by Andris Bear
“Yeah, that’s the flea bag.” Evangeline didn’t know which was worse—her sister’s delighted coos or Chester’s over-the-top purring. The cat from Hell deserved neither. “It’s all catnip and cuddles until he starts talking to you.”
Evangeline ignored them in favor of the item Chester had been sitting next to. The chest was small, maybe two feet by three feet, and made of shiny reddish-brown wood—cherry maybe, or mahogany. The same spiral symbol she’d seen by the door was carved into the hinged lid that was secured with a tarnished gold lock.
Sticking out from under the corner of the chest was a large manila envelope.
Evangeline’s hand reached out on its own accord and grab the envelope. She watched her fingers peel back the seal, slip into the opening, and then pull out a folded sheet of paper and another, smaller, envelope.
The paper rattled in her hand. Or more accurately, her hand shook, rattling the paper.
“What is that?” Alex asked, suddenly peering over her shoulder.
Evangeline sidestepped to avoid her prying sister’s prying gaze. She wanted to read it first. “Give me a minute and I’ll tell you.” Her words came out harsher than intended, but she couldn’t worry over that now. Her nerves were raw, and her body was vibrating hard enough to chatter her teeth.
She scanned the typed letter. “It’s from Mr. Shaw, dad’s attorney.”
Elle released Chester to come stand next to Alex. Mal stayed put, propping her elbow on the fireplace mantel to regard her with mild curiosity. Well, then. Now that she had their attention, Evangeline read the letter aloud.
“Dear Ms. Winther, per your father’s request, the last of your inheritance was placed inside the house at 112 Main Street. He did not leave a key with me, so I assume you have it. His only instruction was that the chest not be opened until all four of his daughters were in attendance.” With a shrug, she added, “That’s it.”
“So, let’s open it,” Alex said, moving forward before Evangeline could beat her to it.
“Do you have a key?” Mal asked.
Her shouted “No!” stopped everyone in their tracks. Her cheeks flamed. Evangeline couldn’t say why she wanted, needed, to be the one to open the chest, but she did, and if she’d learned nothing else over the last few weeks, it was to trust her gut.
There was something in that chest that was meant for her. Not all of them—just her.
Of course, she didn’t give voice to the certainty. She held up the second envelope with Evangeline scrawled across the front in her dad’s scribbly handwriting. “There’s another letter. It’s from dad.”
A weighted hush fell over them as she opened the envelope and freed the folded paper.
Our dearest girls,
First, your mother and I love you very much. Our greatest desire has been only to protect you. I hope you can remember that as time wears on.
If you’re reading this, your mother and I are gone and soon, you will face many things you do not understand. Changes may come on tidal waves or a trickle, but they are coming. You will each develop your own gifts. They will make you a target. But you are strong, so much more than you realize. You have each other, and there is no force or magic on this earth stronger than family.
In this chest, you will find a journal, a mirror, a ring, and a key. They are conduits and anchors to where you come from.
The journal is mine. Read it carefully for it will help you figure out what you’re up against. I should have warned you before now, but I was afraid any mention of craft would bring it to our doorstep.
With the mirror, anything you see can be brought to life.
The key will reveal the lock.
One ring to rule them all. Just kidding. The ring is a collector. Use it wisely. Not everything taken can be returned.
There are others like us. Find the light. It will burn away the darkness.
Love you all,
Dad
P.S. If you run into Chester, he can be bought with tuna steaks and a stuffed bunny. Don’t ask.
Chapter One
Evangeline peered at her reflection, scrutinizing the woman in the mirror. She saw the same curly hair, same brown eyes. She still looked like a naïve college graduate with the world at her fingertips.
But that was all that remained of the woman she’d been four months ago.
Evangeline chuffed at her own melodrama. And she fancied herself the rational one? Maybe she’d lost that as well, because life had gone from order to chaos in a few short weeks, and she wasn’t entirely sure that anything logical had made the trip.
A glance at the clock beside the bed confirmed she’d been staring off into space for too long. She had ten minutes to finish getting ready, eat something, and chug down some coffee before she had to leave for work.
Melissa Handscomb, aka Mimi the Militant, her boss at the library, would fire her with glee if she showed up late one more time. Might even have her pink slip filled out and waiting.
What Mimi failed to realize was Evangeline despised being late as much as Mimi hated her to be. Punctuality was her middle name. Except when she was late.
Running a brush through her hair tamed the mess about as well as licking the wall would have—the curls sprang back into place as soon as the bristles passed over them. For the millionth time in her life, she wondered why she got stuck with the rebellious coif.
Every one of her sisters had smooth, shiny tresses while hers resembled an electrified Brillo pad.
She spun from her reflection to grab her shoes from the closet and nearly jumped out of her skin at the figure standing in her doorway.
“Alex,” she hissed. “What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?”
Her sister raised a lazy brow. “I was hardly sneaking,” she said, canting against the door frame. “You’re as jumpy as a cat.”
Evangeline snatched her black flats and brushed past Alex. “I don’t like that word.”
“What, jumpy?”
“Cat,” she stated, slipping her foot into a shoe.
Alex laughed, pushing off the doorframe to take a seat on her bed. “What did poor Chester ever do to you?”
Peeking over her shoulder, Evangeline eyed her sister. What would Alex say if she answered honestly? That the cat seemed to disappear from one house and appear in another across town. He talked—granted, it was mostly in her head, so she couldn’t be sure if she could pin that one on him—and licked himself incessantly. Either the cat had the most meticulous grooming habits of any man, or the furry freak had a fetish. Her brain convulsed at the thought.
Those off-putting attributes aside, he was also psychic. Ish. Or whatever the hell he was.
Chester seemed to know exactly when she needed a push. He’d someone known known Evangeline needed to answer the phone that night. Had he realized her parents were dead? If so, how? More so, why hadn’t he warned her, so she could have done something to stop the fire?
Of course, not a word of that crazy left her mouth. Instead, she dropped her focus to the bed.
“He licks his ass where you’re sitting.”
Alex’s gaze settled on the navy comforter. She shrugged. “He licks his ass everywhere.”
Sadly, she was right. The mangy sod did have a thing for licking.
“Are you done with this?” Her sister started to reach for the journal that Evangeline had tossed on the bed. Panic snapped in her nerves and Evangeline lunged, scarcely beating her to it. That she looked like a lunatic clutching it to her chest didn’t matter—only that it was in her possession, not Alex’s.
Alex settled back into her seat. She regarded her for long moments. “What is with you and dad’s journal? Why won’t you let anyone else see it?”
Because it’s full of things you wouldn’t believe, even if I swore a blood oath.
Evangeline swallowed. “I’m not finished with it.”
“Really?” Alex unfolded her long frame and stood. “You’ve done nothing but shove your nose in it since we got here.
Knowing your voracious reading habits, I’d bet you’ve read it five times already.”
Seven. But who was counting?
Evangeline hugged it tighter to her chest. “I’ll share it, but I need… to understand some things first.”
Evangeline pretended not to Alex’s skeptical expression. What did she care if Alex believed her reason for keeping it close? As long as Alex kept her hands off the journal.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want her sisters to know what their dad had written. She just didn’t want them to know that it applied to her. Or worse, only to her.
Evangeline wanted to assume each of her sisters would inherit abilities as well, but what if she was the only one? How would they look at her? She would be an outcast in the only family she had left. Would knowing their father had also been a caster save her in their opinion?
What’s more, how in the hell did one announce they were a witch?
Hey, guess what, that Sabrina chick ain’t got nothing on me. I’m a human lie detector. Oh wait—not human ‘cause I’m a witch. Ta-da!
Not a conversation she was ready to have. At least, not until she found a way to control it.
“I have to go to work,” Evangeline stated, wishing Alex would leave her room so she could hide the journal. Then again, she couldn’t think of a single place to hide it that Alex wouldn’t find should she choose to snoop. Taking it with her was the only way to keep it from her sister, but the idea of taking it out of the house gave her a case of the vapors.
“Whatever.” Alex exaggerated her sulk as she turned away.
“Evie, you have a visitor!” drifted up the stairs.
Alex froze mid turn. She spun on her heel with a breathy, “A visitor,” and darted from the room
Evangeline shoved her dad’s journal under the mattress, readjusted the wrinkled comforter, then ran after Alex. The hiding spot wouldn’t do long term, but it was good enough until she left for work. Unless the snoop came snooping before then…
Rounding the curve in the staircase, Evangeline almost plowed into said snoop as she’d stopped halfway down was staring at something Evangeline could see.
“What are you doing?” Evangeline demanded, trying to peer over her shoulder. True to form, Alex sashayed left and right, blocking her view. Evaneline considered grabbed her ankles and tipping her over the banister.
“Holy hot balls, who is that?” Alex asked around snickers.
“Let me see, and I’ll tell you.”
Alex moved down a step. Evangeline crouched to peer into the foyer, and her heart skipped a beat. Okay, it skipped three or four at seeing Shane standing at the front door, his hands tucked into the pockets of a pair of well-worn jeans. His dark hair was still slightly damp from a shower, and he was sporting a five o’clock shadow.
His gaze slipped over Alex before locking in on Evangeline. His lips curved into that sexy smile she’d missed, and she couldn’t have stopped her dopey grin if her life had depended on it.
This time, when the urge to shove Alex aside hit her, she ran with it. “He’s my mechanic. Get out of the way.”
Alex must have sensed her intentions because she squished against the wall to keep from getting trampled, calling Evangeline a few ripe names as she passed. Was it wrong to delight in her sister’s muttered curses? She didn’t think so.
Evangeline ignored Alex’s muttered curses and sped right past a curious Elle. Her focus was on the man at the door. Her ribcage felt too tight. Her head felt too big. She couldn’t catch a full breath.
How had she gone three weeks without seeing him? Since that horrible night Alex had called to tell her that their parents had died, Evangeline’s attention had been gobbled up by planning funeral services, dealing with insurance and lawyers, taking possession of the house, moving her sisters to Whisper Grove, enrolling the younger two in the local high school. The list went on and on to the point she had nothing left for the man she adored other than daily texts and a few short phone calls.
Yet here he was, waiting to see her.
She was breathless by the time she reached him. “Hi.”
“Hi. Fancy meeting you here,” he said, looking entirely too handsome to be so unsmooth.
“She lives here,” Ellery offered, oblivious to the fact that Shane was well aware. Bless her heart.
Evangeline repressed the urge to roll her eyes. Turning to face her sister, she introduced them. “Shane, this is my sister, Ellery. Elle, this is my Shane.”
Shane took Elle’s hand. “Nice to meet you. Evie has told me a lot about you.”
“Oh, that’s good, because I don’t think she’s mentioned you,” Elle said with a perplexed frown.
And now Evangeline wanted to slink across the floor and hide in the closet. But not until she clubbed ditzy Elle over the head with her shoe. “It’s not what it sounds like,” she assured him. “Everything goes in one ear and out the other with this one.”
Not to throw poor Elle under the bus, but… shove.
Evangeline didn’t think her words smoothed things over because Shane looked like he’d just gotten a physical exam from a porcupine. A very thorough exam.
Sadly, as true as her words were, so were Elle’s. She hadn’t mentioned Shane much. Not because he wasn’t important but because he was hers—the one person she had all to herself.
Now that she and her sisters were living under the same roof again, God help them, everything was community property. They had to share food, space, air. Even though Evangeline had lived on her own for less than six months, the reversion to a houseful of chittering women was overwhelming.
Shane was the one thing she didn’t have to share him if she didn’t want to.
“Actually, Shane,” sounded behind her an instant before Alex appeared at her side. “I have heard her mention you. I’m Alex.”
Alex thrust her hand at him. Being the gentleman he was, Shane took it. “Nice to meet you, too, Alex.”
Even though she could see it coming, Evangeline sucked her teeth when Alex folded his hand in both of hers. Houdini couldn’t have escaped that hold, much less a poor, unsuspecting Shane.
“My, you have such strong hands,” Alex purred, pulling him in close.
Shane’s eyes widened with the realization that Alex was flirting with him. In front of her. He turned a confused, pleading look on her, and Evangeline just nodded that yes, he was reading the situation correctly.
A vision of taking a chainsaw to her sister’s hair flitted through her mind. Evangeline sighed. That could get so messy. Besides, Alex fought like a hellcat in a roid rage. No way Evangeline could take her. So she elbowed Alex in the ribs, “accidentally” smashed her heel onto the harlot’s bare foot, and bulldozed her way between them.
Goodness, but Alex yowled to do Chester proud. “You clumsy moose,” she called, limping away.
Winking at Shane, she said, “And now you know the dynamics of my family. Given another minute of her manhandling, and I’d have shaved her head. Scared yet?”
“As long as you leave my hair alone.”
Laughter brushed aside her irritation. This man never failed to lift her spirits. When he opened his arms, she went into them without hesitation. He closed them, snuggling her tight against his body. This, this man, and what was between them was what she needed most. It felt right to be his. Why had she held him at bay for so long?
Because fear made people do stupid things.
“I missed you,” she admitted. The scent of his soap filled her nostrils, and she snuggled deeper, enjoying the warmth of his body seeping into hers.
He kissed the top of her head. “I missed you. Can I take you to breakfast?”
“Yes,” was on the tip of her tongue, but she was scheduled to open the library today. Regretfully, she drew out of his arms. “I can’t. It’s my first day back to work. If I’m late, Mimi will have a stroke.”
“It’s probably for the best. I have a muffler repair scheduled this morning.” Shane stuck out his elbow in invit
ation. “But I have enough time to drive my girl to work, if she’d like that.”
“She would like that.” She pointed at the stairs. “Let me get my things, and I’ll meet you at the truck?”
She watched him until he was settled in the cab of his truck before spinning on her heel and marching into the kitchen with the full intent to cut a witch. Her ire must have been preceded her, because Elle, who was seated at the table for breakfast, paused with her toast halfway to her mouth.
Evangeline skimmed over her to lock on Alex. “Hussy,” she growled.
Alex—the hussy—continued to pour coffee into her mug as if Evangeline hadn’t spoken, as if she didn’t fear for her life. Evangeline clenched her fists at her sister’s nonchalance, even though she knew her annoyance was the very reaction Alex wanted.
Alex returned the pot to the maker, then let her gaze travel over Evangeline. “Relax, Evie. “I have no interest in your mechanic. I only wanted to get a rise out of you.” She lifted the mug to her mouth and blew into the steamy liquid. “He does have great hands, though.”
It wasn’t that she thought Alex wanted Shane—it was that Alex had this innate, undeniable impulse to ensure every man she came across noticed her, thought her the most beautiful woman in the world.
The schtick had been old before puberty hit Alex, when she was a gangly, angsty teenager, desperate to blossom into the beautiful goddess.
Evangeline made a sound of disgust. “Grow up, Alex. You’re too old to be so needy. We’re the adults in the house now. Act like it.” She might have taken more pleasure in the barb if Alex hadn’t looked so stricken by her words. Snatching her purse off the chair, she exited the kitchen, tossing, “Why don’t you find a job today?” behind her.
“I’ve been looking,” Alex shouted back.
“Look harder.” Evangeline let the door slam as she left the house punctuate her statement.