Moving to Portland, Oregon when you're thirteen years old from the Northeastern part of the United States was - to say the least - a shock to the system. Compound that upheaval with being a born and bred witch whose parents died at the hands of the coven they were proud to be a part of and, well, the suckage just kept on sucking.

Luckily for me, as the lovely people who take charge of the child left behind after such senseless loss - the words of several people that work in the "system" as the other orphans clued me into - I had members of my extended family alive and well and more than willing to take me in - in OREGON.

Stepping out of the van that had carried me from the plane that flew me across the country, with the ever present social worker and aids that worked for that lovely system that helped put me here, I looked around and realized that it wasn't as bad as I feared. Since it was autumn and the leaves were changing just like they had been back home, I could almost pretend I wasn't so far away - from my house, my parents' graves, my life. Almost.

I heard a door open on the house we were parked in front of and glanced up to see - wait, was that my mom? "You must be Eli," her voice wasn't exactly like Mom's, but it was close, a hint of an accent that my mom didn't have were laced in the words. "I'm Evelina," right, my relative of unknown origin. "Your mother was my second cousin, I believe." Welp, that must have been a deep dive into the family tree to dig her up. "I'm so sorry about -" a glance toward my ever present shadows had her changing her flow or words, letting me know that she was more like my mom than I could have guessed, even if she didn't look almost like her twin. "Such a tragedy, and then I couldn't get away to come to the funerals."

The social worker, interchangeable with the half a dozen I'd dealt with in mere weeks since my parents were removed from my life, hovered while Evelina, Eve as she insisted I call her, pulled me onto the front porch and told me that her husband was at work - he'd been called in unexpectedly right before we came - and that they'd already prepared my room.

"Just the basics, I want to take you shopping so you can choose how you'd like it decorated," I remembered how my bedroom back home had looked - after Mom and I painted it the darkest blue imaginable and then brushed on gold leaf so it would glitter when the lights were on. And the dark cherry wood furniture, refinished after Dad had painstakingly found each piece at flea markets, thrift stores, and antique stores. Every part of my room had been put together with intent and love.

It didn't take long for the shadows to fall away, to decide that I was safe and would be cared for enough to allow them to sleep at night and collect their pay without any reservations.

My bags were rolled into the house and I felt the tingle that came from a house of magic as I crossed the threshold. "I'm glad you're here," Eve offered, smiling at me with a warmth I hadn't seen since the last time I'd been with my parents. "There are a few things I should tell you about before you settle in -"

The Gemini Coven - that was the coven that Eve and her husband Elias belonged to. Elias' family were from the one of the original families that created it and when Eve married him she became a part as well. A coven that, as their ward (just call me Robin), I would be accepted as well - especially since -

"The Taurus Circle isn't one that you can stay connected to -" that was a huge 'no shit, Sherlock' reality. "I hope that you'll feel more peace within ours."

Gemini - the twins - yet as far as I could tell Elias wasn't a twin and neither was Eve. Perhaps, like our coven, the name was chosen less for the symbolism of the sign associated with it (ours a bull, of all things), but rather from the properties that our people exhibited in spades - earth magic was easier for us, but we also were more even keeled, more reliable, and there were rumors that our sensuality was higher, but since I'd just become a teenager I had no damn clue about that.

"And just like in your former coven," Elias had returned not long after the shadows left, and we were seated at the dining room table waiting for pizza to arrive as they broke down the differences and apparent similarities between Gemini and Taurus. "There are dangerous elements -"

"Elias, please," Eve shook her head and smiled reassuringly at me. "Every coven, or community, or family, has members that have issues, it's nothing worth scaring Eli over."

"A siphoner is more than worth a warning, Evelina," Elias' voice had turned a shade heavier and I considered what he was saying, rather than the undercurrent of irritation he felt for having to say it.

Siphoner? They were real? I'd only heard them mentioned in the same whispered worries that grown ups told children when they read them fairy tales. I'd assumed they were a myth, but from the look that Eve and Elias shared, I'd assumed wrong.

"There's a siphoner?" I had to break their silent argument if only because I was growing worried that my arrival was going to ruin their peaceful home. "And they're still allowed among the witches?"

And that's when the true nuts and bolts about the Gemini Coven came to light - and I had to thank the gods and goddesses that I was born without a twin because losing my parents caused an ache I feared would never leave me, but losing someone who I'd shared life with from the moment of conception would be - I feared - something I could never recover from, regardless of the surge of power I might get from the loss.

I couldn't imagine being born into this coven as a twin, and one whose only power was to steal away others'. Add to that having others warned against them - and I thought I was alone in the world.

As Elias stood up to greet and pay the pizza delivery person, Eve reached across the table to take my hand in hers. The warmth and flow of magic helped calm me, and as I looked up, her soft smile had returned.

"Elias worries so much about things that he has no real understanding about, Eli," shaking her head she squeezed my hand. "Malachai Parker won't be dangerous if the people who surround him would stop isolating him."

Malachai Parker? And I thought Elinor Crawford was bad - guess Mom wasn't so terrible with the Jane Austen adoration.

I had to wonder, as I tentatively ate my first meal with my new family, just how bad would a guy named Malachai be?