by M K Mancos
Dust had covered the top of it. Though the items stored in the attic were arranged in meticulous order, they weren’t regularly dusted or cleaned. I wiped my hand across the latches then opened the top. And preceded to cough.
After barking up a lung from the dust and smell of musty paper that went straight to my vocal cords, I dug through the contents. Photo albums, letters bound with ribbon, a deed to property in Fox Run, New York.
Okay, that one set me back on my heels as I opened the paper and read the location. A farm. She had owned a farm. I shook my head and set the paper aside with a vow to look into that piece of property. Was it still in the family or had it been sold off years before?
Nostalgia gripped me. My arms slowed of their own accord as I dug through the layers of a life so well lived and loved. I pulled out one of the photo albums and opened the worn leather cover.
Beloved images of Bea, Mathilda, Gemma, Jane, Lorraine, Roselyn, Camille, and the others starred back at me. They were all dressed in their robes and hats, looking every bit the coven. I held the photo to my heart. These women had forged a world and a city that was forever changed by their presence. I felt it in every blood cell moving through my body. For a while, I’d been a part of that circle and was heartbroken at the memories.
“Gemma looked after you,” came Rallie’s soft voice from behind me.
I smiled through the blur of tears. “In more ways than one.”
“She loved you so much.” She brushed a hand over my still wet hair. “She must have been quite something in her youth.”
“Oh, you don’t even know the half of it.” Gemma was a force in any of her roles. As crone, she’d been feared, loved, and respected. As maiden—when I’d met her in New York—she’d been something to behold.
“I’ve kept all these things for you, you know.”
Shocked, I turned to Rallie. “What? Why?”
She tapped the end of my nose. “She told me to. Said you’d want them one day.”
The tears fell in earnest. “She was right.”
“So, what exactly are you looking for in here? Not the past.”
I shook my head and gave a self-deprecating laugh. “No. Been there, wanted to come home. I left Jane Porter’s grimoire with Gemma. I hoped it was in the trunk. I don’t know why I didn’t bring it with me? I was only worried about keeping it safe.”
“And there was none safer than Gemma,” Rallie agreed. She frowned. “I don’t remember a grimoire. That would have stuck out in my mind.”
“It wasn’t typical. It looked as if it had scientific equations in it. Not words, but figures.”
Rallie tapped her lip. “Hmm. I can’t say I remember seeing anything like that in Gemma’s things.”
Where could it have been misplaced? Gemma had moved several times before coming back to North Carolina to settle. She could have left it hidden at any one of the addresses, a safety deposit box, buried it in the woods, or tossed it in a volcano. The last of these was probably a bit out of the way as I don’t believe Gemma had ever been to an area where a live volcano had erupted. I’d put that scenario on the back burner for the moment.
“Damn. I should have brought it with me, but I didn’t know if this was the correct timeline or if I was safe.”
“Don’t despair yet. We’ll find it.” Rallie moved to another trunk by the window and opened the latches.
“Wait? There are two of them?”
“Yes. This one is from her later years. She had acquired quite a bit of goodies over the course of her lifetime.” Sounds of her rummaging through the contents filtered over to me as I continued to go through the first one.
I groused. I admitted it. While we worked, I mumbled under my breath about having never known about the second trunk. What else had Aunt Rallie hidden from me up there in the wilds of her attic?
“Is this it?” Rallie held up a leather-bound book in the air.
“No. But that’s interesting.” I put the items back inside the older trunk and walked over to where she bent over the second one.
I took the book and opened the pages. Recipes both arcane and breathtaking filled page after page. “Why haven’t you confiscated this for yourself? It’s amazing.”
I looked at the first page where Gemma had written Bountiful Harvest in beautiful calligraphy. Each of the recipes used fresh vegetables and whole ingredients. “Do you know how awesome this is? And it’s been sitting in your attic all these years.”
Rallie smiled over her shoulder. “I didn’t need it. Gemma taught me all the recipes over the years. I’ve put my own spin on them.”
I held the treasure to my chest. I loved Rallie’s cooking, and if she’d learned from Gemma, no way was I going to let that book out of my sight. I could cook, but not with the skill that Rallie swung a spatula.
“This isn’t the book I’m looking for, but I’m glad you found it just the same.”
“Well, hold on now. There’s a few more stacks of books in here. I might find it yet.” Rallie went back into the trunk up to the waist. For a moment, I thought it was an alternate route to Narnia.
After a few minutes, she sat back on her haunches. “I don’t see anything.”
“Ugh. All right.” I really didn’t know where to look. If it wasn’t at Rallie’s house, then where had it gone?
I went back downstairs. Malachi sat in the dining room with one hand on Old George’s head.
He looked up at me and gave a slow, steady smile that melted my knees a bit. “I guess I should introduce myself, but then we might be a bit past that.”
“I know you. And you obviously already know me.” I offered him my hand. “But for what it’s worth, I’m Kells Holland.”
Malachi took my hand and held it, pumping it only once as he gazed into my eyes. “Malachi Sayer.”
I pulled out a chair at the end of the table, so I could face him, but close enough to make it feel like confidence. “I’ve always been able to see time wells. I’ve also had more than a passing brush with the future. My future.” I couldn’t look at him when I said that and felt the heat rise to my face. “But I’ve never seen so many wells try to open at once, nor have I felt the presence of pure evil attached to one.”
“Kells.” He scooted his chair closer and placed his hand on mine. “This is bigger than your talent, or mine. It’s been trying to find its way into this world for years. Looking for a conduit to breach the divide.”
“What is my part in this? I’ve lived a good life. Haven’t really stepped out of line.” Honestly, I didn’t think it had much to do with good or evil on a personal level. At least it didn’t feel that way to me.
Malachi shook his head. “That’s not it. You shouldn’t feel any personal responsibility for what happened. The shadow realms use people as they see fit. Tools to be used to aid in their goals.”
“What are their goals?”
“At the moment? I haven’t a clue. To take over, certainly. To block out the light.” He looked to the book in front of him, then cast a glance my way. “The easiest way to describe the shadow realms is to call them light eaters. They need the light, the goodness in people, to feed from and gain strength. The better the person, the more nourishment they draw.”
I sat back against the chair. If I put space between myself and Malachi, then the truth of his story wouldn’t touch me. “Jane,” I whispered her name as a benediction.
No wonder they wanted her. She was a bright light and sweet soul. Plus, she had the formulas in her mind. But what would the shadow realms want with the formulas if they could already open time wells? Wasn’t that double dipping?
I ran my suddenly sweaty hands down the legs of my pants. “Her main grimoire was missing. Neither me nor Gemma could find it in Jane’s room. There were scorch marks on her floor where she’d tried to escape the drag of the well.”
Malachi gave a knowing nod. “Some wells have an affinity for those with magical abilities, which is probably why you stepped off that curb into one.”
“How did you know I fell through when I stepped off a curb into one?”
Color rose to his cheeks. “I felt where your energy ended and where the backlash from the portal started. It was right on the end of the sidewalk. What else was I supposed to think?”
I raised a brow. He wasn’t telling the entire truth—not that he was lying. I only meant he wasn’t giving me the entire story. Fine. I had secrets of my own I wasn’t willing to give him quite yet.
“All right. I’ll give you points for extrapolation. Odd how I was sucked back in time to where my great-great-grandma happened to be. Oh, and check this out: she owned property in Fox Run, New York at one time.”
Seventeen
Malachi
Whatever Kells was about to say, I didn’t see that coming. “Gemma lived in Fox Run?”
She slid a paper across the table to me. I hadn’t noticed she’d even had one when she came downstairs. I was too busy looking at her eyes, and the curve of her cheek. I had spent so many years loving the idea of her that sitting next to her in Rallie’s dining room was like having lunch with a celebrity. Surreal in the extreme. I had a hard time tearing my attention away from her face.
I opened the brittle paper and read the top. It was a deed to property not far from where my parents lived. “Wow. She was practically neighbors with my parents.” I gave a faint laugh and smiled. “Well, not exactly. My parents weren’t born yet when this deed was executed.”
“It does, however, prove that there's more of a connection between this area of North Carolina and that area of New York.” She moved in, so she could look at the deed as I held it.
This close I could smell the subtle perfume of her shampoo and bath soap. Involuntarily, I took a deep breath, letting her scent linger in my head and fill my lungs.
I let my gaze drink her in. By the Hand! What was I going to do? Give into this pre-destined attraction or let it go untainted by reality in order to preserve it.
She frowned and met my gaze. A slight smile crooked up the corner of her mouth in a very sexy way. “I can feel you thinking from here.”
My attention swerved to her lips. Man alive, did I ever want to kiss her. But I refrained. Barely.
Her smile was infectious, and I felt my own in answer. “I’m always thinking.”
“Yes, but you’re much more than you seem. We have a connection, and not just because you saved me.”
If there was ever a moment to play dumb, it had smacked me right in the face. Though it probably was a good policy to deny her claim, I found I didn’t want to. To at least acknowledge it out in the open might help to mute the tangled feelings Kells brought out in me.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“You knew who I was that day in the diner in New York.” Not a question, but a statement of fact that bordered on an accusation.
Again. “Yes.”
She sat back, looking a bit gobsmacked. “Huh.”
Oh, I didn’t like the sound of that monosyllabic word. For such a small one, it was fraught with meaning.
I pretended I was shocked by her reaction. “What?”
Confusion filled her face and she rose. “I have to see about getting my stuff back from the hotel in New Jersey.”
As she started around the table I reached out to grab her hand. “Did I say something wrong?”
She wouldn’t look at me, but I felt her sadness all the way down to the pit of my stomach. “No. No.”
I let her go and she walked away, leaving me to feel like the biggest ass in the Northern Hemisphere.
All right, so I punked out at the last minute and didn’t grab hold of the opportunity to be with my dream woman. When push came to shove, my denying myself the pleasure probably saved her life. At least one of the alternatives’ lives.
She spoke the truth when she said I knew where this went. I did. I’d seen it a thousand times in my dreams, and visions. It always ended the same: with her leaving me and never looking back.
Why go through that heartache and despair when I didn’t have to? I’d saved her from the past and put her back in the correct timeline. That’s all that mattered at the moment. Well, other than the stink I’d smelled on her and the tingle of awareness as I’d pulled her through the time well.
Also, the other missing witch, Jane Porter. We—the Convention—needed to find her and that grimoire before they wreaked havoc on the world.
I had told Kells a small lie about the dietary requirements of the shadow realms. Not all the beings who inhabited that particular plane of existence fed off light energy. Some enjoyed a steady diet of fear, hate, and hopelessness.
My sister Maddie had fallen victim to such a being as it pushed her through alternate dimensions in order to learn more from her reactions, the better to torment humans. Deep down, I had the horrible feeling that the shadow dwellers wanted more than anything to pull people through to use as an unlimited food source.
The only way Maddie had broken the cycle was by utilizing the locket watch I’d given her in conjunction with a spell taught to her by our Aunt Hattie.
I grabbed my rucksack and rose from the table, leaving the deed to Gemma’s property on the table. I didn’t need it. I knew the address. That farm had been turned into an historical site, owned by a family that was distantly related to my family on the Doran side—the owner a distant cousin.
“Shit!” I ran through the house, looking for Kells.
I found her out in the garden, sitting near the pentagram paving stones and watching a fountain in another part of the grounds as the water bubbled and flowed.
As I neared, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pendant I’d made for her. “Here. Please put it on and never take it off.”
I all but shoved the gift into her hands.
She backed up a little, startled at my vehemence no doubt. “Why? What is it?”
“Not a venomous snake, I assure you.” Okay, maybe the way she looked at the it made me think that had run through her mind. “It won’t bite you.”
“M’kay.” She took it and unwound the chain, looking underneath the coil of gold from the corner of her eyes. When she turned over the pendant, she brought it closer to see. “Oh. Oh. Oh.” Each oh was punctuated in a different manner, changing the meaning from pleasant surprise, to hope, to finally awe. “It’s lovely.”
She lifted the gold chain. At the end was a twisted knot with a pentagram cradled inside. “This is beautiful. Where did you get it?”
Heat fired along my cheeks. Hell, I was a grown ass man, and here I was with a blush raging like a middle schooler with his first crush. “I made it.”
“You made this?”
The emphasis on the word suggested she thought me incapable of working metal into so delicate a design.
“I find the charms that work best are the ones we make ourselves. It’s infused with protection. It'll keep you anchored and grounded in this timeline.” I took a place on the bench next to her. “Please promise me you’ll never take it off.”
"I promise." She turned her back on me and held out the chain. "Can you help me put it on?"
If she'd tried a more innocent means of seduction I might think she'd planned it. But this was my doing. I'd put the chain in her hand. The least I could do was help her with it.
She brushed the stray hairs that had fallen from her clip off the graceful curve of her neck. My fingers felt way bigger and clumsier than they ever had before. It was like trying to fasten the clasp wearing boxing gloves.
All that creamy skin, silky against my fingertips. I traced the line of the chain going out to both sides and around the front. I leaned forward and placed a kiss on her nape. "When this is over and I know you're safe."
She didn't turn to face me. "Why not now?"
"For the same reason I gave you the necklace. To protect you." I rested my chin on her shoulder, so we were cheek to cheek. I spoke into her ear. "The danger is real."
"So, you're assuming all responsibility for it and l
eaving me to worry about those I love?" Now she turned fully to me. Anger filled her eyes. "I've never been one to follow directions when it concerns protecting my loved ones."
I growled low in my throat. "I don't want to hurt you or make you feel powerless. I just want you safe."
She took my hand in hers. "You haven't seen the future as I have. In it, we're together, fighting the darkness. Not you running off to only the Goddess knows where, getting yourself into trouble."
I brushed a strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. It occurred to me that, no matter how much I wanted to close her away in this house with seals and wards of protection all around her, I might be cutting off an avenue to seeing the shadow realms defeated.
Kells was a fount of information I couldn't afford to ignore. She'd seen a few of the futures unfold.
"Have you ever written down what you've seen? Taken note of the details?"
"Of course. Even the alternate scenarios I've seen." She made a face. "I really need my computer."
I wasn't going to get out of taking her back to New York with me. The odd thing was that I really wanted to spend time with her, be with her, but the need to keep her in a safe place was so strong I was tempted to buy up all the bubble wrap I could find and make her a suit out of it.
Unfortunately, bubble wrap wasn't a deterrent for either the shadow realms or time wells.
We sat that way for a few minutes, the quiet of the yard, the gentle breeze ruffling our hair, the chirp of insects in the distance.
"I'm crazy for suggesting this, and it flies in the face of wanting to protect you, but will you come home with me? To New York. You can pick up your stuff in Jersey, and we can head up to check out the farm your grandma owned." I refrained from telling her my cousin Ward owned it now. Let that be a surprise when we arrived.
She ran a hand down my cheek, then passed the pad of her thumb over my lips. "Why is that crazy?"
"Because I say one thing one moment and then change my mind. I want you to know I'm usually more decisive." I placed my hand on hers and pressed it into my flesh as if it might sear the feeling into my skin.