Copyright 1997 by Margaret Benson
Smashwords Edition Copyright 2012 by Maggie Shayne
http://www.MaggieShayne.com
E-book and Cover Formatted by Jessica Lewis
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Table of Contents
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Epilogue
Stargazer
Also Available
Prologue
Midnight, Aurora’s First Halloween
A little Witch is born.
"Her name will be Aurora," Merriwether said firmly, staring down at the cradle she'd bought for her brand-new charge. The baby's mother, Merriwether's niece, had never embraced the secret ways of the Sortilege women. She'd rejected her heritage, turned her back on the ways of magick. Even claimed she didn't believe in it. Then she'd run away with a leather-bearing beast on a motorbike, shouting over her shoulder that her three aunts were completely insane, and ought to be committed because everyone knew there were no such things as Witches. Almost as an afterthought, she'd added that her aunts had best not be casting any spells to make her come back, or she'd hate them forever.
Nine months later, Melinda had the good sense to send her newborn daughter home to her three aunts, delivered to the front door by a social worker with the message that Melinda was "just not mother material."
Merriwether had known the child would end up in her care. She hadn't known how it would happen, but she'd never doubted it would, because she'd seen it in the stars. Aurora Sortilege was a special child, a child of destiny. And her aunts were here to see that she fulfilled it.
"Oh, yes, Aurora. It's perfect!" Fauna clapped her plump hands together near her rounded middle and gave a good belly laugh. Her face quivered with mirth, and her outrageous orange hair—frizzed from too many colorings and perms—bobbed and bounced as if it were laughing, too. "It brings our little fairy tale full circle, don't you think?" she asked, still grinning.
"Our dear mother knew what she was doing when she named us after three benevolent—if fictional—fairies who care for a special little girl," Merriwether said, and she frowned a little at her younger sister's laughter. This was a serious matter—a great responsibility had been entrusted to them. But as she glanced at the child again, even her own stern expression softened. "Mother truly was gifted at divination."
Fauna smiled, and it dimpled her cheeks. "And so are we," she declared with a slap of her hand against one ample thigh. "Our Aurora will be blessed with an abundance of magick."
"Magick even more powerful than our own," Flora added in her gentle, timid voice. Her tiny frame bent over the cradle, she was tickling Aurora's chubby chin and eliciting a smile. "And a healing gift beyond measure."
"Oh, yes, indeed," Merriwether agreed. "But even then, it won't be as powerful as her daughter's will be."
"Only if we're successful." Flora frowned then, her small face puckering, and paced away from the cradle in small, agitated steps. Leaning over the round pedestal table nearby, she peered into the misty depths of a crystal ball that reflected her face and snowy white puffs of hair. "Oh, so much hinges on this. What if we fail?"
"We won't," Merri assured her youngest sister in her firmest take-charge tone. "We can't. We all saw the prophecy at the same time. You in the crystal, I in the stars, and Fauna in the cards of the sacred Tarot. We've been entrusted by our ancestors with a great responsibility, sisters, and we cannot fail." She was putting on her drill-sergeant persona, and it fit, she knew, with her regal stature and steely gray hair. Her sisters called her imposing. But always with love in their voices. And someone had to be in charge, after all. As the oldest, it had simply always been her.
But when she looked down at the baby, she deliberately gentled her tone. "Aurora is going to become the mother of the greatest Witch our family has ever produced. But it can only happen if we follow the instructions we've been given to the letter."
"Yes," Fauna said. She, too, had come to the table, and she'd already begun shuffling her Tarot cards. She did that when she was nervous. Shuffled and shuffled. "The child has to be fathered by little Nathan McBride, Daniel's boy, from Mulberry Street. And you're a lucky one, little Aurora, 'cause that boy's gonna grow up to be a looker." She shook her head and stifled a chuckle. Then she frowned. "How we'll arrange that, I'll never know. Merciful Goddess, the McBrides don't even know about the traditional magick of their ancestors, or the power of their bloodlines. They don't practice the ancient ways. They live like...like normal folk." She grimaced after she said it, as if the words left a bad taste in her mouth.
"Not only that," Flora said, taking a hanky as snowy white as her hair from her pocket to polish her spotless crystal ball. "But he has to be a—a—a virgin when they...you know." She lowered her eyes and her cheeks flushed pink.
"We're all well aware of that, Flora," Merri said. "But there's just no help for it. We have to see to it that everything happens as it should." She glanced out the window above the baby's bed at the formation of the stars on this crystal-clear night, and frowned. "I've decided we should do this subtly, not come right out and tell Aurora the plan." She turned to the baby again. "Because if she's even half as rebellious as her mother...well, she'll be determined to do exactly the opposite of what we ask."
"You're right," Flora said, nodding slowly. "Though it's a shame we can't tell her the truth about her destiny." She blinked up at Merri. "But we will tell her the truth, eventually, won't we?" Merri nodded, and the worry in Flora's face eased.
"What I want to know is how we're supposed to keep that McBride boy from...well..." Fauna grinned, dimples deepening. "Expending his affections on some other girl?" She blew a carrot-colored curl off her forehead and kept on shuffling.
"Thunderbolts, Fauna, he's only two years old!" Merri glared at her.
The shuffling stopped. "Oh, but have you seen him? The lad's going to grow, and with those dark brown eyes and thick lashes, and those raven's-wing curls of his...well, let's just see what the cards say." She fanned the deck and pulled one card. "Knight of Swords."
"Oh, my," the other two said in unison.
"I think we'll have our work cut out for us, sisters," Flora said.
Merri sighed and shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous. Nathan McBride, even if he's the reincarnation of Don Juan himself, still won't stand a chance against three Sortilege Witches."
"So it's decided," Fauna said, nodding hard. "We keep him pure." She grinned, "Even if it kills him. For our Aurora."
The three Witches smiled knowingly, while the baby looked on with what seemed to be a worried frown creasing her forehead.
#
Aurora’s Third Halloween
Little Nathan McBride scowled at the angel-haired toddler. He was already in kindergarten and he couldn't wait to learn how to read. He loved books and it frustrated him to no end that he couldn't decipher the words inside.
And now, here were those very weird old ladies from Raven Street, with their little kid who couldn't be more than three years old, and the brat was reading. Not whole sentences, of course. But words. That tall, mean-looking aunt of hers with the steel-gray hair would hold
up a flash card with letters on it, and the kid would say "Cat!" or "Dog!" or "Bird!" And then everyone at the neighborhood Halloween party would burst into applause. Like she was some kinda genius or something.
Aurora. Whoever heard of a girl named Aurora, anyway?
Everyone was so busy fussing over her that they'd barely noticed the Batman costume he'd spent so much time picking out. Nope, they only had eyes for the brat-kid with the strange black eyes.
Nathan hated Aurora Sortilege. And he vowed he always would.
#
Aurora’s Tenth Halloween
It was Halloween. And more than that, it was Aurora's tenth birthday. And more than that—this! She could hardly believe it.
"Mr. McBride has invited you to go trick-or-treating with Nathan tonight," Aunt Merri said. And her words made Aurora's belly clench with excitement. Even Aunt Merriwether seemed excited. All of them did. "Do you think you'd like to accept?"
"Oh, yes! Yes!"
She hopped up and down, and could barely stand still while her three aunts helped her fuss with her Egyptian princess costume until she looked just perfect.
She'd had a wild crush on Nathan McBride for weeks now. But he was older, and he barely seemed to notice her. Tonight, he would, though. Maybe he liked her, too! Why else ask her along on tonight of all nights?
Tonight of all nights.... She blinked up at Aunt Merri. "I don't want to miss our early Samhain celebration, Auntie."
"You'll be back in time, sweetheart. We'll wait for you. You just go and have a good time with young Nathan."
"If you're sure it's okay."
Aunt Merriwether nodded. "It's okay."
And so she went. She skipped all the way down Raven Street, turned right at the corner onto Mulberry, and only slowed down and felt her nervousness return when his house loomed just ahead of her. It was a nice house. Newer than her own. Hers was ancient in comparison. And Nathan's father was pretty important in this little town. He owned the drugstore, and a couple in other nearby towns, too. And she was just...just Aurora. She bit her lip.
Swallowing hard and whispering a tiny little invocation for courage, she marched up the walk and rang the front doorbell.
Nathan opened it. He was wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt. His dark curly hair was long. He liked wearing it long because the big kids wore it that way. Aurora liked it, too. It was curly and soft-looking. She thought Nathan was the handsomest boy in the whole town.
"Where's your costume?" she asked him.
"Very funny. I'm almost thirteen, you know."
"You're not dressing up?"
"Course not, 'Rora."
She wished she hadn't dressed up. Suddenly she felt like a big baby in her beautiful princess outfit. "But how can you trick-or-treat without a costume?"
He shook his head, and stepped outside, pushing the door closed behind him. "I'm not trick-or-treating. I'm babysitting you while you trick-or-treat."
Her heart felt as if something sharp had just pierced it. "B-babysitting?"
"Hey, it wasn't my idea. Something those wacky aunts of yours cooked up with my dad. So are they really Witches like everyone says?"
She opened her mouth, but she couldn't seem to say anything to him. She was so shocked and so hurt she could barely breathe, let alone talk.
"Are you one, too?" Nathan gave her Egyptian princess gown a teasing tug. "So how come you didn't wear a pointy hat and carry a broom then? Do you think you'll get warts on your nose when you grow up? I heard all Witches get big ugly ones, sooner or later. And that they—"
She whirled and ran from him, tears burning paths down her cheeks.
"Hey! 'Rora, wait up! I was just kidding around."
"I hate you, Nathan McBride!" She never slowed her pace until she got back to her house. And she managed to wipe the tears away before she faced her aunts. She lied to them for the fist time in her life that night. Told them she was too sick to stay out. And that year she skipped Samhain, as well.
#
Aurora’s Sixteenth Halloween
It was Aurora Sortilege's sixteenth birthday, and her crazy aunts were having a Sweet Sixteen party for her at that crazy excuse for a house. The big old Gothic was older than this entire town, or so people said.
Nathan and Aurora had never got along. They tended to avoid each other like the plague. At school, if they were forced into it, they'd say hello and not much else. He didn't really care. He had a crowd of friends. She didn't have many at all. It was partly because everyone knew her aunts thought of themselves as Witches, and that made a lot of the parents nervous—some because they figured the three little old ladies must be nuts, and others because they figured the three little old ladies sacrificed babies and kittens in naked moonlight rituals and worshipped demons.
Nathan had done a little reading on the subject. Just out of curiosity, of course. So he knew that none of that was true. And he really didn't believe in any of that Witch stuff anyway. But he still didn't like her.
The Witch thing was only part of the reason Aurora wasn't very popular. Mostly it was just because she was such a brainiac. Nathan was graduating this year. So was Aurora, two years ahead of schedule. And then he was heading off to college and she'd be shipping out to pre-med. She wanted to be a doctor. She'd make a good one, too. He remembered a time two years ago, when a great big redtail hawk had swooped down in front of his car, right after he'd got his license. It crashed into the windshield and then rolled to the ground.
Aurora had been out walking and she'd seen the whole thing. Of course, she'd stomped over to the car screaming at him for being careless and stupid and a hundred other things. But then she'd knelt down on the road, and there had been actual tears in her eyes as she touched the unmoving bird. He got out to see if he could help. But he ended up just standing still and watching her as she ran her hands over the hawk, real slow, talking under her breath. Her eyes were closed, he remembered that. All of the sudden, the bird twitched. Then it came to flapping, shrieking life, and hauled tail out of there.
It didn't go far, he recalled. It landed heavily in a tree along the roadside, and it looked back at him and Aurora, and let out a piercing cry.
"You're welcome," Aurora had whispered. Man, he would never forget that.
He'd thought then, that she must be totally insane. Nathan had ignored her bright smile, and her whispered, “I did it.” He'd told himself the bird was probably just stunned. He didn't believe all that Witch crap for a minute. And if Aurora was as smart as everyone thought, she wouldn't either.
Anyway, she'd had a nice touch with that bird, even if it had only been stunned. And she couldn't stand to see anyone hurting. So he thought she'd make a pretty decent doctor. Not that he cared. Hell, he wouldn't even be going to this birthday party except that...well, word around school was that no one else was going to show. And he kind of felt sorry for her. So he'd bought her a pair of fairly expensive earrings with emeralds on them. Tiny emeralds, but heck, he was making only eight bucks an hour part-time at the greasy spoon in town. So he was going over there to that house on Raven Street. He would grit his teeth and ignore the way she always managed to irritate the hell out of him, and he would wish her a happy birthday.
When he got there, though, and saw her sitting on the front steps crying her eyes out, something happened to him.
He went all soft inside for some reason. He walked up the steps and sat down beside her.
"What's the matter, Aurora?"
She lifted her head, looking straight into his eyes with her blue, shiny, wet ones. "You know. I can see that you know."
He shook his head in denial.
"No one's coming, that's what's the matter. And you knew it, Nathan. Why didn't you tell me?"
He blinked in surprise and glanced at his watch. It was still ten minutes before party time. How could she know already? Unless someone had said something. "It's early yet," he told her. "What makes you think ... ?"
She sent him a look of exasperation.
"I know things, Nathan. And I know this. And I know that you knew and you didn't tell me."
He lowered his head, unsure of what to say. Maybe she really did have some kind of...nah. But when he looked up at her again, he noticed for the first time that Aurora was turning into one drop-dead beautiful girl. And he wondered why he had never noticed it before. She'd never cut her hair, as far as he knew. It hung to her waist like liquid sunlight, smooth and shining. And her eyes had a very slight tilt to them that made them exotic, entrancing. And they were as blue as the sky, and deeper than just about any eyes he'd ever seen. Lashes like sable paintbrushes. Lips that used to seem too plump when she was little, now looked like they belonged on a swimsuit model.
It surprised the heck out of him. But he suddenly realized that this girl, whom he'd spent most of his life disliking, was incredible. And unusual—and he supposed he found that just as attractive as everything else about her.
Did he...actually...like her?
He got to thinking about the possibility that maybe he did. Maybe he more than just liked her. The more he thought, the more he realized that it was true. He lifted his chin and looked at her, sitting there beside him on the top step, so heartbroken. He was going to do it. He was going to ask the little Witch for a date. He could hardly believe it.
He smiled to himself, because he sort of knew she'd always had a crush on him. It would make her day. Make up for the birthday party not happening and her favorite holiday being a wash, and everything else.
She got to her feet slowly while he was still thinking. "I can't believe I got all dressed up for nothing."
And she had gotten all dressed up. But not for nothing. She looked great in her denim skirt and silky sleeveless blouse. Pretty. Feminine. Delicate.
"Maybe not for nothing," he said.
She looked down at him, and for the first time, he saw hope in her eyes. "Why?" she asked. "Have you heard something?"
Everything She Does Is Magic Page 1
