by Vella Day
“I could, but I prefer staying home. Have you been to Earth?” she asked.
“A few times. You?”
“I visited my grandmother in Silver Lake, Tennessee twice, but I think she feared someone would see me and ask questions. Ophelia likes to keep who and what she is a secret.”
“I can relate.” Oh, shit. He hadn’t meant to say that.
“What do you mean you can relate?”
Fuck. He could make up some story, but he had the sense Magnolia would see through his lie.
Tell her, his dragon said. There is no use dragging it out. The sooner she accepts you, the sooner we can mate.
For once, his animal was making sense. “If I tell you, will you promise not to freak out?”
She tucked in her chin. “There is nothing you could say that would freak me out.” She used air quotes around the last three words.
He inhaled. He’d start with the most palatable part of his secret. “I’m the water dragon.”
She studied him for a moment and then laughed. “Sure you are.”
That wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. “Why don’t you believe me?”
“For one, you told me you saw the water dragon swoop toward my workshop and put out the fire. Then you landed to see if anyone was inside.”
That wasn’t exactly what he’d said, but it was close. Not that it mattered, because that had been a lie. Shifting while in the boat would be tricky, but he supposed he could dive into the lake, shift, and then soar upward. “I suppose I’ll just have to show you.”
He stood, and Magnolia reached out to him. “What are you doing?”
“Proving to you who I am. I need more room.” Without rocking the boat, he jumped upward and then outward, executing a rather nice dive into the lake.
Crap, the water was cold. Two seconds later he was in his more comfortable dragon form. Swishing his tail slowly to prevent a large wake, he surfaced and then soared upward. Hoping no one was watching, he changed into his water dragon form. He was close enough to watch as Magnolia clasped a hand over her mouth. Wanting to complete the demonstration as quickly as possible, he filled his body with water and shot out a stream. Her hand dropped, exposed an open mouth.
Fearing Magnolia might teleport back to Edendale before he could explain, he flew over the rowboat and slowly descended. Not wanting to tip them over, this last part would take a lot of finesse. When he neared the seat, he closed his wings and shifted back into his human form. The last few feet of his descent were the hardest part. Landing with his knees bent, he tensed his muscles to steady the boat. Thankfully, the boat rocked but then leveled out.
“Why didn’t you tell me you put out the fire?” she asked.
“I had no idea you were my mate at the time. I can’t tell anyone.”
“Why not?”
He wiped off as much water from his face, arms, and legs as he could, but he was still rather cold. “Every time I fill with water and put out a fire it weakens me. If people learned of my powers, I’d be asked to put out every fire. It could kill me.” That was an exaggeration. “I mean, I’d have to rest for quite a while before being able to do anything else. I would be at risk in my weakened state if someone wanted to harm me.”
“You seemed strong enough after you put out the fire at my place. You even rushed in to save me.”
That brought a smile to his face. “I was too surprised afterward once I figured out it was because you are my mate.” Josh couldn’t believe how well she took his admission.
“I can see why you don’t want the world to know your identity, but you must not be an ordinary dragon. I mean, even shifters have limits.”
He didn’t want to tell her the truth while they were sitting in the middle of the lake, but he couldn’t keep lying to her any longer. “That’s because I’m not ordinary.”
Magnolia stared at him. “Please tell me. I revealed to you that I’m a goddess of Fate. I don’t think there is anything you can tell me that will shock me. Are you some high powered white lighter?”
“No, I’m the god of water, and I too, am immortal.”
Chapter Nine
There was absolutely nothing funny about Josh’s announcement that he was the god of water, but Magnolia laughed anyway. “You’re kidding me, right?”
He’d told the truth about being the water dragon; so what if this were also true? A vise tightened around her chest that she refused to call jealousy. She believed that she was the most powerful person in all of Tarradon—well, she and her sisters were. To find out there was another god in their mist was unsettling. Not that she was competitive, but…but what?
Okay, fine, Magnolia liked knowing she and her sisters could perform amazing feats to help others.
Priding herself on her control, she forced her fists to unclench. “What other talents do you possess?” she said as matter-of-factly as possible.
“I can teleport and do a few spells, though I rarely ever do. I’m not interested in power.” He held up a hand. “One of my talents is my ability to tell by the scent from the fire residue what had been burned, whether it be wood, food, paper, you name it. I don’t need to rely on fancy scans.”
“That’s impressive.” That was the truth.
“You’re the impressive one, Magnolia. I can’t switch one person’s face for another.”
Under ordinary circumstances, she couldn’t either. “My sisters and I have to work together to make that happen. Just so you know, their faces reverted within a few hours.”
“It’s still impressive.”
“How did you hear about the face switch? I never told you. Have you always known who I was and then decided just to string me along?”
Josh’s mouth opened and then quickly shut. “You can’t be serious. I had no idea of your true identity, but there have been rumors about you and your sisters having special talents. I’m a good friend of Birk Caspian, and he might have hinted at something to that fact.”
She refused to believe Birk would have told Josh what she and her sisters did for others unless Birk knew that Josh was a god. “Does Birk know about your identity? Am I the last to learn this?
“No. Only one other divine entity knows my secret.”
This was a lot to absorb. “I’d like to go back to the cabin, please.”
Josh pressed his lips together. “Sure.”
He picked up the oars and rowed them back fast, his jaw hard and his eyes focused only on the shore. She couldn’t tell if he was pissed that she hadn’t thrown herself into his arms and told him how honored she was to be in the presence of a god, or if he needed time to digest her reaction.
Once they reached shore, he tied off the boat and jumped onto the deck. When Josh helped her out, she didn’t like how her body heated from his touch. If there was one thing she’d learned about yesterday and today was that it was dangerous to be around him—physically as well as mentally.
At the moment, she wasn’t ready to embrace him. Without saying a word, she followed him up the path to his cabin.
When they stepped inside, he faced her. “I can sense you’re bothered. Talk to me.”
“I’m not happy with the deception, for one.”
He held up a palm. “I can understand that, and I’m sorry, but until I knew you believed we were mates, I wasn’t about to tell you. You didn’t alert me to your talents the moment we met either.”
“I had my reasons.”
“So did I.”
She shouldn’t be upset, but she was. It was true that they had only just met, but once he told her about being mates, he should have mentioned his other talents.
Not wanting a discussion right now for fear she’d say something she regretted, Magnolia breezed past him and headed to the bedroom. After she removed the coat he’d lent her and placed it on the bed, she slipped on her backpack and teleported back home without saying goodbye. That was rather a passive aggressive move, but she couldn’t help herself.
Magnolia might be okay with Jos
h being the water dragon, but for some reason she was not ready to deal with someone who didn’t tell her he was a god. She might be a goddess, but not all deities were equal. She just needed some alone time to figure it all out.
When she landed in her kitchen, Magnolia refused to address the sudden loneliness of being there without Josh, but she would not cave—at least not until she’d come to grips with everything. The best way to sort things out for her was to work on her art.
Curious what the workshop looked like now that the clean-up crew had finished, she headed through the living room and down the hall. When she pushed open the door, her breath caught. Wow. Light and fresh air were streaming in through the windows. It was as if the fire had never happened.
Magnolia stepped inside and ran her fingers across one of the worktables. It was free of soot. Whoever these workers were, they deserved whatever they charged, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t cringe when she saw their bill. At least the items she’d had on the shelves to dry seemed to be okay. Just as she reached to take hold of one of the unglazed mugs, it flew off the shelf, dropped to the floor, and shattered.
Magnolia’s heart beat so hard, her muscles froze. What the hell had just happened? She had not attempted telekinesis, so why had the cup moved? Unless there was some invisible demon messing with her, she had to admit she had lost her mind.
She rushed over to grab the broom so she could clean up the mess. Before she even touched the wooden handle, it toppled to the ground. No, no, no! Her hands shook. This was not happening. Josh wasn’t here, so he hadn’t exerted any of his significant power.
Stay calm. Just breathe, she told herself.
After standing still for a moment, Magnolia pretended that she’d accidentally knocked over the cup and not some other entity. It wouldn’t be the first time something she valued broke. As calmly as she could, she swept up the pottery shards and tossed them in the trash. Nothing else had moved during that time, so maybe the wind from the open window had blown the broom over. She had no explanation for the mug. Not wanting a repeat of the broom falling, she closed both windows.
Determined to continue as if nothing had happened, she walked over to the kiln—a kiln that should be covered in soot and unusable after the fire. The bizarre thing was that it looked as good as new. That clean-up crew certainly had taken clean to new heights.
She lifted the lid, expecting her pieces to be a crumbled mass. Instead, the two pieces inside looked perfect. This wasn’t possible. She might not be an expert in the laws of physics, but something strange was going on.
Though she was happy that her work had survived, Magnolia took both of them out and placed them on the worktable. Her mind spun at how this could have happened. It was possible she’d only imagined seeing fire coming out of the kiln. Even Josh couldn’t figure out how the blaze had started. Something totally weird was happening, but she wasn’t able to come up with a logical explanation.
A scraping noise sounded on the table’s surface. She spun around, certain that she’d see one of her sisters standing there with a grin on her face.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked the empty room.
The two pieces had moved more than a foot, yet no one was there. Someone or something must have moved them though. The question was whether she had unknowingly done it.
Magnolia inhaled to calm her beating heart. She needed to settle down. When nothing else moved, she let out a breath. Using the potter’s wheel always relaxed her, so she went to work.
After locating a plastic bag of clay from a cabinet in the back that hadn’t been touched by the fire, she placed it on the table. She grabbed a hunk, sat in front of the wheel, and threw the clay onto it. After filling up a bowl with water to use to keep the clay moist, she sat back down, wet her hands, and began to shape her new creation.
She hadn’t even centered the mass before at least five items moved across the table next to her, heading toward the end.
“Stop it!” she yelled. “I command you to cease moving.”
Unfortunately, none of the items listened. All fell to the ground and broke. Magnolia jumped up, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Who are you?” she shouted, as she spun around, searching for her antagonist. “Why are you doing this?”
Admitting the real cause of this insanity—that it was her mind playing tricks on her—was too overwhelming. Josh had to be behind this. So what if he wasn’t there. While she wanted to keep her distance from him, she needed answers. And Josh was a god who just might know what was happening.
With her pride in check, Magnolia rushed into the kitchen, washed her hands, and retrieved her phone from her backpack. His number was at the top of her contacts. She pressed the button and paced, keeping a vigilant eye on any objects that might fly off the counters or the shelves.
“Magnolia?”
The sound of his voice made her rethink his guilt. In all honesty, it wouldn’t be fair to accuse him of causing these issues she was having. Something was going on with her, and she was determined to find out the cause. “It’s happening again.”
“The telekinesis?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do you think you could come over to see if you can figure out why this is happening? I’m at my wit’s end.”
“Sure.”
When she set the phone on the counter, someone tapped her on the shoulder. Crap. She turned around. “I forgot you could teleport,” she said.
“I could have flown, but you sounded desperate,” Josh said.
“I am. Come with me, and I’ll show you what I’m talking about.” Part of her wanted to hug him for comfort, but it was best to keep this professional—at least until she figured things out.
Josh followed her into the workroom where several pieces of pottery were on the floor. “This is terrible.” He squatted down and picked up some of the shards.
“I’ll clean it up later. I swear to you I am not doing this. Do you have any idea how this could have happened?” The man was an arson investigator whose job it was to solve puzzles.
“If you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it, there is only one other person powerful enough to do it.”
She had no idea what he was talking about. “Who?”
“Fate.”
That comment actually brought a smile to her face. “You think?”
“It’s possible.”
Her thoughts cleared. “Holy crap. You might be right. I’ve never met Fate, though I’ve heard her voice in my head a few times.” Magnolia dragged her hands down her pants. “Let’s go back to the living room. I think I need a glass of wine.”
“Sounds good.”
Once they returned to the main house, Josh uncorked a bottle of wine and located two glasses. Magnolia was too much of a mess to deal with any of it. She had to admit it felt good to have someone take care of her for a change.
Once in the living room, he sat next to her on the sofa. Having Josh this close caused lust and confusion to collide, but she didn’t feel right asking him to move, mostly because she enjoyed being near him.
Magnolia was a fighter, and she would fight now. “Have you ever encountered anyone who has had this type of issue?” she asked.
“No. If I put on my arson investigator hat, I’d say we should examine the facts. We know that nothing happened when you were at the cabin. It seems as if there is something here in the house that is causing the problem.”
“Like what? Some kind of magical vortex? That’s highly improbable since my sisters and I have lived here for eighty years and nothing like this has ever occurred.”
As if the house wanted to prove her wrong, two coffee table books moved a foot. Then the vase of white paper flowers fell over, followed by the picture behind them tilting.
“You need to calm down, Magnolia.”
“Me calm down? I’m not doing this.”
“Maybe not consciously, but it seems the more upset you are, the more things move.”
She stood and walked to the middle of the room, thinking about what he said. “I’m not that upset.”
Okay, that might have been a lie. Magnolia just didn’t want him to know how frustrated and fearful she was after learning that he was a god.
“Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.”
She spun to face him. “Don’t tell me what to do!”
As if the house was possessed, the curtains lifted and anything that wasn’t tied down slid to the carpet. A few things even crashed in the kitchen. She pressed her palms over her ears, hoping that would work. It didn’t.
Josh jumped up and lasered her with a stare. “Pamda puhar rah. Crean dejar lefan,” he chanted.
Magnolia stilled. She and her sisters had performed many spells, but nothing sounded like this. “What are you doing?” she croaked out.
Josh waved his arms, and then all movement ceased.
“It worked,” he said with a bit of awe.
Magnolia looked around. He was right. “What kind of spell was that?” Her heart pounded, but the ache in her stomach eased.
“It’s called a bottle spell—or at least that is what my friend Kronan called it.
She was almost afraid to ask what that was exactly, but Magnolia needed to understand. “What is it designed to do?”
Josh closed his eyes for a long second and then stepped toward her. “It basically hinders your powers for a while.”
She shook her head. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s what happens.”
Not believing a spell like that even existed, she tried to teleport into the workroom. She failed. Magnolia pointed to the sofa pillow that was now on the floor, willing it to move only it didn’t. A wave of anxiety clawed at her.
She lifted her chin and clenched her jaw. “Undo the spell immediately. You had no right to do that. You should have asked me.” It didn’t matter that he proved she was the reason for this mess.
“What would you have said if I had asked you? Would you have agreed?” he asked. “Things were already totally out of control. I wouldn’t be surprised if everything in your house would have been destroyed if I hadn’t interfered.”