by Eva Chase
That answer earned me a couple of muted smiles, which was more than I’d gotten so far. The Assembly witches were always so dour. Maybe I didn’t want to become one of them through my work after all.
“Another matter we always consider at this stage,” the woman said, shuffling her papers. “Have you given any thought to when you’d begin having children?”
Moldy cinders, that was the last thing I wanted to be thinking about right now. Being tied to Derek not just through ceremony, but bearing his children… I’d set that idea aside until I’d gotten my head and my heart in better order.
“I believe we’d give it at least a few years,” I said. “So we have a chance to strengthen our bond and I’ll have adjusted to my spark. What’s the rush?”
“Indeed,” the man said. “We do find a waiting period before progressing to the next stage of the relationship is wise. Just remember that when you are ready, you’ll need to register your intent with the Assembly before you perform the magic to engage the quickening.”
“Of course,” I said. I couldn’t get pregnant unless I brought my spark to the task. One of the little quirks of witch physiology, which Meredith had told me once was for our own protection. Children are the loveliest thing in the world, but a pregnant woman is a vulnerable woman. And there’ve been many times when we witches faced far too much danger to make that decision lightly.
“Speaking of rushing...” The woman paused, fixing me with a steady look that held what appeared to be genuine concern. “I must remind you that in every case recorded, if a spark isn’t fully kindled by a witch’s twenty-fifth birthday, it won’t kindle at all. I understand you’ve left your consorting rather late. Your plans appear to be on track, but you’ll want to ensure they stay that way. Even if you feel your spark lighting some, if you’ve started to become close to your intended—nothing is set until the consorting is complete.”
I gave her a tight smile. “I know,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Well, it sounds as if everything is in order, then.” The man stood up. “Thank you for your time, Miss Hallowell.”
That was obviously my cue to leave. “Thank you for seeing us,” I said with a respectful bob of my head, and left while they were gathering their things.
I ended up in the breakfast room, nibbling on one of the mini muffins that had been left over from our meal, when Derek came in. My back stiffened automatically. I inhaled deeply, willing myself to relax.
What I’d said to Jin was true. Derek might be as much a pawn in my stepmother’s dealings as I was. Whether I believed that or not… I couldn’t throw this engagement away until I was sure. Not when my entire life as a practicing witch was on the line.
He came to a stop beside me and gave me a smile that looked genuine. “Being asked personal questions by total strangers,” he said. “Always my favorite thing.”
I had to laugh. “Tell me about it. Well, at least that part of the formalities is over.”
“I hope you had only good things to say about me.”
“Naturally,” I said, but the truth was they hadn’t really asked me much about him at all, had they? Had they questioned him all that much about how he saw me?
Probably he was just joking. I offered him the sparse plate of muffins, watching his face. So he didn’t like books, and he hadn’t been the most considerate of my pretended illness, but I hadn’t seen any signs he was in on some conspiracy against me. I’d never come across him talking to my stepmother outside of our regular family conversations.
Philomena paced at the other side of the room with brisk steps and twitches of her huge skirt. “I’m not certain about this, Rose.”
“I’m not going in blindly,” I said. “I won’t marry him unless I’m sure he isn’t part of any scheme. But until I know one way or the other, I can’t afford to push him away.”
She huffed. “I don’t like him either way.”
“I know,” I said. “But… I might not have been his first choice in partner either, you know.”
Derek plucked up one of the mini muffins and tipped it to me as if in a toast. “To our consorting and our marriage.”
I held up the last bite of mine. “To us.”
Of course, as soon as I’d swallowed that bite, I couldn’t think of what else to say. In the last three weeks of walks and meals and drives admiring the countryside, we’d pretty much exhausted all possible small talk—and an awful lot of mid-sized talk too.
What did you talk about with someone who wasn’t interested in about half of the things you were, and wasn’t supposed to know about the other things you’d been up to? Who might be up to things you wouldn’t be happy to know about? “Say, have you been plotting with my stepmother lately?” wasn’t going to cut it.
Maybe I could get at his true feelings about our impending partnership in a less direct way.
“Are you starting to feel settled in here?” I asked. “I know it’s got to be pretty different from where you grew up.”
Derek chuckled. “The weather’s certainly different from New Orleans. But I’m an adaptable sort. I think I’ll do fine here.”
“You don’t mind having to make that big a change?” As a witching man with sisters, he’d have known he couldn’t keep his last name and his family property, but he might have intended to stay in Louisiana in the absence of extra incentives.
He tucked his arm around my waist, so smoothly my nerves only jumped a little. The corners of his light brown eyes crinkled with his smile. “I think what I’ll have here with you more than makes up for anything I’m giving up.”
He lowered his head, close enough that his intention was clear but slowly enough that I could have pulled away from the kiss. Consorts-to-be often continued to hold off on much physical intimacy before the ceremony, which would encourage a passion for each other, but getting a little cozy at this committed stage wasn’t discouraged. My pulse skittered, but I held myself in place.
I could get a taste of my real spark, and that might give me all the answer I needed. So I tipped my head and let Derek meet my mouth with his.
His lips slid against mine, coaxing mine apart with an ease I wouldn’t have expected. Who had he kissed in the past to learn how to do that? I gripped his shirt for balance, the closeness of him and the heat of his mouth making me abruptly dizzy.
But doubt stayed clenched tight around my heart. And not a hint of a glimmer lit inside me. My chest felt as hollow as a reed.
I eased back from him, my pulse thudding. Derek smiled at me again, looking pleased. I tried to mimic his expression, as if that kiss had given me exactly what I’d been looking for.
As if it hadn’t been a complete and total failure.
Chapter Twelve
Rose
As estate manager, Meredith had an office to herself, a small room at the back of the house. Of course, she was so busy overseeing the rest of the staff that she was rarely in it except for first thing in the morning, when she went over the day’s itinerary, and last thing at night, when she filed away any results of that day’s work. So it was already pitch black beyond the window when I knocked on her door.
Another April storm had kicked up, the wind howling past the manor’s walls. Loud enough that Meredith didn’t hear me until I knocked a second time, a little harder. She glanced up and saw me through the gap where the door stood slightly ajar.
“Oh, Rose! Come on in, honey.”
Her office was warmer than the hall. A space heater was humming in the corner. I leaned against the cabinet next to it, soaking up its warmth, while Meredith finished sorting through the last batch of receipts and work forms. With a twitch of her fingers, she brought her magic to bear on the bottom of one paper and then another, affixing her magical signature to the documents that required it.
Then she turned to me, leaning her sturdy frame against the desk. Even at the end of the day, her hair remained neatly pinned in her braid, not a white or gray strand out of place.
I wondered if
she used a little magic to hold it there, the same way she encouraged her face to stay smooth. She looked no older than Celestine, who was around fifty, even though I knew Meredith had to be at least a couple decades older. It had always seemed impolite to ask that sort of thing. Meredith was as much a witch as I was, but being from a lesser family, she’d ended up running ours instead of starting her own. Two generations from cradle to consorting.
She did have a consort and husband of her own—Anton, who served as Dad’s accountant. And she’d always been my best source for witching info when I had questions Dad was too busy to answer or I was too embarrassed to ask him about.
“What’s on your mind?” she said now with a knowing look.
I bit my lip. “I was just curious… How do you know for sure that your spark will light with someone? Does the consorting ceremony make it happen, or…” I trailed off, uncertain how to express what I wanted to without saying more than I did.
Meredith gave me a gentle smile. “It’s a confusing time, isn’t it? So much anticipation, but also so much to worry about. You can be sure your spark will light with Derek, Rose. He’s a witching man, and the ceremony will align your hearts and passions to provoke the kindling.”
“So it’s just the ceremony that makes it happen?” I said. “I just—I know that Dad and Celestine were, er, close before they officially became consorts, and Celestine kept her magic even though she lost her first husband years before. And there’s always that talk about how the men should be careful about who they give their intimacy to before the consorting.”
“Well, that’s where it gets complicated,” Meredith said. “It’s not all one thing or another. Where there’s mutual attraction, the man’s energies can light and sustain the spark without any formal binding. The more powerful your emotional bond, the easier you’ll kindle too. But immediate passion is hardly necessary. Sometimes it’s better without. There’s no shortage of tales of young witches getting swept up in dalliances with some tempting man only to find that excitement runs dry before long.”
“So it’s okay if you’re not feeling… swept away?”
She nodded. “You want sure and steady. Build up that light over time, with growing affection. The ceremony will help you open up to each other.”
“Does that mean you didn’t feel your spark until you completed the consorting with Anton?” I said, on the verge of relief.
Meredith laughed lightly. “Oh, no, child. Even a little affection can give you a flicker, if you give it the opportunity. Not enough for any major magicking, of course, and it fades much faster than after you’re properly kindled.” She cocked her head at me. “Are you considering getting a head start on your relations with Derek? If you’re feeling ready, you may as well start laying that groundwork. You can still take things slowly.”
“I don’t—I don’t know,” I said. My thoughts were stuck on that one thing she’d said. Even a little affection can give you a flicker.
I’d felt at least a little affection for Derek in that moment, despite my doubts, hadn’t I? Thinking of him giving up his home to be here with me?
So if nothing had sparked, not even a flicker… I resisted the urge to hug myself. Maybe I’d gotten my answer after all. That would have to mean he had no affection for me. Not a shred.
He’d talked as if he did. Smiled at me as if he did. It could have been my fault, with all my suspicions of him… or all of that was a lie.
The pond our forest stream fed into looked just the same as it always had when we were kids. I slowed to a stop as I reached the edge. Minnows dimpled the otherwise-still surface of the water. Sparrows chattered in the trees, and sunlight poured through the gap in their foliage across the mossy bank.
Jin was already there, the sun making the blue streaks in his hair stand out even brighter against the black. He was leaning over, trailing the end of a stick he’d picked up through the mud between the moss.
“You’ve always got to be sketching something, don’t you?” I said with a smile. I set my hand against the cool granite surface of the boulder at the edge of the pond—the one I’d used to duck behind to shimmy out of the clothes I’d hidden my bathing suit under, way back when. The boys would have simply tossed off shirts and pants and jumped in wearing their underthings.
Jin grinned back at me, and my face warmed. Hmm. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to be thinking about my guys, even all those years ago, mostly undressed. My emotions were jumbled up enough as it was.
“What can I say,” he said, twirling the stick. “It’s an obsession. I’ll cop to that. But as obsessions go, you’ve got to admit there are a lot worse.”
“Okay, that’s fair,” I said, propping myself against the boulder. “Although maybe calling it just an ‘obsession’ is downplaying the situation a little. Didn’t you travel around, like, half the world chasing inspiration?”
“I guess so. But I didn’t really have to. Finding it all over the world was just more fun than trying to get it all in one place.”
“Uh huh.” I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows. “And is that a policy you apply to all sorts of areas of your life? Suddenly I’m imagining you leaving a trail of broken hearts all across the globe.”
Jin’s dark eyes gleamed with amusement. “I won’t say there’s no truth at all in that either. But I swear I’ve never made promises I didn’t intend to keep.”
“Always a gentleman, even when you’re being a ladies’ man?”
“I don’t know any other way to be,” he said with that flirty smile. I wasn’t sure if he meant the gentleman part or the ladies’ man part—maybe both.
Curiosity prickled at me despite myself. “None of those girls kept your interest long enough to make any promises?” I asked.
“Well…” Jin cocked his head. His tone turned a bit more serious. “There are places and people that give you what you’re craving in the moment, right? And that’s a pretty wonderful thing. The ones that give you something so essential it becomes a part of your soul… That type is a lot harder to find.”
His gaze caught mine across the pond for a beat longer than felt completely casual. A warm tingling spread down my chest. He meant the estate, of course. The estate had worked its way into his soul. Not me.
Didn’t he? My hand dropped to the ribbon I’d tied around my wrist this morning. Deep purple, as rich as Jin’s unwavering passion. I’d picked it as if wearing it would help me tap into my own feelings, or at least figure out what the hell they were.
Jin waved his stick in the air, breaking the moment. “Look at me, turning into a philosopher! When I get into a serious mood, you know it’s probably time to start ignoring me.” He winked, but he still couldn’t quite seem to look away.
I swallowed hard, trying to think of how to answer him, and other voices carried through the trees. I turned, not sure if I was glad for the interruption or regretting it.
Seth and Kyler had come together. They came to a stop between me and Jin at the edge of the pond. And suddenly my heart was thumping for a completely different reason.
I hadn’t seen Kyler since I’d kissed him. He clapped his hands now with his usual energy, but his gaze twitched away from mine a moment after ours met. Yep. This was plenty awkward. I didn’t have any idea how to smooth that weirdness over either.
“Looks like we’re all here,” he said. “I told Damon, but who knows whether he’ll show.”
I grasped for a topic that was safer than hook-ups or illicit kisses. The reason we were here in the first place. “You said Mr. Cortland is out of town right now—how did you find that out?” Ky was the one who’d sent the text to the group announcing that fact and prompting this meet-up.
“One of the clients I do IT work for is the post office,” Ky said. “I saw a temporary mail hold come in for James Cortland. Nothing to be delivered for a ten-day stretch. Usually people only do that if they’re going on vacation.”
He gave me a hopeful smile before his gray-green eyes twitched a
way again. Somehow that made me look at his lips. Which reminded me that I kind of wanted to try another kiss with him. Argh.
I was the one who’d suggested we meet in person to talk the situation through, partly because I’d hoped seeing the guys would help me sort out my feelings. So far I was only feeling more muddled. So much for that plan.
Seth ran his fingers over the short tawny waves of his hair. Ky’s twin was the one who’d suggested we meet here. He felt I’d already risked too much coming into town as often as I had.
“Since it doesn’t seem smart to make any decisions based on assumptions,” he said, “I’ve taken a couple drives past the house. There’s no car in the drive. The second time I went right up and knocked on the front door, and got no answer.” He spread his hands. “It does look like he’s gone.”
Watching him move those solid arms through the air was making me feel all kinds of weird too. Rose, get a grip. Two kisses and my hormones had gone haywire. Maybe all those romance novels had finally oversaturated my brain.
“I could double-check,” I said. “I have a history project I’ve been working on—I could tell my dad I’m thinking of paying a call on Mr. Cortland to see if he has any records I could use. Dad’s probably been in touch with him enough to be able to warn me that he’s away. But then what?”
Jin looked up from where he’d been tracing patterns in the pond with his stick. “I think the idea is we sneak in there somehow. Take a look around, see if there’s any evidence showing what your stepmother asked for his help with. Right?” He glanced at the twins with one eyebrow arched.
Seth grimaced. “I wouldn’t normally say breaking and entering is a good idea, but… If we could do it without actually breaking anything, and we wouldn’t be stealing anything, just looking…”
“How easy do you think it’d be to get in there?” Ky asked, looking at me steadily for the first time. “Is there anything we need to worry about other than, er, regular locks?”
