Sunny realized the table was set with pots of tea and coffee and several trays of tempting pastries.
“Tuck in, everybody,” Celeste said to the gathering. “We were waiting for you two to arrive.”
“But how did you know...?” A creeping sense of unease took hold of Sunny.
“Let’s just say I have a sixth sense. I’ve met Cullen before, a long time ago, and he’s every bit as handsome as I remembered.” Celeste nodded at Sunny, letting the message sink in. “Late 1700s, it was.”
Sunny swallowed. “It was you, you made it possible for me to travel back in time?”
“Not quite, no. I can’t take all the credit. But we’ll talk more about that in a moment. I did matchmake for you, and I have to say, you two were made for each other, so I hope you will forgive a little meddlesome matchmaking.”
“But how...?”
“Cornish magic, my dear. Cornish magic.”
“Are you a...a white witch?”
“Oh, you could say that. I prefer to think of myself as a healer, a granter of wishes. Some people balk at the term “witch.” Alas, it’s got rather a bad reputation.”
“You gave me the locket, so I could show him...so he would believe it enough to try?”
“That’s right. I thought it might help for you to have something from your time to show him.”
As the food and drinks were shared, friendly comments were exchanged. A mug of tea was put in front of her and Sunny sipped at it while she looked around the table.
One of the young women was the local librarian, a woman called Aveline. Sunny had many a chat with her, trying to establish the history of the cottage. Sunny was astonished to see her there. Aveline smiled at her. She had auburn hair and a taste for forties and fifties style clothing. She wore black-framed spectacles in the shape of cats’ eyes. Her makeup was always impeccable and her hair-do the same.
On the other side of the table was another familiar face. Eben ran the local blacksmith forge, a historical workshop open to the tourists. He forged knickknacks all day and tourists often purchased his goods after they’d been around the workshop. Eben hailed from Gambia and Sunny often chatted with him about their African heritage. Eben wore traditional blacksmith’s clothing, which made Cullen seem less obviously at odds in his old-fashioned garb. Adam Ward, a top chef and restaurant owner, was also there, along with the local barber and a young lass who did the baking for The Witch’s Brew Café, Rowena Meldrum. All those who were gathered were familiar to Sunny in one way or another. Raven’s Landing was not a big place.
The sweet tea helped ground Sunny...somewhat.
“We knew you had magical blood from your grandmother,” Willow was saying, “but what you’ve done, what you’ve achieved, is so much more than we might have expected.”
Sunny felt light headed from what was being said. Things didn’t add up, and she tried to extract questions from the chaotic, murky mind-soup in her head. “Wait, you talk about my grandmother, and you’ve mentioned longevity. If she had magical powers, why isn’t alive now, like you?”
Celeste gave a sad smile. “Hanna didn’t want to add to her longevity. It’s a choice. Longevity can be gained through good deeds, or dark ways. It takes longer through good deeds. This is why Viscount Fox was tempted to the dark side, or so we believe.” She paused a moment, as if to emphasize her point. “But Hanna’s with you in spirit, remember that.”
The mention of Fox brought everything into sharp focus for Sunny.
Willow cleared her throat. “Sunny, can I ask if you suspect there’s magical heritage from your mother’s line, from the Moroccan side of your family?”
“I’m not even sure I understand what you’re saying about Gran.”
“Give yourself time,” Willow replied gently. “It’ll sink in. Tell us about your other family, your mum’s side.”
“I do know we haven’t always been in Morocco. I believe we came from a nomadic tribe.”
The group at the table looked at each other and nodded knowingly.
“That explains it,” Willow declared, slapping her hands on the table. “My goodness, girl, you’re doubly gifted!”
“It may add to our problems,” Celeste said. “Because the nature of the magic is unknown to us, isn’t it, Willow?” Celeste looked at her friend and raised her eyebrows. She turned her attention back to Sunny and Cullen. “Returning to the situation we find ourselves in...we meant you to be united, fulfilling your twin destinies. However, Viscount Fox wasn’t supposed to be involved in any way.”
“I see,” Sunny replied, not seeing very much at all. “So you knew Cullen and I would meet, but you didn’t know Fox would stick his oar in?”
Cullen harrumphed. “Yet it was Fox who brought us together. Nathaniel Fox arranged for us to meet at the cottage.”
Sunny gave an awkward laugh. “Cullen is under the impression I’m a ‘woman of the night’ supplied by Nathaniel Fox for his entertainment.”
On the other side of the table, Eben stirred, and he had a smile on his face and laughter in his eyes. “I can see how that might happen. There are bound to be misunderstandings.”
Cullen took Sunny’s hand in his, as if demonstrating their bond to the onlookers. “It was Nathaniel Fox who offered me safe passage on the ship known as the Gloriana,” he said. “The vessel was bound for the Americas. He was known to me as a friend, but I saw there may have been other reasons for his interest in us both.”
Willow nodded frantically. “Got it in one!”
Celeste nodded in agreement. “We hadn’t realized Fox had a vested interest in you, Cullen. He didn’t want you brought back here, but Sunny’s magic has enabled her to do a deal with him. What we did know is Fox has an unscrupulous interest in Sunny.”
Aveline reached into the bag she had hanging over the back of her seat and lifted out an iPad. She quickly tapped information into the keyboard.
“Aveline is our researcher and historian, as well as the local librarian,” Celeste explained.
Everyone waited patiently while Aveline did her research.
One of the other women topped up everybody’s teacups.
“I find no trace of a vessel called Gloriana during that period,” Aveline stated. “There was one half a century before, but it perished in rough seas off the coast of Jamaica.”
“Taken by the dark tides, no doubt,” Celeste replied.
There was mumbled agreement around the table, but no one explained what ‘the dark tides’ were.
“What does all of this mean?” Sunny looked from one to the other of them, attempting to put the pieces of the jigsaw together. What they were revealing made sense of some of it, but the implications were rather unpleasant.
“It means you have to be ready. Fox will come at the end of the time you negotiated and claim what he thinks is rightly his.” Celeste looked left and right at the others. “We have a battle on our hands.”
“What she means is,” said Willow, clarifying, “we have to teach you and teach you well, over the next thirty days. But the bottom line is, you have more than enough ability to take this battle on.”
Yeah, right, Sunny thought, feeling a tad overwhelmed. “I’m confused.”
“Perhaps we should let Sunny tell us exactly what happened with Fox?” one of the younger women said.
The others nodded.
Celeste gestured at Sunny, encouraging her.
Sunny took a deep breath, then related the general events of the evening she and Cullen met—skipping the more saucy details—and then briefly what happened in the marketplace the next day.
Occasionally Cullen chipped in with some of the information she’d overlooked. “Wait a moment,” he said at one point, “you have missed the part of the story where you cursed them and they could not follow.”
Sunny stared at him, and all around the table everyone waited on her response. “Oh, I said something rude because I got annoyed, that’s all.”
“She said strange magical words
and it was as if they stopped in time,” Cullen explained.
Sunny rolled her eyes. “I swore at them in ancient Arabic, that’s what happened. It just came out, something my mum used to say when I was little.”
“How intriguing,” Aveline said.
Celeste and Willow kept asking questions, especially when it came to the viscount’s involvement.
“We think he may be interested in you, Sunny,” Willow said.
“In what way?”
“We suspected you’d inherited your grandmother’s proclivity for magic, and it seems you have, but Fox had spotted it too.”
“I don’t understand, but I can’t argue with it,” Sunny replied. “Things happen that I seem to wish for, and I’m not sure quite how it happens.” She felt her face heating. It was difficult to explain and rather awkward, because she wasn’t really sure what’d gone on.
Aveline tapped her elegant, cherry-painted fingernails on the table thoughtfully. “At least we know Cullen was lost to history because you brought him here to the twenty-first century with your magic.”
Sunny’s jaw dropped. “My magic brought him here?”
“Yes.” Willow chuckled.
“But I thought it was your magic, Celeste, or that a wish was granted.”
“In some small part, my magic was involved. Consider me an enabler, or even a mentor who gave you your first proper project.”
Sunny shook her head. “How can I possibly be magic, and how do you even know?”
“When you saw the ship in its true form, for example, that was your untrained magical ability revealing itself, powerfully, perhaps as an innate reaction to injustice in the magical world. Nathaniel Fox was trying to stand in your way, you sensed that.”
“It’s clear to me,” Cullen said with a resigned expression, “Nathaniel was up to no good when he arranged passage for me.”
“Yes, we only knew you were due to sail on a ship.”
“A dark vessel if ever there was one,” Cullen replied. “Sunny showed me its true form.” He squeezed her hand in his.
“Her gift saved you,” Celeste said in a solemn tone. “Her second sight revealed the vessel to be bound for the dark tides.” She turned her attention back to Sunny. “You’re enchanted, in such a way you can stand against one of the most powerful witches to ever set foot in Raven’s Landing, Viscount Nathaniel Fox.”
Willow nodded rapidly, butting in. “That’s why we asked whether you believed there’s magical blood on both sides of your family.”
Sunny’s head was a mess. Every time she thought she had a handle on the situation, it evolved in a different direction, adding to the list of “weird issues to be dealt with” growing in her mind.
“I’ve told you all I know. There isn’t much more. My mother’s father was from a nomadic tribe. They settled in Morocco. I don’t know a lot about them...except they were into a lot of ritualized beliefs, stuff like shamanism, the channeling of energy through one soul.”
Willow broke into a huge grin. “I knew it.”
Celeste reached out and covered Sunny’s hand with her own. “What we need to do now is teach you as best we can and protect you.”
“What do you mean, protect Sunny?” Cullen interjected forcefully. “If anyone is going to be protecting her, it’ll be me.”
“We’re talking about a different kind of protection,” Eben replied. “Sunny needs to come to understand her magic before Nathaniel Fox returns to claim her.”
“What did Fox say when he realized you could see the ship in its true form?” Celeste quizzed. “How did he look at you, did you sense his interest?”
Next to her, Willow rolled her eyes. “Celeste, you simply can’t be trusted when Fox is around.”
Celeste turned on her seat and glared at Willow. “I’m asking for all of us, not just my own personal interest.”
Sunny noticed Celeste’s face turned pink. She shrugged. “He mentioned Grandma Hanna straight away.”
Both Celeste and Willow grumbled. There was mumbled agreement around the table.
“And, what does it mean?” Sunny asked.
Celeste still looked concerned, her face appearing gaunt in the colored light reflecting from the glass lampshade over the table. “Fox was trading Cullen to the dark tides, but you’d caught his eye. He was doubly invested.”
“And doubly thwarted,” Willow added.
Celeste nodded. “He needed Cullen to get on the ship in exchange for more power. Your intervention has undermined him in this goal.”
Willow nodded enthusiastically. “So the vagaries of time have left him less powerful than he might otherwise have been.”
“I think so too,” Celeste said. Murmurs were exchanged around the table. “He’s also invested in you.”
“Why? Because I spoiled his plan for Cullen?”
“No, he was already interested before you trampled his lawn. Fox is seeking a new apprentice and I suspect he’s drawn to you because he believes you’ve inherited your grandmother’s power.”
“Which you clearly have,” Willow interjected.
Celeste sighed aloud. “He won’t be happy.”
Again the assembled group mumbled an agreement, a somber mood falling over the table.
Sunny swallowed. Somehow she didn’t want to know the details. She could quite easily imagine how Fox might respond. He sent shivers down her spine.
“I had no idea,” said Cullen, who’d been listening attentively throughout, “Nathaniel had become such a dark soul.” He paused. Sunny squeezed his hand. “I must ask something,” he continued. “Did you send Sunny to find me?”
Celeste shook her head. “Sunny had already dreamed of you in the cottage, because you’ve been there. She made a connection with you all by herself. That’s what led us to believe she had magical powers inherited from her grandmother. It also leads us to believe she’d be the one who’d be able to account for your whereabouts. What we didn’t know was Nathaniel Fox was involved in your history.”
Sunny put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands.
“What Celeste is trying to say,” Willow said in clarification, “is we’re up against a more difficult and complex situation than we’d originally bargained for. Seeking a soul who’d been lost to local history seemed a good challenge for Sunny. In fact, it turned out to be way beyond her assumed ability. But Sunny coped well because of her double gift. What we need to face up to now is Fox.”
“None of this is making me feel any more confident.” Sunny leaned back in her chair. She folded her arms across her chest and sighed, staring at the colored glass in the lampshade. Doing so seemed to calm her somewhat. Was that its purpose, she wondered?
“I’d feel the same if I was in your position,” Willow said. “We’re always wary of Fox, but this situation could have ended very differently, had it not been for your magic coming through so strongly when he got involved. Celeste needs to face up to this now.”
“I’m not gaining confidence here,” Sunny stated, her frustration erupting. “One minute you say you’ll teach me what I have to do, the next you say as a team you aren’t able to stand up to him anyway! What am I supposed to make of it?”
“I didn’t know Nathaniel had such a dark soul,” Cullen muttered.
Willow rolled her eyes. “Believe me, if you knew some of the things—”
“Hush,” Celeste interrupted.
“Don’t you dare defend him,” Willow said, disgruntled.
Cullen pushed back his chair. “If you women intend to squabble amongst yourselves while purporting to help Sunny, we are leaving until you calm your hot heads down!”
He rose to his feet so quickly his chair crashed to the floor.
He grabbed Sunny’s hand, and she automatically rose to her feet too. “Wait, Cullen, we need as much help as we can get.”
“Oh, how lovely.” It was one of the quieter women, and she clapped her hands together as she looked at them. “You two are so cute together
!”
“Rowena,” Celeste warned, “let’s stay on track.”
“You can talk,” Willow sniped.
Sunny collapsed back into her chair. Cullen followed. “Surely one man can’t cause such a mess.”
“Man, or witch,” Aveline responded.
“Witch, or demon,” Rowena chipped in.
“Awesome,” Sunny muttered. Not only was she entangled in a coven war, she was somehow a crucial part of the battle against a man who was definitely a witch and may even be a demon.
Just another day full of surprises in Raven’s Landing.
Rowena still looked at her with a warning in her eyes. Rowena was young, maybe nineteen, a pretty blonde girl Sunny had seen helping out in the cafe.
Celeste nodded. “You’re right, you’re all right. My judgment is often impaired. Fox once owned my heart, amongst many more.”
“So you say,” Willow muttered. “You’re the only one who still loves him.”
Celeste flashed her a warning glance. “He has a charming way about him.”
Sunny shuddered as she thought back to her encounters with Fox. “I agree, if you mean charming in an evil way.”
Willow nodded at her.
Sunny had the feeling Willow might be protesting because she too had fallen for the viscount. That was another question at the back of her mind. “I hardly dare ask, but what are these “dark tides” you keep referring to?”
“It’s part of the dark and complex history of the underworld,” Aveline replied. “If I said the ships sailing on the dark tides were vessels powered by black magic or the occult, that’ll give you an idea.”
“Wonderful,” Sunny replied.
“Fox treads the dark path in search of power,” Willow added. “Places we would never go. And I suspect he was trading Cullen’s soul to the underworld.”
“We can only guess at that,” Celeste snapped.
Once again, Willow rolled her eyes.
“And why do you think my nomadic blood means I have magical ability?”
“Leave it to me,” Aveline said and skimmed her fingers over her keyboard. “The name of the tribe?”
“Nayandi,” Sunny responded.
Cullen sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. He looked at the laptop tablet suspiciously.
A Coven of Her own Page 11
