Love Uncharted

by Berinn Rae

  “Hold up, would you?” he called. “I’m not invading your space, I promise — ”

  She stopped and spun on him. “How do you know about the shop? How do you know Nila?”

  Daniel skidded to a halt, nearly toppling into her. “She’s like a second cousin three times removed or something. Her mother and my mother were — ”

  “Do you have powers?” Lily demanded. “Are you a witch or warlock or whatever they call men who possess magic?”

  “Labels mean nothing … Lily?” He snagged her arm before she could run from him again. “Are you crying? Jeez, Lil — ” She surprised him by throwing herself at him. When his arms came around her, the unhappy blast of her confusion, and a panicked mortification he didn’t understand, hit him.

  Night closed down suddenly over them. Streetlights flickered to life, traffic sounds faded, window lamps cast golden spears across sidewalks and grass. They’d become one more muted shadow beneath trees shedding leaves like eiderdown. Daniel’s heart raced over the fact that Lily was in his arms for the second time in one day. Soon she would push him away. But for this singular moment she belonged to him and he couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to her feather soft hair.

  Her arms tightened briefly then dropped away. He forced himself to step back, jamming his hands into his jacket pockets to keep from grabbing her again.

  “Why won’t you talk to me, Lil? I don’t have a clue what’s going on with you.”

  Face averted, she dragged the sleeve of her coat across her face smeared with tears. “I’m just, it’s just … never mind. I can’t tell you what’s wrong, Daniel. Suffice it to say I’ve done something utterly stupid.”

  “It’s not the first time.” He smiled tenderly. “And won’t be the last, thank the Gods.”

  “Yeah, well, thank them for nothing,” she sniffed.

  Throwing caution to the wind, he trapped her cold hand in his and turned them towards home. He could tell she wanted to unburden her heart, and knowing she’d hate herself afterwards, he amiably changed the subject. “No cumbersome portfolio tonight? No heavy sketchbooks?” And then, “Lily, where’s your satchel? You never go anywhere without that thing.”

  But she didn’t seem to hear him.

  • • •

  Lily had gone blank at the shivery feel of Daniel’s fingers twining warm around hers. She imagined them trailing fire down the skin of her naked back.

  “Lily? Your bag?”

  Snapping back to earth, she blinked and glanced down at herself. “My what? Oh blast, I left it in the shop! And God knows when I’ll get it back the way that place shifts in and out of existence.” She turned around to go back but Daniel stopped her.

  “The shop’s long gone by now. And you needn’t worry. My guess is you’ll find the satchel waiting for you at home.”

  “Nila’s that good?”

  “Yes. Why? Did she work a charm or something for you, and it didn’t work?”

  Lily’s cheeks, already pink from the wind, deepened to red. “That’s none of your business.” She tried to pull her hand from his.

  Daniel held tight with an indifferent shrug. “I learned at my granny’s knee how to respect a woman’s magic. And her privacy.”

  A quick glance at his face told her nothing and Lily settled down to walk beside him. “I only learned yesterday that magic is real. So your grandmother is a witch, too?”

  Daniel hesitated before answering. “Yes.”

  Lily knew from his abrupt tone she’d crossed into forbidden territory and was about to get told to mind her own business. But he surprised her. “My gran is a gifted healer, knows all about plants, herbs, the mystical properties of organics. She’s also a Reader.”

  “A Reader?”

  “A psychic. Someone with telepathic powers who senses other people’s thoughts and emotions.”

  “Gods, please tell me she isn’t Madame Bagasha!” Lily exclaimed.

  “No.” Daniel smiled. “The Madame is … well, Gran has an intimidating magic but Madame Bagasha is a force unparalleled. Madame has what we call Gypsy Magic. Mysterious, unique, versatile, and extremely powerful … like the shop. I imagine you’ll meet her soon. Was it Nila who told you about magic? Did she tell you your magic shines in your paintings?”

  “You knew?”

  “Ever since I first saw your oil of Lake Michigan all those years ago.”

  Lily settled her hand deeper in his. “What’s your magic, Daniel? None of my business?”

  “Can’t you guess?” He grinned down at her.

  “Charm? Male magnetism?”

  He laughed, let go of her hand to hook his arm around her shoulders and steer her through an intersection. Without thinking, Lily slipped her hand inside his jacket and pressed it flat against his back.

  Under her palm, she felt his heart skip faster. “Daniel … ”

  He drew an uneven breath. “I feel it too, Lily.”

  “Then how do we unfeel it?” Her voice held a resentful panic. “Our friendship is sacred to me. It can’t change. I can’t lose you!”

  “What makes you think you’d lose me?” His eyes looking down at her were darkly serious behind his glasses.

  “Because people who start out friends and then become lovers … ” Lily stopped, flustered, and finished angrily. “They always break up horribly. Words slicing hearts to bits like bloody road kill. Every precious thing they shared dies hatefully, forever.”

  He drew her closer against his side. “Don’t you ever want to be more than friends?”

  “No!”

  “Then if I were to do this … ” he bent and kissed her mouth, “our friendship would change?”

  “Yes, damn you!” Lily pushed him away even though his lips were soft and warm. She swiped the back of her hand across her lips. “Stop playing around, I’m serious.”

  A light danced in his chocolate eyes. “You taste like … mmm, I’m not sure what. Let me have another go.”

  She held him off, trying not to laugh. “No, and stop acting so junior high.”

  “I was too shy to kiss girls in junior high.”

  “Really? Not even cousins? You know, goofing around?”

  He looked shocked. “You kissed your cousins in junior high?”

  “Not for real,” Lily said huffily. “Growing up in the same house, my cousins were almost like brothers. They tormented me like brothers, too. Toby’s a year older than me and he would get me in these head locks and lick my face all slobbery and gross. I hated it and knew he’d never stop until I got him back and good. So one day I just planted a big kiss on him. He totally freaked, then decided he liked that a lot better than the licking.”

  Daniel backed from her in mock disgust. “I’m not sure I can be friends with someone who kisses her cousin. That’s just plain creepy.”

  Laughing, Lily gave him a playful slug. “It happened maybe twice before he discovered making out with Marta Brown was much more fun. I understand she was quite the expert.”

  “And you weren’t?”

  “Not then.” She slanted him a look. “I’m way better now after practicing on guys not related to me.”

  “How many guys?”

  “Like I kiss and tell.” She flashed him a flirty grin and let him pull her back under his arm again. Her hand found its way back inside his jacket.

  • • •

  Daniel’s blood heated. The press of her fingers between his shoulder blades sent a shivering sweetness through his veins. He could Read her excitement. She was aware, and a little afraid, of her effect on him … and the heady, playful game she played, but couldn’t seem to stop. Something else sang in her blood, he realized suddenly, a thing of magic, feral and out of control. If he kissed her again, he would taste it, know it.

  Instead, he forced a nonchalance. “So, what’d you buy at Madame Bagasha’s shop?”

  “What did you buy?” Lily countered, still brazen and still half afraid.

  “Books,” Daniel answered noncommittally. H
e needed to stay the gentleman here, not force her hand. His words to Gradyn earlier that evening rang hollow in his ears. He did owe Lily the respect and restraint she’d asked for. Yet here, walking side by side beneath trees closed in and concealing, her every glance, her provocative scent, even her touch begged him to take her.

  A strained silence grew between them before Lily spoke in a nervous rush, “I’m sorry, Daniel. How nosy of me. I bought strings of wizard lights and a beautiful geode with purple crystals. Nila said that since I touched it, the geode wouldn’t work for anyone else.”

  Daniel stopped in his tracks to stare at her. “You woke a geode? Good God, Lily! Only very strong Elemental magic can do that. Magic as in powerful, highly trained witches. This is … well, highly unusual, actually. What else can you do?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I have more power than Nila suspected since my own magic messed with a potion she — ” Lily bit off her words and color flooded her cheeks again.

  Daniel laughed in sudden understanding. Grabbing her face between his hands, he kissed her a second time, this time deliberate and slow. He knew now what raced hot in Lily’s veins. A love philter! Gods on high, why she thought she needed one blew his mind. Lily had beauty, wit, talent, and passion … and was already loved beyond reason. If she only knew! A thought sliced through the giddy haze in his mind. Oh, he could so tweak this potion thing to his advantage, pretend it filled him with an uncontrollable desire for her. And maybe if she thought the potion was responsible for his attentions, she’d find him less emotionally threatening …

  He let his hands slide around her neck and into her hair, plucking free the clip to release the thick curls down her back. “Did it ever cross your mind, Lily, that maybe I can’t help kissing you? That you’ve enchanted me, and I’m now completely under your power?”

  Lily’s eyes flew wide and her face paled to a ghastly white. She broke away from him.

  “I’m teasing, Lil — ” He reached for her again.

  But she was gone, bolting down the street and calling over her shoulder, “I’m so sorry, Daniel. It’ll wear off soon, I know it will!”

  Cursing, he saw her dart down a dark alley and raced to cut her off before she reached the locked sanctuary of her apartment. Ordinarily, Lily was quick to see through his teasing, sticking around long enough to give him back a bit of his own medicine and with interest. Jeez, how stupid could he get? The moment he’d seen her tonight in Madame Bagasha’s shop, so chummy with Nila, he should have guessed she’d asked the little witch for some idiotic magic that would … what, have every random male on the street sniffing after her? The very idea chilled him to the bone.

  Why was she so bloody naïve? How did she not know that her delicate little body and big, china blue eyes were enough to have men slobbering all over her? Christ, he wanted his mark on her now! She was his, damn it. He’d stood back long enough, respecting her autonomy, waiting for her to come to him.

  Now she roamed the night streets with Gods knew what magically enhanced pheromone wafting behind her, enticing every lecherous beast she passed. Nila was a gifted witch; a charm from her would be strong indeed. If Lily, too, had power … Daniel shuddered to think of what could happen. Taking the Lennox stairs two at a time, he reached her door and pounded hard enough to rattle the chimes she’d fixed overhead.

  • • •

  “Lily, open up! We should talk about this. I’m not under any spell … you didn’t do anything to me, I swear! Lily?”

  But she didn’t answer and pressing his ear to the door, Daniel heard only the quiet hum of her refrigerator.

  “Shit!” He unlocked his own door, stormed inside to kick it shut behind him. Which didn’t satisfy his temper in the slightest. Where was she? The corner deli? No, she knew he’d look for her there first. Grabbing a beer from the fridge, Daniel popped the cap with a savage twist and downed half in one gulp. Where was her favorite place, her solace when he wasn’t available? A sudden grin split his face. He found a bottle of red wine in the cupboard, snatched two more beers from the fridge.

  Trying to jam a corkscrew into his coat pocket, he found it already bulging. The books. Tugging them free, he glanced at the titles. One said The Science of Empathic Awareness: a Magical Approach. The other, smaller and newer, was titled simply Emotional Courage. Daniel’s mouth twitched at the irony as he pulled them from his pockets and jammed them into the nearest drawer. Too bad he wasn’t a speed reader, he could use whatever advice the second book offered immediately. Speed Reader … he snorted at the pun, plucked a wrought iron key off a hook and with the wine bottle tucked under his arm, left the apartment.

  Chapter Nine

  Lily sat curled in a sun-bleached wicker chair at the darkest end of the rooftop solarium. A chilly draft blew across her legs. Shivering, and not just from the cold, she tucked up her knees under the baggy coat. She was being hunted and knew it, but would run no further. Staring through the clear panels of the long, narrow greenhouse Lily could see, silhouetted against the city lights, the Lennox’s half dozen wind generators rising a monstrous twenty feet above the highest trees.

  The perpetual hum of their rotating blades made a sound like a quiet lullaby. Lily did not find the song soothing tonight with the dark sky choking on clouds. On nights like this she missed the farm country of Ohio and the clear milky streak of stars, the air full of scents; dried hay, rain after a storm, the smell of freshly turned earth. The solarium smelled of rich loamy earth tonight, too. Daniel’s aunt Lorraine must have potted plants in here today while the weak autumn sun heated the glass house to tolerable warmth.

  The solarium was Lily’s favorite thing about the Lennox Apartments, next to Daniel. A few weeks after she’d moved in, he’d brought her up to the roof. Seeing her starry-eyed enchantment, he had offered her a key. She’d already settled contentedly into her corner apartment by then, had met and liked most of the other tenants. But hefting that ancient, cast-iron key in her hand, she knew she’d finally found home.

  Lily didn’t remember her real home. In fact, she had few memories of her parents at all. Bullied at her new home at her aunt and uncle’s farm and barely tolerated at school, she grew up impatient for the day her oldest brother Vernon would graduate from college and come for her. Except he never did. He moved to San Francisco, became an architect, married, and started his own family.

  Lily once again felt the agony of loss and abandonment and withdrew even further inside her eleven-year-old brain. She’d seen Vernon once in all the years since her parents’ deaths. He showed up for her high school graduation, young family in tow, shook her hand like a stranger, and left again. Occasionally Lily received checks from him, which confused and annoyed her. She deposited the money in what she called The Superfluous account and never touched it.

  When her other brother Kent finished graduate school and got a job at an engineering firm in New Chicago, the first thing he did was take her in. The two spent three contented years living together while Lily attended art school. Kent traveled a lot, which worked for Lily, who enjoyed being alone to study and paint. Then Kent fell in love and Lily knew it was time to move out on her own. For years, she roomed with various artist and musician friends before finally saving money enough to afford an apartment of her own.

  Curling deeper in the wicker chair, Lily closed her eyes and plucked the scents of individual plants from the air, a pungent oregano nearby and closer, a tangy lemon basil. She wished she could slow the thunderous pound of her heart and relax in this quiet, aromatic jungle. But her lips burned with Daniel’s kiss, and she liked it. A lot …

  Not many buildings in the city had rooftop solariums anymore; the cost was prohibitive. They’d become popular in the last century, glass-enclosed buildings filled with trees and flowering bushes, birds, planting benches, and beautifully tiled mosaic floors. When Daniel’s uncle died and his aunt asked him to manage the Lennox for her, he spent months restoring the lofty greenhouse. Lorraine, devastated by her husband’s
death, needed a place of solace and peace. Never one for gardening while her husband lived, she took to it with an avid appreciation. Now she practically lived up here, especially during the winter, thinning, planting, grafting, and generally dirtying hands she no longer took to weekly manicures.

  Tonight the solarium, still warm from the day, wrapped Lily close but did not comfort. She knew Daniel would find her here soon. She was locked out of her apartment, her key in the errant satchel, of course. At least in here she didn’t feel the biting north wind. When she first arrived tonight after grabbing the emergency key from behind its rotting brick, she’d wandered around the flat rooftop, following the flagstone paths laid out between long, wooden troughs of dirt where, in summer, she grew vegetables.

  The solarium belonged to Lorraine, but the rooftop garden was hers. And Daniel’s. It was Lily who nurtured the tubs of junipers, miniature pines, and cinquefoil that created sheltered alcoves for the benches scavenged from second hand shops. Her hands worked the tidy vegetable beds and cultivated the large urns overflowing with scented flowers, now withered and gone to seed. It was time to spend a Sunday up here culling dead plants and turning the soil before it hardened. She’d get Daniel to help her haul the planters into the little gazebo where the perennial trees and bushes hibernated for the winter.

  Fingering her dead tomato plants, Lily wondered how she could charitably explain to Daniel that his attraction for her was the result of a love potion. She’d sound like a witless fool … again. Not to mention cruel and manipulative, trying to trick someone into feeling emotions that weren’t real. Would he forgive her this latest stupidity spawned of loneliness? She had considered hiding in the gazebo but refused to cower like a timid mouse waiting for a fox. Because Daniel was her friend, the very best kind of friend. And the best part of him had always accepted her, the good along with the bad.

  She’d only wanted him to see her as a woman, a capable adult for once …

  At the far end of the solarium a grow lamp emitted an orange glow casting warm shadows over the sensitive orchids and other exotics basking under the protective hood. Lily drew another long breath and strained her ears for the sound of Daniel’s footsteps. Would he come to her angry? Daniel never held onto his anger, it always faded as quickly as it flared. She loved him for that. Growing up strange, Lily had been an easy target for people’s resentment. She’d learned to use it herself with a lightning viciousness she despised.