“Grandpa and Gramma Celine travel all over the world, looking for new plants and finding really rare ones that they bring back here to grow,” Mikey told his wide-eyed friends. “We are one of the top Nurseries for medicinal and magical herbs and plants in the world, right, Grandpa?”
Brendan nodded, smiling. It thrilled him to have such an eager bunch of children to encourage in the Earth arts.
Milena had invited two friends over to bake with Celine. One was an Air Witch who enjoyed baking at home with her own grandmother, the other a young Earth Witch whose family boasted a very long line of fantastic Kitchen Witches.
“Can we make French bread, Gramma? And maybe a cake? And some cookies?” Lena asked excitedly. Celine agreed, setting out the ingredients first for the bread, which would have to rise several times before baking and would thus take the longest to prepare. The girls eagerly set to mixing and measuring at her gentle command.
Ian had met a friend who was as interested in physics and astronomy as he was, and the two of them were holed up in the treehouse pouring over maps, books and star charts.
Allie had, on the first day of school, had met a young lady who was just as headstrong as she was. Fiery red curls matched Allie’s brown ones for wildness, framing snapping green eyes. Siobhan had been holding court in Allie’s homeroom class the first day when Allie walked in.
“We went to Ireland and Norway for the summer,” Siobhan was saying. “My Grandad showed me how to light a bonfire, and how to make a mage light. See?” She held out her hand, and a round ball of orange-red flame about three inches across floated over her palm.
“Wow!”
“Cool!”
“Sweet, Vannie!”
Allie set her backpack down by a desk two rows over from Vannie’s admiring crowd. She watched the mage light in Vannie’s hand.
“How did you do that?” She asked the young Fire Witch.
“You have to see it in your mind, really clearly, and want it to be there. It takes a lot of practice, though. You probably can’t do it. Have your Gifts even come out yet?” Vannie inquired. She didn’t recognize Allie and wanted to know who she was.
Allie ignored the question and held out her own hand. She stared at it, concentrating hard on the image of Vannie’s mage light in her mind. Her palm tingled, and a warmth seemed to flow down her arm from her chest. Then, suddenly, “Whoa!” “Look at that!” The other children exclaimed in astonishment. A large yellow mage light, about ten inches in diameter, floated above Allie’s hand. She looked at Vannie. Vannie looked back, her head cocked to the side, considering.
“Why is yours yellow?” She asked.
“I wanted it to be different from yours. The sun is yellow, so I thought it would be pretty. I like it.” Allie replied.
Seeming to reach a decision, Vannie disbursed her mage light and held out her hand, palm up.
“Fire mages unite, right?” She said. Allie grinned and held out her palm, face down over Vannie’s, while she continued to hold the mage light in her other hand.
“Right!” She grinned back.
Mrs. Stevenson, the homeroom teacher, sighed. She had entered the room quietly while the children were occupied watching the two young Fire Witches. At least the two girls had chosen to be friends, rather than attack each other with their magic. Not that they could have done much at this age. Still, the amount of trouble these two were bound to get into was going to give her multiple headaches this year, she just knew it. Fire Witches were notoriously volatile and hot-tempered. And she had two. Oh, joy.
Allie had gone to Siobhan’s house on Friday night for a sleepover, and now the girls were back at the Casey home, currently up in Allie’s room planning mayhem. Mrs. Stevenson had had a work with Brendan Casey after homeroom the first day, and he had come home and had a long talk with Allie about using fire in the house.
“Only when one of us grownups is there to watch you, and only in the kitchen, you hear me?” He told her. Allie nodded.
“We’ll see about building you a fireproof room to practice behind the greenhouses. It had been a while since we had a Fire Witch in this branch of the family. We’ll have to see how your talents develop.”
The house filled with the warm, comforting smell of baking, and childish voices were raised in laughter and fun. Marissa had joined Malia out in Malia’s studio in the garden center, looking for a bit of peace and quiet while her sister painted and worked on her fairy houses. Rissa had brought her journal out with her and was trying to get a handle on her knotted and tangled emotions through writing, which she often found more helpful that talking it out.
For once, the understanding, clarity and awareness her writing typically provided failed to arrive. She exhaled, lifting a wayward curl out of her eyes. Putting the pen down on the loveseat beside her, she placed her bookmark between the pages and closed her journal. Lia looked up from her canvas.
“You stuck?” She asked her twin.
“I feel all tangled up inside. And there’s a massive weight over it all, like a huge rock sitting on my chest. One minute I am excited about Theo being back, about working this all out, and the next I feel ambivalent, like it doesn’t even matter. And then I feel angry again. I’m a mess.”
“That sucks. I’m sorry, Riss.”
Rissa stood up. “I’m going to see what kind of yummies Mom and the girls have been baking. Any luck, there will be chocolate.”
Lia smiled. “Bring me back some?”
Rissa nodded and waved, already out the door on the way to baked chocolate goodness, hopefully.
Celine checked her email around three o’clock Saturday afternoon. The bread, cakes and cookies were finished, the children all happily sugared up and sent outside to run it off. A pickup soccer game was currently underway in the field behind the house.
Opening her email account, Celine found a return email from her friend Francine in New York. Francine was from a wealthy Witching family that maintained an archive of Witching genealogies and history. Celine had written to see if she knew anything about this Clarice Thorndike woman, who seemed the most likely candidate for the source of Theo and Marissa’s troubles.
Dear Celine-lovely to hear from you! The email began. We do have a record of a Clarice Thorndike in the archives. She is about our age. She attended Waverly Academy and University in Chicago and married Hugh Thorndike shortly after graduation. Hugh’s family are very strong Earth Witches-I am surprised that you haven’t heard of them. Though, they lean more towards rocks and metals than plants, so you are in slightly different areas. Still.
Anyway, Clarice is registered as an Air Witch. Middle talent range. They had one child, a boy who went missing when he was around a year old. Hugh died shortly after the boy’s birth, from a sudden illness. Clarice was asked to leave the family home after the child disappeared-I am not sure of the details, but it seems that Hugh’s family didn’t like her very much. The baby was never found, to the best of my knowledge. It’s a sad story.
How are you? Will you be traveling through New York soon? We should get together for dinner next time you do. Or maybe I will come out towards you. It’s been a while since I got out of the library. I could use a vacation. Let’s talk.
Best Wishes,
Frannie
Celine read the email again. Missing baby. Theo was an orphan, left, like a fairy-tale prince, on the steps of the local church in a small paranormal town in the Midwest. He had been adopted by the Leonards, an Air Witch family, and raised by them until high school, when they had both died early within months of each other. They were both low-level Witches, and had not had much to leave Theo, hence the reason he had taken on scholarships and loans to go to the Healer’s College in San Francisco.
Could Theo be Clarice and Hugh’s missing child? Who had left him at the church as an infant? Why wasn’t he found? Surely, the heir of a wealthy family would have been searched for. Surely, they had run some sort of tests on the baby when he was found that could have pinpointed
who his family was. What was going on, here?
Well, at least we have a direction to follow. Celine thought. I think this is getting more tricky than we can handle on our own. I am going to call Tony. Maybe the police have better ways of searching and looking into this. Goodness knows, Louanne is better with computers than I am.
Celine picked up her cell phone and called Louanne. “Hey, Lou. It’s Celine Casey. Listen, I’m sure that you’ve heard about what’s going on with Marissa and Theo.”
“Of course I have. What’s up, buttercup? How can I help?”
“I’ve come across something strange, and I hope you might be able to dig more deeply into it for me than I can.”
“I’ll give it a go. What is it?”
“Theo was adopted as an infant. He was left on the steps of a church in a paranormal community in Nebraska when he was about a year old. He never found his birth family. I am not sure he really looked all that hard. His adoptive family were wonderful and treated him very well. They died early, though, and by college he had no one. Anyway, the woman who was his Council handler has a history that includes her child going missing and her husband dying young. Her child was never found. Theo is about the right age to be that child. I can’t figure out why, if he is her child, he was never found, and I can’t imagine why. If she realized who he was when she was in contact with him, she never told him. It just doesn’t make sense. I was hoping that you could dig more deeply into Theo’s background, and into the disappearance of the Thorndike heir as well. Maybe see if there are any Thorndikes still around? I don’t like it when things don’t make sense.”
“Of course, Sweetheart. I’ll get right to it. I can find anything, just you watch me. I’ll let you know as soon as I find something.”
“Thank you,” Celine told Louanne, as she was hanging up. Louanne loved an excellent research project. If there was anything to find, she would find it. Deciding she needed more tea, Celine stood and headed for the kitchen. And maybe another cookie, too.
7
Theo had taken a picnic lunch up to the headland to the left of Valerian’s Cove. Mrs. Murphy had told him about the place, with a secretive sort of smile and a wink. Theo was a bit confused as to why it was a secret, but it was a beautiful place to sit, so he spread a blanket on the ground and leaned against a large rock as he ate his tuna salad sandwich. He watched a few fishing boats and a lone sailboat for a while and found himself drifting into a sort of doze. He felt his mind expand as he sat, sandwich resting on his lap. His eyes were unfocused as he gazed out over the water. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, when footsteps sounded on the path announcing someone’s approach waking him from his daydream.
Marissa reached the top of the path and started in surprise at the sight of Theo in her special thinking spot. “What are you doing here?” She exclaimed.
“Resting. This is a pleasant spot. Mrs. Murphy at the bakery told me about it.”
“I bet she did,” Marissa replied.
“What? Why, is there something special about this spot?”
“This is my spot,” Marissa told him. “I’ve been coming up here to think since I was little. She was probably hoping I’d run into you.”
Theo smiled. “I’ll have to thank her later,” he said.
Marissa shook her head. “I’ll go find somewhere else to think.” She turned, ready to head back down.
“Rhi, stay,” Theo said. “Please? We don’t have to talk. If anyone should leave, it should be me, but please stay? Just for a bit?”
Sighing again, Marissa turned back. She considered for a moment, then walked over and sat on the blanket next to Theo. The rock was big enough that they could both lean against it without touching. They sat for a while, lulled by the warm breeze and the sparkling waves.
Marissa pulled a couple of chocolate chip cookies out of her bag and handed one to Theo.
“Fresh baked this morning, by my mother and a pack of eleven-year-old girls.”
“Thank you.” They nibbled quietly for a few minutes.
“The children seem to be liking their new school.”
Marissa laughed. “They really do! They are so excited about everything they are learning. It’s one thing to be studying the theory on their own, and quite another to be learning with a bunch of other kids their age. Plus, their own Gifts are beginning to come out in force. Allie is going to be quite the Fire Mage. She’s already made a new best friend, who is only slightly less powerful, by all accounts. Ian made a friend as into quantum physics and astronomy as he is. Mikey has a group of friends over today-they’ve spent the entire day in the greenhouses and the gardens with Da. Milena and her friends baked these cookies. They spent the entire day in the kitchen with Mom. They made bread, cakes, and enough cookies to feed an army. And Shari-Beth has a group of Avian Shifters over flying together. I think the school year is starting out well for everyone.”
Theo smiled. “That’s great. I’m glad to hear that.”
They sat quietly again for a few moments, as the sun slipped downwards towards the edge of the ocean.
Taking a breath, Marissa said, “Theo, Mom’s friend Frannie in New York says that Clarice Thorndike had a son that went missing years ago. He was never found. He would be about our age now. Do you think that there is any chance that she could be your biological mother?”
Theo stared at her. “I don’t know. I mean, if she was, why didn’t she say something? Why would she just walk away?”
“I don’t know either. There is just so much about this that we just don’t know. It’s annoying.”
“Rhi, can we give this a chance, what we have between us? When this craziness is all sorted out? Please? I can’t imagine being anywhere else, with anyone else. It kills me to be in the same town with you and not be with you. I’ll take it as slow as you like, but please, can we give this a chance?”
Marissa turned to face him. “I thought that’s what we were doing,” she replied.
Wrapping his hand around Marissa’s head, tangled in her curls, Theo pulled her gently towards him. He laid his lips on hers as Marissa’s arms came up and around his neck. He deepened the kiss, needing more. After a moment, Marissa pulled back, keeping her hands around his neck. She smiled. Growling, Theo pulled her into his arms and tucked her to him, kissing the top of her head.
Theo came over for dinner that night. Shari-Beth’s Eagle Shifter friend, Emma was spending the night, as was Mikey’s friend Matthias, Ian’s friend Jamie, Milena’s friend Audrey and Allie’s friend Vannie. It was quite the full house. Tony had taken a rare night off from the Pack and was there as well. The house rang with laughter throughout a delicious, if noisy dinner and the cleaning up afterward.
The children went outside after dinner to play dodgeball in the twilight. Shari-Beth and Emma were watching a movie in the sitting room. The adults gathered on the patio under the fairy lights. Brendan lit a fire in the copper-colored raised fire pit.
“How’s it going with the Pack, son?” Brendan asked Tony. Tony and Lia were sitting on a wrought-iron loveseat together, Lia’s legs over Tony’s lap.
“It’s going a lot better than I thought it would. Remy is turning out to be an enormous help. The Pack-members that stayed know him and remember his mother. They are more open to him, and trust him more. Ralph is the perfect Beta. He takes care of any trouble before I am even aware of it. He tells me about it after it’s been resolved, unless it’s something that I need to handle directly. Ralph is an honourable man, and a good Wolf. He’s tough, but fair. The Pack respects him.”
“They respect you, too,” Lia said. “They can see that you meant what you said about turning the Pack into a healthy family. I know they are grateful.”
Tony shrugged. “It’s still early days yet, but everything seems to be going well.”
“That’s great, son.”
Celine looked at Theo and Marissa. They were sitting in chairs placed next to each other, arms intertwined, holding hands. She smiled.
“How are things going at the Clinic, Theo?” Celine asked. “Are you settling in well with Marjorie?”
“Great, I think. She’s been really nice, helping me fit in. I am learning a lot. When I was working for the Council, I didn’t get to do much actual Healing work. I mean, I did, but not in a Clinic. It was all a part of my cover, you know? Knowing that I can put down roots here is a whole other experience. I like it. I enjoy getting to know the people here in town.” Theo squeezed Marissa’s hand. She smiled up at him. Theo kissed her forehead. Marissa rested her head on his shoulder.
Celine was happy to see both of her girls with men they loved.
Tony’s cell phone started to ring. Sighing, he checked it. Straightening suddenly, he answered. “Gianetti.”
“Tony, it’s Chief Kenny. Louanne’s been digging for information on this Clarice woman, and I’ve had calls in to people I know on the Supernatural Council. I just got a call back. Clarice Thorndike was a consultant for the old Council. She shouldn’t have been Theo’s handler. Files on her are hard to find. Apparently, the former Council knew about her Mind Mage abilities, and used them where they saw fit. She was sort of their secret weapon. People were terrified of her-she was the boogeyman in the dark that was whispered about but rarely seen. Threat of a session with her was used to keep people in line. I don’t know how she came to be Theo’s handler. Ms. Thorndike was not taken into custody with the other members of the corrupt Council. There is no paper trail to show where she is now. I would warn Theo to be very careful about interacting with her until we understand more of what is going on here.”
Broken Bonds (Valerian's Cove Book 2) Page 5
