by Leanne Leeds
He chuckled and pulled back just enough that our eyes could meet. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I waited, but he said nothing in response. “Chris, you’re starting to scare me a little. What is it? We accomplished everything that we were trying to do. Everyone’s okay. I mean, we’re having a party on the veranda in celebration of how awesome we did.” I tilted my head back further. “Why do you not look like what we did was awesome? You look like you’re very much not feeling awesome.” I blinked, and a nervousness gripped me. “Is it Anna? Is there something about you making her a vampire I don’t get?”
“No, no,” Chris answered, smiling. Then the smile faded. “It’s not what happened in the last twenty-four hours. Well, it is.” He took a deep breath. “Seeing all of those people greet their family, how happy they were to see one another…it made me wonder if I really needed to cut myself off from my mother and sister.”
“Oh, Chris,” I sighed, drawing him closer. “You did what you thought was best. Don’t beat yourself up.”
“I don’t think you understand.” He reached for me, his hand cradling my cheek. “I never married, I never took a woman home and told my mother I was in love.” Chris smoothed an errant hair from my face and outlined my lips with his finger. “I never wanted to until I met you, and now…”
“You feel you can’t because they think you’re dead.”
He nodded. “I’m really struggling with what to do next, here, Fortuna. I isolated myself from them for their own safety because Karen was dangerous. And yes, I did what I felt was best. Yet now I find myself wondering if there are still reasons to do so.” Tears sprang to my eyes as I listened to the pain in his words, and in response, he looked away. “I want them to know me. To know you. Now that they are no longer in harm’s way from Karen, I…I don’t want to cause them pain. I don’t know how they’ll react to what…what I’ve become.”
“You’re still you. No matter how much you’ve changed, you are still you. And they love you. And they’re probably fantastic people. They couldn’t be otherwise,” I told him, smiling. “Because you’re fantastic people.”
“This coming from the woman whose birth mother was a sociopathic murderer and whose adoptive mother was a rapacious egoist.” I blinked, shocked at how on the nose he was. Chris was right. I didn’t know if his family would accept him, and I didn’t know if his desire would just cause him more pain. They could be awful people.
But I had hope.
I nodded sheepishly. And then I frowned. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“What is it?”
I pushed him away and pointed. “I just realized I don’t even know your last name!”
“Of course you do,” he frowned. “I’m sure I’ve told you.”
“I’m pretty sure you have not,” I disagreed. “For months, I knew you as Jeeves. Then you asked me to call you Chris. But that’s as far as we got. That was it. What the heck is your last name?”
“Have I honestly not told you?” he asked himself quietly. “Amazing. Perhaps you’re right.”
“Well?” I asked, tapping my foot.
“Trevino.”
“Your name is Chris Trevino?” I asked. He nodded. “What’s it mean?”
“You know, funny you should ask that. Aunt Addie looked it up once. It means ‘lives at a place where boundaries meet.’ Kind of cool, huh?” I nodded. “Do you like the name?” I nodded again. He smiled slyly. “So, how much do you like the name?”
Then he leaned down and kissed me.
“Everything good?” Martin asked as we returned to the patio.
Chris nodded. “It’s fine, Martin.”
“It is not, we just realized—” Pepper started, but Ollie’s hand shot out and covered her mouth forcefully.
I glanced around the table.
The expressions were somewhat…shell shocked. “What did we miss?”
“Have some wine, Fortuna,” Martin said, jumping up to pour me a glass. I glanced around the table again and noticed Dalida and Angie were pale. “Red? White? A Scotch, perhaps? I have a wonderful—”
“Somebody better spit it out,” I warned Martin. “What happened?”
“Fortuna, you really should take some wine,” Angie said, exhaling.
Pepper finally ripped Ollie’s hand away and spoke incredibly quickly, so quickly I had trouble following. “So, Clutterbuck asked who the head witch was in the whole mob witch paranormal army thing, and Martin told him that Karen was actually known as the head witch. And then Clutterbuck mentioned that during the whole…thing, Clarissa, the witch, was supposedly the daughter of the head witch. Or, at least, that’s what Martin’s father said. So, he asked Martin if Clarissa was actually Karen’s daughter, which, if she was, would make Clarissa your sister. Well, not just your sister,” Pepper finished as she pointed at Dalida and Angie. “And I said that would make sense because, in witchcraft, there are four elements—”
“I…wait…what?” I looked at Chris. “Was Clarissa…is Clarissa Karen’s daughter?”
Chris exhaled. “Maybe. I don’t know if Clarissa was adopted or…I don’t know.”
“Who would know?” I asked him.
Everyone on the patio stared at Karen, the dog.
“Well, that’s not a lot of help, is it?” Dalida said with exasperation.
“She can’t be our sister,” I insisted.
“Why not?” Angie asked.
“Because she was a complete moron!” I crossed my arms and glared at the dog. “Is there any point in my life where you are not going to be making things more complicated for me?” I shouted.
“There is someone else who would know,” Martin said, his face drawn tight. “My father.” Martin looked over his shoulder at his mother and Aunt Addie. “At some point, I’m going to have to go back to Las Vegas. I don’t want to let my mother face my father alone.” He swallowed. “To be perfectly honest, she would probably eat him. Anyway, I could ask him and find out for sure. Clarissa is there. Or she was, at least, before everyone scattered.”
I looked at Chris. “Your family is in Las Vegas, aren’t they?” He nodded. “We could go for a while. I’m sure Martin and Angie would let us stay with them until you decided what to do.”
“Of course, Fortuna, you and Chris are always welcome,” Angie assured me.
“Martin and Angie?” Clutterbuck said. He turned to look at his daughter. “You’re going with him to Las Vegas?”
“Dad, I’m rich. You know how it is to be a rich person in Mystic’s End? Well, being a rich person in Vegas?” she tilted her head. “Way better. You could come with us. You love poker. You’ve always talked about competing in the World Series of Poker. I think they have it there.”
He stared at her in horror. “I can’t afford that!”
“Oh, Daddy, I can afford it ten times over.” Angie leaned into Martin. “But, yes, Dad. I go wherever he goes.”
Martin smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
“You’re all leaving?” Pepper asked, crestfallen. Ollie grabbed her hand and squeezed.
“Look, we don’t have to decide any of this right now,” I said as I sat down in my chair with a thump. “We just got a break. Let’s take that break. Finish everything that we’ve got going here, and then figure out what we’re going to do next. Let’s give everyone time to recover.”
“Well, what I’m gonna do next is drink some of this Scotch,” Reverend Kane said as he stood up and headed towards the liquor cart. “All these problems? They’ll still be there tomorrow.”
I sighed as Chris sat down next to me.
Somehow, they always are.
But at least I didn’t have to deal with any of them alone anymore.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
I hope you enjoyed Captive Magic, the final book in the Mystic’s End Mysteries! Have you read the series where it all started?
If not, go back in time to Wit
chiest Circus on Earth, or move on to the next series in this universe, The Owl Star Witch Mysteries!
Fortuna, Gideon, and Chris will be back! Join the newsletter for announcements!
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Leanne Leeds
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