Magni

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  Christine looked down at the table beside her. The table that was not the table she’d imagined in her entryway for months. “Where’s the table that was here?”

  Rhea furrowed her forehead, bringing her well-arched brows together. “I think I sold that two days ago to some hippie looking woman from California.” Rhea continued on, oblivious to the rage her words sparked inside Christine. “She said she was from here and planned to move back and needed to furnish her new place.”

  Rhea looked up. “What’s wrong?”

  “I think I taught you how to shield yourself a little too well.” Christine looked down at the table that was not her table. She slapped her hand onto the surface, spreading her fingers wide, willing something, anything to come to her.

  And something did. A lot of somethings. People she didn’t know flashed before her mind’s eye. A man in strangely old clothing building the table. A woman polishing the surface with care. Christine pulled her hand back and looked at the table, confused.

  “Magni didn’t make that one. It’s an antique someone brought in to consign.”

  If she paid attention it would have been obvious Magni didn’t make the table. While it was pretty, it didn’t reflect his level of skill and eye for design and was missing the clean lines he favored.

  Rhea pointed at another, better crafted table to Christine’s front. “That one.”

  Christine looked at Rhea and took a deep breath. She pressed her palm to the smooth surface.

  Nothing.

  Rhea stepped in close. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t see anything when I touch the table.”

  Rhea’s hand covered her mouth but Christine didn’t have the chance to finish before her phone started to ring in her purse. She pulled it out and checked the screen.

  Her stomach dropped. She pressed the ignore button and slid it back into place, then looked up at Rhea and forced on a smile. “That’s actually not the most shocking part.” Christine pointed to the spot that used to display her table.

  “You sold the table I loved to his not dead wife.”

  15

  Magni stepped out of the bathroom, wet hair dripping onto his shoulders as he pulled on a pair of jeans, hopping into the legs as he hurried down the hallway. They were early and he wasn’t ready. Not that he would ever be ready for what was about to happen. He wrestled a shirt over his head as he pulled open the door.

  “Oh.” Lori raised her eyebrows at him, her cool eyes lingering over his chest and stomach even after he yanked his shirt into place. “Good morning to you too.”

  Of all the things Magni didn’t want to deal with right now, number one was standing on his fucking porch. Again. With a smile on her face and a tray of cookies in her hands. “Go away Lori.” He swung the door closed.

  Lori caught the door with her body, stopping it from shutting. “Don’t be like that Magni.” She gave the door a hard shove and slid through the gap into his house acting like he didn’t just tell her to leave. “I wanted to come and apologize for how I was before.” She held up the tray. “And bring a peace offering.

  It would have been funny if it wasn’t so fucking sad. A woman abandons her husband, adopts his only son out without telling him and then thinks all will be forgiven because she knows how to turn on a fucking oven?

  “You’re just full of apologies for me aren’t you?” Magni crossed his arms and stared down the woman he was once so proud to call his own. Now he couldn’t stand the sight of her. Not because time wasn’t kind to her, and it wasn’t, but because now he could see Lori for the self-serving, manipulative sociopath she was. “How about you save ‘em and give them to my son?”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She pushed the door shut and set the cookies on his table then went to sit on his couch.

  He liked that damn couch too. Now he had to burn it.

  “I would love it if you and Joe would come to my house for dinner.” She smiled brightly, her sun darkened skin cracking into deep lines at the corners of her eyes. “It would be like we were a family. We could all get to know each other.”

  Magni held up one finger. “First of all, his name is Joel.” He held up another finger. “Second, I already know you Lori.” And it was one of the biggest regrets of his life.

  Lori tipped her head to one side. “I meant we could catch up. Learn what the other’s been up to for the last twenty-five years.” She looked past him down the hall. “I would love to hear how you’re doing.” She held her hand out, motioning around the room. “I mean you have a beautiful place here. And I discovered you’re making furniture.”

  “Yeah. I heard about that.” Magni stopped by the gallery yesterday after his meeting in Jerrik’s office with Craig and Joel. A meeting about her. If Lori thought she was the only one with information she was as stupid as she was selfish. Between Craig and Jerrik, Magni knew more than he cared to about the life she left him to live, including the place she’d spent her time at, since leaving Greenlea.

  It explained a lot.

  Lori straightened, obviously pleased he’d heard about her activities around town. “I bought one of your pieces.”

  “I heard about that too.” When Rhea told him what happened Magni’s first instinct was to hunt Lori down and take the table back from her. Then, after a few minutes of making a scene in the gallery, he decided to let her keep it. There was no way he’d give it to Christine after she’d had it and Lori’s money was as good as anyone else’s no matter how she made it.

  Maybe she could use the table to store all her glaucoma medications. Or maybe it was nerve pain or insomnia that required the state marijuana card California issued to a woman bearing a name strikingly similar to Lori’s maiden name.

  “Do you make the furniture here? I would love to see your shop.” Lori stood up. “Is it back this way?”

  Magni stretched his arm across the doorway leading past the kitchen toward his shop, blocking her path. “No one invited you here.” He squinted down at her. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t imagine anyone gave Lori any information on him at all. As far as he knew, the only person in town his ex-wife talked to besides him was Rhea and now that he thought about it that was probably by design. Lori seemed to have a specific goal in coming here. Running into someone who could identify her and tell Magni would have ruined the surprise of her arrival.

  That meant there was only one way for her to find him and it made Magni even more uneasy than her sitting on his couch.

  “How did you find this place?”

  Lori turned to him and slowly one shoulder lifted in a shrug.

  Magni narrowed his eyes at her. “How did you find out where I lived?”

  “I followed you home.”

  The admission made his stomach turn. “How long have you been in Greenlea?”

  “A few weeks.” She turned from the hallway he refused to let her explore and walked back through his house. “I got the letter from Craig a few months ago and had to tie up some loose ends in California before I could leave.

  “You mean sell your dope farm.”

  She stiffened almost imperceptibly. “Yes. I mean sell my medical marijuana business.” Lori turned to face him. “I decided to come back here. Make amends for the terrible things I did.”

  “I don’t want your amends. I don’t want your apologies. And I sure as hell don’t want your fucking cookies.” He pointed to the door. “Go back to California.”

  Lori shook her head. “No.” She tucked one hand in the back pocket of her faded jeans, jutting her hip out defiantly. “I’m staying. I bought a place and everything.”

  “Why?” What in the hell did she have to come back here for? Certainly the woman didn’t sell a business and move across the country because she thought he would take her back. Lori was acting like there was some significant reason for her to come back to Greenlea when there was nothing here for her. Hadn’t been in years.

  Lori tipped her chin up. “My nephew is her
e and after my sister died, God rest her, he needed someone to provide direction for him, for his life.”

  So the woman who abandoned her husband and their child to run a pot farm thought she was a person who should be providing direction to young kids? It was almost funny. Almost. “Then take him back with you.”

  Lori snorted. “You know, you’re making me feel better about leaving back then. Clearly my absence worked well for you and your little brunette.” She looked casually around the cabin. “Speaking of, how’s she feel about the fact that you have a wife?”

  If Magni was gasoline, then that was a match. Lighting the beast inside on fire with the blatant jab at his relationship with Christine. The insinuation that Lori and her sudden appearance would have any effect on what he had with Christine made Magni want to throw the pretentious bitch into one of the ravines he was sure she sat in all these years.

  He flung open the door and shoved his finger through the opening. “Get. Out.”

  “What in the hell is going on here?” Hagen stood on the porch with Christine and Rhea on his heels.

  Lori’s lips curved into a satisfied smile. “Just catching up.”

  Rhea shoved past her husband and stood beside Magni, her gaze trained on Lori. “No they weren’t.” Her brown eyes flashed, turning almost gold as they took in the woman before her. Christine came to stand by her side. An invisible wind lifted the dark strands of her hair and pushed Rhea’s out like a crimson halo as the women stared Lori down.

  Christine’s hand slipped into Rhea’s. A soft humming filled the cabin, growing quickly into an almost vibrating thrum that made his ears pop. Magni opened his jaw, trying to relieve the sudden pressure pushing in around him.

  Suddenly Lori doubled over, clutching her stomach. She looked up at the women, her eyes wild. “What’s happening?” She scratched at her arms, her short nails raking red lines into her skin. “Get them off me!” She started to screech, grabbing at her clothes, shaking the fabric. Then she froze. “Oh no.” Lori wrapped one arm around the back of her upper thighs and ran from the house.

  Hagen looked at Magni then down at the women. “What in the hell did you just do to her?”

  Rhea smoothed down the unruly waves of her hair. “Less than she deserved I can tell you that much.” She turned to Magni. “Are you ready?”

  He looked at Christine. Her eyes avoided his. After the unwanted visitor and what he just witnessed, Magni wasn’t in the mood to be ignored. He grabbed her hand and pulled her in close. She came easily, her soft body fitting against his. He leaned into her ear. “Someday I want you to tell me what just happened.”

  She gave him a small nod.

  It was impossible to tell if she was upset about whatever just went on or what was yet to come. “You don’t have to do this.”

  Christine’s eyes were closed as her head rested against his chest. “I know.” She turned her face into his shirt and took a long slow breath. “I want to.”

  Magni stroked his fingers through her hair, not quite ready to let her go yet. He didn’t want her to do this and if Christine gave him the tiniest inkling it wasn’t what she wanted he would pull the plug on the whole damn thing. He’d done it once, he would do it again. She needed to be taking it easy. Letting her body rest, not piling on one thing after another.

  The only solace he had was that Christine hadn’t gotten a call from her doctor. It had been a week since her test. That meant more than likely she’d be getting a letter any day telling her everything was fine. But until he saw it with his own eyes it would be in the back of his mind, chewing away. Driving him crazy with worry. Making him never want to leave her side.

  Magni blew out a breath. “Let’s get it over with then.”

  ****

  Christine stopped in front of a large, forked, white oak sitting against a small dip in the forest floor. She could feel the heaviness in the air, pressing in on all sides. Foreboding. Ominous. “This is it.”

  She didn’t have to ask. It was obvious.

  “Yeah.” Rhea stood at her side, staring up at the tree. “It’s funny, I wouldn’t have imagined it would feel this way here.”

  Hagen stepped close to his wife’s back. “What way is that?”

  Rhea shook her head. “It’s bad.”

  “You didn’t expect it to feel bad?” Hagen’s brow lowered in his obvious confusion.

  His wife shrugged. “This was a spot that I thought of in a good sort of way.” She leaned back against his chest. “Who knows how long it would have taken you to tie me to your bed if the bear didn’t force your hand.” She landed a soft elbow against his stomach.

  Christine closed her eyes as the vision of exactly what happened that night played out in her mind. The bear feeding on a dead deer. A doe who died giving birth. “That night had nothing to do with what’s happening now.”

  “You’re sure?” Hagen watched closely as Christine stepped forward.

  “Positive.” She took one quick breath and splayed her palm across the wide tree before she could talk herself out of it.

  Darkness instantly spun around her, grabbing at her, trying to pull her in. Never had anything hit her so fast or so hard. Christine fought for footing as it yanked at her body, trying to take her down into the inky blackness. She tried to scream but it sucked the air from her lungs. It was overwhelming. Consuming. Devastating.

  A strong arm wrapped around her waist, holding her tight against a wall that protected her from the evil sucking at her body, trying to pull her in. A wide hand covered hers on the tree.

  Christine’s vision cleared, the darkness falling away like ash dropping from the sky after a volcano erupts. She saw a man kneeling at the base of the tree. He was lighting candles around a pentagram scratched into the dirt repeating a chant in a language she couldn’t understand and didn’t dare repeat. “He’s calling to the devil.”

  An icy chill ran down her spine at the memory of the darkness Magni chased away. “And he’s succeeding.”

  Magni held her tighter, his presence providing some sort of protection for her against whatever evil was inside this tree. “Can you stop it?”

  Christine yanked her hand from the tree as a face she recognized flashed in her mind’s eye. “No.”

  Her hand tingled. She fisted it together, rubbing her fingers across her throbbing palm trying to ease both the discomfort in her body, and the one growing in her mind.

  “So what do we do?” Hagen looked at the tree. “What if we cut that fucker down?”

  Christine stepped away from the cursed tree. “It won’t help. He’ll simply move on to another location.” She swallowed the fear climbing up her throat. This was why she built the wall. Why she worked so hard to protect herself from the visions screaming to come to her.

  Because she saw things she didn’t want to see.

  Like Lori abandoning Magni with a baby in her belly.

  Like Hagen almost dying.

  And like what she saw today.

  “So we just stand around and do nothing?” Hagen’s voice carried through the quiet of the woods. “Why did you even come out here if you can’t tell us how to stop him?”

  Magni barely made it one step before his boots skidded to a stop, a wall of Rhea’s energy blocking him from advancing on his nephew.

  Rhea spun to face Hagen. “What is wrong with you?”

  Hagen stumbled back a step, one hand rubbing a spot in the middle of his chest.

  “You know damn well that’s not how this works.” Rhea’s voice was sharp as she shot a second ball of energy to the middle of her husband’s chest, knocking him back another step. “Is that what you think of me too?” Rhea’s head tipped back to stare into her husband’s face as she stepped up to his chest. “Because I can’t tell you how to stop him either.”

  She turned to Christine. “Tell him why.”

  Christine took a deep breath. “We aren’t the ones who are meant to stop him.”

  Rhea dropped the wall holding Magni in place
then turned to face him, putting her back to her husband. Magni glanced at Hagen then Christine. Rhea crossed her arms and shook her head at him and thumbed over her shoulder at Hagen. “I’ll handle this one.” She tipped her head to Christine.

  Magni gave Hagen one last dark look as he pulled Christine against his chest. She sagged against him. It had been years since she’d allowed herself to even peek over the wall and in the past three weeks she’d broken her self-imposed restriction more times than she could count. It was something she never thought would happen.

  But at least now it wasn’t just her. Now there was someone in her corner who understood and was ready to stand up for her, even against the man she loved most in this world. Christine turned her head to look at Rhea. If only she’d known how much Rhea would mean to her when she saw her all those years ago.

  Magni’s hand cupped the back of her head as he leaned down to brush his lips over her cheek. “Are you okay?”

  Christine nodded against the warm strength of his chest. Maybe Rhea wasn’t the only one in her corner. “Thank you.”

  Christine looked up at him. If Magni knew what he did it didn’t show. Honestly Christine didn’t even know how he was able to pull her to safety and clear the evil trying to block her vision.

  “I don’t want you doing this again.” His arms were tight around her back. She could feel Magni’s fear and regret even though her wall was firmly back in place.

  “I know.”

  He growled low in his chest. “That’s not an acceptable answer.”

  “I know.” She tucked closer. “But I won’t make you promises I know I can’t keep.” She tipped her head up to look at him without having to pull from the safety she felt in his arms. “If I have to do it, I will.”

  “Not without me.”

  He was bargaining with her. A man who liked to have his way, usually demanded it, was willing to give her this. A thing he hated for her to do. A thing he was scared for her to do. And was willing to protect her while she did.

  Maybe he knew more than she realized about what he did today.