Cresent Prophecy

the middle of the deck just to confuse the universe, but it was too smart for a newbie like me. The Three of Swords appeared again.
Just like that, I knew this was no momentary bump in the road of life. It was a chasm so dark and deep there was no bottom in sight. Three swords would pierce my heart before this was over. Three, painful, sharp swords. In one side, and out the other.
I didn’t see Boone all day, and he didn’t come over that night, either. He didn’t even show his face as Buddy, the tabby cat.
As I watched a frozen meal rotate in the microwave, I pushed away a pang of loneliness. This place wasn’t the same without him.
The next day, I didn’t open Irish Moon. It was a Sunday, and I didn’t fancy working seven days a week, not when I felt so rotten.
The ancient hawthorn towered over me, her limbs sheltering me from the world. Sitting in a hollow at the base of the trunk, I ran my fingers along the bark, tracing the lines of her snarled roots.
Everything was so messed up. I’d thought things were supposed to get better now I was beginning to understand this whole witch business, but it only seemed to be growing worse. Boone was the only person I could confide in, and he’d pushed me away.
Fiddling with the crystal hanging around my neck, I felt out the edges of my magic. Closing my eyes, I imagined a golden ball of light inside my chest. Boone said this was how I chose to manifest my power, that this was my own personal way of connecting so I could bring it forth into the world. I supposed it meant it was different for every witch, but I wouldn’t know. I didn’t know any other witches.
At the thought of Boone, I swallowed the lump in my throat. Without him…
I needed help. I wasn’t too proud to admit it, especially when I had the fate of magic breathing down the back of my neck. There was no way I was choking. One day, I would be able to use my magic freely and without fear, but it was up to me.
Fisting my hands into my hair, I sucked in a sharp breath. What had I ever achieved other than third place in an egg and spoon race at Primary School? Maybe a gold star on my English homework, but that was about it. Now I was meant to be some sort of messiah. Lucky Ireland.
The sound of footsteps crunching on leaf litter and the rustling of ferns brushing against shins drew my attention, and I glanced up.
I stood, severing the contact I’d made with my magic, and my heart leaped as I saw Boone emerge out of the forest.
His face bore no marks from the fight with Alex on Friday night, but I knew he would come out of it without a scratch. Especially when his shapeshifter genes contributed to accelerated healing.
“Boone! Where have you been?” I asked, hoping this was the moment we would work everything out.
“Workin’,” he said.
An uneasy silence fell, the sound of the forest the only thing that passed between us.
“Skye, listen…”
No speech beginning with ‘Skye, listen’ ended well. Not a single one.
“It’s always been so easy with us,” I blurted, desperate to get in first. “We would joke, flirt, and talk… Ever since we kissed by the spring at Croagh Patrick… Then… Then after the craglorn…” I fought back tears. “It’s been awkward ever since.”
He cast his gaze away, which didn’t help one bit.
“What did I do?” I asked desperately. “What’s so wrong with me?”
“Nothin’…” he muttered. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I will worry about it!” I stepped forward, grasped his stupid red and black checkered shirt, and practically shook him. “What’s going on with you? It’s like… It’s like you regret kissing me.”
The words stung as I blurted them out, but it was the root of my fear. Alex showing up had just amplified all of our problems like salt in an open wound.
Boone looked as if I’d stabbed him right through the heart.
“Boone, I can’t help if you won’t talk to me!” I exclaimed.
“Alex…” he began.
“I don’t want him!”
“You were so concerned Lucy might be a fae, yet you never stopped to think about Alex’s motives for bein’ here, did you?”
“What does that mean?” I froze, my heart jackhammering wildly in my chest. “You think he’s… No. I would know. He knows things…” I shook my head. “That’s not the point. I’m talking about you and me.”
He averted his gaze and began prying my fingers away from his shirt.
“Maybe you’re right,” he murmured. “Maybe we shouldn’t have started somethin’. Not if it’s goin’ to be like this.”
“What?” I was numb as his words sunk in. Was he breaking up with me? “But… I thought… You said your heart…” I choked on my words as my throat started to burn.
“Me loyalty is still with the Crescents,” he said, and that was it. He didn’t say any more. He just turned and walked away, leaving me standing in the clearing, too stunned to move let alone shout after him.
I didn’t think it was possible to long for someone as much as I did now. Boone was there the day I first arrived in Derrydun and hadn’t left my side. He’d taken the shape of Father O’Donegal’s tabby cat so he could sneak into the cottage and watch over me. He’d fought the wolf that had attacked me in his fox shape long before I knew it was him, and he’d risked everything by leaving the boundary of the hawthorns that protected him to help me charge the athame to defeat the craglorn.
He’d risked his life again and again for me. Hadn’t he? Or was it just because Aileen had saved his life, and he was bound to the Crescents? I didn’t want to acknowledge the fact he might only be sticking around because I was the