Magic Remembered

by Coralie Moss

  “I’d like that. I’ll be right back.” Leilani glanced at my empty mug. “Would you like some too?”

  “With cream and sugar, please.”

  I’m not sure where I went while I waited for Leilani. “Garden” and “Roots” made sense—I was an earth witch and all I had to do was look out the window at the back yard, garden, and the old crabapple tree to know I had an affinity for plants. But the White-Winged Man, the water’s edge, and the warning…my mind blanked.

  I was just pulling my nightgown over my knees when Leilani returned with two mugs in her hands.

  “Come. Sit down,” I said, patting the bed coverings. Lei-li’s bright nature always coaxed a smile out of me. “How are you doing?”

  Her light brown hair had blond highlights, and I couldn’t resist pushing a loose strand away from her flushed cheek and tucking it behind her ear.

  She shot me a shy smile. “I have so many feelings right now, Calli. Figuring out my connection to baking and cooking and how that works, talking with your friends—with you. It all makes sense, in a weird but comforting way. I want to trust that whatever is happening is what’s supposed to happen. Do you know what I mean?”

  I nodded. “I agree it’s weird. And I agree it all feels exactly…right. Well, except for the things I don’t understand.” I sipped at the tea, grateful for its caffeinated warmth even as heated summer air wavered at the open window before sliding into the room. “Is there magic in your family, beyond your fathers’?”

  “I have an aunt named Busy. We’ve always called her Busy Bee because she’s a beekeeper, and she loves…”

  “I met her this weekend,” I said, squeezing her forearm. How serendipitous. “She’s incredibly sweet. And she’s definitely a witch.”

  Leilani’s face wavered from delight to concern, with two deep lines appearing between her eyebrows. “How come she never told me?”

  “I have no idea. Which of your fathers is she related to?”

  “Busy is James’s sister. Mal is an only child. Like me.” Leilani dropped her gaze to her lap and her straightened legs and then circled her ankles.

  After two cups of tea, I was ready to use the bathroom and face the start of a new week. “I see no reason why you can’t approach your aunt and let her know we’ve met and that your baking has some very special, some would say magical, qualities to it.”

  Lei-li smiled and giggled. “I’ll call her today. She lives on Vancouver Island, in the Comox Valley. It’s good farmland, and she’s in charge of lots of bees.”

  “Please tell her I say hello.”

  “I will.”

  We stood. Leilani gave me a quick hug.

  “I’ll wash these,” she said, taking both our mugs, “and make some muffins. If that’s okay?”

  How could I say no to those big, brown, hopeful eyes? “My kitchen is your kitchen.”

  She left, and my chest deflated. I wanted to deny it was the morning after a very intense night, ignore the fact I had a job to show up to, and spend the day thumbing through my mother’s books, looking for other bits of her writing I might have missed.

  But I did the adult thing: mixed my second dose of tinctures, showered, and tiptoed across the hall to get clothes for work.

  The door to my bedroom wasn’t latched, and Tanner’s back was to me. Getting clean underwear and a T-shirt from my chest of drawers and onto my body went smoothly. I pulled on a laundered pair of cargo pants and reached for the bag of melted ice that had slipped off the bed. Rabbit-sized dust bunnies huddled in the dark below the bedsprings, just beyond my reach.

  Ugh.

  PMS had been my monthly motivator behind cleaning the house, and because I hadn’t bled for two months, my house was suffering. I could ask the witches if there was a motivational spell for household help.

  Resolving to do better, I rose to my knees and came face to face with the glory of Tanner’s morning light-lit brown skin and a partial tattoo.

  Fanning over his lower back, inked in sepia, was the rounded top of a tree. I held my breath, pinched the edge of the sheet, and peered closer at the exposed V of his sacrum. Scattered amongst the tree’s outermost branches were small, seed-shaped lumps. Whitish in color and uniform in size, they resembled the bumps on Harper’s back.

  “That you, Calli?”

  Startled, I covered his butt and stood quickly. “How’s your knee?”

  Tanner rolled onto his back. He slept naked. Of course. He’s a Druid.

  And the sheet covering him hid nothing, absolutely nothing.

  Not his lean belly, the long muscles of his thighs, or his semi-erection. The pouch he never removed rested right below his sternum, and for the first time I noticed the cord that kept it on his body looped around the back of his neck and his ribs.

  He bent the knee closest to me and winced. I stopped staring at his body long enough to drop my clothes and the empty plastic bag and place my hands around his injury.

  “Still painful?” Through the sheet, I could feel the heat generated by muscle tissue repairing itself. I sent an image of cool water flowing from my palms, penetrating underneath his skin and circling through the knee joint.

  “Mm…” He turned his head to face me, eyes half open, and tugged the sheet higher. “That feels nice.”

  “Let me get you a fresh ice pack. I’ll be right back.” Lifting my hands, I noticed my palms were bright pink and warmer than usual. I showed them to him. “You’ve got a lot going on under that sheet.”

  My cheeks went as heated as my hands.

  At least my patient laughed. “Calli, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

  In the blessedly neutral space of my kitchen, Leilani was peeking into the oven. She’d wound a printed cotton scarf around her head and was humming.

  “Smells good in here! What kind of muffins are you baking?”

  “Oatmeal, bran, walnuts, and raspberries from the canes in your garden,” she said, beaming. “They need another couple of minutes.”

  I refilled the emptied Ziploc bag with ice, grabbed a worn linen dish towel, and gestured to the hallway. “I’m bringing this to Tanner. Save us at least two or three, would you?”

  “There’s enough for everyone to have three.” Leilani lowered her voice. “I’ll hide a few. I know how much Thatch likes my baking. Harper always snitches extra for him when he’s at my house.”

  “There should be enough eggs for breakfast. Make a list if you think of anything I should pick up in town.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Am I staying here all day?”

  “I’m about to discuss that with Tanner,” I said, ducking into the hall. “Once everyone’s awake, we’ll see what he and Kaz think.”

  Tanner was flat on his back, knee bent and eyes closed, squeezing and massaging the thigh muscles of his damaged leg.

  “I’ve got your ice,” I said, lifting the bundle.

  He extended his leg until it was straight and adjusted the sheet over his pelvis. “What I really need is Rose. Or River. He could bring over whatever she suggests, but I think they’re both at the lake.”

  “Did you call them?” I handed him the ice and reached across his torso for the summer-weight blanket on the other side of the bed. Covering him was an act of mercy for me.

  He shook his head as I fussed over the blanket and then the pillows. “Phone’s run out of charge. You have to go into the office today?” he asked. I nodded. “Could I trouble you to stay with me for a few minutes?”

  “Of course. Leilani’s getting some breakfast together for everyone, and…”

  He shimmied away from the edge of the bed.

  “Sit,” he said, patting the area beside his hip. “The other day, driving home, remember when we went to the place that sold plants?”

  I nodded. Keeping my hands off anything more than Tanner’s knee required willpower. I anchored my gaze on his face and folded my hands in my lap.

  “And as we left, there was that car you recognized, the one from a real
tor’s office, with the name of the woman who left her card at the Pearmains?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think we should have a talk with her.” He put his hand on my leg. “And how are you?”

  “I am so many different things right now, Tanner, my head may explode.”

  Fuck it. I gave in to my need to touch his skin and traced the length of one of his fingers and another. Was there any part of him that wasn’t beautifully proportioned? “We should also talk about the Pearmains and the tunnels and the trolls. They’ve gotten pushed to the side, with me being away over the weekend. And Doug and Roger showing up.”

  He turned his hand palm up and interlaced his fingers one by one with mine. “You in any pain from where I removed the tattoo?”

  “It’s not bothering me. But I haven’t looked at it since you ripped it off and bandaged me up.” I stared at the pattern made by our twined fingers. I couldn’t stop myself from imagining the pattern of color and texture if our limbs were similarly wrapped around the other’s. Emotions I’d held in check for days swirled up my legs and arms, making them shake. “I don’t suppose you know a spell for stopping time so I can take a breath or five and absorb all this…change?”

  Tanner curled up to sitting. The leather pouch swung away from his sternum. “You’re the one who’ll be doling out the spells, Calliope. There’s more I want to tell you—”

  A banging at the door interrupted whatever he was trying to say.

  “Mom,” said Harper. “We need you.”

  “Coming.” I lifted my gaze from the bed to Tanner’s face, and before I checked the impulse or even checked in with him, I kissed him full on, slipping my tongue under his top lip to draw it more fully into my mouth.

  I could have devoured Tanner Marechal as easily as I downed a pint of seasonal berries. And if his hand at the back of my head holding me in place was any indication of his feelings, he could have eaten a box as well.

  The kiss lasted less than five seconds. I pulled away and started to apologize, but Tanner bit my lower lip and grinned.

  “That was nice,” he whispered. “And if there’s any more Assam, I would love a mug.”

  I swatted his arm and grinned right back.

  “I can make it to the living room by myself,” he added. “Go see what the guys need. And let Kaz know I’ll be out when I’m done icing my swollen…” He shrugged and gestured to the lower half of his body. “Knee.”

  * * *

  Thatch was waiting at the kitchen table, his cell phone in his hand, a stack of plates and a platter of muffins by his elbow. Harper and Leilani were seated on the bench, heads together whispering to one another, and Kaz was on the back porch, stretching and yawning.

  “Dad called,” Thatcher stuttered out. “He wants us to go see him in the hospital.”

  “Did you actually speak to him?”

  He shook his head. “He left me a message. He sounded…apologetic.”

  Ugh. I threaded my fingers through my hair and pressed my palms into my temples.

  “And Mom, Harper and I were supposed to be at work at the farm at eight. I called to let them know we probably won’t be in today, but we can’t miss tomorrow. There’s a shit ton of stuff to harvest and rinse for the Tuesday Market. They need us to help with set up and take down too.”

  I agreed they couldn’t miss more work. Their summer jobs at one of the biggest organic farms on the island brought them needed income, and they loved everything about working with the family that ran the operation.

  “There must be something Tanner and Kaz can do to keep you guys safe. Or safer,” I said. “Let’s ask.” I didn’t add that as long as Doug was in the hospital—assuming that a severed hand warranted a stay of at the least a couple of days—I thought we might have a little more leeway with travelling off our protected property.

  Kaz and Tanner entered the kitchen and dining area at the same time. “River’s on his way with herbs for your knee,” Kaz informed Tanner, gesturing for him to sit.

  “And a piece of Rose’s mind?” Tanner said.

  Kaz grinned and tossed the agent a throw pillow. “I’d imagine.”

  Tanner limped to the table and adjusted the chair to rest his heel on the bench. I was relieved he’d been able to get himself dressed.

  “You still want that tea?” I asked, trying to keep a straight face.

  “I’ll make a fresh pot,” said Kaz, first affirming it was okay with me. “Thatch, can you help me make scrambled eggs for everyone?”

  Watching their interactions from the hall gave me a moment to get my bearings. What had happened to the mundane rhythm of my days, those ones that consisted of inspecting orchards, trading bits of gossip with Kerry at the office, and keeping a loose track of my sons’ comings and goings?

  One shoulder to the wall, I cupped the left side of my lower belly. The raw area remained swollen and tender, as palpable as the anger rising inside—anger at my ex for further distancing me from my legacy; anger at myself for allowing it in the first place; anger that my sons and Leilani and I now had to go through our days living with an unfamiliar and uninvited level of fear.

  I puffed out a quick exhale and dropped the urge to castigate myself. Or tried to. People who wanted to teach and support me and my sons had shown up, and it was better to embrace their assistance and move forward than get stuck in the past. And that saying—knowledge is power—was so true. Doug had taken my power; Rose and Tanner and others were offering me the knowledge that would help me take my power back.

  Thatcher placed a large platter of scrambled eggs at the center of the table.

  I joined everyone gathering for breakfast and directed my first comment to my youngest. “Thatch, I think it would be prudent to respond to your father but to not make any promises until we know what magic he has and what he’s up to.”

  He nodded, his face solemn.

  “And Leilani,” I continued, “I’d really like to speak to your fathers. Soon. Whatever it is that’s going on could affect you too, simply because you’re connected to Harper.”

  Another solemn teenage face nodded at me.

  I didn’t really like this new role, She Who Sets Limits. “I have an investigation going on, and it’s linked to something Tanner’s been looking into for months now. School doesn’t start for another five weeks, and I think this is a perfect time for all of us,” I looked at each of my sons, and Leilani, “to take our training seriously and to start today.”

  Three faces went from hesitant to excited.

  “Tanner. Kaz.” I brought the two druids into our family circle. “We need help. All three of these kids have summer jobs, and they can’t miss work tomorrow. Plus, my ex texted Thatcher and said he wants to see both him and Harper. Have you ever heard of the... What was the name of the clinic, Thatch?”

  “The Grand St. Kitts.”

  Tanner gave a low whistle. “That’s a private clinic for Magicals.”

  I threw up my hands. “Harper, go get me a thumb drive. Please. And give it to Tanner.”

  “What? Why?”

  “So he can plug it into his head and download everything he knows about the magical sector in our area so I can stop feeling like I have a lifetime of catching up to do.”

  The two teens looked at each other and made that weird face, the one that says Mom is off her rocker.

  “I’m kidding.” I turned to the adult males, who looked almost as perplexed. “What can we do to protect these three?”

  “I can stay here today with Kaz,” Tanner offered, “and get us started on making amulets. I’ll heal faster if I’m in direct contact with the ground, and I’ve been eyeing that garden chair of yours.” He swung his injured leg around, stood, and gripped the back of the chair tightly. “Oh, and by the way, Calliope,” he said, bending forward and pointing at the back of his head. “There should be a USB port in there somewhere.”

  Chapter 17

  After breakfast, I drove into town without any sense of being follow
ed. I was ridiculously relieved to be in my work domain, even with Kerry’s heightened concern as she swiped a handful of papers off her desk and followed me to my office.

  “I’m not going to sugar coat this, boss,” Kerry said. “There’s something weird going on with the apple growers on this island.”

  “But they’re usually such a mild-mannered bunch. Did you get the information I was looking for?”

  Kerry simultaneously nodded and shook her head. “Yes and no. Most of the orchards rely on the same four to eight popular varieties. About half the growers have their top-tier specialties, which they must have divvied up ages ago.” She placed a stack of print outs on my desk and pointed to the one on top. “And while all of this is public knowledge, more or less, getting these guys to give up the goods on what else they’re growing is like…” She smirked. “It’s basically an impossible task. Unless you’re willing to show up at their property with a warrant. Or spy.”

  “Did you get the topographical maps?” I neatened the edges of the stack of papers and tucked them into an accordion folder.

  “I was just printing those out. I had to grab a new set of ink cartridges for the printer.” She turned to leave. “Anything else?”

  “Keep your eyes opened wide and your ears glued to the grapevine,” I said. “And call me anytime. I’m going to drop in on Abi and Cliff. I’ll also share this with Agent Marechal and see what he has to say.”

  “Ooh, any of his cohorts coming in again?”

  “I think they might all be spoken for, but I’ll see if he has any other dashing single men under his supervision.”

  “You do that, Calliope. It’s in the fine print of my job description.”

  I chuckled. Kerry and I didn’t socialize outside of the office, but she showed up, stayed late when needed, and occasionally updated me on the island’s social undercurrents. Keeping her happy was a priority.

  “Oh, and another thing,” she said, pivoting around her desk and artfully tucking her skirt under the backs of her thighs. “Two other growers said they’d gotten substantial offers on their properties this past month. I marked their locations on your topo map.”