“Stop, Reggie,” I whispered under my breath. “Just leave it alone.” I nodded my head toward the boy who looked a little terrified.
“Fine,” she said and went back to her soup.
“What can I get for you?” Viv asked in her best please just go away but I’m smiling and being polite voice. She’d gotten up from the table and gone behind the counter. Evidently, she was just going to ignore his comment about getting her food license taken away. “The specials are on the board. I don’t have much else because there hasn’t been a lot of business today. Plenty of soup, though, and it’s good.”
“What is wrong with you?” he spat at her. “Why would you allow animals? You disgust me. Come on, Dixon. We’re leaving.”
“But I’m hungry,” Dixon protested. “The soup smells good. We could eat it back at your house.”
The way he said your house instead of home told me a lot.
“Shut up,” he said and glared at the boy. “What have I told you about begging? Huh? What’s wrong with you?”
“Sorry, Dad.”
“What, are you going to cry now? Why do you insist on being such a little girl? Huh? Ugh. I swear I should just stop taking you on these stupid weekends. I would, but then your mother would win. She’s already ruining you.”
Reggie started to stand up, but I put my hand over hers and shook my head, no.
“I’m sorry, Dad. Why don’t we go back to your house and I’ll make grilled cheese for us,” Dixon said. “I can make lunch.” He was trying to placate his horrible father, and it broke my heart.
“You’re going to cook now? Just like a woman. And you’re doing that pathetic thing your mother used to do. Trying so hard to make me happy by assuming you know what I want. You don’t, and I wish you’d stop acting like such a wimp,” the father snarled at him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Dixon began to weep in earnest.
“You’re disgusting,” his father said and raised his hand as if he were about to slap the boy.
I’d tried to get Reggie to back off, but I found myself jumping out of my chair so hard that I knocked it over and sent Meri and Tangerine scrambling. I crossed the room in a few steps and put myself between the man and Dixon.
“You touch him, and I will rip that hand from your body and shove it down your throat,” I growled.
“Kinsley!” Viv and Reggie gasped in unison.
But I didn’t listen. That man had activated the mama bear in me, and I would not back down.
“Now that’s how you act like a man, you little twerp,” he said and stepped around me. “Too bad she’s a skirt. The town sheriff needs to lay down the law in his own house.”
He grabbed Dixon by the back of the neck and practically dragged him outside before I could say anything else. I wanted to follow, but suddenly Viv was there holding me back.
“Don’t,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do that won’t cause problems for you and more pain for that little boy.”
It made me sick. “There has to be something,” I said.
“We’ll find out who his mother is,” Reggie said. “He was obviously on visitation with his father. The jerk said if he stopped seeing the boy, the mother would win. There’s probably a case in family court. You could just smell it. We’ll sign sworn statements for her, if she wants them. That’s how we can help.”
It wasn’t good enough, but it had to be. “It’s not enough,” I said.
“It might save him,” Viv said and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Right now, you guys should get home. There are worse storms coming, and I think I’m going to close up. Unless you guys want to ride it out here?”
“No, we should go,” I said as I felt my blood still boiling. I felt like a caged tiger. I had to get out of there even if it was just to drive home. “We’ve all got basements, right?”
I was significantly calmed by the time I pulled into my driveway. The rain had slowed a bit. It was almost like the eye of the storm, but I knew that was impossible. It was the Midwest, after all. There were derechos and huge lines of thunderstorms, but we did not get hurricanes.
Plus, just as the rain slowed, the weather warnings began to blare from my phone. I took Meri and Tangerine inside and fished some dry sweatpants and a t-shirt out of the dryer.
After I was dressed in dry clothes, I turned on my laptop so I could sit in the kitchen and watch the radar and warnings. I tried to call Thorn and got no answer, so I sent him a text asking him to please call me when he could.
I made some tea and settled in at the kitchen table to watch the angry red blob on the radar make its way toward Coventry. When my phone finally rang, I nearly dropped it because my hands were slick with sweat.
“Hey, babe,” I said nervously. “Please tell me you are on your way home.”
“I can’t, Kinsley.” Thorn’s voice sounded far away due to the wind howling around him. “I’m storm spotting for the county. We’ve got to make sure that no one is on the roads in the path of danger. I also call it in if… when I see this thing touch down so they can sound the warning system.”
“When what touches down?” I asked, but it felt like a dumb question as soon as it crossed my lips. I’d lived in Illinois my entire life, and I knew what was happening. Even without magic, I could feel it in the air and see it in the sickly shade of green sky.
“There’s a radar-confirmed tornado nearby, babe. We haven’t spotted it, but if the siren goes off, get to the basement. Or just go now… Yeah, just go now. I’ll call you soon, I promise.” Towards the end of his sentence, Thorn’s voice got shaky. I wanted to ask him what he was seeing, but I knew keeping him on the phone might put him in more danger. “I love you,” he finished.
“I love you too,” I said. “Call me as soon as the storm passes.”
“I will.”
As soon as I was off the phone with Thorn, I called my mother. While I was waiting for her to pick up, I went to the kitchen junk drawer and retrieved an old flashlight. I pushed the little rubber button, and it clicked on.
“Thank you,” I said to the house. I had the light on my phone, but it was always good to have a backup.
“You’re welcome,” Mom said when she picked up the phone. “For what, dear?”
“Sorry, I was thanking the house for the flashlight,” I said. “It works.”
“I’m glad to hear it. You’re okay then?” Mom asked nervously.
“I am, but Thorn is telling me to get down into he basement. At first he said to do it when the sirens went off, but then he sounded all weird and told me to go now.”
“Did you listen?” she asked.
“Not yet. I wanted to call you first. This is all so surreal. Like, we should be able to do something about the storm, right? We should be able to dissipate it or reroute it through some unoccupied section of country, right?”
“Normally we would,” her voice sounded defeated. “We’ve tried, sweetie. We’ve been trying, but we haven’t been able to put a dent in it. Well, that’s not true. All of us together, we might have lessened the storm some. When it touches down, it might not level Coventry. That’s the best we could do considering…”
“I should join in,” I said. “I’ll go outside and focus every ounce of my power at the sky. We can have everyone in the coven and every friendly witch do the same. Can you put the word out?”
“Kinsley, sweetie, do what Thorn said and go to the basement. We’re all going. Take Meri, Tangerine, and some couch cushions to cover your head. Do it now. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
“Okay,” I said. “Can you stay on the phone with me?” I suddenly felt small and alone.
“I would, baby, but you need to get the animals and those cushions. Do it fast.” There was a panic I’d never heard before rising in her voice. I realized that for the first time in my entire life, my Mom was so scared she couldn’t pretend for me anymore. In turn, icy panic gripped my chest. “Go, baby. I love you. Dad loves you.”
I wanted to ar
gue, but I was afraid that I’d be putting myself, the baby, and my parents in danger. Not to mention Meri and Tangerine who were counting on me to do the right thing. “Love you too, Mom. I’ll text you as soon as we’re camped out in the basement.”
I slipped the phone into my pocket and set the flashlight down on the kitchen table. When I did, I glanced out the window and saw the clouds. It looked like they were boiling. The wind was so strong, it was bowing the trees over, and tons of limbs were snapping off and flying everywhere.
After snatching the cushions off the sofa, I waddled back into the kitchen, opened the basement door, and chucked them down the stairs. “Meri, get down there,” I said. “Go now while I grab Tangerine.”
I half expected him to argue with me, but Meri just nodded and darted down the steps. Tangerine was huddled under the kitchen table. I could only imagine that her little doggie storm radar was going nuts. Animals could sense those things long before humans even knew there was a problem.
When I picked up Tangerine, I risked one more glance out the kitchen window. It may have just been my imagination, but I could swear that a few miles off in the distance, I could see something reaching down from the sky. It looked like a dark, gray-blue wedge, and while it didn’t seem that dangerous from so far away, my brain knew that something wasn’t quite right about what I’d seen.
I held Tangerine tighter, and practically ran down the basement stairs.
Thorn
There was no longer a question that the creek was going to completely cover the road. I was stationed there to make sure it didn’t wash anyone away, and I felt fortunate that while I could watch the storm’s progression, I wasn’t stationed in the path. They’d left that to more experienced members of the county sheriff’s office who were also trained storm spotters and veteran storm chasers.
I’d been through the official storm spotter training, but I’d never had any desire to chase them. Of course, now that it was happening, the feeling of being chased by the storms was far worse. It was far better to be the one doing the hunting than to be sitting there waiting to potentially be hunted.
I hadn’t seen anyone on the road for a while. A few cars had gone over the bridge and into Coventry when I still felt like it was safe. That had been nearly an hour before. I’d turned away two more cars that I didn’t think would make it. The last thing I wanted was to be responsible for people’s cars being swept away by the creek that had turned into a raging river. No one would drown on my watch.
In fact, I’d already gotten in my cruiser and moved it back away from the swift water a couple of times. As I was getting ready to get in and move it again, a truck approached.
The driver was a man in his late thirties. He was a big guy in a red and black flannel shirt. He had a full beard, but it was well-maintained. His skin was bronzed from working outside. I was sure that if I checked, I’d find a rifle or a shotgun behind the man's seats, but I wasn’t going to check. His demeanor told me he meant me no harm, and while the guy obviously never shied away from a day of hard work, he didn’t strike me as the violent type. Just a country boy out doing God-only-knew-what in that storm, but I was about to find out.
“Afternoon, sheriff,” he said and gave me a nod.
“This bridge is about to be underwater, sir. I’m going to need you to go back,” I said politely. “Whatever it is, it can wait until the storm is over.”
“All due respect, sir, it can’t,” he said, and I saw the raw determination in his eyes.
“What’s going on?” I asked and hoped the story was a short one.
“My boy… My stepson, he just called his mama. I promised her I’d get to him. I’ve gotta get into town and get him. Problems with his father, and I’m afraid if I don’t go get the boy, he’s going to take off walking in this mess.”
“Something I need to get involved in?” I asked. Domestic issues were some of the hardest, and sometimes most dangerous, to deal with.
“No, sir. I think this will be the end of our issues with that man. I assure you I’ll call you if we need you, though. Please just let me be on my way. His mama and I can’t stomach the idea of him being out in this stuff, but he will. It takes a lot for a little kid to have enough, but I think he’s had it.”
I knew deep down in the pit of my stomach that the man was going to gun it and go across that bridge no matter what I said. That would have been more dangerous than if I just stepped out of the way and let him go. I didn’t know for sure if his truck would make it, but if anyone could, it was him.
“Go on,” I said. “Get your boy, but if I have to stand here and watch you get washed away, I’m going to find a way to arrest you.”
“Appreciate it, sir,” he said and rolled up his window.
I stood back by my car and held my breath as he crossed. The water was at least halfway up his tires, and in some places, it was higher. The truck was heavy enough that he didn’t get swept away. We must have had a guardian angel watching over us that day. Him because he didn’t die, and me because I doubted I’d be sheriff much longer if I’d let him.
In fact, for a split second, I almost thought I saw a guardian angel standing across the other side of the creek. I blinked and the lady in a white dress with what looked like huge wings tucked behind her back disappeared.
“I’m going to need another vacation after this,” I mumbled to myself. “Stress has got me seeing things.”
Chapter Three
Kinsley
I’d accidently grabbed one of the throw pillows when I’d yanked the cushions off the couch. It had gotten tossed down the steps with the cushions, and once I’d gotten downstairs, I’d put it underneath an antique oak table stored down there.
That’s where I sat with Tangerine on my lap and Meri next to me on the pillow. He was pressed against my leg until thunder shook the house so hard I thought it might have been an earthquake. At that point, he moved onto my lap with Tangerine. The two of them huddled together while I huddled under the table with them.
I couldn’t see out into the basement because the table was pushed into a corner, and I’d covered the two remaining openings with the pillows. I’d texted Mom to let her know I was okay and we were ready to ride out the storm. She answered that she and Dad were doing the same.
“The house won’t fall on us,” Meri tried to reassure me.
“Really? How do you know that?” I asked.
“It’s still magical, remember? It can protect us,” but he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than me.
“You can’t die,” I said. “Remember?”
“I know,” he said, but he wasn’t worried about himself.
My hands covered my belly protectively. “So why are we even down here if the house will protect us?”
“Because I don’t know anything for sure anymore,” he said softly and then nuzzled against my stomach. “Better to be too safe.”
Before I could say anything else, I heard a rumble off in the distance. It was sort of like thunder, but not quite. If I had to describe it, I would have said it was more like a freight train, and it was getting closer.
“I think it’s coming,” I said.
“I think you’re right,” Meri answered.
I put my arms around him and Tangerine and pulled them as close to me as I could. When I closed my eyes, I envisioned a bubble around the house. It might not work. I might not have enough power, but I had to try.
The freight train sound grew closer, and with each passing second, the house above me shook more. For a moment, I wondered if I’d lost my mind and a train really was headed for Hangman’s House.
But then, like some sort of miracle, the sound began to get farther away. The house stopped shaking, other than small tremors from the occasional massive clap of thunder, and I decided to crawl out from under the table and check.
I couldn’t stay under there forever, and it had grown stiflingly hot. Meri climbed off my lap first, and Tangerine followed. The little dog
wasn’t shaking anymore either. I trusted her instincts. If she thought the danger had passed, then perhaps it had.
Is it over? I texted to my Mom. Then I sent the same text to Thorn.
My mother answered, but Thorn did not. I was still in the basement at that point, but I was out from under the table. Meri was sitting on the bottom step waiting to go back upstairs like nothing had ever happened. Tangerine sat on the floor below that step watching me and panting happily. Now that the danger had passed, she seemed to think we were just on some weird adventure to the basement.
Stormy Sky Magic (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 9) Page 3
