by March, Lucy
“Okay.” I craned my neck from side to side, trying to get the kinks out. “So, have you found out where Cain is staying yet?”
Betty shook her head. “I went to all the B and B’s, even though he doesn’t seem the B-and-B type—”
“He’s not,” I said.
“—and no one’s seen him. I canvassed all the motels within fifty miles, and even asked Happy Larry if he’d seen him around. No joy.”
“How is that possible? Fresh meat doesn’t stay hidden in this town, even cranky, scruffy meat. There are too many girls in this town who’d go crazy over something like that.” I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose, then sighed and looked at her, pulling on the best smile I could muster. “Thanks for trying, Betty. Keep your ear to the ground.”
“It’s never anywhere else.” She watched me and sighed. “Speaking of which, how is everything shaking out with Millie and Peach?”
I sighed. “It’s not. Hey … is it possible…? I mean, could she have overridden his will?” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Is there such a thing as magical rape?”
Betty thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head. “Like I said, most people get innocuous powers. Change the color of a dress, make a pencil fly, that sort of thing. Messing with free will, that’s dark stuff. If there are people who can do that kind of thing, I’ve never had contact with them.”
“What about a conjurer? Might someone like that be able to make a potion, slip it in Nick’s drink?”
“I don’t know,” Betty said, although she looked doubtful. “Maybe. I guess. But…”
She trailed off, and I prodded her. “What?”
She leaned forward, her elbows on the counter, her eyes compassionate and sad. “Have you ever heard of Occam’s razor?”
“Yeah. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one, right?”
“Well, the simplest explanation here is human nature. Men—especially men who are about to get married—are known for this sort of thing. You don’t need to slip anything into their drinks. You just have to be … tempting. Millie tempted him, he was human, he messed up.” She leaned back and wiped down the counter absently with her towel. “I’m seventy-three years old, Liv, and I’ve seen this happen a lot. Never once has there been any magic involved.”
“Right.” Still, I couldn’t help but feel like there was something more here. But then, maybe that was just because I didn’t want Peach to be suffering like this. I sighed and put my head in my hands. “I’m gonna go stand on the magic square and wish it all away.”
She patted my hand. “You go do that, honey.”
I pushed myself up from the counter and walked over to the square near Booth 9. I sighed and looked down at it, my feet just outside its edges. I wish—I thought, and then I heard my name. I looked up, and Andrew Garvey, the elementary school principal, was holding up an empty coffee mug, looking at me expectantly. I glanced down at my sweatpants and my Mason’s Plumbing T-shirt that read, WE FIX ANY CRACK, and looked back at Andrew.
“You bet.” I walked around the magic square, grabbed a carafe from the industrial coffeemaker, and caught Tobias’s eye through the pass as he delivered a waffle order up for Betty.
He looked pissed.
“Great,” I muttered to myself.
“What are you doing here?” he said.
“Serving coffee.” I delivered Andrew’s coffee and then headed back into the kitchen, where Tobias was manning the grill while Kenny headbanged on his iPod, supervising the waffle irons. Tobias shot a look at me and whistled loudly to Kenny, who raised his head.
“Take over for me, Ken. I’m on break.”
Without skipping a headbanging beat, Kenny walked over and monitored the grill. Tobias took me by the elbow and led me out toward the back dock. On the way, I grabbed a small ceramic prep bowl full of raspberries off the counter and then followed dutifully until we were sitting, once again, in the two nylon camping chairs in the back. I sat down, pulled out a raspberry, and popped it in my mouth. Man, they were good.
“I thought you were going to stay home,” he said.
“I was,” I said. “But, you know, best laid plans.”
“This isn’t a joke,” Tobias said. “I was going to come by and see you after my shift.”
“Why?” I said, sitting forward a bit. “Did you find something?”
“Not much. I made some calls to friends, just preliminary stuff. His name is Cain Taggart. From Hastings, Tennessee. He’s a conjurer, although he didn’t show up on Magical radar—”
“You guys have Magical radar?”
The edge of Tobias’s mouth quirked up a bit. “I mean, they only first heard of him recently.”
I sat back, flushing at my own stupidity as I chewed on another raspberry. “Shut up. I don’t understand how this world works.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Few people do. Anyway, he dropped off the surface about two months ago, and no one has seen or heard from him since.” He cleared his throat. “I also looked into your friend Davina.” He gave me a look. “She didn’t show up anywhere at all. Are you sure her real name is Davina Granville?”
I stared at him. “I didn’t check her driver’s license or anything, no. But she says she’s just a small-time conjurer. Maybe she’s just never done anything to show up on your radar.”
Tobias shrugged. “Maybe.”
I set the raspberries down on the ground and leaned forward, looking at Tobias. “I trust her. She almost got herself killed last night protecting me—”
“Last night? What happened last night?”
“Cain attacked us,” I said, then held up my hand as Tobias sat forward. “I tried to call you, my cell phone was dead, and by the time I could contact you, we were home safe and I was exhausted. I’m telling you now. Please back off, okay? If I have to deal with one more well-intentioned but overprotective person in my life, I’m going to throw myself headfirst into the falls.”
Tobias smiled. “Well, that would be bad.”
“I know,” I said. “I could get wet. And possibly even a little muddy.”
This time, the flush was his, appearing at the base of his neck. I felt myself warm up all over, and this time, I didn’t think the tingling I felt was from any paranormal source. I reached down and grabbed the bowl of raspberries again, cupping it in my hands.
“So,” he said after a while, his voice just as calm and in control as always. “You’re okay, then?”
I looked at him, and our eyes met again, and there was more tingling, all over. Oy.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice soft. “I’m fi—”
And that’s when something small hit my face and bounced off.
“What the…?” I pulled back a bit and swatted at the air by my face. “What was that?”
“I think,” Tobias said flatly, “it was a flying raspberry.”
I hopped up out of the chair and looked inside the ceramic bowl I’d been holding; it was empty. I glanced around and a number of raspberry butterflies zoomed around the patio, their wings seeming to be made of some kind of raspberry juice vapor, my yellow light flickering around them as they flew. I checked my fingers and I caught the last fading glimpse of the light on my fingers; I hadn’t touched the raspberries at the time of transformation, nor did I intend to change them.
Evolving power, I thought, and my throat tightened.
The wayward raspberry that had hit me in the face now flew drunkenly around Tobias’s head, then backed up a bit, as if trying to get a good look at us, as though we were the freaks of nature. For his part, Tobias stared back at it, equally mesmerized.
“Huh,” he said.
The raspberries flew around us, tightening their circle, occasionally bouncing off my shoulder or the back of Tobias’s head.
“So,” he said, ducking a raspberry as it buzzed his head, “this is interesting.”
“The charm wears off after a while, trust me.” I watched the raspberries fly around, wondering
what the hell I was supposed to do now. “Davina said I should practice. I guess I should try to undo them? Maybe?”
Tobias motioned toward the swarm. “This is gonna be fun.”
I stood up and concentrated, trying to remember what Davina had said to me the other night about pulling the energy back in. It’s mine, I thought. I’m not killing anything. I’m just pulling what’s mine back to me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, locating the raspberries around me, visualizing them as tiny yellow balls of my energy floating around me. One by one, I pulled the yellow light back in, and one by one, I heard the tiny plops around me. The energy flowed back into me, and for a moment, my limbs buzzed and my stomach dropped, the jolt of power hitting me like a steep decline on a roller coaster. But then I absorbed it, and my body calmed. I was getting stronger, just as Davina had said I would. I could feel the magic inside me, buzzing throughout me, waiting to be of use. And if I didn’t figure out how to control it, it would control me.
I looked around at the scattered raspberries on the ground. I concentrated on one, and it took a moment to get it right, but soon, wisps of yellow light surrounded it and I floated it into the air. While holding that one up, I allowed my concentration to spread to the others, finding all of them and lifting them up as well. Slowly, I circled them around and around, until they whirled around us like a Ferris wheel on its side. I let the energy hum for a bit, enjoying the feel of the power, and then, I pulled the magic back into myself and let them drop, one by one, perfectly aimed into the center of the little ceramic dish.
When I finally allowed myself to meet his eyes again, Tobias was staring at me, concern on his face.
“You all right?” he asked.
“I guess.” I looked up at him. “My power is evolving, just like Davina said it would.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“I think that means I’m going to have to fight this guy.” My legs started to shake. “Tobias, I don’t want to fight this guy. I don’t want to fight anyone.”
He stood up and walked over to me. “It’s a little late for that.” He put both hands on either side of my face and guided me to look at him. “If you have to fight, you’ll fight. But you won’t fight alone, ever. Okay?”
I took in a sharp breath, only then realizing that I had stopped breathing in my panic. “Okay.”
He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. “Go on home. Lock the doors. Get some rest. I’m gonna follow up on some things after my shift, but I’ll be by later tonight, if that’s okay.”
I nodded. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not too overprotective of me? All the hovering?”
“Yes,” I said, “but it’s okay. I kind of like it when you hover, sometimes.”
“All right then.” He smiled. “Call me if you need me.”
I took my index finger and crossed over my heart. He hesitated a moment, then gave a little wave and went back inside. I folded up the chairs and tucked them back into the corner of the patio, then headed down the alley to Main Street, just walking home as if I were a normal woman on a normal day doing normal things.
None of which was exactly the case.
*
I killed the afternoon sitting on my porch swing, watching the neighborhood and thinking. I knew I should have gone inside and thrown the bolt when the sun set, but what difference did it make? If Cain wanted to come after me, what would I be able to do to stop him? Was my little dead bolt going to stop a guy who had both conjuring and magical powers? My guess was that if he wanted me, he would come and get me, and there wasn’t much I could do about it if he did.
“Nothing like a little fatalism to make the day complete,” I muttered to myself.
Just then, a big white van with the EASTER LANDSCAPING logo on the side pulled into my street.
“Oh, hell,” I said as Nick pulled the van in front of Peach’s house. He slammed the door, walked up onto Peach’s porch, and banged on the door. Nick was short, stocky, and bald as a cue ball, but he was powerful and determined.
“Peach!” he yelled, then stepped back off the porch and looked up at her bedroom window, where her light was on. “Peach!”
The light shut off, and Nick waited for a bit, then when there was no sign of Peach, he shouted again.
“I know you’re up there! Come out and talk to me!”
“Crap.” I got up and walked out to the sidewalk. “She doesn’t want to talk to you, Nick.”
He turned and his eyes fixed on me. “Liv!” He rushed over to me, and only then could I see the frantic desperation in his eyes. “Liv, you have to help me. Go talk to her for me.”
I eyed him coldly. “Why would I do that? You broke her heart, you big bald asshole.”
“I know.” He ran his hand over his head, and shook it, as if he didn’t understand what was happening. “I know.”
I couldn’t help it; I felt myself softening toward him. On the one hand, Occam’s razor. On the other hand, strange things had been happening lately, and Millie was at the center of it all. That bought Nick a little leeway. A little.
“What happened?” I said finally.
He looked at me, his eyes glazed. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought of Millie that way. Never. It just happened, and it was like … like I didn’t have any control.”
“Were you guys drinking anything?”
He shook his head, and lowered his eyes. “Just coffee. I don’t know what happened. We stay late and do taxes once every quarter. I get Chinese food and we knock it out and it’s always fine. It’s always … you know … Millie.”
“But there she was, all sexy in her red dress…” I said, but Nick shook his head again.
“I don’t like the change,” he said. “It’s not Millie. I get that she wanted to change, and that’s her business, really, but to be honest? I liked her better before.”
“But you slept with her now,” I said.
He leaned back against his van, obviously confused. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.” He swiped at his eyes, rubbing them briskly before going on. “I love Peach, Liv. She’s the one. I never thought in a million years a woman like that would want a guy like me. Why would I do this to her, to myself? I’ve never cheated on a woman I’ve been dating, never. But the one woman I really wanted, the one woman I actually…”
He trailed off, his voice choked, his misery visible in his slumped shoulders and the tears that welled in his eyes.
Screw Occam’s razor. Somehow, this was Cain’s handiwork. I didn’t know how, but it was, I was sure of it. I reached out and patted his arm. “I believe you, Nick.”
He turned his head to look at me, a tiny smile, almost imperceptible through all that misery, on his lips. “Thanks.”
“Oh, so you’re going to try to sleep with Liv, now? Is that it?”
I looked up to Peach’s porch, where she was standing watching us, her body tense with fury.
“Peach,” I began, but she didn’t hear me. Her eyes were focused on Nick as she barreled down on him, her arms flailing.
“I hate you!” she yelled. I stepped in between them and clasped my hands on her elbows, keeping her from swinging.
“Peach, calm down!”
“I just want to talk,” Nick said. “That’s all.”
“Yeah, well I don’t want to talk to you!” she hollered at him over my shoulder.
I angled my head toward Nick.
“Go home,” I said. “I’ll take care of her.”
Nick hesitated for a minute, and was about to get back into his van when I heard a wild cracking sound, and felt Peach jerk in my arms.
13
“Ow!” Peach said, and put her hand on the back of her head. “What the—?”
My heart pounded as the first dose of panic flooded my bloodstream. I glanced around, and saw the smoke behind Peach. I pulled her behind me, pushing her toward my front door, and said, “Inside!”
I heard the distinct wood-creaking sound I remembered from
the last time Peach got pelted, only this time it was louder, almost deafening. I looked toward Peach’s house and saw a dark gray haze forming into wisps of smoke as walnuts, pasty pale green and lime-sized, began to appear in its midst.
“Get inside!” I yelled to Peach, then looked at Nick. “Get her in my house!”
Nick, however, was staring down the street, at the pool of light under the streetlamp at the corner, where Millie stood in her bloodred dress, her arms raised around her as she walked slowly toward us. Her fingers flashed out from her, and behind me I heard a thunk and Peach gave a little scream.
“Millie?” Nick started walking toward her. I glanced behind us at Peach, who was now surrounded by a tornado cone of flying walnuts and wild gray smoke, trying to bat them off as if they were bees. Nick, meanwhile, continued for Millie, who was making her way toward us, her fingers flicking out from her at unnatural speed, manipulating the magical walnuts that were pelting Peach as she closed in. I had nothing, no magic, not even an umbrella. But I had at least learned one thing: that kind of magic required concentration to maintain.
“Aaaaaagh!” I yelled, and started to run down the street, passing Nick as I gained speed. I launched myself through the air and, landed on Millie, taking her with me as we both fell to the ground. She made an “oomph” sound as she hit, and I hopped back to a crouch, ready to spring at her again.
Millie scrambled to her feet and narrowed her eyes at me. “This isn’t about you, Liv. Go home.” She flashed out her fingers, and behind me, Peach screamed. I glanced back and saw Peach racing down the street, the walnuts in hot pursuit, continuing to pelt her from all directions. She had her arms up around her head, but the walnuts kept coming at her, moving so fast you could hear them whistling through the air.
When I looked at Nick, though, he was focused completely on what he was doing: reaching out to Millie.
“Millie?” he asked, his voice flat and dull. “Are you okay?”
“Don’t touch her!” I said, and kicked at his arm to push him away just as Millie was about to take his hand.
