed my newly colored coif.

I winked at Marcus, who was still scowling at me. “I didn’t want it curled, anyway,” I smiled. “And, I’ve decided to test the blonde theory.”

“Big, bouncy spirals,” Eve instructed, as she tugged Marcus’s arm and dragged him back to their bedroom.

 

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