Chapter 3: The Winding Road to Danger
Selene, Willem, and Ashley head into battle – what will they find in the mountains?! Come join the adventure! You've got 3 days to vote and comment on what happens next.
Plot Twist: A Collaborative Novel is an interactive book project where you get to help decide what the characters say and do next. Check out the introduction to Plot Twist: A Collaborative Novel for all the juicy details on how this works.* And be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a step on this fun adventure.
Welcome back to Plot Twist!
Chapter 2’s ending saw Selene heading into battle, dragging her body guard Willem and her assistant Ashley along with her. This week, we get to find out what they find when they get to the site of the magical anomaly – conveniently placed near where Selene used to live.
Here’s how you all voted on what the squad – led my General Harris – will find once they get there:
Everyone in the comments and The Group Chat agreed there needs to be a run in with the ex at the very least – maybe she returns the vibrator? We’ll have to see where the story takes us!
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This week’s post is a longer one and has some sex details in it.
Ready to find out what they see on the mountain?!
Let’s dive in!
Chapter 3: The Winding Road to Danger
The black matte SUV wound its way up the mountain, speeding around slower cars and perilously rushing around curves. Selene held her breath as they barely made it past an oncoming truck, and quickly took another swig of the motion sickness medicine Aurora had placed in her hand before she left.
“And you’re sure this is the location?” Selene pointed to the screen in front of her with a satellite image of a grove of trees.
“Give or take fifty yards,” Ashley replied.
Fuck, Selene thought, sitting back in her seat, nausea coming in waves despite her sister’s potion. She knew these mountain curves. She knew that grove of trees. Just like she knew this was all a waste of energy and resources.
Still, she was the Queen, the most powerful witch in the region, and if there was a major threat to their wards, then she had a duty to show up and at least pretend to stop it.
“Can you try not to be so reckless?” Ashley barked at Willem as he came perilously close to the mountain’s edge.
“The safety of our people could depend on a single minute,” he declared, revving his engine even faster. Willem enjoyed playing the role of James Bond, rushing into the fray for Queen and country. It helped that his level seven Elemental capabilities allowed him to manipulate the matter around them. Selene hated the way he drove, but she knew they’d never crash, not with Willem at the wheel.
“And the safety of breakfast staying inside my stomach depends on you slowing down.” It wasn’t her most witty comeback, but Selene was too tired to care.
Willem eased up on the gas pedal and she leaned her head back, hoping to rest for the hour it would take to get there. 35 minutes with him driving, she corrected herself. Still, a decent amount of time for a nap.
Ashley cast a basic privacy spell around her and Selene. “How was your date last week?”
“We don’t need that.” Selene flicked her wrist and the spell evaporated.
“I hate when you do that,” Ashley grumbled as her magic dissipated.
“Willem knows more about my sex life than you do, Ash,” Selene said. “Don’t you, Willem.”
“No comment, Ma’am,” he replied, eyes on the road.
“You could at least pretend to be a normal witch. Ask me to take down the spell instead of just erasing my work,” Ashley retorted.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t meant to erase your hard work,” Selene patted her friend and assistant on the arm.
They’d known each other for thirteen years, meeting at a gay bar on Selene’s twenty-sixth birthday, right after Irideae died. Recognizing the Princess, Ashley had kept her distance that first night, watching over Selene as she drank herself into oblivion, loud-mouthing onstage with the drag queens and trying to make out with multiple women, and a few gay men.
When Selene fell to the floor of the bathroom and started crying, Ashley scooped her up and returned her to the palace, earning both respect and a job offer from Her Majesty. Ashley had been at Selene’s side ever since, the Jiminy Cricket to her Pinocchio, tirelessly working herself up to the role of Coven Consigliere, assistant and confidant to the Queen.
“Fine, let Willem hear. How was your date?” Ashley asked again.
“She came on me,” Selene admitted.
“Isn’t that the point?” William asked.
“No,” Selene lowered her voice, “Like she came came on me. All over me actually.”
“Wait, can cis women do that?” Willem asked.
“Yes, of course we can!” Selene shook her head at the ignorance of gay men to women’s bodies. “And she did. All over me.”
“And you don’t like cum?” Willem asked.
“It’s not that I have a problem with ejaculation,” Selene clarified. “It can be so hot. But she didn’t warn me.”
“Sometimes it just happens…” Ashley sheepishly replied.
“Do tell me more about that,” Willem turned around and raised an eyebrow at Ashley.
“Watch the road,” Ashley snapped. “And we were talking about Selene’s date.”
“Were we?” Selene smirked.
“So you don’t like that she came on you?” Ashley deferred.
“No, I don’t like that she didn’t care that she came on me,” Selene clarified. “Like all over me. I was naked and it got onto my genitals and now I must get tested and you know how much I hate needles.”
“You are the Queen of Frontera, the strongest witch in all of the western United States, one of the most powerful beings in the world,” Ashley replied, “And you couldn’t ask her to stop?”
Selene shrugged. “I didn’t want to ruin her orgasm.”
“Instead, you put your health – and, in turn, the safety of our whole coven – at risk?”
“You know I get nervous around hot girls,” Selene bemoaned.
“You’re impossible,” Ashley huffed, pulling out her phone.
“Please don’t text the group chat!” Selene tried snatching Ashley’s phone from her, but she was too late, Ashley had already sent the text.
Dreading the response from the others, Selene unlocked her screen and read what Ashley had written: Dr. Olulade, can you please come to the palace on Tuesday at noon three weeks from today for a routine blood draw. Bring a sedative.
“Are you going to see her again?” Ashley asked.
“Of course not,” Selene replied.
“One and done, like usual,” Ashley sighed.
“You sound like my mother,” Selene huffed.
Her Majesty was always lecturing Selene on how she needed to settle down and marry a powerful warlock, not caring that her youngest daughter wanted none of that. Sure, she’d slept with a few cismen in high school, and she occasionally found men attractive, but she had no desire to be in a relationship with a man, more or less procreate with one.
Even if she was interested in having a child, Selene’s misshapen uterus full of fibroids meant she could die if she tried. Her Majesty and the whole Coven Council were delusional for placing on of their hope on Selene have a baby. She’d already shattered her heart for them, they didn’t get to break the rest of her body as well.
Their family line ended with Irideae died, and the sooner the coven accepted that, the sooner they could start working on a plan to save them all.
“If you won’t have a relationship to save the coven, at least do it to save yourself,” Ashley insisted. “It’s been fifteen years, it’s time to get over your ex.”
“This is not about Ari,” Selene replied, making both Ashley and Willem roll their eyes. “I don’t see either of you two out there making babies to grow the coven.”
“I try almost every night,” Willem winked back at her.
“To be a gay man,” Selene sighed.
She often went out to clubs with Willem and watched him have his choice of gorgeous men, while she came home alone. He’d walk her to the door, as was his duty, and then wave at her as he took whomever he’d found that night back to his place. Selene would climb into bed and wish she could be more like Willem, able to let go and make love with abandon.
Ashley thought Selene got more action than she did, and Selene liked to keep it that way for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. But Willem knew the truth, that ejaculation girl had been the first woman Selene had been with in a long time.
It’s not that she was still hung up on her ex-fiancé, it’s just that everything after Arielle had felt so hollow. She missed the intimacy of being with someone you trusted completely. But Selene had destroyed that trust, disappearing in the night with a note that guaranteed Arielle would never come looking for her. She’d never felt whole since and each year it felt like the coven chipped away another part of her soul.
“Enough about your sex life,” Ashley said.
“You’re the one who started it …” Selene pointed out.
“… We need to prepare for the fight you’re walking into,” Ashley continued.
“I’ll just do my thing,” Selene waved her hands. “Wipe the magic, clear the spells, and neutralize whomever we find.”
“Please take this seriously,” her best friend scolded. “We’re driving towards the most powerful surge of magic we’ve recorded since your coronation, a true test of your power as Queen. The whole magical world will be watching you.”
“Dammit, you’re not livestreaming this are you?” Selene fumed.
“We must show that, despite our lack of an heir, the Frontera coven is still strong.” Ashley recited, words Selene knew had come from her mother.
“I’m not some dancing monkey!” Selene unbuckled and started moving to the front passenger seat.
“What are you doing?” Ashley asked.
Selene flipped down the vanity mirror. “You could have at least told me before we left so I could make myself presentable.”
“Here,” Ashley handed Selene a makeup bag.
“We’re fifteen minutes away, Ma’am,” Willem said beside her.
“You couldn’t have given this to me earlier?” Selene quickly swiped gold shadow across her eyes.
“I knew you’d panic.”
“You’re fired,” Selene said, smearing red across her lips. “I’m serious this time. Gone as soon as we stop.”
“Give me back my lipstick then,” Ashley put out her hand.
“I thought you said I could keep it?”
“That was a bribe to keep you from firing me the last time,” Ashley replied, “If I’m fired, I’m taking it back.”
“Have I mentioned how much I loath you?” Selene repeated, throwing the red lipstick into the backseat.
“Ten minutes,” Willem reported as he sped down a road Selene knew too well.
“What if I fail and the whole world sees?” Selene tried to make her hair look less like she’d just woken up.
“Are you going to fail?” Ashley asked.
“Have I ever failed?” Selene replied.
“Precisely,” Ashley shut her laptop as if her point was proven. “Now, this is a level nine power surge…”
“Nine?” Selene and Willem exclaimed at the same time.
“Don’t you go getting soft of me too, Willem,” Ashley scolded.
“Never,” he replied, but Selene saw a minute tightening of his grip on the steering wheel. She didn’t blame him. She’d never faced a level nine before.
Not that Selene was truly worried. She knew where they were headed and what she would find there. Absolutely nothing. But if Ashley and Her Majesty wanted a show, they’d get a show.
“You’re a ten,” Ashley said.
“You flatter me, but I’m a five at best.” Selene puckered her lips in the mirror. “Maybe a seven if I put effort in and I’m at a gay bar.”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “Ten is greater than nine.”
“Yes, I passed basic math,” Selene replied.
“Then you’ll be fine,” Ashley reassured her.
“Coyotes smuggle warlocks through these mountains,” Willem pointed to the forest around them. “Could be one of them.”
“My bet is on an unsanctioned blood ritual,” Ashley predicted.
“Or our wards are finally falling.” Selene’s reply silenced them all. “Too soon?”
“Yes, it is too soon for the wards to fall.” Ashley handed Selene an embroidered sweater to throw as they approached the town of Wild Ivy.
Reluctantly, Selene put on the sweater, which was way too conservative for her taste and obviously chosen by her mother, followed by a set of simple pearl earrings Ashley gave her. “When did you even have time to consult Her Majesty on my outfit?”
“We’re here,” Willem skidded to a halt, saving Ashley from having to answer.
Her stomach sank as Selene looked out the window at an all too familiar sight. The top spell casters in the army were filing out of SUV’s behind her as a camera crew set up to record everything. All this wizard power over a miscalculation she’d made years ago.
She could feel it, once she was here. She knew her error. It was witchcraft 101, the kind of thing every young spellcaster knew not to do, and now the whole wizard world would see her mistake livestreamed thanks to Ashley.
“Let’s get this over with.” Selene opened the car door and stepped out into a crash of flashing lights and a team of wizards coming to salute.
General Harris filed in next to Selene and talked as she walked in an arc along the road. “There seems to be some kind of ward up, protecting the center of the surge.”
Selene sensed it too. They all did. An invisible wall blocking their way forward. The general pressed her palms against it, floating them in midair, trying to push through. Nothing budged, and Selene knew it wouldn’t, not for the general or anyone else gathered here. She knew how this magic worked.
“Stand down,” Selene commanded, and the general obeyed the orders, letting her arms fall to her side.
Acutely aware of the cameras, Selene took a deep breath and walked through the wards, a familiar tingle surging through her body, a striking combination of the pleasure of an orgasm mixed with the pain of nails running down a chalkboard. She turned back around and looked at the group of wizards on the other side, some of them shocked, others impressed. It was Ashley’s face she found, concern written all over it.
“You can’t come in,” Selene declared.
“You are not going into this trap without backup,” Ashley protested. “Just wiggle your fingers, do your thing, drop the wards, and let us in.”
Selene lifted her hands, and the wizards on the other end prepared themselves for the wards to fall, but instead the wall became black, blocking their view inside. Selene could hear Ashley yelling, but she ignored her and turned towards the woods.
What was about to happen was for Selene’s eyes only.
Now it’s your turn!
For the next 3 days, voting is open in the poll and comments are ready for your input! This is a collaborative effort, so the more you participate, the better the experience for everyone – and the more fun you have. Your voting and comments directly change the story!
Here are some questions to get you started talking in the comments:
What did you love? Where were you excited? What do you want to see more of?
What didn’t resonate? What do you want to see less of? Where were you confused?
What predictions do you have for the characters? Where do you want to see the story going? What ideas did this spark in you?
Vote in the poll and comment below to help direct where the story goes next!
*PLEASE READ THE FINE PRINT BEFORE YOU COMMENT OR VOTE:
By participating in Plot Twist, you’re agreeing to give your input on a book that will be written by and credited to Lauren Marie Fleming. The final book will be available in ebook, print, audiobook, and other mediums with Lauren Marie Fleming listed as the sole author, copyright owner, and beneficiary. This project will be mentioned in the acknowledgments and anyone who comments on at least three posts will be listed as a collaborator. No compensation or copyright is granted for collaborators from any book sales or derivatives.