Magic Ain't a Game

by P. D. Workman

  Reg waved Sarah’s words away. “It’s fine. They don’t need an appointment.”

  Sarah opened her mouth to argue. But it was Reg’s schedule, not Sarah’s. Sarah was always ready to help her out, but if Reg didn’t want her help? Sarah couldn’t exactly force her.

  Looking suspicious, Julian entered the room.

  Sarah gasped. “He broke the wards.”

  Reg shook her head. “No. I released them.”

  “Why would you do that? Reg, this is a bad idea and could turn very wrong. Anyone could come in here. And he may have evil intentions. You can’t protect yourself if you release the wards.”

  “I want him to come in,” Reg said irritably. “I don’t need the wards.”

  Julian looked around as if expecting something to jump out and attack him. He looked at Reg, puzzlement evident on his face.

  “You’re cooperating now? I don’t understand. Is this some new kind of game? What are you up to?”

  “I’m not playing games,” Reg said. She took a step toward him. She longed to touch him. She had no interest in talking or answering his questions to establish the facts. She took a couple more steps, her heart beating harder and faster. She felt a warm flush, like diving into a deep, warm ocean. It spread from her head down to the rest of her body. Her hands were reaching out toward Julian. “Come with me.”

  He took a step back, startled by her sudden change in behavior.

  “Come on,” Reg urged. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. You and I need to… talk.”

  “Are you ready to tell me what happened to Tybalt, your guide?”

  Reg smiled, showing her teeth. “I don’t want to talk about that. Put all of your other agendas aside for a while. Let’s just get together and talk, you and I.” She flicked a glance at the two other men with Julian. “Send them away. Sarah was just going back to the house.”

  Julian looked at the two other warlocks and shook his head. Sarah seemed rooted to the spot. She didn’t take the hint and go back inside either.

  A wind picked up outside, blowing in the bewitching smell of the sea, along with green leaves and flower petals. Reg smelled something that reminded her of Corvin at first, the way that she could smell roses whenever he was trying to charm her. It wasn’t roses, but it was floral. And the rainy, earthy smell of spring. Rabbits followed the blowing leaves and petals into the cottage. Reg’s jaw dropped in astonishment. What was going on? Was it because she had released the wards? Did that mean she was going to have to fight to keep nature out of her cottage now?

  Before she had a chance to ask Sarah anything about the strange guests, a woman swept into the room.

  She was very tall and wore an outfit of green and white. It looked like a cross between what the elves might wear and a wedding dress or elaborate Easter gown. She had a circlet of flowers in her head, like the ones that Reg and the other women had worn at the spring equinox celebration.

  Reg’s mouth was open, but she couldn’t seem to muster up the ability to ask a question.

  “I am the goddess Eostre,” the woman said in a smooth, melodious voice that filled the room with its resonance.

  “You’re… a what?”

  “I am the goddess Eostre,” the woman repeated, an edge of irritation in her voice this time. She made a grand gesture to indicate everything around herself. “Goddess of Spring.”

  “Oh.” Reg blinked. “Well, what are you doing here?”

  “You must stop.” The goddess changed her mind, rewording. “I am here to tell you that you must stop. You must not go forward with your plan.”

  Reg looked at the others in the room, thinking that one of them might know what she was talking about. She spread her hands wide, palms up. “What? What plan?”

  “You came back here to claim your prey.”

  Reg’s eyes went inadvertently to Julian. “What are you talking about?”

  “Are you going to try to deny the hunger within you? The hunger that’s eating away at the pit of your stomach, you crave it so badly.”

  Reg’s stomach twisted. Her hunger was a deep pain gnawing at the inside of her belly.

  “How would you know that?”

  “Don’t believe her, Reg,” Sarah said.

  “What?”

  “Eostre. Goddess of Spring. Really?” Sarah shook her head at the strange woman. “There was no Goddess Eostre. She’s a creation of the neopagans, something they created from the mistake of that idiot Bede and the drunken ramblings of the brothers Grimm. There is not and never was a Goddess Eostre.”

  “How could you say such a thing?” Eostre objected, her voice getting screechy. “I stand here before you!” She made a grand gesture. “I am right here!”

  “I don’t know who you are,” Sarah said with a shrug. “But you are not Eostre. There is no Eostre.”

  The goddess’s face glittered when she moved in the dimming light, a ghostly, lustrous shine. Or cheap glitter makeup picked up at the nearest Wal-Mart.

  “Those who deny me shall die!” Eostre shouted, taking a step toward Sarah.

  Sarah took a step back, but it was clear from the grim expression on her face that she was not backing down and was not afraid of what the intruder might do. She looked at Reg, shaking her head. “What did I tell you about releasing the wards? You never know what is going to come in here if you disable them.”

  Reg didn’t like Eostre getting so close to Sarah. She advanced, hands clenching into fists, glowering at the fake goddess. “What are you doing here? This is my home. You leave my friends alone.”

  “Your friends? Or your prey?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I attack Sarah? I have no interest in her.” Reg licked her lips, startled by the words that had escaped her lips before she could stop them. “She’s just my friend. And I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

  “Reg…” Sarah frowned. “What is she talking about? Your prey?” Her eyes flicked around the room, looking for some kind of explanation. For someone to tell her that it was just a joke.

  “You’re not my prey,” Reg insisted. “I don’t know why she is saying that. You’re my friend.”

  Sarah nodded, but her eyes were narrow and suspicious.

  “Your prey?” Julian echoed. “What is all of this? I don’t know if this is some kind of joke, Reg, some kind of bizarre attempt to scare me away, but it’s not going to work. I’m not afraid of you.”

  Reg was distracted from protecting Sarah. Eostre had no intention of harming Sarah. She was just there to disrupt things. To prevent Reg from proceeding with her plan. Reg wheeled and instead stalked closer to Julian. He stood there like a deer caught in the headlights, thinking that he was perfectly safe from her.

  Reg kept getting closer. The two men in the cloaks stepped back, eyeing her with suspicion.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The goddess flounced across the room and put herself between Reg and Julian, eyes blazing. “You don’t have the right!” she insisted.

  “What are you talking about? This is my house. You can’t make rules for me in my own house.”

  “There are still rules. Whether you like it or not. This man entered under your hospitality. And you do not have the right to take him here. This is not your territory.”

  “It is,” Reg snapped.

  There was a brilliant burst of light and, for an instant, Reg thought that she had blown something up. Maybe Eostre’s head. That would serve her right. Coming into Reg’s home and acting like she could control what Reg did there.

  The light burst outward like a supernova, and then focused into one bright form, about the size of a person, beside Eostre. Had Eostre called upon another god to help her? This one seemed to be much more powerful than Eostre. A pure white light, whereas Eostre seemed like she had only some sparkle makeup and a dramatic dress.

  “What—or who—is that?”

  The light gradually faded until Reg could make out another woman. She had to squint and only look at her sideway
s, she was still so bright.

  “I am Kybele.” The woman’s voice was as deep and resonant as a cello, sending a shudder through Reg. “Mother of all the earth.” She turned her face toward Eostre. “Abandon your disguise.”

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air around Eostre shimmered. She sparkled and wavered, then transformed in front of Reg.

  Reg blinked, still dazzled by the light of Kybele. She tried to make out what Eostre had been changed into, and frowned, confused. “Mrs. Agnes?”

  The woman stared back at her through thick glasses. No longer friendly, her face hard and chiseled with anger.

  “Who is Mrs. Agnes?” Sarah asked. She studied the woman before her.

  Reg thought she understood. Mrs. Agnes was a witch. Of course Reg had ended up in a B&B run by a witch. That’s just the way the fates aligned. She would be drawn to magical places and people, even when she didn’t realize it.

  But why had Mrs. Agnes followed her back to Black Sands? She had known where Reg was going. There was no reason to follow her. Had she wanted to keep Reg safe?

  But she hadn’t. She had used the disguise to try to stop Reg from carrying through with her plan. Which was what…? Reg couldn’t even form it into words. She was being driven by feelings, emotions that had been building ever since she had stepped into the ocean on the beach below the house.

  “She’s the owner of the B&B I stayed at,” she told Sarah, shaking her head as she tried to fit the rest of the details together in a way that made sense. “But I don’t understand…”

  “You don’t have any right to be here,” Mrs. Agnes insisted.

  “This is my house.”

  “I don’t care about the house,” the woman argued. “These are not your waters.”

  Reg rubbed her eyes, trying to remove the afterimages produced by Kybele’s brightness. “Not my waters?”

  It was the echo of something else she had heard. She could hear another voice in her head. Someone else who had stood in this very cottage. You claim these waters. This is your territory. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to remember. Her head was pounding. She could detect Julian’s scent even though he was several feet away from her. And he smelled entrancing. She wanted to be close to him. And more than that.

  “These southeastern waters are mine,” she told Mrs. Agnes.

  “No! This is my territory. You cannot hunt here.”

  Reg shook her head. Norma Jean, her mother, had told Reg that the waters were to be hers. She wasn’t going to give them up to some other siren who thought she had the right over them.

  Mrs. Agnes let out a howling, a keening that made everyone but Reg slap their hands over their ears in pain.

  “This is mine,” Reg repeated, raising her voice over the shriek. “None shall hunt here but me!”

  “You have no claim. I have been here for a hundred years—”

  “And now, you shall leave. Go somewhere else. Find other waters.”

  Reg was sure that if the other siren insisted on a physical fight, Reg would come out victor. The woman was old, half-blind, and slow. Reg could fight her with one hand tied behind her back.

  “It is mine!” Mrs. Agnes insisted. “I knew what you were the instant you showed up on my doorstep. I hoped I was wrong, that you had not awakened, but I knew… once you stepped into the water, you could no longer deny what you were.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Reg took long, deep breaths. It was difficult to concentrate with the rival siren on one side of her and her prey on the other. She wanted to fight to protect her territory and to feed at the same time.

  She turned her gaze toward Kybele again. “You are a real goddess?” Reg turned the question back to Sarah as well. “Is Kybele a real goddess?”

  “A proto-goddess,” Sarah agreed. “One who existed before the immortals that peopled this earth.” She studied Kybele thoughtfully. “But I have not heard of Kybele walking the earth in millennia.”

  Kybele’s light dimmed a little more. Enough that Reg could look straight at her face. And Kybele winked.

  Reg’s jaw dropped. She was more confused than ever. What did that mean? What was that signal? She thought fast. She was good at thinking on her feet, but the situation was enough to throw anyone off their game.

  “Kybele banishes you,” she told Mrs. Agnes. “She is Mother of the earth and all that, so this was her territory long before it belonged to a single siren. Right?”

  Kybele gave a grave nod. Mrs. Agnes shrieked again. Reg winced. It wasn’t as painful to her as it was to the rest of the house’s occupants, but it still annoyed her like fingernails on a blackboard.

  “I won’t go,” Agnes insisted.

  “You will.”

  “This is wrong! It is my territory.”

  “Not anymore.”

  She shrieked and howled and stormed out the door, scattering the leaves and petals behind her in little swirling whirlwinds. Reg didn’t see any sign of the rabbits. She watched Mrs. Agnes until she was out of sight and then shut the door. No point in inviting any more strangers into her home than she already had.

  “Well. That was fun.”

  “I don’t understand what just happened here,” Julian complained. His eyes were wide, and though he looked worried and frightened, there was a certain amount of excitement in his features that he just couldn’t hide.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be an expert in endangered species?” Sarah asked caustically.

  “I am,” Julian snapped. “I know all of the endangered magical species.”

  “Then I would think you would be able to recognize a siren. How many of them are left on the earth? Half a dozen? And you don’t recognize when you have two of them in the same room together?”

  “Sirens.” Julian looked at Sarah and then at Reg. “You two?”

  “No!” Sarah laughed. “I am just a witch.”

  “Reg?” Julian’s eyes clouded with confusion. “And… that old woman?”

  Reg took a couple more steps toward Julian. She smiled, trying to look as warm and welcoming as she could. “Of course. And now that she is gone, we can relax. How would you like to go for a swim?”

  “What…?” Julian’s brows came down. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry I was so antagonistic toward you before. I want to make it up to you. Let’s go down to the ocean. If you don’t want to swim, we can just walk beside the water. And after we’re all nice and relaxed, we can come back here, and I’ll answer all of your questions.” Reg stepped toward Julian again, getting inside of his personal space. She touched his cheek with the tip of her finger.

  He inched toward her, eyes focused somewhere far in the distance. His scent enticed Reg. She could sense the warm, throbbing pulse in his neck, the movement of blood singing through his body. She smiled at him.

  “Reg,” Sarah warned. “I don’t think you want to do this.”

  “I do,” Reg breathed. “I’m so hungry.”

  “I think there’s something in the fridge,” Sarah tried to tempt her with human food. “Or we could order in. I could run to the store and get you anything you want and you don’t have to wait for delivery.”

  “I already have what I want.”

  “You can’t, Reg.”

  “Yes, I can.” Reg touched Julian’s shirt collar, slipping her finger behind it and tugging him toward her. “Tell her, Julian. It isn’t against the rules. You can’t make a law that I can’t take my natural prey.”

  “Of course not,” Julian agreed. “But the treaty between the sirens and humans specifies that the sirens cannot hunt on land.”

  Reg’s hand was shaking with her proximity to Julian. “I wasn’t part of that treaty.”

  “It binds all sirens,” Sarah said. “You don’t get the opportunity to agree with it or not. You have to abide by it, like any other law.”

  The two cloaked warlocks had apparently recovered from their shock and got up enough courage to act. They stepped forward tog
ether, angling to separate Reg from her prey. “Let him go.”

  “Why?”

  Her hand was so close to his pulsing carotid that Reg could feel the rush of blood beneath her fingers.

  “Investigator Sabat is right. You cannot take him on the land.”

  “That’s why I invited him to go down to the water,” Reg explained impatiently. It wasn’t, of course, but she would look like the good guy, someone who was willing to follow all of their stupid rules.

  “You can’t hunt on the land and take him down to the water. You can only hunt on the water.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “That’s what the treaty says.”

  “A treaty written by humans,” Reg said hotly. “Imposed on sirens unfairly. It can’t be enforced.”

  “Reg,” Sarah cajoled, “this is going to wear off, and you’re going to be glad that you didn’t do anything rash. I understand that what you’re feeling right now is real, but it will pass. You’ll go back to yourself once you’ve had a chance to relax.”

  “He is mine,” Reg insisted, pointing at Julian. “He was taken away from me once before. I won’t let it happen again.”

  Sarah gave a slow blink. “When was he taken away before?”

  Reg turned her eyes toward Kybele, still watching the scene before her with interest, her face and whole body shining. “Somebody took him. Was it you?”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Kybele smiled serenely. “Why would I take your prey?”

  “Someone did it before—someone like you. I don’t know why. It wasn’t fair.”

  Julian frowned, turning his gaze toward Reg. “This happened before? When? You’re not talking about in the grocery store…?”

  “Yes,” Reg agreed. Then she shook her head. “No… that wasn’t it. You were…” She looked Julian up and down. “You were bigger.”

  “I was bigger?” His brain already fogged by her touch, Julian couldn’t sort this out. “What does that mean?”

  “Maybe Regina was smaller,” Kybele prompted.