Spell Maven From Spell Haven

by Megan Marple

  Still facing away from the two of them, I slipped the pendant over my head and around my neck, tucking it into my shirt. "And we know that," I replied, turning back around. "Except if there's a nearby village that needs plundering."

  "Or a ship that needs pirating," Fiona-Leigh joined in.

  "Or a raw, smelly fish that needs to be eaten," I added with a grin. "So yeah . . . Maybe you do need a babysitter."

  Oisín unmistakably rolled his yellow eyes. "Oh, har har har. You try to take over the realm one time and no one ever lets you forget it. You could learn a thing or two from me, believe it or not."

  Both of us burst out laughing. "Mmhmm. What's that?" I asked, my hand on my hip.

  I knew we were getting the conversation clear and far away from where it had been only momentarily before, which was exactly my aim.

  My favorite set of crystalline salt and pepper shakers were being pushed to the very edge of the countertop, courtesy Oisín's fluffy tail.

  "For starters —" the shakers fell to the ground, both of them cracking upon impact, "— how not to piss off your elders."

  "Osh! Seriously?" I shrieked, dropping to the floor to quickly pick up the pieces, reminding myself how impolite it would be to curse my furry ancestor into oblivion.

  "That's a naughty boy," Fiona-Leigh murmured as she scooped him up into her arms. "You don't have to be so mischievous to get your point across."

  "Besides," I said, red-faced, "I hardly believe you are the voice of reason when it comes to not pissing off your ancestors. You honestly expect me to believe you didn't get on everyone's nerves even back in your heyday?"

  For such a snappy little thing with ears like radar, Oisín seemed to have completely ignored me.

  "Say, you don't happen to have any more of that delicious tuna melt from yesterday just lying around anywhere, do you?" he mewled at me from the safety of her arms.

  The silence in the kitchen seemed to be permeating my head. Until the loud crash.

  Oisín yowled, hackles raised to the fullest as he jumped up from Fiona-Leigh's arms and skedaddled behind my legs. I frowned, carefully walking to the front of the house to poke my head out the door and see what the heck was going on outside.

  "Was it some kind of magic?" Fiona-Leigh's voiced dropped into a whisper behind me.

  "No," I replied, scanning the yard. "I think it was just someone accidentally dropping something. Really loudly."

  But she smacked her forehead. "Duh! It's Marina's uncle, I bet. He's moving in across the street. She said something about him having his own drum set, so maybe that's what it was.”

  "Oh, you mean the new neighbor?" Oisín purred, his thick tail swishing back and forth. "How very intriguing."

  "Why am I not surprised that you know more about this neighborhood than even I do?" I sighed as I moved aside the curtain sheers and peered out the front bay window.

  Across the street and a couple houses to the left, sure enough, there was a moving truck backing up into the driveway. No one had lived in that house for a few years at least, so it was no wonder that others up and down the road were busy nosily sticking their heads out of doors to scope out the scene. Including me, obviously.

  I let the curtain fall back in place, looking back at Fiona-Leigh. "And this is Marina's uncle?"

  She nodded. "Yep. She said he just bought the house last week. While we were uh, busy, I guess."

  "Speaking of Marina, I forgot to ask you if you mind if I spend the night with her next week. Like all week?"

  I was already worrying over how excited she was about the prospect of visiting Arcadia. I didn't need another argument about her being gone for... Wait. What if this was the way out? I quickly shifted gears, the heaviness of the pendant on my chest helping me focus.

  Focus. That was it!

  It was the oddest thing, not having to whisper the words out loud but instead, letting them sit in my mind's eye. I concentrated on the spell, focusing all of my energy on it until I knew it was ready. Once I was sure Fiona-Leigh wasn't paying attention, I yanked a couple of my hairs from my head and waited until they were the color of the purest lilac before tying them together in a knot.

  Focus near and not on far,

  Focus on wherever you are.

  Keep your mind busy and spent,

  Not on where your mother went.

  Listen to the words I say,

  You will wait until Sunday.

  Then the magic will be done,

  Focus on only Marina and having fun.

  I envisioned these words in my head as if I were speaking them out loud, wrapping my mind around them until they were spinning in circles. The silent chant kept going as I tied the knot of my hair as a protection spell to keep Fiona-Leigh only focused on spending the night with Marina. Nothing else would matter as much to her, and this way she wouldn't try and sneak away to Arcadia somehow. It was tricky and deep down my stomach sunk at the thought of using the magic of the pendant to make sure she stayed put, but if I had to choose between protecting her and having her happy with me, I would always choose to keep her safe.

  I sighed, imbibing the magic of my protection into the knot of hair in my hand. How was I going to keep it on her at all times, though? I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to think.

  "So?"

  I spun around at the sound of her voice. "Huh?"

  "So, are you going to let me spend the night with her next weekend or not? I told her we had plans tonight of course, and she said she was going to be at her Uncle's house, anyway. Apparently, he just had one of those big above-ground pools put in. He has to shock the pool with the chlorine chemical stuff, but she was bragging all about how she was going to go swimming this weekend. Ha! If she only knew where I was going to be this weekend!" she laughed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Then it hit me.

  "Yeah, um, I actually have something for you. I just remembered! Hold on a sec," I mumbled, fumbling for the pearl earrings I was wearing.

  She lifted a delicate eyebrow at me, confused. "Uh . . . you're giving me your earrings? But I thought you loved those?"

  It was true—these were my favorite pair. They were actually from Lachlan's Lake, courtesy of a selkie, but that didn't really matter at the moment.

  "Yeah, I um, wanted to give these to you. I thought they would look really pretty on you." I took the other one off while she and Oisín exchanged a look, and I carefully tied the knot protection spell around it until it was almost invisible. "Here, let me put them on you and see."

  She took a cautious step forward, still looking at me as if I'd lost my marbles (and truthfully, maybe I had.)

  "There," I smiled, inspecting the way they shimmered on her earlobes once I was finished. "Perfect."

  "You're so weird sometimes," she mumbled.

  But then the tiniest ring of purple light blinked around her pupil, and she froze, searching my face for something.

  "Actually . . . I think I might go see if Marina wants to hang out this weekend. It's so cool that her uncle has his own pool! Maybe they'll let me swim, too." she said, doing a complete one-eighty. "Can I go over and ask, Mom?"

  Seeing the excitement on her face both relieved me and left me feeling like the crappiest mom, ever. So much for gaining back her trust.

  24

  Fiona-Leigh stepped back after knocking on the screen door, throwing her backpack over her shoulder.

  Marina's lanky form appeared in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear. "Oh my god, I'm so excited. I can't believe we have the whole weekend to hang out!" she squealed, throwing open the door for us. "C'mon!"

  To be honest, the idea of leaving Fiona-Leigh at home with a strange man I'd never met before for a whole weekend left me feeling slightly sick to my stomach. But Oisín had agreed to skulk around and make sure everything was okay, and after having a long talk with her about how to kick someone hard enough in the crotch that she can get away if necessary, I felt a little better.

  The inside of Marina’s uncle’
s house was still a mess from moving, with furniture haphazardly stacked all over the place, and boxes upon boxes with very neat handwritten words like "kitchen," and "living room," on them. Did this guy have better handwriting than me or what?

  Marina leaned against some of the boxes, still smiling as she pulled her beanie off her head revealing her shock of white blonde hair. "Uncle Sully will be back inside in a few minutes. He's having to mess with the pool pump, I think."

  I nodded, still looking around the house.

  "That's so cool that he has a pool," Fiona-Leigh said, holding up her backpack. "Where should I put this?"

  "I'll take it," Marina replied, pointing down the hallway. "We're staying in the spare bedroom back here. Uncle Sully's room is on the other end of the house," she explained, looking over at me carefully. "And I know you're probably freaking out a little bit, Ms. Brady, but he's a really cool guy, and my parents absolutely trust him. He works for the county, actually,"

  I raised a brow. "Really? What does he do?" I asked, following them.

  "He's the coroner."

  Of course he is. I backtracked a little, still looking around, wondering if it wasn't too late after all to lock Fiona-Leigh in the closet somewhere. "That's an, um, interesting job to have."

  "Well, it pays the bills anyway," a deep voice chuckled from behind me. I'm Sully Pritchett, Marina's uncle, by the way. But . . . I'm sure you put that together,” he explained as I spun around.

  I found myself staring into dark brown eyes framed by thick eyelashes that would make any girl jealous. Sully Pritchett pushed his hand through the thick tangle of dark curls on his head. "Er, you must be Ms. Brady?" he guessed.

  It took every single ounce of my energy to keep my mouth from hanging slightly open, no doubt about to spill some drool from the corner. "Yes," I managed to say, thrusting my hand forward like some kind of maniac. "I'm Gwen Brady. Fiona-Leigh's mother. I've known the Petersons for a long time," I added for some reason.

  Sully had the appearance of someone who didn't quite know just how effective his smile was, and when the corner of it twitched under his dark but well-groomed mustache and beard, I was certain that I was moments away from telling him.

  I tore my gaze away, my cheeks on fire. "Right, I just wanted to come meet you, since she's supposed to be staying the weekend over here and everything."

  "Right," he repeated. "It's nice to meet some of the neighbors. You live across the street, don't you?"

  The girls came out from the spare bedroom, giggling to one another, effectively cutting me off from saying something else asinine.

  "It's like you're Amish or something," Marina laughed, both of them skirting around us standing in the middle the hallway. "Who doesn't watch Real Housewives? Even my uncle watches it!"

  Now it was Sully's turn to look away, embarrassed. At least it was a little more even.

  "It must be a pretty good show," I said as I smiled, wanting him to know it wasn't as bad as it sounded. "We don't watch a lot of TV in our house, but I can tell you we're not Amish." Again, Gwen. Why are these things he needs to know?

  He ran his hand through his hair again, and I fought the weird swooning effect the best I could. "Not Amish. Okay, good to know. I may not that there's anything wrong with the Amish, obviously."

  I shook my head. "Obviously not. They’re perfectly wonderful people, I'm sure. I've never met any myself but —"

  He chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I can't say I have, either. Wait. What are we talking about again?"

  We both laughed together, and I felt some of the tension leaving my shoulders.

  "I just wanted to thank you for letting her stay here this weekend with you guys. I'm going to be going out of town and I didn't really want her coming along. It's just boring work stuff, I'm sure you know how that goes. Or do you? Being a coroner and all, I bet your work isn't very boring."

  Sully gestured for us to walk back into the living room and I followed behind him, not daring to look below his waist at the way his jeans just happened to fit. God, what was wrong with me?

  "Boring is probably the last thing I'd say. But it can be very tedious, believe it or not. Intake forms, that kind of thing. It's kind of a thankless job, it's not like anyone's sitting outside of my office, thanking me for dissecting their loved ones or anything. But, you know. It's work. And it's not a problem at all, about Fiona-Leigh coming to stay with us. Marina's always talking about her, I figured I'd eventually meet her one day."

  His voice had a funny way of being just deep enough that I could feel the rumbling in my chest. I swallowed hard. "Yes, well, thank you for being the town's coroner. Now at least someone's told you lately."

  "Mom? Do you mind if Marina and I go downtown so we can pick out new bathing suits?"

  I snapped out of it, fishing for my wallet out of my purse. "Um, yeah I guess so. Do you need any money? I have a twenty I can give you."

  Fiona-Leigh stepped back into my view, her eyebrows raised practically all way up her for head. "Are you feeling okay? Did you actually just offer me money? Without referring to my allowance or piggy bank?"

  I don't know why it felt so weird standing there in the middle of the house, with all eyes on me now, but I laughed in spite of it. "Don't be ridiculous, Fi. I give you money sometimes. Every now and then. When I'm feeling nice. Go ahead and go get a bathing suit. I trust you."

  The girls squealed and Fiona-Leigh threw her arms around my neck, pulling me in for a quick hug as I slipped her the money. "Thank you, thank you!

  I found myself staring after them, shaking my head. "Ugh. Feel free to text me and let me know if she comes back with a nose piercing and a tattoo." This whole giving your kid wings and letting them fly thing was for the sylphs.

  "Sure. I just need your number," Sully said, pulling out his cell phone.

  I blinked. Did he…? Duh, Gwendolyn, get it together. How else is he going to text you if he doesn't have your phone number? "Right. It's uh, 555-9890."

  I waited until he looked up from his screen, reminding myself that I needed to breathe. "And yours? So I know it's you. Of course, obviously. Sorry," I said, looking away and feeling more than a little idiotic. "I guess it's just my nerves or something."

  "The work conference thing?" He guessed, tilting his head to the side.

  I bit my lip. "Something like that."

  By the time I managed to stumble out of Sully Pritchett's house after making somewhat of a fool of myself, I straightened up, marched across the street to my house, putting on my game face. It was time to deal with the Fae.

  25

  The walk through the woods wasn’t as lonely as I thought it would be—in fact, it was quite peaceful. Maybe I was just crazy, but something about Sully’s nature put me at ease. I left his house feeling less like a terrible mother, and more like a determined sister trying to use every ounce of effort to figure out where her dingbat of a brother disappeared to. Hopefully.

  The thick canopy of the trees and the birds singing among them even helped soothe my mind. At least up until I realized I wasn’t alone in the woods, after all.

  The footsteps were barely audible, and had it not been for the fact that I was trained as a Shadow Hand, I probably wouldn’t have heard them creeping along thirty yards to my right. I paused for a moment, pretending to be pulling out my phone as if I was using the GPS on it. If some crazy serial killer was on my tail, the less they suspected, the better.

  A branch cracked under the person’s weight. There was no way I could feign surprise now. I looked over my shoulder to the right, my heart racing.

  And I immediately rolled my eyes. “Do you always make it a point to spy on people you’re supposed to be working with?” I called out, shoving my phone back into my pocket.

  The throaty chuckle bounced off the trees all around me. “If you think that was spying, then I have a hydra nest to sell you.”

  “Hydras are extinct,” I grumbled, continuing to pick my way over the bramble patches.

&n
bsp; Gentry’s footsteps were no longer quiet behind me. “Yeah. My point exactly. So, should we get a move on or . . .?”

  I felt my cheeks go red. “Are you really acting as if you need to rush me when I’m the one who’s leading the way?” I said as I looked over my shoulder. The presence of the pendant felt heavy against my chest as if somehow the stone had turned into lead. A strange thrumming started to pulsate outward from it and I paused, doing my best not to draw any attention to it. Uncle Gardner had wanted this to be a secret between us. That must’ve included keeping it from Gentry.

  Focusing on my breathing, I took a tentative step and then another once the pendant’s thrumming calmed down. I could still feel it like a memory of a heartbeat behind my own.

  “Lost?” Gentry came up behind me, wearing his usual amused grin. Did he have any sense of common manners or was he raised with wolves? I take it back… I used to know plenty of werewolves that were much more polite than him.

  “No,” I said through gritted teeth. “I know where I’m going.” The pendant thrummed hard for a moment and I realized then that part of its power must have something to do with my emotions. I let the tension in my shoulders melt away, and the pendant felt lighter again. Keeping myself calm around Gentry was going to be an attempt in futility if I didn’t focus on it.

  Ahead, the dilapidated cabin cut across the thick of trees like a haunting shadow. “See? There’s the Gateway.”

  As irritated as I was with him already, I knew I’d have to stay calm and collected around Gentry with this darn thing around my neck. I had a feeling that he’d know exactly what the Stone of Joyce was and how I acquired it. Or he’d simply think I did something stupid like steal it.

  The stone thrummed as if to warn me. Okay, okay. I’ll play nice.

  I cleared my throat as we reached the doorway. “So. You used to live in Arcadia. That must have been interesting.”

  Despite the randomness of me asking a question out of the clear blue, Gentry didn’t seem bothered by it. “Interesting is just skimming the tip of the iceberg. They don’t open up to us witches very often, if at all, but if you’re lucky enough to be in the Fae’s company long enough you’ll learn a hell of a lot.”