“Maybe not when she’s guiding someone else, but the way she tears around town in that convertible when she’s on her own…”
Reg remembered Letticia behind the wheel the day of Corvin’s tribunal, and she didn’t have a hard time imagining her tearing around town. She might look old and grumpy, but she had a little bit of the reckless teen in her too. She didn’t drive any old rust-bucket.
Jessup left Reg to find Francesca. Reg had another glass of punch and considered whether or not to have one more cookie. She had danced; that was exercise. Surely she had burned off the previous cookies, and it wouldn’t hurt her to have another. Except that the punch was also sugary and full of calories. Reg knew the waistbands of her dresses were getting tight. She sighed and just sipped the punch, waiting for Jessup to return.
Chapter Eleven
Reg had known that she wouldn’t be able to get to sleep right away after the party. When she got home, she was wound up rather than sleepy. She didn’t normally go to bed until the small hours of the morning, being a natural night owl and booking seances and other consultations for the midnight hours. So she was wide awake and knew she wouldn’t be heading to bed for quite some time.
She looked at the mark on her door as she entered. It gave her a knot in the pit of her stomach. What was up with Julian showing up on her doorstep? Was it really what he said, that he was investigating something that had happened in the swamp and had just been randomly assigned to investigate someone he happened to know from childhood? Or had he sought out the assignment or made it up altogether? Maybe he had seen her name on something. Or maybe he had remembered her from childhood and sought her out.
But why?
Why would he be interested in someone he had just happened to know in one of his homes? Some foster kids were lucky and ended up staying with the same family until they aged out, almost like a bio kid. But then there were the ones like Reg and Julian who were trouble and hopped from one foster family to another throughout their growing up years. How long had they been with the Newburgs together? A few months? A year? She wasn’t sure how long she had been there, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t more than a year. Why would Julian seek her out just because of that?
Starlight greeted her when she let herself into the cottage, stretching and meowing conversationally. Reg scratched his ears and got him something to eat, then went into her bedroom and looked at the suitcase on the shelf of her closet.
She had been in Black Sands for a long time. Longer than she stayed in most places. If it was getting too hot, if Julian really did have something on her, then maybe she should disappear. She had the gems. She could go wherever she wanted. She hated to leave. It was the first place she’d actually felt like she had real friends and fit in with the community. But maybe she could find another magical community somewhere else. She wasn’t going to Salem, but there had to be other places someone like her would be welcomed. She could visit the dwarfs and Nico. She could go back to Tennessee and drop in on Erin. Just for a few days. Things should have cooled down enough for her to pop in and out without the residents finding out.
Starlight made a little meow and rubbed against her legs. Reg bent down to pet him. “I’m not going to leave you behind,” she promised. Sarah didn’t like cats. Reg could leave him with Francesca, but she didn’t want to leave him behind somewhere. She wanted to take him with her. That would complicate things a little bit, but she had money. She wouldn’t be sleeping on the street this time.
Eventually, Reg moved away from the closet. She would think about it. She wasn’t ready to run yet, but if it seemed like things were going to go bad with Julian Sabat, she would have a plan. She wasn’t going to stick around while he brought charges against her. She would find out what he had, and then she would decide.
As morning approached, Reg was usually yawning and getting ready for sleep. But instead, she felt edgy and anxious. Her legs were restless and she couldn’t sit or lie still. Pacing seemed to be the only thing she could do to keep herself calm. And she couldn’t pace all day. She needed to sleep sooner or later.
The sun rose and the sky brightened. The sunrise was beautiful, of course. People were always gushing over sunrises. But Reg didn’t feel good about it. It just made her feel more anxious and uncertain.
The cottage door opened behind her. Reg whirled around, her heart leaping to her throat. There was a loud bang like a firecracker going off, followed by a wave of concussive force. Reg’s hands were up, ready to defend herself against the intruder, her mind going immediately to Julian Sabat. Had he somehow gotten past all of the wards? He had said that he would talk to her. How had he already forced his way in?
“Reg! Oh, dear. You startled me. I’m so sorry, I didn’t expect you to be up.”
Reg focused on Sarah, pressing her hand over her heart. Not Julian. Not someone who had broken in and was bent on attacking her. Sarah had a key, of course. And while there were laws that said landlords had to give notice before entering a tenant’s premises, Sarah had never paid any attention to them, and Reg had grown used to Sarah letting herself in. Sarah helped keep her datebook up to date, stocked the fridge, fed Starlight some mornings if Reg wasn’t up yet, and generally acted like she was Reg’s mother or grandmother instead of her landlady.
She knocked if she thought Reg would be up, but of course she wasn’t expecting Reg to be up at eight o’clock in the morning. When was the last time that had happened?
But what about the explosion? Why had Sarah done that? Just because Reg had startled her?
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said lamely.
“Too much excitement in the air?” Sarah guessed. “Things are always more stimulating around equinox, and with the Games getting started today…”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just can’t seem to calm down.”
“Maybe some tea,” Sarah suggested, moving into the kitchen.
“What did you do to make that explosion?” Reg asked, a bit of a whine in her voice. She could understand Sarah entering without knocking, but not blowing things up.
“Oh, I didn’t do that, dear.” Sarah looked at her, eyes wide and innocent. “That was you.”
“Me? I didn’t do anything!”
Sarah raised her brows. “You are the firecaster,” she reminded. “I could mix up a potion that would cause a small explosion, but I can’t just conjure one out of the air.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“I scared you. It’s not your fault.”
Reg frowned at her, trying to understand why she would make such a claim. “I can’t do that.”
“Just like you couldn’t kindle the fires at Corvin’s hearing? And things just kept… happening around you when you were upset?”
Reg remembered arguing then about how she wasn’t the one starting fires, breaking glasses, or knocking things off of her shelves. It wasn’t until later that she discovered her firecasting abilities, so maybe she had been the one who had started those, but all of the other stuff? She wasn’t really buying into it.
Reg watched Sarah prepare the tea. “I never slept last night.”
“No? Well, we can’t have that, can we? Did you enjoy the celebrations last night?”
“Yes… mostly. It was a bit much, maybe. I came home early.”
“I noticed that. I see you’ve had a visitor.” Sarah nodded toward the door.
Reg looked at it. “What?”
“I saw the notice on your door. What has Magical Investigations got their tails in a knot about?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t talk to the guy last night because I was going out. And then he showed up at the party and wouldn’t leave me alone there. He says it is something about the Everglades.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much. These guys are very exacting. You step off of a trail or eat the fruit from a protected tree or something of that nature and they read you the riot act. Just act properly contrite and he’ll go on his way again.”
Th
is lifted Reg’s spirits. With all of Julian’s ominous portent, she had assumed that it would be something serious. Magical Investigations sounded like something she would have to be worried about. That they might bind her for a hundred years or take away her ability to practice. Then where would she be? If Sarah wasn’t worried about it, that made Reg feel a lot better.
“Really? So you don’t think it is anything?”
“I’m sure it’s just some minor misstep. They love to make people think that they are the all-knowing, ultimate power. That the buck stops with them. But really… it’s just another bureaucracy. A bunch of little bean counters looking for something to complain about.” She shrugged as she spooned tea leaves into a cup for Regina. “Like the IRS.”
Reg wasn’t about to admit how afraid she was of the IRS. For most of her life, she had run a cash business, taking whatever she could get and never paying a cent of taxes on it. There had been one or two jobs where she’d had to fill out forms and they had withheld her taxes, but other than that, she had done everything she could to avoid ever setting off the Internal Revenue Service’s radar.
She shuddered. “Another organization I don’t want anything to do with.”
Sarah chuckled. “I run afoul of them every few years,” she admitted. “But then I convince them that there is a bug in their system because I couldn’t possibly be two hundred years old, and they try to fix it, and leave me alone again for a few more decades.”
Reg shook her head. She could just see some poor little bureaucrat in a sweat-ringed white shirt trying to sort that one out.
The tea kettle began to whistle, and Sarah poured hot water into two cups. She motioned for Reg to sit on the couch. “Why don’t you put your feet up for a few minutes. You don’t have to go to sleep, just have a little break and see if a cup of tea will help you to calm down a bit.”
Reg obeyed. She didn’t feel as anxious and uptight with Sarah there to soothe her and tell her there was nothing to worry about. Sarah’s pleasant, relaxed manner and ability to laugh off an IRS audit gave her a sense that everything would turn out all right.
After she sat on the couch lengthwise, stretching her feet out in front of her, Starlight jumped up at the end of the couch and started to knead the cushion, purring. Reg sipped the tea and tried to make her breathing slow and even. There wasn’t anything to worry about. She had just gotten overexcited at the party. Having to deal with both Julian and Corvin had been unsettling. She knew she couldn’t trust either one of them.
She wasn’t sure what Sarah had put in the tea. She could detect valerian, and something floral with a sweet undertone. Erin would have been able to tell her with one sniff. She had an amazing sense of smell, especially accurate where teas and herbs were concerned. If people cared about ingredients half as much as about their fortunes, it could be Erin’s side hustle. Just in case anything ever happened with the bakery.
“When is this investigator coming over, then?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t set up a time. I just wanted him to go away.”
“They’re like vermin; they don’t just go away. You have to smoke them out. But don’t you worry, we’ll take care of him. Investigating perfectly innocent people about the silliest things. Trying to trip them up. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I hope not.” Reg thought again of her suitcase. She would run if she had to. But would she know when it was time? “If things look bad, though, will you tell me? If you think that… maybe they’re not going to work out as well as you thought?”
Sarah studied Reg for a moment over the brim of her teacup. Then she nodded. “Of course.”
“Thank you.”
Reg didn’t want to leave Black Sands. But if she had to…
“You are going to attend the Spring Games, aren’t you?” Sarah asked. “You’re going to the opening ceremonies?”
“Yes… I guess I might not ever get the chance to see them again, so I should take them in while I can.”
“Oh, you may be surprised and see them more times than you expect. But it is worthwhile to have a look. Enjoy the competitions. Pick up a new trick or two.” She winked at Reg.
“You’re not competing?”
“Oh, no. I’m retired. Competing in the Games takes a lot of dedicated practice. And the right politics. I don’t have the time for either. I’m quite happy where I am, with dominion over my own house. I don’t need to prove my powers to anyone. I don’t need to be the best at anything.”
“Are they… more powerful than you?”
“I’m just your run-of-the-mill house witch. Nothing special.”
Reg wasn’t sure that was true. But if that was the story Sarah wanted to stick with, Reg wouldn’t argue with her.
“More powerful than Corvin?”
Sarah’s eyes flashed. “Where is Corvin Hunter these days? I certainly hope he is behaving himself. Corvin’s powers vary, so I can’t tell you how much more or less powerful he is than the competition. But he isn’t going to get a chance to prove his prowess.”
“I know. Jessup told me that he isn’t allowed to be around the games.”
“He shouldn’t even be in town right now. I was not happy to see him at the celebration last night.”
“He didn’t do anything.”
“It is too big of a temptation for him, being in Black Sands when the Games are being held. He really should not be here.”
“Is there a rule? Does he have to leave?”
“No. It’s just prudent. I would be very careful of him right now.” Sarah eyed Reg. “I know you don’t like to be told what to do and you fancy yourself friends with him, but heed my words. Stay away from him during equinox and the Games.”
Reg swallowed. She took another sip of her tea, trying to nod nonchalantly. Of course she would stay away from Corvin during the games. Just like she always tried to stay away from him.
And failed.
There wasn’t much she could do when he showed up on her doorstep or at an event she had been invited to. She didn’t go out of her way to find him. He would show up without warning.
“I’m getting stronger though,” she told Sarah. “I can usually resist him. Use a protective barrier or even reflect his own powers back at him.”
Or just watch her if she got her feet in the ocean… but Reg hadn’t told Sarah about that particular issue. She preferred to keep it quiet unless she were forced to divulge it. Sarah knew about Reg’s mother being part siren, but didn’t know about the abilities Reg had apparently inherited.
Chapter Twelve
Reg felt so much better by the time Sarah left that she decided she would just flake out on the couch for a while. She was relaxed and reassured by Sarah and whatever she had put in the tea, and the cat purring comfortably at her feet. She didn’t want to break the spell by going back to her room and trying to go to sleep. Instead, she just let herself drift, curled up comfortably on the usually-uncomfortable wicker couch.
She managed to get a few hours in before her body finally rebelled against both her position on the couch and the fact that she hadn’t had anything substantial to eat. She shifted around uncomfortably until she couldn’t stay on the couch anymore. Then with a sigh, she sat up and got to her feet. Starlight looked up, yawned, and stretched in place, his whole body quivering. Reg thought that it must be nice to be a cat. They always seemed to have such satisfying stretches.
“I guess if I’m going to these Games, I’d better get myself together,” she told Starlight. She stretched her arms back and tried to release a kink in her neck. “You know, shower and clothes and something to eat.”
His ears perked at the mention of food.
“Not yet, though. It’s going to take a few minutes before I’m any good in the kitchen.”
Starlight put his head back down, nestling it into his tail, forming a soft, cozy ball. Reg fought the urge to lie back down, maybe to pick him up and take him to the bedroom where she could resume her nap i
n comfort. But once she picked him up, he would probably start begging for dinner in earnest, and she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anyway. She would just end up grumpier and more irritable, and she would not be good company at the opening ceremonies.
Reg shuffled to the bathroom to start with a hot shower. Then she would face the day.
Eventually, her blood was circulating, she had actually presentable clothes on, and her stomach was growling for sustenance. Reg had intended to be ready considerably earlier, so she just rifled through the fridge, looking for something she could eat cold. Sarah would be by to pick her up and she hadn’t even had a mouthful of food. Even microwave reheating would take too long.
Starlight meowed and rubbed against her ankles, demanding that his bowl be filled as well, even though he already had enough crunchy kibble to last him the rest of the day and through the night.
“Hang on, just hang on. I need to get something to eat too. I haven’t eaten all day.”
He gave her a yowl that clearly meant that was her own fault, and her lack of planning and motivation should not affect when he got his food.
“There’s a pork chop. You liked those the first time.” Reg pulled out the cold piece of meat, ran a paper towel over it to remove the majority of the sauce, and pulled it into chunks, which she tossed into Starlight’s bowl. Normally she would have cut or shredded it into smaller pieces, but he was a predator, wasn’t he? He could undoubtedly manage to rip and chew his own meat.
She found a cold chicken drumstick that would have to do and ate it much too fast. She chased it with a drink, and then found a small yogurt cup in the fridge for dessert. No vegetables, but she had her other food groups covered. Mostly. And she hated vegetables.
Sarah gave a quick rap on the door and opened it to look in at Reg. “Are you all ready? I should have called ahead…”
“Yes, I’m ready.” Reg tossed her leftover bits in the garbage, her spoon in the sink, and brushed her hands together as if they were dusty. “All set.”
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