It was peaceful and she liked to spend a few minutes there now and then to reconnect with nature and to let the worries of the world go.
Not that she had ever really been an outdoor, nature-seeking type. She didn’t know whether it was because none of the foster families she had lived with had been the woodsy type, or if it was more to do with her stress levels. She had, from the time she was very young, been more concerned with survival than luxuries. For much of her childhood, she had been fighting for her life.
But having the beautiful garden right outside her door had changed that, just a little. Maybe the gnome magic of the place attracted her and drew her into it. She still wouldn’t sit there for hours on end. She couldn’t sit still for that long, even if she were doing something engaging. The only time she was still for long was when she was sleeping, and the way she would wake up wound in her sheets, she knew she didn’t stay still even then.
Good morning, Reg Rawlins.
Reg looked out over the garden for a minute before spotting the little man with the red cap a few feet away from her. He always seemed to blend in with the garden, even with his red hat.
Good morning, Forst, Reg returned, speaking to him in her mind, as she usually did. The gnomes were used to talking to each other in their “inside words,” not out loud like humans did, and were not very comfortable with spoken English.
Forst pushed a spade into the ground with his foot. What is it that goes on?
Reg sipped her coffee. What do you mean?
You are not usually here this time. You are worried. Sarah Bishop is upset. The wrinkles in his face deepened as he looked around. Someone has been here… who is not welcome.
Well… yes. Someone threw a rock through my window. And yesterday, they threw eggs at the cottage and worked a spell here.
Threw a rock through thy window?
Reg nodded. Yes. It just has cardboard over it right now, but Sarah will have it replaced soon.
A rock from my garden? he asked possessively.
Reg smiled. Yes. A rock from your garden. I assume so. I don’t expect they brought one with them to do the job.
Forst shook his head and didn’t say anything else for some time while he worked. Reg finished eating her sandwich and sipped the coffee.
Why do they throw eggs? Forst asked.
Just to let me know they don’t like me. Reg shrugged, not wanting to have to explain about her being part siren.
This is a spell?
No. It’s not part of a spell. Just… a sign. A sign from them to me that they don’t want me around here.
‘Tis not seemly. He shook his head and continued to work. Reg closed her eyes, resting, feeling the sun on her face. What spell did they? Forst asked.
I don’t know much about it. There were candles and signs. Sarah said it was a kind of a protection spell.
Protecting you?
No. Protecting them from me.
Forst stopped working for a moment to stare at her in disbelief. Reg Rawlins is not a monster. Reg Rawlins is kind and helpful to the gnomen.
Not everyone thinks the same way as you do.
Why is this?
They think I will harm them. That I will… hunt here.
You hunt?
No. I don’t. They just think I will.
Why is this?
My parents… my mother… was a dangerous person. People here have heard and are afraid that I will be too.
Forst considered this and continued to dig, overturning the earth as he worked between the brightly blooming plants.
This should not be, he said eventually.
Reg breathed a sigh of relief that he had accepted her explanation and was on her side. But she knew he might not have been if she had told him the details. That her mother was a siren. Reg had seen her on the hunt and did not want to become that herself. If there were anything she could do to keep from turning into her mother, she was willing to do it. Give her any spell or labor to prevent that from happening, and she would do it.
Reg had almost forgotten that she had set up an appointment with her fire casting mentor, Davyn, a prominent warlock who was the leader of Corvin’s coven. Of course, Corvin was currently shunned by his coven, so Reg didn’t know if he would actually call it his. But one day, he did hope to be readmitted to its fellowship.
Reg had met Davyn during the course of Corvin’s tribunal. She hadn’t been too impressed with him at that time, but they had gotten to know each other better after that, and she considered him a friend. Or she had, before he had become friends with Julian Sabat.
Calling Julian her nemesis might be a bit dramatic, but how else could she convey how she felt about him? When she had known him as a child, he had bullied her. As an adult, he had come back into her life, investigating a charge against her relating to the death of a swamp goblin.
That had been resolved, but Reg didn’t feel like it was over. She was still irritated with Davyn for having anything to do with Julian when he knew that the investigator was looking to lay charges against her. Even though Julian had since left town, the last Reg had heard, he and Davyn were still carrying on a long-distance relationship. A fact that did not impress Reg or make her particularly happy to see her mentor again.
Without Davyn, she couldn’t exercise and develop her firecasting ability, which was too dangerous in the hands of a novice. She didn’t know any other firecasters who could teach her, so it had to be Davyn or no one.
Davyn had apparently noticed the cardboard in the window as he approached the cottage. He motioned to it as he entered the house, jabbing a thumb toward it.
“What happened here?”
“There has been… some trouble. Someone threw a rock through it.”
Davyn’s brows went up. “Really. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah. You’re not the only one.”
“Maybe you would like to try a little… stress relief?”
If Corvin had said it, his innuendo would have been clear. But Davyn didn’t mean that. He meant that it was time for Reg to play with fire. And that was something she had been looking forward to, even if she hadn’t really wanted to see Davyn.
“Yes,” she agreed emphatically.
“Good. Let’s get started.” Davyn rubbed his hands together like he was soaping up or trying to warm them. Then, pulling his hands away from each other, he formed a small ball of flame between them. Reg mirrored his actions. Her fire kept flaring, reflecting her emotional disruption. Reg stared into the flame, trying to focus and center herself. A flame was useful for meditation. How many times in her life had she fallen into a trance staring at a candle or campfire? Fire had that power over her.
Her flame stopped jumping and flaring, settling down and behaving more like Davyn’s, though it was still larger and somewhat unruly.
“Good,” Davyn approved. “That’s becoming more natural to you.”
“What is? Making the flame?”
“The focus. It’s one of the most important parts of your practice. If you can stay focused and in control, your fire will be controlled.”
Reg nodded her agreement. She knew for sure that her emotional state affected the activity of her flame and how hard it was to control. When she was angry, she could quickly lose control.
“Did you hear about Julian?” Davyn asked.
Reg’s fire expanded so fast it made a popping sound and she had a hard time catching her breath, as if it had burned up all the oxygen in the room.
“Whoa.” Davyn held up his hands, calming the wall of flame and trying to gather it together.
Embarrassed, Reg did her best to concentrate and help bring it back under control. Davyn made quieting motions and noises, as if the fire were a living creature. Reg took back control as he pushed a more compact fireball back into her hands.
Reg swallowed, her mouth dry. She licked her lips. “What about Julian?” she asked with difficulty. She didn’t know whether he had mentioned Julian’s name to elicit a reacti
on from her, or whether he was just clueless about the way she felt about Sabat.
“Oh, right.” Reg’s exploding fireball had apparently distracted Davyn from his comment. “He has been promoted.”
“Oh?”
“It’s still the same job, but his rank has been increased and he was given a special commendation for his work.”
At Reg’s questioning look, he shrugged. “For the Everglades case.”
“You mean for the Reg Rawlins case?” Reg let her fire go out, afraid she would end up singeing Davyn’s eyebrows if she continued.
“Well, I don’t know if he would call it that. I didn’t want to…”
“Embarrass me?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Davyn hastened to say. “I know that you were cleared of wrongdoing in the case. I didn’t mean to… bring up something painful.”
“Well, you kind of did.”
Davyn looked down, clearing his throat. “I’m sorry, Reg. I didn’t mean it that way. I was just… Julian is so happy about the advancement, and we were talking about it before I came over here. I just wanted to share some good news.”
“It isn’t good news to me that he got a promotion. He was already overreaching. He’s dangerous.”
“You were never in any danger from him,” Davyn said soothingly.
“No? You weren’t there, were you? You didn’t see what happened. You didn’t see him pull a wand on me in the middle of the grocery store, did you? Does that sound like exemplary behavior in an investigation? He just got this award because he identified me as a siren, and he didn’t even figure that out himself. We had to tell him.”
“Reg…”
“I know. You think he’s great. Best thing since sliced bread. But I don’t. I’ve lived with the guy and I know. Just because you’re not willing to believe me—”
“I know all of that is true,” Davyn said quietly.
Reg opened her mouth to argue more, then closed it.
“I just see… more in him than that. I see potential. I see what he could be, and what he would be if he hadn’t had to deal with all the challenges he did growing up. Like you did. You were lucky. Or strong. You turned out okay. But he still… has a lot of dark places.”
Reg gazed at him. “Yeah. He does.”
“During the investigation… I know you thought you were on your own and that no one believed you. But that’s not true. I did believe you.”
“You still went out with him. Acted like…” She couldn’t finish. Couldn’t put into words how betrayed she had felt by his behavior. She couldn’t understand his carrying on a romantic relationship with someone he knew was investigating Reg. And not just investigating her, but a danger to her.
“You don’t understand. I was there. I did… keep track of what was going on. Even in the grocery store. If you hadn’t been able to handle it like you did, I would have stepped in to help.”
Reg stared at him. “What?” She tried to dredge up everything she could of that evening. She hadn’t seen Davyn. He hadn’t been around. No one had been there to step in between the out-of-control investigator and his quarry.
“You remember that I can cloak myself.”
“You can. Oh.” Reg considered this. A couple of times while Julian had been in town, Reg had thought someone was there, following her or watching her. But she hadn’t been able to see anyone. Had that been Davyn? Watching over her without telling anyone what he was doing? Monitoring his handsome new friend to make sure that he did not endanger Reg? “You were there? Really?”
Davyn nodded. “I couldn’t say anything to you at the time. Not without Julian finding out too. But you weren’t alone, Reg. And I did believe you.”
Reg’s anger subsided. Not all the way; she was still irritated that he had thought that bringing up Julian’s advancement and commendation to her was a good idea. But her fury cooled. Maybe Davyn wasn’t quite as naive or clueless as she had thought.
She raised her hands to rekindle her fire, but nothing appeared and she didn’t feel any warmth on her palms.
“I’m sorry, I should not have said anything,” Davyn apologized. “I got carried away.”
Reg nodded. She stared down at her hands, distracted from the conversation. What had seemed so important a moment before was now forgotten.
Davyn watched her. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I can’t seem to…”
He cocked his head to the side slightly, analyzing the situation. “You’re stressed and upset. It can freeze you up temporarily.”
“It never has before.”
If he thought about it, Davyn knew that when she got angry or upset, she was more likely to kindle fire, not less. It had happened by accident before she had any idea that she had powers.
“Still,” Davyn said, “it can happen at unexpected times. It’s one thing to kindle fire accidentally in a moment of emotional instability. But like with anything else, trying to do something when you are upset is a different story.”
Reg was disheartened. “Why is it nothing is ever easy?”
Davyn smiled. “It’s is the way of the world. We can’t control it. There are always new challenges once we have overcome the old.”
“That doesn’t seem quite fair.”
He nodded. He kindled fire between his own palms and reached toward her to hand it over. Reg raised her palms to receive it, but it fizzled out instead of staying in her hands like usual.
“Maybe we should try another exercise,” Davyn suggested.
Chapter Eleven
Things did not improve from there. They tried several different exercises, but Reg couldn’t seem to get back into the groove. Everything she tried to do with her fire failed, even with Davyn helping her or feeding her his energy.
Davyn shrugged. “Well… I still think it’s just because you’re a bit upset today. It will go better next time. And I’m sorry. About bringing Julian up. I know you don’t want to hear about him.”
Reg nodded. She had an uneasy knot in her stomach. First, she had seemed to lose all of her powers on her return from supper with Corvin. Now she seemed to have lost—temporarily—her fire casting powers during the session with Davyn. She had done just fine at the beginning and it had just disappeared. She felt impotent.
What was wrong with her? Since she had started training with Davyn, she had never had a problem kindling fire unless she was too depleted of energy. Once she had recovered or been recharged by Corvin, she had been just fine. This time, there was nothing physically wrong with her. She felt well-rested despite how early she had gotten up that morning and was energetic.
Maybe Davyn was right. Maybe it was just because she had gotten upset about Julian.
But Reg worried it was the beginning of a pattern.
What if she were losing her powers?
Reg was eating a sandwich at the kitchen island, looking over her schedule even though she already knew that she didn’t have any appointments set up for the next few days. Most of her clientele seemed to have suddenly become busy with other things that were more important than going to a fortune teller for a reading or communing with the spirits of their loved ones who had passed. Reg knew that she didn’t need them to survive, but she still felt the loss. Worse than the loss of the money was the apparent loss of confidence in her or fear of what she might do.
She hadn’t suddenly become a predator and didn’t think she deserved to be treated like one.
Okay, there had been a couple of incidents, but she hadn’t actually threatened any of the residents of Black Sands.
Except for Corvin, but did he really count? People feared and shunned him, so they should have been happy about it.
She heard the click of heels up the stone path that led to her door, a quick, sharp tapping. Before she could move to the door to see who it was, the knob turned and Sarah stepped into the room. She was still dressed for her coven, wearing a long black dress and robe. And high black heels. Reg raised her brows at that.
Usually, Sarah wore sensible shoes. And when she returned from meeting with the witches in her coven, she normally changed right away into her Florida grandmother type clothes. She didn’t go around in her cloak.
“Uh, hi.”
“You’re here. Good. I just wanted to let you know that I have spoken with the coven. Informed them of what has been going on here and made it clear that it will stop.” Sarah’s voice was a little sharp even discussing it with Reg; Reg could only imagine how forceful she might have been in talking to the witches she thought might be responsible for the vandalism.
“Do you think it will help?”
“It will,” Sarah said with certainty. “I am not going to allow it to go on.”
Reg nodded, not arguing or demanding to know how Sarah was going to prevent it. If Sarah said she was going to put a stop to it, Reg was not about to argue with her.
“Thank you.”
Sarah gave a quick nod. “Yes. You’re welcome.”
Reg picked at a piece of food dried to the surface of the island. She had no idea what else to say to Sarah about it. Or what else Sarah might have to say to her. It was new territory for Reg. In the past, Reg had always run at the first sign of trouble. She would never stay around if she thought someone would target her or that people had decided it was time for her to leave town. By the time people knew what kind of a con she was running, she was usually long gone.
Black Sands had been different. And maybe she should have left months before. But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to leave it all behind. Friends and a place she had finally felt like she belonged. She couldn’t let that go so easily.
“So…” Sarah let out a breath. “Some friends and I are going out for dinner tonight, and then maybe on a yacht for a nightcap. I was wondering… if you would like to come along?”
Sarah had invited Reg to many kinds of events, so she should not have been surprised by this invitation. There had been community mixers, competitions, plays, all sorts of things. Dinner and a boat trip weren’t anything out of the ordinary.
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