by Raven Snow
“I’ve got it ringing.” Rose’s words drew Rowen from her thoughts. She sat down beside her cousin and looked at the still image of Julia Martinez’s headshot as the computer phone rang. She looked awfully pretty in it. Her cheekbones were high, her dark skin flawlessly smooth. Even the waves of her hair were perfect.
The person who answered the web call was considerably less perfect. Julia Martinez had her hair up in rollers and a cigarette hanging from her mouth. This was all made worse by the fact that she appeared to still be inside of the hospital. “Please don’t tell me you’re just calling because you’re mad we scooped you.”
“You didn’t scoop us!” Rowen snapped.
Rose remained more level-headed. “We’re not mad about you reporting. It’s more about what you’re reporting. I especially don’t like you putting out that information about my mother.”
Julia’s harsh expression softened. She took the cigarette from her lips. It didn’t appear to be lit, so at least there was that. Maybe she just liked having it even if she couldn’t light it. “Look, it isn’t anything personal. It’s just news. News is news, right? I’m not accusing her of anything.”
“Except of having an affair with Darren Hawthorne,” Rose returned.
“Which is public record, isn’t it? She handed over the video herself. She and Seraphina were close. That’ll come out in her favor. Don’t you worry.”
“I shouldn’t have had to.” Rowen felt anger welling up within her. She couldn’t help it. Rose had been so excited about how well they were working together. To have Julia just betray her like this was so unfair. “Besides, I think you forget that we have quite a bit of info on you and your relationship with Mr. Hawthorne. We never saw fit to drag that through the mud.”
Julia’s eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t,” she said. “Your crew isn’t made up of that kind of people.”
“You’re right,” Rose agreed immediately. She could have at least let the threat hang there for a little while. “But it might be difficult not to spin some… similar story out of you and Hawthorne. The one we would write would be even more convincing than yours, I imagine.”
“What do you mean?” Julia lowered her voice so that the people working around her on location couldn’t listen in.
“My mother was still having an affair with Mr. Hawthorne. I have it on good authority that you were still having an affair with the same man.” It was a bold risk, especially from Rose. They knew that her mother had still been sleeping with Mr. Hawthorne. They didn’t know if Julia was still seeing him. She had been before, when there was something in it for her, so it felt like a decent guess. She had been beside herself when he’d had a heart attack and she had certainly seemed to hold some feelings for him beyond business at the time. “Wanting to get his ex out of the way so she can’t take all the money sounds like a good idea to me. It sounds like a less likely idea if the person having an affair was close with Seraphina.”
Julia’s face had drained of color. It looked like Rose was on to something. “Who told you that? It’s a lie.”
“We have our sources. Besides, it’s a small town.” Geez, Rose really could grow a backbone when she needed it. It was nice to see how defensive she could be of her family.
Julia dropped the act. “Look, I didn’t do anything. I was here with Darren the whole night, except the camera probably won’t show that. He woke up and told me to go get some rest.”
“So you weren’t there all night.” It was semantics, but Rowen couldn’t resist teasing Julia a little. After such a long rivalry between them, she’d earned it.
“You know what I mean.” Julia rolled her eyes. “The point is that I didn’t have Seraphina murdered. I love my job. I wouldn’t have it put on the line for something like that. I certainly wouldn’t have done it as a favor to Darren.”
Rowen believed that. Julia was the sort of person to put her own needs first. She wasn’t about to do something that might derail her career for a man. “Well, then just drop the interview.”
“I can’t do that,” Julia did sound apologetic now. “I mean, I could. It would raise suspicions, though. Better to have a nice, short interview with Lydia that’s boring.”
“Good luck with that.” Rose groaned. Lydia couldn’t be boring if she tried. “Why did you do this anyway? I thought we had a good thing going.”
Julia actually cringed at this. “I’m sorry. I may have panicked a bit. I needed to do something to take the heat off of my boss some.”
Rowen wasn’t sure she had heard that right. “Take the heat off of Mr. Hawthorne? He was in the hospital all night.”
Julia nodded. “He had a lot of meetings, though. Made some phone calls. I trust you won’t write about this yet, but I’m afraid that someone might start pointing fingers at him.”
Well, that was a surprise. Rowen pondered the implications for a moment. Was Mr. Hawthorne the sort to hire someone to kill his own wife just so he could keep money he considered his? She wasn’t sure. It seemed possible. “So, can we agree to a cease fire?” she asked.
“Should have been that way since the beginning. I’m sorry.” Julia did truly look repentant. These things were just in her nature. It was probably what made her so good at her job.
“Call me the next time you have something,” said Rose. “Let’s try to work together on this. It sounds like we both have quite a bit of vested interest here.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Julia’s finger hovered near the disconnect button. “Let me know if there are any developments. I’ll do the same for you.” The screen cut off before anyone could say their goodbyes.
“I still don’t trust that woman,” Rowen grumbled.
“You don’t have to trust her or even like her. It’s not like she wants to be your friend. She keeps things as business, which I can appreciate.”
“You would rather she be your friend.”
“I would much prefer another friend.”
Rowen chuckled. She knew her cousin so well. Under all the show and bravado, she really was insecure and looking for approval. “Well, I don’t think she’s going to screw us over again.”
“No,” Rose agreed. She closed her laptop and set it aside. “We’re going to brief my mom on what to say during this interview of hers.”
“Yeah, sure. Good luck with that.” Rowen wasn’t committing to anything of the sort. “What we should do is make sure everything is ready for the ritual.”
This was undoubtedly the most important thing they could be doing. After ticking off the Greensmith family guardians once, none of them were keen to do it a second time. “You’re right.” Rose made sure that her robe was sashed tight and stood. The lights were already beginning to grow dim outside. “Are you sure this is all right?” she asked, no doubt referring to the fact that they weren’t doing this particular ritual sky clad. It had always been a tradition. The Greensmith family presented themselves to their guardians the way they had come into this world. Eric, of course, hadn’t taken too kindly to the idea. He didn’t like the idea of helping in this at all as it was. “One step at a time,” said Rowen. That was really all she could hope for.
“If they’re mad at us, the best course of action would be to give them exactly what they want.”
“So, let’s get Ben down here. I’m sure he wouldn’t be bothered by any of this. He’s super comfortable with everything this family does, right?”
“Point taken.” Rose made sure her laptop was safely set aside before heading out into the back. The rest of the family was already out there. Aunts Nadine and Lydia were circling about in the grass, making sure the candles were all an appropriate distance apart. Willow followed close behind them, holding a lighter and looking impatient to get started. Eric stood by himself, his arms folded over his chest as Peony tried her very best to be reassuring. “It’s just a really great sign that you’re here. It lends more energy and shows a certain kind of respect, you know? You have to have that respect when you’re trying to k
iss and make up with ancient entities.”
“No pressure or anything.”
“Right.” Peony gave him a smile and pat on the back. “No pressure.”
Rowen went to her husband’s free side. She reached down and gave his hand a squeeze. “I really do appreciate that you’re doing this for us.”
“Well, I am part of the family, right?” He leaned down to give her a kiss, but the rest of the family interrupted them.
“All right!” called Aunt Lydia. “Places!”
“Let me lead this,” hissed Aunt Nadine. She didn’t give a reason why, but everyone had to know Aunt Lydia had been largely responsible for the dissolution of their last ritual.
Aunt Lydia frowned at being run off from a job she enjoyed. She really liked leading these things. “Fine. Fine.” She stepped away from Nadine to stand facing her.
Aunt Nadine relaxed her posture. “As you all already know, we are here to try and attempt to set things right with our family guardians. They have been so good to us in the past, and all they ask is that we show them the respect they are due on occasion. If everyone would like to face the moon with me, we will begin. This is not our traditional garb for this sort of thing, but we have a new face with us tonight. I do hope that his mode of dress is not too offensive.”
Eric glanced at Rowen, raising an eyebrow. She pointedly didn’t look at him. It wasn’t like there was anything he could do about it now. Besides, Rowen had always had this feeling that the sky clad thing was more a choice made a generation or two back, when free love was more in vogue. Rowen didn’t think the spirits actually minded whether they were wearing clothing or not. It was enough that they were there.
Aunt Nadine started in with her whole spiel. It was a speech that had been repeated since Rowen had been just a girl. She knew it forwards and back and probably could have repeated it from memory herself should the need ever arise. It was standard stuff, thanking each guardian individually. There were unseen guardians for each of the elements. There were faeries and trolls and newts. Rowen could sense Eric shifting a bit with secondhand embarrassment, but that didn’t matter either. Everyone else there believed. They had been brought up around it. Having one doubter around wasn’t going to change anything.
Suddenly, the wind picked up. The Greensmiths all gave startled shrieks and clutched their robes tighter. All except Aunt Lydia. She spread her arms wide, letting the wind take her robe. “See? I told you! They expect us to be sky clad! Everyone undress!”
“I’d really rather not,” muttered Eric, looking at his wife.
Rowen wasn’t going to force her husband to do anything he wasn’t comfortable with, but she didn’t want to draw the family’s attention to him either. “It might just be some unrelated bad weather. Aunt Nadine, keep going!”
The timing seemed too odd for the shift in weather to be coincidental. Still, Aunt Nadine gave it a shot. She raised her voice and did her best to speak around the gusts sweeping in from directly in front of them. “We extend our apologies to any spirits we have offended. Today, we bring offerings of—” She shrieked. The offerings were a bottle of wine and loaf of bread that were swept from the table mid-sentence. The wine shattered against the tree.
“We should get inside,” said Margo, already hurrying that way.
“Wait!” Rowen called after her. Running away from their problems wouldn’t improve things. They needed to try and settle this now.
“She’s right!” Eric caught Rowen by the arm and guided her toward the back door. The rest of the family followed despite Rowen’s complaints
“How is this going to help?” Rowen grumbled, looking through the window at where the wind had overturned a table they had been using to keep their offerings on.
“Maybe we needed better offerings,” Aunt Lydia mused on her way by to collect a towel. “I knew we should have brought out the good stuff.”
“That was the good stuff,” Aunt Nadine snapped back at them. “Though there was nicer stuff in the cellar. I suppose we could have used that.”
“I don’t think it’s that.” Peony’s eyes were still on the back door. “I think they’re just not ready to forgive us yet. The spirits are holding a grudge.”
“Spirits hold grudges?” asked Eric.
“Better than Willow can hold a grudge sometimes.” Peony glanced back at her sister.
Willow nodded as if agreeing with her. “That’s true, and I can hold a pretty mean grudge.”
“So, what now?” asked Eric. He must have assumed that they would know better than he would.
Unfortunately, Peony could only shrug. “We just wait a little longer. We try again tomorrow.”
“But Seraphina could lose interest and wander away by then,” Lydia complained.
Nadine nodded in agreement. “We could still get the good stuff out of the cellar.
Rowen and the rest of her cousins had to talk them both down from doing that. “We’ll wait,” she said.
“In the meantime, we’ve got a whole lot of work to do on the writing front.” Rose motioned her cousins’ way.
Rowen also stepped out of the room, but she did so with Eric. She had some things she wanted to say to him, but she didn’t have to actually verbalize them. He seemed to pick them out on his own. “You think this was somehow my fault.” It wasn’t a question. Eric had somehow gathered as much by simply watching Rowen. “What possible reason could you have for it being my fault?”
Rowen winced. She hated to throw Eric under the bus, but she didn’t see any other likely scenarios right in front of her nose. “Well, you’re not exactly much of a believer in all this sort of stuff.”
“Is that some kind of a requirement?” It never had been before.
Normally, Rowen would have said no. Of course it wasn’t his fault the magic hadn’t gone like anyone had expected. More power was just more power, right? It didn’t actually matter if the person supplying it believed in what they were doing or not. “I don’t know,” Rowen admitted. “It might have had something to do with it.”
Eric gave a groan. He might have thrown his robe on the floor had he not remembered it was the only thing he was wearing. “So, what? Am I supposed to walk around naked for you now?”
As nice as that sounded, Rowen knew that he didn’t mean it quite like that. “I’m not saying that! Well…maybe I am.”
“Why don’t you get Flint around here then?” That was a low blow. As soon as Eric said it, he looked to regret it. He’d already committed to the insult, though. There was no point in just letting it hang there. “I’m sure he’s all sorts of devoted to this sort of thing. He’d waltz around naked all day if you asked him to.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rowen had been nervous about some jealousy on Eric’s part. Even so, she found herself reflexively playing dumb. “He’s a friend. He’s just trying to help.”
The sound of Aunt Lydia slamming her fist down on her palm made them both jump. She had put her robe back on and was standing there, looking into the distance as if she had just had some sort of epiphany. “That’s it! The magic didn’t work because he was here!”
“What?” Rowen couldn’t believe this was going there of all places. “Aunt Lydia, his family doesn’t, like, have a vendetta against us anymore. Remember when we rode home together? He was a sweet guy then, and he’s a sweet guy now. He didn’t come here with anyone else. It’s all business.”
“That sounds like something his family would say.” Aunt Lydia nodded to herself as if she had just found another convincing bit of proof to file away for later.
“It’s way more likely we just offended a spirit,” Rowen insisted. “After what happened last time, it looks to me like they’re holding a grudge.”
“You’ll know better tomorrow anyway, won’t you?” asked Eric. Rowen was surprised to hear him standing up for Flint. Just the same, Aunt Lydia relented. “What is your family’s deal with them anyway?” he asked, unable to request a more complete story.
&nb
sp; Rowen didn’t think it was a very interesting story, but she supposed she did owe Eric more of an explanation. “They’ve just been rivals for years.” She thought that was obvious. Hadn’t they mentioned it by now already? “Popular opinion was that Flint wanted to marry me just to get a rise out of his parents. They thought he was just using me for a bit of fun, and they were easy to offend back then. Heck, they’re easy to offend now.”
“But you were in love.” Bless his heart, Eric really was trying to wrap his head around all of this as best he could.
Even with all these years between her and it, Rowen still felt uncomfortable spilling the whole story when only half of it belonged to her. “We really cared about each other, but it was complicated.”
“I thought you were over there arguing like it was so easy to understand.”
“Well, why don’t we just have Flint over for dinner one of these days?” That sounded like the easiest way out. “How does that sound? We have our own place, and there isn’t anything my family can do about it. We’ll have a nice dinner. I’ll make it clear to him that no subject is off limits as far as I’m concerned, and you two can have at it.”
Eric pursed his lips. He looked out the window, where Rowen’s cousins were all dashing about, trying to get the things the wind had scattered. The tablecloth had gotten stuck rather high up in the branches of an oak tree. “I don’t know.”
“I think it’s the only way you’ll feel better.”
“Who says I feel bad now?”
Rowen gave her husband a once over. It had been a while since she had seen him this tense. Something had him feeling insecure. If not this then something directly related.
“Fine,” Eric relented. “But this still sounds pointless to me. I just want to put that out there.”
