Soothsayer: Magic Is All Around Us (Soothsayer Series Book 1)

by Allison Sipe

  My camera had been hanging around my neck so I reached down and turned it on. I adjusted the shutter speed, white balance, and ISO ratio so I could capture the cellar just as it was without a flash.

  Matthew sat down on a large crate against the wall and started telling me all about the cellar and how it was built. Pride and affection laced his every word.

  I roamed the room taking pictures of every nook and cranny. I let my hand graze over a few bottles of wine when suddenly everything shifted.

  Matthew stood next to me placing bottles on a shelf. I waved my hand in front of his face but he didn’t see me. I walked around the shelf to where he’d been sitting just a moment ago, but the crate was empty. When I returned he was still stacking bottles and whistling to himself.

  “Hey stranger,” a familiar voice said behind me.

  Matthew looked up and a knowing smile spread across his face. “Fancy meeting you here,” he said walking past me.

  I turned around to see who had caught Matthew’s attention.

  “Brett?” I blurted, my eyes bulging out of my head.

  Neither one of them acknowledged me as Matthew picked Brett up and kissed her.

  “You’ll never guess what’s happened,” she said as he placed her back on her feet. “We found her, we found The Waker.”

  Just like that, I was once more standing there with my hand frozen on a bottle of wine. Matthew continued chattering away about the cellar’s history. I walked toward him, where he was sitting on the crate again.

  What the hell just happened? And was Matthew like Robert? Did he know something about this whole Waker business?

  I looked back at the rack of bottles and then where Matthew and Brett had been standing just a moment ago.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” Matthew asked, hopping off the crate and walking toward me.

  “Nothing, I just thought…” I paused. What did I think? This wasn’t the first time I spaced and saw something strange; seemingly every time Robert touched me my imagination went into hyper drive. But this, this was different. It wasn’t a memory or a daydream, so what gives? What was happening to me?

  “Violet?” Matthew asked, placing his hand on my shoulder.

  “Yeah, I just thought I saw something,” I said, shaking off the image of him and Brett.

  Matthew’s brow creased and he looked down at me with those big green eyes. His expression was serious but there was a calmness that radiated off of him. As I looked up at him, I heard Brett's words echo in my head, 'We found her, we found The Waker.' My lungs contracted and an overwhelming need for fresh air gripped me.

  “I got everything I need down here. Why don’t we head back up,” I suggested, looking toward the exit.

  “Right, let’s go on up then,” he replied, giving me a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

  I didn’t say another word as I followed him back the way we’d come. I couldn’t shake off the image of him and Brett together. I wanted to ask if he knew the Maxwells but was too afraid of what his answer might be, and in turn what that would mean for me.

  As we walked up the stairs, I studied Matthew in front of me. Was it possible he was like Robert? Nothing about him indicated he had any special abilities, but I hadn’t noticed anything different about Robert the first time we met either.

  “Just crazy,” I said under my breath.

  “What’s that?” Matthew asked as he extended his hand to help pull me up the last few steps.

  “Nothing, just talking to myself,” I replied, shaking my head.

  “Self-talker.” He chuckled. “Me too, keeps me from going crazy.”

  A shaky laugh escaped my throat and I took a deep breath as the fresh air hit me, “I think all the talking to myself might actually be making me crazy.”

  “You seem pretty normal to me,” he said, looking back at me with his playful grin firmly in place.

  “Great, I must really be nuts then,” I laughed off the jitters and we hopped back in the Gator. If Matthew was like Robert and he did know something about The Waker, I sure as hell wasn't going to bring it up while I was alone with him. He may be close to Brett, but that didn't mean I could trust him.

  “You’re too good looking to be crazy.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and a few strands of hair fell out of his ponytail and across his eyes.

  We both laughed and joked around the rest of the way up the hill. Keep your friends close and enemies closer, I thought. Either way, I wasn't going to let on that I knew anything and really what did I know? It was late afternoon by the time we parked and a soft glow of light sat over the whole winery. I walked around the top of the hill, getting pictures at different angles. The fields looked like long, elegant fingers splayed across the grounds. The staggering size of the estate played out before us. Matthew had talked about how large this place was but seeing it from above was magnificent.

  “Alright, I think I’ve got everything,” I declared, heading back toward Matthew, who waited patiently by the Gator. He looked so at ease, leaning back, sipping on a bottle of water, that I couldn’t help myself. I lifted my camera and took a quick picture. “Okay, now I have everything.”

  “Hey, I wasn’t ready for my close up,” he said and spilled water down the front of his shirt as he sat up.

  “You’ll never be more ready than you are when you’re unprepared.”

  “That’s actually kinda deep,” he said, raising an eyebrow my direction.

  “Not just a pretty face,” I laughed. He turned the key over and we headed back down the hill.

  We made much better time coming down than we did going up. I hadn’t realized how many stops we’d made along the way.

  It was just after five-thirty when we arrived back at my car. Matthew helped me put all my gear in the backseat. I held onto my camera so I could get a few shots of the interior and grabbed my laptop off the front seat so I could put everything together for Mrs. Deardon.

  “Thank you so much for all your help today,” I said to Matthew.

  “It was my pleasure, Violet,” he said, touching my shoulder for just a second.

  “The pleasure was all mine. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. And you have no idea how much I needed it.” I waved as he walked back to the Gator. A feeling of ease and calmness washed over me. Despite my reservations toward Matthew after the cellar, I had to admit, he was a nice guy and it was really nice spending the day with him.

  I walked inside, set my computer on the bar and pressed the power button. While it booted up I walked around taking pictures of the interior. I made sure to get a few pictures of the beautifully intricate sign hanging above the front desk as well as pictures of the wine bottles, labeled and ready for purchase.

  Once I got everything I needed I sat down at the bar and popped the memory card in my computer. I went through the hundreds of pictures, quickly cropping and editing the ones I liked and passing over the ones I didn’t. I paused when I got to the picture of Matthew. Cropping it a little I saved it to my desktop so I could add it to my collection of candid’s later. By the time I finished going through everything and doing my first round of editing, it was just after seven. Satisfied with what I had produced, I grabbed my computer and headed around the front desk to the back office.

  “Mrs. Deardon, I have everything for you to take a look at,” I announced as I walked into the back room.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got,” she said, motioning for me to come in and have a seat.

  I stepped into the office, and to my horror found Robert standing toward the back of the room, leaning against a stack of boxes. A jolt of emotions went through me, half furious to see him and the other half, the stupid half, delighted. I chastised myself for being excited; there was no reason for me to be happy to see him. And how did he know I was here anyway?

  “You? What are you doing here?” I asked, dropping the professionalism.

  “I needed to talk to Meredith about a few things,” Robert said, perfectly innocent.
Like him being here was just a coincidence, right.

  At the mention of Meredith’s name, I realized she was watching us from her seat behind her desk. I took a deep breath and turned toward her, trying to regain control.

  “When you’re done, I have everything ready for you to take a look at.” I turned and started to leave.

  “I’ll let you ladies work,” Robert said and stopped me. “I’m going to see if I can find Matty.” He stood and motioned for me to take the floor.

  “Matty? You mean, Matthew?” I asked, sitting down.

  “The one and only. I haven’t seen him in a while. Thought I’d say hi and catch up while I wait for you.”

  “Wait for me?”

  Robert cleared his throat. “Yeah, Annabel dropped me off. I figured I would just catch a ride back with you,” he said with a charming smile. He knew I wasn’t going to start a fight and argue with him in front of Meredith.

  “Fine. I’ll meet you out front.” I gave him a look that made sure he knew I wasn’t happy about this.

  He gave me a charming smile in exchange for my glare and then turned his attention to Mrs. Deardon. “It’s been good talking to you, Meredith. Please give Scott my best.”

  “I will. He’ll be thrilled to hear the news,” she said with a nod.

  “And I’ll see you in a bit,” Robert said, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze as he walked out the side door.

  “Alright,” Meredith said when Robert had left the room, “let’s see what you’ve got.”

  I suppressed a huff of distaste and returned to my professional demeanor. I had work to do.

  Putting my computer on her desk I turned it so we could both see the screen. We went through all the pictures I’d selected and Mrs. Deardon tagged the ones she wanted prints of. It didn’t take long to go through all the photos and I was proud of the job I had done. Some of the photos I had taken, especially the ones from the top of the hill, were so beautiful I planned on putting them in my portfolio. Meredith had said at the beginning of the day that she wanted the pictures to have a magical, romantic feel to them and it didn’t take much effort on my part for them to portray that perfectly.

  “You really have a gift,” Meredith said when we’d finished.

  “Thank you, you have a beautiful winery,” I said, shaking off the compliment.

  “It's kind of wonderful, isn’t it?” She sighed and a proud smile pulled at the corner of her lips.

  I returned her smile and nodded in agreement.

  “Well thank you so much for all your hard work.”

  “Of course. I’ll set up a dropbox with all the pictures and email you the link in the next couple of days." I extended my hand to shake hers and she gripped my fingers tightly.

  The sun hung low over the nearby hills as I walked outside. Robert and Matthew stood by my car chatting away. Neither one of them looked in my direction as I approached.

  “Hey, Matty, I thought you’d be gone by now,” I called out, using the nickname Robert had given him.

  “Hey, no way are you allowed to call me that,” he said, finally looking in my direction.

  “Oh, and he gets to?” I motioned toward Robert and kept a playful smile on my face as I approached them.

  Robert eyed me but didn’t say anything. Instead, he leaned against my car and watched the banter between Matthew and me.

  “He’s practically family. I barely know you,” Matthew said as he bumped his shoulder against mine.

  Practically family? That’s interesting. Maybe he did know something about The Waker.

  “And I thought we bonded today,” I said, pretending to pout.

  “Don’t even give me that, Miss I’m afraid of being alone with someone I barely know,” Matthew countered.

  I saw Robert stiffen ever so slightly out of the corner of my eye.

  “That’s different and you know it,” I said, lightly hitting him in the arm.

  “Yeah, yeah. You still can’t call me Matty no matter how hard you hit me.”

  “We’ll see about that.” I stepped away from the boys and unlocked my car.

  Robert walked around to the passenger side and said to Matthew, “We’ll talk more later. Are you going to be around this weekend?”

  “I was thinking about it, not sure yet though. We’re pretty busy around here with the opening in a couple weeks,” Matthew explained.

  “Alright, I’ll be in contact.” Without another word, Robert opened the passenger side door and climbed in.

  “See you later, Matty,” I said, laughing and waving as I got in the car.

  He just stood there shaking his head at me as I started the engine.

  “You two seem to get along,” Robert finally said as I put the car in gear and backed out.

  “Yeah, he’s nice and he was really helpful today.”

  Robert didn’t respond so I looked over at him. He stared out the windshield with a thoughtful expression on his face.

  “So, how do you know Matthew?” I asked. I couldn’t bring myself to mock him when he wasn’t around to defend himself.

  “Old family friend,” Robert answered, though he refused to look at me.

  “He doesn’t happen to know Brett, does he?” Curiosity, apparently, had gotten the best of me.

  “Yes, they know each other.” Robert shifted in his seat and I had a feeling they knew a little more of each other than Robert was comfortable with.

  “And what about the Deardons?” I asked.

  “Same. Our families are close.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Why do you think something’s wrong?” he asked, tearing his eyes from the dashboard.

  “Because you’re being short with me.” I turned to face him as we approached a red light.

  “I’m sorry, Violet, I don’t mean to be. It’s just been a long day,” he explained with a heavy sigh.

  The light turned green and I stepped on the gas without saying anything else. Why did I even care that he was short with me? Who was I to question him? But I couldn’t help myself; there was still so much I didn’t know about Robert or about my situation and I didn’t know who else to ask.

  “Robert?” I asked.

  “Hmm.”

  “What did you need to talk to Meredith about?” I wasn’t sure if he would answer my question, but it was worth a try.

  He sighed and said, “You.”

  “Me?” I asked, frowning as I turned onto the highway.

  “About who you are.”

  “Who I…Oh, you mean that I’m the…”

  “The Waker, yes.” He let out a heavy sigh. His attitude surprised me but I tried not to take it personally and pressed on with more questions.

  “So Meredith’s like you then?” I asked.

  “Yes, both she and her husband are Magical,” Robert answered.

  “Is Matthew like you too?” I bit my lip.

  A small smile played on his face. “No, he’s not. He’s a Promised One.”

  Great, I thought, he’s not like Robert, but something else. When did this craziness end?

  I swerved into the left lane to pass a slow-moving minivan and stepped on the gas, wanting to be home already.

  “What’s a Promised One?” I asked after a minute, suspending reality and just going with it for the moment. Robert seemed more willing to talk when I wasn’t arguing against everything he believed in.

  “Matty is human. He isn’t like me or the Deardons, but he was born with the ability to sense Magic. His soul is promised to the Magical world,” Robert explained.

  “What does that mean?”

  “There are some people in this world who are born to protect Magic but don’t possess any Magic themselves. Matty is one of those people. There are many others just like him. For as long as anyone can remember the Promised Ones have helped keep the Magical world a secret.”

  “So what do they do for you exactly? I asked.

  “Anything they need to in order to protect our way of life. Promised On
es have infiltrated every facet of the economy and use their influence to hide our Magic in plain sight. Unfortunately, there are some people, both Promised Ones and Magical, who believe our world shouldn’t be kept a secret. We think your attacker might be a human who works for someone against Magical secrecy.”

  The mention of my attacker made my stomach drop.

  “But why would someone care if Magic was a secret or not?” I asked, balking at my casual use of the word Magic. I still wasn’t even sure if I bought into any of this. The more I learned, the more I realized Robert probably wasn’t making any of it up, but I still hadn’t written off my dream theory. Maybe, if I was lucky, I just might wake up from all of this. The thought made me pinch my leg, but nothing happened. I continued to cruise down the highway with Robert by my side as we discussed Magic.

  “Could you imagine what people would do to us if they found out what we could do?” Robert asked, his voice breaking my train of thought.

  I could feel his gaze on me so I turned to look at him. The concern etched into the lines of his face was overpowering. He looked sullen, worn, like he had the world on his shoulders and he was crumbling under the enormity of what was at stake. I tore myself away from his heartbreaking expression and focused on the road. I could imagine what might happen if people discovered what Robert could do. My heart lurched at the thought of anyone hurting him. Regardless of what I might think about everything, one thing I knew for sure was Robert was a good person and he didn’t deserve to be hurt in any way.

  I looked back over at him but he was staring out his window. I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. I swallowed my own feelings and pushed forward with more questions.

  “What does someone like Matthew gain by helping you?” I asked.

  “Well someone in the know, like Matty, is a part of the Magical world and therefore reaps the benefits of Magic without having any himself,” Robert explained after taking a breath to compose himself.