Chapter 1
“What did you do?” Anona said, staring at Mirabelle and Matthew, fresh from their romantic rendezvous in the woods. Though Anona had warned them sex between two magical humans could have very powerful consequences, caution had obviously been thrown to the wind. The swirling purple portal a few feet in front of them was evidence to that fact, and had already swallowed at least one bird.
“Nothing.” Mirabelle stared at Anona, hands on her hips, both eyebrows in attack mode.
“Nothing? You are traipsing around the farm with your pants unbuttoned? And Matthew decided that shirtless in January was a good look. There is a portal in my front yard!” She yelled the last part, pointing at the purple spiral resting just above the herb garden. Anona inhaled sharply. “Get in the house and put some clothes on. I’m going to set up the old puppy corral around this so no more unsuspecting animals wander into another realm.” With their heads down, Mirabelle and Matthew ran inside.
“Did we do that?” Matthew asked in a hushed tone. The euphoria of their perfect first time together had quickly worn off, listening to Anona chide their behavior.
“Apparently.” Mirabelle buttoned her jeans. She wandered into her bedroom to grab a sweatshirt. The one she had been wearing was somewhere in the woods and now did not seem the most opportune time to retrieve it.
“I don’t understand how we opened a portal. We didn’t do a spell or anything.” Matthew continued.
“Yeah, but we had sex and Anona told me that might have, shall we say, side effects. I wasn’t really thinking about that, though. I was just thinking about how I needed to sleep with you as soon as possible.” Mirabelle paused. “Shit. It was probably because I had been at the High Court in the Fae Realm. When Blondie attacked me before I felt the same way, like I needed to be touching you.” Blondie, a rogue Fae, had kidnapped Mirabelle and tried to force her to marry him mere hours ago. She had managed to escape him, and the Fae Realm, by flying home on a broom, for the first time.
“We opened a portal by having sex? That is… very weird.” He said slowly. Mirabelle suddenly smacked her hand against her forehead.
“SHIT!” She screamed. She rushed into her room and grabbed her small desk calendar.
“Please don’t yell an expletive and then leave the room.” Matthew called after her, following her. Mirabelle flipped through the calendar violently.
“What day is it?” She demanded, coming to January.
“Uh, it’s the 30th, why?” Mirabelle scanned over the month looking for her red dot. January 3rd. Good.
“Anona had said something to me once about sleeping with a warlock and most birth control not working against that kind of magical meeting, especially on any day with natural significance, and I was apparently in the Fae realm for three days, so I am behind on my birth control, so I started worrying I might be pregnant, but I think I’m fine. I’m way past ovulating.” She rambled.
“WHAT?” It was Matthew’s turn to yell. He collapsed onto her bed and rested his head against his hands.
“This isn’t happening.” He mumbled, rubbing his forehead.
“I’m sure we’re fine. Here,” Mirabelle opened her bedside table and pulled out her birth control. “Look, I’ll take two pills right now, two tomorrow, and be right as rain. I should be getting my period in a few days, so we’re fine. We’re fine. We’re fine.” She said over and over.
“Repeating it doesn’t make it true.” Matthew reached for her hand and kissed her palm.
“Get out of Mirabelle’s bedroom!” Anona yelled from the kitchen. “I think one portal is enough for today, don’t you?”
“We were not doing anything!” Mirabelle answered, channeling her most annoying twelve-year-old voice. The two trudged out, arms crossed. “See! Everyone is clothed.” Anona was wrangling Selkie and Brownie in the kitchen. As outdoor dogs, they were rarely invited inside, but a portal in the front yard was reason enough.
“The sheep and Elsie are in the barn, but I want to keep the dogs and Hedgie in the house until we get this all sorted.” Anona paused. “I am going to call Dottie because I assume whatever happened is beyond my skills. In my studies of Nature Witchcraft, I’ve never come across how to close a portal to another realm. And, as a Muse, I don’t think I can inspire it away.”
“Can anything come through it?” Matthew asked, looking to the sisters for answers.
“No idea.” Anona said, then glanced at Mirabelle. “I am going to guess that you are a Traveler Witch and you were in another realm.”
“I was. Blondie somehow chased me into an open portal in the woods. I was at the High Court. And guess what? They really don’t like witches, and are slightly terrified of us, which may work to our advantage.”
“I want to hear all about it, but first, get your Traveler book you’ve been going on about. I’m calling Dottie. Hopefully she can get here quickly with a plethora of books, spells, charms, crystals, herbs, and whatever else might close this portal before another unsuspecting animal or human wanders into it.”
Mirabelle skimmed the portions she hadn’t yet read of Johannah’s book, A Traveler’s Guide to the Realms. Usually, she didn’t give much explanation to how she got to the realms, just what they were like once she got there. Her first experience out of the human realm was much like Mirabelle’s; she simply ran into it accidentally. But there was a chapter on the Dark Court that Mirabelle had yet to come across with a somewhat helpful tidbit.
I found the yew tree in an otherwise empty field just as Elrandwn told me I would.
Placing both hands against the trunk of this foreboding tree, I spoke that single word:
Open. The next moment, I was sauntering into the darkest of the Fae Courts.
Mirabelle didn’t remember saying the word open. Nor did she have any memory of Matthew saying it either. It would be a strange thing to call out during a moment of passion, but she supposed it may have happened.
Maybe there was another magic word one of them had said. They were pressed against a tree, after all. Mirabelle wasn’t quite sure what kind of tree it was, but Matthew might remember. He did give her a nice speech about how he would visit the tree daily to pay homage to their crazy outdoor winter sex.
“Well! It seems the prophecies, my prophecies, are coming to light,” Dottie burst through the door announcing this. She was dressed in an ankle length parka wearing a plastic kerchief over her newly curled hair like she was 85, not 55. She slipped off her plain white tennis shoes, revealing bright blue socks. Under her parka, she wore a blue and orange knit sweater with a black cat on it, and a gray wool skirt.
“Hi Dottie. I am glad to see you didn’t get sucked into the portal looming over my garden.” Anona said, giving her mentor a hug.
“No, no! I steered clear of that little obstacle.” She turned to Mirabelle and Matthew. “Well, if it isn’t the lovebirds! Hopefully the portal is the only life changing consequence you have to contend with from today’s actions!” Dottie burst out laughing, and surprisingly, so did Anona. Matthew looked like he might cry.
“Let’s begin!” Dottie exclaimed. She handed Matthew a large briefcase. “I had two books on portals, three on other realms, and one entitled, ‘Spells for the Odd Occurrence.’ Thought that might have something in there. Time to dig in!”
Anona had cleared every surface in the kitchen and living room to make way for research. Mirabelle tackled one of the portal books called, “Portals to Other Realms: What to Explore, What to Avoid.” She thought this might at least give them an inkling as to where the portal led. She would be much less worried about a confused Sylph falling into the Human Realm than say, a Dragon.<
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Anona and Dottie were digging through the “Spells for the Odd Occurrence” book every so often coming up with a strange fact.
“How to Reverse a Curse on a member of the bovine family.” Anona laughed. “I think that is my favorite yet.”
Through it all, Matthew continued to have an ashen look, but was helpful in both guarding the portal from any animals or humans that might wander towards it, as well as glancing wistfully at Mirabelle.
“The strangest thing about it all is that a portal opened. I’ve heard of many odd things… coming to pass after the… joining of two magical people.” Dottie treaded lightly. “But never this. Mirabelle is clearly a Traveler Witch, but I’ve never come across any information over Traveler Warlocks. I did not think they existed. Perhaps Mirabelle is such a powerful Traveler Witch that she opened the portal on her own?”
“That was a very delicate way of saying we screwed in the forest.” Mirabelle huffed. “I’m going to go look at the tree. I need to figure out if the kind of tree it was had anything to do with the opening of the portal.”
Mirabelle threw on her coat and hat, trudging out of the house. She wanted a break from Dottie and Anona’s, perhaps not disapproving, but most definitely judge-y stares. The cold air stung her cheeks, this time. Clearly her time in the Fae Realm had worn off. She couldn’t imagine ripping her clothes off for some fun with Matthew right now. She would prefer a warm bed.
“Where are you going?” Matthew called after her, when she passed him without a word.
“To find that tree. We haven’t found anything remotely useful yet. Who knows, maybe there are some runes carved on it by some witch of old.” She answered without turning around.
“Mirie, wait up. I’ll come with you.” Matthew jogged to catch her. “Please don’t be mad at me,” he said, wrapping his gloved hand over her bare one.
“I’m not mad at you. I am annoyed at Anona. And at Dottie. And at the fact that a portal opened when we had sex. This is definitely not one of the perks of my witchhood.” Matthew burst out laughing and pressed a kiss against her forehead.
“I believe our relationship just got much more complicated.” He pulled her against his chest. “We’ll make it work,” he said seriously, staring at her. “No matter what.”
Matthew had apparently been needed on this trip, as Mirabelle could not remember even what part of the forest they had been in, while he walked directly to the tree, Mirabelle’s sweatshirt and Matthew’s coat and hat in a rumpled pile near the roots. They circled it a few times, found no strange markings, then backed up to take in the whole thing.
It was a strange looking tree. As Mirabelle looked at the surroundings, she noticed there weren’t any other trees like it.
“Do you know what kind of tree it is?” Mirabelle questioned. She clearly did not. Anona had mentioned a wonderful book about the magical nature of trees that Mirabelle simply had to read, but between her recent travels to the High Court and the several other tomes Anona had assigned, she simply had not gotten a chance to even look at the table of contents.
“Well, it’s not oak, maple, willow, or ash.” Matthew walked around the tree again. “I think it might be an elder tree. We don’t have any on our property. Are they significant in some way?”
“Probably,” Mirabelle answered, “but honestly, it seems like everything is now.”
“Elder tree, does that change anything?” Mirabelle interrupted Anona and Dottie who were having a tea and cookies break while taking turns petting Hedgie.
“Actually, it does,” Dottie stood up and grabbed one of the books. “I think I know where the portal goes.” She flipped through a couple pages, then a huge smile spread across her face. “The Elves! The portal is to the Elven Realm!”
“Oh, thank heavens.” Anona exclaimed, hand on her heart. “There could not be a more benign realm, as far as I’ve read.”
“Are they like the Fae?” Mirabelle asked quizzically, her arms crossed. She had no plans to cross paths with another creature like the Fae anytime soon.
“No, not at all. They are basically, the purest of all the creatures. They are all about healing and meditation and academics. They never engage in wars with other creatures; we are very lucky.” Dottie explained.
“No Dragons, no Trolls, no evil Faeries - we hit the portal jackpot!” Anona jumped off the couch and twirled about. “No murderous creatures are going to start pouring onto the lawn!”
“Yeah, but we still need to figure out how to close it, right?” Matthew broke in.
“Sure, but now it’s not a dire necessity. And that poor bird isn’t going to be immediately gobbled up by some beast on the other side.” Anona paused. “I’m going to make dinner.”
Chapter 2
In celebration, Anona prepared a delicious feast. Chicken with Herbs de Provence and sweet carrots, homemade sage biscuits with squares of melting butter, and crispy roasted kale with garlic were spread across the kitchen table within the hour. Sometimes Mirabelle wondered if Anona also had some dormant culinary powers she had yet to discover.
“This is truly delicious, Anona.” Matthew complimented. “Thank you for inviting me to stay.”
“The guy that’s sleeping with my sister? Always welcome!” Anona laughed. Both she and Dottie were several glasses of wine deep, causing them to cackle like true witches and lose some of their inhibitions. Matthew blushed and looked down at his food. Mirabelle rolled her eyes. She wondered how long she would have to endure torment over accidentally opening a portal with her boyfriend. Probably longer than twenty-four hours.
“Now! Mirabelle, you must tell me,” Dottie winked at her over her wine glass. “Was it a grand deflowering that led to this portal being opened?”
Mirabelle nearly spit out her food with the question. She felt her face turn beet red and tried to find Matthew’s eyes, but they were affixed to his plate in front of him. Anona and Dottie were still giggling like school children, completely blind to the uncomfortable situation Dottie had placed Mirabelle, and Matthew, in.
“Excuse me.” Mirabelle finally said quietly. “I think I want to check on the animals.” In a flash, she was dressed in her coat and protection scarf, and out the door.
Mirabelle ran to the barn, wishing she could run away from the embarrassment that overwhelmed her. What did Dottie want her to say? Admit that it wasn’t her first time in front of everyone, or admit that it was? What a terrible position to be put in, especially in front of Matthew. She reached the barn, grabbed one of the flashlights inside the door, and walked over to pat the sheep. Lemon, Lime, and Clementine were surprised to see her, but accepted their pats on the head, and then slid back into their pile.
“Mirie?” Matthew called, pushing open the door.
“Yeah, I’m in here.” She set the flashlight down on the bench, pointing upwards, bathing the ceiling in light.
“Sorry Dottie said that. She’s pretty far gone right now; doubt she’ll remember it in the morning.” He reached out to her, sneaking his arm around her shoulder.
“It’s fine. Just terribly embarrassing.” She admitted. “I mean, you know that wasn’t my, you know, first time. I already made a big deal of telling you that I much prefer you to James…” she trailed off. This conversation was not going as well as she had hoped.
“Yeah. I know. It’s fine.” Matthew said shortly. “I don’t really want to think about you with other guys, but I know.” He released her, and walked across the barn. That simple movement made Mirabelle feel so awfully alone and abandoned, she almost started crying. He stopped walking away from her and looked her straight in the eye.
“Speaking of embarrassment, here goes,” he inhaled. “So Dottie said, after you left, the reason she asked, is that, well, she had heard of crazier things happening during a witch’s… loss of maidenhead. And well, I don’t have a maidenhead, but yeah, that was a loss of something for me.”
Mirabelle stood for a moment in incomprehension. What did Matthew just say? The wor
ds played in her mind over and over until she finally came to the conclusion.
“Oh!” She exclaimed, then quickly replaced it with, “No.”
“No?” Matthew repeated.
“No, that’s not possible.” She continued. “It’s not.”
“I should hope I would know,” Matthew laughed. “It was my first time, I swear.”
“No way.” She insisted, “It was… you know, you were there… fantastic. There’s no way you would have… performed like that,” her face was quickly returning to that shade of deep red. “Not to say that I have a wealth of experience to compare it to, but no. There’s no way. That sort of display must have taken years to perfect.”
“Thank you for the compliment, sweetheart. Honestly, it ran through my head several times that I never thought I would be losing my virginity while pinning my girlfriend against a tree, in January, in Pennsylvania. I definitely thought it would play out in the couch or bed scenario.”
“I’m sorry. You probably also didn’t think you would have a sex-crazed witch girlfriend fall out of the Fae Realm and attack you in the woods.”
“I definitely did not think that, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” A goofy smiled spread across his face. “Well, it’s good to know that I bring that out in you. And as soon as we figure out how to not open portals with our relations, I look forward to the next one.” He stepped in and kissed her quickly, too fast to get anything really building. “Let’s go inside. The drunk witches in the kitchen probably need help cleaning up.”
“Fine, fine. But I am going to wake up both of them early tomorrow with loud noises and bright lights to irritate their hangovers.”
“Deal. And please don't tell them about me.” Matthew pleaded.
“You don’t want to have an in-depth conversation with my sister and her mentor, the seer who dresses like a second-grade teacher, about what effects the realm might feel due to your… de-stemming?”
“I would rather not.” He said, playfully grabbing her waist.
The Traveler Witch (Sister Witches Book 2) Page 1
