Something Magical (Witches of Hawthorne Grove Book 1) (9 page)

“
W
ell
. That was an hundred times easier than I thought it would be,” Mortianna said, a note of genuine surprise tinting her voice. “I didn't even get a chance to make her twist an ankle or fall into an unexpected faint!”

“As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, Morty, people can think and make decisions for themselves,” Serephina pointed out, smugness clearly evident in her tone. “Kaylee's got a brain in her head, you know.”

With the first round of what was sure to become a lengthy and completely pointless argument between her siblings already said and done, Esmerelda surreptitiously stepped between her sisters and their immediate view of the scrying dish.

Glancing down into the shimmering liquid, she almost cringed.

Almost.

Then she remembered her sisters couldn't actually see what was happening with Jordan and Kaylee at the moment, and she felt a rush of relief, followed immediately by a sense of urgency. If she was seriously going to do
the thing
, this was likely to be her one and only chance.

But—what if they figured it out? What if Serephina—eagle eyed and hyper-sensitive as she was—zoned in on the differences in her stance, her speech, her coloring? Fighting back her anxiousness over the possibility of getting caught, Esmerelda counted to ten, exhaled slowly and lifted her chin, facing her sisters with a slightly calmer sense of determination. “Wait, he's taking Kaylee to the opera, isn't he?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Mortianna said, nodding excitedly, a bright smile arching her lips. Giving her shoulders a little shrug, she quivered, ecstatic to see things were going so well between their charges. “It's so
Pretty Woman
, isn't it?”

“One could even say it's so
cliché
,” Serephina sarcastically added in response to Mortianna's romanticism while moving around Morty's chair to settle into her favorite corner of the sofa. But Esmerelda noticed she was doing a little smiling of her own.

“Aren't you two forgetting something? Or rather, some
one
?” Peeking furtively at the scene with Kaylee and Jordan still open inside, Esmerelda sidled casually around the scrying dish, hiding it with her body while she did her best to continue to speak casually, pointing out the one glaringly obvious fact both her sisters were missing. “If you'll think about it for a minute, you will remember there's another woman in NYC who will be heading to
the Met
tonight.”

Blast it! Her words were too hasty, her tone too high, and she sounded like a twittering magpie!

Biting her tongue, Esmerelda fell silent, holding her breath while she waited, hoping her sisters would make the connection she wanted them to make both quickly and without recalling the scene still revealing the couple in Hawthorne Grove whom they had scryed.

“Stacy!” The name exploded into the room as both her sisters reached the desired conclusion simultaneously. Mortianna's eyes narrowed and she turned a pleading glance in Serephina's direction. “Feeny? How about a little glamour spell? Turn her into a cat, or something? Just for tonight. Please?”

Caught in the act of pulling over the mauve and gold upholstered hassock, Serephina propped her feet on the woven material, crossed her legs at the ankles, and shook her head no—just as Esmerelda had known she would. “We can't. That's breaking the rules.”

According to Serephina, everything was breaking the rules. Esmerelda barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes. When it came to people falling in love, there was nothing they could do—nothing
magical
anyway.

After several long minutes of thoughtful silence, Esmerelda could swear she actually physically felt the touch of their gazes when both her sister's eyes slid hopefully in her direction.
Stop it, Ezzi. You're being overly sensitive because of you-know-what
. Forcing herself to breathe normally, she calmly returned their stares.

Mortianna was the one who finally spoke up, daring to ask, “Merry? Any ideas?”

Esmerelda bit her lip. She had a few, but none she felt like sharing—mostly because they had nothing to do with Jordan and Kaylee and the inevitable run-in they would have had with Stacy Blaut later this evening. Feigning disappointment, she shook her head no.

Then, when she was certain the moment was right, she lifted her head and held up a hand to signal for a silent moment of pause while she gathered her thoughts. “Wait. Hold on...”

She cocked her head to the side, then almost nearly ruined the moment by giggling when both her sisters actually nodded, granting permission for her unspoken request to be given a second to compose her thoughts.

For once, Mortianna and Serephina were the ones who waited with bated breath while Esmerelda closed her eyes and pretended to think. It wasn't
really
evil of her—was it?—to keep them in suspense for a moment or two longer than was really necessary before she opened her eyes again and asked, “Why don't we join them?”

Serephina angled her head a bit, her expression still and studious while she pondered the suggestion. Mortianna, who had been sitting as straight and tense as a fence post a moment before, fell back into her chair, her expression positively rapturous. Her pleasure daze was fleeting, however. Her eyes flew open and she sat up, her fingers clutching at the edge of the wooden table Serephina often used for a desk.

“
Us
go to New York? Yes! It's brilliant, Merry! Oh, the shopping and the—the shopping!” She practically bounded out of her chair. “I have to pack. I don't even know what to pack! Can you believe it? I can't even remember the last time I—”

Catching a glance of her older sibling out of the corner of her eye, her words broke off suddenly. If anyone would need to be convinced, Mortianna knew exactly who it would be. She turned to look at her sister. “Feeny?”

“Serephina, think about it, really. What would it hurt?” Esmerelda added, quickly pointing out, “If we were there, we could keep a closer eye on things, create a distraction if necessary. A mortal, non-rule breaking one.”

“Yes, I'm even willing to promise
no magic
,” Mortianna agreed, still practically bouncing on her toes with excitement. When Serephina turned her doubtful gaze on her but declined to comment, Mortianna didn't actually squirm, but she did try a different tact. “You have to admit the last thing we need at this point is for Kaylee and Jordan to run into Miss Blaut.”

Esmerelda nodded, adding her own thoughts to Mortianna's. “Kaylee's finally comfortable with him. I believe she's coming around, but—can you even imagine how much a run in with Jordan's ex-girlfriend would set us back?”

“Weeks. Maybe even months, Serephina,” her sister answered.

Grateful beyond explanation for Mortianna's quick thinking, relief once again rushed over Esmerelda in waves. “With our current schedule being what it is, I don't think we could handle a set-back like that. Not now.”

Especially not now.

There were simply too many things in the works, too many heart strings being tugged and twined and weaved and twisted to let this particular strand become unraveled. Although she was fairly certain Serephina was already on the verge of agreeing, Esmerelda couldn't resist giving an extra nudge, one she knew was guaranteed to win her over. “The CHG would be on us in a flash.”

“Oh, that's the last thing we need,” Serephina blurted, covering her face with her hands while Mortianna reacted by clapping her hands and jumping up and down in a child-like display of exuberance.

“We're going to New York!” Morty squealed while doing a little eyes-closed kind of happy dance in her seat.

Biting at the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning like a novice with her first willow branch over her success, Esmerelda sprang into action. “I'll put this stuff away and you two can start packing.”

Mortianna was two thirds of the way up the winding, spiral stairs with Serephina only a few steps behind her when Serephina paused, turning back to Esmerelda. “Oh, wait. We can't—the quilt, remember? The female half of our next assignment will be here before noon tomorrow. We can't leave without—”

Looking down at her sister with a slight scowl marring her brow, Mortianna dropped back against the wall and grumped, “Why can't we use the replication spell? There's never been a bigger need for us to be in two places at once!”

At the foot of the stairs, Esmerelda froze. Her shoulders drooping with disappointment. “I forgot about the quilt.”

How was she to get around this one? Counting to three, she forced herself to focus on the problem at hand and think. It didn't help, so she continued. She'd barely reached the count of nine when her head popped up again. “Mortianna can stay.”

“Me?” her sister whined. “Why does it have to be me?”

Stamping her feet on the stairs, Mortianna said, “No, no, no! Feeny can stay. She doesn't even
like
the opera!”

“True,” Serephina agreed. “But I happen to love making sure our charges don't get derailed, that we don't receive unwanted visits from the CHG, and the idea of staying here while leaving things in the Big Apple in
your
hands almost terrifies me.”

“I suppose
I
could stay,” Esmerelda offered before their back-and-forth argument could gather steam. “That way you could go with Mortianna, to make sure she doesn't get her witchy fingers into anything unsavory, and I can meet our newest assignee.”

“Oh, but you'll miss
everything
, Merry, and it's been so long!” Mortianna protested.

Esmerelda shrugged. “I don't see any other way, Morty. Either I stay, or we all stay, and in the case of the latter, we would be doing so knowing we run the risk of … ”

“Botching one assignment to fulfill another.” This came from Serephina, who turned to her with an expression of uncertainty and concern. “Are you sure you don't mind staying behind, Merry?”

“Of course I mind, but there's really nothing else we can do.” She shrugged for added effect, and then waved away Serephina's concern with a smile. “I'll be fine. There's always going to be a New York and there will be another day, another chance for me to see the sights. Now is your turn. Yours and Mortianna's.”

With a flick of her wrists and a few waves of her hands, she urged her sisters up the stairs to their rooms. “Go. Enjoy it. Have fun—lots of it! When you get back here, you can tell me all about it and I'm sure I'll feel as if I had gone with you myself.”

* * *

B
ack at the
private landing strip, Jordan wavered in indecision. Although Kaylee had agreed to the trip, he could sense her reluctance, and the anxiety she felt over her decision to go with him was clear in her eyes. He had been looking forward to this for days now, but biting back a sigh, he almost called the whole thing off.

The past few weeks he'd spent with Kaylee had been some of the most enjoyable of his life. They had become friends and maybe a little more, and it was the
little more
was what worried him when he saw the uncertainty in her eyes. He didn't want to ruin this fragile new thing he could sense growing between them by forcing her to deal with issues she obviously wasn't ready to face.

Not that he had anything illicit planned. He only wanted to take her to see the opera. But looking at her now, he was having second thoughts. “Are you sure? I wouldn't want you to feel—”

A vibration interrupted, signaling an incoming call on his cell, and he sighed. “One second.”

Palming his phone, he glanced at the screen and frowned. Sammy? His thoughts immediately went to Sarge, and he answered the call. “Sam? Hi. Everything okay?”

“You aren't on the plane yet, are you?” Sam asked, and Jordan tensed, unreasonably expecting the worst.

“No, not yet. I'd barely managed to convince Kaylee to come along with me before you called and we were just about to head out. What's up?”

“Well, I hate to say it but it's less a
what
and more a
who
, but as long as you're still on the ground, I think it's safe to say you might want to delay your flight so you can take care of this one personally, man. You've got company.”

Company?

Some days Sam's penchant for being vague was irritating and today just happened to be one of those days. “Sammy, you're being about as clear as mud again. Explain, please and—keep it brief? I've got a plane to catch, remember?”

“Uh, yeah. Okay. Two words. Stacy Blaut. On your doorstep. With bags. Oh, wait, that was seven, but I'm guessing the first two would have been enough. Am I right?”

“Stacy? What would—why?”

Jordan closed his eyes. With Stacy, there didn't have to be a reason. There were so many things she did simply because she believed she could. He wouldn't put it past her having decided an extended stay in the country was just what she needed, and so she'd driven down to his place for the duration. It would never have occurred to her that he might be unavailable to put her up for it, or rather, she would pretend it hadn't, and he didn't want to cause an uproar so soon after coming to Hawthorne Grove by calling the cops to have them escort her off the property.