“Now, I’m sure you have some stuff to bring with you, but we can organize that later,” Lucy said. “Why don’t you head on home, pack some of the essentials for now, and we’ll take care of the rest another time. I’m sure you’re anxious to meet the rest of your family.”
I wasn’t sure anxious was the right word. Apprehensive was maybe more accurate. Was I running into something I shouldn’t be just because I had one bad day? I had never had a real family before. Just Dad. He was all the family I had ever needed. What if I hated all of these people? What if we didn’t get along? What would I do then?
I supposed I could always move back here. Nothing was stopping me from doing that. I could go to Enchanted Enclave, meet these people I was related to and see how I felt afterwards.
“Sure,” I said. “Let me just go pack a quick bag.”
An hour later I was in the front doorway to my dad’s house, a large duffel bag in front of me packed with the clothes and essentials I’d need for a couple of weeks. If I hated life at Enchanted Enclave I could always come back here. I kept telling myself that.
“How are we getting back there, anyway?” I asked Lucy. “Do you have a car or something?”
“I have something way better,” she said with a wink, pulling out her wand. I balked at the sight.
“No, no way. You can’t use magic to travel.”
“Why not? That’s how I got here so fast.”
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a second, then opened them once more. “I’m not comfortable with this at all.”
“Magic is a part of your life now, Eliza. You’re going to have to get used to it.” Then, she pointed her wand at me. “Saturn, god of plenty, send this witch home, where she can meet Debbie.”
I didn’t feel anything, but a split second later I was no longer standing in the entryway to my childhood home. Instead, I was in the kitchen of a large house, the smell of roast beef wafting toward my nostrils. The large, modern kitchen in front of me was part of a cabin-style home with high ceilings, adorned with exposed beams. Warm light flowed through the space, and standing in front of the stove with her back to me was a woman with curly brown hair, humming to herself.
I coughed lightly, trying to get her attention, and she turned a moment later. The instant her eyes landed on me her mouth dropped open and the spatula in her hand fell to the floor.
“It can’t be,” she whispered. “Eliza?”
“That’s me,” I offered with an awkward smile. A moment later Lucy appeared, holding my duffel bag in one hand and her wand in the other.
“Ah, Debbie. Good, you’re home. Meet Eliza. I hope you made enough; she’s staying for dinner, and for the rest of her life.”
“Well, I’m not so sure about that just yet,” I muttered, but it was too late. Debbie had already taken me into a big bear hug, and I had to say, after the day I’d had, it felt good. I let my body relax and sink into her warm, comfortable arms.
“Oh my dear, it is so good to see you after all these years,” she muttered into my ear as she held me close. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Ok, so even though I wasn’t totally sold on this whole family thing, tears welled into my eyes at that. Maybe it was just leftover emotion from the day, but I quickly found myself crying into Debbie’s shoulder as she held me close. “It’s alright dear,” she kept saying. “It’s alright.”
“So you were one of my mom’s sisters?” I asked Debbie when I finally pulled away, and she nodded.
“That’s right. Patricia was older than me by a year. Lucy’s the oldest of us all; she’s pushing sixty.”
“Ah, but I’m the youngest at heart,” the older witch replied.
“If we’re going by maturity level, certainly,” Debbie replied. “But come now; all Lucy told us before she left was that she sensed you use your powers. How did you come to find you were a witch?”
“I’d rather not say,” I mumbled, expecting a bit of pushback.
“Well, that’s quite alright then,” Debbie replied, finally picking the spatula up off the floor and putting it in the sink. “I imagine you must have so many questions about your past. I assume your father never told you about your powers?”
“That’s right,” I replied, a little bit defensively.
“Well, he had his reasons, I’m sure. It was quite a shock for him when Patricia told him the truth, and he never quite got used to the idea of magic being real, I think.”
I began to relax slightly; Debbie seemed to be the kindest, most understanding woman in the world.
“Now, you’re going to need somewhere to stay. Luckily, we have some extra rooms. It won’t take much to get a bed made up, let me take you upstairs for now. Your cousins live in a small house down the street, I’m sure they’ll be happy to have you move in with them more permanently if you’d like. But for now you can stay with me, for as long as you need to get settled.”
Debbie led me up a set of stairs to a gorgeous room with an attached bathroom. A bare king-sized mattress sat on a four-poster frame, and a moment later Debbie pulled out a wand of her own – a plain white one with a single black stripe down the side – and muttered a spell. I made out the words ‘Saturn’ and ‘bedsheets’ and a moment later a set of navy blue sheets flew out from the closet and attached themselves perfectly to the bed, followed closely by a couple of thick blankets.
“There,” Debbie said, satisfied. “This is your room for as long as you need it.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “That spell could have come in handy a few times as a kid.”
Debbie laughed. “It comes in handy as an adult, too. I’ll teach you, of course. We’re going to have to teach you everything, I suppose. You really had no idea you were a witch until today?”
I shook my head.
“Well, in that case, I’m sure you’ve got a lot to process and you probably want some alone time. Dinner will be ready in half an hour if you want to come down then. You’re welcome earlier, of course, but if you’d rather get used to your new surroundings, that’s fine as well.”
“Thanks, I think I might have a shower,” I said. I still wasn’t entirely convinced that this wasn’t the world’s longest dream, and maybe jumping into the shower would bring me back to reality. Maybe this whole day had never happened.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need anything,” Debbie said, closing the door behind me. I stepped into the shower, but didn’t wake up. Maybe this was all real after all.
It was going to take some getting used to.
Chapter 5
Half an hour later I made my way back downstairs to find the crowd in the house had grown. There was Debbie, of course, and Lucy – I wondered if I shouldn’t start calling them Aunt Debbie and Aunt Lucy – but they had been joined by a man who had the same eyes and nose as Aunt Debbie. His mouth was thinner, but turned up into a friendly smile. Next to him were a couple of women around my age, speaking to one another.
“Hi, you must be Eliza,” the man said, striding toward me and holding out a hand, which I took. “I’m Robert, your uncle. You’re more than welcome to just call me Bob, though.”
“Hi, Bob,” I said. His grip was firm and confident, and he smiled at me with a pride I didn’t really feel I deserved.
“Let me introduce you to your two cousins. Girls,” he called out, and the two women made their way over. “This is Leanne, my daughter,” he said, motioning to the one on the right. She had the same mouth as Bob did, and the same reddish-blond hair. She grinned at me.
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you. I was hoping I’d finally have another family member who can’t use magic, but I guess that hasn’t quite worked out for me.”
“You’re not a witch?” I asked, and Leanne shook her head.
“No, I drew the genetic short straw. Apparently, magical powers only descend through the maternal side of the family, and since my magical ancestor is my dad I don’t get to play in the cool kids’ sandbox.”
“Oh come on, Leanne,” t
he other girl laughed. “It’s not that bad.”
“Spoken like someone who would have had the ability to hex Mrs. Greyson if she caught you cheating on that test in eighth grade,” Leanne replied.
The other girl gasped. “That was you who did that! I would never, ever cheat on a test.”
“We all know that, Kaillie,” Leanne grinned. “Anyway, you’re being rude. Introduce yourself to your cousin.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kaillie said, obviously flustered. “I’m Kaillie. It’s really nice to meet you. I’m Debbie’s daughter, and unlike Leanne here, I’m also a witch, and I’m happy to teach you everything I can.” She beamed at me from behind a heart-shaped face covered in freckles, and wavy brown hair like her mother’s.”
“Hi,” I said shyly to them both.
Before they had a chance to reply, Debbie’s voice rang out. “Dinner’s ready, everyone to the dining room!”
The group of us all shuffled to a room attached to the kitchen, and a moment later plates and dishes laden with all sorts of food – pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy – flew around us toward the table. I covered my head with my hands instinctively, not wanting to get hit by an errant dish after the morning’s adventures, but the food all landed without so much as a spilt drop of gravy, and the whole family sat down to eat.
“So, tell us about your life,” Leanne said as she passed me the bowl of mashed potatoes. “Where did your dad take you when your mom died?”
“San Francisco,” I explained. “I just graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in English literature. I’m not going to lie, though, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with my life. Dad thought I should go to college, and I always enjoyed reading, so I majored in English Literature, but I’m just not sure where I’m going from here. I fell into a bit of a funk after Dad died.”
“Well, if you’d like, we can always use an extra pair of hands at the coffee shop,” Bob said, looking at Aunt Debbie, who nodded.
“Absolutely. No pressure, of course. If you’d rather find something else in town, or even spend some time just getting used to life here without the pressures of working, we have no problem with that at all. We’ll support you for as long as you need.”
“Thanks,” I said with a grateful smile. “I think I would like to get into the workforce, though. Hopefully this job will go better than my last one. So you manage a coffee shop?”
“It’s a coffee shop and roaster,” Uncle Bob replied. “It’s the family business, although we don’t all work there. Debbie and I manage the place, with me taking care of the roasting side of things, distribution to other coffee shops, and all. Debbie manages the retail side of things.”
“And they won’t let me work there because apparently I’m a hazard,” Aunt Lucy replied.
“That’s right,” Aunt Debbie said, giving her sister the side-eye. “You are absolutely not to be trusted in any customer service-oriented role.”
I laughed as my cousins chimed in. “I work there as a barista and server,” Leanne said.
“And I do most of the baking,” Kaillie added. “It’s nice; I’ve inherited mom’s ability to use magic in my cooking, although I have to be careful not to let any of it seep into my cooking at all. I can’t be using magic on humans without them knowing about it.”
“I’d love to have you working with me at the counter,” Leanne said, and I smiled.
“Alright, well, I can’t say no to that. I can start tomorrow if that works.”
“Perfect,” Leanne said excitedly, clapping her hands together. “I can’t wait!”
“Well, I must say, I’m looking forward to it as well,” Debbie said, beaming at me. “I can’t believe you’re here. Honestly, I thought this day would never come. A part of me thought Lucy had messed up the tracking spell before you were taken away. It had just been so long, I thought that surely if the tracker had been placed properly you’d have accidentally accessed your powers at some point.”
“Hey!” Aunt Lucy replied, lobbing a green bean at her sister. “I might be a lot of things, but bad at magic is not one of them.”
“Did you honestly just throw a bean at me?” Debbie replied. “What are you, five years old? No, scratch that, Kaillie was better behaved than this when she was five.”
“That’s because Kaillie has a stick up her butt about being a good girl,” Aunt Lucy replied, with a wink directed at me.
“One of us has to care about this family’s reputation,” Kaillie replied.
“So,” I said, turning to Aunt Lucy. “If everyone else in the family works for the coffee company, what do you do?”
“I wreak havoc and chaos in the town in my own good time,” Aunt Lucy deadpanned.
“She’s only half kidding,” Leanne replied. “Dad had the news stations on all day today just to make sure there wasn’t an infestation of flying frogs appearing out of nowhere somewhere else in the country when he heard Aunt Lucy left to find you.”
I laughed. “Only flying donuts, don’t worry. And honestly, I’m glad she was there. I had a mall security guard threatening to call the cops on me.”
“Well, it sounds like you’re truly part of this family, then,” Leanne said, digging into her pot roast. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
The longer I spent with these people, the gladder I was, too.
Chapter 6
I woke up the next day feeling like I had been hit by a truck, but I supposed that was to be expected after the tumult of emotions I’d gone through the day before. Still, I rolled out of bed when the alarm went off, yawned, and got dressed. I had messed up my first day on the job once, I was not about to do it again a second time. Especially not when my two bosses were now my aunt and uncle, and they had been so welcoming to me.
A part of me still felt guilty feeling so warmly toward these people. After all, Dad had left Enchanted Enclave for a reason, and he had obviously not wanted my mom’s family to be in my life. And yet he’d only been dead a few months and here I was going against one of his strongest wishes in the world. He had also not wanted me to know I was a witch. And again, here I was, living in a house owned by a woman who made casserole dishes fly through the air like it was nothing.
But at the same time I knew Dad always felt bad about the fact that I had no family growing up. I had often seen him looking longingly at the large families surrounding some of my classmates at Christmas concerts, and he apologized every Thanksgiving when it was just the two of us around the table. His parents had died young, and he was an only child, so the two of us were alone in the world.
At least, that was what he had told me. I wasn’t entirely sure what was real anymore, and what wasn’t. So I reassured myself with the thought that maybe Dad would be ok with it if I found this side of the family now that he was gone, because otherwise, I really would have been all alone out there.
I didn’t resent him for hiding my mom’s side of the family from me. I knew he would have done it to protect me. Dad had always been trying to protect me. He didn’t want me knowing about these magical powers I apparently had – I was still coming to terms with it, and a part of my brain still refused to believe it was real – and frankly, I could understand that.
It was going to be a big change.
I made my way downstairs to find Aunt Debbie getting ready to go. “Oh good, you’re up,” she said to me with a smile. “Are you all set? Do you have a jacket?”
I shook my head. “No. I have a sweatshirt upstairs, though.”
“Well, grab that,” she told me. “You don’t live in San Francisco anymore.”
A moment later, when I made my way back down the stairs and outside, I realized Aunt Debbie was completely right. Whereas San Francisco in March was generally cool in the mornings, this was colder. A low fog gave the tall fir trees around us an eerie feel, and the house was so isolated I couldn’t see the nearest neighbor.
Aunt Debbie unlocked the car in the driveway, a white SUV, and I climbe
d into the passenger seat next to her.
“So how many people live on Enchanted Enclave, anyway?” I asked. “I think I’ve heard of it. It’s a big tourism destination, right?”
“That’s right,” Aunt Debbie said with a nod. “We have a permanent population of around five, maybe six thousand people now. We get hundreds of thousands of tourists a year though, mostly in the summer months. It’s the slow season right now.”
She pulled out of the driveway and down a long, tree-lined dirt road. I looked up in awe as the sun’s rays began to peek through the fog, evaporating it on contact.
“Are a lot of the people who live here witches and wizards?”
“Oh no,” Aunt Debbie replied. “In fact, it’s just us. As far as I’m aware, we’re the only family in the entire human world with magical powers.”
I gaped at her. “Seriously? How does that work?”
Debbie shifted uncomfortably in the seat next to her. “I suppose Lucy didn’t tell you, then.”
“Didn’t tell me what?”
“There’s another world out there somewhere. A world that can only be accessed by paranormals – witches, wizards, elves, vampires, shifters and fairies. I’ve never been, and neither has anyone else in the family, because we were kicked out. Some generations ago a member of the Marcet family tried to overthrow the entire paranormal government. They were stopped, and banished to the human world forever along with all of their descendants. From then on, anyone with our blood has been banned from the paranormal world. No paranormals willingly live here, so we’re quite isolated.”
“Oh,” was all I thought to reply. “So we’re the outcasts of the magical world?”
“That’s right. Please don’t think that we’re evil at all. It was my great-great-great-grandmother who caused all the trouble, almost two hundred years ago. But memories are long in the paranormal world, especially when vampires and elves live immortal lives, and our family has not been forgiven. At least we were allowed to keep our powers. We still call on Saturn to use our magic, and still belong to that coven.”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 3
