Authors: Barbara Bretton
Tags: #General, #ROMANCE, #Fiction, #Police Procedural, #Police, #Charms, #Mystery & Detective, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Contemporary, #Magick Studies, #Vermont, #Fantasy, #Suspense, #Magic, #Women Merchants, #Knitting Shops, #Paranormal
Casting Spells (27 page)
“There, there,” Sorcha murmured as she stroked my hair. “We don’t have time for tears. I petitioned The Council to grant me this visit, and we must make good use of every second.”
I laughed nervously. “The Council?” I asked, trying to make a joke. “Are they the ones who gave you that robe?”
She looked down at the heavily embroidered garment. “A bit much, isn’t it? But it’s all the rage where I am now.”
“It’s a big change from your tracksuit and Birkies but I’ll adjust.” I hugged her again. “Are you hungry? I have some leftover mac and cheese in the fridge. And cookies! There are plenty of cookies. I think I have some Ben & Jerry’s too. Maybe we could—”
“Sit down.”
I blinked. “What?”
“My time is short and I have much to tell you.”
“Thank God!” I beamed a happy smile at her. “Isadora’s been tearing up my house trying to find the Book of Spells.” My smile faded a fraction. “You are going to tell me where you hid it?”
“No, daughter,” she said with a gentle sigh. “I’m going to tell you the truth about your parents before it’s too late.”
My stomach twisted into a tight knot. “I know their story, Sorcha. Everyone in town knows their story.” Love at first sight followed by a few years of bliss and a tragic ending. The kind of thing Hollywood turned into gold on a regular basis.
She reached for my hand and held it tightly. Her bones were so fine, so fragile, that I felt like I had been captured by a bird. “That isn’t how it was.”
I tried to pull my hand away, but she wouldn’t allow it. For a woman who had probably seen three centuries on this side of the veil, she had one hell of a grip.
“My father was working as a carpenter at one of the summer camps. My mother was teaching the kids how to card and spin their own yarn.” I waved my hand in the air. “Sparks flew. They fell in love. He gave up everything to stay in Sugar Maple with her.”
“Except that isn’t the entire story. Your mother fell deeply in love with Ted Barrow the moment she saw him, and she vowed that he was the man she would spend the rest of her life with.”
“She got her wish,” I said.
“Yes, but not without magick.”
I stared at her. “What did you say?”
“Ted fell hard for Guinevere but not hard enough that he was ready to give up his life in the real world. He was starting his internship at Mount Sinai, and he wanted her to leave Sugar Maple and go back to New York with him, but your mother refused.”
“My father was a doctor?”
“He would have been, yes.”
“He gave up a career in medicine for my mother.” Even though I knew the ending of this particular story, I had to fight to keep from being swept away again by the romance of it all.
The heavy lines on her beloved face seemed to grow deeper. “No, daughter, he didn’t. He said he had to go back, that he had made a commitment he wouldn’t break. He said he loved Guinevere, but she would have to be the one who moved.”
“But she couldn’t leave,” I whispered. “The town depended on her.”
“She loved Sugar Maple and she loved your father so she did the only thing she could think of: she cast a spell that bound him to her side forever.”
A ribbon of memories unfurled before me. The soft sounds of their laughter floating through their closed bedroom door. The look in my father’s eyes every time she walked into the room. The way he used to say he was the luckiest man in the world, that not even a king had more to be thankful for than he did.
“He seemed so happy,” I said, choking back tears. “Are you telling me that was all a lie?”
“He
was
happy,” Sorcha said. “Every moment of his time with your mother. He was a supremely happy man.”
was
happy,” Sorcha said. “Every moment of his time with your mother. He was a supremely happy man.”
“But none of it was real.” All of those happy memories I had clung to over the years. “If she hadn’t cast a spell over him, he would have gone back to New York and become a doctor.”
He would still be alive today.
He would still be alive today.
“Your memories are real,” Sorcha said. “They belong to you, and you should hold them close. But know that for your mother it was very different.”
According to the woman who had raised me, my beautiful, self-confident mother had spent every day of her married life afraid to undo the spell and trust that love would prove stronger than magick.
“When your father was killed in the accident, she was overcome with both terrible grief and an overwhelming sense of guilt.”
I could feel my heart hardened against her once again. “So she took the easy way out.”
Sorcha’s dark brown eyes filled with tears. “She took the only way she saw.”
“She shouldn’t have left me.”
“No,” Sorcha said, “she shouldn’t have. But that was the path she chose.”
“This is really about Luke, isn’t it? You think I’m making the same mistake. That’s why you needed to talk to me before it was too late.”
“Your mother’s powers grew slowly over the years. They burst into full bloom when she fell in love with your father. She was very young and helpless against the temptation they presented.”
“I’m not my mother,” I reminded her. “I grew up human.”
“You used your powers to bring him to you last night.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Are you certain of that?”
I had never been able to lie to Sorcha. She saw through me every time. “No,” I admitted. “I’m not.”
“Let him go, daughter,” she urged. “I’m too late to keep you from falling in love with him but not too late to keep you from ruining his life.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said. “I didn’t realize loving me could ruin a man’s life.”
“It would ruin
his
life.”
his
life.”
“You’re starting to make me wish you weren’t here.”
Her smile was gentle. “That’s a risk I was prepared to take.”
“I would never cast a spell to make him love me.”
“Your magick is new and untried. It fills your head with dreams, makes your blood thunder through your veins. You live in a town where magick is an everyday occurrence. A few whispered words and he could be yours forever. That’s a serious temptation.”
I thought about how wonderful it would be to wake up every morning in his arms. To know that I wasn’t alone any longer. I could have that and more by whispering the right words. The realization stole my breath away.
“Humans trick other humans into making promises they can’t keep,” I reminded her, “and they don’t need magick to help them do it.”
She seemed to grow smaller, older, right before my eyes. “I have said what I came to say, daughter. The rest is in your hands.”
I owed everything to Sorcha. When I was a child, her love and wisdom had made my broken heart whole. Now she was here once again to ease my heart and give me guidance when I needed it most and I couldn’t find it within myself to embrace her words.
“Please stay, Sorcha. The town is in danger and I’m not sure I can hold Isadora at bay much longer.”
“I would give all my memories to be here with you, but only a daughter of Aerynn has the power to keep Sugar Maple safe from harm.” She reached for my hand, and for an instant I felt her remembered warmth. “Your fate was determined three hundred years ago, Chloe Hobbs. Now it’s time for you to meet it.”
And then she was gone.
LUKE
I stopped at the pizza place midafternoon to grab a slice. The place was crowded with day-trippers and townies. My pal Goober was crowded in a booth with some people I didn’t recognize. Janice blew in while I was waiting for my soft drink and dragged me over for introductions.
Gunnar raised a bottle of Sam Adams in my direction. His bruises were starting to settle in. The pattern of purples and yellows had shifted since the last time I saw him, and some of the swelling had gone down. It probably didn’t say much for my character, but I liked knowing his brother had gotten the better of him.
Janice ruffled his hair in an older-sister kind of gesture, which he pushed away with feigned annoyance. She seemed to like him as much as Chloe did.
“Verna, this is our new policeman.” Janice turned to me. “Verna is Paul’s wife.”
I shook hands with the friendly woman with the dark, curly hair and made the appropriate noises.
“And this is Archie.”
The short, round man with the Harry Potter scarf around his neck raised his slice in greeting.
“From the electronics store?” I asked, and he nodded. “You’re the man I need to see.” I gave him the condensed version of my troubles.
“You’re working out of the old pet shop, right?” he asked. “I’ll drop by and see what needs doing.”
Small-town living at its best. I could get used to this.
“Anyone see Chloe today?” Janice asked the table in general. “I thought we were having lunch but the shop’s shut tight.”
“Is that unusual?” I tried not to use my cop voice but she tightened up.
She shut down in that way people do whenever a cop asks a question. “Not really,” she said with an unconvincing shrug. “Just asking, that’s all.”
I hung around a few minutes, grabbed a second slice to go, then headed back to the pet shop. Janice was right. The sign at Sticks & Strings was still turned to CLOSED, but it was the moving van idling in front of the pet shop that caught my attention.
“Delivering on a Saturday?” I asked as I unlocked the front door.
“Overtime,” the driver said. “Six kids and it’s two weeks before Christmas.”
“Got it,” I said.
The driver took a step back. “Damn! You’ve got yourself one hell of a flood in there.”
It looked like a tributary of the Connecticut River. We made arrangements for a redelivery the following week.
I wasn’t a plumber, but I knew a few things about busted water pipes. If I’d had the tools, I would have made a stab at it. I phoned Chloe for the name of a local plumber but she didn’t pick up. I crossed the alley and rapped on the back door.
Nothing.
I still had the key. I tried to fit it into the lock, the same lock it had opened last night, but it didn’t fit. What the hell? It wasn’t like she’d changed the locks. I checked to make sure I’d used the right key and tried again. Still wouldn’t fit.
I ran down to the hardware store and borrowed some stuff from Paul, who said he’d be by within the hour to help out.
I liked working with my hands. I didn’t mind getting dirty, but there was nothing fun about busted water pipes in the middle of December.
I was up to my ass in duct tape and solder when Paul showed up two hours later.
“That’s new pipe,” Paul said as he surveyed the damage. “They had everything replaced last year.” He looked at me. “What the hell happened?”
“Like I’m supposed to know? I opened the door and there was Lake Ontario.”
“Shove over,” he said. “Let’s see what’s going on.”
The more I saw of Paul Griggs, the more I liked him. He reminded me of a hairier version of my older brother. We made a good team. He knew what to do and I did what he told me.
We talked about the Pats’ Super Bowl chances, bitched a little about the Red Sox, the state of the economy, taxes, and the snowplows of Sugar Maple.
“So why Salem?” I asked as he held the blowtorch to the soldered joint. “I grew up two towns over from witch central. What made your founding fathers design the town after it?”
He moved the blowtorch a little more to the right. “Never gave it much thought.”
“You’ve got to admit it’s a strange choice,” I said. “I mean, the town was known for witch hunts.”
Paul shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you. It was a few hundred years ago. Why do politicians do anything?”
“Good point.”
An hour later there was nothing left to do but wet-vac the floor and call it a weekend.
Paul went back to his own store while I finished. It was after six when I doused the lights and locked up. Once again I cut across the yard to see if Chloe was around. The doors were still locked. The CLOSED sign was still prominent. But this time the lights were off.
I debated driving up to the motel for a toothbrush but decided against it. They had toothbrushes in Massachusetts. I’d pick up what I needed when I got there.
It took two tries before the truck started. I let it warm up then pointed it in the direction of the gas station, which happened to be on Chloe’s side of town. And since I was only a few blocks away from her house, I figured I might as well stop by and let her know about the flood and tell her I wouldn’t be back until Monday morning.
Nothing personal.
Just as an FYI.
21
CHLOE
I didn’t know much about my newfound magick, but one thing I did know was that it was bad for business.
Up until my powers started to kick in, I had never closed Sticks & Strings early and I had definitely never closed down in the middle of the day so I could go home and eat an entire bag of Chips Ahoy with a rocky road chaser while I contemplated my life.
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