Awakening by Cate Tiernan Page A

also belonged to Sky’s coven. Raven had tried to seduce Matt, and Matt had pretty much gone for it. Hence the end of the four-year romance between Matt and Jenna.
    Sharon said, “I think we ought to give him a chance.”
    “Yeah,” Ethan said. “If we hate it, we can just quit.”
    For a moment, I envied them. If they didn’t enjoy Wicca, they could drop it, the way you drop a boring after-school activity. I didn’t have that option. Wicca had chosen me as much as I’d chosen it.
     
    I’d hoped to get to Hunter and Sky’s place early so that I could talk to Hunter about what I’d sensed the night before, but in the dark I missed the turn to his street and was out of Widow’s Vale completely before I figured it out. By the time I pulled up in front of the house, it was already after seven, and everybody else’s cars were parked against the curb. I wedged Das Boot in between Robbie’s Beetle and Jenna’s Corolla and started up the narrow path.
    Hunter must have sensed me coming before I reached the porch. The front door opened, framing him in warm golden light. I caught my breath—it was so similar to the image of him in my dream, bathed in light, pushing back the darkness. I blinked to shake off the image. He watched me from the doorway, looking like one of those ads for an après-ski drink, and I suddenly felt self-conscious, as if I were about to slip and fall facedown on the walk.
    “Welcome,” he said.
    “Morganita.” Robbie came up behind him. “You’ve got to check this place out. It’s very cool.”
    “I’ve been here before,” I mumbled, oddly flustered.
    Hunter stood aside to let me pass, and I walked into the living room. Sharon and Ethan were sharing an ottoman, leaning companionably against each other’s backs. Jenna and Matt were in the armchairs, not looking at each other. Robbie sat down at one end of the blue velvet sofa and waved a hand at the seat next to him. I could sense that everyone was unsure about Hunter leading us, and I knew that Hunter sensed it, too.
    “You know what’s strange about this living room?” Robbie said. “There’s no TV.”
    Hunter arched one blond eyebrow. “We don’t have time for it,” he said. The implication was that neither should we. Not a great way to start.
    “Is Sky here?” Jenna asked.
    “No. She’s out this evening,” Hunter replied. He was wearing a deep-blue denim shirt, and worn black jeans hung loosely on his hips. I suddenly had a vivid flashback to the moment he’d almost kissed me, standing in the dark outside my house. That had been only three nights ago, but until this minute I’d forgotten about it.
    I felt my cheeks burn. Where had that stray thought come from?
    Hunter moved to stand in front of the hearth. “Welcome, everyone. I appreciate your showing up on a weeknight. I know this change is difficult. And I understand that despite the way things turned out with Cal, you liked the way he led Cirrus.
    “My approach will inevitably be different,” he went on. “But I’ll try to see that Cirrus remains a coven where you feel comfortable, where you can be open with one another, where you can learn to safely draw on the power that lies within you, and where you will enter into a true connection with your magick.”
    Sharon smiled at that. But all I could think about was how with Cal the circles had seemed natural and comfortable. With Hunter it felt like we were getting the Wicca version of a Rotary Club speech.
    “So,” Hunter said,“let’s begin. If you’ll follow me, please . . .”
    We followed him from the living room through a short hallway that I hadn’t noticed when I’d been there before. It was lined with bookshelves that held a small collection of clothbound volumes. Through an arched doorway I could see into a small kitchen, where dried herbs and flowers hung from the ceiling.
    At the end of the hall was a set of double wooden doors. Hunter opened them into a long, narrow room that was lit by candles