by Berinn Rae
Even the simplest charms wreaked havoc when fused with Lily’s magic. She melted candles, caused the hands of a cuckoo clock to spin backwards, made a pot of soup boil over, and at one point had the stove dancing like an animation from a Disney movie.
“Am I over-thinking this or what?” Lily asked, hands tearing at her hair.
“Maybe Daniel tempered your spells with one of his own,” Nila suggested.
Lily shook her head. “No, he gave me a sense of what was needed. Then I just made up my own words.”
Madame grinned triumphantly. After that Lily “designed” her own spells. Some worked. Some didn’t, and Lily found that her many failures didn’t bother her that much. She’d already made up her mind she would never work magic as part of the Cohort, a coven, or anything that wasn’t part of Daniel. Not that she said so out loud. Everything Madame and Nila taught her that afternoon she gobbled up as eagerly as a newly hatched bird. Every moment they worked her on technique she appreciated with the same exhilaration she got when she obtained the perfect light and color balance in a painting.
At one point, awkwardly juggling four spells at once, she promised herself and the world in general that never would her magic, as volatile as it was boundless, hurt another person. The afternoon wore on, the work room filled with the tantalizing smell of vegetable soup and baking bread. Lily wove and unwove magic, raised power, learned to spin it into a charm or spell that left no lingering, potentially harmful energy behind. After nearly three hours, the women took a break. Only then did Lily realize her psychic sense of Daniel was gone.
Seeing her suddenly strained face, Nila asked, “What’s wrong?”
“My link with Daniel. It’s gone again!” She turned to Madame in panic. “Would Gran … ?” She couldn’t finish the dreadful thought.
“Would she force him to wear a talisman? No. He’s mostly healed and has no need for one.”
Nila set a bowl of steaming soup in front of Lily and gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze before sitting down beside her. “I imagine the link’s gone because you’re exhausted, Lil. Gods afire, the things you’ve accomplished in the last few hours, the power you’ve generated? I mean really, no one should get to sense the guy they love twenty-four-seven, for pity’s sake.”
Lily felt suddenly ill. “Do you think Daniel resents the link?”
“No.” Nila rolled her eyes at Lily’s obtuseness. “You and Daniel share this amazing connection, a ton of incredible power and, adding insult to injury, you’re insanely in love with each other. I’m saying give it a rest already.”
“You’re jealous?” Lily stared at her.
“Like, duh!” Nila said through a mouth full of bread.
“Me, too.” Madame smiled giddily and suddenly there were stars in her eyes. Literally.
Both girls choked. They begged her to teach them the spell. All through the meal, the two girls tried one ridiculous spell after another on each other. One caused uncontrollable blotches, another curled hair and eyelashes. A third created a temporary allure the opposite sex found irresistible.
Lily refused to do that one. “Glamour spells and I don’t mix. I’ve got these two to prove it.” She tipped her head at the gray specters hovering like pegged laundry in the corner. “Besides, Daniel wasn’t affected by the love potion.”
“So he claims.” Nila sneered smugly. Finishing her soup with a last hearty slurp, Nila, visibly “girding her loins,” approached the two apparitions and placed a hand on Rodney’s shoulder. And found him a solid … something.
“Not flesh.” She snatched her hand quickly back. “He’s colder than cold. So how do we dispel them?” She directed the question to Madame.
Madame cleared the bowls from the table before going to the giant, tattered book she’d carried in hours before. While she turned pages and jotted down notes, occasionally mumbling an unintelligible word and staring off into space, Nila and Lily washed and dried the dishes. Bored, they began to splash playful spells at each other. Lily’s hair turned a florescent pink, Nila suddenly sported elephant ears.
“Oh, gosh!” Lily apologized, mortified. “I meant that for your feet. Sorry.” When she couldn’t undo the spell, Madame had to intervene. The fun went out of the game for Lily. She refused to rise to Nila’s challenges no matter what color the young witch turned her skin or how many extra fingers she gave her.
“Did you find a way to get rid of my guy-things?” Lily collapsed on the bench after conceding a towel snapping fight to Nila.
“Not specifically, no. What I have discovered, Lily, is that only you can do it. Not me, not Daniel, not a coven. The power that created them is within you and so is the power to drive them away. How, I do not know. But I’ll investigate more, maybe experiment. In the meantime,” the tiny witch grinned, “try and think of them as … well, oversized puppies.”
As Lily was about to leave the magic shop, Madame Bagasha said. “It might be wise, Lily, if you and Daniel stayed away from each other for a few days. Give him a chance to fully heal. And perhaps give the … um, ardor time to cool.”
Nila did her eye roll thing. “Like separation ever cooled passion.”
“None the less.” Madame took Lily’s face in her hands. “Love is all powerful. Mix love with an all powerful magic and, well, you don’t want to hurt each other.”
Lily nodded, tight lipped and pale. Nila turned from where she was dipping candles. “Is that still possible?”
“What isn’t possible?” Madame shrugged. “I did not know until today that one magic could melt into another to create an entirely new force.”
“Isn’t that the way love works?” Lily asked.
Madame laughed, pressed her wrinkled cheek to Lily’s smooth one and whispered, “How could I have forgotten, huh?”
• • •
Lily left the two side by side, dipping candles. Stepping out the door, she realized that while she’d been inside, the shop had changed locations again. Had she felt movement, a slight shifting of the floor, a wobbling nausea like one experiences during small earthquakes? No. Now that’s powerful magic, Lily thought. No matter what qualms Madame had about her power, Lily knew that even with Daniel, she could never move an entire building!
She glanced up at the darkening sky to take her bearings only to find she was within three blocks of the Lennox. A bone-deep weariness suddenly struck her and she found she could barely place one foot in front of the other. She’d have to use a spell just to get herself up the three flights of stairs to her apartment! Half a block from home, Lily’s mind filled with the loving presence of Daniel once more. She had a strong sense of his fury, barely restrained, before the link once again faded into an awareness as soft as baby’s breath.
In essence, Gran had kidnapped Daniel. Lily practically fell through the door of her apartment and saw the answering machine blinking red. His recorded voice was livid:
“Yeah, well, I’m sure you got the lecture too, Lil. That we should stay away from each other ’til I’m fully healed. Damn them all.” He heaved a gusty sigh. “I’ve been hijacked for a family dinner tonight and if Gran has her way I won’t be home until very late … I’d sell my soul just to sleep beside you tonight. Every night.”
Lily dug out a scrap of paper, scrawled the words, “Come anyway, even late,” and slipped the note under his door. Too tired to eat, she dozed off in the bathtub only to wake shivering in the cooling water, pulled on flannel pajamas, and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Half waking in the dark, she felt the mattress dip beside her, then Daniel’s lips warm on her cheek before he wrapped her in the curve of his body, nesting his face against the back of her neck. Within moments both were sound asleep.
• • •
Daniel woke in the early morning light with a pounding headache. And fully aroused. He rolled out of Lily’s bed as if she were on fire and stood looking down at her, blond curls spread across the pillow, her fist tucked against a rosy cheek. A possessive hunger f
illed him. But he only kissed her sleeping lips before grabbing his clothes and tiptoeing from her apartment to his.
Chapter Twenty-four
For two days, Lily didn’t see Daniel, even though they slept together every night. She’d feel him slip into her bed in the deep dark and try like hell to wake herself up. He would fill his arms with her. His magic would drift like warm honey across her skin and she’d fall more deeply asleep. In the morning he was always gone. She’d wake, roll to press her face into his pillow, and breath the lingering scent of him, her chest aching with loneliness, and cursed his restraint.
She did see Rodney and his companion at odd, disorienting moments as if they were strings tied around her fingers like ragged reminders. No matter how much she pretended, Lily could not think of them as puppies, innocuous and devoted. They hounded her for days. She’d glimpse them outside the apartment or through a window on the e-train. No one else seemed aware of them, and no one strolled unknowingly through their incorporeal bodies.
Lily woke alone again on the day of the Spencer Gallery art opening and lay near tears wishing Daniel had stayed, this morning above all others. Nervous and scatter-brained, she dashed to work without her portfolio and the sketches for the Wilson girl’s final portrait. Ellen rolled her eyes when Lily told her and asked if they needed to cancel today’s after school sitting with the two girls.
“No.” Lily rubbed her tired eyes. “I’ll do a cold sketch on the large canvas, and hopefully they won’t turn into little savages and skin me alive.”
Lily met Lindsay and Carmen that afternoon dressed like a medieval jester, leering from the middle of her studio, legs splayed, hands on her hips like Peter Pan. Except she wore a harlequin tunic garishly beribboned and a three-pronged hat strung with bells. The girls stared in drop-jawed astonishment.
“Today is a day of torture.” Lily shook her jongleur stick at them. “You must sit unmoving for excruciatingly long, painful hours frozen in whatever position I put you in. No twitching of hands, no tapping of feet, no disrupting the folds of your costumes that I will have elaborately and decoratively arranged.”
The two nodded, higher than kites, giggly and extremely pleased with themselves in all their radiant magnificence. Lily gave them a thumbs up, put on the music they’d brought, the soundtrack of the ancient classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, and stepped up to her easel.
When the session came to an end, Lindsay and Carmen begged to see the sketch, but Lily quickly whipped a sheet over the canvas. “Can’t risk jinxing the magic,” she told them. They both winked at her as if they knew exactly what she meant. Which was possible, Lily decided and sent them off to change back into street clothes.
She was cleaning her brushes, still dressed in costume but minus the hat, when she heard a laugh behind her. Turning, she found Daniel leaning in the doorway.
“I see you’re already dressed for tonight’s formalities,” he said.
She looked down at herself, “If the shoe fits … ”
Then he was across the floor and kissing her, arms grappling, brushes and rags dropping unheeded at their feet.
“Christ’s Apostles, I’ve missed you.” His teeth nipped her ear and his mouth fed on hers until she was too weak to stand. She’d completely forgotten Carmen and Lindsay until she heard them giggling. Breathless, struggling to retain some dignity, she introduced Daniel. Each girl gave him a shy but inquisitive smile. Daniel plucked up one of Lily’s paint smeared rags and stuffed it inside his closed fist. When he opened his hand, a pair of multicolored butterflies flew out to land on each child’s shoulder.
Carmen and Lindsay dispensed with shyness and closed around him. As Lily tidied her workspace, Daniel entertained them by changing mundane articles off her table, a paint smock into a bright feather boa around Lindsay’s neck, and a piece of quartz into a tiny crystal dragon Carmen discovered in her pocket. Of course the girls had seen magic shows and couldn’t tell real magic from fake. Or so Lily hoped as she left the three in order to change out of her fool’s costume. By the time Mrs. Wilson picked up her daughters, they were well and truly charmed by Daniel. Go figure, Lily sighed, well and truly smitten herself. She curled happily at his side as he drove them home in his ancient truck.
• • •
That night Lily perched nervously on the edge of her couch waiting for Daniel’s knock. This was it. Their first date. Her heart refused to beat normally. It raced and died and raced again. She guzzled a glass of wine, eyes closing as the heady rush of alcohol loosened her bones. She gargled, again, and reminded herself to breathe in and out.
He was just Daniel, for Christ’s sake. Her own Daniel, best friend, companion through thick and thin, the man who set her on fire with just a look … oh, why couldn’t she stop shaking? For two years he’d been no different than any other guy in her life. Then she drinks a love potion, her world spins topsy-turvy, and all of a sudden she discovers he’s gorgeous, lit up with this shiny omnipotence she tumbles headlong into.
Deep steady breaths, she told herself, throwing off her coat and running to check her appearance in the mirror for the umpteenth time.
Ruby from downstairs had insisted on doing Lily’s face and hair. Standing in the newlyweds’ kitchen in her slinky blue dress, Lily felt suddenly self-conscious and afraid, as if time had shifted along a major fault line and she’d missed making the jump.
“This dress is perfect, Lil.” Ruby sighed. “Hugs your curves nicely, makes your eyes all mysterious and dreamy.” Ruby, who was studying cosmetology, brushed Lily’s hair until it shone before sweeping the blond curls up off her neck. She pinned them loosely with a series of delicate, jeweled clasps leaving a few wispy strands trailing down her back. The girl powdered Lily’s nose and applied eye shadow, liner and mascara with the subtlety of a true artist. When Lily was finally allowed a look at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Ruby’s magic had turned a whey-faced, drifty Lily into a beautiful, alluring woman. In spite of her enormous eyes broadcasting panic like a satellite signal. Brian flung her a kiss like some Italian lothario.
“Can you grant me the confidence to go with all this glamour, oh fairy godmother?” Lily asked with a nervous laugh. Ruby, pushing her out their door, said all the right words of reassurance. But climbing the stairs back to her apartment Lily knew her beauty tonight was as unreal as the apparitions stalking her.
Now she sat on her couch, butterflies playing capture the flag in her belly. She contemplated another quick glass of wine, rejected the idea, and, grabbing up her coat, jerked open the door to find Daniel standing there.
They stared at each other.
He looked incredible, his thick hair combed back with unruly curls already springing loose around the open collar of a brandy colored shirt that hugged his chest and shoulders. He wore dark trousers and a navy wool coat. And sneakers.
His stunned gaze took in her dress, a clingy sheath that accented her breasts and tiny waist, the silk stockings, the dainty shoes, before swinging back to her face. Looking at her, he could barely breathe. “Gods and Saints, Lily, you’re … you’re so beautiful!”
“I’m really nervous,” Lily said and launched herself at him. He pulled her into a hungry kiss that felt like coming home. Her panic faded. He was still just Daniel. With a sigh, she let him take her deeper with his mouth playing on hers, trapping, torturing. His hands slid down her back, roughly cupped her bottom to lift her against him. A whimper rose in her throat, fire whipped to life in her belly. She parted her lips for him and strained closer.
• • •
Daniel knew if he didn’t slam on the brakes, and now, they’d end up on the floor tearing their dress-up clothes off each other. With a ragged sigh, he let his arms fall away. Stepping back, he saw the dazed, needy look in Lily’s eyes. Before he could grab her again, he snatched her hand and dragged her quickly down the stairs and out the front door.
After walking a few blocks he cooled down, slowed down, and could look at her ag
ain without wanting to strip her naked. She darted a quick glance at him. He suddenly realized she thought he was angry. He stopped, pulled her into a more gentle kiss. Lily raised on tiptoe to meet him, lips wet and eager.
“Let’s skip this damn opening,” she whispered against his mouth. He gasped as her magic plunged into him, hot and alive with lust.
He laughed shakily. “Guess you’re not nervous anymore.”
She blushed so bright he could see patches on her cheeks in the dark.
“You do know you just zapped me with magic, Lily.”
“Did I? Did it … hurt?” She pulled away.
“Not even a little.” He tucked her possessively under his arm. “Your magic can’t hurt me anymore, Lil. We’re integrated, remember?”
“Lords, yes, I remember,” she said shortly. “It’s why I’d rather shag you silly right now than go to this bloody opening.”
“Well, the feeling’s mutual so stop looking at me with your eyes all big and sexy.”
“Then stop looking at me as if you want to — ”
His kiss was sudden and searing and unrepentant. Her legs gave out and he caught her against him with a frustrated groan.
“Yeah.” She grinned. “As if you want to do that.”
“Later.” Daniel determinedly set her on her feet, tucked her hand in his and jammed them both in his jacket pocket. “That and a lot more.”
“I’m hating this opening more and more. You know, don’t you, the second we walk in the gallery that Megan girl will have her hands all over you. And Gradyn will take me off to parade around like a prize fighter.”
“You’ll be toasted with champagne. By really rich, influential clients.”
“Who I’ll never remember later. Names will run into faces and … why are we going again?”
“Lily, you are an amazing artist. Gradyn is ecstatic over the paintings you brought him.”
Lily glanced at him. “Have you seen them?”
“I saw one. It made my nose bleed.”
